Veil Lifted: James Arthur Ray

hello and welcome to a new episode of veil lifted a video essay where i discuss fascinating cases that involve secrecy and discovery today we will be discussing james arthur ray rey was born in november of 1957. his father was a preacher at the red fork church of god in tulsa even as a child rey's mother said she saw something in him that strived for more in life something larger and more significant in his text harmonic wealth ray bemoaned to the fact that he experienced a level of poverty in his childhood his haircuts were given by his mother and he didn't get new clothing this caused him to question god how could a preacher not be favored at all even not be able to own a home due to poverty ray stated here's what i know it's a sin to be poor this mentality would stick with him for the rest of his life but would also be a part of his downfall though rey often described himself as an outcast that was made fun of due to his appearance former classmates claimed that he leaned far into a rags into riches trope they said he had an air of confidence and that his version of poverty was nowhere near that of his peers in 1976 rey earned an associate's degree and went on to try to transform his outer physique which had remained a source of insecurity due to his experiences at school however he soon came to the realization that the core of his attention was no longer on what he wanted the improvement of his mind and mindset rey allegedly worked at atnt for nearly 10 years it was at this time that his journey with self-help truly began he used steven r covey's best seller the seven habits of highly effective people rey's character began to show when on his website he claimed alliance with the kovi leadership center which later turned into four years working with best-selling author stephen covey neither of these claims were true but were rather particularly worded ways to associate himself with a self-help giant he later on said that he had taught kobe's techniques at atnt however he was again caught in a lie as he claimed that he had worked as a contract employee for kovi a spokesperson for kovi claimed there had never been any direct connection with rey the self-aggrandizing behavior was only beginning to rear its head but it would not be long until it turned into part of his brand during his time with atnt and the reading of kobe's texts reya realized he wanted more for himself and began his own company the quantum consulting group which somehow then turned into ray transformation technologies and then into james ray and associates at this point rey's job was centered on giving speeches to invigorate employees of mlm companies such as herbalife in the years between 1996 and 2006 rey was somewhat lost it did not seem as though he had truly found his calling or at least hadn't found a specific enough mindset to build off of for this reason he began to search spiritual awakening he allegedly solicited shamans and other spiritually awakened authorities in order to find answers in his text he wrote that he spent one night at the top of mount sinai and apparently achieved an immense awakening an epiphany in the same cave where the ten commandments came to moses while his accounts seem larger than life theatrical and effectively false they did appeal to an audience he was about to tap into in a significant way after like moses receiving his own laws rey was interviewed by rhonda byrne author of the extremely famous and best-selling text the secret the text the secret rose to fame for its inspirational tone underlining the law of attraction and the fact that our thoughts can change our lives in drastic ways the text eventually became a film and none other than rey was amongst those chosen to speak this was where he truly rose to a new level of recognition many of his followers discovered him this way and it bowed particularly well that he was now associated with others who were far more experienced in the same field it is important to pause for an instance and consider the field of self-help generally though self-help technically already existed in the 16 and 1700s the self-help we know and recognize today began in the early 20th century with texts such as james allen's as a man thinketh and napoleon hills think and grow rich although separated by a few decades both of these texts emphasize the importance of our thoughts in regards to our morale and our success in the desired fields though there are certainly many self-help books and speakers that have helped their audiences change their lives and how they perceive life there is an argument to be made about the validity of self-help a few academics have claimed that much of self-help is pseudoscientific or pseudo-psychological babble that merely tells the masses what they want to hear christopher buckley the political satirist in his book god is my broker claimed the only way to get rich from a self-help book is to write one both sides of the argument have validity to them even if all self-help were all a placebo if it yields positive results it's still worthy right well rey is going to show us that even with potentially good intentions a simple teacher or guide may turn into more of a leader that borders on the cultish after appearing in the video of the secret rey was asked to come onto the oprah winfrey show along with other revered authors and speakers in the self-help community or new age community after this oprah had been so impressed and wowed by what rey shared