New Age guru and erstwhile sweat lodge expert James Arthur Ray was arrested and booked on three charges of manslaughter on February 3, 2010 in Prescott, Arizona. Bail was set at five million dollars, and as of Monday morning February 8, Ray was still in the Yavapai County jail.
Since the October 8 incident that resulted in the deaths of three people in a Ray-led “Warrior Sweat,” Sheriff’s deputies have interviewed hundreds of witnesses in the investigation leading to the indictments. Dozens of participants were treated at area hospitals after the sweat lodge, and by the end of that fatal day Kirby Brown and James Shore were dead. A third participant, Elizabeth Newman, died a week later at a hospital in Flagstaff, Arizona.
I am not a psychic or an attorney, but my experiences through the years with American Indian religious issues tell me this: even though James Ray will be sitting at the defense table, it will be our religious practices on trial in that courtroom. And it will be experts who will argue both sides of the case.
Experts.
Experts on terrorism have led the United States into two wars since 9/11 and this past week on Fox News, political “expert” and former governor Sarah Palin shared her view that the Obama presidency could shore up sagging poll numbers by invading Iran.
Fertility experts have brought us the “Octomom,” and experts on the meaning of the biblical decree to “go forth and multiply” have TV viewers goggle-eyed over the nearly score of Duggar children in Arkansas.
In following the Ray story over the past few months, I am amazed at the number of non-Indian sweat lodge experts the media has been able to locate. Few Indians if any have been interviewed; and even decidedly liberal MSNBC featured Court TV anchor Ashleigh Banfield as their expert on the sweat lodge.
Banfield’s expertise, admitted on air, was one sweat experience with her stepbrother or brother-in-law (she wasn’t sure how he was related), “step-brother” she added, “that’s it.” And the supposed kin by marriage was, “uhm” not an Indian.
Got it. Indians can’t be experts.
But one white lady in one sweat with someone who is somehow related to her is qualified to tell the world really how it is with Indian traditions.
That is kinda, sorta how James Ray set up his spiritual Ponzi scheme, right? He knew someone who knew someone who did “Indian sweats” and presto and voilà, Ray is taking people on spiritual retreats at 10K a head and then people start dying. So, experts have to be brought in to figure out what happened.
No Indians mind you, just experts.
And the truth is, we don’t want to be experts. Why? Because we know there is no such thing as Indians, redskins, warriors, braves, chiefs, or savages. Those are sports teams and ah, therein lies the rub.
Ray sold this scheme to the unwary because the real experts on Indian cultures have never been Indians. Only non-Indians can be the experts. And experts have repeatedly dubbed what we do as marginal at best—unadulterated savagery at its worst.
In the same way sports teams seek to own the balls-out brutality of the Indian warrior, James Arthur Ray brutalized sixty people in a plastic-covered hut less than the size of the average American living room. Because, that is how Indians become warriors.
Right now Indians who do practice their tribal ceremonies are walking on edge. Already in Arizona, state legislator Senator Albert Hale, who happens to be Navajo, has introduced a bill to regulate native-style religious practices on non-Indian lands. The bill would require the State Department of Health to draft regulations in consultation with American Indian spiritual leaders.
The state legislature of Arizona might be surprised to learn that they already regulate sweat lodges—in the Department of Corrections. American Indian inmates are required to follow rules which include pictures of sweat lodges built in the Lakota style, not Navajo, which is the tribal affiliation of a good number of inmates in the Arizona prison system (an amazing fact that is a story for another time).
So, even though a non-Indian might be compelled to be put on trial for killing people with his “ceremony,” it is Native American religion which will be the defendant in this case.
Consider.
James Ray’s defense might be compelled to bring in experts to argue that he did the ceremony the right way—and to insist that occasional and “unforeseen” death is one of the by-products of American Indian religious practices. After all, those folks paid ten thousand dollars for a “Warrior Retreat,” didn’t they?
And native religions are, well, barbaric and cruel.
The prosecution would then be compelled to bring in their “experts” to argue that a non-Indian, who allegedly learned to do this ceremony from “shamans” all over the world, did the sweat lodge the wrong way. Ray would be guilty of manslaughter by way of “malpractice” even if he is an “expert” on the sweat lodge.
We’ve been there before.
Experts had to be brought in during the legal debates over the use of peyote in the Native American church; anthropologists, who had spent a few days in the church, were deemed more qualified to judge the ceremony than Indians who grew up in the church.
In this case, we will be asked once again to kneel before experts to ensure that non-Indians who do hybridized and abbreviated versions of our tribal ceremonies don’t kill anyone. It is not enough to ask us. And if MSNBC can’t find one single Indian to say this is wrong, we are in trouble.
Tags: arizona, james arthur ray, native american church, new age, peyote, ritual, sacred, sedona, sweat lodge
Charging James Arthur Ray for criminal conduct ought not to be an excuse to attack Native American religious practice. Clearly calling native practitioners as “expert” witness would merely allow an unconscionable attack on the free expression of religion.
