Self-help expert James Arthur Ray led the traditional Native-American ceremony in an improper fashion.
Photo: Smoobs
I must admit, when I heard about the two deaths and 22 hospitalized at a sweat lodge near Sedona, Arizona this past weekend, I readjusted my long-held desire to be a part of one.
But reading further into the specifics of what happened made me, well, not so surprised that it happened.
First, as Joseph Bruchac, an expert on Native American traditions and author of The Native American Sweat Lodge: History and Legends
Bruchac said, “It means that all these people are fighting for the same oxygen.”
Also, a great deal of preparation goes into traditional sweat lodges, and they are usually made of “willow branches and covered in canvas or animal skins, and are not meant to be air-tight.” Authorities at the Angel Valley lodge noted this sweat lodge was covered in plastic and blankets.
A typical ceremony usually lasts an hour, and this one had clocked in at two hours before the organizers called 911.
Understanding the Process
This sweat lodge was led by self-help guru James Arthur Ray. His bio notes he:
…has studied and been exposed to a wide diversity of teachings and teachers – from his collegiate learning and the schools of the corporate world, to the ancient cultures of Peru, Egypt and the Amazon.
Photo: Jeff Kubina
If you take a look at his picture, it’s pretty clear that Ray is not Native American. I have no doubt that he has learned quite a bit about different cultures in his travels, as we all do.
But I have to question, is it right for a white man to lead a Native American ceremony?
After I read the book Coyote Medicine,
As Julie notes in the comments section on RightJuris.com:
Native Americans and ONLY Native Americans understand the entire process of a sweat lodge ceremony. This is their spirituality and their culture, NOT something we can easily adopt nor can we even begin to understand without extensive training BY a Native American traditionalist, and I mean EXTENSIVE.
Finally, the cost of the retreat is a bit suspect: $9,695 per person. On his site, Ray says participants will “experience a new technologically-enhanced form of meditation that creates new neurological pathways.”
While I do believe the last part is possible, a true Native-American ceremony would not cost that much. And unfortunately, deaths and injuries resulting from Ray’s negligence will make many condemn sweat lodges in general, and this will certainly hinder people from developing any “new neurological pathways.”
What do you think about a person who is not Native-American performing a traditional sweat lodge ceremony? Share your thoughts below.
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12 Comments... join the discussion!
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I’ve done over 100+ sweat lodges in the Lakota Sioux tradition over a ten year period and they were run by an Italian woman who studied extensively with Native American Indian medicine men out on the reservation in SD. She was authorized by them to lead lodges. You MUST be connected to a tradition and have extensive experience or someone could get hurt. Clearly the guy who ran these was not qualified to lead such a ceremony. I’ve also done a lodge on one occasion with nearly 100 students of Tom Brown Jr. and everything went fine. People left when they couldn’t take the heat and were allowed out. People also have to know their limits and get out when they have to. That has always been the case in every lodge I’ve ever attended. Sweat lodge is one of the most transformational experiences I’ve ever had personally which is why I was so dedicated to this type of practice for such a long time. Mitak Oyasin.
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I’ve been in many sweats myself & have always had a wonderful transformational experience…it is a sacred experience & is not to be entered into lightly. The rituals surrounding it are very intricate & I agree with what Frederic says about the need to be very deeply connected to a tradition in order to proceed with ceremonies of any kind.
Traditionally, an offering is made to the medicine man, in the form of tobacco, cedar, kopal or sometimes even food or donations. Charging thousands of dollars for a sacred ceremony of the earth is pretty outrageous. My heart goes out to all of the people who were affected by this tragedy.
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anyone charging money for any kind of spiritual advancement is a sham–ANYONE. true spirituality is clean and pure, and money pollutes it (not to be confused with donation). something done truly for the advancement of spirituality does not seek monetary gain, those involved are doing it to make the world a better place, to better people’s lives. this ray gentleman had no authority to be dabbling in such a serious practice when being encouraged by ludicrous sums of money.
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Just another white man ripping off Native American traditions for his own profit. On the other hand, anyone willing to pay $10,000 for a bogus “spiritual” experience obviously needs some other kind of help. This man and his followers all should be heartily ashamed of themselves.
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I’ve never attended an sweatlodgeceremony but am a great fan of Finland sauna.
I live in Holland, The Netherlands, Europe.
Have build a cabin in my garden. Heated by a special sauna- woodstove.
Usualy I preheat up the cabin upto about 95 degrees Celcius (203 Fahrenheit), sit in it for about 10minutes, get out and flush myself with lukewarm water, then go back in and stay in another 10 minutes in which I pour about 1 liter (quart gallon) of purified water on the stones, mixed with essential oil (favourite: Sassafras oil !).
All this is done naked and birchbranches are used to ‘whip’ my whole body.
(this is done to stimulate the bloodflow in the skin)
All in all this ‘ceremony’ takes about half an hour inside the cabin.
After this I leave the cabine an take an icecold shower and after this I get into an icecold bath, both for some two or three minutes.(in winter I first must make a hole in the icelayer for the bath is outside the house) and roll the naked body in the snow.
