NFL star Aaron Rodgers has returned after spending four days in total darkness as part of a gruelling isolation retreat.
Aaron Rodgers has completed a four-day darkness retreat
The Green Bay Packers quarterback - who was previously engaged to actress Shailene Woodley - took himself off to a special facility in Oregon this week to spend almost 100 hours on his own in the dark contemplating his life and his future as he prepares to decide whether to retire or keep playing in 2023.
ESPN now reports Scott Berman - owner of Sky Cave Retreats - has confirmed Rodgers emerged from the dark room on Wednesday (22.23.23).
The sports star previously insisted taking part in the darkness retreat was about more than just his decision whether to carry on playing football. During an appearance on 'The Pat McAfee Show' earlier this month he explained he hopes his stay will give him "a better sense of where I'm at in my life".
He added of the retreat: "It’s just sitting in isolation, meditation, dealing with your thoughts. It stimulates DMT [a hallucinogenic drug found naturally in some plants] 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 or put the blinds down to sleep in darkness. I’m really looking forward to it."
It comes after Rodgers previously credited plant-based psychedelic drug ayahuasca with helping him to focus more on "self love". Speaking to Aubrey Marcus, the founder of supplement company Onnit, on his podcast, Aaron said: "To me, one of the core tenets of your mental health is that self-love. That’s what ayahuasca did for me, was help me see how to unconditionally love myself. It’s only in that unconditional self love, that then I’m able to truly be able to unconditionally love others.
"And what better way to work on my mental health than to have an experience like that? "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. I mean obviously it’s important I play well, and show up and lead and all that stuff. They won’t care about what you say until they know how much you care."
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