Makes me wonder about Oprah's pick for president.

That's pretty sobering testimony and the last few sentences very chilling... that Ray just stood there and did nothing to help. Wow! I have to wonder what his real intent was. All the Oprah, media hype and book deals, etc. must have gone to his head, and in the process, he became more narcisistic and whacked. What would have happened had noone done anything? Would he have come to his senses and stopped this 'ceremony', or would he have continued until they all died except him? What would he have done then? Creepy.

It is no wonder the participants followed Ray like little sheep. After five days of sleep deprevation, fasting for 36 hours (including no water), etc. The extreme sauna (this was not a sweat lodge in the native sense) was not even on the agenda according to one of the people that has spoken out. So none of them could have had the opportunity to at least get plenty of fluids. This sounds more like the Hanoi Hilton treatment than any new age junk. Deprive a person of sleep, starve them, dehydrate them and many will do whatever you want them to in the hopes that it will be over soon.

$9695.00 X 64 (PARTICIPANTS) = $620,480.00

ABC15 this has nothing to do with Native American ceremonies, prayers or traditions please quit referring to it as such. James Ray's website says he searched out this so called wisdomfrom the mountains of Peru and the jungles of the Amazon...not from Native Americans!

Let's see. $9,000 x 50 = $450,000. Hmmmmmmmmm. A true flim flam man if ever there was one.

Unfortunately, a few of these folks got that 'out of body experience' they so desired. Same sort of people who go on long hikes in the Arizona summer carrying 1 quart of water. Somehow, indiscriminate breeding has knocked the common sense gene out of some folks DNA strands.

Lesson learned from this whole situation: If you ever plan to participate in a sweating, it's best to find an actual Native American Shaman to do it with, not some crazy ass white guy who is all about making money and couldn't care less about the well-being of the participants.

i feel fortunate that i survived my hippie days. had fun though. what memories i have left are burning out fast. but i'm feeling MUCH better now!.

Stupid hippies!