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SAN DIEGO – Controversial self-help guru James Arthur Ray is on the lecture circuit again.

Ray is speaking at a question-and-answer event in Phoenix on Sept. 11.

In November 2011, Ray was sentenced to two years in prison after being found guilty in the 2009 deaths of three people during his Arizona sweat lodge ceremony.

The event will cost $197 to hear James Arthur Ray answer questions for four hours with no pitch or script at an undisclosed Phoenix hotel ballroom.

One Scripps Ranch woman who was once part of Ray’s inner circle does not believe his prison sentence has changed him one bit.

“I think he just got a little angrier and is set in his ways,” said Connie Joy.

Joy spent nearly three years participating and volunteering at Ray’s seminars and events. She said there were definite warning signs that she saw leading up to the October 2009 sweat lodge deaths.

Ray, who has his business based in the North County, was convicted of felony negligent homicide and spent two years in prison. His experience behind bars now forms the basis of his new self-help program.

“He’s trying to spin this that he had an accident with a few close friends and that he’s terribly sorry about it," Joy said. "These were clients. Their lives were in his hands, and he really abused that responsibility."

Joy, who wrote a book about her experiences with Ray, said he can be very charismatic, and that's why some seminar attendees didn't mind shelling out $10,000 to hear his messages.

“He’s a very good teacher. Unfortunately, I don’t trust him and what he says and what he claims are his credentials,” said Joy. “It’s unfortunate because he has a gift, but I don’t think he’s using it to his best.”

Joy added if she could have a moment with her former boss, who is trying to make a comeback to the self-help circuit, she would tell him he knows better and really needs to be doing something different.

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I should know, because I was a gullible follower of those "plastic shamans," as the Native Americans call them, for years.

I used to be obsessed with anything Native American.

Back in Germany, where people are easily duped by so-called "shamans" and "spiritual Indian teachers" touring the country, I had a Native American teacher (who later ended up in jail for defrauding and mutilating women in his alleged "rite of passage" ceremonies). There was also an "official spokesman of the Hopi" who used to give made-up messages from the Hopi Elders.

Bavaria is also a hub for a huge number of followers of Dhyani Ywahoo, who runs the Sunray Peace Village in Lincoln, VT.

But let's start from the beginning, and I'll tell you the whole story.

When I still lived in Germany, I absolutely LOVED all things Native American (still do, but now I have much more respect and don't spend my hard-earned money on those fake ceremonies and workshops anymore.)

Through friends, I found this Native American teacher, a very interesting character, to say the least. He seemed genuine, but I learned later that:

a) he had a habit of marrying younger German women who could financially support him;

b) that he couldn't go back to the US because he'd be arrested at the border (for what, I still don't know)

c) he went to jail because in some kind of self-styled "puberty ritual," he sowed women's vaginas together (without anaesthesia, of course, because true Indians aren't afraid of pain).

Unbelievable? Maybe. More unbelievable, though, may be that women were naive enough to allow him to do that.

Though I can see how that happened. I had one ritual with him (NOT the puberty one!), and his reasoning was very compelling. He basically said that in today's Western societies, so many people are emotionally and spiritually stunted because there are no real rites of passage anymore for kids (which I think is true).

In traditional Native American tribes, the boys' rite of passage was the "vision quest" at the age of 12-14, and the girls' rite of passage was a celebration when they got their first period and so became women. In our over-modernized Western world, we don't have those anymore, he said, and so many people would stay "boys and girls" throughout their entire lives and never reach full maturity.

There IS something to that, I must say... when you watch old movies from the '40s and '50s, you never see a grown man who still acts like a juvenile, whereas today it seems to be almost the norm. And I know many women -- for some reason especially those without kids -- who seem to stay girls perpetually; that even goes for some that I know that are in their sixties now.

(Some text omitted for brevity. You can read the entire essay here.

Anyway, I went to those Elders Gatherings for three years, and it was great. I totally loved it. They have two ceremonial arbors there, which are decorated for the gatherings; the bigger one is the regular arbor, which you have to enter clockwise after being smudged, and then find a seat to hear the teachings and speeches, and participate in the ceremonies and dances. The smaller arbor is the so-called "Moon Arbor," where women who have their period must go since they can't be with the others in the regular arbor. As far as I know, traditionally women in their moons were excluded from ceremonies because, according to what I've heard, their power in that time was so chaotic but strong at the same time that they could wreck an entire ceremony and cause havoc for the other participants... hence the "Moon Arbor."

It was a great experience to go there; for the Elders Gatherings, people would come from all over the US, Canada, France, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, etc. and gather for a few days in peace and harmony. It was beautiful.

HOWEVER, after I'd gone there for three years or so, I happened to stumble over this Native American message forum on the Internet called "New Age Frauds and Plastic Shamans" (NAFPS), which was established by *real* Native Americans. I learned a lot through that website -- actually more than I ever wanted to know, to be honest with you.

First of all, it turns out that most Native Americans hate white/semi-white/native people who twist and warp their traditional ceremonies and sacred teachings and supplement them with New Age mumbo-jumbo. They call these people "Twinkies" and have nothing but contempt for them. What they basically say is that learning about true Native American spirituality is a way of life and takes years if not decades; it's not something you do in a weekend workshop.

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I spent the better part of 4 years moving amongst that crowd. I wasn't there as a wide-eyed believer but I did keep an open mind. I bet I know 20 "Shaman" and 5 times that many light workers. Myriad channellers too.

The access I enjoyed included spending time with some of the best-selling authors and 'guru' types of the new age movement. I've never seen more neurotic folk in my life than those at the 'top' of this field. The Celestine Prophecy? Please believe me when I tell you folk like that have NOTHING to teach you about being a more peaceful and "connected to the Source" human-being.

Whenever I've deeply considered the philosophy of another human being, I don't just listen, but look at their life. Time & time & time again the rhetoric was lofty and beautiful but the reality of their lives--to put it simply--was not.