It was an ordeal. After spending 36 hours outside without food and water, they were given a small meal. Then all sixty of them were crammed into a four-and-a-half-foot high, 23 foot diameter structure. As they sat in the dark, glowing rocks radiating heat were brought in and for two hours they fought the heat and dehydration. Some lost consciousness and multiple organ failure occurred. Three died.
These weren't POW's. The participants paid over $9,000 each to experience the "Spiritual Warrior" program run by self help guru James Arthur Ray, who has appeared with Oprah and Larry King. According to Mr. Ray's friend, John Assaraf, the idea was to push attendee's "personal limits and transcend pain (so they can) recognize their physical and mental health and achieve goals they never thought possible."
These weren't the first fatalities for Mr. Ray, who sometimes "plays God." Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Steve Salerno notes that one participant "leaped to her death during one of his success seminars." Other programs have had similar tragedies. In one, a 10-year-old was wrapped in blankets and made to fight her way out in a "rebirthing" which was to let her "symbolically begin a new life." Instead, she suffocated.
The list goes on.
Games that strip away defenses and create vulnerability are common in the self help industry. The movement started in the 1970's with Werner Erhard, who pioneered the mind-over-bladder path to spiritual enlightenment with his insistence on no bathroom breaks. Large Group Awareness Training has become an $11 billion industry run by gurus who who appropriate New Age notions, mangle rituals like the sweat lodge and integrate them with the charm of a drill sergeant.
Why is this popular? Could it have something to do with society's turning away from faith over the past forty years? One observer told television station KNXV that "people are looking for things to fulfill themselves and give themselves purpose." Like people in general, they have a spiritual emptiness.
There is a God-sized hole in the human heart. It's the emptiness we feel when we're spiritually deficient and there's only one cure for it: faith in God. Once we have it there's a purpose to life that's larger than our everyday battles.
There's no need to endure the humiliation of baring your soul to a group of strangers, being locked in a sauna, or subjecting yourself to verbal and physical bullying. You don't have to pay Ray's list price of $9,695.00, either.
What works is a peaceful, private, silent talk with Jesus. It's available anywhere, anytime and it doesn't cost a penny.
**********************************************************************************
On February 3rd James Arthur Ray was arrested and indicted on manslaughter charges for the sweat lodge deaths.
To add or remove an address from the Finding Faith mailing list, which provides a link to the weekly post, please send an email to cwgalaska@triadpress.us.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
While it's somewhat true that the movement of transformation started with Werner Erhard (and Alan Watts etc.), but there was no insistence on "no bathroom breaks". Anyone at any time could go to the bathroom, but devoid getting the result if they left the room. It's a choice that is completely under the individual's control who consumer drinks. One or the other, but not both!
ReplyDeleteI did the est training in 1974 in San Francisco and it was a powerful, unique experience that benefited me immensely and was the best thing I have ever done. I can assure you that no one soiled themselves and no one was barred from going to the bathroom. The training was not about seeing how many could refrain from going to the bathroom.
ReplyDeleteThe purpose of infrequent bathroom breaks were two-fold. The first is that people get in touch with the fact that they are not their body, that their being controls their body and not the other way around.
The second purpose was to have people fully engaged in looking at their lives. Too often, when things get uncomfortable, people want to take a break, smoke a cigarette, or head to the bathroom. The trainees discovered, as I did, that this was not necessary and that we are fully in control of our bodily functions.
Oh, my. This sounds awful. Why does it seem so hard to accept Christ, when it really is so easy?
ReplyDeleteA friend attended a Erhard program and was struck by the empasis on the bathroom breaks. Although participants were free to break the rule, the prospect of forfeiting the program's benefits, wasting time and money, leaving in the presence of obeyant group members, and cajoling of the leaders made it difficult to leave.
ReplyDeleteThe same dynamic existed at the Spiritual Warrior sweat lodge. People could have left, but didn't and three of them died.
Pushing limits and overcoming obstacles can certainly be beneficial. But the focus is on the self and it closes out spiritual things like forgiveness and eternal life that actually do provide spiritual peace.
With regard to the Spiritual Warrior Program or other similar programs --- people have to learn to OWN THEIR OWN POWER - trust their OWN wisdom - and NOT let others keep them hostage while dis-allowing and dis-empowering them. These people gave their power for an experience. In the movie Labyrinth --- there is a line at the end that says, "you have no power over me". I think of that all the time. Look within and not to others to control your life and make you to be something more than your perfect and complete self. Shame on James Ray. Spiritual Masters and Teachers should always come from a place of love - a place that would never harm or jeopardize others. This man is clearly INSANE. He is working from EGO not through Spirit.
ReplyDelete