Darkness Retreat or Ayahuasca: What’s the Difference?

Aaron Rodgers is in the headlines once again and we are constantly proud of his continuous work in the silence. This time it’s not a ceremony in the jungle. It’s reported contract terms with the Pittsburgh Steelers that would give him offseason time for a darkness retreat instead of a standard team program, as he heads into his final NFL season. (Not your common NFL request.)

Headlines tend to lump these things together: darkness retreat, Ayahuasca retreat, plant medicine, isolation, “spiritual retreat.” Same-same general neighborhood, but actually very different houses. Rodgers has done both, and they work in almost opposite ways. One is something you do alone. The other is something you’re held through.

If you’ve followed his story at all, you already know he spent a week in ceremony with us in Costa Rica, an experience he’s described as some of the most beautiful of his life. So this blog will go a little deeper into the question that headlines are raising more and more: what’s the actual difference between sitting alone in the dark and sitting in circle with a plant medicine, and why do people at major turning points keep reaching for both?

Why Is Aaron Rodgers Back in the News Over Darkness Retreats?

Rodgers has confirmed the 2026 season, his 22nd in the NFL, will be his last. Reporting on his contract talks with the Steelers has focused on an unusual request: built-in time away from the standard offseason program for the kind of isolation work he’s credited for years, including multi-day darkness retreats.

This isn’t new territory for him. Rodgers first went public with a darkness retreat back in 2023, when he used one to help decide his football future. What’s changed is the context. He’s no longer weighing a trade or a comeback. He’s closing out a career, and reaching for the same tool.

What Actually Happens During a Darkness Retreat?

A darkness retreat is solitary. Typically four or more days alone in a room with no light, no phone, no clock, and no conversation. Meals are usually passed through a slot in the door. There’s no facilitator guiding the experience in real time and no plant medicine involved.

The point isn’t really sensory novelty but it is removing every input that normally structures a day, so whatever surfaces has nowhere to hide. People use it for decision-making, grief, burnout, or simply to hear their own thoughts without the noise of a phone or a schedule. It asks a lot of the person doing it. There’s no one there to hold the space if things get difficult.

How Is an Ayahuasca Retreat Different?

An Ayahuasca retreat is the opposite structure. It’s guided, it’s communal, and it happens over several ceremonies across a multi-day stay, held by an experienced facilitator, or Ayahuasquero, alongside a small group moving through the process together.

Rodgers’ own week with us at Behold Retreats is a useful comparison. He described the ceremonies as “big work,” approached with the intention to hold space, meditate, and surrender to whatever needed to move. He wasn’t doing that alone in a dark room. He was held through it by a facilitator he trusted and a group that showed up alongside him.

That distinction matters. Ayahuasca work can bring up material that’s difficult to metabolize solo. Having a trained guide present, and people around who are moving through their own version of the same night, changes what’s possible to face and how safely it can be processed afterward.

Why Do High Performers Seek Out Both?

Career transitions, injury recovery, and identity shifts tend to push people toward practices that sit outside their normal routine. A packed schedule doesn’t leave room to actually feel what’s happening underneath it. Darkness retreats and Ayahuasca retreats both create that room, just through different mechanisms.

One removes input entirely and asks you to sit with whatever’s left. The other adds intentional ceremony, guidance, and community, and asks you to surrender into it. Neither is a shortcut, and neither replaces the other. Someone deciding whether to retire from a 22-year career might reasonably want both: solitude to hear themselves think, and a held container to actually process what surfaces. It’s a pattern we see often in our own guests, and one we wrote more about in Plant Medicine for High Performers.

Frequently Asked Questions

Ready to Explore What’s Underneath?

Not every transition calls for total isolation. If what you’re after is guided, held space to move through what’s surfacing, that’s what we do. Our team is here to talk through whether an Ayahuasca retreat is the right fit for where you are right now.

Explore our Ayahuasca retreats or begin your application when you’re ready. We’re here, when you are.

Sources: ESPN, “What is a darkness retreat and why would Green Bay QB Aaron Rodgers go to one?”, 2023; CBS Sports, “Aaron Rodgers swan song: Steelers QB says he will retire after 2026 season, ending 22-year career”, 2026; Johns Hopkins Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research, ongoing published research on psychedelic-assisted practices.