NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers completes ‘darkness retreat,’ ESPN reports
By Homero De la Fuente, CNN
Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has completed his “darkness retreat” in Oregon, according to ESPN.
Scott Berman, owner of Sky Cave Retreats, told ESPN’s Xuan Thai that the four-time MVP spent “several days and nights” at the Ashland, Oregon facility.
CNN has reached out to Rodgers and Berman for comment.
On February 14, Rodgers revealed his previously announced retreat would start later that week. He said his time in isolation would help him find inner peace of mind.
“I’m probably going to have a better sense of where I’m at in my life,” Rodgers said. “I didn’t say, ‘I’m going to my darkness retreat just to figure out if I’m going to play next year or retire.'”
Speculation swirls as to what the future holds for the 39-year-old quarterback.
“I’ve got a pretty cool opportunity to do a little self-reflection in some isolation, and then after that I feel like I’ll be a lot closer to a final, final decision,” Rodgers said during his regular appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” earlier this month.
Rodgers said he would be in total darkness for four days and nights — though he could leave at any point if he wishes to do so — and added that the whole experience can produce hallucinations similar to the psychedelic drug dimethyltryptamine (DMT).
“It’s a darkness retreat,” he said, adding that it’s something he’s wanted to do for years. “I’ve had a number of friends who’ve done it and had some profound experiences.
“It’s just sitting in isolation, meditation, dealing with your thoughts,” he said. “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 or put the blinds down to sleep in darkness. I’m really looking forward to it.”
Rodgers has previously discussed using ayahuasca — a psychedelic drink made of Amazonian plants — in a retreat during an offseason, and the NFL has confirmed this didn’t violate its drug policy.
According to the Sky Cave Retreats website, Berman has “supported and facilitated over 300 dark retreats” at the facility.
ESPN’s Thai reports that Rodgers stayed in a small cabin — a “partially underground, Hobbit-like structure with 300 square feet of space, devoid of light, with a queen bed, a bathroom and a meditation-like mat on the floor.
It is fully powered, so at any point, the lights can be turned on from inside the room.”
Rodgers would have been left alone throughout with the exception of a once-a-day visit. According to the company’s website, “with the exception of us coming to tend to your material needs once a day from outside your room, you will be totally undisturbed in the darkness until the end of your retreat.”
When asked earlier this month about the prospect of retirement, Rodgers said: “It’s a real thing, 100 percent.”
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CNN’s Amy Woodyatt contributed to this report
