A self-proclaimed psychic tried to “keep calm and beauty” as a man collapsed and died after ingesting poison and hallucinogens at a spiritual health retreat.
Jarad Antonovic after ingesting the plant-based psychedelic ayahuasca and the frog-based poison Kambo at the Dreaming Arts Festival at Alcoola Health Recreation Center in northern New South Wales on October 16, 2021. , died from esophageal perforation.
As the inquest into his death resumes on Thursday, psychic and “bodyworker” Dominique Voller said he saw the 46-year-old man fall to the ground during a ritual and turned around to see his girlfriend. said he was sitting.
She said she was the only one sitting in the room as everyone else was kicked out when she heard a commotion coming from the back of the hall.
“Out of respect for the family, I really felt he left his body quickly,” she told state coroner Teresa O’Sullivan.
“So for me, I just kept the serenity and the beauty and just being with Jarad as he left.”
CPR was attempted and an ambulance was called, but paramedics pronounced the Victorian man dead at the scene.
After participating in a kambo ceremony earlier in the day, Antonovich complained of swelling in his neck and back pain.
Typically, the chemicals are scraped off the backs of live frogs with a stick.
People who ingest drugs usually cleanse their bodies by vomiting afterwards.
Vollard said she acted as a facilitator during the Kambo ceremony, working with the energy of the participants and “grounding” them.
She told a court in Byron Bay that she stayed with Mr Antonovic after she became concerned that he was not throwing up.
The 46-year-old man disclosed to his girlfriend that he had asthma, but had not told anyone hosting the ceremony about his health condition, the coroner’s report revealed.
“I was upset that no one knew he had those symptoms or that he didn’t share that he had those symptoms,” Vollard said. said.
After someone picked up the Ventolin pufferfish, Antonovich’s condition remained the same, and the psychic asked him if he wanted to go to the hospital.
He became angry and Vollard made the same request to Uncle Andrew Johnston, a nearby Aboriginal elder.
The offer was rejected, she told the court.
“Uncle AJ turned around and said, ‘There’s no hospital,'” she said.
Ms Vollard said she erroneously assumed Mr Antonovich was also indigenous and entrusted the matter to elders.
“I’m just a white woman here. They know more than me,” she said.
Mr. Vollard trusted Uncle AJ because he worked with energy and “feeling what was going on underneath things” and felt he was part of that world. I did.
She admitted that she did not know the extent of the elders’ knowledge of medicine and Chinese medicine.
Mr Johnston previously told the inquest that he personally supported the use of ayahuasca and cambo in ceremonies because they were based on thousands of years of traditional knowledge among South American peoples.
When asked if his faith in Roa Solaris, the organizer of the Dreaming Arts Festival, was wrong, Vollard said it was a difficult question to answer.
“I think what happened to Jarad is a rare case, and it happens with anything and everywhere,” she said.
The hearing continues.