He really is a perverse manipulator and some type of psychopath, as can be seen in his recent torrent of Tweets.

To see those tweets and responses search Twitter for:
JamesARay [twitter.com]

He is now moving along his metaphors, by setting up his straw-man Universal Source Energy (Spirit).
For the unlearned, that is James Ray's "God", and James Ray says he is that, he is one with that. His followers know that.

He is pitching EXPANSION, which means aggressive marketing of his business to try and get some cashflow.
He is framing his one-way diatribe as a "discussion".
He moves from universal cause, to relative cause, which he says is Intention. The same garbage as The Secret.

QUOTE: "Universal Source Energy is totally impartial to what you intend as long as it's in alignment with fuller expression and expansion"

So here he goes again. Universal Source Energy USE is James Ray's definition of "God", and to James Ray it is IMPARTIAL as long as you are EXPANDING, and James Ray says he IS that energy.
(is it a coincidence that James Ray's God is called USE?)
So to James Ray, there is no such thing as evil, as long as you are expanding and expressing. The Nazi's would have liked James Ray's definition of "God".


This is why he literally does not care what happens to anyone other than himself, and why many of his followers don't care either. People get hurt and die, and they keep on trucking, they don't care.
This James Ray maniac is trying to detach people from their normal healthy human conscience, so they will follow him into the darkness and call it the light.

Why is James Ray putting his mental masturbation and junk religious beliefs out there into Twitter for everyone to see?
Its looking like he going to play the freedom of religion angle for his defense.

After looking at this from all sides for an extended period of time, a terrifying chill runs down your spine from being a witness to psychopathy, and the workings of the mind of a sociopath who can only be stopped by the judicial system.

'Since Universal Source Energy is the creator, and it's sole objective is fuller expression and expansion' it can't be other than itself'
1:28 PM Mar 1st via txt

Total self-exoneration and rationalisation for the faithful----- he can't be other than he is so what he is and what he does must be accepted as the good and righteous thing.
Pure sociopathy

twitter from Ray:
JamesARay: Prior to setting any intention you must ask, "Does this intention contribute to continued expansion and growth for me and others?"

Ray's "intention" in the death lodge was "continued expansion and growth". So his intentions were pure - giving people out of body experiences. Existence decided it was time for three people to transition and continue their growth in a higher dimension.

It's that conference call rejigged for public consumption.

I've participated in many Native American sweatlodges in my time. First of all, no charge should ever be applied for any participant in any Native American spiritual ceremony. EVER. It is, however, customary to give the water pourer and the host a pack of tobacco, as it is a sacred herb and is thrown into the fire for prayers. Not saying this is MY belief, just NA beliefs. This was not a Native American sweatlodge... it was a sweatlodge built and created by pseudospiritualists who obviously have like, um, uh, ZERO knowledge of Native American spiritual practice and are bastardizing and, in a way, raping sacred Native tradition that is thousands of years old.

If a group charges money to participate in a spiritual "adventure/weekend" of ANY kind and it includes a sweatlodge ceremony, RUN RUN RUN as fast as you can in the opposite direction.

That's one of my biggest problems with The Mankind Project, The Sterling Institute, clowns/charlatains like James Arthur Ray, etc. They abuse Native American culture and spirituality for their own personal financial gain. That alone (not to mention all th BS these groups teach) should be enough to make people stop and say, "Hey, wait a minute, something here just isn't right..."

Also, I have never, ever, EVER encountered a real Native sweatlodge that puts plastic of ANY kind on or around or in their lodge. EVER. Was he smokin' crack or something ???

Don't ever join a group, a club, or a church that is "in bed" with any of these organizations without first doing extensive research on the background and history of the organization.

It's the American capitalist way. Take something free (e.g. potable water) and make it X-treme! Bonus points for stealing the culture of those you've oppressed as a nation.

"X-treme Warrior Water!" [insert picture of white man in NDN outfit]
Now in 128oz size for X-treme thirst! Only $9.99.

What Ray did with his plastic death lodge is a particularly dangerous and ruthless example of this larger trend.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/04/2010 05:31AM by buffman.

On the Droid website there appears to be yet another NLP war brewing...the kind that makes your eyes glaze over and your head start nodding yes as you read the words and sign the contract for advanced seminar training now, as time is running out and there is only one space left...

Generic "NLP" went out of vogue many years ago, and has a terrible reputation both technically and in terms of business practices with people getting ripped off. SkepDic lists NLP as being an LGAT [www.skepdic.com] and in fact many NLP seminars were/are done with all sorts of LGAT techniques used in the trainings.
There are people running around calling themselves NLP Master Practitioners, for example, when they appear to have no actual NLP training at all, and all they do is scam people with bullshit.