Truth is, the man is a parasite. He is not a Native Person, yet claimed to know the ways to enlightenment. Warrior retreat, indeed.
Non indigenous people do seek to be closer to some sort of earth spirituality, but paying somebody an obscene amount of money to take you there is beyond gullible. I am sorry for those who's lives were lost, and I hope it will be a lesson for others.
Truth is, I don't think it will.
Imagine if all that money spent on Ray's "retreats" would have gone to Native Tribes. Not THAT would be a beginning to enlightenment.
White colonials and charlatans continue to colonize Native Americans and to exploit imperialist nostalgia for a quick buck. This is no surprise, but the spiritually empty and gullible who seek out such charlatans are a narcissistic and sad lot, believing in their own make-believe. The Beverly HIlls antique dealer Lynn Andrews made a lot of money with her bogus "shaman journey" books, more then than all Native American women writers combined. Now, they want to use their Euro-American state and its so-called "experts" to regulate Indian religious practices--a new version of colonial paternalism, perhaps?
I'm NOT an expert, but I have experienced the patience and generosity of many Native Americans who are as hospitable to those who respect them and are willing to learn from them as most folks are. I was invited once to spend a little time in a Lakota community where I learned about the economics, social and linguistic system, and politics of reservation life in Mission, SD. We did several sweats, which were surprisingly restorative, but they didn't turn me into a warrior. I think without the context, community, and prayers to call the right spirits, Ray's events and others like it are just very, very expensive steam baths.
I don't understand articles of this sort. The author argues that to be an "expert" on Native ritual, one must be a Native; this is a specious argument at best.
Does an expert on the Catholic church need to be a Catholic? And what type of Catholic do they need to be? Will a layman work, or do they need to be a member of the clergy? What about experts on ancient Rome? I'm hard pressed to find a centurion, but I'm sure that we can all agree that there are experts on the legion.
Does being born a Native grant a special, supernatural understanding of Native ritual? Does a 3rd generation Mormon Navaho have a genetic understanding of his ancestor's religious practices?
The fact that Ray usurped Indian rituals to enrich himself should be no surprise - people have robbed gnostics of their ritual for profit since the birth of religion. What he did was wrong. The fact that lawmakers may very well use this to rob a culture of its rituals is wrong. But there are better arguments against this than a plea of special knowledge endowed by race.
Boy did you miss the point. There are no experts on Native religions (note the plural). There are 565 federally recognized tribes and potentially that many religions. The idea of expertise is a western notion, not Indian, not even Eastern. There are only students. I am not an expert on anything not even my own life. At best I am a student of life. People believe that because I am native grants me a lifetime of free money and a paid for education. Not true. I was attacking the notion of stereotypes. Ray was practicing native religions and there is no such thing, only tribal religions. But thanks for the comment.
Well said, thank you. WE cannot have the courts suddenly creating a category of “experts” on Native American religions.
Arvol Lookinghorse, principal Pipecarrier of the Lakota nation, has spoken out clearly on this issue, as have other noted Native elders. Also, many Native water pourers have spoken on this. The consensus: Ray was wrong. He abused and misused the traditions and the trust his followers placed in him. He ignored nearly all of the traditional practices whose purpose is to insure the safety and integrity of the ceremony.
By reading through the many online discussions of this event, one can readily see that many people (Native as well as non-Native) who have had experience with a valid Native sweat have also attested that Ray's practices have many divergences from accepted Native practices, so much so that many have called Ray's practices sacriledge.
Ray impersonated a clergyman, practiced medicine without a liscense, and people died. It wasn't an accident as he claims. It was fraud and gross negligence. He should be held responsible. He should be the one on trial, not Native practices or anyone or anything else.
What Ray did was not Native American religion. He may have misrepresented it as such but he is not qualified to do a Native American sweat. Sweat lodges and their kin are found all over the world. The Celts in Ireland did a version of a sweat. So did the Finnish - its called a sauna. I have led sweats for over twenty years. I do not represent myself as a Native American or the sweats I lead as Native American sweats. In fact I make that very clear at the beginning.
From what I have read about Ray's sweat lodge was that he seemed to be on a ego trip. He seemed to have bad information about the nature of the sweat - intimidating people to stay in, eating right before - both of those would be bad ideas.
Whether he is guilty of manslaughter or not - I can't say. The people who followed him were taken in by a con artist. And the con artist may actually believe his own hype.
