James Arthur Ray

Concerns have been raised since 2000 regarding the safety and soundness of his methods.[10]

According to Grant Cardone, in 2000 Ray consulted him for methods to increase sales at business seminars, and was warned to teach only sound business practices. After this time, Ray began incorporating sleep deprivation, fasting, fire and glass walking, and his invented versions of sweat lodge ceremonies.[13]

Former attendees of Ray's seminars have reported unsafe practices and lack of properly trained medical staff in 2005. A New Jersey woman shattered her hand after she was pressured by Ray to participate in a quasi-martial arts board-breaking exercise. After several unsuccessful untrained attempts, the woman sustained multiple fractures during the seminar that was held at Walt Disney World.[14]

Participants of a James Ray "Spiritual Warrior" exercise in 2006, after signing waivers, were told to put the sharp point of an arrow used in archery against the soft part of their necks and lean against the tip. A man named Kurt sustained injuries during this exercise as the shaft snapped and the arrow point deeply penetrated his eyebrow.[15]

In July 2009, Colleen Conaway attended a seminar hosted by James Ray International in which the attendees were directed to dress as homeless people. She fell to her death at the Horton Plaza Mall in San Diego. She died as a result of injuries, and according to police, she had no identification on her person.[16][17]

In 2005, preceding the events of October 2009, a serious injury involving hospitalization was reported at the Angel Valley Ranch during a "Spiritual Warrior" retreat led by Ray. Verde Valley Fire Chief Jerry Doerksen's department responded to an emergency call that a 42-year-old man had fallen unconscious after exercises inside a sweat lodge.[18][19][20]

Following the deaths, Ray refused to speak to authorities and immediately left Arizona.[25] According to participants in the heat endurance exercise (which was misrepresented by both Ray and his organization as a "Native American sweat lodge ceremony"), a note was left that said Ray was unavailable—as he was in "prayer and meditation".[26] Ray later confirmed, during a 2013 interview with Piers Morgan, that he fled the scene rather than staying to assist with the aftermath, because "I was scared.".[27]

Investigations were commenced by the Yavapai County Sheriff department. Initial investigations concerned construction of the "sweat lodge" structure which, according to investigators, was constructed by a local (non-Native American) group under hire.[28] Jack Judd, the county building safety manager, said that there was no record of a permit or an application for a permit to build the sweat lodge.[29][30]

On October 15, 2009, after extensive interviews with participants and ancillary witnesses, the Yavapai County sheriff's office upgraded the level of the investigations into the deaths of James Shore and Kirby Brown to a 'homicide investigation'.[31] Officials claimed the nontraditional "sweat lodge" structure lacked the necessary building permits.[31] Print media began reporting that Ray conducted a conference call with some victims, one of whom recorded the call and provided it to the AP. During this call, a self-described channeler said that they had communicated with the dead and they had said they "were having so much fun" out of their bodies that they didn't want to return.[22] On October 27, Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar asked the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate the event to complement the local investigations.[32] On October 30, a wrongful death lawsuit claiming negligence, negligent misrepresentation, fraud and other actions on the part of Ray and the site owners was filed for the family of Liz Neuman. A similar action was filed for Sidney Spencer who was seriously injured. The suits sought compensatory and punitive damages alleging that defendants failed to provide adequate prior warnings, to monitor the participants' well being in the sweat lodge, and to provide medical treatment.[33][34] On November 10, Dennis Mehravar, an injured attendee from Canada, joined the Spenser suit.[35]

Ray was arrested in connection with the deaths on February 3, 2010, and bond was set at $5 million.[36] Ray's attorney argued that he could not afford the $5 million,[37] and Ray was released on February 26, 2010, after bail was reduced to $525,000.[38]

Three of the victims' lawsuits against Ray were settled before his criminal trial for a total of more than $3 million.[39]

The court case began on May 1, 2011. The prosecution rested its case on June 3, 2011, after 34 witnesses had taken the stand and 43 days of testimony.[40] On June 22, 2011, Ray was found guilty on three counts of negligent homicide, and not guilty of the manslaughter charges brought against him.[41] On November 18, 2011, Ray was sentenced to two years in prison.[42]

Native American experts on sweat lodges have criticized Ray's construction of the nontraditional sweat lodge structure as well as his ignorance of actual sweat lodge ceremonies. As Indian Country Today reported, "Ray drew the ire of Indian country from the start because the ceremony which he was selling bore little if any resemblance to an actual sweat lodge ceremony."[43] Native American leaders expressed concerns and uttered prayers for the dead and injured. The leaders say the real sweat lodge ceremony is their way of life and not a religion. It is Native American intellectual property, protected by US laws and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The ceremony should only be conducted by sanctioned lodge members who are from legitimate nations.[44] Objections to what Ray inflicted on his new age customers included Ray's complete lack of training in any form of sweat lodge ceremony (permission to lead lodges is only granted to those who have been raised in the ceremonial ways of a particular Native American community, and after many years of apprenticeship with Elders), the structure's unusual construction from non-breathable materials, charging for the ceremony (seen as extremely inappropriate), too many participants, and the excessive length of the fraudulent ceremony.[45]

The Native American community actively seeks to prevent abuses of its traditions.[46][47][48][49] The Angel Valley owners announced they have accepted Native American friends' help to "heal the land".[50] On November 12, 2009, news reported Oglala Lakotas filed a lawsuit, Oglala Lakota Delegation of the Black Hills Sioux Nation Treaty Council v. United States against the United States, Arizona, Ray and site owners, to have Ray and the site owners arrested and punished under the Sioux Treaty of 1868 between the United States and the Lakota Nation, which states that:

if bad men among the whites or other people subject to the authority of the United States shall commit any wrong upon the person or the property of the Indians, the United States will (...) proceed at once to cause the offender to be arrested and punished according to the laws of the United States, and also reimburse the injured person for the loss sustained.

The Oglala Lakota delegation believes that James Arthur Ray and the Angel Valley Retreat Center have "violated the peace between the United States and the Lakota Nation" and caused the “desecration of our Sacred Oinikiga (onikare, sweat lodge) by causing the death of Liz Neuman, Kirby Brown and James Shore".[46]

The Oglala Lakota Delegation also claims that James Arthur Ray and the Angel Valley Retreat Center fraudulently impersonated Indians and must be held responsible for causing the deaths and injuries, and destroying evidence by dismantling the structure they constructed for this fatal, heat-endurance event which they claimed was a sweat lodge ceremony. The lawsuit seeks to have the treaty enforced without seeking monetary compensation.[46]

The lawsuit was eventually dismissed in October 2010, on the ground that the case was based on a good that was being offered, and the judge deciding that the sweat lodge was a service rather than a good.[51]