Some of the old school NLPers have just relabeled what they do, and now call it something else.
But some of the old war horses that have been around for ages, still call what they do "NLP", and try to be protective of it, as that is their bread and butter.
And of course many of these "NLPers" sell the old school content of generic "NLP", but in fact do all sorts of advanced persuasion on people at the same time as a meta-process people are not aware of. In that case, the NLP content is no different than Non-Dual, New Age Secrets, Quantum Mind Physics, or any other "content" being oversold for huge profits.

One thing that is very fascinating about the remaining NLPers who are still out there, is how they do media propaganda for NLP. A recent example of this explored in this very forum is Stever Robbins.

Stever Robbins NLP Innoculations [forum.culteducation.com]

Here you have Byron Katie, who is doing much of the advanced hypno-persuasion material, as well as many other processes, and Stever Robbins says he is a close friend of Byron Katie. A guy like Stever can see EVERYTHING and every technique that Byron Katie is doing in precise detail.
But Stever Robbins and other NLP-persuaders have learned that its much more effective to make sales, if the actual processes are embedded within a New Agey content which absorbs and distracts the conscious mind. In that sense it becomes an 'art" as the technique is invisible. That is why Stever Robbins likes Byron Katie so much, her technique is invisible to most of the audience.

And when confronted with the persuasion techniques that are embedded beneath the content, they will go as far as to claim there is no such thing as NLP-based persuasion. (like when the mafia say there is no mafia)

In fact, the NLP based persuasion systems, are literally an entire industry in themselves, in which many of those who try to deny it exists are selling products!
(massive list of marketing keywords) [forum.culteducation.com]

[NLP Hypnosis Influence Persuasion patterns torrents for reference] [forum.culteducation.com]

There is an entire industry of NLP based seduction persuasion and hypnosis, but remember, none of this exists!
"The Game" "Pickup Artists" and "The Seduction Community" [forum.culteducation.com]

So the former and current NLPers who use these kind of techniques for a LIVING to pay their bills, need to make sure they keep that information away from their target customers. As they know damn well, when the customer starts to learn these processes, they will NEVER buy another one of their products ever again, as they can see what they are trying to do, and the magic is dead.
Its like a magician, they need to keep the magic tricks secret, or there is no magic. And like professional magicians, they have a code where they will not reveal how to do magic tricks, or they will be blackballed.

Its really the same type of thing with the advanced covert persuaders. They won't talk about the techniques, not out of a code, but because its their business. Only very few will get into the nitty gritty techniques, and of course they are going to charge a lot of money for that information, and also fill it with misinformation.

In terms of public comments, the pattern they use is almost always identical. They try to simply say that NLP Hypnosis Influence Persuasion patterns either do not exist, or they get into parsing the history of NLP, and what "NLP" is or isn't. The amazing thing is that some of the more advanced practitioners can use that argument about NLP and persuasion, to actually do those techniques they are denying exist!
Its like if you ask a hypno-persuader if they are using hypnosis to persuade you...they will immediately scream there is no such thing as hypnosis, and get into that argument, and say they are de-hypnotizing people from their cultural trance, and literally start doing the conversational hypnosis techniques AS they are denying they exist. Yes, the best ones do that, often to amuse themselves.

So in reality, its really a big mess of spin-doctoring and mind-manipulations. It becomes a terrible fog of confusion, so how is the average person without training supposed to make sense out of it?
Bingo.
They have created confusion, which is the first step in the persuasion process, create confusion in the targets minds, then LEAD them out of the confusion while managing their perceptions and beliefs.

So frankly its a nightmare for the average person trying to make sense out of it, as there is so much dishonesty and mind manipulations going on, never mind mere "lying". Lying does not even scratch the surface of it.
But a clue is if the persuader starts to spew a mountain of conflicting and confusing statements, and you start to feel confused. Then you know they have started working on you.
As if they can make the target feel confused and overwhelmed, they can then start to pace and lead the person out of the fog of confusion, and to perceive the situation the way they want you to.

Its a nightmare. Perhaps the only real solution is draconian, and to not give any of them 1 dollar for anything, because that is mainly what they are after.
The exception to that, are the cultish groups which can use folks without money as "volunteers" and shills for them to recruit.
Its very difficult, which is why the sharks seem to be winning.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/04/2010 07:03AM by The Anticult.

