We’re not sure if there’s electricity in Green Bay so maybe he’s used to it already, but Aaron Rodgers says he’s looking forward to his upcoming “darkness retreat” that will see him spend four days and nights in room alone without light or sound.
“It’s four nights of complete darkness,” he explained Tuesday on The Pat McAfee Show. “You’re not locked in. You can leave. If you can’t do it you can just walk out the door.”
This, he says, will help him come to a decision on where his future lies, whether with the Packers, another NFL team, or retirement.
“I’ve had a number of friends who’ve done it and had some profound experiences. It’s something that’s been on my radar for a few years now,” Rodgers continued. “It’s coming up in a couple of weeks.”
Rodgers says everyone he knows who has finished a darkness retreat had “magical experiences” and “meaningful breakthroughs.”
Aaron Rodgers says he’s going to do a “darkness retreat" where he will be alone for 4 days in complete darkness in a small house. He hasn’t made a decision on retirement yetpic.twitter.com/lGRcvyL3AI
— JPAFootball (@jasrifootball) February 7, 2023
Rodgers, eternally searching for new ways to invigorate his mind, says there is a toilet and a two-way slot that will serve as a path to receive food and nutrition from the outside. But it’s isolation. No light, no music, nothing.
“You’re in there for four nights and then you come out on the last day after the fourth night,” he continued. “Sensory deprivation, isolation.”
“There’s no sounds. It’s just sitting in isolation, meditation, dealing with your thoughts. It stimulates DMT so there can be some hallucinations in there but it’s just kind of sitting in silence, which most of us never do. We rarely even turn our phone off and put the blinds down to sleep in darkness, so I’m really looking forward to it.”
During the 2020 offseason, Rodgers went to Peru and spent two psychedelic nights amongst ancient ruins for an Ayahuasca ceremony.
“It was a very deep and meaningful couple nights ceremony. I came back and knew that I was never going to be the same,” Rodgers said, giving credit to the experience for his back-to-back MVP seasons in 2020 and 2021.
Presumably the effects of the Ayahuasca must have worn out in 2022.
