Cry: How Oprah Giveth And Oprah Taketh Away

"FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. — A Minnesota woman who was hospitalized with damage to multiple organs after she was overcome in an Arizona sweat lodge ceremony died Saturday, sheriff's officials said."

-- The Associated Press

"[James Arthur Ray] has become a self-help superstar by packaging his charismatic personality and selling wealth. Those who first attend his free seminars hear a motivational mantra that promises that they can achieve what he calls 'Harmonic Wealth' — on a financial, mental, physical spiritual level.

But his technique is not just motivational speaking. It's a combination of new age spiritualism, American Indian ritual, astrology and numerology. The sweat lodge experience was intended to be an almost religious awakening for the participants.

Ray uses free seminars to recruit people to his expensive seminars, starting with $4,000 three-day 'Quantum Leap' workshops and moving on to the weeklong $5,300 'Practical Mysticism' events and the $9,000-plus 'Spiritual Warrior' retreats like the one that led to the sweat lodge tragedy.

About 50 people attended the retreat near Sedona, the center of the new-age movement where practitioners draw energy from the surrounding Red Rocks and various vortexes to heal others.

He soared in popularity after appearing in the 2006's Rhonda Byrne documentary 'The Secret,' and he later was a guest on 'The Oprah Winfrey Show' and 'Larry King Live' to promote it. His 2008 book 'Harmonic Wealth' made the New York Times bestseller list.

Whether Ray manages to maintain his success in the wake of the deaths depends in part on his supporters, and how long the tragedy dogs him as he goes from city to city recruiting paying customers for his wealth creation/spiritual harmony philosophy.

Critics point to the Sedona events as yet more evidence that Ray is a huckster, who, like other motivational speakers, present their philosophies as a magic bullet to all of life's problems.

'It's honing in on peoples' needs, their hopes and desires, telling them what they want to hear,' said Rick Ross, founder of a virtual library of information on controversial groups and movements. 'That's how any good con man makes his mark.'"

-- Felicia Fonseca and Bob Christie, never actually explaining how "practitioners draw energy from the surrounding Red Rocks" or whether those "various vortexes to heal others" are real - never mind: Oprah doesn't either (nor is she ever pressed to) - though they're getting a pretty clear picture of the NewAge huckster business, for The Associated Press.

Isn't it funny how Oprah promotes James Arthur Ray, and The Secret, and they both turned out to be bogus? There's also the people who suffered from using the Oprah-promoted 30-Minute Face Lift, and, of course, James Frey - and those other recent lies in publishing, about the Jews and the apple during the Holocaust, and Oprah's promotion of that white supremacist book - and also that Newsweek article about the harmful quackery on her show. Where's the follow-up on all that? I mean collectively, in light of deaths and people getting maimed and/or kids being raped simply by being associated with Oprah-directed or endorsed activities, it's a pretty damning record. Shouldn't society be calling her on it?

How much money do you think this one woman, Oprah Winfrey, was driven into the hands of con men and criminals? The Secret alone has to be in the billions. How much trust, goodwill, and gold, has she almost single-handedly directed into the clutches of bald-faced liars? How many lives has Oprah helped destroy - and in how many ways? She helped talk the country into backing Obama, need I say more?

Not Enough Glenns:

We need another Glenn Beck (or, at least, someone else who can see where the action is and - damn the laughter from the self-appointed smart set - dig into this shit) because it's pretty obvious Glenn "Mr. New Media" Reynolds ain't gonna be of much help.

Shit, after watching the way he distracts people with his obsessions, I'm almost starting to regard him as the "Oprah of the internet" myself,...