Psychedelics are for anyone who already felt that he needed to face his battles alone, says defender Jordan Poyer at a conference in the USA
A growing number of professional athletes are using psychedelic. It is not to improve field performance, but to reflect and achieve a deeper understanding of themselves. The same emotional cure as other sportsmen, such as Mike Tyson, say they have achieved thanks to these substances that have once been seen as a danger to society, but that over the past few years they have progressively transformed into hope for those suffering from resistant and difficult treatment.
To talk about their personal experiences with psychedelics, NFL athletes (National Football League) (former Buffalo Bills), (former San Francisco 49ers) and (former-Oakland Raiders) shared personal stories of transformation, vulnerability and the search for career-related trauma and personal life.
“For most of my life, I thought to be strong meant hiding the pain. But psychedelics showed me something different, helped me face everything I’ve been carrying for years and starting to really heal myself. This journey is not just for athletes. It’s for anyone who already felt they needed to face their battles alone.”said Poyer.
The panel was mediated by Aubrey Marcus, writer, entrepreneur, podcaster and influencer focusing on well-being and spirituality with the support of psychedelics, a practice he has maintained for over 25 years, especially with the so-called natural psychedelics such as psilocibine and ayahuasca.
In the image above, the panel with NFL players. In the big screen, the mediator Aubrey Marcus
It was the 2nd time athletes take the stage of Psychedelic Science Conference, the world’s largest conference on psychedelic science. In the previous edition, in 2023, the oval ball star was the 1st athlete on the use of ayahuasca.
The main themes were cranioencephalic trauma, PTSD, post-carrier identity and cultural transformation within professional sport, which, according to them, are being positively impacted by the use of psychedelics, especially ayahuasca, psilocibine, MDMA and DMT.
“When my best friend, the only person I could count on, died, I entered a very bad phase with alcohol and marijuana, I had suicidal thoughts, I became a shadow of myself”reported Feliciano.
“It was only when I watched the Joe Rogan podcast with Rick Doblin [fundador da Maps – Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies]that this opened my mind to other healing methods. So I started to microdial with mushrooms. And most importantly for me was DMT, I started using DMT two or three times a year. For me, DMT saved my life. ”
NFL Barrier
The athletes also acknowledged that there is still fear among players to expose the use of psychedelics for fear of negative repercussion between technicians and team leaders, a barrier that needs to be transposed so that psychedelic therapy gains even greater popularity in sport.
Feliciano even talked about it with other players, who looked at him as if he was crazy.
“There was only another Bills guy with whom I even did DMT. We ended up doing it every year before the training Camp, just to align the mind. But the stigma around psychedelics was something you didn’t want to carry in NFL, especially if the physical trainers knew or if the information came up. In secret. But I can say that in recent years, I feel that it has changed, either because of the or maybe because I was in San Francisco ”said the ex-4ers.
