Last year, an artist and life coach who teaches meditation, breathwork and emotional intelligence from Pembroke Pines was found by police assaulting a spiritual healer, with both men "covered entirely with each other’s fresh blood."
Stefan Leon, 32, attacked the officers, according to the arrest report, insisting he was "a demon, God himself and Hitler."
In court records, officers blamed Leon’s reported attack on ayahuasca, an illegal, vision-inducing psychedelic brew he and 68-year-old spiritual healer Julio Rivera traveled to Boynton Beach to drink as part of a healing journey.
Leon, who had previously posted glowing reviews of his previous experience with "the sacred medicine" and the "deep sense of love, compassion, and fervor for living" he felt after drinking it, reportedly stabbed Rivera five times with a chef’s knife at the end of a three-day stay at an Airbnb.
However, many people have talked about the healing and spiritual properties of ayahuasca. In his memoir, Prince Harry talks about using it and other psychedelics to deal with the grief and trauma from losing his mother, Princess Diana. Celebrities such as Will Smith , Megan Fox, Chelsa Handler, Lindsay Lohan, and former NBA athlete Lamar Odom have praised its effectiveness in dealing with anxiety, depression and trauma.
Aaron Rodgers, quarterback for the Green Bay Packers and the New York Jets, has widely credited ayahuasca for his two MVP seasons with Green Bay. In 2022, Packers players held a celebration in the end zone at the end of the season where wide receiver Allen Lazard pretended to use the football to pour a drink into the players’ hands, causing them to have a reaction to it and fall to the ground in an apparent homage to Rodgers’ love of the drug.
"It’s going to be hard to cancel me because previous year, 26 touchdowns, four interceptions, we had a good season," Rodgers said in 2023. "Ayahuasca, 48 touchdowns, five interceptions, MVP. What are you gonna say?" What is ayahuasca?
Ayahuasca is a muddy-brown herbal tea created by combining Banisteriopsis caapi vine bark and chacruna leaves imported from the Amazon basin. If ingested separately, they have no […]
What is ayahuasca? A Florida life coach was on it when charged with attempted murder
