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2+1 Die, 19-1 hospitalized in Sweat Lodge at "The Secret" Shill's New Age Retreat
Credit where it's due, I first saw this story yesterday on Drudge, and it appears Breitbart broke it.
From AP
Spread the word about The Secret. Don't buy it; borrow it from the library if you absolutely have to watch it. Same goes for the book (author Rhonda Byrne).
Coincidentally, The Simpson's parodied The Secret in their most recent episode, on Oct. 4th, which was one day after the "Spiritual Warrior" retreat began. OR...maybe, the show's producers were aware of the concurrence, and were making a pointed joke to the New Age community...?
If so, then they would've had no idea that, very shortly, there would be a national spotlight shining on the subject.
From AP
PHOENIX -- A sauna-like sweat lodge at an Arizona resort meant to provide spiritual cleansing became a crime scene Friday after two people died and others became ill during a two-hour session inside the crude structure.
James Arthur Ray is one of the main "experts" featured in the film, The Secret. The movie happens to be one of Oprah's favorites, and she has featured its promoters and defenders, including JAR, on her programming.In all, 21 of the 64 people crowded inside the sweat lodge Thursday evening were transported to hospitals. Four remained hospitalized Friday evening -- one in critical condition and the others in fair condition...Self-help expert and author James Arthur Ray rented the facility as part of his "Spiritual Warrior" retreat that began Oct. 3
The Secret, described as a self-help film, uses a documentary format to present the Law of Attraction. As described in the film, the "Law of Attraction" principle posits that feelings and thoughts can attract events, from the workings of the cosmos to interactions among individuals in their physical, emotional, and professional affairs. The film also suggests that there has been a strong tendency by those in positions of power to keep this central principle hidden from the public.It's just tragic that these people were taken in by the pseudoscience of James Arthur Ray. There must be little comfort for them -- they paid thousands of dollars for a healing, spiritual experience. However he convinced himself that it was safe to squeeze more than 5 dozen people into a sweat lodge is beyond all logic. I think of it as a PSA to warn people not to spend money on anything associated with this negligent fraudster Twithead.
Spread the word about The Secret. Don't buy it; borrow it from the library if you absolutely have to watch it. Same goes for the book (author Rhonda Byrne).
Coincidentally, The Simpson's parodied The Secret in their most recent episode, on Oct. 4th, which was one day after the "Spiritual Warrior" retreat began. OR...maybe, the show's producers were aware of the concurrence, and were making a pointed joke to the New Age community...?
If so, then they would've had no idea that, very shortly, there would be a national spotlight shining on the subject.
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Oh god! I didn't realize Ryan was The Secret author! I am so curious to hear the results of the autopsies; people are speculating in comments on sites with absolutely zero info, except the number in the lodge, and carbon monoxide poisoning wasn't the cause.
October 10, 2009 12:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
he's not the author. he's an expert featured in the movie. he's promoted the book.
October 10, 2009 12:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
(obviously, he's promoted the movie, too, since he's in it. the point is, he probably makes money when the movie and book are sold.)
October 10, 2009 12:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well I guess you'd think I could read better than that, but no...
I'll still try to resist judgement when more is known. New Age shysters make so much $$$. Like Deep-pockets Chopra, et.al. Oh, and Dr. Dwayne Dyer is now a new-ager (the Chameleon). I liked the New Agers when they asked questions; now that they have answers, look out!
I've done lots of sweats, and they are nothing to fiddle around with. Everyone, at the very least, needs to know that they can call "Door!" or some equivalent when they need OUT. There was one held every Sunday at a nearby reservation and if someone needed out, they were not to come back. I said screw that sweat leader, and never went to one of his.
October 10, 2009 1:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
lol. I screwed up too, I accidentally wrote James "Ryan" instead of "Ray" like twice when I originally posted.
and I edited OP to include the actual author of The Secret, after you misread. I agree that I wasn't clear enough at first.
October 10, 2009 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
You made a good decision, Wendy. I always hated that authoritarian bs around the sweat lodge. The AIMster gangsters were always making claims about "proving" something - being a he-man, tough Indian or whatever. I knew one guy they called "Two Buckets" because he was supposed to have been able to take a lot of steam. What non-sense.
The best sweat I ever had was run by this guy:
http://www.shundahai.org/Corbin_Harney.htm
Corbin was a real traditional man. There was a young boy who was going to come in with us who was really frightened about the sweat lodge, and Corbin picked up on this right away. So when we got started, Corbin made a talk about the meaning of the sweat ceremony. "This place is not to hurt anyone, it's not to prove anything, it's not a trial of anything" and so on. It was a very beautiful experience.
October 10, 2009 11:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well, its not that simple. There are different sweats for different purposes at different times. Sometimes there are reasons to ask people to make a commitment to stay in all 4 rounds and sometimes its just macho bs.
