The Macho Response: Your Prophet Of Doom

One of the cool things about the James Arthur Ray sweatlodge tragedy (if not the only thing) for me personally, is that no one is asking what I mean by "NewAge" anymore.

Whether the topic is self-help, spirituality, motivational speaking, pseudoscience (Ray did love spreading his bullshit take on quantum physics around) quackery, cultural appropriation, The Secret, Oprah, yoga, or whatever, everybody seems to "get it" now that they know three very gullible people died from this nonsense - which is the very result I've been saying it leads to all along.

(Of course, they haven't yet made a connection from the fact that all those involved in these endeavors are cultish Obama supporters as well, and the result of his ascendency is politically the same as James Arthur Ray's, but I'll save that one for another post,....) For now it's just nice that no one assumes, for instance, that because Indian sweatlodges are a thousand year-old practice, I'm somehow mistaken in my descriptions of this 40+ year-old movement called "NewAge".

Now - after seeing the ying/yang symbol on Ray's bogus teepee - the mashed-up and fractal-like nature of the NewAge Movement is becoming clear. James Arthur Ray is a leading NewAge guru, and, like the movement he's a part of, he's in books, magazines, movies, television, and online. He's also spreading it's influence by leading expensive yet barely-noticed seminars, retreats, and much, much more.

And for those with eyes to see it, like the James Arthur Ray empire, no matter where one looks, the con of the NewAge Movement is there, too, whether you're investigating science, medicine, feminism, environmentalism, healthcare, politics, cults, entertainment - you name it - just like with Al Qaeda, it's tentacles are hidden, far-reaching, disruptive, and deadly.

It's been pretty clear to me that (since the introduction of the Maharishi's bogus "spirituality" to The Beatles and beyond) it's, literally, got multiple strangleholds on our nation.

But it's now (supposedly) that everyone wants answers, though it's painfully clear (to me anyway) that even with all this attention, still, no one's willing to ask the really important question:

Why didn't they want answers before?

I mean, Gloria Sam is still dead, isn't she? Rebekah Lawrence is still dead, isn't she? So NewAge was just as deadly the day before the sweatlodge tragedies, wasn't it?

And why cultish and wacky people would do these stupid and terrible things, to themselves and others, didn't make any more sense the day before the sweatlodge tragedies, did they? Where was everybody then? Where was the concern when it really mattered?

I'll tell you where it was:

It was hidden behind contemporary society's propensity for delusional thinking, cynicism, snark, and self-declared sophistication.

"What's the harm?" people asked - while also implying that anyone who would question these bogus "teachings" was merely a "closed-minded" reactionary prone to exaggerating the danger. Sure. Explain that thinking, now, to the families of James Ray's victims. Now - after their loved ones are dead. I'll betcha you'll probably get as sympathetic an ear from them as this blog has had for those troubling responses.

Well, maybe not,...since I'm probably waaay ahead of everybody on this one.