Property of Angel Valley Ministries where three people
died during James Ray's "Spiritual Warrior" program. (AP
Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
The lawsuit filed by a survivor of James Ray's "Spiritual Warrior" program, Sidney Spencer, charges that Ray has an "evil mind".
It is believed that there may be many more lawsuits filed against Ray stemming from the deadly sweat lodge fiasco of October 8.
Spencer's lawsuit states, "Defendants acted outrageously with an evil mind by consciously pursuing a course of conduct knowing that it created a substantial risk of significant harm to others."
For more than 36 hours prior to going into the overheated and poorly ventilated sweat lodge, Ray's customers, who each paid him between $9,000 and $10,000 to take part in his Spiritual Warrior program, were deprived of food and water by James Ray and his employees and associates. The lawsuit reads, "Defendants made fraudulent misrepresentations and omissions constituting deceit to Plaintiff Sidney Spencer concerning their knowledge, expertise, purpose and intent with respect to “Spiritual Warrior” activities including the 36 plus hour deprivation of food and water and the sweat lodge ceremony."
Spencer also charges in her lawsuit that she paid Ray over $30,000, plus, at the sweat lodge incident, "Defendants took Sidney Spencer’s watch and bracelet being valued in excess of $10,000".
In order for the deaths of the three victims to have meaning, we need to learn something from this tragedy. We need to learn something that will prevent others from falling victim to con-artists like James Ray.
The only thing that protects us from deception is our God-given reason. If the victims had strongly embraced and constantly used their reason they would be alive today. Their reason would make them question claims made by one of the defendants in the lawsuit, Angel Valley Ministries. As just one example, on their site they make this statement while describing their real estate in an attempt to lure customers to their ranch: "It is about entering a place where powerful earth energies are present and active. It is about connecting with the invisible realms. It is about being at a place where the veil between the dimensions is thinner than in most other places." If the victims had not abandoned, or at least suppressed, their God-given reason they would have asked for and demanded answers for questions that would require evidence to prove the stated assertions.
James Ray's customers were told that Indian tribes used sweat lodges as a way of generating visions. They should listen to reason and they would have realized that visions, like dreams, are meaningless. As the thoughtful and altruistic Deist and one of America's founding fathers Thomas Paine made clear, dreams are what happens in our minds when we and our reason are asleep and imagination is allowed to run unchecked by our reason. They, and "visions", are nothing more than that. It is folly to give importance to something that doesn't deserve it.
One powerful example of visions not being worthy of our attention is the vision the Sioux Indian medicine men said they had just prior to the battle/massacre of Wounded Knee. They believed that by doing a Ghost Dance for four or five consecutive nights they would have a vision. The vision they had promised a resurrection of their dead ancestors and an Indian promised land here on earth minus white people. They also believed based on their visions that the Ghost Dance Shirts they wore while doing the Ghost Dance would protect them from being shot by the soldiers. A medicine man even told Sioux warriors that the bullets of the White American soldiers would not hurt them. Like James Ray, he was dead wrong.
It seems that the big three Abrahamic "revealed" religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam, all help to set people up to be victims of cults and of con-artists like James Ray. They do this by requiring their followers to give up or to suspend their God-given reason in order to believe what their "revealed" religion is teaching. For example, in order to believe that Joshua made the sun stand still to give the Hebrews more time to slaughter their neighbors, to believe that Jesus walked on water, or that Mohamed flew up to heaven on the back of a Buraq, we need to let go of our God-given reason. We can't believe these, and many other unreasonable claims made by "revealed" religions while still using the gift of reason which God gave us. This rejection of our reason sets a precedence which allows us to repeat this harmful and unnatural act. The only way to prevent it is to never give up our God-given reason, not for religions, not for governments and not for celebrities.
Comments
Obviously Thomas Paine had no experience or practice in conscious dreaming, (i.e. OOBE states, astral projection, meditation) in which your "reason" and consciousness stay with you while you sleep and allow you to use your dreaming as method of learning about yourself.
"The only way to prevent it is to never give up our God-given reason, not for religions, not for governments and not for celebrities."
The scary thing is another secret person says on youtube that he wants to start a flock. These people are deluded with an appetite for control but they will never affect you if you question and ask for proof for claims they make (never give up our god given reason) despite the fact that they may despise you and persecute you because you dared question, they hate accountability. Thats the first alarm. I questioned and was abused for being "so negative" but I chose to respond with the contempt it deserved because my gut ended up so correct and now I know I will never be affected by these types of people again. They will say anything to feed their addiction even to the detriment of their credibility, relationships, finances and health. They are on a cycle of destruction, you aren't so question and prove EVERYTHING they claim BEFORE you pay anything.
