As he mulls future, Aaron Rodgers to spend 4 nights alone in darkness
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.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.