Today, October 8, 2023, is the 14th anniversary
of the day that sociopathic New-Wage/McSpirituality guru/cult
leader James Arthur Ray killed two of
his followers: Kirby Brown and James Shore, and set in motion the
death, nine days later, of a third follower, Liz Neuman. The
instrument of their deaths was a fake and utterly reckless "sweat lodge"
ceremony in Sedona, Arizona, that also
injured dozens of other participants. The phony sweat lodge was
the "final challenge" at Ray's pricey "Spiritual
Warrior" workshop.
Ray, who had shot to fame following his appearance in the
simplistic and crassly materialistic New-Wage moviemercial The Secret, was
convicted of negligent homicide for the three deaths in Sedona --
and consequently served less than two years in an Arizona state
prison -- but he was never criminally charged in the death of yet
another follower, Colleen Conaway, at a San
Diego Ray event a couple of months before Sedona.
For Ray, the daze of the four- and five-figure live events such
as Spiritual Warrior would seem to be over, and that's a good
thing. His homicide creds are right there at the top of the page on Google search results along with the promotional stuff, and
although he has been struggling mightily to make a comeback since
his release from prison more than 10 years ago, framing the whole
Sedona thing as a super-major trial and tribulation for him,
his audience -- both live and online -- has shriveled like the
balls of a long-time steroid user.
JAR joins up with the reich-wing
conspiranoids and conspicuous contrarians
For instance, a glance at Ray's Xitter
account shows a pathetic level of
engagement via responses and reposts, and a minuscule number of
views. Granted, the same could be said about my Xitter account
too, which gets even less engagement and fewer views than Ray's,
but I'm a social media nobody and never pretended to be anything
but that.
When I checked out Ray's Xitter today, I admit to
feeling a stab of pity for him, so I decided to engage, since nobody else was doing so. I responded to a post
on which he wrote, "We have seen more real time footage of
Israel in the last two days than we've seen in 3 years from
Ukraine. What's really going on in Ukraine?"
I had already seen those very words from numerous
reich-wing politicos and proud contrarians who litter my feed
despite my best efforts. Actually I remember first seeing it as a
Xitter post by Donald J Trump Junior, aka DJTJ, aka Traitor Tot, the eternally triggered, coked-up elder son of
#NeverWasMyPresident Donald J Trump. And from what
I've seen, the commentators who have cited this post, either
agreeing with it or scoffing about it, have all attributed it to
DJTJ.
This clearly was not an original thought, in other
words, despite the fact that Ray presented it as his own, rather
than as a repost or a quote post. So I complimented him on his
parroting of right-wing talking points before casually mentioning
that October 8, 2023 is the 14th anniversary of his Death Lodge.
(I didn't take the time to point out that, especially in the days
and weeks following the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine back
in February 2022, there was nonstop, wall-to-wall, multimedia
coverage of the matter, and a slew of real time footage. Even now there's abundant coverage.)
Ray engaged right back, telling me that I
was parroting "mainstream propaganda" and that I should
watch the video pinned in his feed, but insinuating that I
probably won't because I am "rooted in mind control."
My first thought upon reading this was that James Arthur Ray has
zero standing when it comes to calling out mind control, since
relentless, aggressive, targeted mind control was his stock in trade for years, and was a central cause of the deaths and
injuries of his followers.
And in case you're wondering, the reason his
response does not show up on the screenshot that appears at the
beginning of this post is that he hadn't yet responded at the
time I created the graphic, and I didn't feel like going back and
revising it. But you can see the exchange for yourself right here. You might also observe that so far, nobody has
"liked" either my response or his response to me; at
least that was the case last time I checked. [Update: It now appears that my response has
one "like." His response to me still has zero likes,
although it does have more views than my comment, for some
reason. I guess he checks back frequently.]
I think it's pointless for me to engage further in
that particular conversation, but between you and me, it looks as
if Jimmy A Ray has jumped aboard the reich-wing conspiranoia
train. A closer look at his Xitter feed reveals that in between
the usual self-promo posts, bits of McSpirituality wisdumb, and whining about being censored on social media for being a
truth-teller, there is an abundance of
reich-wing political pearl clutching about Biden, Obama,
immigrants invading the US through the Southern border, and so
forth. Oh, yeah, and retweeting vintage Donald J Trump, or retweeting posts that lionize Orange Droolius.
Which comes as no surprise on this Whirled: in the
past few years it has become increasingly clear that Scamworld and reich-wing politix go together like peas
and carrots. And the scammers all seem
to luv their Mango Mussolini.
