Did you know that ayahuasca has been used by indigenous people in the jungles of South America since at least fifty A.D.?
Even though many people from around the world have never heard of the ayahuasca brew, people have been drinking this tea for a very long time. In recent years the brew has been getting more attention in the media.
To heal from conditions such as trauma and depression, many people who have participated in psilocybin therapy are also choosing to drink ayahuasca.
In fact, even the NFL player Aaron Rodgers has been drinking ayahuasca. If you want to find out more about how this brew helped him win big, keep reading, and we will tell you everything you need to know.
Aaron Rodgers and Ayahuasca
Aaron Rodgers grew up in Chico, California, and played college football for the University of California, Berkeley.
He was drafted by the Packers in 2005, but it wasn’t until 2020 that he made his first trip to Peru to drink ayahuasca. Since he went to Peru before the start of the pandemic, it was not a problem for him to travel.
He recently shared on a podcast that the time that he spent drinking ayahuasca helped him to have the best season of his career. In fact, he was the NFL MVP in 2020 and 2021.
During his recent podcast interview, he shared that he did not think that it was a coincidence that he earned this award immediately after drinking ayahuasca.
Rogers believes that the most important aspect of one’s mental health is self-love, which he reported that ayahuasca helped him to cultivate.
The NFL superstar says that after he drank ayahuasca for the first time, he experienced the sensation of hundreds of hands moving across his body. These hands were offering him blessings of love and self-forgiveness.
He also reports that ayahuasca helped him to become more grateful for his life. He believes that the hands that were moving across his body were his ancestors.
Rogers’s NFL Performance Before His Ayahuasca Experiences
Prior to drinking ayahuasca, Rogers was performing well in the NFL, but he knew that he could improve but there was something that was in the way.
In 2019 he was afraid that his career was in decline. But after returning from Peru in 2020, he had the two best seasons of his career. At thirty-seven years old, he ended up being named the MVP of the NFL.
Before he set out for Peru, he said that he had negative voices in his head. He also says that he had relationship problems with members of his family.
Even though he has still not been able to heal some of these relationship problems, he has been able to get rid of the negative internal voices.
Without these voices, it became easier for him to give his heart to his teammates. According to him, this helped him improve his performance on the field.
Aaron Rodgers Did Not Violate the NFL Drug Policy
When Aaron Rodgers drank ayahuasca, he did not violate the National Football League’s drug policy.
Several days after he spoke about his experiences with the hallucinogenic tea on the Aubrey Marcus Podcast, an NFL spokesman that he would not have received an NFL violation if the league had known about it.
One of the reasons for this is that he would not have had a positive test for performance-enhancing substances. He also would not have tested positive for substance abuse substances.
Misconceptions About Ayahuasca
In his recent interview, Rodgers confirmed that there are many misconceptions that people hold about ayahuasca and other psychedelic substances.
He feels that most people are afraid that they are going to go crazy and lose control of themselves when they drink ayahuasca. He also noted that the majority of people mistakenly believe that it is “a big throw up fest.”
In the interview, he pointed out that people often do have challenging experiences when they drink ayahuasca.
But on the other side of these experiences, people tend to open up to a greater realization about who they are and their place in the world.
Rodgers also noted the “crazy mind-expanding possibilities” that people tend to become aware of once they drink ayahuasca. After he left Peru in 2020, he knew that he would never be the same person as he was before.
Now that Aaron Rodgers has drank ayahuasca several times, he says that one of his missions is to set the record straight.
He wants people to know that he does not want people to continue being misled by the negative stereotypes about what it means to drink Amazonian tea.
Aaron Rodger’s goal is to “become more free at work, as a leader, as a teammate, as a friend, as a lover.” He now feels that he is fully prepared to lead the Green Bay Packers to many victories in the near future.
The Basics of Ayahuasca
Ayahuasca is a tea that people brew with the Banisteriopsis caapi vine and the chakruna leaf. Indigenous tribes in the Amazon jungle of South America have been using it for many thousands of years in ceremonial contexts.
Many people who participate in psilocybin therapy have also drunk ayahuasca.
Even though the substance is not legal in most of the world’s countries, it is legal to drink in Peru.
Therefore, many people travel there to participate in ceremonies with ayahuasca. It’s becoming more common for people to use substances such as ayahuasca and ketamine to treat PTSD.
The ayahuasca brew contains DMT, which is a powerful psychedelic. The Banisteriopsis caapi vinecontains something known as a monoamine oxidase inhibitor (MAOI).
This prevents the body from breaking down the DMT that is present in ayahuasca. Therefore, people who drink this tea tend to have psychedelic experiences that can last for up to six hours.
Thousands of people visit Peru every year to attend ayahuasca retreats, just like Aaron Rodgers did.
These retreats are led by facilitators who help participants safely participate in ayahuasca ceremonies. Facilitators will also help participants to prepare for and integrate from their ayahuasca ceremonies.
Most ceremonies are led by indigenous shamans who spend many decades as apprentices before they start holding ceremonies.
Several of the most important Amazonian indigenous groups that hold ceremonies are the Shipibo-Conibo of Peru, the Koreguaje, and the Huni Kuin of Brazil.
Microdosing Ayahuasca
Microdosing involves consuming very small amounts of psychedelic substances. It’s not that difficult to find organizations selling microdoses of psilocybin. But it is harder to microdose ayahuasca because it is much harder to find in the United States.
There are lots of studies showing that ayahuasca can help people to overcome conditions such as depression and addiction. Therefore, more and more people are becoming interested in microdosing ayahuasca.
The Legality of Ayahuasca in the United States
You might be surprised to know that, under certain circumstances, it is legal to drink ayahuasca in the United States.
This is because a church called the União do Vegetal (UDV) brought a case to the supreme court to get approval to use ayahuasca for religious purposes.
The supreme court decided that it was not legal for the government to prosecute those who used ayahuasca during the church’s religious services.
Unfortunately, this decision only applies to several different churches. This includes the Santo Daime, UDV, and Native American churches.
If you are not a member of these churches, it is not legal to consume ayahuasca in the United States. This is one of the reasons why it is popular for people to fly to countries such as Brazil and Peru, where it is legal to drink the tea.
There are various organizations that are currently trying to make it legal to consume ayahuasca in the United States.
Since the substance has many potential therapeutic benefits, there are also several well-funded research studies underway in the United States.
It’s likely that studies show that ayahuasca can help people to heal from their illnesses.
The Future of Ayahuasca and Psilocybin Therapy
Aaron Rodgers grabbed many newspaper headlines when he recently talked about his experience of drinking ayahuasca. This is why it’s very likely that more people will start talking about the benefits of ayahuasca and psilocybin therapy.
Are you ready to take steps to improve your mental health? If so, we are here to help you.