Sweat lodge participant tells Legal Paramount Ray is innocent. He never 'chided' me for walking out.
Anonymous Participant Says Ray
Let Her Leave without Question
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Earlier this month, motivational speaker James Arthur Ray was arrested on three counts of manslaughter after three members of his seminar died, and nineteen others feel ill, in a northern Arizona sweat lodge.
In October 2009, at Ray’s five-day long seminar, “Spiritual Warrior”, held at a retreat just outside of Sedona, participants who paid over $9,000 per person were led to believe the retreat would be one of the most intense experiences of their lives. About an hour into the retreat’s two-hour long sweat lodge ceremony, attendees began to fall ill, some vomiting and collapsing inside the 415 square-foot building.
Reports from authorities say that Ray told participants to push past their
“After about twenty or thirty minutes in the lodge I felt that I had had enough, so I stood up, literally stepped over James Ray, and left,” said sweat lodge participant. “No one questioned my motive, and no one chided me for doing so.”
According to Ray’s attorney, Luis Li, the charges are unjust and his client would be exonerated in court.
“This was a terrible accident, but it was an accident, not a criminal act,” Li said. “James Ray cooperated at every step of the way, providing information and witnesses to the authorities showing that no one could have foreseen this accident.”
Ray’s bond was set at $5 million and if convicted, he could face up to 12 years for each count.
Ray is a self proclaimed self-help superstar amongst motivational speakers. His multimillion-dollar empire was accumulated by charging people as much as $20,000 to attend his seminars. Much of his fame is in part due to Rhonda Byrne’s 2006 documentary “The Secret,” and he’s made appearances on “Larry King Live” and “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”
Even if Ray can avoid jail time for the deaths of his seminar participants, he will still face personal injury lawsuits filed by surviving family members.
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This is really quite an interesting case. From what I understand this Ray guy was involved in some strange retreat in San Diego where he abondoned his attendess in a rough part of town and one lady actually killed herself.
Personally, I think that Ray did have some sort of psychological hold on these people. If not every one of them.. most of them..