Ayahuasca has quietly moved from the Amazon into mainstream culture – through deeply personal stories shared by artists, athletes, entrepreneurs, and public figures. If you’re new to the topic, our guide on what ayahuasca is covers the basics. Unlike surface‑level lists, this article focuses on verifiable statements, interviews, and documentaries where celebrities themselves speak about their experiences.
Important note: Ayahuasca is a powerful traditional medicine rooted in Indigenous cultures of the Amazon. Experiences vary widely, and nothing here is medical or psychological advice.
Why Celebrities Talk About Ayahuasca
Public figures often describe ayahuasca not as a “drug experience,” but as a confrontation with self, grief, trauma, purpose, or addiction. Many came to it at breaking points—burnout, loss, or identity crises—rather than driven solely by curiosity.
This article includes 39 celebrities, making it one of the most comprehensive and source‑backed lists currently available.
39 Celebrities Who Drank Ayahuasca
First-Hand Accounts & Real Journeys of Transformation
Key Themes
- Trauma & Grief Processing
- Addiction Recovery
- Confronting the Ego
- Purpose & Spiritual Identity
- Emotional Clarity
Notable Figures
Public Figures Who Have Spoken About Ayahuasca
1. Prince Harry and Ayahuasca: Processing Grief After Princess Diana’s Death
Prince Harry became one of the most high-profile public figures to discuss psychedelic medicine when he addressed the topic directly in his 2023 memoir Spare and in a subsequent interview with Anderson Cooper on CBS 60 Minutes.
Harry spoke candidly about how decades of unprocessed grief following the death of his mother, Princess Diana, had driven him toward alcohol and eventually toward more intentional healing. Harry discussed ayahuasca, psilocybin, and mushrooms together in Spare and on 60 Minutes, framing them collectively as medicines for grief, though he did not specify which he personally used.
In the 60 Minutes interview, Cooper asked what the experiences had shown him. Harry replied: “For me, they cleared the windscreen, the windshield, the misery of loss. They cleared away this idea that I had in my head that I needed to cry to prove to my mother that I missed her. When in fact, all she wanted was for me to be happy.”
He was also careful to frame the experience responsibly: “I would never recommend people to do this recreationally. But doing it with the right people, if you are suffering from a huge amount of loss, grief or trauma, then these things have a way of working as a medicine.”
In Spare, Harry wrote that under the influence of psychedelics he was able to “let go of rigid preconcepts” and encounter “a world that was equally real and doubly beautiful — a world with no red mist, no reason for red mist. There was only truth.”
Source: CBS 60 Minutes, January 2023. Spare, Penguin Random House, January 2023.
2. Gustavo Petro and Ayahuasca: Colombia’s President Speaks Out
Colombia’s president is likely the only sitting head of state in the world to have publicly admitted drinking ayahuasca — making him a particularly significant entry on this list given that the medicine is deeply embedded in Colombian Indigenous culture. The details emerged during an interview with journalist Daniel Coronell for his book The Children of the Amazon, a story that itself involved a shaman drinking ayahuasca to locate four missing Indigenous children in the jungle. Petro revealed he had drunk the brew twice: his first experience left him with a vision of himself hugging a mountain and planting roots, arriving at a realisation that his purpose was to care for nature. His second experience was far more difficult — he saw a vision of his own death, likely shaped by his years as an underground guerrilla fighter living under constant threat. Wholecelium The intensity of that second journey was enough that he has said he does not intend to try it again, though he retains a deep respect for the medicine and its place in Indigenous Colombian tradition.
Source: Daniel Coronell, The Children of the Amazon, 2024. DoubleBlind magazine, June 2024.
3. Gabor Maté and Ayahuasca: The Trauma Expert’s Breakthrough
Dr. Gabor Maté is the rare figure on this list who approaches ayahuasca from both the inside and outside — as a participant and as one of the world’s most respected voices on trauma and addiction. He first encountered the medicine after publishing his 2009 book In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, when readers kept asking him about ayahuasca’s role in addiction healing and he knew nothing about it. He eventually tried it in Vancouver with a Peruvian shaman, describing the result plainly: “I did the ayahuasca, and I experienced pure love for the first time in my life.” Podcasts He went on to lead retreats with the medicine and has written and spoken extensively about its potential in trauma treatment — arguing that addiction is not a genetic disease but a response to trauma, and that ayahuasca can address that root cause in ways conventional medicine often cannot. His work has done more than perhaps any other figure to bring a clinical lens to the conversation around plant medicine.
Source: This Past Weekend with Theo Von, Episode 538. Multiple published lectures and interviews.
4. Tony Robbins and Ayahuasca: Confronting Fear in the Amazon
Robbins recounted his ayahuasca experience during an appearance on Hotboxin’ with Mike Tyson, describing a ceremony he participated in deep in the Amazon rainforest. His account fits naturally within his broader philosophy — he has long argued that lasting change requires confronting fear and discomfort rather than avoiding it, and he framed ayahuasca as one of the more extreme versions of that confrontation. He has also spoken about funding psychedelic research studies, suggesting his interest goes beyond personal experience into active advocacy for the therapeutic potential of plant medicine.
Source: Hotboxin’ with Mike Tyson, Episode 38, 2019.
