The ayahuasca church where a 22-year-old died in controversial circumstances has announced its closure following a damning wrongful death court judgment in which it was ordered to pay $15 million in compensation to the decedent’s family.
Brandon Begley died from hyponatremia, which is caused by an excess of body water, after consuming large amounts of liquids following a ceremony in which he took kambo, the non-psychoactive secretions of a frog that is said to have a detoxifying effect, and was later found unresponsive. An ambulance was called more than three hours after he had a catastrophic seizure. This occurred after three ceremonies with ayahuasca over Easter weekend in 2018.
Soul Quest Ayahuasca Church of Mother Earth, in Orlando, Florida, filed for bankruptcy last month and claimed it was unable to pay the damages from the negligence lawsuit, despite an annual income of around $2.5 million. In a lengthy public statement issued last week, the church’s founder, Chris Young, a self-described “medicine man” and “purveyor of tribal medicine,” said the church had served ayahuasca 30,000 times since opening around a decade ago, making it one of the single largest ayahuasca churches in the world.
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In his comments, Young falsely attributed Begley’s death to 2016 when in fact, it occurred in 2018. The error appears to follow a pattern in which Young refused to take responsibility for Begley’s death. He falsely claimed Begley had a history of seizures in a Netflix documentary and, according to Begley’s family, never apologized or expressed his condolences.
Young also offered to help any former Soul Quest members in opening an ayahuasca church in their community, and suggested he would begin traveling and holding ayahuasca ceremonies across the US and even further abroad.
“I am also rather shocked that Mr. Young is trying to offer his apparent guidance in the opening and operation of future ayahuasca organizations where Mr. Young and Soul Quest have been found by the DEA to be the antithesis of religious sincerity and safety,” said William Chapman Esq, the Begley family lawyer. He added that he has been informed that Soul Quest has been evicted from the property where it was based, which is owned by Young’s ex-wife.
Young said that it had begun refunding people who had already signed up for Soul Quest’s planned retreats, which have now been canceled. He did, however, invite members to help him repay costs of more than $50,000, despite having taken a personal annual salary of $310,000. “If any members feel moved to help us repay these amounts, it would be a tremendous blessing,” he said.
“It is astonishing that Mr. Young has the audacity to ask his ‘membership’ for financial assistance to refund the $51,000 in retreat reservation fees paid by individuals attending upcoming retreats,” said Chapman. “Where did this money go? Based on the financial disclosures, there is no accounting for the balance of the millions paid to Soul Quest by its retreat participants.”
Young also failed to mention in his statement that Dr. Scott Irwin, a popular figure who died following a long illness in July, in Ecuador, after spending several years leading the church’s integration services. “It has put the nail in the coffin of my opinion of him,” one former church employee said.
