This morning I am experiencing great sadness. A third person has died as a result of trusting that James Arthur Ray knew what he was doing. What saddens me is the fact that Liz Neuman was part of the “Dream Team” at the Spiritual Warrior event and one of James Ray’s biggest supporters. My condolences to Liz’s family and friends the world has lost a jewel with her passing.

James Ray Seminars allows their customers, that have previously paid to do a program, to volunteer and help the paid staff produce the seminar. Live seminars require lots of physical labor to produce and the “Dream Team” volunteers pay their own expenses – transportation, room and board to help out at the event and exhibit a dedication and loyalty to the company and it’s leader. As a side note, most seminar companies use volunteers at their live events it’s a common practice and gives customers a change to “audit” or “review” the seminars material and feel like they’re making a difference for other people.

As John Assaraf recently said that these types of seminars are meant to create challenges that test the customer’s own self imposed limitations – both physically and mentally. In my opinion, it was Liz’s love and compassion that had her return so many times to help others have the same type of results that she had experienced breaking through her own limitations.

It’s important for me to say that there is nothing wrong with people choosing to take a James Ray Seminar at whatever cost James asks (some people choose to run a marathon while others choose to take a seminar). It is their choice, their decision and ultimately their responsibility for being at the Spiritual Warrior Seminar or any seminar. As far as I know, everyone at the program was a consenting adult. I personally believe that this is the point that James Arthur Ray is making with his choices and actions since the sweat lodge exercise: that people paid him to “push” them beyond the limit of their self-limitations and beliefs.

The other side of the coin is that there were people participating in the sweat lodge exercise that have been to past Spiritual Warrior sweat lodge exercises (both paid staff and volunteers). These people must have known that something was not right this time. But, James Arthur Ray was unwilling to admit that something was wrong. In my opinion, his unwillingness to wake up and notice that people were suffering and dying in the “seminar exercise” is why authorities are trying to prove a case for homicide.

As I empathize with the hundreds of JRI customers that still have to believe James when he says “we did nothing wrong”, I realize that his customers have invested heavily in his message and guidance and paid him to change their lives. This is after all the promise of JRI seminars. Psychologically if they lose their belief that James is beyond reproach or that James is telling the truth about “not doing anything wrong” then that means that they screwed up in spending their money on his seminars and trusting him.

Some of the JRI customers have paid $60,000 for a one year program with JRI. They’ve been to Egypt & Peru with James. $60,000 is a lot of trust, faith and commitment in James Ray’s ability to give them “Harmonic Wealth”. Spending that much money on a seminar is quite risky especially when spouses, business partners, friends and family members find out that you are paying some guy with a cheesy smile $60,000 (paid up front). Plus JRI customers pay travel expenses, room and board. I would say that some of the JRI customers have put everything at stake counting on his ability being able to deliver what he says he can deliver.

Subconsciously, they’re probably thinking, “If James is guilty of killing people, then I’m stupid for believing in him”. People are hungry for something and someone to believe in, for JRI customers it’s James Ray. No one wants to admit that they’ve been conned and sold a bill of goods by someone that doesn’t really know what he’s doing. So the believers (including James Ray himself) will believe what they believe until they start believing something else.

You may be wondering what my agenda is will all of this. My agenda is simple. I want to see the Seminar Industry and Seminar “Gurus” held accountable for their actions and their business practices. Things like:

• No refund policies.
• Using NLP techniques to influence and persuade people to buy now.
• Having sales people “Coaching” customers to go to a seminar.
• Gurus that think they know what’s best for people better than they know themselves.
• Lack of Informed Consent and disclosure about a seminar’s content and risks.
• Disclosure that Seminars are in business to make profits.
• Having Seminar Companies stop encouraging people to go into debt to take their programs
• Having Seminar Companies review their return policies and contracts before taking peoples money.
• Having percentages of complaints and successes publicly disclosed.

That is my agenda. James Ray International and pretty much all seminar companies operate their businesses with these practices. The end result is that every seminar you attend is selling the next seminar and every seminar has their one or two percent of phenominal success stories that prove that all you need to do is take the next seminar and you too will be successful – if not, we will “coach” you to be successful.

Now 3 people have died. It’s time for the seminar industry to stop hiding behind their “educational purposes only” disclaimer and stop harming people. Jame Ray just happened to be the first guy that killed people since the death at an est seminar in the 70s or 80s.