5. Charlamagne Tha God and Ayahuasca: A Journey Into Mental Health
Charlamagne revealed to Billboard in 2024 that he had attended a spiritual retreat fueled by ayahuasca Billboard, framing it as part of his ongoing and very public commitment to mental health — something he has spoken about for years through his books Shook One and Get Honest or Die Lying, and through the Mental Wealth Alliance he founded. The experience fits a pattern in his life of seeking out tools that go beyond surface-level self-help, driven by his long struggle with anxiety. He had previously told Ryan Seacrest that he considered himself “the guy who can’t wait to try shrooms and ayahuasca,” framing the search as being about “that deeper meaning of life” and becoming the best version of himself. iHeartRadio
Source: Billboard, June 2024. Ryan Seacrest interview, October 2021.
6. Tim Ferriss and Ayahuasca: Uncovering Childhood Trauma
Ferriss is one of the most significant figures in bringing psychedelic research into mainstream awareness, having donated over $1 million to fund psilocybin and MDMA clinical trials at institutions including Johns Hopkins and NYU. His personal relationship with ayahuasca is rooted in something deeply serious: he has spoken publicly about first remembering suppressed childhood sexual abuse “in high resolution” while using ayahuasca MDedge, a revelation that eventually unlocked years of otherwise inexplicable self-destructive patterns. He has described psychedelics not as recreational tools but as the only thing that allowed him to access what conventional therapy had not, and has since dedicated significant resources to ensuring others have safe, research-backed access to these experiences.
Source: Tim Ferriss, “My Healing Journey After Childhood Abuse,” tim.blog, 2020. Peter Attia podcast, Episode 1.
7. Ken Wilber and Ayahuasca: A Philosopher’s Perspective
Ken Wilber, one of the most influential philosophers of consciousness of the past half century and the founder of integral theory, has spoken about ayahuasca within his wider framework of spiritual development and states of consciousness. He situates the medicine within what he describes as “state experiences” — temporary but genuine glimpses into non-ordinary awareness that can inform but don’t replace longer-term developmental growth. For Wilber, ayahuasca is philosophically interesting precisely because it raises serious questions about the nature of perception, self, and reality — questions that sit at the heart of his life’s work.
Source: Various interviews and lectures on integral theory and consciousness.
Athletes Who Have Drunk Ayahuasca
8. Aaron Rodgers and Ayahuasca: Two MVPs and a Ceremony in Peru
Few athletes have spoken as publicly and repeatedly about ayahuasca as NFL quarterback Aaron Rodgers. His accounts span multiple interviews and a live appearance at a psychedelics conference, and the story of how the experience shaped him — and his game — is unusually detailed.
Rodgers first drank ayahuasca in Peru in March 2020, just days before the pandemic shut down international travel. A close friend of 25 years had returned from his own ceremony the year before and encouraged Rodgers to go. He travelled to South America with a small group and participated in a multi-day ceremony led by a shaman of Quechua lineage.
Speaking on the Aubrey Marcus podcast, Rodgers described the intention he brought to the ceremony: “My intention the first night going in was I want to feel what pure love is. That was my intention and I did, I really did. I had a magical experience with the sensation of feeling 100 different hands on my body, imparting a blessing of love and forgiveness for myself and gratitude for this life from what seemed to be my ancestors.”
On the self-love that resulted, he told NBC Sports’ Peter King: “The most important way was really that self-love part. I think it’s unlocked a lot of my heart. Being able to fully give my heart to my teammates, my loved ones, relationships because I can fully embrace unconditionally myself. Just didn’t do that for a long time. I was very self-critical.”
Rodgers returned to Peru for a second ceremony and described the cumulative effect plainly to Fox Sports NFL Sunday: “I did ayahuasca in 2020 and I won two MVPs. I don’t believe that it’s a coincidence.” He later described the experience at a Denver psychedelics conference as “radically life-changing,” adding that many other professional athletes had since reached out to him privately.
He also offered a word of caution: “It’s not something that I recommend. It has to be something that calls you to it. It has to be done in the right set and the right setting with the right people involved.”
Sources: Aubrey Marcus Podcast, 2022. NBC Sports / Peter King column, August 2022. Fox Sports NFL Sunday, September 2022. CBS News / MAPS Psychedelics Conference, Denver, June 2023.
9. Cain Velasquez and Ayahuasca: Processing Grief After Family Loss
The former two-time UFC heavyweight champion has said that ayahuasca helped him recover from the loss of his mother and brother, allowing him to see “the love that was still there” despite these people being gone physically. DoubleBlind Magazine He has framed plant medicine within a broader reflection on the relentless pace of a combat sports career, asking: “Life is a fight, a long fight, and in that fight of life, when do we really take a step back and take a really good exhale from all this?” His account stands out for its focus on grief and family rather than performance or identity — a reminder that behind the sport’s most dominant heavyweight was simply a person carrying significant loss.
Source: The MMA Hour. DoubleBlind Magazine, 2024.
