Ginny, SEEK founder and mom of Kirby Brown, spoke with Beatty Cohan recently on her Progressive Radio Network show, Ask Beatty, discussing SEEK, self-help, therapy, and our book. How could a tragedy like Sedona happen? What needs to change in the self-help industry?
As a follow-up to Wondery Media’s podcast series, “Guru,” (which is phenomenal, deep dive into the Spiritual Warrior deaths), the folks at the award-winning Real Crime Profile spoke with Ginny and discussed what happened at James Ray’s Spiritual Warrior event in 2009.
I spoke with my mom after her interview with them, and she noted that this was one of the first times she had an interview where the hosts really seemed to tap into the outrage that many people feel when they hear the story of what happened to Kirby. She found that gratifying!
Laura Richards, Jim Clemente, and Lisa Zambetti, bring a wealth of knowledge about crime, victim’s rights, and criminal profiling to their engaging podcast. Have a listen! These episodes aired in July 2020 as “Profiling ‘The Guru.'”
The Oxygen network devotes an episode of its series, “Deadly Cults,” to what happened in Sedona at James Arthur Ray’s Spiritual Warrior retreat in October 2009.
When Ginny was interviewed for the show, she was concerned that with a name like “Deadly Cults,” they might get it wrong. Sedona wasn’t a cult, as we know, but Ray used cult-like tactics to exert influence and control. Other self-help “teachers” do this, too, and its obviously dangerous. Ginny was concerned this point would be lost. So we were very happy to see that Oxygen did an incredible job covering the details of Spiritual Warrior.
In October, 2019, I flew to LA for an interview with the History Channel for the show “The UnXplained,” narrated by William Shatner. Producers said this would be a show about what had happened in Sedona, AZ, in 2009. Always anxious to tell our story in a national media arena, I was looking forward to drawing the distinction between the Spiritual Warrior retreat and traditional cults.
The cults episode of “The UnXplained” did show a brief clip of me talking about the fact that James Ray had been “vetted” by national media and was a frequent visitor on Oprah. However, the information about James Ray was sandwiched in between exposés on the Jim Jones and Heaven’s Gate suicides, then followed by a story of an individual suicide influenced by a powerfully charismatic teacher and the bizarre story of people being manipulated into murderous behavior by another leader.
We are very disappointed by this characterization of the Sedona sweat lodge deaths as a cult situation. What happened in Sedona was not suicide. When people in that sweat lodge observed that others were struggling, the leader, James Ray, ignored them. He did not answer their pleas for help. Being exhausted and physically depleted left some of those individuals unable to help themselves, but they were not willingly there to die!
What happened at that retreat was not the result of a traditional cult. People had not given their dying allegiance to Ray. They had not been living with or following him for years, disavowing any other philosophy of life. They did not trust him over all other sources of information or guidance. In fact, many of them trusted Ray because of his many media appearances, including on Oprah.
Their greatest mistake was believing his deceptions about his extensive experience, his training, and credentials to teach and conduct Native American rituals. Joining a cult may not always be a conscious choice, but the people in this situation are quite different from those in the cults presented in this episode of “The unXplained.”
The point that is relevant beyond any fascination with cults, is that Ray is an influential, charismatic speaker who knowingly uses “cult-like” tactics to create suggestibility and exercise power over strong, intelligent, independent people. The power of sensory deprivation is not widely understood. But science has shown that techniques like:
cause disorientation, affecting a person’s rational decision making processes. The participants in James Ray’s retreat had been subjected to some powerful “mind control” techniques that are rarely understood. His constant reference to the money and time people had invested as a reason to play “full on” is yet another psychological technique of manipulation.
If anything, linking this story to other deadly cults reveals that James Ray acted, in many ways, like a cult leader–but one who really only wanted power and money, not followers. (And SEEK exists, in part, because we’ve discovered this is a pattern in the wider self-help industry.) Since James Ray still defines the events in Sedona as an “accident” that caused him to lose his business and his liberty, he is clearly delusional or a sociopath. Either belief make him dangerous. He claims that Sedona had to happen, so he could teach others to overcome adversity. But no, three deaths and the trauma of those connected to the tragedy did not have to happen. No one was there to lose their life as they were trying to expand it. Those who died did not take their own lives or let themselves be led to death by a leader they believed above all else; their lives were taken by an unscrupulous, immoral charlatan.
Characterizing this situation as a cult runs the risk of people dismissing it as a remote, impossible scenario they are not likely to encounter in their own lives. The reality, however, is relevant for all of us. Self-help is a huge, multi-billion dollar per year industry that is completely mainstream, reaching us through TV, social media, books, and pop culture. The potential exists for so many of us to be used or harmed by unscrupulous teachers.
We are always eager to share Kirby’s story as a warning to others who actively seek their self-improvement. Unfortunately, we’ve seen this story being misrepresented before. We will continue to put it into its proper context, so people see it as the relevant warning it is. If you do watch History’s episode of “The unXplained,” please keep all this in mind!
