The Green Bay Packers quarterback has spoken recently of consuming ayahuasca on trips to Peru in 2020 and earlier this year. On an episode last week of “The Aubrey Marcus Podcast,” Rodgers agreed with a suggestion that his first experience with ayahuasca was connected to a late-career upswing that saw him win NFL MVP honors after the 2020 and 2021 seasons.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence. I really don’t,” the 38-year-old quarterback told the podcast host. “I don’t really believe in coincidences at this point. It’s the universe bringing things to happen when they’re supposed to happen.”
In comments to NBC Sports published Monday, Rodgers extolled ayahuasca for having “unlocked a lot of my heart.”
“Being able to fully give my heart to my teammates, my loved ones, relationships because I can fully embrace myself unconditionally,” he continued. “Just didn’t do that for a long time. I was very self-critical. When you have so much judgment on yourself it’s easy to transfer that judgment to other people. When you figure out a better way to love yourself, I think you can love people better because you’re not casting the same judgment you cast on yourself on other people. I’m really thankful for that.”
Ayahuasca is illegal in the United States because it contains dimethyltryptamine (DMT), which is classified by the federal government as a Schedule I drug under the Controlled Substances Act. Such drugs are considered by the government, per the Drug Enforcement Administration, as having “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse.” Other examples of Schedule I drugs include heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMT or ecstasy), peyote and marijuana.
On the podcast, Marcus recounted how Rodgers had previously told him that “one of the best days” of the quarterback’s life was when he consumed psychedelic mushrooms, which contain the Schedule I chemical psilocybin.
Rodgers said he wouldn’t necessarily recommend ayahuasca to everyone, but he credited his multi-night “journeys” with it for helping him achieve “deep self-love and healing.”
“The greatest gift I can give my teammates, in my opinion, is to be able to show up and to be someone who can model unconditional love to them,” he asserted. “Obviously, it’s important that I play well and show up and lead, and all that stuff. But they won’t care about what you say until they know how much you care.”
Of what he experienced while on the drug, Rodgers said, “I had a magical experience with the sensation of feeling a hundred different hands on my body, imparting a blessing of love and forgiveness for myself and gratitude for this life, from what seemed to be my ancestors.”
Upon his return in 2020, just before the coronavirus pandemic brought much of the sports world and everyday life to a standstill, Rodgers said he found he was “able to go back in to my job and have a different perspective on things.”
“To be way more free at work, as a leader, as a teammate, as a friend, as a lover,” he continued. “I really feel like that experience paved the way for me to have the best season of my career.”