Inside the religious order that stood by Christa Pike during botched execution as Satanist killer's spiritual advisor is revealed

As the so-called Satanic killer Christa Pike remains in critical condition after her failed execution, new details have emerged about the religious order standing by her side. In 1995, at age 18, Pike took part in the torture-killing of 19-year-old classmate Colleen Slemmer in Knoxville, who was found nude from the waist up with a Satanic pentagram carved into her flesh. Pike had taken a piece of her skull as a souvenir. Inside the execution chamber with Pike on Wednesday was her spiritual adviser, Reverend Mikey Noechel, a Buddhist meditation instructor and addiction treatment specialist in Tennessee. Noechel is the co-director of the Wild Heart Meditation Center in Nashville, a non-profit Buddhist organization that claims to have adopted the death row inmate into its group.Wild Heart was originally an affiliate of a California-based Buddhist meditation organization called Against the Stream, which ended up closing all its West Coast locations amid sexual misconduct allegations against its founder in 2018.It is unclear when Pike converted to Buddhism while in prison, however, the death row inmate recently used the religion as a defense in a lawsuit against the state, which ultimately led to Noechel being in the room with her when the lethal injections failed.According to multiple reports by witnesses at the botched execution, Noechel stood beside Pike's gurney, speaking to her and singing a song with her that included the words 'I love you' as authorities struggled to carry out the death sentence.Noechel reportedly told Pike to 'relax' as the needles were inserted. Pike replied, 'I’m trying,' but the procedure was ultimately called off minutes later after she was unsuccessfully injected with at least seven needles. Reverend Mikey Noechel (Left) has been revealed as the Buddhist spiritual advisor who was present at Christa Pike's failed execution Wild Heart Meditation Center in Nashville, TennesseeThe Daily Mail has learned that both Noechel and Wild Heart Meditation Center have opposed Pike's execution, citing Buddhist teachings which believe killing continues a cycle of violence which could have karmic consequences.Wild Heart's supporters even held a vigil outside the prison on Wednesday and advertised a public petition which had been set up online in 2022, asking to spare Pike's life.'Christa is a member of the Wild Heart Meditation Center sangha [community]. Wild Heart is committed to holding a vigil on prison grounds that morning to support both Christa and Mikey,' the group posted on their events calendar before the execution.The Daily Mail reached out to both Noechel and Wild Heart for comment about the events of September 30 and their support for Pike.Wild Heart was originally named Against the Stream Nashville when it was founded in 2010 by Buddhist meditation teacher Dave Smith, who local reporters at the time claimed often used foul language during his classes, referring to Smith's meetings as 'punk Buddhism.'In 2018, Noah Levine, who founded the national Against the Stream group in California, was accused of sexual misconduct. Smith's Nashville branch was tied to that group only as an affiliate after Levine encouraged him to use the national name.The organization hired an investigator who found Levine had likely broken the teacher rule against sexual harm with more than one woman. Levine denied the allegations and no criminal charges were filed, but Against the Stream would eventually shutter it locations in California.The Nashville chapter already left the affiliation earlier that same year, renaming themselves Wild Heart Meditation Center, but said in a public statement that they supported the findings of the Against the Stream investigation. Christa Gail Pike, now 50, is alive and in critical condition after surviving her botched executionAccording to the New York Times, Pike said she only began to use Buddhist meditation practices in recent years as a way to 'train my chaotic mind.'Noechel told WPLN a week before the execution that he had been advising Pike for more than two years, teaching her the art of Metta, a Buddhist meditation in which you deliberately wish well for yourself and others, often by repeating short phrases.Wild Heart notes that Noechel was given the Buddhist name Rogahari Sokatura, which means 'healer of the broken-hearted.''He is committed to bringing the Buddha’s teachings into nontraditional settings such as addiction treatment centers, jails, and a variety of settings,' the center's website states.It is not known at this time whether Noechel or Wild Heart volunteered to advise Pike in spiritual matters, or if their guidance was requested by Pike or the state. Buddhism, as Wild Heart teaches it, is a meditation and ethics practice based on the historical Buddha’s original instructions for ending suffering.The only difference Wild Heart has incorporated into their classes is the style, holding sessions in a casual setting and using plain speech instead of conducting services in a temple.The widely practiced religion does not believe in a Satan-like figure similar to Christians. However, Pike's statements over the past year call into question whether the convicted murderer is a fully practicing Buddhist. She sang, groaned and snored as the lethal injection drugs failed to kill her at Riverbend Maximum Security InstitutionIn January, Pike sued to block Tennessee’s execution rules, claiming that they forced her to help plan her own death and kept her Buddhist adviser away from the execution, which her lawyer's court filing said violated her First Amendment right to practice Buddhism.Buddhism treats intentionally helping to cause a death, including one's own, as a violation of its rule against killing. Pike's legal representation argued that making her choose her method of execution forced her to take part in that killing.On August 11, a court hearing settled her request for a Buddhist adviser in the death chamber.'The way it's done will have karmic outcomes. I'm not a fan of that. In this scenario, we're getting really good at killing, aren't we? And that's concerning,' Noechel said on September 22.'Putting Christa to death, there is a mind state of either hatred towards her or ignorance, believing this is going to stop something.'However, just a month after a court sided with Pike's Buddhist argument that she should not be involved in planning her own execution, the 50-year-old strangely requested to be shot to death by an all-female firing squad - contradicting her religious defense.Colleen Slemmer’s mother, May Martinez, has rejected the claim that Pike has changed, telling the New York Times: 'Nobody could ever, ever convince me she’s changed.'Pike was set to be the first woman executed in Tennessee in over 200 years, but the botched procedure has now forced Governor Bill Lee to pause executions for the rest of 2026 while a third-party review is carried out.At 7.37pm local time on Wednesday, she took four deep breaths during the lethal injection process and broke into song with Noechel nearby.'Be kind and gentle to yourself and may you be at peace,' she said repeatedly, reciting the lyrics of the Buddhist meditation the spiritual advisor taught her.'I’ve had numerous friends go with this dying wish: that all beings be at ease and at peace and gentle, and leaving this world and to transition into whatever happens after this,' he explained in a recent interview.At 7.41pm, the Tennessee Department of Corrections staff gave the signal that the drug had been fully administered. Pike's eyes closed - but she was not dead.Three minutes later, witnesses said Pike spoke again to Noechel, asking, 'Does it happen like that?' while complaining about pain in her arm. She would soon fall asleep and start to snore.The spiritual advisor reportedly exited the room when Pike was supposed to have died in her sleep but was summoned back in after the 50-year-old continued to live and kept snoring.After multiple injections, witnesses said 'her body lifted off the gurney again in a V-shape' just before 7.56pm. Ten minutes later, she 'gasped for air and her body flexed.'The execution was halted shortly after these events, and Pike is now in critical condition at Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville. Her attorney, Randy Spivey, told the New York Post the death row inmate may have suffered brain damage.