Update on James Arthur Ray – Sweat Lodge Death Tragedy
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I am so sad to hear that another person has died as a result of this horrible, horrible incident. My deepest sympathies and condolences go out to all of the families involved.
As for my thoughts….I’m still trying to wrap my head around it all. From what I’ve seen and read, it looks like there was definitely some negligence involved as far as how the tent was set up, the number of people crammed inside of it, the fasting just prior, etc. But homicide? That’s where I start having some difficulty. I can’t believe that James Ray, or any genuine person in the self-help field, would ever intentionally set out to hurt someone. To me, the definition of “homicide” is the *purposeful intent* to end someone’s life. I’m positive that was not James’s intention.
Like you said, this whole thing is going to have far-reaching effects across the entire holistic field. And like you, I was at first angry at the people who have been lashing out at James and throwing around words like “cult” and “mental manipulation”. Then I realized that these people are just lashing out with fear and anger at something they don’t understand. I know that it is certainly going to affect how I go about teaching people in my own coaching practice.
Thank you for the thought-provoking post!
Bob,
I think what has happened with this is that many people are not being self-empowered when they look for something external to help fix them. Like you stated, it must come from the individual. The problem lies when people tend to follow somebody and to certain things because that person told them to. But there’s also a social psychological aspect to that. Both Robert Cialdini and Stanley Milgram brought out the fact that people will do things if they perceive somebody to be an authority figure that told them to do it. When I was in the Marines it was the same way.
Not many people are able to rationalize their thoughts and want others to do it for them. That’s the reason advertisements are successful and if an authority figure is part of the ad, then it makes it better (unless the authority figure gets into trouble after the ad is out).
Things like the sweat lodge incident and many others will continue to happen because people are looking for something more. Heck, many such people will go from religion to religion the same way.
Your thoughts?
Bob Choat
This tragic event should never have happened. James Ray should have stuck to his fine mentoring lectures like fellow teachers Randy Gage and Dov Baron.
Sadly, the tragic unstudied version of the fine Native American traditions is what was wrong, not the law of attraction.
The media has now caused a pig pile of people upon the entire self-development arena by people, many of whom couldn’t tell you one sentence about the law of attraction.
Joel Osteen delivers the same message every Sunday to a totally filled compaq center, is this all a giant fraud?
Charles Haanel taught it as a course called the master key system in the early 1900’s to businessmen. They liked it so much they tried to buy it and keep it a secret. Were these already successful businessmen fraud victims?
Check any list of the traits/habits/beliefs of very successful people and they will boil down to what is being taught by mentors about the law of attraction.
Are all these successful people like Donald Trump and/or Mother Theresa victims of fraud?
If so, this is the best and most beneficial fraud in the history of man.
Sadly, critical thinking is becoming more and more of a lost art in our world as people get dumbed down to 15 second sound bites and tweets.
It saddens me on many levels. I was once a follower of James Ray and I say it in those term, follower. I am now awake to the fact we are our own teacher, we do not need someone to tell us how wonderful we are, how talented we are but we need to believe and sometimes someone comes into our lives that helps us wake up to that fact. I did not however spend any money on any seminars to find that out. I also believe the Native American traditions is what was wrong, not the law of attraction. The law of attraction does not belong to James Ray it is ours. I cannot get past the fact that James did not honor the long standing Native American tradition concerning the sweat lodge ceremony. I have been to one in Alaska and wish to go to more, I will however from this day forward only go to one that is 100% Native American and long standing. Now for the reality of the day. I feel there was negligance. 3 People are dead, many more tranitized forever. I am sure James Ray and the organizers did not think they did anything wrong. the unfortunate thing is, traditions were not followed and therefor it was wrong and other things will be brought up. I am sorry for the lives that were lost, for the pain the famalies must endure for the rest of their lives. I do however hope wisdom comes from their loss and so we all learn from this tragic event.
@loa fan Thanks for the comment. I agree, critical thinking is becoming a lost art! Let’s change that one person at a time. Peace, Bob
@Jan Thanks. I too, hope that some wisdom comes out of this tragedy. Peace, Bob