Cooked Justice? Disgraced Self-Help Guru James Ray Will Stew In Short Prison Stint For 3 Deaths!

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I wonder if James Arthur Ray will do prison full on. The self-anointed self-help guru, convicted months ago, of negligent homicide in the deaths of three people who perished in the now infamous Arizona sweat lodge ceremony back in October of 2009, was finally hauled off in handcuffs Friday. “Playing Full On” was a mantra he instilled in his students, a philosophy mixed with a week of sleep and nutritional deprivation and mind-control exercises, that sparked the perfect deadly storm that was the Spiritual Warrior retreat. The final event: the extreme sweat lodge ceremony cost Kirby Brown, James Shore and Liz Neuman their lives.

“I see and I find that the aggravating circumstance of emotional harm is so strong and such that probation is simply unwarranted in this case,” Judge Darrow said before sentencing a whimpering Ray to 6 years behind bars. Neither Ray and his supporters nor the families of the victims and the disgraced guru’s critics are happy with the sentence. The former–piling on testimonials like they were the hot logs Ray ordered to fuel his human tinderbox–had hoped for probation. Prosecutors and his detractors had pleaded fro the max: 9 years.

Darrow, who handled the seemingly endless trial like he had studied under the namby-pamby O.J. Simpson judge Lance Ito, has a rep as a pretty lenient judge. And while even he couldn’t simply let Ray walk, he split the difference by giving him a light sentence and letting it be served concurrently. That means he’ll only do two years. And,under Arizona law he only has to serve 85%, so he’ll be out in less. No wonder the families of Kirby Brown, James Shore and Liz Neuman were infuriated. That’s less than a year per life. People convicted of petty drug offenses often serve much stiffer sentences.

But some time is better than nothing. “This doesn’t bring Kirby back.This doesn’t bring back James or Liz, ” said Kirby’s mother Virgina Brown. “But certainly time in prison is a deterrent and will serve as a warning to the self-help industry.”

And the billion dollar industry in which any scam artist with a enough chutzpah and a whiff of charisma can flourish is surely a study in buyer beware economics and psychology. The truth about Ray: he really had no business teaching anyone anything. He had no credentials whatsoever. No college degree, no certification, no license. He had allegedly studied with various other self-help lions, but most eschew any affiliation. He concocted a story about a Peruvian shaman, used unauthorized material he copped from various seminars ( often incorrectly), and boasted of his goal to become “the first billionaire spiritual leader.” If that ain’t your first red flag waving in a brisk wind, you’re not really paying attention.

Yet many sane. highly educated, successful people followed this guy. Some for years. Many of them spent tens of thousands of dollars taking his seminars, retreats and excursions. Connie Joy and her husband, both well-educated and successful real estate agents in San Diego, consumed Ray’s teaching with idolic vigor. She chronicles her experiences and really goes beyond Ray’s shiny veil in her compelling book “Tragedy in Sedona: My Life in James Arthur Ray’s Inner Circle.” That subtitle is a bit of a misnomer, as Joy points out, so few were ever really let into Ray’s cloistered world. It was a world shrouded in personal shame, empty relationships and steroids. Not to mention those flat out lies.

I had a chance to chat with Joy during the trial. Trust me, she is no kook, flake or idiot. Words I’ve seen bandied about the blogosphere and on myriad social media sites to describe self-help seekers. Look, I can’t imagine myself attending such an event. But during my graduate training in counseling and psychotherapy I did endure various “group building” and “role playing” exercises, So I get the drill. I’m not a fan, but I also adhere to the whatever works school. I know it’s the price tag-$10,000– that gets folks going on the crazy culture. And while I would never fork over any greenbacks for a week in the desert, living in a hut, not eating and sleeping and sweating in unbearable heat, is simply not my thing. Still to each his own. And certainly no one signed up to die.

And no one should have died here. Joy, who didn’t attend the deadly ceremony, had participated in previous Spiritual Warrior events, and had warned Ray and other “Dream Teamers” ( the veteran volunteers who helped at each event)of the potential dangers. “People got sick the year we did it,” Joy said. “It was too hot, too extreme. A disaster waiting to happen.”

I asked Joy about her attraction to Ray, and the guru’s increasing obsession with death. On Ray: “He was charismatic, no question about it. And he had –or seemed to have–a lot of knowledge we ( she and her husband) wanted to learn as quickly as we could.”

According to Joy, Ray’s friendly, open veneer began to erode as his national prominence grew. After he was featured in “The Secret“– another sham book and movie that titillates those in the market of quick fix salvation with a most basic understanding of the Law of Attraction. The idea that you can just visualize the job, spouse, house or career of your dreams and poof it will appear, became a bestseller that has ( big surprise) been debunked big time. But along the way, the featured shamsters, including Ray, made various media appearances, including the hallowed “Oprah” show.

“As his fame grew, so did his need for more material things,” Joy says. Ray became more remote from his faithful followers and raised the fees for his seminars. Big time. And here’s another red flag, folks. While we’re all entitled to earn a living, no one needs to max out their credit cards in pursuit of personal enlightenment.

So what’s the deal with the God thing? During this same Spiritual Warrior event Ray had participants play a bastardized version of a wacky corporate team building game called The Samurai Game ( another one he had no authorization to use). Here he donned a white robe and proclaimed himself God. People had to follow various instructions and if they didn’t do them correctly or dared speak directly to God he declared them dead and they had to drop to the floor and remain “dead” for the remainder of the game, which usually lasted hours. Again, count me out!

“I don’t believe he wanted people to die,” Joy told me. “but he wanted to get them to the edge of it.His ego was so big he wanted them to have a near death experience. He wanted to be the one who brought them back.”

It’s pretty ironic when you learn that Ray himself always sat closest to the tent flap, always had the easiest access to water. And on that tragic day, not only didn’t he stop the ceremony when people became sick, he sauntered away from the scene, a scene some first responders had described as “another Jonestown,” with so many bodies strewn about ( fortunately most survived), and returned to his cabin to shower and eat a sandwich.

What’s Joy’s take on the sentence? “I am grateful that he did not get probation from this very lenient judge. Not even one year served for each life he took is not OK, ” she told me Friday via Twitter. ” I hope the families can still find some peace and the strength to go on.”

As for Ray, time will tell if emerges a humbler person. He told his brother Jon after the sentence that he’d be okay and “now I can help people in prison who need it.” I’m thinking they need help cleaning toilets or doing laundry. That’s a good place to start.

I’m sure the way things go, James Arthur Ray will exit the Big House with a phony story of redemption and hit the Mea Culpa talk show circuit selling a revamped version of the same vile snake oil.

In the meantime, folks seeking self-improvement and spiritual discovery should do their research, start small ( in terms of both money and time) and above all, never trust anyone more than you trust yourself.

Please follow Amy Beth Arkawy on Twitter.

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