DoubleBlind report
Despite a lawsuit proving its inaccuracy, a Netflix docuseries featuring Soul Quest Ayahuasca Church of Mother Earth continues to air false information about a participant’s death.
In an episode of the Netflix documentary series (Un)Well, which aired in August 2020, Christopher Young, founder of the Soul Quest Ayahuasca Church of Mother Earth, claimed he and his staff were not liable for Begley’s death, and that the decedent had previously experienced seizures.
“If you lie, you die,” Young told the program. “Everyone here knew that there was nothing we did wrong … We found out, shortly thereafter, he had a history of seizures.”
On May 15, however, the Ninth Judicial Circuit Court in Orange County, Florida, ruled that negligence from Soul Quest and Young was “a legal cause” of Begley’s death and ordered them to pay $15 million to Begley’s family. It followed a prior partial summary judgment dismissing Young’s claims, ruling: “There’s no competent evidence of a prior medical condition or prior medication that [Begley] failed to disclose.”
Following three ceremonies with ayahuasca, a powerful Amazonian tea containing DMT, and one ritual involving kambo, which typically induces vomiting to achieve a detox effect, Begley drank too much water, causing his sodium levels to plummet and eventually forcing him into a seizure.
But Begley was prescribed Levetiracetam, the anti-seizure medication, for the first time while in the hospital following the incident at Soul Quest, it was established in court.
