Amy Hall, former James Arthur Ray Employee
Amy is my wife and one of the victims of James Arthur Ray’s obsession with death which has resulted in 4 people dead, many injuries and lost jobs.
Amy gave her resignation letter, in person to Rebecca “Becca” Callaway. Becca was Amy’s immediate Supervisor at JRI. This letter is our electronic copy pictured in the Crime Scene Photos on Megan Fredrickson’s Desk. She resigned at about 5:00 PM on October 13 after making sure her “desk” and open tasks were in order.
Amy called the Yavapai County Sheriff about 6:15 Pm the same day concerned that evidence in the case may be destroyed by JRI employees.
It is accurate that Amy was not aware of Colleen Conaway’s death until after she quit JRI.
For the record, Amy & I both want the Seminar Industry and “Professional” Coaches licensed and regulated. In addition, we are in receipt of a “cease and desist” letter from Nancy Bertrando of Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger LLP regarding my blogging about James Arthur Ray’s character and how he ran his company. We are not sure whether Bertrando was the attorney who advised JRI in other HR matters, but Amy has filed a Labor Board Complaint against JRI for unpaid overtime and never delivering her final paycheck. JRI classified Amy’s job as customer service rep and receptionist as “exempt” to avoid paying her overtime. JRI did not appear for the mediation where a California EDD mediator informed Amy her job class was certainly NOT an exempt job. Her Labor Board Hearing will not be for 6 months so she may never see the wages she is due and entitled to receive.
It is our opinion that most Seminar Companies are “in it only for the money” and many Live Seminars and Professional Coaches are practicing therapy without a license. They do so under the guise of “Education”, “Information” and “Coaching”. But anyone can hang out a shingle as coach and/or sell seminars regardless of their experience or credentials.
Below is Amy Hall’s Resignation Letter to JRI. Click on the image to see the entire document.
To contact Amy use the contact form at http://bizsayer.com/contact/ – I screen Amy’s contacts. She has received several nasty messages from former JRI employees. I will not forward those to her unless she requests to see them. Amy cares deeply for people and wants to do her best to make sure that the Seminar Industry and Coaches do no more harm (physically, financially and/or emotionally) and stop hiding behind one sided contracts and educational disclaimers.
Our wedding picture…
You have lots of support. Keep up the good fight.
Thank you Duff! Ditto with Bill Harris! We need reform now so these ego based guru’s don’t kill anyone else… physically or financially.
Amy, thank you so much for speaking out against James Ray. I really hope you are able to help the police with the sweat lodge cases and with the Colleen Conaway (she was my cousin) case. James Ray is a scum bag and I hope he rots in he##. You do have alot of support and I am sending prayers your way! Thanks again and I hope they arrest James Ray soon it will be a very Happy New Year for may people!
I’m so very sorry for your loss. Colleen deserved better than what JRI did to her. And I hold James and Megan Fredickson personally responsible for her death. James because he couldn’t see through his ego and Megan because she did NOTHING to make the seminar a safe space for people to attend – No emergency medical or psychological help standing by. They’re both equally responsible for the tragedy that has occurred. I do think that we’ll see at least James in court. Yavapai County, AZ is a very conservative place I don’t think he’ll have many ‘friends’ there.
Are the San Diego PD going to reopen Colleen’s case? Because they really should. The more I hear the dirtier JRI becomes.
Thank you for your support. Please let me know if there is any way I can help you and Colleen.
thank you Amy for being a person with character and principles.Being an insider in the JRI biz and speaking up is going to prevent this kind of travesty from happening again.I have followed and blogged on JAR’s fan site on facebook (until he removed it)since Oct.and continue to speak out about it today.I was at a free seminar in vegas and witnessed first hand what a piece of work this guy is ,and how he manipulated people using tried and true (deviant and methodical)methods to capture imnocent,nieve people and their money.After that seminar and the subsequent tragedy days after,I have felt compelled to speak out.So to see your bravery and righteousness is inspirational to many.You have ALOT of support you aren’t even aware of.Hang tough.Dede[;
Hi Dede,
Thank you so much for your support.
Although this isn’t just about James Ray. It’s also about how the event was badly mismanaged by JRI by not having emergency personal and equipment instantly available and their on site staff trained in CPR and first aid. I personally think there maybe a good case against Megan Fredrickson, accessory before the fact. Because she didn’t plan properly for the emergency medical situations, that based on the history of the event, were going to happen. Staging and producing the events were her responsibility.
