UFC’s Joe Rogan details “weirdest, most psychedelic experience” during weekend sauna session

By Tom Taylor - August 3, 2020

UFC commentator Joe Rogan had a profound, psychedelic experience during a Sunday evening session in his sauna.

Joe Rogan, Amanda Nunes

The long-time UFC broadcaster opened up on this experience in a lengthy post to his official Instagram account, which he admits he “hesitated” to write down.

See what Joe Rogan had to say below:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

Tonight I had the weirdest, most psychedelic experience in the sauna. I usually start off my sauna sessions listening to an audio book, and tonight I’m re-listening to “Empire Of The Summer Moon” S.C. Gwynne’s epic tale of the Comanche Indians in the South West. I do a breathing exercise where I breath in deeply for 6 seconds, and then exhale for 6. I got into my rhythm, and I started to get overwhelmed thinking about these insane depictions of struggle and tragedy, all of it taking place from around 180 years ago to the late 1900’s. The stories of the raids, and the battles, and the massacres were both horrific and fascinating. I kept thinking “this was not that long ago.” Eventually I took the AirPods out and just got lost in the breathing. The images from the stories lit up my imagination, and the sound of my own breath began to hypnotize me. The sensation became really intense, and it felt as if a layer of whatever it is that keeps me from understanding myself and the world around me was peeled away. Two words echoed in my head: “love and understanding.” For the last 10 to 15 minutes these words and and the ideas that came with them danced in my head to the sounds of inhaling and exhaling, transforming my thinking like a beautiful mind virus. When it was over I felt this overwhelming desire to just hug people and be nice to people. I also felt a slight dread that this was going to wear off. I hesitated writing this down because I’m absolutely sure I’m not going to do it justice with just words, but I didn’t want to forget that this happened.

A post shared by Joe Rogan (@joerogan) on

“Tonight I had the weirdest, most psychedelic experience in the sauna,” Rogan wrote. “I usually start off my sauna sessions listening to an audio book, and tonight I’m re-listening to “Empire Of The Summer Moon” S.C. Gwynne’s epic tale of the Comanche Indians in the South West. I do a breathing exercise where I breath in deeply for 6 seconds, and then exhale for 6. I got into my rhythm, and I started to get overwhelmed thinking about these insane depictions of struggle and tragedy, all of it taking place from around 180 years ago to the late 1900’s. The stories of the raids, and the battles, and the massacres were both horrific and fascinating. I kept thinking ‘this was not that long ago.’ Eventually I took the AirPods out and just got lost in the breathing. The images from the stories lit up my imagination, and the sound of my own breath began to hypnotize me.

“The sensation became really intense, and it felt as if a layer of whatever it is that keeps me from understanding myself and the world around me was peeled away,” Rogan continued. “Two words echoed in my head: “love and understanding.” For the last 10 to 15 minutes these words and and the ideas that came with them danced in my head to the sounds of inhaling and exhaling, transforming my thinking like a beautiful mind virus.
When it was over I felt this overwhelming desire to just hug people and be nice to people. I also felt a slight dread that this was going to wear off.

“I hesitated writing this down because I’m absolutely sure I’m not going to do it justice with just words, but I didn’t want to forget that this happened,” Rogan concluded.

Joe Rogan has been working for the UFC since 1997. Initially, he served as a backstage interviewer for the promotion, but quickly moved into a color commentary role. He has worked for the promotion ever since, and has become as much a part of big UFC cards as the Octagon itself.


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Joe Rogan UFC