James Arthur Ray, the self-help guide whose retreat proved fatal, dies at 67

James Arthur Ray, an Oprah-endorsed motivational speaker who spent two years in prison for manslaughter after the 2009 deaths of three people in a sweat lodge that was the culmination of a three-day spiritual program he led in the Arizona desert, died on January 1. 3 in Henderson, Nevada. He was 67 years elderly.

Jon Ray announced the artist’s death on social media. He did not say where in Henderson Mr. Ray died or give a cause, but said the death was unexpected.

Ray was struggling to find success as a motivational speaker when he appeared in the 2006 documentary “The Secret” by Australian television producer Rhonda Byrne. The “secret” that Ray and others espoused was the idea that positive thinking could literally change the world in your favor.

Things began to move quickly for Mr. Ray. He appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s show, where she lavished praise on him. Within months, he was standing in front of sellout crowds of hundreds, then thousands. In 2008, he published the book Harmonious Wealth: The Secret to Attracting the Life You Want, written with Linda Sivertsen, which was a Modern York Times bestseller.

As Fortune magazine declared in 2008, he was “the next huge thing in the highly competitive world of motivation gurus.”

Mr. Ray combined self-help and professional development with a touch of mysticism – a powerful blend of Tony Robbins, Stephen Covey and Deepak Chopra. He was statuesque and charismatic, with an straightforward smile and just the right amount of self-deprecation to win over a crowd.

He proposed a hierarchy of courses, each more high-priced than the last, culminating in “Spiritual Warrior,” a $10,000 retreat near Sedona, Arizona. After a series of endurance exercises, including prolonged fasting, participants spent hours in a sweat lodge where the temperature rose above 150 degrees.

Mr. Ray presented “Spiritual Warrior” several times, and some former participants raised questions about whether he or members of his staff had sufficient training to run a sweat lodge.

Still, no one was prepared for what happened on October 8, 2009. Mr. Ray placed about 50 people in a fleeting structure made of a circular wooden frame covered with a tarp, about 25 feet in diameter and only five feet inside. He poured gallons of water onto the fire-heated rocks, filling the hut with scorching steam.

Although he told participants they could leave at any time, many later said he felt pressured for them to stay. Eventually conditions inside became unbearable and the crowd flowed out; many people fell to the ground.

Someone called 911; one rescuer later said that the scene looked like the site of a mass suicide. Twenty-one people were taken to hospital.

Three of them died – James Shore and Kirby Brown were pronounced dead on arrival, and Liz Neumann died nine days later. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Ray was arrested on suspicion of manslaughter.

The story became national news during a period of scandal; headlines featured the “balloon boy” hoax, in which Colorado parents falsely claimed their son was trapped in a huge helium-filled balloon, and the trial of Amanda Knox, an American student found guilty by an Italian court of murdering her roommates. (Her conviction was overturned in 2015)

Mr. Ray’s trial began in the spring of 2010 and ended with his conviction on three counts of negligent homicide. The judge sentenced him to two years in prison.

James Arthur Ray was born on November 22, 1957 in Honolulu, where his father, Gordon Ray, was serving in the Navy. The family later moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma, where his father became a preacher and his mother, Joyce (Schott) Ray, managed the household.

Mr. Ray said the family was so needy that they lived in an office at his father’s church. But he also said his father’s skills as a pastor inspired his later career.

“He was very charismatic,” Ray said in an interview for the CNN documentary “Enlighten Us: The Rise and Fall of James Arthur Ray” (2016), directed by Jenny Carchman. “He really had the ability to move his congregation. He was my first “wow”.

Mr. Ray attended Tulsa Community College but left before graduating. He started working at AT&T, starting as a telemarketer and ending with training and junior management.

Part of the company’s training program was based on the work of Mr. Covey, a professional development expert and speaker and author of “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” (1989). Mr. Ray decided he could do something similar, so he left AT&T and started Quantum Consulting.

Motivational speaking is tough, often thankless work, and most practitioners can handle it in front of lunch crowds in Holiday Inn conference rooms. For more than a decade, it was also Mr. Ray – until Ms. Byrnes put him on “The Secret.”

By then it had moved beyond self-help and into Modern Age philosophy and mysticism. He talked about the lessons he learned from a Peruvian shaman and a Hawaiian spirit guide. Viewers paid thousands of dollars to listen to him, often for several long days in huge conference rooms.

Those willing to pay even more were taken far outside the conference center to retreats that often included intense physical and mental exercises – leading to the “Spiritual Warrior.”

In addition to his brother Ray, his wife Bersabeh also survived. Information about other survivors was not immediately available.

Mr. Ray was released from prison in 2013, and a year later he began speaking professionally again.

When discussing the events of October 2009 with his audience, he was straightforward. He also agreed to an extensive interview with Ms. Carchman for “Enlighten Us.”

“I am responsible,” he said of the sweat lodge disaster.

At the end of the video, he added, “It had to happen because that was the only way I could discover, learn and grow from what I did. Am I drinking the Kool-Aid? Maybe, but the Kool-Aid works for me.