Oh and as well, of course anyone with anything to do with NLP or any of its countless derivatives, does not want it associated in any way with someone like James Ray.
Its the same as the people in The Secret all dropped James Ray as well, and would say that Ray didn't know The Secret. They don't want to get tarnished by him, so they took his name off their referral websites, and try to pretend he does not exist.

So anyone in the NLP persuasion or related fields is not going to want to point out or admit where James Ray is using pieces of 4rd generation bastardized NLP hypno-persuasion techniques on people to lock them into his system. They know that the mere ASSOCIATION to that could kill their own businesses.

There is also a very sick and even evil side to these types of extreme persuasion techniques of power and control, and some of them are being used in "seduction" and other extreme sexual content.
Maybe someone else can research that, but it is certainly out there in the BDSM and so-called Master/Slave power exploitations. This is not something that has been researched here, and is not going to be unless someone else does it, but there are websites from "Masters" who talk about how to use those precise types of persuasion coercion techniques in their sadistic "Master" power dynamics on other people.
There certainly aspects that dynamic at play with James Ray and other sadistic power-crazy Gurus, as power corrupts, and the more power they get over people, the more they want and it spirals out of control quite rapidly.

Cosmic Connie appears to touch on it in a blog post of hers about Guru of personal development Steve Pavlina which was mentioned in the Droid comments about a dominance and submission, "consensual sex slave", but have not read that entire blog post yet. [cosmicconnie.blogspot.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/04/2010 07:46AM by The Anticult.

Well, there it is. A template by Steve Pavlina, of how to use BDSM "slave" interns to staff your LGAT seminar company.
Every LGAT company uses unpaid "volunteers" to do the staffing, as amazingly its cheaper to not pay people to do your LGAT companies work, and there is more profit for the Guru.
So Pavlina is years behind the times, LGAT seminar companies and sects and cults have been using the Master/Slave power dynamic for many decades.
And they also say if its good for the Guru, its good for the follower, and they also mix it in with the sexual power dynamics.
This has James Arthur Ray written all over it, from top to bottom, from total Dominance to complete submission.


_____________________QUOTE Master Steve Pavlina_________________
[cosmicconnie.blogspot.com]
..."So would you agree that all else being equal, you’d be more likely to succeed as an entrepreneur if you could start your business with either a free slave or a free manager, assuming they’re competent? And if you can see in advance that you’re likely to succeed, wouldn’t you be more willing to dive in and try it? Wouldn’t you also be willing to stretch and take more risks in your business?

Now consider this. Would these businesses also be good experiences for the slave and the manager? Could you fathom that they might also benefit tremendously from it? For example, what if the slave is, in real life, someone just starting out on their career path, and even though they work for free, they gain tremendously valuable experience. This “slave” is essentially an intern. Similarly, the manager could be thought of as a mentor or board member.

Many variations are also possible, whereby the slave and manager could easily share in the rewards of the business.

Hopefully you get the idea. The point is that a partnership with an unequal power structure can have some serious advantages, and it could very well turn out much better than a partnership with two equal partners who share responsibility for all decisions and actions in a more balanced way.

Well, this is essentially how a D/s relationship works behind the scenes, except that instead of trying to build a business, the partners come together to help each other grow as human beings.

Although it looks asymmetrical on the surface, D/s actually has a very balanced way of fostering new growth experiences for both partners..."

___________________quote_______________________

There also seem to be some very basic misunderstandings about what "NLP" is.
NLP is not a series of persuasion techniques, its (allegedly) a way to model and copy processes that already exist in other fields.
So NLPers go out and study processes, and codify them into a teachable model that can be used by others more rapidly.

So the trained NLPer could go out and carefully study, model, and copy the best hypnotists, covert persuaders and salespeople and Gurus, for example, and figure out how they do it, and write it up. That is what they did.
That is a body of knowledge and techniques which is now generally known as NLP covert persuasion and hypnosis, or whatever you want to call it.
No one in NLP thought that stuff up, they went out and copied others techniques that already existed.
Over time, that became known as NLP persuasion, but its just a copy of other forms of persuasion that have existed previously, but now are referred to that way as a short-hand.
Of course the NLP persuaders know that, but they try to confuse people on purpose.

There are people who have gone and carefully studied (modeled) actual cult leaders with large followings, to figure out exactly how they do it. And that body of knowledge has fused with the hypno-persuasion, and sales and influence techniques.
Again, calling it "NLP" persuasion tech is just a short-hand way to refer to it.
The NLP freaks just want to take the word NLP out of it, as they are NLP freaks living in the past.
These days many of the best have just moved on, and don't use the word NLP anymore, and just call what they do something else, or deny they are doing anything and say they are teaching non-dual spirituality, or self-help, or Quantum whatever.