How Important Are Five Years To Knowing The World?

"'California’s affluent Marin County, just north of San Francisco,' is what? Another NewAge 'power spot', filled with 'rich people', just like Sedona, Arizona. Stupid, gullible, and easily-led rich people - if you ask me - and they're all hurting other people by acting on their NewAge beliefs." 

 - TMR, October 23, 2009

"Sedona, Arizona has been kind of a magnet for groups called cults,...Demographically, there are a lot of people there who have extra money.  They have money to spend.  It's an affluent area and there are a lot of groups that are set up there, most notably James Arthur Ray,..." 

 - Cult expert, Rick Ross, Apr 28, 2014

 

James Arthur Ray: The Sweat Lodge Killer's Evolution From NewAge Master Of The Universe To Dirty Hippie

Ray at the height of his fame, after doing Oprah, and The Secret, and killing people.

And here's our boy after he got busted for three deaths in (where else?) that hot bed of NewAge gullibility spirituality, Sedona Arizona.

This is Jay Ray during his trial, totally stressed, after he'd spent every dime he scammed on a defense that netted him only two lousy years in prison.

And this was the guru in July - released on probation, to scam and/or kill again,...

 

Lying To The Public: The Oprah Winfrey Show's Ultimate "Secret" To Living Your Best Life Evah!

Oh man, Michael Hamilton, co-owner of the Angel Valley Spiritual Retreat Center where James Arthur Ray held his sweat lodge was on the stand in Ray's manslaughter trial:

Having seen the often-chaotic aftermaths of the Ray-led sweat lodges on his property, Hamilton said he was nonetheless chagrined when he heard and saw, from his office on the property, medical helicopters landing near the sweat lodge. He then received a call from his wife.

"My wife Amyra called me," he said. "She said, 'He did it again.' "

Ray certainly did. Put the guy away, and then amuse yourself with wondering why Oprah ever brought him to the fore.

James Arthur Ray And The Secret Regarding His NewAge "Training" (What NewAge "Training"?)

There's an Arizona Republic article, about the NewAge murder trial of James Arthur Ray, that's so good I don't know what to quote. Reading it is like getting a crash course in what this blog is all about, whether I'm discussing NewAge spirituality, NewAge in politics, "ancient teachings", or any other aspect of contemporary fraud that catches my interest.

I have pointed out before that it is in the court of law - not public opinion - that these bastards start to fold like napkins, and Oprah's buddy from The Secret is discovering how true that is now:

Those attending the Spiritual Warrior retreat did not know that Ray already was being accused of misappropriating and misusing others' teachings without permission or proper training. They did not know that his claims to have been initiated into three shamanic traditions, gaining expertise in a variety of spiritual and esoteric teachings, were either exaggerations or questionable.

And they did not know that Ray's way of running a sweat lodge violated the spiritual and safety practices of the Native American traditions he claimed to follow.

Go - it's all broken down in the article - read the whole thing for yourselves. As I said, it's great, and a lesson in how the entire world-wide scam of NewAge is run. I don't care who it is or what they're up to (Ray has Bob Proctor, another notorious scammer from The Secret, testifying for him) it's all a lie, and a dangerous one at that.

They all have blood on their hands and, yeah, that even includes America's "moral leader" Oprah - without whom most of us would never have even heard the name "James Arthur Ray" to begin with - and, thus, those three people he's on trial for killing would still be alive.

Oprah gave James Arthur Ray credibility - as well as all the other charlatans who have ever graced her program - and she deserves to be on trial with them.

Rick Ross? Forget Him: We Need A Cult Expert!

This is strange, since so many think saying "It's not a cult" is a good enough reason to stop using the term:

Spiritual Warrior"/snake-oil salesman James Arthur Ray -- accused of manslaughter in the deaths of three participants in a 2009 sweat-lodge ceremony in Sedona -- doesn't want the jury in his upcoming trial to hear what two experts on cult behavior have to say about his "self-help" retreats.

Attorneys for the "self-help guru" are asking Yavapai County Judge Warren Darrow not to allow testimony from Rick Ross and Steven Pace, both experts on cult behavior.

Prosecutors plan to use the experts to explain to jurors why participants in the retreat felt they couldn't leave the makeshift sweat lodge, the Associated Press is reporting.

We think they should ask Oprah to testify, since A) she promoted James Arthur Ray on TV, and B) nobody seems capable of leaving her nonsense behind either.

NewAge Nazis Made Sweatlodge Into An Oven

And - we must repeat - James Arthur Ray was introduced to the general public by The Secret's Rhonda Byrne and, later, through promotions with Oprah Winfrey.

TMR: We've Got Your Negroes, And Your Nigros, While A Tree Grows In England (& In My Pants)

Right.