10. Kerry Rhodes and Ayahuasca: An NFL Safety Confronts CTE and Identity
Rhodes’ account is among the most viscerally detailed of any athlete on this list, documented in the 2020 documentary The Medicine. The former All-Pro NFL safety traveled to Costa Rica partly out of fear of CTE, but what the medicine surfaced had nothing to do with football. During his ceremony he had a recurring vision of vomiting a foetus — and then found himself as a baby in a crib, crying with no one coming. “I had a moment, half in the hallucination, half in the treatment room, where I was like, ‘Oh shit, I don’t need anyone to pick me up,’ and I put my thumb in my mouth, and I stopped crying. I realized that I didn’t need anyone.” The SportsRush He has spoken about the identity crisis of leaving the NFL — “you’ve been this person that’s been lauded and applauded by 80,000 people a game” — and said the experience changed his life forever, leaving him without the dark thoughts he had carried. Spectrum News 1
Source: The Medicine documentary, 2020. Spectrum News LA Stories, 2023. The Guardian.
11.Kelly Slater and Ayahuasca: The World’s Greatest Surfer Opens a Door
Kelly Slater is widely regarded as the greatest surfer of all time — an 11-time World Surf League Champion who spent much of his career publicly speaking out against recreational drug use. That makes his ayahuasca story all the more striking. In late 2017, on a spontaneous decision, he arrived at a retreat in Costa Rica just twelve hours after deciding to go, saying “it was something that was nagging at me for a few weeks beforehand, that this was something that could potentially change my life.” He described the result as “the most profound experience of my life,” adding: “I got a miracle of information. It opened up some sort of doorway in my future. It was otherworldly.” He has since become a vocal advocate for plant medicine, stating that “this work has truly changed my life, and the lives of people around me, for the better” — a significant public endorsement from an athlete who spent decades warning against the dangers of drugs.
Source: Video testimonial, 2017. Surfer magazine, January 2026.
12. Jake Paul and Ayahuasca: From Peru with Aaron Rodgers to the Boxing Ring
Jake Paul’s ayahuasca story is more substantial than many people expect. He revealed to Fox News Digital that he was actually present alongside Aaron Rodgers during Rodgers’ now-famous Peru ceremony: “Aaron and I were actually together when we did the ayahuasca. He’s more publicly known for speaking about it, but I was actually there with him when we did it. We spent the week there doing it.” TMZ Speaking later on the Aubrey Marcus podcast, Paul described his first night as a mirror-like confrontation with his own harshness toward himself. “It brought up a lot of problems of like, self-love, and how harsh I am to myself,” he said. “She gave me like a really big hug, and it felt like this love that I needed.” TMZ He has since credited a subsequent ceremony in Costa Rica with giving him a vivid vision of fighting Mike Tyson — a vision he says directly led to making that fight happen.
Source: Fox News Digital, March 2023. Aubrey Marcus Podcast, November 2023.
13. Ian McCall and Ayahuasca: From Oxycontin to Plant Medicine Advocacy
McCall’s path to plant medicine was born out of genuine crisis — he was on Oxycontin throughout his UFC career, including before fights, and was on suicide watch when he retired. Psychedelic Spotlight His first encounter with DMT, the active compound in ayahuasca, cracked open a different possibility: “I smoked DMT and it really opened my eyes to what I needed to do.” He has since built his post-career around psychedelic therapy for athletes, founding the nonprofit Athletes Journey Home and partnering with Johns Hopkins on TBI research. “Your trauma is stored in your tissue, so you’re actually giving and receiving PTSD while you’re in there,” he told ESPN. “That’s a big reason why I work in psychedelics, to try and fix those exact things.” ESPN
Source: Psychedelic Spotlight. ESPN.
14. Mike Tyson and Ayahuasca: Inner Transformation Beyond the Ring
Tyson has tried ayahuasca but is notably more associated with Bufo (5-MeO-DMT from the Sonoran Desert toad), which he has described as a death-and-rebirth experience that fundamentally altered his sense of self. On his Hotboxin’ podcast, he revealed he had tried ayahuasca a couple of times but consumed the toad over 80 times, and was candid about preferring one to the other EssentiallySports — finding ayahuasca’s physical effects, including prolonged purging, uncomfortable compared to the intensity and brevity of the toad. Both medicines are part of a broader transformation he has described openly: moving away from the rage and self-destruction that defined much of his earlier life toward something he considers genuinely peaceful.
Source: Hotboxin’ with Mike Tyson. Joe Rogan Experience. Note: we cover the differences between ayahuasca and Bufo in a separate article.
In a separate article we talk about the differences between Ayahausca and Bufo.
15. Riley Cote and Ayahuasca: An NHL Enforcer Finds a New Purpose
Cote is arguably the most active plant medicine advocate of any professional athlete in North America, and his broader story gives important context. After four seasons as an enforcer with the Philadelphia Flyers — accumulating over 50 fights and significant brain trauma — he emerged addicted to alcohol and painkillers and in a genuinely dark place. Psilocybin, along with other plant medicines including ayahuasca, became his primary path out. “The world is in a crisis, a mental health crisis, a spiritual crisis,” he has said. “And I think these are spiritual medicines, and I just feel like it’s the right path for me. I don’t think of it as anything more than my duty. My purpose on this planet is to be sharing the truth around natural medicine.” DoubleBlind Magazine He now co-founded Athletes for Care and advises psychedelic research companies, and has been described by peers as the first athlete to openly advocate for these medicines.