Now I need some rest and feel like having a (cool) drink.
After some half an hour I repeat this whole ceremony.
I repeat this for three or four times.
Than have a nice meal.
Feels good !
I can’t imagine me dieing from something like this.
What happened in Sedona ???↵ -
When practicing native medicine one must be true at heart, understand the culture and beliefs, and not have an antirior motive; like money. I practice the native culture regularly as a non status native. I also employed at a Native Friendship Centre where I work as a councilor. Any experience I have witnessed with individuals who have attempted, or practiced medicine for money or selfish reasons, has ended in disaster; this is also recognized as bad medicine, or black medicine.
The procedures for sweat lodge have been in place, and practiced for many years. I have completed 5 hour sweats with 20 plus people without injury, they should be challenging but not deadly.
Jason Bailey (SSW)
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… here, too, a sweatlodger…. Ray is obviously a sham and ripper-offer. $10,000 ????? For what????
Here is my take on sweatlodges, for what it’s worth:
1) I like them. My brain blabla chills a little, and I can get into deeper questions of being, of life, of making sense of what is happening in my life, of dreams. If no sweatlodge is cooking, I go to a sauna, steamroom, thermal spa. It does it more for me than going to church and having my ear bent by some fellow with a political agenda.
Speaking of which: I am really sorry that many native Americans are possessive about their spirituality, Others are less so and they tend to annoy the first group. I believe firmly, that we live in a free world, and that makes it free. The belief in the free. Thus sweatlodges have made it to other parts of the world. Personally, I say a prayer of thanks to this ceremony and the people (ancestors) who created it. I am aware of it. And I realize, that there is a lot of suffering involved, what took place in the USA was a huge holocaust. It’s one of the reasons I no longer live there, I even gave up the nationality, because of the sheer hypocrisy of the nation as a whole, everyone running around the planet selling the American Way of Life as if it was something great, consuming, consuming, consuming, exploiting. Iraq was the last straw.
But if everybody wants to horde their little religious/cultural habits, then I suggest we make record stores for jazz, where only African Americans can shop. And we castigate everyone with, say, zydeco music CDs at home, and punish some shmuck like me singing Capoeira songs, or even great Maori hits like Te Poi. And no one other than white Europeans may listen to Beethoven or Mozart or Schoenberg, or even Olivier Messiaen. And only certified Jews may listen to klezmer, or Meyerbeer. And I am not being flippant. Music has always carried the spiritual longings and structures of society. Music is a ceremony, even if we consume it like popcorn nowadays.
My two bits, sorry if I bored anyone.
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Once I visited Vapor Caves, somewhere in CO.
A mystic sacred place of cleansing and healing.
OK it has been made commercial and one has to pay
entrance fee now, but still….a nice place to be.
Nobody takes a lead of something there.
You just go in there and trust Mother Earth.
She is trustworthy, more than any human ever.
Treats you good, heals and cleans you inside and out.
You go in with the same colour as you come out with.
Only the colour of your aura may have changed !↵ -
I would never attend an Inipi Ceremony lead by a white man. Only a Wicasa Wakan or someone that has been taught by one, an Indian, should run an Inipi Ceremony. 50 years ago; we wouldn’t be having this discussion; as our ceremonies were not yet sought after.
Barbara Duggan – SIsseton-Wahpeton Dakota SIoux
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The sweatlodge and ceremony were given to the Native People by the Creator years ago. Prayer is very powerful in the Native communities and the sweatlodge is a way to cleanse and purify an individual. However, this comes with an individual praying for their people and suffering so that those who are lifted in prayer may suffer less. As an elder told me in a sweat on the Rosebud Sioux Reservation, “We are not here to see who can last and endure, we are here to pray. If you can not stand the heat, call for the door. When your heart is in the right place and you pray, the spirits will enter the lodge and help you.”
I do not agree with paying money to attend a ceremony. I see that Mr. Ray was the individual responsible for the sweat and if he was advised properly, no one would have perished. I hope that justice is served and that he pays for his negligence.
I hope that people see this as a man being negligent and irresponsible for those who trusted him to help find spirituality. I also hope that there is not a push to banned sweats for all of the spiritual leaders in Indian Country run sweats because of the love for their people and the positive effects of pray.
Oliver Plumley – Comanche/Otoe/Pawnee/Lakota
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je suis de origine francaise, depuis plusieurs annees je cour des temazcals, et je suis responsable et proprietaire du centre Soleil.
le temazcal n est pas une exclusivite des ameriques, tufo en japonais, banya en russe, hamman en afrique ect- – ect- –
soyez aimable de ne pas confondre,les personnes qui travaillent avec l ideal de service a sa comunotee, avecun but non lucratif, avec des escros qui abuse des personnes fragilles emocionellement,
nous les courreurs de temazcal, sommes des enfants de la mere terre, nous ne sommes pas responsable, des pouvoirs qui ont etabli les frontieres , le racisme, et les guerres, avec leurs manipulacionsJean-Jacques feyte, cuautlahtoa. colima col Mexico
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