[www.azcentral.com]


Heat stroke, hyperthermia caused sweat-lodge deaths

by Glen Creno - Mar. 16, 2010 04:52 PM
The Arizona Republic

CAMP VERDE — The three people who died after a sweat-lodge event near Sedona last year were victims of heat stroke or hyperthermia, autopsy reports released Tuesday said.

It was the first official declaration of what caused the deaths of Lizbeth Neuman of Minnesota, Kirby Brown of New York and James Shore of Wisconsin. Portions of the reports were ordered released by Yavapai County Superior Court Judge Warren Darrow following a hearing Tuesday.

Darrow agreed with prosecutors and lawyers for the defense and victims' families that detailed autopsy reports and photographs should not be released.

"There is intensely personal stuff" in the full reports, said Phoenix attorney Shannon Clark, who represents Shore's family.

All of the deaths were ruled accidental.

According to autopsy summaries:

• Brown, 38, was found unconscious by emergency medical service workers, with a bystander doing cardiopulmonary resuscitation. She was in cardiac arrest. She was taken to the hospital where she was essentially dead on arrival at Angel Valley Retreat Center. Toxicology tests indicated nothing unusual. Based on the available information, the medical examiner concluded she died accidentally from heat stroke.

• Shore, 40, was found unconscious at the scene, with someone doing CPR. He had no pulse. He also was essentially dead on arrival at Angel Valley Retreat Center. The medical examiner concluded he died accidentally from heat stroke.

• Neuman, 49, died in a hospital several days after the sweat lodge event. Neuman, the report said, died accidentally as a result of "multisystem organ failure due to hyperthermia due to prolonged sweat lodge exposure."

The pubic is safer because Arizona has taken action in this terrible case.
Unlike the death of Colleen Conaway in San Diego during a previous James Ray seminar, where San Diego did nothing. He must have thought because he got away with the death and cover-up during the seminar in San Diego, he could get away with more.


__________quote__________________
[verdenews.com]
James Arthur Ray trial to take 3 to 4 months
By Jon Hutchinson
Staff Reporter

CAMP VERDE - ...
Polk asked the judge about a pending press request for contents of the telephone calls and details of Ray's visitor roster, but Darrow said that decision will be coming soon.

Polk told Darrow the prosecution would present 60 witnesses and suggested that 45 days would be needed, in addition to a 12-member jury.
...
The trial will run three and a half to four months, from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. each day, four days each week, excepting weeks with holidays. The calendar calls for the trial to span from the first day Aug. 31 until Dec. 17.

Kelly also suggested that the Verde court room may be too small to accommodate jury selection for over 100 candidates and the press to select a 12-member jury and the selection might be moved to a Prescott court room.

Finally, the judge advised Ray that he "does have to appear during the trial, you understand that Mr. Ray?" ...
________________________



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/2010 05:18PM by The Anticult.

Another psychic prediction...when James Ray is called before the court, he's not going to gives misquotes from Alice In Wonderland.
He'll probably just try to reframe himself as a humble New Age Preacher-Shaman, to try and get those "religious" protections to hide behind.

One has to notice that every single Tweet he's sent out, has been a generic "spiritual" sounding quote, with no content whatsoever. That has to be a pre-positioning for his public image.
Its going to be up to the local citizens in the jury.

Check this out, someone posted a link to this photo of James Ray with other Gurus.

[harmonicwealthweekend.com] harmonicwealthweekend.com/remix/social-proof.jpg

Notice the photo is called SOCIAL PROOF.
What is Social Proof, its one of the Six "Weapons of Influence" that Tony Robbins learned from Robert Cialdini, and James Ray has copied that technique. That is what that photo is, social proof, and they even label the photo social proof.
So there more actual PROOF that James Ray is using specific covert influence techniques

[en.wikipedia.org] "Social Proof - People will do things that they see other people are doing."
_____________quote_____________________
[www.culteducation.com]
Social Proof
One means used to determine what is correct is to find out what others believe is correct. People often view a behavior as more correct in a given situation--to the degree that we see others performing it.
This principle of Social Proof can be used to stimulate a person's compliance with a request by informing him or her that many other individuals, perhaps some that are role models, are or have observed this behavior. This tool of influence provides a shortcut for determining how to behave. But at the same time it can make those involved with using this social shortcut--vulnerable to the manipulations of others who seek to exploit such influence through such things as seminars, group introduction dinners, retreats etc. Group members may then provide the models for the behavior that each group plans to produce in its potential new members.