Source: KFF Health News / ESPN E:60, April 2023. Rolling Stone, 2022.
Actors and Filmmakers Who Have Drunk Ayahuasca
16. Megan Fox and Ayahuasca: Going to Hell for Eternity
Megan Fox has spoken about ayahuasca on multiple occasions, and her account is among the most viscerally honest from any celebrity. She traveled to Costa Rica in 2021 with her then-partner Machine Gun Kelly specifically to participate in a ceremony.
Appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live, she described the experience with striking directness: “It’s going to hell for eternity. Just knowing eternity is, like, torture in itself, because there was no beginning, middle, or end.” She added: “It goes straight into your soul, and it takes you to the psychological prison that you hold yourself in.”
Fox was equally clear about the physical reality of ceremony: “There’s nothing glamorous about it. It’s all a part of making you vulnerable, so you sort of surrender to the experience.” On ego dissolution, she described experiencing “a real ego death” and said the medicine felt as though it had confronted her with the deepest fears she had been carrying.
She later reflected to Vanity Fair that despite the difficulty, the experience gave her a new perspective on her life.
What makes Fox’s account valuable is precisely its lack of romanticisation — she neither dismisses the difficulty nor oversells the result. For anyone researching what ayahuasca is actually like, her honesty stands out.
Source: Jimmy Kimmel Live, July 2021. Vanity Fair, 2020.
17. Lindsay Lohan and Ayahuasca: Seeing Herself Die
Lohan spoke openly about her ceremony in a widely circulated interview, describing it as a pivotal moment during a deeply turbulent period of her life: “I worked with a shaman doing a cleanse. It was a really eye-opening experience with ayahuasca. It was really intense. I saw my whole life in front of me, and I had to let go of things I was trying to hold on to that were dark in my life. I saw myself die. It was insane. I saw myself being born and I feel very different since that — being okay with the wreckage of my past and letting that go.” She added that the experience felt like a rebirth, saying she had “completely left behind the weights” she had created for herself. The ceremony reportedly took place while she was filming the OWN reality series Lindsay, a period that followed public legal struggles, addiction recovery, and personal loss.
18. Will Smith and Ayahuasca: Fourteen Ceremonies in Peru
Will Smith’s ayahuasca story is one of the most documented of any celebrity — covered in his 2021 memoir Will (co-written with Mark Manson), a GQ profile, and an extended interview with David Letterman on Netflix.
Smith drank ayahuasca 14 times over the course of two years, participating in supervised ceremonies in Peru. He came to it during a period of deep personal examination after acknowledging that external success — record-breaking box office numbers, global fame — had left him emotionally hollow. As he put it in his memoir: “I started bumping up against the ceiling of what material pursuits can deliver. I climbed a whole lot of mountains and started to realise the carrot on the stick of material success.”
He described his first ceremony as transformative: “This was my first tiny taste of freedom. In my fifty-plus years on this planet, this is the unparalleled greatest feeling I’ve ever had.”
But not all 14 journeys were positive. In his Letterman interview, Smith described one trip as “the individual most hellish psychological experience of my life” — a vision in which his career, home, and money all disappeared. “I start seeing all of my money flying away, and my house is flying away, and my career is going away. And I’m trying to, like, grab for my money and my career. My whole life is getting destroyed.” He later reflected: “When I came out of it, I realized that anything that happens in my life, I can handle it.”
Smith was also careful about framing the medicine publicly: “I do not condone, nor do I suggest, the use of ayahuasca or any substance without professional medical prescription and supervision,” he wrote in Will.
Sources: Will by Will Smith and Mark Manson, Penguin Press, November 2021. My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman, Netflix, 2022. GQ profile, September 2021.
19. Zac Efron and Ayahuasca: Visiting the Amazon with Intention
Efron’s connection to ayahuasca is documented in Down to Earth, the 2020 Netflix series in which he visited the Ayahuasca Foundation deep in the Amazon rainforest near Iquitos, Peru. The Daily Beast The episode explores ayahuasca tourism thoughtfully — Efron receives traditional plant-based steam and smoke bath treatments and engages seriously with the Foundation’s work, though he does not drink ayahuasca on camera. The Foundation’s director noted that Efron knew about plant dietas before arriving, asked about them directly, and took the smoke bath treatments with genuine intention, saying he felt better afterward.
The series fits a broader pattern in Efron’s post-High School Musical years of deliberately stepping away from Hollywood’s expectations to reconnect with something more grounded and real.
Source: Down to Earth with Zac Efron, Netflix, Episode 8 “Iquitos,” July 2020. Ayahuasca Foundation blog.
20. Penn Badgley and Ayahuasca: The Most Profound Moment of His Life
Badgley called his ayahuasca experience in the Colombian rainforest “the most profound moment” of his life when speaking at the Ayahuasca Monologues event at Webster Hall in New York in 2012. Ayahuascaretreatsusa He described a long and difficult ceremony before eventually breaking through: after struggling with purging, he finally dropped into his heart and felt “it in my blood,” describing that moment of surrender as “the simplest but, to this day, the most profound moment of my life.” He has spoken about the experience multiple times since, framing it as a genuine spiritual tool rather than a recreational one.
