Judd Apatow shared a wild story about his ayahuasca experience with a shaman—and the hallucinations that came with it.
The filmmaker, who released a new memoir last month, opened up about the trip during the Monday (Nov. 3) episode of Watch What Happens Live With Andy Cohen.
When an audience member asked him about the “craziest thing” he saw while on the psychedelic brew—often used in spiritual ceremonies and known for sparking deep, emotional realizations—The 40-Year-Old Virgin director recalled drinking ayahuasca under a shaman’s supervision but noted that, unlike many others, he didn’t have to deal with the infamous side effects.
“There wasn’t pooing involved,” Apatow said. “But I did take the ayahuasca, and the weirdest part of it—well, there was one moment where the shaman just kept saying, ‘Do you want some more?’ And I’m like, ‘I think I don’t need more.’ She’s like, ‘I think you should get some more.’”
When Apatow told the shaman he was seeing “10,000 multicolored snakes,” she calmly replied, “That’s the ayahuasca saying hi.”
When Andy Cohen admitted he was hesitant to try the brew because he feared knowing himself too well, Apatow didn’t hesitate to warn him against it, calling the psychedelic “crazy.”
The filmmaker also shared that while buckets were available, he didn’t vomit during the ceremony. Instead, after fasting all day, he said he “just dry heaved for twenty minutes.”
“But it felt good after a while,” Apatow explained. “It was like a nice release.” He added that he was ultimately “glad” he went through with the experience.
“At the end of it, I saw Jesus, which is weird because I’m Jewish,” he said with a laugh. “And I thought, ‘Oh, I get it. I get it.’ Then I realized, I guess we’re all just supposed to be nice to each other.”
Apatow previously talked about his ayahuasca experience on the Really No Really podcast last year, saying that for months afterward, he felt like he was having frequent “power thoughts,” and that the journey helped him “let go.”