If there's a reason to stay in all 4 rounds the water pourer will be experienced and capable of taking care of everyone. He'll have enough experienced helpers. Those who make the commitment will have done many sweats and those without experience will be asked to sit out this sweat.
October 11, 2009 1:22 AM | Reply | Permalink
Well, that's very interesting. I didn't know that. I'm curious to know more about what you are saying, especially what traditions your are referring to. The only sweats that I've been to that I would call "traditional", i.e. the time-honored practice of a specific group, was the ones I've mentioned in Nevada, with Western Shoshones. But I've been to many others, but they were the product of Pan-lndianism, and really had no grounding with a specific group of Indians. In these I've seen a lot of really dumb shit go down, but not always. Most of the tribes I've been around have completely different approaches to sweating. Yuroks, for example, build little houses or rock and wood. The Pit River people always sweated alone. Anyway, I'm curious to know what you are saying.
October 11, 2009 5:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm pretty much a sweat hog and have sweated with over 30 different leaders mostly traditional lokota elders but also some new age leaders and even an occasional silly kid. I've seen some stupid stuff go down in some lodges. I've done some healing sweats for a person that may or may not be in the lodge where we were asked to not leave and not pray for ourselves. Just to pray for the person asking for healing.
But one thing I've learned is there are no absolutes, except 64 people in a lodge is just crazy. Good water pourers adjust how they lead the lodge based on who they're pouring for. If a leader finds a group that tends to not take the lodge seriously and calls for the door at the first sign of even a little heat he might say if you leave you can't come back in. In a situation like that though it would be a mild lodge.
A two hour lodge isn't that uncommon. If you have 4 20 minute rounds with 10 minute "breaks" between rounds that's 2 hours.
A lodge is a ceremony all by itself but its also part of most other ceremonies. I've been with elders who poured some of the hottest lodges imaginable. Then sat with them in a lodge before and after a vision quest or sundance and they were so mild we barely sweat. Generally a vision quest or a sundance is between a 2 round sweat before and a 2 round sweat after. You don't cook a person after they've been dancing all day or after spend a few days fasting on a hill.
Sometimes a lodge is "just" for purification for another ceremony or "just" for prayer, like a weekly church service. Other times the purpose is to break through some blocks and do some major healing or cleansing. The length of the sweat, how hot it is, and the level of commitment would be different. But a water pourer that was doing major healing work wouldn't take a group of strangers who had never or rarely sweated before and put them through a hard core sweat.
Water pourers come with all levels of knowledge, experience, and expertise. One would hope that those just starting out on the path would have some sense of their limitations as well as the limitations of the group. But that's not always the case. If you're just starting out or don't know the leader its wise to arrive before the stones are placed in the fire pit. Not only should that be part of the ceremony but by arriving that early there's time to get to know a bit about the leader. If he doesn't notice that you've never been here before and doesn't take a few minutes to chat with you its unlikely he will be aware enough to take care of you or anyone else in the lodge if there's some difficulty.
October 11, 2009 3:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you for sharing your considerable experience. i appreciate having your account.
Thanks especially for this:
October 11, 2009 5:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
This happens periodically. Its cause is both the hubris of the outsider and the trivialization of others spiritual traditions.
No one would have a profound spiritual experience at a Catholic ceremony and decide to play at being a Catholic priest without the least study or training. No one would have a profound experience at a yoga class and decide to run their own yoga classes after that one experience without any study or training.
Yet this is what so often happens with Sweat Lodge ceremonies. Someone will go to one or two sweat lodge ceremonies and decide they are going to build a lodge and lead sweats.
Beyond offending those who respect these spiritual ceremonies usually no harm comes from it. But just as an untrained yoga teacher can push people beyond their limits or not be aware enough to protect them when they push themselves too far sometimes people can get hurt. Its rare but sometimes people even die in lodges with untrained leaders.
October 10, 2009 3:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
hmmm...
October 10, 2009 7:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
cracking up,,,big time. ha ha ha
October 10, 2009 10:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
cracking up
After close inspection of the placement of the "teacher"'s middle finger, I believe that Neo's choice of words to describe his response is tyographically impaired.
The correct formulation (if we are to describe the teacher's behavior...)appears to be "up cracking."
October 11, 2009 2:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
You know, I didn't notice that (consciously). Good point.
October 11, 2009 4:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
I am probably being naive here but as a Ronan Catholic lost in reality, I would bet the 'hosts' have been corrupted from time to time with some bacteria. People probably got sick.
Germs from the priests hands or corruption of the wheat or whatever ridiculous substance is used to pretend that the congregation is supping on bread and wine.
Maybe someone was taking advantage of a situation and just wanted to make more money.
We have some good people here with Native American roots. I doubt they would get 'suckered' into some new fad attempting to take advantage of a commercial enterprize mocking some ancient tribal ritual.
Interesting post SPQR. Like most of your posts.