Source: 5th Annual Ayahuasca Monologues, Webster Hall, New York, October 2012.
21. Josh Radnor and Ayahuasca: One Hundred Ceremonies Over a Decade
Radnor has described ayahuasca as having helped him stay centred when How I Met Your Mother was at its peak, saying “it actually helped me stay centered and not be so rocked by the currents of fame and visibility.” The San Francisco Standard He has also said of the medicine: “There was something about being demolished or bowing at the feet of that enormous medicine… It really gave me some sense of something much bigger than what was happening on CBS.” Daily Trojan He drank ayahuasca over 100 times across a decade, always led by a shaman, writing in the journal Oneing that it “became my refuge” and that he continues to see it as “an antidote to what ails the modern soul.”
Source: Oneing journal, Center for Action and Contemplation, 2020. USC lecture, 2019. SF Standard, 2025.
22. Judd Apatow and Ayahuasca: Ten Thousand Snakes and a Vision of Jesus
Apatow revealed in his 2025 memoir Comedy Nerd that he tried ayahuasca to face his long-held fear of it, saying “I did it because I was so scared to do it.” Yahoo! The ceremony, conducted one-on-one with a shaman in Studio City, involved “10,000 multicoloured snakes” before arriving at the most striking moment of the trip. “At the end of this long, complicated trip, I just suddenly saw Jesus on the cross. And I thought, Oh, I get it now. I get what that means… He died for us. He’s looking out for us. We should look out for each other. It’s all about being there for other people.” AOL He described it as “very impactful” and said it prompted him to download the New Testament audiobook, read by Johnny Cash.
Source: Comedy Nerd: A Lifelong Obsession in Stories and Pictures, Judd Apatow, 2025. Watch What Happens Live, November 2025.
23. Chelsea Handler and Ayahuasca: Filmed on Camera in Peru
Chelsea Handler’s experience is one of the most publicly documented of any celebrity, having been filmed on camera for her 2016 Netflix documentary series Chelsea Does. She travelled to Peru to participate in a traditional ceremony led by a shaman, approaching it with characteristic scepticism — and found herself surprised by its depth. She described the purging as unexpectedly peaceful and recounted being taken back to her childhood: “I had all these beautiful images of my childhood and me and my sister laughing on a kayak, and all these beautiful things with me and my sister. So my experience was very much about opening my mind to loving my sister, and not being so hard on her.” She also noted the physical reality without glamourising it: “It tasted pretty awful, but if you’re a girl trying to look tough in front of your camera crew, you handle it.” The whole experience, she said, was far more powerful than she had anticipated.
Source: Chelsea Does, Netflix, 2016. New York Post interview, January 2016.
24. Jim Belushi and Ayahuasca: Healing the Grief of Losing a Brother
Belushi traveled to South America to participate in an ayahuasca ceremony, and has spoken about it primarily in the context of grief — specifically the long-unprocessed loss of his brother John Belushi, who died of a drug overdose in 1982. He described the experience as cracking him open in an unexpected way: “It cracked me open in a way I never expected. It helped me release so much pain and see my life from a new perspective.” Belushi has since become an advocate for plant medicine and cannabis as healing tools, and has emphasized the importance of approaching ayahuasca with experienced guidance and genuine intention rather than curiosity alone.
Source: Various interviews, Hotboxin’ with Mike Tyson and related media coverage.
Various musician and artist have done Ayahuasca
25. Machine Gun Kelly and Ayahuasca: Confronting What He Had Been Running From
MGK traveled to Costa Rica alongside Megan Fox in 2021 and has described the ceremony as one of the most significant experiences of his life. Speaking on Jimmy Kimmel Live, he recounted the intensity plainly: “It was one of the most intense experiences of my life, but it helped me confront things I had been running from.” He has spoken about the medicine staying with him physically and emotionally long after the ceremony ended, describing how “the plant was a medicine that really went inside — you could feel it working inside your body. Even after you left, it stayed there.” For MGK, the experience was framed less as a psychedelic curiosity and more as part of a reckoning with emotional pain he had spent years avoiding.
Source: Jimmy Kimmel Live, July 2021. Rolling Stone coverage.
26. Miley Cyrus and Ayahuasca: Meeting Mother Ayahuasca at Home
In a Rolling Stone cover interview in late 2020, Cyrus was candid about her ayahuasca experience, calling it “definitely one of my favorite drugs I’ve ever done.” Rolling Stone She described her single ceremony — held at her home in 2015 alongside members of The Flaming Lips while they were collaborating on her Miley Cyrus and Her Dead Petz album — as unusually intense even by ayahuasca standards: the shaman told her that people sometimes take ayahuasca three, four, or even thirty times before having the kind of trip she had on her first attempt. W Magazine She described being taken by snakes to “Mother Ayahuasca,” who walked her through the entire experience. Lucid News She later told the New York Times that she found it healing and “loved what it did for me,” though by the time of the Rolling Stone interview she had moved toward sobriety and said she did not expect to do it again.