that she invited him back onto the show the very next day this amount of attention on rey is truly what made him rise to the top at that point in the early 2000s there were very select few public speakers who were known for their self-help books and seminars one of which being tony robbins to this day he remains a household name ray strived to be at that level of fame and respect of course the money that came along with the admiration played a large part in his motivation to become one of the household greats as with many leadership or self-help events the speaker often offers an initial free event in order to pique the audience's interest from there each subsequent event grows more expensive until there typically is the final peak event which is often marketed as true awakening ray followed this formula where his first event was free and then he'd have multi-day events then trips and at the top of the pyramid the final goal was the spiritual warrior level prior to reaching those peak levels of spiritual awakening rey usually made speeches that involved the public and framed the conversation in such a way to lead some kind of breakthrough sometimes he'd ask an audience member what they feel like they couldn't do at that very moment in the conference room one woman responded that she felt she couldn't sing in front of the 300 people there rey had put an emphasis on not caring about what others thought or said so he asked her to sing she eventually did in the audience clapped and showed a massive amount of support because she'd had a breakthrough this was a formulaic strategy that rey employed to make his audience feel as though they'd truly broken through a barrier that was holding them back while the example of the woman putting her embarrassment aside to sing is a feel-good example the other side of the coin is that these breakthroughs were often somewhat manipulative as many of rey's followers did claim the fear of disappointing him effectively that woman who sang was also put on the spot to do so and if she didn't she probably would have been ashamed this may be part of the breakthrough in rey's eyes but it's important to keep an eye on his impact as a figure of power other examples of a simulated breakthroughs was the cliche breaking through a board with the hand martial art style many felt the endorphins course through their veins once they succeeded a feat that they thought was impossible but did they think it was impossible to begin with or had rey subtly framed as such was the idea of impossibility in their heads before rey said anything or did he plant the seed so the final result would suit his narrative during one of those motivational board breaking exercises one woman tried multiple times and ended up sustaining multiple fractures some of rey's employees have stated that he got angry that they called a doctor it wasn't clear why but the assumption would be that it was due to the fact that it could negatively affect his image unfortunately this instance was the least tragic and only one of more that were coming his way at his events rey often mentioned teachings he learned from shaman as well as from other spiritual gurus this particular mention is important because it gave rey a very specific leverage compared to other self-improvement speakers it was an extra layer that came with him he could offer real-world advice just like the others but he claimed he had a level of spiritual knowledge that could open more avenues though his seminars were important within themselves the shadow of spiritual warrior was the largest it truly was like a finishing line that would let both the participant and rey know that they'd gained the most they could and that they survived mentally and physically grueling activities rey was clear from the get-go spiritual warrior was not an easy program he said it was difficult intense and would likely make people feel uncomfortable as that was a part of growth next follower of rey mentioned that he said that people were either placeholders or growing emphasizing the need to constantly be pushing their own boundaries while this mindset is somewhat cutthroat if put in motion with moderation and caution it isn't inherently negative however as he is in the position of power hearing it from him might have felt more like a slight or a call to action rather than a simple way of viewing life and progress this intensity was very prevalent in the spiritual warrior event as participants often needed to go to extremes to prove they were in fact quote unquote ready to break through their boundaries and awaken as quote unquote stronger individuals the unfortunate reality was that much of what rey claimed to be trained in was either untrue or highly embellished this often caused trouble as he did not hire more particularly trained individuals to set up the exercises in the 2006 edition of spiritual warrior during an archery exercise the participants were told to put the sharp end of an arrow up against their necks and lean on it unsurprisingly this did not end well as a man's arrow shaft snapped and the arrow point dug deeply into his eyebrow he allegedly was close to losing his eye while the participants had signed waivers in order to be part of spiritual warrior there's debate on whether rey did his due diligence in order to ensure that the waiver was merely a precaution rather than what he'd use to defend himself in other words did he do enough to make sure the participants were safe this is a question that would