Interesting analysis from another point of view.

Quote: "To shore up persuasion’s qualities and use them on entire groups to the point of death in only a few days suggests a terrible power".

Well guess what? That is exactly what these guys are trying to do. To figure out rapid persuasion techniques, that can take people to the point of death in as short as time as possible. As then they can do whatever they want with that influence power.

These persuasion experts, even study "terrorist" groups, who have methods to take people, and over time convince them that killing themselves and murdering others is what "God" wants them to do.
There are people studying exactly how people can influence others like that, and trying to shorten the process as much as possible.

The answer is yes, in a short period of time, certain persuaders can have vulnerable people alter their core beliefs in a radical way, to the point of death.
And James Ray had access to the people who study that kind of thing.

Its amazing that more people are not aware of what's going on out there. Its not hidden knowledge, now with the net, its out there.
Persuaders try to tell people they can learn how to make others do almost anything in a short period of time. Most of them are lying, to try and sell some junk to people.
But there are people who know how to do it.
That is just a fact, its real, and they are doing it every week at these seminars, not to kill people, but to make a killing.

Tom McFeeley, a cousin of one of the victims, reports on developments in the trial:

[tommcfeeley.com]


Prior acts (previous years events and the results) are in and being aired by Ted Mercer, the fire-keeper at 2009 SW and as an Angel Valley staffer, present at several earlier events and the defence tries for a mistrial but is knocked back by the judge.


'Luis Li, Mr. Ray’s lead attorney, also said he would be filing a motion of misconduct by the prosecution, a serious allegation in a trial. We can also expect this case now to go to a higher court if the defense follows through on its threat of a special action.

The stakes have gone way up today. Mr. Ray’s talented and high priced defense team was outmaneuvered by the Yavapai County prosecutor’s office. It will give them a cause for appeal if/when their client is convicted, but that was a foregone conclusion anyway.

Now the state has many more tools in its shed to help them demonstrate James Ray knew there were risks in his sweat lodge ceremony.

And this simmering legal event is now likely to become a barroom brawl. Expect all the stops to be pulled and the intensity to increase, and to stay high through the end of the trial.'



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/07/2011 06:18AM by Stoic.

Judge denies defense motion for a mistrial:

[www.dcourier.com]

Some of the previously unseen pictures--from 2008 and 2009-- entered into evidence, in this blog on the last two days hearing involving Ted Mercer, the fire-keeper at SW 2009:

[celestial-reflections.blogspot.com]

The author does a good job of highlighting the defence manoeuvres also in asking: Luis Li, dolt or deliberate manipulator?

The SaltyDroid (legally qualified himself) is also posting a continuous twitter stream of his observations, with vid and pics, on the proceedings:

[saltydroid.info]

Witness at DeathRay trial pulled two victims from DeathLodge:

[www.dcourier.com]

Here's a good overview article on the DeathRay debacle that highlights the man's ignorance, hubris, lack of training and complete lack of understanding of his own responsibility towards his followers:

[www.azcentral.com]

Bob Proctor, who has his own New Thought-based business to protect, speaks in JAR's defence:


'Then the deaths at the 2009 sweat lodge turned Ray's fame into notoriety and decimated his self-help business. Ray's lawyers dispute the medical examiner's findings that the victims died of heat stroke; his attorneys maintain that they may have died of some toxics given off by tarps or wood used to heat the stones.

Whatever the cause of death, Proctor, Ray's mentor, cites the Law of Attraction. "He has attracted this; why I don't know. There's a great lesson in it for him, whether he learns it or not," Proctor said. "Since the trial started, I've talked with him by text message, and he's asking himself some very serious questions."

The main bulk of the article lays out in detail the number of falsehoods and deceptions Ray perpetrated on his followers regarding his knowledge and training of the hotchpotch of methods he used to work his scam.

I would suggest that the most pressing question Ray is asking himself is: "How do I get out of this mess and carry on making money with my business intact?"---which would explain the firm of very high-priced lawyers he has employed to come up with bizarre excuses for him and attempt to bamboozle and bore the jury into submission.

Just in case anyone is still in doubt, there is no secret teaching of any kind and no secret masters hidden away, willing and waiting to pass on the key to everything one can desire.
The local library is a far better bet, for those inclined to the aquisition of arcane knowledge.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/11/2011 06:08AM by Stoic.

Bob Proctor, what a self-centered horses-ass.
4 human beings died at James Ray's New Age LGAT seminar events in a few months, and many others were injured. And many others were injured at other past events, and many others had their life-savings taken at other events.

