Who is Aubrey Marcus? Unveiling life and influence of spiritual guru who inspired Aaron Rodgers' darkness retreat

When Aaron Rodgers faced a tough life decision, his friend and mentor Aubrey Marcus knew just what to recommend: a darkness retreat. Rodgers made headlines for descending into pure darkness for several days in an attempt to clear his head about whether he wanted to run it back with the Green Bay Packers, retire, or play elsewhere.

He ultimately decided to play elsewhere and was eventually, after a long back and forth between the two teams, sent to the New York Jets. It's possible that without Marcus' guidance, Rodgers wouldn't have come to this conclusion.

The founder of the darkness retreat confirmed via KDRV that Marcus was a main influence on the future Hall of Fame quarterback:

“Aaron Rodgers is good friends with Aubrey Marcus and Marcus did a dark retreat in Germany a few years ago. Some of Marcus’s close friends have come out and done a darkness retreat with us here.”

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Who is Aubrey Marcus? A look at Aaron Rodgers' most controversial friend

Aubrey Marcus is a lot of things aside from being Rodgers' friend. He is an ex-MMA fighter, a self-help expert, a poet, an entrepreneur, a public speaker, a holistic health philosopher, an owner of ayahuasca plant medicine retreats and a proponent of open relationships.

Marcus is associated with Joe Rogan, the controversial podcast host. The two have a long history together. The pair co-founded a supplement company called Onnit that was accused of selling questionable products made of equally questionable ingredients.

The darkness retreat that Aubrey is a proponent of and that Rodgers attended promises to make big changes to those who enter via the website for them:

“The darkness invites us into a core-splitting honesty where we are moved beyond our constant posturing. Heightened sensitivity and the opening of the subconscious can naturally begin to arise as early as the 3rd day of the retreat and continue to intensify as the retreat progresses.”

Marcus and his counterparts promote controversial lifestyle choices and refute popular medical and scientific theories, but he's popular nonetheless.

Furthermore, he was sort of able to help Aaron Rodgers make sense of his decision, even if it's possible that the quarterback would have decided on his own eventually.