We understand you want healing, but you can’t lie to us,” said Christopher Young, founder and owner of the Soul Quest Ayahuasca Church of Mother Earth retreat and wellness center. “If you lie, you die.”
Young’s remarks, aired in the Netflix documentary series (Un)Well in August 2020, came after the death of Brandon Begley at his center in Orlando, Florida.
Begley, a 22-year-old Florida native, keen skateboarder and guitar player, fell ill at Soul Quest on April 1, 2018. He suffered convulsions on the ground, which caused cuts, and a prolonged seizure. His sodium levels had dropped after he drank a large quantity of water following a ceremony with kambo, a frog secretion with detoxifying effects. He had previously undergone three ceremonies over two days with ayahuasca, a vision-inducing psychedelic drink, brewed from Amazonian plants which contain DMT.
“Everyone here knew that there was nothing we did wrong,” Young claimed in the documentary. “We found out, shortly thereafter, he had a history of seizures.”
But Begley’s family wasn’t prepared to accept this, maintaining that Begley was healthy before going to Soul Quest. They filed a wrongful death lawsuit in March 2020.
On May 15, 2024, a jury at the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court in Orange County, Florida, found that negligence from Soul Quest and Young was “a legal cause” of Begley’s death. The organization and Young were ordered to pay a total of $15 million to Begley’s family, in a verdict which assigned 40 percent liability to Soul Quest and 60 percent to Young.
“Young failed to appreciate the obvious and ominous gravity” of Begley’s symptoms, despite his eventual request for an ambulance, William M. Chapman Esq., the Begley family lawyer, said in his initial summary. The court reviewed the autopsy and 911 records, and heard from forensic experts and researchers.
“Justice has spoken. Nobody should trust their lives with these people. Brandon was all about love.
Read full article. https://filtermag.org/brandon-begley-soul-quest-wrongful-death/