James Arthur Ray, for a time the most flamboyant figure in the ultra-flamboyant world of self-help seminars, last made headlines in October 2009, when he parboiled 56 disciples during a botched sweat-lodge ceremony intended as the climax of his $9,695-a-head Spiritual Warrior retreat. On the day of the parboiling, Ray badgered people who were already vomiting, hallucinating, or passing out to “play full on!” as he liked to say, urging manic commitment to the exercise at hand. Attendees remember him thundering at one point, “Today’s a good day to die!” Three of his followers took him at his word, while 17 others suffered from burns, severe dehydration, and/or kidney failure. The guru ultimately spent 20 months in prison for negligent homicide.
Ray and his Sedona, Arizona, Waterloo are now the subject of Enlighten Us, a heavily promoted CNN documentary out Thursday. [Update, Dec. 1: CNN announced it’s pushing back the release to Saturday.] Despite its whimsical title, the film examines Ray through a surprisingly credulous lens, making him seem almost as much a casualty of “shit happens” as a convicted criminal. Viewers hear Ray’s explanations of how personal growth always entails risk; they are shown his desolation at having watched his thriving $10 million business go up in literal smoke.
In both the film and in life, Ray is poorly cast as the martyr of self-help culture. He’s far from it: Ginny Brown, mother of 38-year-old victim Kirby Brown, recalls that when Ray finally reached out to her after her daughter’s death, a full five days later, he kept saying over and over, that he “couldn’t believe this had happened … to him.” Seven years later, Ray does not seem to have changed—indeed, he is currently petitioning to have his conviction set aside. The state of Arizona is countering the motion vigorously, as are families of those killed.
Article by Steve Salerno
Source: http://www.slate.com/
Photo illustration by Lisa Larson-Walker.
Photos by Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images, Thinkstock.
CNN’s documentary/infomercial “Enlighten Us: the Rise and Fall of James Arthur Ray” gives Ray a forum to explain what HE has suffered and learned from this tragedy, namely that HE can rise above adversity, unfairness, and victimization.
I would like to share what WE have learned from this tragedy:
George and I have learned that the death of a child is a loss unlike no other. The devastation experienced for an untimely death leaves a parent always questioning their part in not protecting their child or preventing what happened. There is a bitter/sweet awareness for all subsequent life events. While being excited or happy, one constantly longs for the missing person to be present. The loss threatens to overwhelm a parent in sadness, grief, and depression. Struggling to conquer those crushing emotions challenges everyday living and one’s ability to feel compassion for others, gratitude, peace, and happiness.
We have learned that rising above those emotions is a daily choice to live with purpose, passion, and joy. It requires an acceptance of life as it is and a willingness to not have the answer to, “why?”. Rather than an explanation, we must decide how we want to respond.
We have learned that a traumatic, criminal and public death brings additional challenges. One does not enter a court of justice but a court of law where the truth can be easily obfuscated by the exploitation of laws intended to protect an innocent defendant. These laws can be manipulated to confuse, rather than uncover truth or justice for the victim. Personal privacy is invaded. While many individual reporters have been compassionate and respectful, the media can be quite capricious and sometimes untrustworthy.
We have learned that we have a responsibility to share Kirby’s story with others, to warn them of the dangers in this unregulated self-help industry. It never occurred to us that an expensive, weeklong event would not have a risk management plan or physical protections to minimize any risks participants were willing to take. Mr. Ray said this was like a marathon but a marathon event has water stations and a medical tent available in case of injury. Ray ran away from his dead and traumatized customers, allowing his injured participants to go, unidentified, to the local hospitals.
We have learned that this problem is much bigger than James Ray. And the solution is much bigger than us. However, we will continue to do our part to raise the questions, asking consumers to be more aware. We will continue to ask providers to practice in an ethical and safe manner. And we will continue to explore ways to bring greater safety to people’s personal growth journeys.
We have learned that we have a responsibility to share what we now know about this industry. This was not an isolated incident. People have been scammed, shamed, harmed emotionally, financially and physically without proper recourse for their losses. Victims do not come forward due to embarrassment, guilt, shame. We have heard that some victims when they complain are silenced and told this was their personal failure or are “paid off” if legal action is threatened.
We refuse to live with un-forgiveness, anger, or thoughts of revenge; all those corrosive emotions would poison us and claim us as additional “victims” of this crime. Instead, we pray for right purpose, wisdom, love and peace to guide our daily actions as we respond to this life-changing event in our lives. We will live with Kirby’s passion for life, with joy for the many blessings in our family, and with a firm resolve to make a difference.
~Ginny and George Brown
As the “Enlighten Us” documentary featuring James Arthur Ray airs on CNN on Saturday, December 3rd we want to make sure people see the whole story of what happened in Sedona.
The Verge piece written by Matt Stroud is the most comprehensive.
Or check out the video synopsis:
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