Another Way to Find the Path

Yesterday blogger Narielle Living posted an entry titled “Testing the Kool-Aid,” in which she listed some things that should give a person seeking spiritual enlightenment pause.

1. A requirement that the seeker spend a large sum of money.
2. The claim that a teacher or spiritual leader has some secret knowledge or technique he or she is willing to share with a select few (see 1 above).
3. An insistence that the seeker must do a specific task, especially something dangerous, in order to grow spiritually.
4. Being led in a practice or tradition of another culture by someone who isn’t a native of that culture.

James Arthur Ray, described as a World Thought Leader and spiritual teacher, was featured in Rhonda Byrnes’ The Secret. His latest book, Harmonic Wealth: The Secret of Attracting the Life You Want, promises to bring the techniques of the "Law of Attraction" to wealth-building. This month he held spiritual retreat in Arizona at a cost of almost $10,000 per participant. Last week, as part of this retreat, he crowded as many as 65 people into a sweat lodge intended to hold no more than 12. Two hours later, 21 had to be taken to the hospital; 2 died.

What’s worrying is that people apparently put so much faith in Ray and his ideas that they willingly packed themselves into a small space and suffered for more than 2 hours hoping to gain some sort of enlightenment. What’s worrying is that in a country where we’re required to prove that our cars are street-worthy, show proper ID in order to be shown an apartment and produce a letter from a physician before we can take insulin on a plane, there doesn’t seem to be a regulatory body to ensure that the activities taking place on retreats of this type are safe. Perhaps there soon will be.

When we hear about these sorts of tragedies, we all like to think that the people involved were stupid and gullible. Surely, we think, we would never allow ourselves to be talked into doing something that is clearly dangerous.

Instead of indulging in Schadenfreude, let’s recognize that we can all be taken in by a charismatic speaker. We can all succumb to a logical fallacy or a lapse in critical thinking. We have all found ourselves sitting in our own versions of an overcrowded sweat lodge: lose weight through hypnosis; make millions on eBay; stop smoking by listening to subliminal messages; achieve sexual satisfaction through “male enhancement” pills.

The best way to protect ourselves from harm, whether it’s financial, spiritual or physical harm, is to be skeptical. We must not allow other people get away with equating it with cynicism or denialism. We must hold onto it no matter who is trying to talk us out of it, no matter what promises are being made to us–wealth, health or happiness. Any skeptic should know there is no secret knowledge that will give us these things. Let’s not keep this fact a secret.

This writer's thoughts are with those who were injured, their families and the families of those who died as well as the staff of the retreat and of James Ray. They are also with Ray, who surely never meant for anyone to come to harm.