MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The daughter of a Prior Lake woman who died after an Arizona sweat lodge ceremony said she wants the man who led it behind bars.
Authorities are investigating the Oct. 8 ceremony at a retreat near Sedona, led by motivational speaker James Arthur Ray. Three participants died and 18 were hospitalized after the sweat lodge ceremony.
“I would like to honestly see him behind bars. I think that what he did was negligent and resulted in the deaths of three people,” Liz Neuman’s daughter, Andrea Puckett, told KARE-TV in Minneapolis. “I would like to see him not doing his work anymore, I don’t think he should do this to other people.”
The family intends to file a wrongful death lawsuit against Ray soon. Ray’s attorney, Brad Brian, told The Associated Press that all the participants were fully informed of the health risks that could be posed by sweat lodges — and said Ray was not responsible for the design or maintenance of the lodge in question.
“None of this changes the reality that this was a terrible accident, but we hope everyone will resist a rush to judgment until all of the facts are known,” Brian said.
Neuman, 49, died more than a week after the ceremony at a Flagstaff hospital. The other two victims died at a hospital the night of the ceremony: Kirby Brown, 38, of Westtown, N.Y., and James Shore, 40, of Milwaukee.
In all, between 55 and 65 people took part in the sweat lodge ceremony, the highlight of a five-day program at the private retreat near Sedona. Participants and law enforcement officials previously told The Associated Press that the two-hour ceremony degenerated into chaos as people became sick, but were encouraged by Ray to stay inside for the entire time.
Neuman’s relatives said she faithfully followed the teachings of Ray, an author whose “Spiritual Warrior” program encouraged participants to realize their potential. Puckett said her mother, who had attended previous retreats led by Ray, had become a leader in his organization.
“She always comes back rejuvenated and ready to tackle life,” Puckett said. But, she added, her mother “trusted Mr. Ray to lead the sweat lodge appropriately.”
She said Ray didn’t call the family until a day after her mother died.
“The Self-Help Movement has become the Self-Destruct Movement!”
There was a time when the answers to life’s challenges were simple. We learned to make our own decisions based on common sense, family values and religion, and we learned good judgment from life experience and through the sound advice of family and friends.
Now, however, Self-Help gurus have brainwashed us into believing that they know what is best for us, our marriages and our families. These self-proclaimed experts make millions while offering up their generic advice without any solid evidence to support their claims.
The common sense once readily available to all of us has been hijacked. Self-Help has evolved into a “quasi-religious” cult following through the systematic commercialization of positive psychology and sound mental health.
The Self-Help Movement has become the Self-Destruct Movement by diminishing or destroying our ability to explore, interpret, assess, create, judge, choose and evolve on our own. We have given up the freedom to live life, and build healthy marriages and families based on our unique history, values and life experience. Instead many (desperately) search outside themselves for someone to tell them how to be happy, what they should value and how they should act.
Being a “happier person” or having a “healthier family,” whatever that means, are often the goals of consumers of Self-Help products. Yet studies continue to show that to be happy and healthy is simple but not necessarily easy. Few of us want to do the hard work necessary to change, so we keep searching for an easier way offered by the latest guru, sometimes with deadly consequences.
The Solution: A Return to our (Common) Senses! The best way out of this learned “self-helplessness” is to go cold turkey. Stop watching ALL Self-Help shows now, and quit reading any more Self-Help books, at least until you have applied what you read in the last one.
Begin, instead, to reclaim your natural, God-given ability to think for yourself. The common sense that was once readily available to all of us is still there free of charge and waiting to be applied to just about any challenge we might face in life… all you have to do is use it.
John Curtis, Ph.D. is the founder of Americans Against Self-Help Fraud – http://selfhelpfraud.com/