Details emerge about Aaron Rodgers’ darkness retreat

Nov 13, 2022; Green Bay, Wisconsin, USA; Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (12) during warmups prior to the game against the Dallas Cowboys at Lambeau Field. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Hanisch-USA TODAY Sports

Aaron Rodgers has completed his darkness retreat, and some more details have emerged about what it entailed.

Scott Berman, who owns Sky Cave Retreats in Ashland, Ore., told ESPN’s Xuan Thai that Rodgers finished his retreat on Wednesday after spending several days at the facility. Berman also shared some information about the room in which Rodgers stayed.

Berman says Rodgers stayed in a 300-square foot structure that is partially underground and has no light. The room has a queen-sized bed, a bathroom, and a meditation-like mat. There is also electricity, so lights can be turned on at any time if the participant wants them.

Sky Cave Retreats is a facility with three dark rooms like the one Rodgers stayed in. Berman told ESPN that it is booked out for the next 18 months and has a waitlist that is in the hundreds. He is planning to expand the compound to add seven more rooms.

Berman explained that the idea of the darkness retreats is to embrace emotions that are typically viewed as negative.

“If somebody’s sad in our culture, it’s like, ‘Let’s fix you immediately.’ There’s not a real genuine exploration of, ‘Why are you sad?'” Berman told Thai. “What happens if you just include the sadness and rest with the sadness, and be with it, without trying to change it? What happens from there? … That is a unique aspect of darkness retreat.”

As Rodgers mentioned on “The Pat McAfee Show” recently, the room he stayed in was not locked. Guests are free to leave for a walk in the woods if they feel the need. Berman said he typically checks on guests once a day and provides a day’s worth of meals through a two-way wooden door. If guests choose not to leave the room, that is the only portion of the retreat where they get a sense of the time of day.

Rodgers said earlier this month that he expected the retreat to give him the clarity needed to make a decision about his future. There have been rumblings that the Green Bay Packers prefer to move on from him, but a new report says the team would welcome him back under one condition.