Source: Rolling Stone, January 2021. New York Times, 2015
27. Sting and Ayahuasca: Rehearsing the Feeling of Being Dead
Sting has been one of the most philosophically thoughtful celebrities on the topic of ayahuasca, connecting his experiences directly to his long-standing preoccupation with mortality. In his memoir Broken Music he described his first ceremony — an unexpected encounter in Brazil, where he and his wife Trudie Styler were led out of Rio de Janeiro through the favelas and into the jungle — as the first genuine religious experience of his life, describing a feeling of being “wired to the entire cosmos.” Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2016, he framed repeated ayahuasca use as a way of confronting death directly: “I think it’s a way of rehearsing the feeling of being dead. Every time, I have to work up the courage to do it. You basically face your mortality, and it’s as if you’re dead, out of time. Your whole life passes in front of you in this other realm.” Rolling Stone He has also been clear that it is not recreational: “There’s a certain amount of dread attached to taking it. It’s not something you’re going to score and have a great time on.”
Source: Broken Music: A Memoir, Sting. Rolling Stone, 2016.
28. Paul Simon and Ayahuasca: The Ceremony That Became a Song
Simon’s connection to ayahuasca is unique on this list in that it produced a song — “Spirit Voices,” from his 1990 album The Rhythm of the Saints — making him one of very few artists to translate a ceremony directly into a major studio recording. He has spoken about the experience with characteristic restraint, telling Billboard: “Ayahuasca has always been there. Nobody outside of the Amazon knew anything about it… I wouldn’t say that it heals — but I wouldn’t say that it doesn’t. I’m not a proponent and I’m not a detractor. I just wrote the song because this had been my experience.” The lyrics themselves paint the picture far more vividly than his measured public comments.
Source: Billboard interview. The song “Spirit Voices,” The Rhythm of the Saints, 1990.
29. André 3000 and Ayahuasca: Turned Into a Panther in Hawaii
André 3000 discussed his ayahuasca experience in a 2023 NPR interview promoting his album New Blue Sun, crediting the medicine as a direct creative influence. He described his second night of his first ayahuasca experience in Hawaii as transformative and physically overwhelming CBS News — he said the medicine “started playing me like an instrument,” beginning with him physically contorting and vocalising as a panther, then shifting into what he described as uncontrollable toning: long vibrational sounds he couldn’t control. He described the first night as “the most powerful love and connection with all things I’ve ever felt in my life,” and the second as an entirely different confrontation. He offered a clear word of guidance to anyone curious: “Don’t let anybody force you into doing ayahuasca or nothing like that. You’ll know if you want to do it or when you need to do it, because it calls you.”
Source: NPR interview, November 2023.
30. Sebastián Yatra and Ayahuasca: The Colombian Star’s Private Journey
The Colombian pop star revealed his ayahuasca experience on a Spanish-language podcast, noting with characteristic honesty: “I haven’t tried marijuana but I have tried ayahuasca” — and that he didn’t tell his mother or anyone about it. Divinity He described it as a “medicinal” experience rather than a recreational one, explaining that unlike other substances, ayahuasca “pulls you down and then elevates you — it’s like entering deeply into your subconscious.” For Yatra, the experience sits alongside other practices like intensive meditation retreats and years of therapy as part of a genuine commitment to inner work that has quietly shaped one of Latin America’s most successful musical careers.
Source: A solas con Vicky Martín Berrocal podcast, 2024.
31. Melissa Etheridge and Ayahuasca: From Personal Healing to Public Advocacy
Etheridge had done several ayahuasca journeys before losing her son Beckett to opioid addiction in 2020, and has spoken about the painful irony of knowing the medicine might have helped him: “Had I maybe had full custody of him I might have taken him to some of these situations with ayahuasca that I know helps with opioid addiction.” MUD\WTR His death galvanised her into founding the Etheridge Foundation, which funds clinical research into plant medicines as treatments for opioid use disorder. She has been direct about what the medicine is and is not: “It is not something to do recreationally. It’s not fun. This is not for everyone. I would suggest it to anyone who’s having a very hard time.” Katie Couric
Source: MUD\WTR interview, 2023. Katie Couric Media, 2023. Luminous podcast, TTBOOK. ayahuasca with helping her process grief after losing her son.
32. Chris Robinson and Ayahuasca: Opening All Minds and Hearts
Robinson, frontman of The Black Crowes, has described his ayahuasca experience as a fundamental opening of perception — one that arrived around the time he was actively rebuilding both himself and the band. In his own words: “I was very lucky getting near eight or nine years ago to have an ayahuasca experience. Even though a lot of my belief systems had led me up to that day… that was the literal opening up of all my minds and hearts. Where my mind and heart and soul all coalesce — having at least the initial understanding of the interconnectedness of all living entities in the universe, really.” For Robinson, who had long operated in spiritual and esoteric spaces musically, ayahuasca confirmed rather than introduced something he already sensed was there.
Source: Multiple interviews.
33. Ricki Lake and Ayahuasca: Eleven Ceremonies and Counting
Lake has done ayahuasca eleven times, confirming it on Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen in 2018 after he asked directly. When Cohen pressed her on whether she loves it, her answer was candid: “I wouldn’t say I love it. But it’s a very, very powerful medicine that has been very beneficial in my life.” The consistency of her returning to the medicine eleven times speaks louder than any single description — it places her among the more committed practitioners on this list, approaching it as an ongoing therapeutic practice rather than a one-off experience.
