After reading a comment at the Salty Droid, I did some research about the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (the RICO Act) which could tack on additional years to any James Ray criminal sentence, should he be found guilty of criminal acts. RICO may also give additional merit to the pending Class Action Law Suit being prepared in Arizona.
I am not an attorney. I’m just a reformed seminar junkie and insider who feels these Seminar Schmucks have done enough damage. After looking into this, RICO may make it possible to expand the Class Action Lawsuit to include the entire Seminar & Coaching Industry for harm and damages caused to their customers .
Fraud seems to be the most likely offense Ray & JRI committed under RICO. A Fraud is an intentional deception made for personal gain or to damage another individual. In particular charlatanism. A charlatan (also called swindler or mountebank) is a person practicing quackery or some similar confidence trick in order to obtain money, fame or other advantages via some form of pretense or deception). As I drilled down I discovered that our friend James Arthur Ray seems (IMO) to have built his business based on quackery.
Specifically, a charlatan is usually a salesperson. He does not try to create a personal relationship with his marks, or set up an elaborate hoax using role playing. Rather, the person called a charlatan is being accused of resorting to quackery, pseudoscience, or some knowingly employed bogus means of impressing people in order to swindle his victims by selling them worthless nostrums and similar goods or services that will not deliver on the promises made for them…. Do Seminars count?
A “quack” is a “fraudulent or ignorant pretender to medical skill” or “a person who pretends, professionally or publicly, to have skill, knowledge, or qualifications he or she does not possess; “a charlatan.”
Let’s see if this all fits together:
- James Arthur Ray sells a seminar called “Spiritual Warrior” for approximately $9,000 promising lots of “benefits” but does not tell customers exactly what they are buying. Ray claims this seminar is the only place to get these experiences and benefits. About 50 people buy this seminar. This may be considered “Intentional Deception“.
- James Arthur Ray meets his customers in Sedona and has them do the “vision quest“, “fast for 36 hours“, play the “God Death Ray Game” & the “sweat lodge experience” where 2 die on site, another dies 9 days later and 19 others taken to the hospital. Apparently Ray has no Native American Shamanistic Training and only pretended to be qualified. This may be considered quackery. Ray’s was ignorant about “pouring a sweat lodge”. IMO this was Ray and the Fredrickson’s “deliberately deceiving” JRI’s customers for their own personal gain.
- James Arthur Ray’s refusal to speak with authorities seems to me to be the actions of someone with something to hide.
- JRI & James Arthur Ray’s “business as usual” after killing 2 people further supports a possible claim that Ray is a Charlatan who’s only concern is getting in front of the next group of people to be swindled.
As far as intentional wrong doing: Ray hurt people in earlier “sweat lodge” experiences. Ray & JRI appear to have conspired to cover up the death of Colleen Conaway. Ray had no medical professionals on staff and did not train his staff in CPR….
Terry Hall
Mr Clean
It’s hard to bring someone to justice for psychological crimes like coercion. We haven’t put that much effort, or research funding, into understanding how such things work. Use the word “brainwashing” in front of a normal jury and you’ll probably see some eye rolling.
The great thing about bringing a RICO type case is that the underlying elements {fraud, misrepresentation, conspiracy} are “easy” old fashioned claims.
Wouldn’t it be awesome to see the FBI take down the whole Transformational Leadership Council for conspiring to sell dangerous and useless crap?
Drinks on me if it happens!
A TLC Revival would be a good place to serve the Who’s Who of the Seminar Industry with a class action law suit… Make mine Tequila!
The whole thing is very sad for those families who were not with their loved ones and visa versa when they died.
I lost both my father and my step-father. They both and well as their closest family and friends wanted to be together when they transitioned.
My father’s death changed me forever. I was so lucky to be in the room with him when he left. I think it is unforgivable that these families werre denied this last right of passage.
So so sad.
C
Yes, the unexpected loss of a loved one has to be incredibly difficult and unimaginable to me. Then to have the man your family member trusted and put their faith in act as though nothing happened and ignore the deaths, injuries and continue business as usual adds insult to their injury.
I am touched by your being their when your father crossed over a completion for you and your father. A buddhist teacher once told me, that as a spiritual being he feels sadness for a new born baby and the toils that lie ahead of them and rejoices a life that ends naturally for their completing the journey they set out this life time.
Sympathy for those affected by the tragedy notwithstanding, I do not believe that James Arthur Ray was a fraud. If you go to his website, you will see a lot of sincerity. Smarminess, too, but that is just my perception. Fraud is Robert Courtney, the Kansas pharmacist sentenced to 30 years for knowingly diluting the cancer drug infusions he sold. Ray believes in what he does.
There are 1,000s of Ray’s students who will testify to his positive effect on their lives. A personal communication from my source in the Sedona spiritual community alleges that Ray has not, in fact, done his own deep spiritual work. He may yet be found guilty of criminal negligence, but the lesson for the masses is: caveat emptor. If you can’t develop, and take personal responsibility for, your own psychospiritual foundation for your ego strength, don’t be shocked if you get sucked in by well-meaning and charismatic but misguided individuals and don’t get in the shame & blame & payme game if you do (get sucked in).
Lead mare. “I do not believe that James Arthur Ray was a fraud. If you go to his website, you will see a lot of sincerity. Smarminess, too, but that is just my perception.” Yes, this is your perception, not fact.
To make a judgement on a person or product based on the heavily marketed and intentionally designed website is a foolish thing to do. Yet, we Americans buy any ad that sounds good. Truth is not found in a website or an ad. Truth is found in action. And for all accounts, this man was unresponsive, untrained in offering sweats and taking money from people who he convinced he was some sort of guru. TO become a spiritual leader, like His Holiness, the Dalai Lama or Gandhi, one must NOT preach but show by EXAMPLE. THis guy talked way too much and charged people to hear the same stuff so many other spiritualists are offering for free. He took advantage of vulnerable people. HE was arrogant to think he had sufficent knowledge of shamanistic sweats and he mocked people as they died because he presumed he knew better than they did… he presumed they were being figurative when expressing death – a true guru would have known the difference.
AS a highly spiritual person, I am pissed off at this guy and all the others out there that use divine messaging to make money. It is a crime to me to have such a gift (if he even had it) and use it to become wealthy.
$9000 for a weekend retreat. Thats not divine… that is ego.
This guy needs to now practice what he preaches and TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR HIS ACTIONS.