And all this fool Bob Proctor can talk about is James Ray's life lessons?
This is because Bob Proctor is worried about Bob Proctor, as he is linked and connected to James Ray and many others just like him.

Guys like Bob Proctor have been doing this so long, they know its a scam and sham, and its about lining the pockets of the new age Gurus. They see the people getting "legally" robbed with psy-ops on a daily basis.
They just don't care, and rationalize it.

Bob Proctor is not too bright, that is for sure. But he is bright enough to know this is a multi-billion dollar scam, and he is in the middle of it.
Bob Proctor endorsed James Arthur Ray, even though it was 100% obvious to anyone who knows anything about these types of things, that James Ray was one of the worst, one of the most greedy, selfish, and reckless.
Frankly, that is what the other Gurus like about James Ray, as he was so ruthless, it gave them ideas on how to make more money faster.

Then when people end up dead, guys like Bob Proctor have to try to walk a tightrope between their endorsement of an alleged killer who is before the courts charged with manslaughter, and their bogus Laws of Attraction fraud that don't exist.
If one thinks for a second logically, what happened shows that Bob Proctor is a fraud, any way you think about it. He endorsed the guy, and it ended in a catastrophe.
Buy Bob Proctors own illogic...then...
WHY DID BOB PROCTOR ATTRACT AND CREATE THE JAMES RAY CATASTROPHE?
He endorsed it, so he created it, right Bob Proctor?
Oh that's right, your bogus New Thought nonsense only applies to other people, not to yourself.

And if the Law Of Attraction exists for James Ray, then it exists for those who died too. That is what Bob Proctor is saying, through the backdoor. Bob Proctor doesn't have the nerve to say that upfront as he knows that would end his career. But that is what those guys believe.

These guys are truly the lowest of the low, with their self-righteous nonsense about their non-existent laws of the universe, that they dupe people with to charge a fortune for nothing.

Shame on Bob Proctor.

If there were those bogus laws of the universe, then all these LGAT scammer seminar Gurus would have been charged, convicted and jailed for fraud many years ago.

CNN article on Kirby Brown
[www.cnn.com]

The trial is currently in recess until Thursday following another motion for a mistrial from the defence:

[edition.cnn.com]

The robot (who has legal training)

[saltydroid.info]

has predicted that there will be up to five attempts to declare a mistrial by the defence, mostly because they do not have a viable defence and so are relying on procedural mis-steps to free their client and earn their enormous fees.

Here is the judicial order denying the mistrial and explaining the judge's reasoning:

[apps.supremecourt.az.gov]




There was another sweat lodge internet commentator mentioned in the court room (info courtesy of the Salty Droid, again)

[bogus-sweatlodge.com]

and I found this interesting article on one of the very few SW participants who refused to toe the party line and shave her head at JAR's direction. She gives a first hand account of the peer pressure she felt and her thinking process in resisting conforming to that peer pressure.
Her refusal to conform to the norm and shave her head led her then to also follow her own counsel and give participation in the deadly sweat tent a miss--no mean thing to do when one has spent such an amount of $$$$$ (almost $10.000) for the express purpose of experiencing the event of which the sweat tent was hyped as the culmination and crowning achievement.

I found this interesting mainly for the common-sense thought process she outlined and which the blogger, a sweat-lodge enthusiast and veteran, picked up on:

[bogus-sweatlodge.com]


'Ms. Hafstad sensed the danger and responded using the very principles most traditional sweatlodges move through – find clarity of perception, formulate a response, resolve emotional sensibility, and respond with integrated action. Yet when she presented that resolve to her two roommates who felt scared and nauseous, they responded with blind faith in James Ray.'



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/2011 07:05PM by Stoic.

There was an interesting response from James Ray on twitter to the defence claims of a 'Brady violation' which led to this second motion for a mistrial:

[twitter.com]

'Judge ruled it was Brady... That's in our favor. Now he needs to decide what to do. Woohooo!!
10:16 AM Apr 13th via Ping.fm '

Apart from the unseemly triumphalism at the propect of walking away scot-free-- from a man intimately involved in the deaths of four of his paying customers---- I found interesting that this is the first direct response to the fatal events that JAR has publicly posted in over a year.

It stands out like a sore thumb amongst the endless stream of feel-good homilies and advice on becoming a superior person that he continues to post for the edification of his faithful followers and in an attempt to keep his guru status afloat.

An unguarded glimpse of the real and anxiously desperate and apprehensive 'man behind the curtain', maybe?



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/2011 07:37PM by Stoic.