Packers’ Aaron Rodgers continues endorsing ayahuasca and says it helped him beat his fear of death

What Michael Jordan was to Gatorade or Yogi Berra was to Yoo-Hoo, Aaron Rodgers is to ayahuasca, the South American psychoactive brew used in shamanic spiritual medicine.

The reigning NFL MVP continued endorsing the hallucinogenic tea during his latest appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, telling the former Colts punter and his old Packers teammate, AJ Hawk, that he no longer fears death after tripping on ayahuasca prior to the 2020 and 2021 seasons.

‘I definitely had a fear of death,’ Rodgers said. ‘And ayahuasca, and psilocybin [mushrooms] actually, really helped me with that and relieved a lot of the stress around the idea of needing to accomplish things before I actually die.’

Of course, Rodgers has already accomplished quite a bit, professionally speaking. The four-time MVP is a former Super Bowl winner and one of the most popular athletes in America’s favorite professional sport.

But now that the Packers are just 5-8, Rodgers isn’t feeling that same pressure to succeed in his lifetime, he explained.

Instead, Rodgers said, tripping has helped him to ‘see the other side,’ making ‘the idea of death more of a passage and less of an ending.’

Death, Rodgers explained, is ‘more of just kind of the next chapter of life.’

Rodgers has admitted to using ayahuasca during the 2020 and 2022 offseasons.

‘I did ayahuasca in 2020 and I won two MVPs,’ Rodgers told Fox Sports in September. ‘I don’t believe that it’s a coincidence. I don’t really believe in coincidences.

‘I believe in science and synchronicities, and I really feel like that what that allowed me to do is to have a greater love for the game that I play, greater love for my teammates and I had maybe my best season of my career in 2020 and then followed up last year with an even greater integration of a lot of those lessons.’

Ayahuasca is a South American psychoactive brew used in shamanic spiritual medicine

A medical-grade version of the popular hippy brew ayahuasca could become available to Americans within the next decade.

Filament Health, a Canadian psychedelic drug company, has created a medicinal form of the powerful psychedelic which can be taken orally as a pill. The firm hopes to push the medical-grade version through an FDA trial in 2023.

Ayahuasca is being touted as an alternative treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression after becoming popular with the backing of celebrities such as Rodgers.

But Americans currently need to travel to Central and South America for expensive retreats and religious experiences involving the potent brew.

However, its therapeutic benefits are mainly anecdotal, and a growing body of evidence shows that the drug also carries the risk of long-lasting effects on mental health.

Now that the Packers are just 5-8 , Rodgers isn’t feeling that same pressure to succeed in his lifetime, he explained. Instead, Rodgers said, tripping has helped him to ‘see the other side,’ making ‘the idea of death more of a passage and less of an ending’

The 38-year-old Rodgers previously revealed that he drank the hallucinogenic brew during a trip to Peru in 2020, emerging with ‘a deep and meaningful appreciation for life,’ as well as a closer connection with teammates that’s helped him capture consecutive MVP honors.

The psychedelic trip did not violate NFL rules on prohibited substances, but it did give him new perspective on himself and his connection to ‘all sentient beings and all plants and fungi.’

Rodgers has become a vocal proponent of ayahuasca in recent months.

Speaking with podcaster Joe Rogan in August, Rodgers suggested that a lot of the world’s problems could be fixed if more people took psychedelic mushrooms.

Aaron Rodgers (right) is seen discussing his ayahuasca experience on Joe Rogan’s podcast 

Seven in ten people who took ayahuasca said they had a physical side-effect. The most common was vomiting, but this is considered normal with the drink and part of ‘cleansing’

Shown above are the mental side-effects that people said they faced. Hearing or seeing things or feeling disconnected were the most common ones

Rogan was in immediate agreement.

‘Isn’t it funny that that sounds like a crazy thing to say, but that would literally fix the world: if more people had psychedelic trips and more people had more experiences that dissolved their ego and more people had an understanding that community isn’t just a bunch of people that live together, it’s a bunch of people that care about each other — and that we could treat the world like a community,’ Rogan said.

‘Couldn’t agree with you more,’ Rodgers replied.

Rogan asked how my psychedelic use takes place among NFL players, but Rodgers declined, saying he didn’t really know.

What the California native did know is that the revelation of his ayahuasca trip piqued the interest of a variety of people.

‘It’s been really interesting to see the people reaching out, across the league — and there’s been a lot of people outside the league, entertainers, sports people, just friends from the past, people who work at the [Packers practice] facility, just the 9-to-5 people — all interested in plant medicine,’ Rodgers said.