Ray was mixing ideas and practices from many tribes and cultures, and professed to be an "expert" in all of them."Practical mysticism" and "ancient mysteries" were buzz words he used repeatedly. I, and others who have followed this case, believe he searched for words and techniques to exert increasing control over people's lives.Unfortunately,he became famous after appearing on Oprah and Larry King, who failed to adequately research his background. There is evidence of his disregard for safety and human life for many years before the Sedona tragedy. His "high temperature experience"(not deserving of the name sweat lodge)was actually preceeded by participants' spending 3 DAYS in the desert alone, without FOOD,WATER,or SHELTER!Ray labeled this a "vision quest." He also played a "death game",and said he knew Samurai warrior training.Most alarmingly,he regularly traveled to S.America to consume a hallucinogenic drug,Ayahuasca, that is popular among some new agers.It's even been mentioned that "medicine pouches" were in the sweat tent and that Ray claims he was chanting in "native" languages.(The b.s. just gets deeper,doesn't it?)These were mere theatrics to "wow" his followers and get them to keep forking over more money.Let's not blame the victims who trusted this man,rather, let's pray for their families and for all who were injured, and hope that one else will ever be killed or hurt by charlatans like Ray.
I'm old enough to remember when the BIA basically outlawed the sweat. With legislative fingers pointed our way, this could happen again.
We'd be forced to do the ceremonies like we did years ago, out in the woods, away from prying eyes, pretty much just us out there, no big hoopla or arguments about how it should be done according to this or that guy/book/TV show/newspaper article/spiritual conference....wait a minute...that wasn't all that bad. We used to have a good time out there, innit? Hmmmm.
A Paiute friend of mine at the Malad, Idaho powwow, once spoke very disparagingly of whites who take Native Indian practices on without the permission (or the guidance) of Native Indian Medicine people. He did not like that the white's "desecrated" Native Sacred Places by doing their own versions of Native Indian practices. We Jews understand this perfectly well; witness the Jews for Jesus movement.
It's my opinion that groups like the Rand Thank-Tank corp., come upon any incidents that will serve their purposes. This religious rite can come under that program. Then the legal ramifications that are shown and what can be wrung out of this for future controls of Indian rights, then with these sensationalists news concepts, will become the norm, so beware!!!
I am a decendent of a Native American grandmother, and learned to pray in the Sweatlodge later in life, I have prayed in the Sweatlodge/Inipi for 10 years. If one prays in a Sweatlodge/other tradition, it does not make them an expert. I knew from the first few reports of this tragedy that Native American Elders had not been consulted for this "Sweatlodge" that had been created(or if they were the instructions were not followed). I have prayed in more than one tradition and with various Native American Elders and Native American spiritual leaders. However, I usually pray in one tradition. Native American Elders each have their own traditions/ways, and none that I have ever met would ever put people in danger (or come close to what this man practiced). They have many years of experience. Hopefully Native American traditions and ways of praying will not be the scapegoat by the court room, and I feel it is very important that Native American Elders, medicine people, healers, and those who are trained pourers in the lodges,be consulted for this case. If they are not consulted, misconceptions and old stereotypes concerning Native American traditons/ways will not be corrected. I have to wonder if James Arthur Ray simply lost his mind, and got lost in his own insane violence? Unfortunately, people got hurt in the process.
Ray was/is a major fraud, dabbling in what he does not understand, shearing sheep of their money. The problem being that what he was doing defrauded his customers and in effect maligned Native ways. It would be nice if stealing ceremony were illegal, if doing alien-to-one ceremony was illegal. How to do that, the technical challenge of actually, skillfully writing a law that does that, is very, very difficult if even possible. The battle of the experts results from there not being a competent legal standard.
Maybe there needs to be some sort of licensing scheme for ceremony done by those not enrolled and off reservation. The applicant claiming to do "Indian" stuff would have to identify the tradition he lays claim to and have sign-off by that Tribal authority? And how would the local cop shop know whether there was a tribal authority for some name the guy would make up ... secret knowledge from the Memphremasakonnahaudasequagog band of the Malipassamamohawnobak ...
Theft and misuse and distortion of Native rites is a moral abomination ... we smell it when we see it, and we want to stop it, but how does one get there from here?
We can discuss whether James Arthur Ray is guilty in manslaughter. What I think should be common known is his – and the law of attractrion followers – abuse of quantum mechanics, their philosophical incompetence, and misuse/distortion of spiritual traditions. Precisely this led to the tragic incident. I include two links to articles on this:
1. The first is about James Arthur Ray, and his connection with the Secret/the law of attraction. It explains how quantum mechanics/Niels Bohr, actually disproves him, how New Age as such distorts spirituality, and how compensatory karma stroked back in the Sedona incident. No matter how James Ray´s supporters helps him, what the native Indians say again and again, is that you must never take a fee for a sweat lodge ritual.
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2. The other article explains what precisely it is the law of attraction supporters misunderstand in connection with true spirituality/spiritual laws such as karma. It also looks at how Rhonda Byrne, and The Secret uses manipulation, and abuse great thinkers such as Einstein and Bohr
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Morten Tolboll
http://mortentolboll.blogspot.com
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