be answered in 2009's spiritual warrior a significant element to note about spiritual warrior as well is that it cost ten thousand dollars to participate with such a fee it is hard to imagine that all precautions would not be set in place in october 2009 a new addition of spiritual warrior took place this event was located in angel valley sedona which is an isolated area this was the event that was meant to change the participants lives and it did but not in the way it was intended to in this three-day event the participants were pushing their boundaries mentally and physically many had not drank or eaten in over 30 hours they had also been challenged to let go of their vanity by shaving their heads this was understandably a significant demand for long-haired men and women while it may seem trivial there was pressure put on the individual to shave if not it would appear as if they were holding on to their vanity and by proxy did not care about the teachings and the learning experience of spiritual warrior there were many aspects of rey's events that included such moments of forcing of the hand but it was always implicit or out of fear of disappointing their leader and therefore rarely truly their own choice there was always pressure behind each act out of the entirety of the schedule of spiritual warrior the final step the sweat lodge was the most anticipated of all the activities once more rey claimed to have more of an understanding of sweat lodges than he did he claimed he had modeled his after native american practice however it is important to note in native american traditions there are always elders who monitor the situation and they have training in order to conduct the sweat lodge in a safe way along with the spiritual guidelines as well thankfully all of the spiritual warrior experience audio was recorded until the sweat lodge activity began rey warned his participants about the type of heat they'd encounter along with a discomfort it would cause he said the true spiritual warrior has conquered death you just have to let go and say if i'm going to die it's okay this statement might have been an attempt to make the experience more profound but at its core it is alarming as the point of the experience was to live through it and come out as a changed individual before beginning he also stated i will promise you will have at least seven rounds so you cannot leave during a round if you feel like you cannot transcend and overcome this then when the gates are open if you have to leave you leave it is interesting to note the diction used in this statement rather than being concerned of the well-being of the individual rey used the terms overcome and transcend which imply weakness as the individual is not capable of getting past a certain threshold additionally though it would not be ideal it is bizarre that leaving between rounds would not be allowed considering for the most part one would only leave if concerned about their health which should be the priority once the participants entered the lodge the heat was immediately overwhelming they sat in circles some closer to the heat rocks on which water would be dumped to cause steam and more heat others were towards the back the heat got to around 200 degrees fahrenheit though there was no thermometer to give a precise degree people began to grow lightheaded some showed the symptoms of heat stroke and those in the back had difficulty breathing at all when exiting at the end of a round some collapsed and had to be physically moved away some came out and were distressed at the thought of disappointing rey if they did not go back in rey was seated by the exit of the lodge and allegedly would say such things as it's a good day to die likely referring to the concept of leaving reborn chaos had already begun before they were halfway through the rounds a participant had fallen and burned themselves on the herox some were screaming some had lost consciousness others were speaking to one another about their feelings of distress instead of tending to the participants and have the lodge evacuated ray continued to tell those that wanted to leave the lodge that they could do it and they were more than that again using a manipulative tactic that relied on implying that they'd be weak to leave the eighth round ended and that is when the true seriousness of what had occurred was unveiled kirby brown a participant was non-responsive and apparently had no pulse she was pronounced dead on arrival at the medical center james shore another participant was also declared dead on arrival he however had managed to save another by dragging them out of the lodge before he went back in and was found unconscious holding brown's hand liz newman another participant had fallen into a coma in the lodge and died of organ failure these three deaths would end up shaking up all the faith rey's followers had in him as his behavior amidst crisis had been heinous witnesses allege that they'd made it known to rey that people were beginning to show severe signs of being unwell and he took no action a volunteer that was outside the lodge claimed that they were not allowed to call 9-1-1 seemingly a recurring aspect of his practices in fact in 2005 at a prior sweat lodge event a participant was not responding well to the heat and again ray refused to call 9-1-1 this led to the devastation of that participant daniel fancuch's life he went from a six-figure earning businessman to homeless and divorced he claimed to have had an outer