@KaiserSoce

"This is the guy that supposedly "taught" James Ray all that he knows."

Do you have a source for this? Seems to me like James Ray stole a lot from Tony Robbins and other LGAT leaders, sampling widely and not just from one person. Also, I can't find the videos you mentioned--can you provide a specific link?

Tad James was mentioned as an influence of James Arthur Ray in some of the public photos from the crime scene (see [www.examiner.com] ) This doesn't necessarily make Tad James guilty by association--James Ray also performed Stanislav Grof's technique of Holotropic Breathwork without certification or permission (see [www.examiner.com] ).

All white folk who teach techniques taken from indigenous people are not necessarily guilty of cultural appropriation by definition--some are properly trained and initiated into the native culture.

That said, the fact that there are no prices listed anywhere on Huna.com is suspicious. Using indigenous religion to sell "prosperity" as in the "Huna Prosperity Weekend" is suspicious (especially if it ends up being a very high-priced seminar, meaning the only person guaranteed to prosper is the seminar facilitator). The fact that Matthew B. James lists Tony Robbins as a teacher, Transcendental Meditation as an early practice (a known cult), and claims NLP Master Trainer status trained by Richard Bandler with no mention of the cultishness of these groups means BUYER BEWARE. He may or may not be a coercive persuader, but multiple red flags are present.

It's not necessarily illegal to sell expensive workshops on manifesting money magically, but it is a scam in my opinion.

Hawaii is a beautiful place--I wouldn't mind attending a workshop there. But yes, the sword does cut both ways. Having a seminar in an exotic far away location not only creates a special experience that might make it easier to examine some things in your life, but also by taking you far away from your familiar circumstances and across multiple time zones it can also compound problems if other elements of coercive persuasion are present. For instance, traveling far away to attend a seminar can create a context in which most of the participants are starting with sleep deprivation, which can be made much worse if the workshop goes from 8 or 9am to midnight or later.

There are no schedules or itineraries for the advertised workshops on Huna.com, which also makes me suspect the workshops may have long hours and "secret" exercises which break down participants in ways that may have harmful side-effects. But I don't know for sure--just seems to fit the pattern.

Quote
KaiserSoce
Gotta bring attention to this...

www.huna.com

This is the guy that supposedly "taught" James Ray all that he knows. Here's a guy that is talking about how Ray is teaching techniques and ceremonies that he shouldn't be teaching. This guy (Matthew B. James) is the very SAME guy that:
1. is doing the same thing through his "Huna" teaching (Hawaiian Shamanism) - and believe me, this guy is about as far from Native Hawaiian lineage as one can be and
2. this guy is being sued by his own father for fraud. Guess who his father is?
3. Tad James himself.

What's funny about this, is how Matthew B. James is trying to distance himself as much as he can from Ray through his PR efforts through these various videos. (see videos on site). All the while, still selling the very same sort of LGAT's on his site. Talk about hipocracy! Just watch how he throws James Ray under the bus in some of these videos to save his own ass.... all the while, still selling the very SAME sort of package on his site. This guy needs to go down too.

www.huna.com

Anyone know why all of these people choose to hold their seminars on Hawaii? Is it because they want their participants to be as far away from their families as possible???

Tad James is a flagrant NLP covert hypnosis-persuasion artist master manipulator, and moustache artiste, who has been doing this stuff for many years.
He has also been doing the Huna swindle-dance for a very long time. www.ancienthuna.com
Tad James is based in Hawaii, and one imagines that's why his son is running the same game.
You can see it a family business. [www.huna.com]

These guys can take your Timeline and stuff it upside your head and out your colon before you know what hit you. Watch out, these guys make others look like a clown in a grass skirt, in terms of skill level, salesmanship, and total lack of even basic ethics.


Richard Bandler despised Tad James with unusual vigor.
Tad James VS Richard Bandler [www.nlpconnections.com]

John Grinder also slammed Matthew and Tad James below.

