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1. 9 Kevin Lee says:
   October 26th, 2009 at 5:12 am

   ten thousand dollars per sweat lodge?

   Man, with that money, he could have used buffalo robes, a bed of sage, and cedar wood.

   Instead he skimped and used plastic to wrap the lodge, a foam mattress for the participants to sit on (toxicity), and railroad ties for the fire.

   Cheapskate.

2. 8 A.N.O.N.Y.M.O.U.S. NDN says:
   October 26th, 2009 at 2:50 am

   The sweat lodge (Inipi ceremony) was closed to all outsiders in 2003. This is the price that rich and arrogant whites pay for ignoring the words of true Native spiritual leaders who have all stated that the sweat lodge is not for them and looking to a man who shares their skin tone to swindle them out of their money. There is NO SPIRITUALITY that can be learned from books or workshops or purchased at any price. Anyone who ignores the wishes of the Native Spiritual leaders who have told oustiders to STOP doing sweat lodges and looks elsewher will only find, mind control cults and death. The spirits took care of the greed of the gated-community’s sweat lodge. The spirits read the true “intent” of those cult members. This is the message that white people keep seeking from Natives - they just don’t like what the spirits have told them - you are too aquisitive, too greedy, too materialistic and you are bringing destruction on yourselves. The sweat lodge deaths are a fulfillment of a prohpesy - the whiteman always wears two faces and he can NEVER be trusted. He has proven himself NOT to be a friend to the NDN.

3. 7 Steve says:
   October 25th, 2009 at 9:30 am

   Thanks to the folks who replied. This tragedy could have been averted if James had stuck to the same teachings as many others espouse, including Joel Osteen, who is on cable. Anyone who listens to him would see he is covering the same teachings as the law of attraction mentors.

   The big mistake here was jumping into ‘creating’ altered states and in such a dangerous way. The vast majority of these self-development teachers don’t do any such thing as this and the whole genre is being lumped together with this one tragic event.

   The media pigpile, many times by people who know little or nothing about the subject, has expanded to the point where people are throwing out the baby with the bathwater, as regards the law of attraction.

   I have listened to an audio CD with several interviews by these mentors and foud it invaluable. The general teachigs about loa and people in general clear up a lot about life and how your fellow humans act.

   A lot of this subject dates back 1000’s of years and only recently became popular. In the early 1900’s it was put forth by Charles Haanel and called the mastery system. A group of businessmen was so impressed with the concept(s) that they tried to pay him to keep it a secret.

   No matter what the media or govt says, its up to all of us to think independently, and question what is being said.

4. 6 June says:
   October 25th, 2009 at 9:26 am

   I just wonder because the main stream religions are failing people, that the new religion of take your money and brainwash you, and possible mass suicides that happen also will replace them?
   There are some who do need a spiritual support, but cannot tell the difference of what cannot be found within, will not be found without.

   Its a ‘Human ‘ condition - a weakness that those who would abuse take full advantage of.

5. 5 Athena says:
   October 25th, 2009 at 8:46 am

   Steve, I have friends who has attended his seminars, and I hear he is very similar to others in the field (I won’t mention name before I do more research myself), whose intense or less intense seminars I have attended. What the danger with these types of “teachings” or should I say techniques, is that it has some great transformational aspects, so one start to trust more or less blindly to what the Guru is telling you. Though if you read more on the net, including my blog, you will see how he “cooked” the people in the sweat box like the frogs get slowly cooked and eventually dies. You will see James’ NLP tactics amongst transference and other techniques is being used in an unethical way…

6. 4 Hippo says:
   October 24th, 2009 at 11:43 pm

   I want to make a response to the commenter named Steve.

   I had never heard about James Ray before and I have never been to any of his seminars.

   However, I was a one time a student of the self-help movement, and I have come to the conclusion that most of this stuff doesn’t work.

   James Ray apparently uses the “walking on hot coals” activity to motivate his students. This has been proven scientifically to be a simple trick that has nothing to do with mind over matter.

   These motivational speakers inspire us to engage in something called “magical thinking,” which is being unrealistic and illogical. I think that James Ray uses his charisma to get people fired up so that they will give him large amounts of money to do things that are not even possible.

   Later, if they feel they weren’t helped, he blames THEM. You may have noticed that he blamed the three victims for their own deaths.

   There is something seriously wrong with this guy.

7. 3 Richard Fairbanks says:
   October 24th, 2009 at 5:50 pm

   this has been a horrible tragedy. Some of the comments are very critical of the people who attended this event - it should be remembered that these “speakers” are well-trained professionals in mind-control and hypnotic trance-language. Tony Robbins says himself in his events that he worked for the US Army (CIA?) and comes off as a “normal” guy just having a conversation, but in truth, nearly every word is designed to influence people and get people to trust him and sign up for his $10,000 program. It is a sick twisted person who would take advantage of people in this way. James Ray is a top student of Tony Robbins and clearly learned a few things. I feel badly for the people who spent the money hoping for some help for their life’s challenges, and ended up dead. We should be able to expect that these programs are safe to attend.

8. 2 Steve says:
   October 24th, 2009 at 10:04 am

   Everywhere on the net there is a media pigpile on James Ray and the law of attraction in general. I wish each person who jumps in could tell us what they know about the subject beyond this one tragic event.

9. 1 Jennifer says:
   October 24th, 2009 at 12:31 am

   James Ray did not have 1000 at his seminar last weekend. I counted them. There were approx. 400 there.

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