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Dead Man Taken For Halloween Puppet

bonfire_nightTHE figure on the Marina del Rey balcony is thought by neighbours to be part of a Halloween display.

It might be. What it is also is Mostafa Mahmoud Zayed, a 75-year-old man with a single gunshot wound to one eye. He’s been slumped over a chair on the balcony for four days.

Cameraman Austin Raishbrook says neighbours noticed the body on Monday (Zayed was retrieved on Thursday) “but didn’t bother calling authorities because it looked like a Halloween dummy.

The body was in plain view of the entire apartment complex [and] they all didn’t do anything. It’s very strange. It did look unreal, to be honest.”

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Posted: 17th, October 2009 | In: Strange But True | Comment


Transcript Of James Arthur Ray’s Conference Call To Arizona Sweat Box Victims, And Last Tweets

james-arthur-ray-and-victimAt the James Arthur Ray Spritual Warrior Event in Arizona, two people are dead and 19 more are hospitalized. James Arthur Ray goes on with the show. And then he calls the survivors, privately. The transcript of that call is hereunder.

AT a James Athur Ray spiritual retreat in Sedona, Arizona, for “harmonic minded individuals” two guests are dead and 19 more are hospitalised. Kirby Brown, 38, and 40-year-old James Shore died at the five-day “Spiritual Warrior Event” that would “accelerate the releasing of your limitations and push yourself past your self-imposed and conditioned borders.”

More than 60 warriors enter a makeshift structure at Angel Valley Retreat Center where hot stones create an intense heat. It’s a sweat box that looks more like a circus tent.

Christine Whelan notes:

Participants should leave when the heat becomes too intense. However, after a week of brainwashing about pushing past “self-imposed” borders, human instinct was overridden by orders from a so-called great leader…

They trusted a well-known, well-loved inspirational leader who had been given the popular culture seal of approval…

James Arthur Ray has been endorsed by the cult of Oprah Winfrey,on Larry King Live and the Today show.

On his eponymous website. James Arthur Ray says he is…

“…transforming the way the world thinks. As an internationally-renowned Personal Success Strategist, Visionary and New York Times Best-Selling Author who has traveled the globe dedicating over two decades of his life to studying the thoughts, actions, and habits of those who create true wealth in every area of their life, James delivers his practical teachings to hundreds of thousands of individuals and business leaders every year.”

Let’s hear it for the true wealth, selflessly spread by Mr Ray:

James is President and CEO of his own multi-million dollar corporation, James Ray International (JRI), which was named to Inc. Magazine’s coveted Inc. 500 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies in the September 2009 issue, reaching a remarkable 547.4% growth over the previous three years.

While you exeperience true wealth, around $10,000 dollars gets you a stint in a sweat box in Arizona. Not lemmings, then. But Ray does seem to exert an influence over his disciples.

After the horror, James Arthur Ray is at a seminar at a hotel in Marina del Rey, near Los Angeles. He’s not in Arizona. He’s not under arrest. Before a crowd of around 200, he cries. He says he’s hired investigators to look into what went wrong:

“This is the most difficult time I’ve ever faced. I don’t know how to deal with it really.”

So should he go on to perform on stage so soon after a disaster?

“My advisers told me, ‘Don’t do that. You don’t know who’ll show up. They’re going to eat you alive… I’m grieving right now. I’m grieving for the families.”

We all grieve in our own ways. Ray does his grieving on a stage before an audience who give him a stranding ovation.

Two are dead, and Cassandra Yorgey brings news of a call from Ray to the injured – “a conference call that was only for the victims of his latest retreat-gone-wrong”.

Gather in lemmings. Come closer. Listen. Here’s what, reportedly, James Arthur Ray tells his congregation:

The Transcript

Greg calls. Greg is a James Ray staffer. He hands the phone to Katie Carlson as “an international follower of James Ray”. Now Mr Ray comes on line:

“I really wanted to be with you all on the final night and my thoughts were consistently with everyone who was having challenges…

“I just kept thinking ‘I have to take care of my people’.”

They are advised to “remember your teachings”; they “remind you of what you know… just be good to yourself. This is the most important time, it’s always important, to practice what you know, eat right… You gotta eat and you gotta eat healthy. You gotta get your workouts in, speaking from experience, sometimes you don’t feel like it but you gotta get rest and eat right.”

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Posted: 15th, October 2009 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (16)