‘Pay $13,000 and reset your body count to 0’: Truth behind internet’s bizarre claim

“Pay $13,000. Fly to Brazil. Walk out with your body count reset to zero." Sounds like the plot of a dystopian Netflix series, right? Instead, it became one of the internet's biggest viral claims this week.

Multiple posts on the internet, with millions of views, claimed that women were travelling to a mysterious "Body Count Recovery Centre" in Brazil, where an expensive spiritual ritual could supposedly wipe away their sexual history. And as expected, the internet exploded.

Some laughed, others were furious, and many actually believed it. But there's just one problem. Almost every part of the story is wrong.

The viral video doesn't come from Brazil at all. It shows “Melukat”, a centuries-old Hindu purification ritual performed in Bali, Indonesia. And that's not internet speculation. It's the correction added by X's own Community Notes after users identified the ceremony and pointed to established sources explaining the ritual.

So before you even get to the "body count reset" part, the location itself is already wrong.

Drum rolls - there is NO 'Body Count Recovery Centre'

Despite the confident wording of the viral posts, there is no evidence that such a centre exists. No verified business. No official website. No credible reporting. Nothing. The claim appears to have been built around an out-of-context video and a headline designed to provoke outrage.

What is Melukat?

Melukat is a sacred purification ritual practised by Balinese Hindus. Participants pray and wash in holy water as part of a ceremony believed to cleanse spiritual impurities, seek blessings or mark important moments in life.

People take part for reasons ranging from personal reflection to religious devotion. Nowhere is it described as a ritual that magically resets someone's sexual history. Expecting something like that is itself bizarre.