Another person has died as a result of spending a few hours in a sweat lodge run by spiritual/financial guru James Arthur Ray, bring the total to three. Ray is a charasmatic type in the mold of Koresh and Jones: The difference is that Ray charges his clients big bucks.
Yep, Ray has not been arrested. Ray "declined" to talk with the cops and is conducting another of his expensive seminars in CA.
The mantra has made him a millionaire. People routinely pack Ray's seminars and follow the motivational guru to weeklong retreats that can cost more than $9,000 per person.
But Ray's self-help empire was thrown into turmoil when two of his followers died after collapsing in the makeshift sweat lodge near Sedona and 19 others were hospitalized. A homicide investigation that followed has cast a critical spotlight on Ray's company.
Those are tragic deaths but I gotta ask myself how much sense they had to get themselves in that position in the first place? I think I could find better use for nine or ten grand.
Those are tragic deaths but I gotta ask myself how much sense they had to get themselves in that position in the first place? I think I could find better use for nine or ten grand.
That is true. Some of those people have followed James Ray for years and have paid to attend many of his "retreats." Sounds pretty dumb to me.
From what I have read, this guy is a border line cult leader. I know a guy who did a sweat lodge thing ... but not this $9 grand guru. More like a new age meditation retreat thing. Maybe cost a couple hundred. Because of my faith, I wouldn't do something like this, but from a secular perspective, I guess the concept isn't that wacko.
In Detroit, 3 people died running the Detroit half marathon. I guess I could have died running mine. We all make choices that could kill us. Many of us end up hunting on land where we could be shot and killed. We take precautions and hope everybody else does too.
Sounds like maybe the sweat lodge guru didn't take the needed precautions. Too bad.
It gets much worse. The people who paid big bucks for that retreat paid to be tortured by a maniacal nutcase. Ray even played God during that tetreat. He refused to help one of the ladies who later died. He discouraged others from helping that lady. This guy Ray is a cult leader just like James Jones and David Koresh. i cannot understand why Ray has not been arrested.
With any luck this guy will share a cell with Leroy from the Outlaws motorcycle club.
Texas resident Beverley Bunn is the first participant in the tragic incident to speak out publicly about the events that led up to the deaths. The 43-year-old tells the AP that by the time the sweat lodge ceremony began, the participants had undergone days of physically and mentally strenuous events that included fasting. In one game, guru James Arthur Ray even played God.
Within an hour of entering the sweat lodge, people began vomiting, gasping for air and collapsing. Yet Bunn says Ray continually urged everyone to stay inside. The ceremony was broken up into 15-minute "rounds," with the entrance flap to the lodge opened briefly and more heated rocks brought inside between sessions.
"I can't get her to move. I can't get her to wake up," Bunn recalls hearing from two sides of the 415-square-foot sweat lodge. Ray's response: "Leave her
alone, she'll be dealt with in the next round."
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At one point, someone lifted up the back of the tent, shining light in the otherwise pitch-black enclosure. Ray demanded to know who was letting the light in and was committing a "sacrilegious act," Bunn said.
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"I too want to know what happened that caused this horrible tragedy," Ray wrote on his Web site Tuesday.
He vowed to continue with his work.
"I have taken heat for that decision, but if I choose to lock myself in my home, I am sure I would be criticized for hiding and not practicing what I preach," he wrote.
Three Are Dead in Sweat Lodge Incident
_ _ _Death Comes Out the End of This Thing _ _ _
