New Age guru, James Arthur Ray, sentenced to two years in prison

After a nearly four-month-long trial, the New Age guru, James Arthur Ray was on November 18, 2011, sentenced to two years in prison, for three accounts of negligent homicide in the October 2009 deaths of Kirby Brown, James Shore and Liz Neumann, after a failed sweat lodge ceremony. James Arthur Ray is a famous New Thought guru on the so-called law of attraction.

"There is a factor of deterrence that is very prominent in this case," Yavapai County Superior Court judge Warren R Darrow said. "I find the aggravating circumstance is so strong that probation is simply not warranted in this case."

Family members had been especially angry about Ray's seeming indifference after the event, saying that neither he nor his staff called (note that James Arthur Ray´s Law of Attraction philosophy teaches people to ignore what they find negative!! - see my article about the teaching: The New Thought movement and the law of attraction). They said they found out what happened either from police or from calling around to area hospitals on their own after hearing news reports (for a full report of the events, see my article James Arthur Ray and the sweat lodge tragedy).

Before the sentencing, Sheila Polk, Yavapai County prosecutor, said Ray "led the life of a pretender, and there are predictable consequences when one leads a life of pretense."

Prosecutors made the case that Ray had ignored plenty of warning signs that his events were becoming dangerous and that his stated desire to become the world's first "self-help" billionaire led him to become increasingly careless at his events (see my article Management theory and the self-help industry).

Members of the American Indian community sat through almost the entire trial in silent protest of Ray's misuse of a sacred tradition.

But for now, Ray plans to offer his brand of positive thinking to his fellow inmates as he begins his two year stint in prison, his family said.

Ray doesn´t seem to have listened to what Virginia Brown, mother of victim Kirby Brown, 38, of Westtown, N.Y., said: "My heart's been ripped out. My life has been blown apart, and the pieces are yet to land," "Mr. Ray is selling something that is faulty and needs to be recalled ... Please take him off the market.”

Virginia Brown is here saying something very important, that seems to have been overlooked during the trial, namely the problems in Ray´s teachings.

Personally I am precisely focusing on the scientific, philosophical and spiritual distortions in Ray´s teaching (or The Law of Attraction as such), which I claim is the main reason why the tragedy happened.