I hadn't heard about the deaths. In fact, I have never heard of James Ray, and now that I have, I don't feel like my brain has expanded because of that information. Yet, to describe what happened in Sedona as part of a problem with "self-help", as Christine Whelan does, is to completely misunderstand what occurred. Is Ray criminally responsible for the deaths of two people in a sweat lodge in Arizona? Perhaps, although if he is found so guilty, that doesn't mean there is a problem with "self-help" per se.
The real problem is that, like most middle-class, moderately educated Americans, the folks who listened to Ray and paid him nearly $10,000 for the privilege of a weekend getaway had absolutely no idea what they were getting themselves into. My guess is neither did Ray. Ours is a society that, for the most part, is bereft of any spiritual understanding whatsoever. Far too many Americans view "religion" and "spirituality" as synonyms, life-commodities to be traded at will on the open market for a "best fit". Witness denomination-hopping as a kind of surface-level example of what I'm describing.
The desire for spiritual cleansing is understandable. Yet Ray, by providing at a high price the promise of some kind of fulfillment over a weekend, in all likelihood neither believing nor caring about the potential hazards involved, does not provide any spiritual cleansing at all. Before entering a sweat lodge, or venturing out on a vision quest, or going to Australia and attempting a "singing", it takes years of physical, psychological, and spiritual preparation. Ray is a snake-oil salesman who has been given a real cure for once; except, of course, he not only neither knows nor cares, he has no idea that some of the possible side-effects of this cure can be dangerous. For what were, in all likelihood well-fed, pampered, relatively physically inert groups of people to attempt a sweat lodge is not only physically dangerous; it courts spiritual dangers as well.
I wish I could recall where I read it, but the phrase, "Never fuck with the eternal", popped in to my head while I was reading this piece. Ray is an ignorant yahoo, looking to make a quick buck off the even more ignorant yahoos who think that a "spiritual experience" can be bought with something as easy and cheap as money. Sometimes, spiritual enlightenment comes with a very high price tag indeed. Anyone with even a modicum of understanding of the history of these and other rituals would have been able to tell Ray that he was standing with his toes dangling over an infinite drop, believing he could lead people over the abyss without any harm done.
The path that leads to a deeper spiritual awareness very often intersects the path that leads to death; without any understanding of the hazards involved, one can easily stray off the way. Indeed, sometimes even with that understanding, it happens, anyway. James Ray has no idea that he is offering not the chance to be a "Spiritual Warrior", but the chance to stare God in the eye and live. Few can really do that; those that have done it usually end up slightly crazy afterward (read Ezekiel if you think I'm kidding). In the battle between our fragile selves and the unending point that is both everything and nothing, beyond what we can imagine, most human beings wind up like other warriors before them - quite dead.
Virtual Tin Cup
