A grounded and common-sense Native American perspective on the verdict and its ramifications:

[www.dcourier.com]

"If common respect was followed in the ceremony, then this person would never have done this."


"If you want to do something, you walk on your own to get it done, you don't just go out and buy it," he said. "With money, everybody and everything is common, mixed. It's the same to go to a sweat lodge as to Burger King."


There's an interesting bit where James Ray approached a Native American observer at the trial and offered his hand saying that he had learned his lesson:


'Aware that many Native Americans, individually and through organizations, were incensed over his transformation and commercial use of their traditions and practices, particularly the tradition of the sweat lodge, Ray approached Grass humbly during a break and offered his hand. Grass shook it, nodded and the two spoke quietly for a time.

"He told me he learned his lesson," Grass said later. "I said 'no, you have a lot more to learn.'"

Thanks Stoic

Interesting parallel to non-dualism. I hadn't made that distinction/connection between the sociopath and non-dual thought and perception, and it really makes sense, and also with what I understand about communism.

Sorry to get off topic; just wanted to say thanks.

Jonathan Swift, a satirist, first used the phrase: 'There are none so blind as those that will not see'

The 'seeing' here, I think, is an understanding of logic coupled with a rationally based, natural emotional reaction.
(sorry, this is difficult to express in limited language--the natural emotional reaction is devoid of extraneous added drama.)

The phrase is often used as a biblical quote but apparently does not appear in the text (I'm not a biblical scholar)

[www.phrases.org.uk]

I think that this is relevant to a discussion of James Ray and his ilk who pose a real physical threat to those who blindly follow his 'teachings', and so not off-topic----the non-dual stuff is probably best left for another place.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/06/2011 06:20PM by Stoic.

After a brief hiatus, Mr Salty is back on the case with some informed advice regarding the mitigation rebuttals for Sheila Polk, and some similarly informed bits on the sentencing restrictions.
The language and imagery is back to full-bore offensive so the tender-eared may want to skip the first few paragraphs, although I go by the old saw 'you've got to eat a peck of dirt before you die':

[saltydroid.info]


'There were 50 people in not-Ted-Mercer’s heat endurance challenge. Three of them died :: many others suffered irreparable harm. So as long as you’re emailing Ms. Polk :: you might want to mention that your life was Recklessly Endangered. According to Arizona Law …

“A person commits endangerment by recklessly endangering another person with a substantial risk of imminent death or physical injury.”

Endangerment carries a maximum sentence of 1.5 years per count. James Ray was facing 37 years for the aggravated manslaughter of three :: now he should face 70.5 years for the aggravated endangerment of 47. And that’s only 2009 … someone was making a habit of endangering “folks” in Ms. Polk’s jurisdiction. The evidence from prior years didn’t make it into the homicide trial :: but that shit still happened. Three negligent homicide convictions won’t make Stephen Ray’s kidneys :: or Daniel P’s brain :: go back to normal function. The harms didn’t start :: or finish :: with the deaths.'

A balanced bit of reporting----well after the fact:


[www.time.com]

Another great post here from LaVaughn which brings to light testimony on James Ray's habit of psychologically crushing and humiliating anyone who crossed him by refusing to go into debt for his 'teachings'

This was from a 2008 SW participant who has posted her letter to Ms Polk online and gave some further info and from another brave woman who posted her letter to Ms Polk describing the gratuitous cruel and public humilation that Ray delivered as she tried to thank him at a free event.

Worth reading as first hand, devastating accounts, even though Ray's humiliations have been mentioned here before:

[celestial-reflections.blogspot.com]

Here is an interesting bit of DeathRay mythology, that I have never come across before. I find it interesting because it is his 'wilderness moment', the obvious parallel to the doubting and temptation trial of Christ in the desert before his 'purpose' was revealed to him.

JAR was certainly eclectic in his appropriation of cultural archetypes in order to make his scamology plausible--- he didn't miss a trick.

[www.guardian.co.uk]

'Ray dropped out of junior college, joining AT&T, the phone company, as a telemarketer, then as a sales manager teaching sales techniques. Ray said he began searching for more, reading about quantum physics, studying with a Peruvian shaman, with Amazonian witch doctors and a Hawaiian kahuna, travelling to the Egyptian pyramids. Finally, he said, he fell into a deep depression and wandered in the Sinai desert for 10 days, finding himself in the cave where Moses is said to have rested before receiving the Ten Commandments.'

"That is where it all came together for me," he wrote, "where the final pieces of harmonic wealth and the quantum physics material I had studied for a decade took form."


The article has some inaccuracies, but also some new (to me, at least) snippets of observation from first hand victims. Worth reading for a general round-up.

The mythologising of JAR with his wilderness moment is, of course, bull-shit---pastiched together well after the fact in order to make a more coherent story of his elevation to messianic heights in the eyes of the followers he was working so hard to dupe out of their minds and cash.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/10/2011 08:53PM by Stoic.

There was a flurry of people claiming they got their teachings from Moses. There was even a follow up to the Secret called the Moses Code, revealing "the most powerful manifestation tool in the history of the world". Despite its awesome power, the film seems to have sunk without a trace, leaving merely a stain on Louise Hay's publishing house listings. Even the URL got sold off to online slot machines.

[www.themosescode.com]

'Even the URL got sold off to online slot machines.'

Sort of appropriate and fitting, that.

Yes, it is somehow fitting, isn't it. Come to think of it, it's an improvement. With a slot machine there is a chance of getting some return on your investment, yet no one goes around claiming that online slot machines have a "positive message" for humanity.