Re: James Arthur Ray - 2 die at Arizona retreat's sweat lodge
Date: March 28, 2010 07:16PM
I have less of a problem with Ray than I do with his followers.
James Ray is a sociopath who's behaving sociopathically. He can't behave any other way; if sociopaths could act humanely, they wouldn't be sociopaths. It's like that old joke about the frog who carries the scorpion across the river. The frog has his doubts, but the scorpion swears he won't sting the frog; if he does, he points out, they both drown.
They get halfway across the river, the scorpion stings, dooming them both. The frog demands an explanation. The scorpion says, "Well, what did you expect? It's in my nature."
So Ray is just doing what's in his nature. Are his followers?
Here's a selection of comments from Ray's "I Still Have Something Inside Me" video. (Heh. Right now he has bullshit inside him. When he goes to jail Bubba will put something altogether different inside him.)
Of the 48 comments; 3 are negative, 2 are duplicates, 1 says"Confused," 2 are equivocal, and 3 defy categorization because they read like someone who's dropped way too much acid wrote them.
The rest are like the ones below. My comments are in [brackets]:
#
jadezade what happened? why don't you have your company anymore? I am oblivious of all this, but anyway certainly looking fwd to your videos...Your book Harmonic Wealth is great...although I don't agree with all of it. By the way, I think u r hot :)
#
liveschanged09 Blessing and Abundance to you James. What a powerful lesson b4 u. I want to affirm with you. That your good is here and now! you are whole and complete in spirits eyes. Anything that is not in Love will be transformed and released. It is done!
Thank you for being the blessing that you are
#
netislander Hey James, keep on trucking. It was your words in the Secret that really helped me the most. Started me on my path. Yes what happened was sad and a tragedy and my heart, prayers, and blessings go to their love ones and they also go to you and yours. We still need people like you to help us. [No, we don't] "These things you will do and more".
#
debbielasvegas1968 It is time to heal and continue your life's work. :-) [The dead can't heal. They won't be continuing their life's work.]
#
lovefunbeer everyone makes mistakes bro your only human.
#
Feelingbetterful Thank you Mr Ray. Much love to you. Look forward to your videos :)
#
djmixmind Out of major challenges come great things.
Don't lose faith.
#
mrmonaka Hi, dear James.
Whatever you experienced, it will be another chance to quantum leap. Please embrace both support and challenge and find out love again. I am with you, James!! 1 day ago [Whatever the people who died experienced, it was not a quantum leap.]
#
yunkies Oh whao, I can see the pain in your expression. We're with you James, everybody makes mistakes. If you can look up, you can get up. [I guess the people who died couldn't look up. Also, "whao". This isn't the time for chan-speak.]
#
akitajazz UP UP AND AWAY. Nothing can keep a good man down. Can't wait to see what I am going to learn from you now. Great Challenge = Great Victory.... We all win.. Love ya [The people who died did not win. Something kept them down. Are they therefore not good?]
#
SILVIU19G long time no see James,I really missed your videos, I look forward to hearing more from you.
You're still "my hero", so keep doing what you're doing ;)
#
changinlives101 Thanks James. You've been a great inspiration to me. I look forward to hearing more of that value you never fail to provide.
#######
These messages ignore the victims utterly and praise the victimizer. (One woman is blithely "oblivious"; should people really brag about living under rocks? Although I'm not surprised that's where some of the Harmonically Wealthy reside.) Only one comment might reflect the belief system of someone who recognizes that even the most evil people might have souls and need prayer ( I don't think it does, though.)
To support James Ray is to demean the memory of the people he killed. Is this what New Age beliefs do to believers? Make the murderer more valuable than the people he murdered?
The Ray killings have been less sensationalized than the Manson Family murders, but other than that the two crimes are pretty similar. Except Ray is tanned, rested, and ready, and Manson was a ratty-looking mole person-- who didn't steal his victims' money, set himself up as their teacher and trusted friend, and then, after he killed them, hire some fancy lawyer to write a white paper saying it was all a tragic accident. So while Manson killed (or caused to be killed, but it's the same thing) many more people, I think Ray is the more vicious, perverted killer. Who wishes he'd killed many more people.
I'm sure Manson had a few followers outside of his close circle. But most of his support came from the mind-controlled runaways, castaways, and criminals who lived with him. Ray's supporters are not in that situation; they're not all heavily mind-controlled, and they can't all be sociopaths (can they?) so they have a choice about how to behave and whom to support.
They have a choice. Ray doesn't; that's why jails exist. All society can do is lock him up and prevent him from doing what's in his nature and harming people. But what do we do about his followers?