body experience that he'd never recovered from when the participants of the 2009 sweat lodge saw the devastation people vomiting seizing people with no pulse being carried away by the ambulance they continued to ask where rey was understandably they looked him for answers and reassurance yet he was nowhere to be found when the police went to get rey's statement he was in his room simply eating as if nothing had occurred according to rey he was in shock so he contacted his lawyer who advised him to leave ray left without even speaking to any of the surviving participants he did not even assist the participants that he had convinced to go into the lodge he simply fled and did not comply with the authorities initially the deaths of kirby brown and james shore were being investigated as homicide then liz newman's family filed claiming wrongful death negligence and fraud the unfortunate turnout was that rey was found guilty on three counts of negligent homicide and was only sentenced to two years in prison the positive aspect of this case getting so much attention was that the public was now seeing that ray's behavior in terms of safety of his participants had always been lacking in fact only a few months prior to the sweat lodge tragedy during a two-day seminar where for some reason rey had instructed his participants to dress as though they were homeless colleen conaway died there is very little evidence to explain the details of why she jumped from the fourth floor of a shopping mall while her death cannot be blamed on rey as there is no evidence to suggest as much the way in which rey handled it was once more suspicious rey hadn't noticed conaway was missing from the group but did not search for her and the group left the mall without her rey or his employees only contacted the police six hours after conway's death due to the homeless exercise rey's staff had all of conway's belongings including her phone for some reason though rey's staff had left messages of concern on her phone when she was missing why would they do that knowing they had her phone why force an image of concern this only adds to the suspicious nature of rey's behavior where is rey now since being released from prison rey is back to rebooting his empire or he's attempting to at least during his new speeches he refers to what happened in 2009 and often alludes to it having to happen to him in order to learn important lessons in an episode of the series deadly cults that discusses rey's rise and fall kirby brown's mother responds to rey's claim that this tragedy had to happen to him by saying that that her daughter did not need to die for him to learn in fact many may say this tragedy isn't his at all as he was not even helping in the aftermath of his sweat lodge disaster his only tragedy was now a failed business and a prison sentence in retrospect it is truly fascinating how rey managed to have such a dedicated following though he consistently let morally bankrupt aspects of himself slip it speaks to his charisma as well as an audience who wanted someone to help them better themselves now all we can do is watch rey try to rebuild the empire he burned down my opinion on this case is probably not very surprising i am very skeptical of self-help i actually went on a retreat and i can link that video down below of this self-help person that my mom trusted and i went to kind of make sure nothing sketchy happened and it was entirely sketchy and this person is very similar to rey so i guess i have that very personal bias but overall to me i think rey never really wanted to be a leader as much as he wanted to be kind of the god type figure telling people what to do telling people he was making them breakthrough telling people that they had to just follow him and i mean i understand that if you're going to be a self-help mogul you have to come across as confident and as someone who knows what they're doing certainly but at the same time there's a difference between someone who's confidently telling you hey i think you should do this this and this and someone who is acting like they understand you better than you understand yourself and that they know what's better for you and that effectively manipulate you into doing things you don't want to do because you would never want to upset them their god right so i feel like in this particular case he started off with good intentions but i think they got lost somewhere or i think maybe the fame got to his head but it's surreal to me that there were no standby ambulances or standby emergency services at any event you should have someone on standby especially if it's something physically grueling like the sweat lodge or like the breaking of the blocks seems surreal to me that he wouldn't do that and the only reason to me why he wouldn't do that is because he didn't want to spend the extra money which then again demands does he really care about these people's well-being at all or is he just kind of pumping up his ego with having all these people look up to him you guys can let me know what you think in the comments down below thank you guys so much for watching thank you to my patrons as always and i'll catch you guys next time [Music] you

Channel: READY TO GLARE

Views: 265,162

Rating: 4.9697113 out of 5

Keywords: james arthur ray, james ray, james ray oprah, james arthur ray the secret, james ray the secret, the secret, self-help, motivation, tony robbins

Id: -ZOnh0lQoRU

Length: 20min 21sec (1221 seconds)

Published: Wed May 06 2020