Guru Found Guilty

They came in search of spiritual enlightenment, using the
sweat lodge as a way to break through whatever was holding them back in life.
James Arthur Ray told his seminar participants that it would be “hellacious” and
that they would feel like they were dying, but would do so only metaphorically.

But three people, including a State University College at Geneseo graduate, did
die following the October 2009 ceremony, and on Wednesday, Ray was found guilty
of three counts of negligent homicide. He could have been convicted on an option
of manslaughter, but the jury of eight men and four women decided on the lesser
charge instead.

The self-help guru faces a sentence ranging from probation to nearly 12 years in
prison. But wherever he is headed, it will be a marked change for a man whose
multimillion-dollar self-help empire landed him in the 2006 Rhonda Byrne
documentary The Secret, on The Oprah Winfrey Show and on Larry King Live.”

Ray used free talks to recruit people to expensive seminars like the Sedona
retreat that led to the sweat lodge tragedy. Participants paid up to $10,000 for
the five-day program intended to push their physical and emotional limits.

More than 50 people participated in the two-hour sweat lodge, a sauna-like
ceremony typically used by American Indians to rid the body of toxins. It was
meant to be the highlight of Ray’s “Spiritual Warrior” seminar near Sedona. Two
people were pronounced dead at the scene; a third died after spending more than
a week in a coma; 18 others were hospitalized.

Witnesses described the scene after the ceremony as alarming and chaotic — like
a “battlefield” — with people vomiting and shaking violently, while others
dragged “lifeless” and “barely breathing” participants outside. Volunteers
performed CPR.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys disagreed over whether the deaths and
illnesses were caused by heat or unknown toxins. Ray’s attorneys maintained they
were a tragic accident. Prosecutors argued Ray recklessly caused the fatalities.

They relied heavily on Ray’s own words to try to convince the jury that he was
responsible for the deaths.

“The true spiritual warrior has conquered death and therefore has no fear or
enemies in this lifetime or the next, because the greatest fear you’ll ever
experience is the fear of what? Death,” Ray said in a recording played during
the trial. “You will have to get a point to where you surrender and it’s OK to
die.”

Prosecutors said a reasonable person would have stopped the “abomination of a
sweat lodge” when participants began exhibiting signs of distress about halfway
through the ceremony.

Ray quickly left the courtroom with his family after the hearing, and did not
offer a comment. See Chick's HI THERE.