Two die in Arizona sweat lodge accident

Article : Two die in Arizona sweat lodge accident
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It is sad to hear about such an incident, since it gives this sacred ceremony bad press. For one thing, a 'true sweat ceremony' should NEVER cost a penny. These people are clearly taking advantage of others who want to learn traditional ways of healing. To anyone interested in a sweat make sure you don't have to pay and find out more about the people holding it!

The lodge is like our church "native Americans" and to call it crude is aggravating. But that is what a sweat lodge is "tarps" we have been doing this for years and all you have to do is ask to be let out at any time doing the seromony if you reached your limit. Now the rest of us natives who ain't taking white peoples money are going to have to listen to people tearing down our beleafs.

The Native American Peoples are grieving and upset by this tragedy. The sweat lodge ceremony is for healing and cleansing, not a place of suffering. This is why the ceremony is led by the qualified medicine people with years of training.

Anyone can pour water on stones, but to work with energy and know the spiritual, physical and emotional condition of all people in a ceremony, with usually no more 15 people, it takes a very experienced person. Almost every tribe that uses a sweat lodge has such a person.

There are a lot of different aspects to Native American cultures, one of which is the cardinal directions and keepers of the rites to those directions.

The Chumash Indians are the keepers of the western gate for what is known by most as Turtle Island. One of their traditional practioners, Mahiwo, is now in the Sedona area to help with the transition of souls and heal the hearts and emotions in this great atrosophy and for the participants of catastrophe.

Many of the people in the incident have now returned home.

You can contact us at eyeofthesoul@live.com and we will pass a message onto Mahiwo.

Warrior artist you wrote that it
"Seems like some of the the sweat lodge participants were using Ayawasa"
What information and evidence do you have that anyone was using this medicine
during that lodge?
Thanks

Seems like some of the the sweat lodge participants were using Ayawasa...Perhaps after 3 days of fasting the two that sacrificed their lives may have eaten too much cheese & other foods when breaking their fast Thursday morning...combined with DMT in Ayawasa brew, the wrong foods could have caused cardiac arrest...
The Native American sweat lodge is a purification ceremony for prayer,known in Lakota as "Inipi" the making of new breath... not a psychadelic experiment chamber. Unfortunately the mixing of too different kinds of "medicines" may have been a lethal concoction...God bless the two that died, James Ray and all their fiends and families. Regardless of their mistakes, all were there with good hearts, I pray.

It makes me angry and sad when New Age people use our native American ceremonies often not done properly . This group needs to be stopped.

Thanks to the people who have attended this event before for sharing what goes on. Sounds like mind control, power and greed are at work - not harmony. I hope some of the folks who attended the current seminar will step up and tell the authorities what went on. Shut James Ray down - if these allegations prove true.

I attended this event a few years ago. I paid over $7000. to attend. From the first night I arrived when James Ray was pushing people to shave their head - yes I said shave their head, it was an exercise in control. A vegetarian diet is enforced, no contact with the outside world, and complete denial of interaction with James Ray creates a discipleship sort of situation. When we were told we would be spending 2 days and nights in the desert surrounding the area I was trying to understand how this would grow me spiritually. After the first night I walked back to camp expecting to find some of the James Ray staff avialable to speak to, there was no one there. I decided to leave and had to find the owner of the grounds to find out where the James Ray staff was. She informed me they had gone on a hike for the day. Therefore there were 60 people out in the desert with no food or water and there was no supervision of those indiviudals. I left the grounds and continued home. No one from James Ray organization contacted me for 27 hours. When I responded with outrage at the lack of supervision and the fact that they hadn't contacted me for so long they had no reply but to lie and say they had no phone available. This event, as with all James Ray events, are for the glory of James Ray. He constantly pushes you to go to another and another of his overpriced events. He even has berrated people in the audiences that did not have the funds available. This man needs to be shown for what he is a speaker out of integrity using control to make him money!

I was in Spiritual Warrior with James A Ray at the Angel Valley Resort in October 2005. I left the sweatbox in fear after less than 1 hour. I witnessed most people stay in it for much longer. I remember one man came out swinging and punched a women! Soon after that he was rushed to a hospital VIA ambulance! Why were there no red Flags raised then? Why did 2 people have to loose their lives?! :-(

This saddens me. I'm all for the leadership events, but sometimes these people go to far. The crappy area he rented, covered by tarps and bags, probably costed him a couple of hundred bucks to rent. And to charge $9,000 per person, and 64 ppl crammed in there? Whos benefiting, you or his pocket.

What upsets me is he is not speaking directly, he's got a 'spokesman' saying they had pre existing conditions? C'mon 21 people had conditions? Right, plus 2 dead.

Read motivational material thru books and be VERY careful how you spend your money in physical events. I'd rather meditate to soothing music near a mountain with the cost of only the CD and if the 'sauna' experience is needed, go down to your local Y and pay 10-15$ for the day.

Shame on you James Ray, I'll be boycotting your material from now on. Cowering behind a spokesman.

Isn't it ironic how the motivational leaders come out with a decent book but then keep coming out with new material all the time? C'mon man, nearly 10grand x 64 people? for less than a mere 5 days for a place that probably costed you less than a thousand to rent? Who are you really helping? There should be a limit to these events, you managed to cram 64 people in there. Irresponsible.