It seems the only person LESS informed about the realities of Native American spiritual practices than James Ray and the idiots who looked to him to be their guru is Bob Johnson. The term "Sioux" is an offensive term to the Lakota/Nakota/Dakota people. Only a person who is completely ignorant of the culture would use such a term. Bob Johnson's understanding of Lakota spiritual practices is laughable. He makes the same mistake that the hapless followers of the slimy James Arthur Ray made, he trusts white books written by white men to teach him about Non-white cultures. Too bad he couldn't find any of his god given reason before he wrote this offesive article. The take home message should be that WHITES need to leave NATIVE AMERICAN SPIRITUALITY ALONE. Real Lakota spiritual leaders have closed the sweat lodge to non-NDNS. White peopel have no business being in a sweat lodge in the first place. Whites are fools to look to other whites for NDN things.
Who are you, Mr. Johnson, to make proclamations about Lakota spiritual beliefs? All your 'knowledge' comes from books written by white men indoctrinated by racist ideas of manifest destiny. The evil that whiteman like James Ray do has nothing to do with the search for spiritual enlightenment, these people were seeking wealth! This is an abomination to the spirits. You can't even begin to understand Lakota spiritual beliefs. Your use of the term "Sioux" is both extremely ignorant and offensive. Your arrogance if offensive. You are just as bad as James Ray, talking about things you know absolutely nothing about.
Brilliantly stated.
you wrote: "They also believed based on their visions that the Ghost Dance Shirts they wore while doing the Ghost Dance would protect them from being shot by the soldiers."
Reminds me of the Mormon magic undergarments. Similar promises were made to those who wear them.
Remember to question authority. Don't hand over your reasoning power to another human being pretending to be God. Meantime, let's not indulge in blaming the victims. James Ray is a criminal and we all know it.
I learned the one hypnotic command that always works from hypnotists. A good hypnotist will never give a subject a choice or offer a list of "reasons why you should fall asleep right now."
Instead, a good hypnotist will simply issue a command, "when I count to three, you will close your eyes," or, "When I snap my fingers, you will bark like a dog." The subject responds because they want to please the hypnotist and because they don’t have much of a choice.
Your prospects are nearly the same. Give them one hypnotic command and they will do your bidding.
Know the exact one thing your prospect want and tie everything you say to it. You use every trick you’ve learned to grab and hold attention, build desire, and lead to a strong close, because you know that’s how you create truly hypnotic writing.
Because this is a way for you to plant hypnotic commands right into the skulls of people. This is a staggering power. You are in their command centre.
Agree with them. Merge with them. Accept that trance as your door. Then lead into what you want to sell by tying it back to their trance.
Let’s break down this process into steps:
1. What do your prospect’s believe right now (current trance)?
2. Agree with their beliefs (rapport).
3. Lead their beliefs into your offer (new trance).
That’s the real secret to "Hypnotic Selling."
Let’s look at possible existing trances your prospects may be in when you call, or send them a sales piece.
They include:
"I’m worried about money" trance; "I’m lonely trance"; "I’m afraid of people" trance; "I’m sick and tired of my job" trance; …
And so it goes. You’ll notice that each of these trances are self-serving. That’s the nature of people. They are interested in their well-being first. They are preoccupied with their own needs, desires, pains and more. Any inward state is a trance…
Let me share with you what Joe Vitale, the second most quoted person in The Secret, has to say about the people he cons. This is from Energy Marketing, and I’m sure it’s the same techniques JAR - a former telesalesman - uses to sell his bogus products:
Here’s a million-dollar secret I’ve never shared with anyone before. When you use it, you will get inside your prospects’ heads and manipulate their thinking to get them to do what you want—including sending you money right now for your product or service. Sound hard to believe? Keep reading and I’ll prove my point to you…
To put a spell on people, that turns them on to your product or service, guides them directly to your order page and like a robot, programs them to send you money 24-hours a day, 7-days a week!
Your prospects are all in trances. If you merge with their trance, you can then lead them out of it into the "buying trance" you want them to be in.
This tragic event should never have happened. James Ray should have stuck to his fine mentoring lectures like fellow teachers Randy Gage and Dov Baron.
Sadly, the tragic unstudied version of the fine Native American traditions is what was wrong, not the law of attraction.
The media has now caused a pig pile of people upon the entire self-development arena by people, many of whom couldn't tell you one sentence about the law of attraction.
Joel Osteen delivers the same message every Sunday to a totally filled compaq center, is this all a giant fraud?
Charles Haanel taught it as a course called the master key system in the early 1900's to businessmen. They liked it so much they tried to buy it and keep it a secret. Were these already successful businessmen fraud victims?
Check any list of the traits/habits/beliefs of very successful people and they will boil down to what is being taught by mentors about the law of attraction.
Are all these successful people like Donald Trump and/or
Check any list of the traits/habits/beliefs of very successful people and they will boil down to what is being taught by mentors about the law of attraction.
Are all these successful people like Donald Trump and/or Mother Theresa victims of fraud?
If so, this is the best and most beneficial fraud in the history of man.
Sadly, critical thinking is becoming more and more of a lost art in our world as people get dumbed down to 15 second sound bites and tweets.