Matthew James, Son of Tad, even admits he was in the Siddha Yoga cult. But notice the trick language, he says he was a "student" of Richard Bandler, but doesn't say he was certified by Bandler.
Most likely he was "certified" by his dad Tad James, who offers bogus online NLP products to anyone with cash. www.nlpcoaching.com

This tricky language is the same as is being used by Dave Lakhani, who refuses to verify who "certified" him in NLP [forum.culteducation.com] which means he is clearly NOT certified. Yes, some people just make stuff up.


___________QUOTE______________
[www.huna.com]
Matt began his studies at an early age, by learning teachings such as meditation and siddha yoga. As a young boy he studied with great teachers such as Baba Muktananda and Uncle George Naope (one of the most highly respected authorities on Hawaiian hula and chants, and has even been honored with the "Living Golden Treasure" designation). In the 80s, he studied with Tony Robbins and was invited by Richard Bandler, the legendary co-founder of NLP, and Wyatt Woodsmall, also a pioneer in the NLP field, to continue his education. Matt was chosen as one of Bandler's select-few students, eventually becoming certified as an NLP Master Trainer (a level that takes most people years to achieve, if at all).

__________QUOTE_____

[www.inspiritive.com.au]
Statement from Dr. John Grinder regarding the namejacking of www.JohnGrinder.com by the Tad James Organization October 2000

I wish to bring to the attention of the NLP community a situation which is highly incongruent with the ethics of work and play within this same community.

Some months ago, Matthew James, son and collaborator of Tad James, a publicly recognized figure in the NLP world registered both my name and the name of the other co-creator of NLP, Richard Bandler as domain names.

Essentially this means that when some person seeking a connection with either myself or Bandler searches the world wide web using our very own names, they are connected to the James website.

These unethical actions were taken without any permission, consultation or notification to me and they do not represent any connection I desire with respect to my name. I have repeatedly requested that this practice known on the www as name jacking and considered even within the anarchic environment of the web to be one of the lowest criminal actions possible - to date, the James have chosen not to comply or even respond.

Evidently there are those within the NLP community who have failed to make the simple and honest distinction between modeling and stealing. Further apparently not satisfied to simply misappropriate patterning which I and others have worked years to codify without reference to or acknowledgment of our work for their personal profit, the James have decided to attempt to steal our names.

We request that members of the NLP community make their response to this despicable situation apparent to the James directly at their website which (sadly) you can get to by clicking on : www.JohnGrinder.com .

I suggest further that this information be make available to alert otherwise well intentioned seekers of knowledge of NLP of the ethical shortcomings of the James organization - after all, if the messenger is fundamentally incongruent with the message they carry, how will this reflect on us all in our endeavor to bring the patterning of excellence to those interested in improving the quality of their lives.

All the best,

John Grinder
Co-creator of NLP

Update November 2000
We ran an email campaign sending this statement to everyone we new in the NLP community and asking them to forward it on to their colleagues. Within 3 days the directing of the www.JohnGrinder.com to the James website was discontinued!


_______________________unquote_______________________

Tad James has been deeply involved in every aspect of hypnosis/persuasion for a very long time.
To see a sample of what is out there, for educational purposes, one could search Google for:


torrent "tad james" hypnosis




Tad James - Deep Trance Phenomena
Tad James - Huna
Tad James - Master Practitioner - 2002
Tad James - NLP & Ericksonian Hypnosis

James Ray--or his legal team-- has made a post on his blog saying that they have interviewed participants and witnesses and can conclusively state that DeathRay is much maligned and not responsible.
Law enforcement investigators can all go home, then.

DeathRay blog post

I just read a post on Salty Droid by Injun Samuri that states that James Arthur Ray is to Charged by the Lakota in Federal Court!! Here is a link to the Complaint!!
[www.sedona.biz]

Another thing about James Ray that is really disturbing, even now when James Ray has few fans left, the few he has that appear on Twitter, are almost without exception young women.

