By now most of you have heard of the tragedy that struck at a Spiritual Warrior Seminar held by James Arthur Ray in Sedona, AZ several weeks ago. For those of you who have not yet heard, the events are as follows: On October 8th during the sweat lodge portion of a Spiritual Warrior seminar held by James Ray International people began succumbing to the conditions within the lodge. Ambulances were rushed to the scene where 20+ had been overcome and were rushed to hospitals and 2 were pronounced dead. On October 18th one more victim succumbed raising the death toll to a tragic 3.
We here at Visionskape have refrained thus far from commenting on the situation while waiting for a statement to be issued by James Ray himself as well as some results to be gathered from the investigations taking place. At this point we feel enough time has passed that a comment is necessary to explain our position on the subject as well as offer our condolences to the friends and families of all those affected.
Several days ago James Ray released a statement, apologizing for the tragic accident as well as informing the general public of the measures taken by James Ray Intl. itself in order to find out what went wrong. The entire statement can be found on James Ray’s blog. In this statement he also defended his decision to continue performing seminars, a decision considered arrogant by many.
As a company Visionskape LLC has not and will not choose a side to stand on. We believe it is not our place to form or express an opinion on the matter, and that doing so would be out of place. Given the scale and gravity of this incredibly unfortunate tragedy, however, we have decided that we cannot in good conscience leave up Mr. Ray’s Bio or Products. Once the investigations have been completed and all results made public we can reassess our position. We continue our firm commitment to bringing you accurate, objective, and trustworthy law of attraction product reviews from inside this exciting industry; beyond that, however, we’ll have to leave the judgement to the authorities.
We again offer our sincere and deeply heartfelt condolences to the friends and families of all those affected by this tragic accident. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all the people involved and we hope the cause of this tragedy will soon be fully understood.
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October 26, 2009
#1
You said, “Several days ago James Ray released a statement, apologizing for the tragic accident…”
Are you serious? Where was an apology ever offered? His blog talks a lot about how this is difficult for him…how people are disparaging him…how he must continue his work. The one thing I don’t see is an apology that expresses the least bit of culpability.
Could you share with me where that apology is located?
October 27, 2009
#2
The apology we referenced was the portion of the most recent post in which Mr. Ray states: “I feel your pain. I accept your anger. And I pray for you all to have some measure of peace and comfort.” We did not intend to classify the apology as adequate, only meaning to say that Mr. Ray seemed to us to be showing some remorse for the situation although, as you said, he has not expressed any culpability in the matter. Hopefully this answers your question and thank you very much for commenting!