Aaron Traywick, the controversial CEO and founder of a biohacking company, was found floating dead in a spa in Washington D.C. on Sunday.
Traywick was found in a spa room on Massachusetts Avenue past 11:30 a.m., according to the Metropolitan Police Department. An investigation into the matter is pending, and there is no evidence to suggest foul play, San Francisco Gate reports.
Employees of Traywick’s Ascendance Biomedical, Andreas Stuermer and Tristan Roberts, said that Traywick was discovered in a flotation therapy tank. These soundproof tanks are usually filled with saltwater at body temperature for “sensory deprivation,” which advocates insist help people explore their alternate states of consciousness.
Roberts said,
Aaron was a passionate visionary. He seemingly never tired as he brought people together to work on some of the most imposing challenges facing humanity.
He further explained, “While many in the biohacking scene disagreed with his methods, none of them doubted his intentions. He sought nothing short of a revolution in biomedicine; the democratization of science and the opening of the flood gates for global healing.”
Traywick made headlines last February after he raised his pants leg while onstage and injected himself with an untested herpes treatment. The stunt made news across the biohacking community, with some of his contemporaries saying that Traywick’s experimenting without considering ethical standards was giving the field a bad name.
Following the incident, reports began circulating that employees of the company had started distancing themselves from Traywick and his antics. Stuermer said then, “We all lost touch with him. It was radio silence.”
Back in October, Traywick injected a volunteer patient with a do-it-yourself treatment for HIV, which impelled the Federal Drug Administration to issue a statement saying that the sale of such treatments is illegal. However, since Ascendance was technically not selling the drug, and all participants were volunteers, they marginally evaded the FDA’s rulings on the matter.