Isn't that how the British do "macho"? Before they drop something on you, they say, "Right", and then start talking? I'm just wondering because I found this great quote by Sarah Jessica Snarker (probably not her real name) as she's talking about the actor, Jeremy Irons, AKA the "new sustainability charlatan on the block", who is not only a hypocritically delusional liar but also British.

Here's the quote I love so much:

"Let us all shun our materialistic existences and go live in a cave somewhere while harvesting nuts and berries and clothing ourselves in garments spun from spiderwebs and unicorn fluff,..."

What can I say?

I'm a sucker for two things - good writing and references to "unicorn fluff"! See, when I was younger, I'd go over to girls houses and they'd have those stupid stuffed unicorn dolls on their beds, which would always give me a good, warm and fuzzy feeling - and a real solid hard on - because I knew I was getting laid if she fell for that shit!

It had something to do with unicorn horns equaling "horny", so her pubes became "unicorn fluff", or something. I don't know - I'm riffing here! - but can we really build a sustainable world on teenage girls' pubic hair? I've got to ponder that one. I guess teenage boys would certainly like to try. Hey, it's about as realistic as what the environmentalists are always pushing on us - no matter how stupid they are, they just won't shut up! - but, I guess, I digress,...

My own time with silly unicorn-loving wannabe NewAge sexpots (sexbots?) was a long time ago, and I'm a rational conservative Red, White, and Blue/black American now, so let's forget all about imaginary animals, and this "Right" nonsense (sorry, Brits) and get this party started The American Way, with:

Fuck!

Man, do I feel bad. Right after I go and have a field day dissing Sarah Ferguson - England's "Duchess of Dork" - for being a NewAge idiot who was bound to cause trouble, she goes on The Oprah Winfrey Show (Where else?) and actually says something "enlightened" - in an ass-backwards kind of way - here it is:

"I think I’ve been like a huge, overtrusting, idiotic, stupid woman that went and looked for this situation, and that’s all I can say, really."

Is that brilliant, or what? (And isn't that exactly what I said about her, or what? My NewAge studies have paid off well,...)

Most NewAgers, being complete and utter fools (as well as slaves to public image) would rather die than admit their "never-ending search" led to how dumb they've behaved - sure, we can also ignore the fact that most NewAgers aren't caught on tape - still, I'm willing to give credit where credit is due, and Sarah's open admission that her NewAge outlook led directly to her self-destruction (as far as I'm concerned) is a major step in the right direction.

I'm not kidding.

I respect this statement as Sarah's beginning stab at some honesty, and candor, and I also think - if she uses it as a starting point, in a new direction, for her own personal development - one day, she could even become a winning example for other NewAgers to follow.

Of course, that would require that other NewAgers would also recognize they're a bunch of idiotic assholes, but, unfortunately, there's very little indication that's going to happen anytime soon.

But it could! It really could!

If Sarah-fucking-Ferguson can recognize her own foolishness (instead of, against all the evidence otherwise, relentlessly declaring her own divinity) then all hope ain't lost. The other silly bunnies out there could, for instance, stop checking in with each other and listen to Joseph Nigro, TMR's erstwhile partner in crime (who we haven't heard from in, like, forever) who probably thinks, since Ayn Rand started a pseudo-conservative pseudo-sex cult, that might be as good a place for NewAgers to start plotting their way out as any.

"Birds of a feather", and all that.

Actually, keeping the TMR tradition alive, what Herr Nigro truly suggests for the following quote is "All NewAgers should be required to have this tattooed on their forehead. Then when they sit in their circle of rocks in Sedona, Arizona, everyone they look at will force them to face it". In an honest world, we'd have that shit implemented in a week, but in this one, here goes, straight from the boss man to Sarah Ferguson, and all the other NewAgers, the world over:

"The self you have betrayed is your mind; self-esteem is reliance on one’s power to think. The ego you seek, that essential 'you' which you cannot express or define, is not your emotions or inarticulate dreams, but your intellect, that judge of your supreme tribunal whom you’ve impeached in order to drift at the mercy ...of any stray shyster you describe as your 'feeling.'"

Awww. Isn't that sweet? It's like giving Sarah Ferguson and friends an affectionate peck on the cheek, but directed at what's left of their poor, malnourished, and barely used or functioning minds.

Now show us your tits.

I'm kidding! Really.

This is The Macho Response - and we really, really care!

And His Grateful Followers Can't Wait For An Opportunity To Be Snookered - Or Killed - Again

"A motivational speaker charged with manslaughter in the deaths of three people at an Arizona sweat lodge ceremony is out of jail.

Yavapai County Jail Sgt. Dee Huntley says James Arthur Ray gained his freedom Friday, one day after a Yavapai County Superior Court judge reduced him bond from $5 million to $525,000.