Ray, like so many others, seems to have discovered a $weet $pot
in the marketplace of ideas, prompting him to pander to the
gullible, the disillusioned, and the broken: people who, if
they're at all politically inclined, are for the most part moving
steadily rightward, lured by the deeply toxic siren song of Trumpism. He
welcomes with open arms the conspiranoids and conspicuous
contrarians who see a demonic (leftist/liberal) plot behind every
adverse event, and who, like rebellious tweenagers, reflexively
reject everything that they perceive as "mainstream" if
it doesn't fit their narrative.
Many of these are the same folks
who flock to serial scammer Kevin Trudeau, who has been
crapitalizing for years on "forbidden" information that
"they" (the government, Big Pharma, mainstream culture,
et al.) "don't want you to know." And in many cases,
they're the same ones who have donned the red caps and prostrated themselves
before the MAGA maniac. You can hardly
blame JAR for wanting some of that action.
"Yes! We are all
individuals!"
What's amusing is that Ray is taking great pains
to brand himself as the guru of "Independent
Thinking" (it's right there in his Xitter description), when
in fact -- and forgive me for stating the obvious -- that's
nothing more than a ruse to suck people into his web. In the pinned video that he urged me to watch but
scornfully concluded that I probably wouldn't -- but that I did
in fact watch (there's a YouTube link to it in the second to last
paragraph of this post) -- he declared that even though he had
become famous via the The Secret for teaching the Law of
Attraction, his core specialty for decades had been teaching
people how to think independently and reject the mainstream
narrative. (He also claimed his teachings were Bible-based.
Uh-huh.)
Accordingly, his accusation that I was parroting
mainstream propaganda was right on-brand, even if it was totally
off the mark. Ray's shtick is anything but original, of course.
Kevin Trudeau and numerous others in Scamworld -- not to mention
Trump himself -- have claimed in their own ways to nurture
"individuality" and "independent thinking"
and other flavors of empowerment, when in fact they're only
encouraging rejection of the mainstream in order to redirect
loyalty to themselves. You know, just like cult leaders do. Again, forgive me for stating the obvious.
As for that video that Ray cited in his response
to me, I suppose I can also be forgiven for thinking at first that it
might be an examination, however misguided, of the truth about
the wars in Ukraine and Israel, since that was the topic of his
original post, and since it was that post to which I was
referring when I said he was parroting right-wing talking points.
But I should have known better, should have immediately snapped
to the fact that Ray, ever the malignant narcissist, makes
everything about him.
He was focused not on the matter
of the two wars, or to the issue of partisan talking points, but
on my mention of the Death Lodge anniversary. And that pinned
video (to which, again, there's a YouTube link in the next
paragraph) was indeed all about him, presenting a very skewed narrative
of the horrible events in 2009, and how unfairly and unjustly he
had been treated for something that wasn't his fault, but that
the mainstream media painted as his fault. We've heard it all
before.
In any case, as long as he continues to try to
claw his way back to the top of an industry that has more than
its share of sociopaths and predators, I feel duty-bound to post
periodic reminders of why you should not listen to James Arthur
Ray. He is still spewing his toxic lies, still playing his dual role of faux-hero and martyr --
and most of all, still refusing to take any blame for the deaths
and injuries of his faithful followers -- and the people he
killed are still dead.
Never forget.
This post has been expanded and
updated since its original publication on October 8, 2023.
~ CC
Related on this Whirled
- October 2010: Musings on a tragedy and its meanings.
I published this on the one-year anniversary of the infamous "sweat lodge," framing my musings around a review of Connie Joy's Tragedy in Sedona: My Life in James Arthur Ray's Inner Circle. That's another one you need to read. - April 2019: From drawn-and-quartered martyr to "Crisis
Coach": James Arthur Ray's newest desperate gimmick
This is just one of numerous posts about Ray's arrogant yet pathetic attempts to reestablish himself as a selfish-help superstar. In this one we focus on Ray's efforts to brand himself as a "Crisis Coach." - August 2020: Whiny babies of Scamworld
Of the three "whiny babies" I wrote about in this post, James Arthur Ray is the worst, because even after being directly responsible for the deaths of four people at his events, and directly responsible for the physical and emotional injuries of countless others, he continues to paint himself as the real victim. - October 2022: 13 years after James Arthur Ray's deadly sweat lodge, cults are still a danger
This post, published last year on the Death Lodge anniversary, was a tale of two Virginias, one despicable one (that would be the infamous Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, insurrectionist extraordinaire, who was once a member of a selfish-help cult), and one admirable one: Virginia Brown, mother of one of James Arthur Ray's death lodge victims, Kirby Brown. One of the ways that Kirby Brown's family chose was to found a nonprofit organization, SEEK Safely to help educate the public, hold self-help leaders accountable, and hopefully avoid more deaths and injuries at the hands of reckless gurus. Even if you don't read my post, I urge you to visit the SEEK Safely site, which is continually expanding. You will find a wealth of useful information, as well as opportunities to get involved if you're so inclined.
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