James Ray twitter search [twitter.com] www.twitter.com/#search?q=jamesaray

James Ray also programmed young women to dress in black to be his Death Angels, to cover up injuries at seminars, and the death of Colleen Conaway, among many other things.
It would take specific research and focus, to figure out exactly how James Ray has targeted these young women, and brought them in. That is not an accident, its specific targeting.
There is something extremely disturbing about that aspect of all of this.


What comes to mind is a type of modern Svengali complex.
There is a massive industry, on those who attempt to use these covert hypnosis techniques to allegedly "seduce".
One would have to study the James Ray material, but he has to be engineering "love", sex, and an idealization of himself, targeted at young women, in his material.
Rael from the Raelians cult also has figured out how to target young women.
Its similar how other gurus engineer their followers to look at them as a Divine Being.

Here is a link with a huge sample of keywords used in this Seduction Hypnosis area. [forum.culteducation.com]


To get a glimpse of this dark industry, search Google for:

covert hypnosis seduction

Here's a link to a superb article about malignant narcissism. It's long, but worth it. The main subject is L.Ron Hubbard, and there's a lot of discussion of Joseph Smith and others of that ilk.

This article addresses Anticult's question about Ray and his women followers quite well, and provides a great deal of insight into Ray, Andrew Cohen and many of the other exploiters we write about in this forum.

[www.arts.ualberta.ca]

"The fact:
No one, including Mr. Ray, could have foreseen sweat lodge consequences even remotely close to what occurred here. " from the deathray Blog.

I have been to three Sweat Lodges; all legitimate First Nations Lodges. The third one i attended put me off Sweats for awhile, having said that it is the RESPONSIBILITY of the people offering the Sweat Lodges to foresee ANY possible negative consequences and make sure they take precautions. These ancient ceremonies are not to be entered into lightly, nor are they to be presented lightly, or messed about with by amateurs.

The Shad

"I am fully aware and understand that I will be given the opportunity by the Company to
participate in physical, emotional and other activities during the Event, some of which
may take place outdoors and/or require the participants to be isolated from one another and/or include very loud music. I am fully aware that I may suffer physical, emotional,financial or other injury during any of the Activities and there is and can be no assurance or guarantee regarding my health or safety in connection with my
participation in the Activities. I understand that (1) there are inherent risks in the
Activities; (2) people may have been seriously injured by participating in the Activities;
and (3) if I voluntarily choose to participate in the Activities, there is a risk that I may
receive injuries requiring medical attention. I fully understand and acknowledge that
there is no requirement whatsoever that I participate in the Activities. If I do choose to participate in any of the Activities, I affirm that I have not been nor will I be coerced or persuaded in any way to do so and I assume full responsibility for and risk of any injury sustained in connection with the Activities, whether caused by the negligence of Releasees or otherwise.

I also understand that the Company does not purport to offer any medical, psychological, therapeutic, religious, or other professional advice at the Event and that the information provided at the Event is not a substitute for professional psychological or psychiatric care. I agree that under no circumstances shall Releasees be liable to me based on my use or misuse of and/or reliance on any information provided to me at the Event. And I assume full responsibility for and risk of any injury whether personal, financial or otherwise that I might incur based on such use, misuse and/or reliance thereon..." don't want to include all of this post, but
YIKES!!!!
who in their right mind would sign something like this???
The Shad

It's quite extraordinary that someone who charges 10 grand can then turn around and say he's not responsible for anything. And even more ridiculous to say he needs a "team of investigators" to find out what happened right before his eyes.

It seems from the witness statements that he went off and had a shower while CPR was being performed on two people. Maybe he would've known what happened in his own sweat lodge if he'd stuck around. (That he left the scene to shower and have a late lunch is clear. If it was literally as the witness reported it needs to be corroborated.) Interestingly, another witness said inside the lodge, Ray was lying down on his back with his legs stretched out, propped up a bit on his elbows. He couldn't see a thing.

And this latest screed on his blog sounds really desperate. Labeling all the accusations against him and all the witness statements as "rumors" is an insult to all concerned. And ironically all his "facts" are actually rumors he's trying to spread; and all the "rumors" sound like fairly obvious facts to me.