Green Bay Packers quarterback and four-time NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers says he’s a more “compassionate and forgiving person” these days following a mind-altering trip to Peru in 2020.
However, he recently told NBC Sports’ Peter King that he still has some work to do to repair a longstanding rift with his family.
In an interview with King at Packers training camp, Rodgers provided additional details of his experience with ayahuasca, a plant-based psychedelic that is frequently consumed as part of a self-awareness ritual that can last over several days.
Rodgers credited his ayahuasca experiences – his first one two years ago and another this offseason – with helping him tune out “negative voices” and “fully give my heart to my teammates, my loved ones, relationships because I can fully embrace, unconditionally, myself .”
However, Rodgers admitted he hasn’t been able to repair every relationship, such as the very public feud he’s had with members of his immediate family – going back to at least 2016.
“I really felt like I wanted to surrender and open up to the medicine for some healing to come through and some direction on how to kind of go about that. And it didn’t. It didn’t necessarily,” Rodgers said about his most recent trip. “The big message was unconditionally loving myself is the key to being able to heal all relationships – with them, past relationships with lovers, whatever it might be… So that gives me a lot of hope in healing at some point.”
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On a podcast last week, Rodgers made a connection between his ayahuasca experience in South America and winning NFL MVP awards in 2020 and 2021: “I don’t think it was a coincidence.”
He told King the experience also helped him fall “back in love with football” the past few years.
King also raises the question of whether the psychedelics could potentially run afoul of the NFL’s substance abuse policy. But according to league spokesperson Brian McCarthy, any trace of the substance in Rodgers’ system would not trigger a positive result under the substance abuse or performance-enhancing drug policies.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Aaron Rodgers goes deeper on ayahuasca experiences, family feud