Ray had to surrender his passport. He also cannot organize, supervise or conduct any activities that might harm others."

-- The Associated Press

Protect Yourself: There's Weirdos Everywhere

"It sounds like it might be cool to be in a cult if you're the guy leading it. Otherwise, not. But then, the same goes for a lot of religions."

-- Stephen Lemons, commenting on Ilchi Lee's sexual exploitation of his followers in the Dahn Yoga cult, and making it sound like he'd love to be doing it as well - Mr. Lemons reads like a pretty sick fuck - which just goes to show you, you've got to watch who you read, including those anti-redneck whackos in The Phoenix News.

That's Harmonically Broke To You

"A man who built a multimillion-dollar empire with a motivational mantra that teaches people to create wealth contends he's broke and cannot post bond in a criminal case that threatens the survival of his self-help business.

James Arthur Ray was charged earlier this month with three counts of manslaughter stemming from the deaths of three people following a sweat lodge ceremony he led last year in Arizona. His bond has been set at $5 million, a figure his attorneys say is 'excessive and oppressive.'

'Despite misconceptions perpetrated in the media, Mr. Ray is not a man of significant assets and certainly not the millions reported in the press,' his attorneys wrote in documents obtained by The Associated Press from the court. The documents are now officially sealed.

Ray himself has touted his wealth and success in numerous media interviews and on his Web site, including an estimated $10 million in revenue in 2009 and a seven-figure advance for his book, 'Harmonic Wealth' that hit the New York Times Best Sellers List in May 2008.

He told 'Fortune Magazine' for an April 2008 article that his financial goal was $21 million a year and that he was sure there were limits, but 'I am not aware of them.'"

-- Felicia Fonseca, on the main lie Oprah's pal was pushing - that he knew how to make money without having NewAge idiots giving it to him - which really is The Secret of cultism, but not The Washington Post.

The Only Thing They Can't Save Is Themselves

"If you looked at it from a certain perspective, the exercises Amy Shipley did in Dahn Yoga were perfectly normal. Take what she was doing right now. It was near midnight. Amy and seven other devotees of Dahn Yoga — nearly all in their 20s, clad in blue tracksuits and barely functioning on three hours of sleep — were standing in a waist-deep fountain in the desert of Sedona, Arizona. On command from their Korean trainer, all eight would plunge their heads underwater and hold their breath until their lungs strained, finally rocketing to the surface gasping and shouting a devotional song to their Grand Master — a middle-aged Korean man called Ilchi Lee — and weeping to prove their sincerity. Then they'd be ordered to do it again, and properly this time. In this way, Amy and the others were saving their souls and rescuing the world from annihilation.

See? Totally normal.

Amy loved tests. She'd always been Type-A like that, an overachiever, first in line for any challenge. And Dahn Yoga gave her endless tests to pass, especially here at its isolated Arizona retreat where, round the clock, members performed all kinds of mysterious rituals. Certain exercises had taken some getting used to, of course. Like the one where they'd turn off the lights and everyone would dance and scream for hours, until they collapsed in a sobbing heap. Or just earlier today, when Amy had been ordered to mash her face in the dirt as a lesson in humility. A 24-year-old blond Midwesterner who had been a homecoming princess of her Indiana high school, Amy was now a pro at such practices: At a previous workshop that lasted for 10 days, she and a dozen others had begun each morning by punching themselves in the stomach while hollering things like 'I am stupid!' For that privilege, Amy had paid $8,500.

Two years earlier, Amy and her boyfriend, Ricardo Barba, had been ordinary juniors at the University of Illinois when they visited a campus fitness club that taught a meld of yoga and tai chi. Now, by spring 2008, they were sleep-deprived, celibate soul warriors who considered Ilchi Lee their 'spiritual father.' In pursuit of the enlightenment Lee promised, they and thousands of other young American disciples dedicated 80-hour workweeks and astonishing amounts of money to Dahn Yoga. Amy was $47,000 in debt for her training, having maxed out credit cards and student loans at the urging of her masters. Again, totally normal: Many who progressed in Dahn had mountains of debt, especially those lucky older members with homes to mortgage — an asset that came in handy when paying for Dahn's holiest seminar, which cost $100,000.

Amy broke through the water's surface again and launched into song, careful to keep a smile on her face as tears rolled down her cheeks. Suddenly, she was struck with a rare moment of clarity. She didn't understand how this exercise was promoting world peace. She felt ridiculous. She was exhausted. She missed Ricardo, who was back in Chicago cleaning yoga-studio toilets and doing penance for his inability to 'create' money. What the hell am I doing? Amy wondered. But no sooner did the thought enter her mind than she squelched it the way her masters had taught her: When in doubt, commit yourself even harder. She slammed her face into the chilly water until her reservations dissipated. At the end of this week's training, Amy herself would be crowned a Dahn master and awarded her heavenly assignment: to recruit 20 new members and raise $20,000 for Dahn Yoga each month.

