James Arthur Ray has everything under control.
- James Arthur Ray Changes Media Contact from Howard Bragman @ 15 Minutes to Mark Fabiani Tel: 858-353-8035. Is the same Mark Fabiana of Clinton White House fame and San Diego Chargers? Hmmmm – If this is the same mark Fabiani from the Clinton White House, Then I NOW know that Ray did nothing wrong in deaths at his seminar.
- Ray cancels San Francisco Events which combined with the postponement of Ray’s books by Hyperion Books means NO cash flowing in to his business. How will he pay his “staff of 20″ and legal fees? How much longer before he closes the doors to his business?
- U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. asks FTC and Dept of Justice to “look into” the deaths caused by James Ray in Arizona. Senator Klobuchar may want to have the FTC look at the how NLP techniques are used by Ray and the Live Seminar Industry to deliver “Subliminal Messages” from the stage that influence and persuade people to “buy now” while ignoring stringent no-refund policies and thir ability to pay for their purchases.
- The FTC already has policies regarding “subliminal messages”.
- This book is offered through Amazon and is the type of results that Live Seminars want from the stage: The Unfair Advantage: Sell with NLP! – Ray uses the NLP techniques for an unfair advantage. In The Secret, Ray stated: “When is NOW, the right time…” which is a NLP embedded command.
- Live Seminars Selling Techniques often encourage customers to go into debt to pay for their seminars. It’s not uncommon for Seminar Sales People to recommend that customers borrow from family members or spread the payments over several credit cards.
- I trust that Senator Klobuchar follows through with pressure for Federal Investigation in to the deaths caused by James Ray and was not just seeking media coverage.
Ray’s 15 Minutes will be decided by the General Public and the Yapavai County Sheriff Department.
- First, if the general public refuses to buy James Ray books, tapes & seminars, he will die an agonizing financial death.
- Second, when the Yapavai County Sheriff Department arrests James Arthur Ray for homicide charges.
Regardless of what the future holds for James Ray, it’s exactly what he wanted because it’s what he’s attracted.
I personally don’t think that Ray will ever spend time in jail but I do think that the Law Suits and legal costs will hit him in the only place that he seems to care about, the pocketbook. Maybe in the process Ray will learn to love people and use things instead of the other way around. Because it certainly seems that Ray loves his money, stature and prestige more than he loves the people that loved and believed in him along the way.
James Ray has removed his FREE Sales Events from his website. The end? Or just the beginning? I guess that people wanted to see Ray, but didn’t want to buy. I hate it when that happens!
Great article, thanks.
I do think Ray uses deceptive advertising, but not because of subliminal advertising, for which the FTC states:
“Is it legal to use subliminal advertising techniques?
It would be deceptive for marketers to embed ads with so-called subliminal messages that could affect consumer behavior. However, most consumer behavior experts have concluded that such methods aren’t effective.”
More relevant is this quote from the FTC:
“Rather than focusing on certain words, the FTC looks at the ad in context – words, phrases, and pictures – to determine what it conveys to consumers.”
One important context for the sales of such Large Group Awareness Trainings is that advanced seminars like “Spiritual Warrior Event” are sold at the emotional peak of a previous seminar when participants are extremely psychologically vulnerable–having done many processes around childhood trauma, been in session for long hours without many breaks for food and water and little sleep, etc.
Psychotherapists have many prohibitions against selling their services to their clients due to the power differential, but New Wage gurus often exploit their seminar participants with impunity.
Duff,
My connecting NLP sales techniques to subliminal advertising is very loose one and intended merely to call attention the any “deception” that occurs in the selling process is subject FTC scrutiny.
So far, the impunity has been for “financial harm” no with Mr. Ray’s actions killing 3 customers maybe there will be accountability for the actions and business practices in Live Seminar Venues.
Very interesting post. Can you say where you are getting your information about James Ray using NLP at seminars to sell more?
Hi Glenn,
I was involved with the seminar industry from 2002 through 2007 in various functions and accountabilities. I was studying and training to be a “James Ray” type Seminar Salesman. But the fact is that I sucked big time. I was a pretty good seller and closer and can make people cry, make myself cry and inspire others, but something stopped my success. I was not effective for higher priced seminars. I even bought a Kevin Nations program specifically tailored to selling “high ticket” packages.
For me, the more I learned about the industry the more I realized that I would never be world class. During a conversation with Vic Johnson to sign-up for a seminar he was offering with Bob Proctor (I thought this was the seminar I needed to be successful), Vic asked me a question that stopped me in my tracks. Vic asked, “Terry, why is it your not already successful?” He said that both he and Bob had met me and couldn’t figure out why I had not succeeded. He asked if I felt “worthy and deserving of success”.
The answer was Yes I am worthy & Deserving of success. So something else must be stopping my success. In reflecting over the previous 5 years, I realized how many times that I had huddled behind the sales table counting sales and calculating closing statistics. How many times that I worked at selling more to larger groups of people. I realized that for me the “Mission” started out to help people, but the profits became more important because that is all anyone cared about (the speakers, the promoters and the Joint Venture Partners).
Glenn, to answer your question about James Ray using NLP techniques, it seems that he & I have read the same books and listened to the same tapes about using NLP from the stage to sell more. He mastered it where I did not.