Posted on 10/26/2009 1:05:38 AM PDT by chuck_the_tv_out
Authorities are now calling a spiritual sweat lodge ceremony that killed three people in Sedona, Ariz., a homicide.
Motivational speaker James Arthur Ray was at the center of the ceremony that promised spiritual rebirth but ended in tragedy.
“We had actually been under the leadership of James Ray for four to five days,” said participant Beverly Bunn. “We trusted him. We trusted what he was teaching us.”
Bunn was one of 50 participants who crowded into the dark sweat lodge for the the two-hour ceremony around burning rocks.
“When everybody was actually throwing up, that was considered your body purging its toxins and getting rid of what we don’t need or the bad things that were inside,” she recalled.
She says the self-help guru stood guard at the tent’s only entrance and did nothing to help those who became ill-- 21 people were hospitalized.
Three of them died, including 38-year-old Kirby Brown who was Bunn’s roommate.
“These were astronomical people I was with. There are a lot of over-achievers, highly successful people that pushed themselves,” she said. “Them, like myself, we just believed that we could go through this.”
Participants paid $9,000 to attend the retreat. Sidney is now suing Ray for millions.
“Mr. Ray created a death trap,” she said. “And created a heat environment in that sweat lodge that was intolerable for human beings.”
“After the incident and after everything happened, Rames Ray pretty much abandoned all of us,” Bunn added.
Ray isn’t talking, but tells followers on his Web site that he feels their pain, determined to continue with his self help work and investigating what went wrong.
Police say they are also investigating what could be multiple homicides
I’ve done many sweat lodges, no one ever got sick. If anyone felt like they needed to leave, they’d leave and go outside. It got very hot in there and sometimes you’d feel faint, you’d just put your head down or leave....we did rounds, usually three of four lasting 30 min or so at a time with breaks outside in between.
$9,000 to vomit and die???
What a great deal!
What a great deal!
Couldn't they just do meth like the rest of merica?
You would HAVE to be registered DEMOCRAT or GREEN PARTY to even consider that.
How about ruling the deaths “New Age Stupidity”?
I would have hoped my survival instincts kicked in before the point of throwing up and dying - one single man standing at the door would not have kept me from fresh air!
Still, I am sure some of these people may have become disoriented from dehydration - I read somewhere they had been fasting before being placed in this oven.
Hell, I don’t like a sauna. Heat and humidity makes me grumpy. I’ll get my spiritual renewal at church. Meanwhile, I’ll be down by the lake, connecting with nature via spinning reel...
fasting will cause disorientation. I’ve done fasting for up to 48 hrs and oh boy..delirium! you add that to the hot environment+dehydration and voila.. ticket out of this world.
Damn democrats, can't even get the recipe right. One must fatten the the animal prior to cooking.
Exactly. It will be interesting to find out what kind of disclaimers/waiver forms were signed - if not for that, the civil lawsuits would be a walk in the park.
And regarding lawsuits, even if the participants DID sign a waiver on the day of this “ceremony” rather than when they checked into the seminar earlier, the lawyers can argue they were not rational from fasting and dehydration. Methinks this hothouse guru is toast.
wrestled in college. fated longer than that and took plenty of steam. it takes alot out of you.
bookmark
IT’s a cookbook!!
I have to put this up there with white guys who like listening to rap music.
“These were astronomical people I was with.”
Yeah, out of this world.
Supposely, it was the plastic sheets used on the roof of the lodge instead of traditional blankets that caused the deaths through the release of toxic fumes.
I wonder how many of the sweat lodge attendees were 0bama voters?
Whatever mentality would move one to pay $9000 to be fasted, dehydrated and shoved into a sauna with dozens of other people with now way out, it seems to me would also move one to vote for Hope and Change.
And the results are really quite comparable.
When I was young I used to do the same thing but instead of a sweat lodge, I used beer.........
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.