Hey Amy…I agree and there will be more and more people associated as accomplices…he couldnt have pulled it of by himself…but oh what a scumbag he is!!!Cassandras reporting is so awesome and helpful at exposing this guy.Greg Hartle better get a good lawyer too !!Stay strong Amy!!!Dede[;
Amy In case you havent seen this or read Cassandra yorgey….its mind blowing….
http://www.examiner.com/x-11245-Philadelphia-Speculative-Fiction-Examiner~y2009m12d31-Breaking-news-James-Ray-drugs-and-disease?cid=examiner-email
After reading the “white papers” Mr. Ray has sent to me, It sadly appears Mr. Ray did create and then fail to perceive the risks for the following reasons:
By conducting a fast before the retreat, the bodies of the participants were immediately put at risk. One meal does not allow time for the body to recover its resources before a sweat lodge event which is in itself an already a highly stressful situation for the body. It is common sense that if you break a leg you don’t go jumping around on it. If your body is physically depleted and stressed you don’t then put it through additional stress and depletion.
It is a medical disclosure in the use and sale of most SAUNAs’ NOT to exceed 15 minutes. The sweat lodge was set up to be conducted for almost 2 hours. The participants were not informed that 15 minutes was “reasonable” nor were they informed of risks of going for longer than 15 minutes. Mr. Ray is depending on a signed release but did not give participants adequate information to make an informed decision. Since participants were not given fair notice of the 15 minutes or educated with the difference between sweating normally and physical distress- they had no idea what to expect, and so they depended on Mr. Ray to discern what was “normal” for the sweat lodge. The human body gives signs of distress long be it shuts down. Mr. Ray gave the impression the physical symptoms of distress were just a part of the normal process (but they were not) and so the participants ignored their own bodies and trusted Mr. Ray’s faulty logic.
“Volunteer” Registered Nurse: Mr. Ray makes an effort to emphasize that there was
a Registered Nurse on duty but the fact the nurse was actually a volunteer brings up several questions. Did the volunteer know she was there in the capacity of emergency medical staff? It appears the nurse being there was a lucky coincidence since Mr. Ray did not intentionally hire or provide for a qualified medical person who was trained to handle and understand sweat lodges specifically. What kind of nurse was the volunteer? Was she even qualified to perform medical services in Arizona? Despite participants paying nearly $10,000 Mr. Ray couldn’t afford to hire medical personnel for $200 for that part of the day?
Mr. Ray has repeatedly failed to understand the compounded psychological impacts of his methods on his participant’s ability to make independent decisions. For instance, in addition to tiring out the participants with marathon seminar sessions lasting 10-16 hours (which is well documented to alter a person’s ability to make sound judgments); the series of exercises and lectures Mr. Ray performs is designed to lead the participant to unquestioning authority of James Ray. The role of playing “God” even for a few moments is only one of the many ways Mr. Ray sets up the psychological and subconscious inclination to become a follower. Mr. Ray used throughout his courses methods from NLP, hypnosis and other fields which are designed and specialize in providing influential suggestions on the participants. Even, when done with good intentions for the participant’s spiritual growth, it still sets up James Ray as the person of knowledge who doesn’t need to be questioned. In fact, it makes it worse because the participants will take most of what Mr. Ray says as in their best interest, even when Mr. Ray is wrong.
“Free to leave” means the participants had full knowledge of what was happening to their bodies and could make a fully informed decision that was not influenced by any party. The participants at the sweat lodge lacked both the information and the “freedom” to leave feeling like exiting the sweat lodge was a failure of their journey. With $10,000 at stake, the relief of all their life problems if they stayed inside; the lack of information that their bodies were in distress from the fast; the lack of information that a sauna of any form was only recommended for 15 minutes not 2 hours; the trust in Mr. Ray that they were safe along with his tremendous psychological influence while he was prompting them to keep going past their physical limits is just a few of the multiple reasons that the deaths do appear to be negligent homicide.
The fact, Mr. Ray tried to defend himself by claiming to be a preacher’s son in the white papers was extremely odd given even a preacher’s son can have an ego and make mistakes. Mr. Ray’s continued attempts to set himself up as above reproach is one of the problems with the entire situation. There has been a serious lack of accountability and Mr. Ray continues to be blinded to his own contribution to this tragedy.
Mr. Ray attempts to claim that there have been a few sweat lodge deaths around the world in the past and no one was criminally convicted. Well sirs, in the recent past men were able to rape their wives without criminal conviction. That law was changed and perhaps your information shows instead that it’s long past due that there is accountability in sweat lodge deaths.
Mr. Ray likes to consistently quote something to the effect of “No one is to blame, but they are responsible.” I don’t think Mr. Ray intentionally hurt anyone, but I do believe that perhaps his ego got the better of him and he was not able to see the effects of his compounded choices. It’s time Mr. Ray shows some real accountability. The people died because they trusted him, he is failing to see that part of it.