October 10, 2009 3:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
thanks dd.
i try not to post unless i have something good. in this case, i had to do some digging to put things together to tell a decent story. stuff is breaking every few hours, but i unfortunately had to orphan this project for most of its time, because it was a big day in football...
the other reason for this post was to create some space away from all the peace prize/satirize the peace prize blogs. i've never seen the reclist so monochromatic before.
October 11, 2009 2:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
This is what happens when people think they can buy an inner warrior or inner peace or inner whatever.
An excess of money has not brought them what they had hoped it would, so they try to find something that will. They don't even know what it is they're looking for, but they're willing to pay someone to be their shaman or spirit guide or whatever phoo-phoo name that can be conjured to lead them to the spiritual.
But, it doesn't work that way.
The Elders I know that lead a sweat lodge turn these kind of seekers away because they are looking for magic, not spirituality.
It's unfortunate that lives were lost in the sweat lodge in Arizona. It will happen again because people with too much money are willing to show up for a weekend retreat so they can buy a fake spiritual experience from some guy that is more than happy to sell 'em one.
It just...doesn't....work that way.
And now, once again, Native Americans are going to get the back splat from this fraudulent NeoAger bullshit.
October 10, 2009 7:40 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, but there are quite a few NDNs out there selling sweat lodge that should get the back splat, IMO.
The biggest sweat lodges I've ever seen, plains style, that is, were at Owayhee, Nevada. The Western Shoshone build them pretty big, and you can get two circles of people in them. Maybe 20 souls, at most. That one in the news is unbelievable - it looks like the mother ship of the Spiritulan aliens from the planet Twinkie. 60 people!!! Two hours!!! My guess is oxygen deprivation over hyperthermia. Considering you are sweating, dessication/ organ failure plays in there too. I saw a local Diné woman being interviewed who said her people stay in about 10 minutes - my experience is a bit longer, maybe 40 minutes per session. But two hours. The guy must have confused it with sauna, but in sauna you can get off the high bench and cool off, or pour water over yourself. Even so, 2 hours in a Sauna would be a bit of a stretch.
The man needs to be arrested and tried.
October 10, 2009 10:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree with your opinion about there being a good number of NDNs selling tradition, artifacts, and false spirituality. It is offensive to me, yet there it is, all over the place. I have no illusions about these matters.
I'm glad there is an investigation of this matter. And I really hope whoever is behind this misuse that caused the fatalities is held accountable.
Your assessment of H2o deprivation and high temps sounds reasonable and if those that died had failing organs to begin with, kidney or heart failure, they were doomed. Two hours was ridiculous. 60 people in one lodge is nuts. I could go on for a yard and a half of comment space, but I will spare everyone.
This event was senseless and their 'spiritual warriors' are honorless, whether they were brought forth or not.
October 10, 2009 11:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
thanks guys, for the enlightened discussion. i must confess a lack of knowledge on the subject, so i really appreciate that you have shared your experiences.
i find these comments worth repeating:
October 11, 2009 1:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
You were the one I was thinking about as I read this. Good. I wanted to hear your reaction.
October 11, 2009 2:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
buy an inner warrior or inner peace or inner whatever.
You usta be able to buy acid for 50 cents a ride(cheaper than the subway!)...before they intimidated all the chemists.
October 11, 2009 2:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
back then 50 cents was worth like 3 dollars, though...
but also, the doses were a few times stronger back then, or so i'm told..
October 11, 2009 2:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
few times stronger
The orange pills used to come scored for easy sharing, on account of two people could ride one pill for 50 cents further than the same amount spent on the subway.
Oddly enough, there were 600 hits of acid confiscated in some sort of Gestapo sweep attendant upon a Disco Biskitz gig in Northampton Mass. I have people on the scene, and will attempt to bring more details, but per the local NPR there were 24 arrests Sat. 25 Sun in what the called "sweeps", of streets, alleys, etc.
Prohibition is such a useful sink for all of society's excess law enforcement dollars.
October 14, 2009 11:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
lol, thanks for the late response.
i checked back with this post b/c i just heard that the authorities are now pursuing a homicide investigation in arizona.
thanks for bringing the drug bust story to tpm, btw. i probably wouldn't have heard about it if not for you.
October 16, 2009 12:44 AM | Reply | Permalink
A white man owns a company called Spiritual Worriers and charges 60 people $9650 each, that’s $579,000.00, to not eat or drink for three days and than cook in a lodge that allows them a two foot by 3 foot space to sit until they “see the light” or die!
How many things are wrong here? Well first this traditional Native American event is a truly spiritual event held by a person from their tribe who knows and understands the nature of the spiritual journey. Next its appears that once again Greed interfered with common sense, who would allow themselves to be piled into a make shift oven with 60 other people, and pay an out outrages fee for it?
October 11, 2009 1:50 PM | Reply | Permalink