'I was a good little cult member,' Amy says today. 'I would have drank Kool-Aid laced with cyanide if they told me to. I would have chopped off my right arm. I would have done anything.'"

-- Sabrina Rubin Erdely, finally catching on to this yoga-as-a-cult business - and (like most of what goes on in Sedona, Arizona) it is a cult business - described in the most unlikeliest of places - the magazine that encouraged this behavior: the very-hippie Rolling Stone.

Change IS Coming (In An Ass-Backwards Way)

I had another one of those awful nights, justa rollin' and tumblin', dreaming about Karine Anne Brunck (which sounds too much like Lisa Druck for me to handle). Let this be a lesson to all you NewAgers, who insist a person can just "move on" from tragic events:

You can't "move on" from your dreams.

I was all fired up yesterday, looking forward to blogging all day today (haven't felt that way, or had the opportunity, in a long time) but instead, now I'm all blah and what the fuck? and just want to go back to sleep. But I can't sleep - because then I might have another twisted dream about my ex-wife: great.

So I'm blogging anyway, thinking that, by telling you all the Good News going on out there (yes, that's one for the Christians) it'll cheer me up, get me back in the groove, and I can go back to enjoying it as well. I mean, these subjects are my babies, right?

People have written to me, saying they think the blog has no coherency, but, it seems to me, that's only because I love our country so much, pretty much as it is, that I see my job as only about recognizing where we've been led astray and trying to get us urgently back on track. And, as I said before, it seems to me we've actually made a right turn somewhere. So, today, Good News all around - whether I feel like it or not:

First up, as I told you yesterday, the much beloved NewAge con man of The Secret and Oprah fame, James Arthur Ray, has been arrested for manslaughter in those Sedona, Arizona sweat lodge deaths. Some people are saying Ray shouldn't be punished because being a NewAger is, by definition, self-destructive.

Though I agree with the assessment of NewAgers as a group, that's still looking at this all wrong: James Arthur Ray was committing fraud - he's a con man, not a true believer - sort of a Bernie Madoff in different clothing. And, like Bernie Madoff, things got out of hand. Ray is a guy who spent a lot of time thinking (and Tweeting) about death - he knew the risks. I've read it even happened once before on his watch, but our boy James don't give a damn about nobody but James, and nothing but money. "Harmonic Wealth". The name alone screams "bullshit!" That he, and his followers, can think anyone but themselves can be taken in by such B.S. is an insult to our intelligence. On the other hand, people did fall for that other loser Oprah gave us,...

Anyway, for now, I'm happy a jury will once again get to see some NewAge issues, presented in the context I think they should be seen in, and I'm also pleased those who "believe" in The Law of Attraction can finally witness how it's working out for it's purveyors, as a business and a concept. (Last I heard, Rhonda Byrne ain't been doing too well with implementing it, either. I wish her all the best.)

O.K., I'm going to get some me some sunshine and then be right back. I just want y'all to know I can see something happening now,...

The Magic Is Working: Today Was A Good Day

"FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. – Authorities have charged motivational speaker James Arthur Ray with three counts of manslaughter for deaths that happened after a sweat lodge ceremony he led in northern Arizona last year.

Ray was arrested on an indictment Wednesday afternoon at his attorney's office in Prescott, and was to be booked into the Yavapai County jail in Camp Verde, sheriff's officials said. His bond was set at $5 million."

-- The Associated Press

Happy New Year: You're Thick As A Brick

"Several people are said to have contacted the [Yavapai County Sheriff's Office] with information about the [James Arthur] Ray program called 'Modern Magick', which is held in Hawaii. Diskin reports, 'During this event participants are told to break bricks with their hands. Several people reported there were no instructions or training on how to break these bricks without being injured. There were no doctors or nurses employed by James Ray on site to treat the injured. Bronwen Richards is a nurse who attended Modern Magick in 2008. She reports that both she and her husband broke bones during this event. Bronwen estimated 16 people were being treated in the local emergency room with broken bones from attending the James Ray event. Participants of this event who asked for a refund were not given a refund.'"

-- Lynne LaMaster, making a point that, I think, is worthy of passing along to your little ones this New Year: "Kids, the stupidity of some people - but especially those in the medical field who should know better - can be breathtaking, and so, because we don't ever want to see you floored by these bozos in the future, or ever becoming a tree-hugging NewAge dork yourself, everyday we're going to have all of you do a little bit more homework, eat a little bit more meat, and continue to bone up on FantasyLand, by reading the Prescott eNews.