DENVER — On the way to the Belco Theater, the main stage for SaxiDelic Science 2023, a conference with more than 11,000 attendees in a convention center the size of MetLife Stadium, you might wander the exhibit booths, where everything from mushroom growing kits to caps to the ketamine logo is on display.
You might pass an exhilarating dance session that swoops down the hall to the beat of a metal drum, and hangs right away from the contemplative sacred space.
If you arrive early, you’ll hear a lecture titled “Psilocybin Mushroom and Tryptamine: Potential Neurogenerative Drugs” that ends with a standing ovation.
And then, in the midst of this diverse group of searchers, Aaron Rodgers—the Jets’ freshman quarterback and one of the most famous, distinguished, and wealthy athletes in the country—takes the microphone.
“Go bears!” rings from the audience. “Cal,” Rodgers explains. It’s not a negative day.
What he has in mind is ayahuasca.
“That’s really what I’m here to talk about. If you’re doing anything out of the dinosaur rules – you’re out of sorts, you don’t care about football, you don’t like football the right way,” Rodgers said.
“The first time I did an ‘aya’ was in 2020 in Peru right before the pandemic hit. … I came out and it was probably the best season of my career. So I was, at some point, wanting to talk about this.”
So, what is ayahuasca? And what is Rodgers talking about?
ayahuasca roots
Ayahuasca is a psychedelic beverage with a centuries-old tradition among the indigenous communities of the Amazon rainforest, where its use was directed by shamans for medicinal and spiritual purposes.
The word ayahuasca, in the indigenous Quechua language, translates to “vine of souls,” according to Drulio B.
The use of Ayahuasca is legal in Brazil for research and is under the auspices of religious groups, most notably the Santo Daime Church, which now has international chapters.
The anesthetic is prepared by fermenting the leaves of the Cicutria viridis plant with the bark of the vine Panestriopsis capi in water over a period of hours or days.
The result is a bitter brown tea that is usually dispensed in 3-ounce doses.
Dimethyltryptamine—or DMT, the psychoactive ingredient in the leaves—is normally broken down by the body’s stomach enzymes, but these enzymes are inhibited by chemicals in the bark, allowing DMT to take effect.
What does ayahuasca do for you?
An ayahuasca ride takes about five hours, per Araujo, the first 30 minutes marked by feelings of calm or sleepiness before the narcotic effects kick in.
The most prominent effect is visions.
“In ayahuasca, visions most often come with your eyes closed,” Araujo said. “Very intense with very different natures and contexts. It can vary from geometric imagery to a conversation with someone you know. … A lot of times people feel as if they died, and then are reborn from that experience.”
Other known effects of ayahuasca use are vomiting, nausea, and diarrhea.
As Rodgers spoke, he joked about the social bond that comes from seeing someone “double platinum” while in Ayahuasca — “double platinum” co-committee member Aubrey Marcus helpfully added, “when you’re mopping in the bucket and –tting at the same time.”
“This is one of the reasons why ayahuasca is not used for high, and it’s different from psilocybin and LSD,” said Nicole Galvao Coelho, also a professor at Brazil’s University of Rio Grande do Norte.
“It’s not fun.”
The call is ayahuasca
Ayahuasca is closely linked to enhanced introspection, according to Araujo, who said that four hours of ayahuasca insights can equate — for better or sometimes worse — with two years of therapy.
Rodgers said he found this level of self-reflection helpful and that it allowed him to love himself and others better.
“Through my work with my medication, [my] “The goal is very, very simple to see – and that’s the link,” said Rodgers. “And if you come out of this game that you’ve played for 18 years professionally and many others before that without those relationships, without that connection with some people, you’re missing out.”
The potential therapeutic applications of psychedelic drugs was the main theme of the conference, all the way to the appearance of former Texas Republican Gov. Rick Perry, an advocate for psychedelic drugs to treat veterans with PTSD.
Galvao-Coelho cited statistically significant responses from depressed patients to a single dose of ayahuasca compared to placebo.
Galvao-Coelho also mentioned new lines of scientific investigation into ayahuasca for reducing low-grade inflammation in the body—which might help, say, a 39-year-old trucked by linebacker earn a living.
“It’s a very sacred elixir,” said Maxi Cohen, the New York-based filmmaker who called his latest documentary The Diaries of an Ayahuasca. “It’s something that has to be done with great respect because you go into worlds and see things that are real and it’s beyond anything we know.”
Rodgers said, in one of his many side notes in support of the legalization of psychedelics, “Isn’t it ironic that things that actually expand your mind are illegal, and things that keep you lower in your chakras and destructive have been legal for centuries?”
Rodgers reception
Rodgers seemed to find a receptive audience in the mile-high crowd.
“I was touched,” said Terry Proud, a nurse practitioner from Baton Rouge, LA. “I thought it was amazing that two people of such stature in our society would stand up and talk about this and the potential.”
The Post approached a man in a tie-dyed shirt and a cheese hoodie grinding on stage.
Turns out Douglas Finkelstein, of Goshen, New York, is a Seahawks fan who works with an sympathetic association, and he passed out a copy of the pro-drug organization’s newsletter with the front-page headline: “Aaron Rodgers Commits Deliberate Grounds.”
What did he think people could learn from Rodgers’ substance abuse letter?
“For the Gates fans specifically, how do they deal with the misery,” Finkelstein said. “For football fans as a whole, that really is, at the end of the day, he’s human, he has problems like all of us, and we all have to find our best fit to tackle those problems,” he said.