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Reporting from Los Angeles and Denver - Self-help guru James Arthur Ray was arrested Wednesday and charged with three counts of manslaughter in connection with an Arizona sweat lodge ceremony that left three people dead in October. ... The charges are linked to the last day of Ray's five-day $9,695-a-person "Spiritual Warrior" retreat near Sedona, where he assembled about 50 people in a makeshift, sauna-like sweat lodge for about two hours. When it was over, three people were dying. Eighteen others suffered burns, dehydration, respiratory arrest or kidney failure. ... Ray said he used the sweat lodge to show people...

James Arthur Ray, the motivational speaker who hosted a New Age retreat that ended when three people died in a Sedona, Ariz., sweat lodge, was arrested Wednesday and charged with three counts of manslaughter, authorities said.

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...

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (Oct. 18) – The family of a Minnesota woman who died more than a week after being overcome in an Arizona sweat lodge ceremony said Sunday that she prided herself on leading a healthy and active life.

DEVELOPING: Two people are dead and several others remain hospitalized Friday at a new-age sauna in Arizona. Three people had heart attacks and 20 in all were treated for injuries after being sickened Thursday night at the Angel Valley Sweat Lodge in Sedona, according to MyFOXPhoenix. Two died Thursday night, the station said. The resort is next to GOP Sen. John McCain's ranch.

Appeals court reinstates inmate's suit for sweat lodge By Jim Suhr ~ The Associated Press ST. LOUIS -- A federal appeals panel has restored a Missouri inmate's lawsuit demanding religious use of an American Indian sweat lodge, suggesting that the imprisoned killer perhaps deserved more time to make his case. A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that a federal district judge erred in dismissing the lawsuit by Lance Pounders, who is serving a life sentence for murder at the Northeast Correctional Center in Bowling Green. Sweat lodges are used in some American Indian...