Crime

It has been a while since I blogged about James Arthur Ray and his brainwashing sessions that led to the deaths of three gullible and naive followers, Kirby Brown, James Shore and Liz Neuman. Ray’s manslaughter trial is now underway in Arizona and more news is coming out about the brainwashing techniques Ray used to make his victims absolutely dependent on his commands, including starvation, simulated death and punishing others for simple mistakes.

From Dcourier.com here:

Laura Tucker’s account of her time in James Arthur Ray’s October 2009 sweat lodge was far different from that of the prosecution’s first witness.

Tucker on Friday was the third witness in the manslaughter trial of Ray, 53, who is charged in the deaths of Kirby Brown, James Shore and Liz Neuman after the sweat lodge ceremony, which was the culminating event of Ray’s Spiritual Warrior retreat at Angel Valley Retreat Center in Sedona.

Tucker, an automotive industry consultant from British Columbia, said she went to the seminar in Sedona in order to complete her “Journey of Power.”

Ray challenged attendees to shave or cut their hair, take part in a training exercise called the Samurai Game and endure a 36-hour vision quest before taking part in a sweat lodge ceremony that Ray promised would be as intense as anything they had ever experienced.

Tucker had been the first to “die” in the Samurai Game, an exercise the state contends was part of Ray’s method of creating an environment in which the attendees would substitute his judgment for their own when it came to the limits of what they could endure. She earned death by breaking a Ray-imposed code of silence when she asked him a question about the rules of the game.

“He yelled at me, ‘Die,’” she said, “so I hit the floor.”

To die in the Samurai Game was part of the teamwork aspect because, if a person died, they had to lie motionless, eyes closed, where they dropped until the game was done. If they failed to stay still, another teammate would die. In addition, those who died went without dinner that night, leading to a famished state the prosecution believes was part of the reason for the tragic sweat lodge fatalities.

Then after they did a 36 hour ‘visionquest’ in the desert without food or water, they ate and attended the deadly sweat lodge ceremony. It was during that ceremony that Tucker became concerned about Liz Neuman and tried to warn Ray about her condition.

“I said, ‘James, it’s Laura. I’m concerned about Liz.’”

Tucker said Ray did not investigate the situation or ask another volunteer to check on her. Instead, he answered, “Liz has done this before and she knows what she’s doing.”

When Tucker asked Neuman if she was all right, she said yes, and that she did not want to get out. “I had Mr. Ray saying Liz knows what she’s doing,” she said. “I had Liz responding to me promptly and in my mind clearly, so I let things be.”

Instincts tell you that flim-flam artists like James Ray and his teachings are piles of bullshit. By luring his victims in with promises of spirituality, wealth and happiness, and then conditioning his victims to ignore their instincts, he was able to ply huge piles of money from their bank accounts and to eventually cause them to die in a deadly oven.

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