Social proof is most influential under two conditions:
Uncertainty--when people are unsure and the situation is ambiguous they are more likely to observe the behavior of others and to accept that behavior as correct

Similarity--people are more inclined to follow the lead of others who are similar.
Some recommendations on how to reduce susceptibility to contrived social proofs would include a greater sensitivity to clearly counterfeit evidence. That is--what others are doing and their behavior should not form a sole basis for decision-making.
________________________unquote______________


In the photo, James Ray is with Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy, Wayne Dyer, Robert Schuller and some preachers.
But notice the Tony Robbins photo.

James Ray has PRECISELY COPIED Tony Robbins white collarless shirt without tie, his black vest size and style, and even the jacket pattern.
That is what is called a Tony Robbins clone, those who get trained by Tony Robbins in all of his techniques, and literally start to clone his advanced language and persuasion patterns, movements, and even his wardrobe. They also clone his LGAT seminar system, and business practices, everything.
In NLP, that is called Modeling.
Tony Robbins was James Ray's #1 teacher, the guy who taught him all the tricks of the trade, and the skills of advanced covert persuasion.

The name of the photo, Social Proof, is more direct evidence of James Ray using covert influence. That is why the LGAT Gurus are silent about James Ray, he got exposed, and they don't want to get exposed using the exact same techniques.

This also again proves how James Ray and others like him operate.
Its by applying specific technique.

James Ray does not believe his own BS Belief Systems. Belief systems are shaped and created by the Influencer.
James Ray is not "crazy", he is applying techniques extremely recklessly.

There are all sort of specific seminars that teach the actual techniques of mastering persuasion and influence techniques, which have been around for decades. Those who attend them, like James Ray, learn dozens/hundreds of specific powerful techniques.
Then they apply them on people.

Like the specific technique of Social Proof.
(Which can be photos, logos from companies, testimonials...)
In this case, they even labelled the photo social proof for their own records, and left it on probably by mistake. The photo collage is a technique of Social Proof, it shows James Ray hugging famous Gurus, and even cloning them. This makes the person TRANSFER the feeling of the other Guru to James Ray.

Who uploaded that photo labelled Social Proof? Josh Frederickson most likely, of course Josh knows those techniques too, which makes his "memory problems" such disgusting behavior.

So that is James Ray, from top to bottom. A very reckless and greedy sociopath, who applied the specific techniques he learned from his own Guru teachers on the way up. Like Tony Robbins, like Matthew and Tad James who taught him all of the NLP material, and the rest of them, where he copied the LGAT seminar, sales, and business techniques.

So it does boggle the mind that such basic techniques do work on so many people, and mystify so many others. But its just technique. It just takes a little training to learn the basic techniques, so they can be identified.

The James Ray system, is exactly the same as how he used Social Proof. He takes a specific influence technique, and applies it. Just repeat that 150 times with different techniques. That is James Ray.
And that is still going on at this very moment.
The Influencer never believes his own BS, its a technical application.

Aldous Huxley had some things to say in 1952 in his book, The Devils of Loudon.

And he wrote this in the era before 'sound bites' and twittering.

Quote

'...words can exercise an almost magical power overe the hearers. Because of the essential irrationality of this power, even the the best-intentioned of public speakers probably do more harm than good. When an orator, by the mere magic of words and a golden voice, persuades his audience of the rightness of a bad cause, we are very properly shocked.


'We ought to feel the same dismay whenever we find the same irrelevant tricks being used to persuade people of the rightness of a good cause. The belief engendered may be desirable, but the grounds for it are intrinsically wrong, and those who use the devices of oratory for instilling even right beliefs are guilty of pandering to the least creditable elements in human nature.

'By exercising their disastrous gift of the gab, they deepen the quasi hypnotic trance in which most human beings live and from which it is the aim and purpose of all true philosophy, all genuinely spiritual religion, to deliver them.

'Moreover, there cannot be effective oratory without oversimplification. But you cannot oversimplify without distorting the facts. Even when he is doing his best to tell the truth, the successful orator is, ipso facto, a liar. And most successful orators, it is hardly necessary to add, are not even trying to tell the truth; they are trying to evoke sympathy for their friends and antipathy for their opponents.'

Devils of Loudon, pages 18-19.

Or they are trying to sell us something.

Huxley was worried about dictators who organized mass rallies. He could not envision that fifty years after he wrote his warning, dictators would not need to raise armies or
wage war.

The new mind technologists would instead (whether male or female) dress in fashionable clothes, wear make up, have bright smiles, run large groups or in some cases, have TV shows and run media empires in print and cyberspace--and still, in Huxley's insightful words, "'By exercising their disastrous gift of the gab, they deepen the quasi hypnotic trance in which most human beings live and from which it is the aim and purpose of all true philosophy, all genuinely spiritual religion, to deliver them"

What The Anticult just showed us concerning 'social influence'--- let readers be
warned that this information is for the purpose of assisting people to protect themselves from exploitation.

