Oscar-winning actor Tim Robbins says an ayahuasca trip helped him break free from the anger he felt over America’s deep divide.
Robbins revealed the psychedelic experience left him feeling “completely lighter” after years of frustration with cancel culture and political polarization.
The “Shawshank Redemption” star said he turned to the Amazonian psychedelic brew with one goal in mind — to stop being “consumed” by outrage over what he sees as the unraveling of modern society.
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“They tell you to go in with an intention,” Robbins said during a candid appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience.” “My intention was to … I was frustrated with feeling anger about what was going on in the world, and I said, ‘I want to release that. I don’t want to be consumed by that anger.'”
Robbins said his psychedelic experience was an intense spiritual journey that included what he described as an encounter with his late mother.
“What she said was, ‘You’re injured. You’re a warrior, and you’re injured and you need to rest, but the fight’s not over,'” Robbins recalled.
When Joe Rogan asked what battle he believed he was fighting, Robbins pointed squarely at today’s culture wars.
“I was battling my frustration with the dissolution of society, people being angry at each other over ridiculous things, long friendships being affected, people being canceled for expressing their opinion, all this stuff,” he said. “And I wanted out. I wanted to be absolved of that. I didn’t want to be engaged in it.”
Although Robbins acknowledged skeptics would dismiss the experience, he said it profoundly changed him.
“I definitely felt her presence there. It was no doubt it was her,” he said, adding that by the end of the ceremony he felt “completely lighter” and reconnected with his late mother.
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Earlier in the conversation, Robbins also spoke about the hot-button issue, arguing that cancel culture bears striking similarities to tactics used under the former Soviet Union.
The actor recalled touring Eastern Europe with his play “Topsy Turvy,” where he asked audience members in Romania what aspects of modern life reminded them of the communist era.
“They said, ‘Without a doubt, cancel culture,'” Robbins recounted.
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According to Robbins, audience members described how Soviet authorities allegedly kept damaging personal files on citizens and weaponized them against anyone who stepped out of line.
“‘Well, Soviet Union used to keep files on all of us, right?'” he recalled the person saying. “‘So, as long as you’re a good party member, there wouldn’t be a thing said. But once you stepped out of line, they brought out that old file. Now that affair with your secretary from 30 years ago is going to ruin your life. They’re going to ruin your family. They’re going to kill your career. And they’re going to make a big public display of it to show other people to stay in line.'”
“They felt like cancel culture was basically operating in the same way as the Soviet Union did,” Robbins said. “It was really interesting to see that perspective in Eastern Europe — people that have, you know, lived under that kind of oppressive situation and their perspective on modern day.”
Robbins has been a fixture in Hollywood for more than four decades, winning the Academy Award for best supporting actor for 2003’s “Mystic River” and starring in films including “The Shawshank Redemption,” “Bull Durham” and “Top Gun.”
He also founded the Los Angeles theater company The Actors’ Gang and has become increasingly outspoken in recent years, criticizing COVID-19 lockdowns and vaccine mandates.
