Self-help guru James Arthur Ray is facing possible criminal charges after two people died and others are in critical condition while being ‘cleansed’ in a ’sweat lodge’ he provided. The Sedona sweat lodge retreat deaths occurred at the Angel Valley Spiritual Retreat in Arizona on the last day of Ray’s ‘Spiritual Warrior’ retreat in which he promised participant’s lives would be changed forever.
James Arthur Ray is a motivational speaker and author of the popular self-help book, Harmonic Wealth: The Secret of Attracting the Life You Want and The Secret. He recently rented the Angel Valley Spiritual Retreat in Sedona, Arizona to hold what he called a ‘Spiritual Warrior’ retreat. It is rumored that people paid up to $9,000 to attend this retreat through which Ray promised would ‘absolutely change your life’. This life-changing event started on October 3, 2009. On the last day of the retreat, October 8, 2009, 64 people crowded into a haphazardly constructed ’sweat lodge’. Twenty-two of those people ended up being hospitalized, two in critical condition and two died.
Apparently, this cleansing part of the spiritual week was loosely patterned after the Native American tradition of a sweat lodge. Unfortunately, whoever constructed this sweat lodge missed a few key points that the Natives use in their traditional practices. For one, Natives use materials that ‘breath’, as opposed to the plastic covered monstrosity constructed to sweat out whatever personal demons the conference attendees were trying to rid themselves of. For another thing, Natives have a maximum of 8-12 people inside a sweat lodge at any given time. The plastic tarp covered tent at Angel Valley Spiritual Retreat was crammed full with 64 people. Lastly, Natives don’t stay in a sweat lodge until they lose consciousness.
Apparently, the group was about two hours into their sweating when people began to get sick. People started getting lightheaded, weak and fainting.
The causes of death and illness have not yet been determined. The situation is currently under investigation by the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Department. Authorities are investigating if there were preexisting medical conditions and whether they had been fasting. They have determined there were not high levels of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide or other out of the ordinary contaminants in the tent.
While the investigation is on-going, there remains the possibility that James Arthur Ray, the host of the event, will face criminal charges for the Sedona Sweat Lodge Retreat deaths.
The dead were transported to Verde Valley Medical Center and have only been identified as a middle-aged man and woman.
October 10th, 2009 at 5:25 pm
That is so incredibly sad.
Avoidable death is the worst thing I can think of. And the tragic irony is that those people were obviously hoping to create a postive life change of some kind.
Just say no to Plastic Shamans~
October 10th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
This tragedy reflects profound negligence, irresponsibility and gross misconduct on the part of James Arthur Ray, not to mention the unacceptable, extreme disrespect to traditional sacred ceremony of Native Americans. There are so many aspects here that are not being looked at. Unless James Arthur Ray is a bonafide, traditionally trained medicine man or, as westerners say, “shaman” (which is rare and thus highly doubtful)AND ALSO authorized AS a medicine man BY those he trained with to do such a sweat lodge, then he is absolutely 100% responsible for the deaths, illnesses, and injuries of these people.
Native Americans and ONLY Native Americans understand the entire process of a sweat lodge ceremony. This is their spirituality and their culture, NOT something we can easily adopt nor can we even begin to understand without extensive training BY a Native American traditionalist, and I mean EXTENSIVE. Imitating Native American ceremonies, copying them, or performing them without such advanced understanding, training, and permission from the Native Americans only prooves our own ignorance, arrogance and gross disrespect for a people, a culture, a sacred rite that we have NO business messing around with whatsoever…NOT TO MENTION the tragic negative, but natural consequences when wannabies attempt to play “shaman”…and is down right FAKE, FALSE, WRONG!
Entering a sweat lodge and performing the sweat ceremony is loaded with spiritual significance as well as very important, necessary preparation PRIOR to entering (often days in advance). More importantly, the Native healer KNOWS exactly what that preparation is for each individual. Throwing 64 people in a sweat lodge as if all are the same and require the same preparation is absurd, it would be equally absurd even if it were just two or three. Every person is an individual with different needs, and it is the medicine man or woman who is connected in many ways with exactly what each person needs. And…it doesn’t stop at the entrance to the sweat, the healer’s care and oversight continues from the very beginning of the preparation long before the sweat and extends as far beyond as they deem necessary. The care they give to each person they take through any ceremony is immense and they carefully monitor the person/people THROUGHOUT the ceremony as well.
This James Ray dude is a false, wanna-be “shaman” and now we see how dangerous and injurious such self-made healers are. This is a very serious breach of sacred ceremony and it has consequences at ALL levels. Unfortunately the two innocent people who died and those who were injured were not informed of this and had no clue what they were getting themselves into..another huge mistake.
I hope people realize that a sweat lodge is not a simple event. I hope this serves as a painful lesson to anyone to FIRST do their homework to seek out a TRUE healer who can guide them appropriately and properly to what they really need.
Not only am I saddened that a sacred ceremony is once again falsified by a wanna-be, I’m deeply saddened that these fake healers refuse to wake up, and it’s the innocent, but ignorant people who suffer. They not only lose their money, they lose their lives and their spirits, in more ways than one.
In essence, James Ray killed these people. I wonder what his native teachers in Peru or wherever have to say about his qualifications and skill level as a teacher or healer. I wonder what any Native American would say about this. It’s obvious to me that when you mess around with sacred things of which you have no knowledge or understanding, you’re dealing with enormous power, and unless you’re an expert in handling such power, you’re asking for trouble, serious trouble…for example, this tragedy.