The media inspired pigpile has totally blurred the tragic sweat lodge event with the very worthwhile self-development teachings about the law of attraction (being used by tons of very, very successful people)
Steve my understanding is that Haanel spoke about a law of concentration, attraction, and harmonious thinking and action. If you're saying that practicing these laws are a guarantee for success and good health you are mistaken. Perhaps its a mental attitude that may be of some benefit.
But to be deluded that the universe will do all the hard work for you is where the wheels completely fall off on in my opinion. Fostering such a belief though is a very useful que for snake oil salesman such Ray to sell their wares.
And that mother Theresa used LoA? Please, I thought it was her devotion to the dear lord Jesus Christ that made her decide to rather live as a pauper all her life.
I do not believe that James Ray has or had an evil mind. His only problem was believing that his spiritual identity as Guru would sustain the masses, and that good would come from sweat lodges. He was inexperienced and failed to follow through on learning the real meaning before taking people (with mind and logic of their own!) to a place he was unfamiliar with. All and all, James Ray is a good man, but not "aware" to think of himself as "guru" of any kind. He does know better--or will.
Oprah has brought a number of frauds, the one who has caused the most damage is Suze Orman. James Arthur Ray is obviously another.
James Ray is a con artist, yes. To blame the Abrahamic religions or anything else for setting people up, is a ridiculous piece of bad thinking and aberrant logic. You are right, this is bad. You are very wrong, as to where you point fingers. Each person was a grown up with free will — which they handed over like members of a cult. This is the behavior of cult members. We see it over and over and over. James had procure for himself, a very lucrative cult.
The members were agreeably brainwashed. Don't blame anyone else.
It is obscene for James Ray to claim this was a Native American sweat lodge.
The Lakota should sue for defamation. This is a horrendous theft of little knowledge, and the marketing of Native American spirituality for exploitation by a white man — for profit. While the Lakota suffer abject poverty, perversions like this create money, and the inevitable tragedies. He trifled with what he did not know. He deserves life in prison.
Your statement about Christianity calling us to give up our "God-given reason" is a false statement and shows poor research on your part. While I can't speak for Judaism and Islam, I can speak as a Christian. In the Holy Bible we are taught to test all things against scripture. If you're not familiar with Holy Scripture, you may be surprised to know that spiritism is forbidden by God. He is the only spirit we seek. These people indulged in spritism. In what way does this qualify Christianity as a contributing factor?
Christianity is both spiritual and practical. Don't blame God for people who disobey him. And pick up the Bible, it will change your life.
Bob Johnson - You said, "The only thing that protects us from deception is our God-given reason." Then you say, "they would have asked for and demanded answers for questions that would require evidence to prove the stated assertions."
Okay, fair enough, you use the phase "god-given reason" over and over. Can you give us any evidence for the existence of god (I'm assuming you are referring to the christian version), or that he gave us the ability to reason? - No you can't! So - - you are warning US not to be deceived, while you yourself are laboring under these unprovable deceptions? Pot calling kettle black?
Bob - By the way, I agree with almost everything else you say in this article. What puzzles me is - if you don't believe in christianity or the miracles in the Bible, why do you believe in god? There's no evidence for the miracles just like there's no evidence for god. How are you deciding which unproven assertions are real and which are not?
If you deprive people of sleep, food and water for days, then put in a sweat lodge where they sweat and there is nothing to sweat they loose reason, there is no moisture in their organs and brain!!! Also, they trusted and idolized this spiritual narcissist. Narcissists are tricksters. Don't blame the sweat lodge participants and the lack of reason. James Ray sucked them dry and when they were dying and crying out he told them to keep going. Going where? To death. Apparently, he had talked to someone on the phone who was a channeler and was told they left their bodies because they were having too much fun out of them. F..... Bull Sh...!! This guy is deluded and messed up in the head. And hey, Narcissists are our leaders today, people who display narcissistic behaviours are rewarded, looked up to and cool today!!! Narcissism = evil, the devil, satan or whatever you want to call it. Society has got to speak up against this now. We are this much = away from another Holocaust!
if you think james ray is a good man, you are a fool. or maybe he was the fool, for believing he was who he said he was, and a guru, he was not.... the one who spoke of visions being meaningless, is not aware of the truth at all. i am pikuni indian, and visions have led my people through life. and on occasions were wrong, but in most cases, saved lifes and our culture, and led our people through many triamps. people who have not lived the indian ways should never speak of our ways. i do not believe in your christian ways, but i do not belittle them either. they are your ways, and i respect that. Have respect for my ways, and the ways of all my indian people. do not belittle our ways, like taking the sweatlodge, and trying to use it while having very little understanding of it, or its power. WHEN USED CORRECTLY it saves lives, when taken and ran by an idiot, it can kill. now tell me, it is not powerfull... since i was 2 months old i have sweat. ive only seen good in a TRADITIONAL lodge.
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