“Problems will disappear as darkness disappears with the onset of light.” -Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
The human mind is incredibly powerful. What is actually achievable through belief in oneself is invariably witnessed in the realm of competition, and ever more so in combat sports.
We all battle with internal demons. But since athletes are typically viewed by society with a magnifying glass, those demons become more apparent in many cases. Mike Tyson being a perfect example.
There’s no need to list the highs and lows of “Iron” Mike’s career as it’s common knowledge. However, since we are on the cusp of a potential Tyson comeback, there’s something especially fascinating about Mike’s journey and how he’s managed his demons.
Just like Joe Rogan, Tyson has long been a proponent of the benefits of psychedelics in regards to personal growth. And apparently, Mike convinced recent UFC retiree and former two-division champ Henry Cejudo to take a psychedelic journey of his own.
On the latest episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, Cejudo divulged his experience of using DMT derived from toad venom with Mike Tyson and the profound impact it had on his life.
“I became good friends with him, I call him Uncle Mike because he always schools you a lot. Every time he sees me, he compliments me but he also schools me a lot about the toad and I said, ‘Let’s do it Uncle Mike!’ He’s like, ‘Are you sure you want to?’ And I’m like ‘yeah man, you’ve been talking about it for a minute!’”
“They have this nice setup with the rituals. So we go out to Antigua which is an island off the Caribbean. We are out there and we have a shaman and Mike goes first.”
“He’s going a bit crazy because what that does is as you say, you open up a lot of your demons that you’ve probably been holding onto for a minute. So I’m seeing Mike twisting and turning, I don’t want to talk about that stuff, but he’s talking about a lot of his past. As you said, he’s an idol and a legend, that’s the way I look at Mike too. So I’m over here almost tripping out but at the same time intrigued.”
“So then I go up and I do it.”
“I always kid of wanted answers about if this is the path and whatnot. It took me to my mom’s first love, man. It showed me in a story line, almost like a movie, how I was born, how my mom had me. How when I was eight years old she had my sister so I was no longer the youngest and how my mom kind of, in all fairness, pushed me to the side. Leaving home at the age of seventeen and substituting my moms love for self-fulfillment in wrestling and mixed martial arts.”
“It brought me back to when I was a little kid like maybe four or five when I would cry to my mom. I remember as a kid we would go from L.A. to New Mexico in Greyhound (busses) and we’d never stop at McDonalds or things like that. As a kid you don’t know you’re poor. But what it did was it brought me back to that person who created me and my moms love. It like resurrected something in me and I was crying and asking for forgiveness. I was speaking Spanish and saying ‘Mom forgive me.’”
“It was something scary in some ways, it takes you out of your body. It’s almost like you’re in judgement day and you’re the one being convicted, and you’re the judge too. But it’s giving you this certain peace, it’s like telling you that you’re so dead, but you’re alive. It’s the truth, Joe! I don’t know which ones you had, but I can only share what I experienced. It was cool, man. Because I was able to do it with special people.”
Certainly a legendary tale with a profound positive impact for Henry Cejudo! What do you think Penn Nation?
This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM 6/9/2020