Source: Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, 2018.
34. Robin Quivers and Ayahuasca: A Surprising Return From Peru
The Howard Stern Show co-host spoke about ayahuasca openly on air with Stern, describing a retreat in the Sacred Valley of Peru during which she maintained silence throughout and slept on a mattress on the floor. She went into it during a period of personal depression: “I had been suffering from some depression lately.” Her account ends on a note of genuine surprise at her own reaction: “I am very, very pleasantly surprised that I came home feeling great.” Quivers, who had previously battled cancer, has spoken about plant medicine as part of a broader recalibration of how she approaches her own wellbeing.
Source: The Howard Stern Show, YouTube documentation available.
Internet Personalities Who Have Drunk Ayahuasca
35. Theo Von and Ayahuasca: Hard Work, No Peace, and Better Depression
Theo Von has discussed ayahuasca across multiple podcast appearances, and what makes his account stand out is its honesty about the psychological difficulty rather than any spiritual romanticisation. Speaking on the Joe Rogan Experience, he said the experience had been deeply therapeutic, describing it as having made his depression better “than it had ever been,” OG JRE while also acknowledging that during his ceremony he never felt a sense of peace — it was hard work throughout. In a separate episode of his own podcast This Past Weekend, where he also interviewed Dr. Gabor Maté, Von mentioned that plant medicine had helped him recognise a pattern of avoiding relationships — that he was still waiting for an idealised connection he never received in childhood. His approach to the topic is characteristically Von: self-aware, funny, and more personally honest than most.
Source: Joe Rogan Experience. This Past Weekend with Theo Von, Episode 538.
36. Tom Segura and Ayahuasca: An Incredible and Grounding Experience
Segura discussed his own ayahuasca experience on the 2 Bears 1 Cave podcast with Bert Kreischer in October 2022, describing it as “incredible” and one of the more significant personal experiences he’d had. He has also hosted guests like Ron White on his Your Mom’s House podcast to discuss their own ceremonies, asking pointed questions about whether the experience was genuinely life-altering. His approach to the topic reflects his general comedic style — curious and grounded rather than evangelical, treating the psychological challenge as the more interesting angle than any mystical framing.
Source: 2 Bears 1 Cave, Episode 155, October 2022.
37. Lex Fridman and Ayahuasca: A High Dose Deep in the Amazon
Lex Fridman is one of the most prominent figures in tech and science media to have spoken openly about drinking ayahuasca, and his account is unusually detailed. He travelled deep into the Amazon jungle with conservationist Paul Rosolie, taking what he described as a very high dose in the jungle itself, surrounded by insects and animals, guided by a shaman. Announcing his return on social media, he wrote: “This was an adventure of a lifetime, from getting lost in dense unexplored wilderness to taking very high doses of ayahuasca… This time in the jungle has deepened my gratitude for getting to exist on this beautiful planet.” X In conversation with Elon Musk on his podcast shortly after, Fridman shared that he had braced for difficult psychological territory but instead experienced something unexpected: “I had nothing. I had all positive… I had extremely high resolution thoughts about the people I know in my life. I had just this deep gratitude of who they are.” Lex Fridman
Source: Lex Fridman Podcast #429, 2024. Lex Fridman Podcast #438 with Elon Musk, 2024.
Entrepreneurs Who Have Drunk Ayahuasca:
38. Julian Zietlow and Ayahuasca: Breaking Through Guilt and Shame
Zietlow is one of Germany’s most well-known fitness influencers and entrepreneurs, and his ayahuasca story is more complicated than most on this list. He left his family, his company, and Germany in 2023 for an extended period in Thailand, where he worked with a shaman and described ayahuasca as breaking through “systems of guilt and shame” that had governed his life from the outside. “I felt life for the first time in my life, with everything, without filters. I broke through the complete systems of guilt and shame — everything I was taught from the outside about how to behave,” he said. Business Insider His story subsequently became more controversial in the German press as his conduct during that period drew significant criticism. It’s worth noting for context — his account of ayahuasca reflects a genuine personal upheaval, though the broader choices he made during and after it were widely questioned.
Source: Business Insider Deutschland, 2023. Multiple German media reports.
39. Aubrey Marcus and Ayahuasca: The Entrepreneur Who Changed the Conversation
Aubrey Marcus, founder of wellness company Onnit and NYT bestselling author of Own the Day, Own Your Life, is arguably the entrepreneur most responsible for bringing ayahuasca into mainstream awareness in the West. Having worked with the medicine for over sixteen years, he is credited with helping spark the resurgence of interest in ayahuasca through multiple appearances on major media platforms and by producing documentaries filmed at ceremonies deep in the Peruvian Amazon. He has spoken publicly about how a plant medicine journey gave him a clear vision for what Onnit could become Refinery29 — framing ayahuasca not as an escape from ambition but as a tool that sharpened it. In his own words, he describes the experience as “being in communication with the spirit of ayahuasca, which is really the spirit of the earth, of Mother Nature herself — the loving grandmother that’s there to heal you.” Unlike many who keep their experiences private, Marcus has consistently advocated for responsible access to plant medicine while warning that the growing demand for retreats is outpacing the supply of qualified practitioners.
Source: aubreymarcus.com. Refinery29 profile, 2019. Aubrey Marcus Podcast.
