Pittsburgh Alpha to Omega

Even had John Lilly or Wilhelm Reich (apologies to the shades of both for this sentence) idly wondered, with regard to an unventilated isolation tank/orgone chamber, “How many poorly-programmed biocomputers/heavily-armored humans, at how many bucks per head, can I cram into this thing, for how long?” they certainly never sought to test such guesstimation.  Toxicology reports aren’t back yet, but it seems safe to say, cultural appropriation/exploitation issues aside, that treating a sweat lodge like a clown car is probably unwise, and that mixing plastic, high temperatures, and enclosed spaces is probably not a winning recipe for personal transformation (aside from, you know, sickness and death).  Incredibly, it’s still being debated exactly how many people were in the structure, and for exactly how long, and Ray has yet to come forward to clear up these minor details.

The Associated Press reported that, eerily, Ray made this posting on his Twitter account just hours before the deaths: “Still in Spiritual Warrior … for anything new to live something first must die. What needs to die in you so that new life can emerge?”

The posting and two others were deleted Friday afternoon.

The resort founders, Michael and Amayra Hamilton, would not comment.

“Authorities puzzled by deaths at Sedona-area sweat lodge” by Michael Kiefer and Glen Creno, The Arizona Republic 10-10-09

James Arthur Ray, a self-help expert from Carlsbad, Calif., led what was billed as five-day “spiritual warrior” experience at Angel Valley, which concluded with a tightly packed sweat lodge ceremony. Participants paid about $9,000 each for the weeklong retreat, which included seminars, a 36-hour fast and soloexperiences in the forest.

The authorities say that at any one time 55 to 65 people were packed for a two-hour period into a 415-square foot structure that was 53 inches high at the center and 30 inches high on the perimeter. Mr. Ray’s employees built the wood-frame lodge, which was wrapped in blankets and plastic tarps. Hot rocks were brought into the lodge and doused with water. Mr. Ray, who conducted the ceremony, left the area on Thursday after declining to give a statement to the police.

Sheriff Steve Waugh of Yavapai County said a death investigation would continue for several weeks. Mr. Ray, the Angel Valley owners, Michael and Amayra Hamilton, and all the participants are part of the investigation, the sheriff said. The results from autopsies that were conducted Friday have not been released and results from toxicology tests are not expected for several weeks.

Dr. Carroll, who is partly of Mescalero Apache descent, said the Angel Valley sweat lodge was the “best example I have seen, sadly, in a long time of why it is extremely dangerous to conduct sweat lodge ceremonies without proper training.”

Katherine Lash, a co-owner of Spiritquest Retreat in Sedona and a veteran of more than 100 sweat lodge ceremonies, said she had never heard of a sweat being conducted with as many people as were involved in the Angel Valley event. “In my experience it has been very rare to have more than 20 people,” she said.

“Deaths at Sweat Lodge Bring Soul-Searching” by John Dougherty, NYT 10-11-09

At the heart of the reaction of Indians to the tragedy in Sedona last week is that James Arthur Ray is not an Indian. Running a sweat lodge ceremony is not simply constructing a lodge, heating rocks, and pouring water. In my language, the rocks are mishomsinanek ewi nokmisek, “grandmas and grandpas,” and so they must be chosen carefully. The wrong stones can explode in the fire, or worse, in the lodge. They can give off toxic fumes or not heat properly. As one sweat leader many years ago taught me, “the stones choose you, not the other way around.”

Even the act of bringing the stones into the lodge is dangerous; super-heated rocks carried from an even hotter fire can roll off the shovel or pitchfork and land in someone’s lap—and that possibility is an active part of the discussion of the participants in the sweat lodge as the rocks are coming in the door.

The sweat lodge is considered the womb of the Mother Earth, a living being, so it must breathe in order for it to participate in the ceremony. News accounts out of Sedona indicate that Ray’s sweat lodge was covered in plastic sheeting. As I have tracked the news stories and anecdotes of sweat lodge deaths and near-disasters, every one of them was covered with plastic sheeting or plastic tarps.

“New Age Tragedy in Sedona” by Johnny P. Flynn, Religion Dispatches 10-12-09

Stay cool and cuídate.

UPDATE, 10-15-09

Missed this when I was searching yesterday:

Putting yourself out there in a way that takes risk is the first step of the warrior. Taking responsibility when you mess up is the second.

In Ray’s deleted tweets he wrote “Is how you live a reflection of how you talk?” and “Your actions speak louder than your words. A life of honor is living you [sic] values above and beyond your moods.” I would bet that Ray isn’t in the best of moods right now, but he can act with honor above and beyond anyway…if he so chooses. We all can, every time we make a mistake—big or small.

I imagine a spiritual warrior taking full responsibility—which might mean pleading guilty, serving time or paying off the lawsuit fully, asking for forgiveness from those affected and their families as well as God, and allowing this experience to change the way he does workshops. Prison was a transformative vessel for Malcolm X and others. 12-step-walking addicts understand their addiction to be the basis for a spiritual transformation. Or as Ray put it, “The esoteric traditions maintain that the “Philosophers Stone” (a metaphor for awakening) is ALWAYS found in a pile of dung.” I have found that to be true as well.

Good luck, Ray. May you take your own advice: “Its in your apparently darkest night that you find your greatest light”. I believe that to be true, and will hold that intention for you. And may we magicians and mystics all learn from your experience, such that we need not make the same mistakes.

“The Dark Side of the Secret: Reading James Arthur Ray’s Sweat Lodge Disaster through a Magickal Lens” by Duff McDuffee, Beyond Growth 10-10-09

Ray ain’t gonna take his own advice, Duff.  By all accounts, the dude seems committed to, in purely mundane terms, jerking the katana in the abdomen of his reputation a little more each day. Also, there are a ton of problems with Cassandra Yorgey’s editorializing in today’s “Transcript of private call between James Ray and sweat lodge victims“, beginning with her assertion that, “Mind control is a subject commonly found in works of speculative fiction, but rarely in reality,” (If only!) but the transcript itself, which sounds plausibly legit to me, is worth a skim.

More on this shameful spectacle as it unfolds, if I feel like it.