Dr Samuel Lee: the rise and possible fall of a psychedelic guru
The 'spiritual psychiatrist' faces manslaughter charges following a client's death
Dr Samuel Lee, a 44-year-old ‘spiritual psychiatrist’ with two million social media followers, has been charged with second-degree-felony manslaughter in Miami for the death of Tina Sodhi, a 51-year-old wellness entrepreneur who died at a psychedelic retreat facilitated by Dr Lee. He faces a jury trial in October, and if convicted could face a maximum of 15 years in prison. He denies the charges.
The three-day retreat took place at Sabia Wellness House in Miami, with Ms Sodhi and another client each paying $2000 for the retreat. They were given something called the ‘Heart Protocol’ which, according to podcasts featuring Dr Lee, typically includes phenibut, MDMA, a microdose of psilocybin (although in this instance Sodhi seems to have been given DMT) and two ketamine injections.
According to Miami police reports, Detective Bryan Gonzalez arrived at the house at 8.44am on February 10th 2025, in response to an emergency call, to find Dr Lee giving Sodhi CPR in a sauna. Ms Sodhi was pronounced dead at 8.52. Dr Lee told police he was ‘a licensed doctor and an ‘Elder of the Eternal Life tribe’ and that the Heart Protocol was ‘a sacred sacrament of the church and not performed under his medical license’.
The Miami-Dade Medical Examiner’s Office ruled in July 2025 that the cause of death was hyponatremic dehydration due to confinement in a sauna and use of MDMA and ketamine in combination with a parasite cleanse (ZenCleanz) which Dr Lee advised Ms Sodhi to do in the days before receiving the Heart Protocol. The toxicology report showed Sodhi had MDMA, ketamine and DMT in her system.
Dr Alberto Augsten, a clinical toxicologist, told Miami police that MDMA is often associated with dehydration and cardiovascular stress, and that the parasite cleanse and sauna compounded the risks. Dr Augsten advised the police that, ‘to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty, the actions taken by [Dr Lee] reflect an extreme and unjustifiable deviation from accepted safety and clinical practices’.
Dr Lee told his Eternal Life tribe this weekend that Tina Sodhi fell asleep in the sauna ‘12-24 hours after the ceremony’, and ‘transitioned’ with ‘a smile on her face’. He added:
My belief is she decided to transition…If I was going to transition, I would leave after a Heart Protocol. Why? You’re already there. You are home….My conscience is super clear.
Tina Sodhi was an Indian immigrant to the US and a former private equity worker who, in 2009, lost her job and turned to breathwork to cope with depression. She founded a Miami wellness company called Art of Breathing. A friend says:
This woman was a ball of light. The type where her smile makes you feel safe and her nervous system is medicine. So smart, fun, kind, caring. I just can’t compute that this happened to her.
Ms Sodhi’s death is not the first recorded instance of harm through Dr Lee’s facilitation of the Heart Protocol. Another medical professional reported him to the Texas Medical Board in September 2025 when a client became manic and was hospitalized, reportedly after receiving the protocol from Dr Lee at the AWKN Ranch / Within Center in Austin, Texas, where Dr Lee was briefly medical director. There was no response from the Texas Medical Board to this complaint - it only temporarily suspended Dr Lee’s license this May after he had been charged by the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office. The Texas Medical Board ruled that Lee’s ‘continued practice of medicine poses a continuing threat to the public welfare’. Dr Lee did not respond to emails and David Naylor, the founder of AWKN Ranch, did not comment on the 2025 medical board complaint.
Another client received the Heart Protocol at a gathering in February 2024, facilitated by Dr Lee and organized by David Naylor. The client describes it as ‘the worst-ever facilitated ceremony of my life.’ Lee did not respond to emails and Naylor did not comment.
Dr Lee, the son of a Korean pastor, was previously a psychiatrist working at Kaiser Permanente in Los Angeles. During the pandemic, he became an underground psychedelic facilitator, a conspirituality influencer with millions of social media followers, and a prophet to a 4000-strong online paid community called the Eternal Life tribe.
His devoted followers were unfazed by the news that their leader had been charged with manslaughter for the death of a client. Social media posts by followers have included outpourings of love for Dr Lee, prayers for his protection from the forces of darkness, and speculations that Tina Sodhi’s soul chose to die.
This story raises some important questions for the psychedelic community. Why do some medical professionals working with psychedelics evolve into guru-figures? Should psychedelic retreats offer access to saunas and sweatlodges? What are the risks of ‘multistacking’ drugs? Why do wealthy, educated people pay thousands of dollars to underground facilitators, sometimes to take unidentified substances? And will Dr Lee be that very rare case - a psychedelic facilitator who causes harm and faces legal consequences?
After the paywall, the origins of Dr Lee and the Heart Protocol, how to be a guru in the digital and AI age, and what is likely to happen.