Entrepreneurs and Ayahuasca: Growing Quietly in Boardrooms
While most ayahuasca stories in this article come from entertainers and athletes, one of the fastest-growing — and least publicly visible — groups drinking the medicine is entrepreneurs and business leaders. Aubrey Marcus, founder of wellness company Onnit and one of the earliest voices to bring ayahuasca into mainstream entrepreneurial culture, has spoken about the medicine for over a decade and produced documentaries documenting ceremonies in the Amazon.
But for every entrepreneur willing to speak openly, many more prefer silence. CEOs and founders operate under intense investor and public scrutiny — and admitting to a Schedule I substance, however therapeutically intentioned, carries professional risk that most are unwilling to take. Dedicated ayahuasca retreat programmes for business leaders now report waitlists of founders, executives and investors, yet most participants choose not to be named. The Silicon Valley relationship with plant medicine is real and growing — it simply tends to happen off the record.
The Impact of Celebrity Ayahuasca Stories on Public Awareness
Through first-hand accounts shared by public figures, ayahuasca has entered mainstream conversation. Celebrities have enormous reach, and when they speak openly about their experiences, it naturally makes ayahuasca feel more familiar and less hidden.
This increased visibility brings more curiosity, more questions, and more public discussion. For better or worse, it moves ayahuasca from the shadows into the open, where people begin researching it more seriously rather than relying on rumors or stereotypes.
The Risks of Ayahuasca Becoming a Celebrity Trend
When celebrities speak about ayahuasca, there is also a downside. Popularity can turn something sacred into a trend, and ayahuasca can begin to feel like a “bucket list experience” or the next edgy thing to try.
Ayahuasca is not meant to be taken out of curiosity, social pressure, or imitation. Drinking it simply because someone famous did can lead to poor preparation, unrealistic expectations, or unsafe environments. Traditionally, the decision to work with ayahuasca comes from a deeper inner call — a genuine desire to understand oneself, heal, or confront something meaningful.
Of course, it is also important to properly prepare for Ayahuasca.
Why So Many Celebrities Are Drawn to Ayahuasca
Celebrities are often placed on a pedestal, but at the end of the day, they are human. Many spend years pouring energy into success, recognition, wealth, or fame, believing these achievements will bring fulfillment.
When those goals are finally reached, a surprising realization often follows: external success does not resolve inner discomfort. Anxiety, addiction, emptiness, and disconnection still exist. There’s a saying that someone without money has one problem — not having money — while someone with money discovers they still have many unresolved ones.
For some celebrities, ayahuasca becomes part of a search for meaning beyond achievement. Not as an escape, but as a way to confront what success alone cannot fix.
If you feel called to drink Ayahuasca, we invite you to consider Harmonica Ayahuasca Retreat in Colombia.
The Celebrities Who Stay Silent About Ayahuasca
While many public figures have openly shared their ayahuasca experiences, there are countless others—celebrities, athletes, executives, and even politicians—who choose not to speak about it publicly concerned of public scrutiny.
Public figures operate under intense observation, where a single statement can be misunderstood, sensationalized, or taken out of context. Talking openly about ayahuasca can invite criticism, legal misunderstandings, professional risk, or headlines that reduce a deeply personal experience into controversy.
As a result, many people with public visibility engage with ayahuasca quietly, privately, and without media attention. What we see in interviews and documentaries represents only a small fraction of those who have worked with the medicine. The silence around it does not reflect rarity—but caution.
Final Thoughts
What stands out across these stories is consistency: ayahuasca is rarely described as easy, recreational, or trendy. Celebrities who speak about it emphasize difficulty, honesty, emotional intensity, and long‑term integration.
This mirrors what Indigenous traditions have always taught—ayahuasca is not about escape, but about seeing clearly.
If you’re researching ayahuasca retreats, celebrity stories can be interesting—but they should never replace careful preparation, ethical facilitators, and respect for the cultures that protect this medicine.
FAQ around Celebrities and Ayahuasca
Why do so many celebrities talk about drinking ayahuasca?
Many celebrities describe turning to ayahuasca during periods of burnout, identity confusion, addiction recovery, or emotional pain. Fame can amplify pressure, isolation, and unresolved trauma, and some report that ayahuasca helped them gain perspective, emotional release, or a deeper sense of purpose.
Do celebrities usually have positive ayahuasca experiences?
Not always. While many describe meaningful insights or emotional healing, several have also spoken openly about fear, discomfort, purging, and difficult memories arising. Ayahuasca is often described as challenging rather than pleasurable, even by those who found it beneficial in the long term.
Are celebrity ayahuasca experiences representative of most people’s journeys?
It depends, their stories are often shared through media filters. For everyday participants, experiences can be very different, and expectations based on celebrity narratives can lead to disappointment or misunderstanding. At the same time, we are talking about humans who struggle with similar topics as everybody (anxiety, addiction, lack of self-worth etc.). Remember, each experience is unique.
Do politicians drink Ayahuasca?
Some politicians drink Ayahuasca, but very few are vocal about it like the Colombian President Gustavo Petro. The majority fear a public backlash and scrutiny. The real number of politicians who drink Ayahuasca is hard to determine.
