If you’ve been following the progression of this extremely controversial story at all in the news you already know that media outlets far and wide have been tearing into self-improvement teacher James Arthur Ray over anything and everything having to do with the Sedona Tragedy. We won’t review the basics of the tragedy but you can find them here if you need to get caught up. For those of you following this story you may know that the majority of the criticism coming at Mr. Ray has been about his alleged nonchalance while people were becoming ill as well as the accusations that he did nothing to help the victims once he became aware of the situation.
Whether these facts are true is up to you to decide, as we have stated before we will not take a side in the dispute but only wish that justice might prevail regardless of the implications. We are here to update you on the latest Self-Improvement news and nothing more. Up until now it seems that Mr. Ray and his company both have kept out of the fight, allowing the news to take it’s shots without so much as a peep in reply. This move was interpreted by many, we believe, as an acceptance of guilt of some sort. Well no longer. Yesterday Mr. Ray, or rather James Ray International, posted a message on JamesRay.com addressing the accusations against both him and his company in regards to the tragic incident.
Mr. Ray even went so far as to title the message sent out to his Mailing List as well as the one posted on His Blog “Setting the Record Straight” although it is currently titled “Important Updates Regarding the Sedona Investigation” on the front page of the website we linked to. You can find the post here and make your own judgement on the matter. Though we as a company do not wish to get involved in the mud slinging that has been commonplace in this case we were relieved to see Mr. Ray at least attempt to defend himself. Whether or not he was at fault is up to the authorities to decide but we commend his decision to stop “hiding” and face the issue head on as we believe this lends credence to his possible innocence in the matter. This is also a welcome move as it addresses some serious questions that several articles and witness accounts have brought up. A “rumor vs. truth” section can be found at this link JRI has set up specifically for those affected by the Sedona Tragedy.
Whether this move is appropriate at this time and whether the information within James Ray International’s investigation is skewed in the company’s favor we still do not know. The only thing known for sure is that three people lost their lives in a tragic incident, and we hope that no amount of mud slinging in either direction will take away from the lesson to be learned here.
UPDATE 02/04/10 Mr. Ray was arrested yesterday afternoon and charged with three counts of manslaughter. His hearing is scheduled to start today at 11am immediately following an emergency hearing to determine whether the judge will allow the use of camera equipment in the court room. More updates soon to come.
UPDATE 02/05/10 Mr. Ray plead not-guilty in his first hearing on February 4th. He refused to comment to the press however his lawyers still stand by the fact that, through the sweat lodge was tragic, it was simply an accident and not the result of negligence on the part of Mr. Ray and or James Ray International.
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February 16, 2010
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amidst the mountain of words / articles / comments written about the James Arthur Ray ” Sedona Sweat Lodge ” incident, and irrespective of whether he was guitly of beeing reckless/ greedy/ negligent, I am dissapointed by the reactions of the leaders of the ” Self Help ” industry.
I am a recent but earnest believer of the Law of Attraction and my belief or understading of the Law of Attraction and similar principals for a happy and successfull life is that it is possible to attract happiness and success to your life by your thoughts., by focussing on what you want and on the positive aspects of life . Faith and descipline would be a definete ingrediant. but definetly not by dangerously torturing yourself by a combination of fasting and sweating in a suana.
Suppose inspite of the extreme fasting and sweating at the Sedona sweat lodge, the event had passed off without any major incident, would such practices which James Arthur Ray freguently conducted be an acceptable / reccomended practice in confirmity with the principles of the Law of Attraction ?
This question needs to be answered by the ” gurus ” of the Self Help industry.
The answere to this is very important to us because James Arthur Ray was one of the main presenters of the film ” Secret ” and the law of Attraction.
Because I really believe in the principals of the Law of Attraction I would like to think that James Arthur Ray was a teacher who lost his way. A teacher who ironically forgot the principals he taught about, the very principles by which he had gained his own fame and success. A person who was blinded by wealth and success and started to teach his people by torture rather than by joy.
My dissappointment is not that none from the Self Help Industry has condemned him, but that non have even expressed or even hinted that such practises are not in confirming with the principles of the ” Secret ” .