October 11th, 2009 at 12:56 am
James Arthur Ray is a con man, a liar and a murderer who belongs in prison for the rest of his life for what he did to those two people. He’s not an Indian. He knows nothing about Indians. He cares nothing about Indians. He acted out of pure greed, nothing else. The fact that he tried to make his greed seem spiritual is obscene! But because he’s a rich white man committing a white collar crime, he’ll probably get away with murder and not serve even one day in jail. Native American’s spiritual practices have been distorted by this man’s greedy perversions and two families are missing their loved ones tonight. This man ERON ‘ed his victims and he ENRON ‘ed the Native American people and he’ll probably get away with all the millions of dollars he’s swindled from all the other people. This should show us that this country needs to start TAXING and REGULATING these phony religious retreats. This fraud made half a million dollars off these people. Do you think he’ll give even one penny back? No! The people of this country must be protected from greedy white collar crime like this. Any poor minority person who steals to feed his family tonight or who smokes a joint will do more prison time than this con man. People need to demand justice for Kirby Brown and James Shore. These two people did not deserve to die. The families need to get a good lawyers and SUE JAMES ARTHUR RAY! They should also sue Oprah Winfrey because she promoted this obvious huckster on her show. We need to start holding the rich responsible for thir greed and their irresponsibility! TAX EVERY “Non-Protit church” that makes a million dollars or more. There’s no reason why they can’t pay their fair share!
October 11th, 2009 at 3:07 am
We have been fighting these exploiters and thieves for years. They just spit in our faces with their pockets filled with dead leaves (money). We will always push back and fight for our culture. Wade Crowe, enrolled with the Yanktonai Hunkpati Dakota Sioux of Crow Creek, South Dakota
October 11th, 2009 at 6:45 am
The New Age market is big business to Sedona. The only way justice will prevail in this case is if the State police step in an handle this investigation.
As for these New Age scams, it’s unfortunate that people have to die for their foolishness. But it would be worse if they’re denied justice, too.
October 11th, 2009 at 6:56 am
these people have no business performing these sacred ceremonies! the inipi is not a recreation! these new agers keep taking and taking from us!
October 11th, 2009 at 7:08 am
I live in Sedona and find incident troubling as well as extremely unfortunate for the families of the deceased and injured, the healing community in Sedona and those connected to the sweat lodge tradition.
Not sure of the causes, I withhold any any judgment of Ray, but know as the purveyor of change and organizer, he is ultimately responsible.
With that said, it is important to take this time and learn from this tragedy but also to reinforce the notion that are are positive outcomes from work of healers in the Sedona community (and elsewhere) as well as traditional sweat lodge facilitators the world over.
October 11th, 2009 at 7:14 am
First of all, let me extend my deepest sympathies to the families of the victims who died in this mockery of spiritual cleansing.I am praying for the families and those who are still suffering.
My experience with sweatlodges began with a ceremony before my wedding, eleven years ago. Our dear friend, who also performed part of our wedding ceremony was so extremely conscious of our well-being and prepared us with hydration, instruction and monitoring throughout the ceremony. I am grateful for his knowledge. We attended a second sweatlodge a year later with him and again, we hydrated before and after the ceremony. I would use his name here, but have not sought his permission to do so. He is native american and gifted with spiritual wisdom.
My point is this. For people to pay $9,000 to a “famous” guru of spirituality without considering the hazards, are “desperate” people seeking change, and in this case,looking in the wrong place.It is a travesty when someone claims to be something they are not and then exploits people’s vulnerability. Personally, I would never trust a white man to lead me in a native american ceremony, especially someone who obviously didn’t know the specs on building a sweatlodge to begin with…my heart wanted to scream when I read that they used plastic to cover it.
If people are going to do this, they need to read up on the ceremony itself, extensively read up on the one who is performing the ceremony. Read up on how the native americans do it. We had no more than 8 people in the lodge at a time. We went through three rounds of stones and water and never went for more than 30 to 45 minutes. BE INFORMED!! GO TO THE SOURCE!
If you have high blood pressure, heart disease, pulmonary problems, such as asthma, etc., if you have clostrophobia, etc., don’t do a sweat lodge. There is a lot to be said for common sense.
Last of all, a sweat lodge will not fill the vacancy in your spirit. It is a God-shaped vaccum that can only be filled by a “personal relationship” with Jesus Christ. The spirit is renewed by the filling of the “Great Spirit.” I speak out of my own experience and in no way condemn the native american way as it is part of my ancestory. The cleansing of a sweatlodge is in part a ceremony to reconnect with the “Great Spirit.” Too many people look for love in all the wrong places and people like James Arthur Ray cheapen that by exploiting people’s needs for their own gain. That is a CRIME!
October 11th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
Now come the 1/32nd part Indians and crazed Christians who have nothing to say but “Jesus.” To all of you: Leave Native Peooples alone and stop attempting to rip of their ceremonies, land, children, and traditional spiritual ways. They do not want or need any more missionizing or exploitation. Give it up and go away.
October 11th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
In this tragedy it is hard to stand the huge amount not yet factually known, tolerate that truth without being judge and condemning jury and wait.
Anger and slamming accusation while certainly showing already held beliefs neither can unveil what actually occurred nor give anyone the space to breathe, deal or heal- it is merely creating a mis-functioning sweat lodge of another kind.