Anyone who reads this message board hoping to find ways to make themselves the center of attention and get rich...anyone misusing this technology for ego driven private gain deserves to come down with a humiliating and incurable disease
of the private parts.

And then be re-incarnated as something like a tapeworm or leech.



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/2010 09:15PM by corboy.

Taken from an article written to help sales people sell more, Cialdini's principles of persuasion:

[www.advisortoday.com]



Regarding Death Ray's refund policy, I'd like to point out the 'double bind' in his 100% iron clad guarantee.
If you attend every session of the seminar and still want your money back at the end he will allegedly cough up.

However, every session and exercise is tailored to engineer persuasion towards the absolute acceptance of Death Ray's ideology.
Anyone attending the complete series of sessions and exercises IS going to be persuaded by the time the series ends.
Even for those with lingering doubts or misgivings, the confusion engendered will be such that the person is unable to get a clear and precise reason for those lingering doubts and misgivings.
Seeing those around him celebrating this 'new thinking' will be social proof and authority enough to at least convince the person that his doubts and misgivings are a shameful individual problem for himself alone (because he does not quite 'get it') and he should thus keep quiet about them.

The mere fact of handing over such a huge sum (the SF event is currently on offer at $1200) for such a nebulous promise as 'Harmonic Wealth' tells Death Ray that the person buying into this deal is already half-way sold on the idea before he himself ever starts with the hard-sell persuasion, NLP tactics, manipulation of emotions at the actual event.
The buyers are looking for something and Death Ray aims to provide, for a steep price, even if he has no idea what the buyer is actually looking for. He is gambling that the buyer himself has no clear picture of what he is looking for.

A buyer with a clear idea of what he wants to buy goes comparison shopping to get the best price and value for his purchase. This buyer generally wants to know that he is buying from a reputable seller who knows his product well and who provides a decent aftersales service.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/17/2010 09:31PM by Stoic.

[apps.supremecourt.az.gov]


From the court documents, the first disclosure of Death Ray's defence strategy:

1. General denial
2. Insufficient evidence
3. Lack of mens rea
4. Lack of causation

For a discussion on what this means I defer to the Droid who has legal training:

[saltydroid.info]

"Mens rea" means something like "evil mind." It refers to the conscious intention to commit a criminal act, knowing it to be wrong. I'm sure Ray could get away with arguing that he never intended to kill anyone, because I don't suppose he did. Among other things, it's bad for business. But reckless endangerment of others is a different matter, and still punishable at law.

It will be interesting to hear Droid's more knowledgeable comments.

Lack of mens rea is basically the "tragic accident" line. They will have a hard time with that. They won't have a problem establishing that Ray didn't intend to kill anyone, but the prosecution doesn't need to even contest that point. Recklessness is the key issue, and for that there is plenty of evidence with about 180 witness for it.

I know that anything can happen in court, and I have no legal training, but I can't see their line of defense standing up at all well. They say there was no prior warning, when there is even photographic evidence from prior sweat lodges where people are curled up in the fetal position, as well numerous witness statements from previous years.

Worse for the defense, the "safety measures" JRI claimed they took prove that they were expecting people to come out half cooked and collapse - hence the canvas on the ground and hoses. Josh and Meg both said they thought it was "normal" for people to be vomiting and passing out. The defense keep emphasising that point, that it was a "normal sweat lodge".

The defense will also be pushing the idea that everyone was free to leave when they wanted, and they may have some chance of swaying the jury on that. But just reading the witness statements was harrowing enough. I think seeing those people in the stand and hearing their descriptions first hand will have a huge impact on the jury which would outweigh any emotional or rhetorical advantage ray's team can manage.

Also, the small details, Megan evading police by hiding in the gift shop, Greg Hartle tweeting the death of a participant (Colleen Conaway two months earlier) without even realising it was someone he should have been looking after, and then covering it up. That stuff is not going to win any hearts and minds in the jury, nor help the argument that they had no prior warnings and took every precaution.

On Droid's site, incidentally, one commenter with some inside knowledge also left this comment: "we are banking on the cover up getting all of them……stay tuned"

(Stoic linked to Droid's comment, but for some reaon Droid's site doesn't handle comment links very well, so I'll give the gist of it. It was very short and Droid-like and implied that Ray is going to experience some considerable trouble with that line of defense. Condense that into 3 words!)