All language subtitles for 2_English enlighten us

♪♪♪

- [man]: Are you with me?

Yeah? OK.

Let me just-- Let me start over,
because let me tell you,

I will be all over the place.

So just be prepared for that.
I've had camera guys...

I used to have, you know,
projection on either side,

because the audiences
were really large,

and I'd every once in a while
look up and I'm not on
the screen.

I'd be like, seriously?
You know, come on.

You're getting paid to do what?

Alright.

So I'm reminded of the story

of a young, 6-year-old boy.

He bounded out of bed
on this particular morning

because he was excited.

You remember how, when you
were young and really young,

and you got excited about...

well, anything?

Well, I mean, that's how
he was. He was excited,

because today was
the day that he began...

kindergarten.

And he wanted to go new
places and meet new people,

he wanted to colour...
All kinds of things.

And so he left
his familiar surroundings

and he began to
interact very quickly

with a different
group of people.

And it wasn't very
long before he realized

that he was different.

- [woman]: [Edward 4-9,
communicate: emergency assist.]

[Sedona. CPR in progress.
Two subjects passed out.]

- [man]: [4-5 code right now,]

[there's about another
15, 20 people down.]

- [woman]: [Be advised, we just
had an additional call.]

[Possible third victim.
We're going to be sending]

[an additional ambulance
from Sedona as well.]

- [man]: [We now have three
codes and one burn victim.]

- [Three codes
and one burn victim?]

- [Yep.]
- [All at the same call?]
- [All at the same place.]

- [The first two code patients
are being transported right now]

[to the hospital and the third
one's being flown out.]

[We need to try to get over
there and figure out]

[what type of
crime scene we have.]

- [reporter]: It was supposed
to be a journey

into spiritual discovery
and wholeness.

- [second reporter]: Around
60 people sat in a packed
sweat lodge

in the Arizona desert. They were on a retreat organized

by self-help guru
James Arthur Ray.

- But now, a third person has
died after being overcome

by extreme heat, and authorities are classifying the deaths

as homicides.

[rumbling]
- [man]: I'm rolling.

Tell us what people are going to
expect at this event tonight.

- Well, at any of my events,
what people should expect

is to have a lot of fun.
I teach individuals

how to create wealth and harmony
in all areas of their life.

Everything I do is
extremely experiential,

whether it's a two-hour
presentation like tonight

or up to an eight-day event,

which... I do that and
everything in between.

♪♪♪

- Hello.
- Hey, how are you?

- Alright, good.
Can you head this way, sir?

- Yeah.

- James was one of the top
speakers in his field.

There were less than 10 people

who were in the category
that James was in.

- [woman on mic]: Self-made
millionaire James Arthur Ray

is transforming
the way the world thinks.

Called the "rockstar of personal
transformation" by the press,

please join me in welcoming
Mr. James Arthur Ray.

[applause]

- Thank you! What I'd like to
share with you this evening

in the short amount of time that
we have -- two hours will go
very quickly, I promise --

is the secrets behind what it
takes and how to operate

to truly create the life that
you desire and deserve.

If I have any gift, it's that
I'm able to take complex ideas

and simplify them
into a very practical

and easy-to-apply formula.

And that's what we're going
to do here this evening...

- When I first went
to a James event,

I was kind of skeptical.
I didn't know anybody there.

And it was your traditional
hotel banquet room

filled with chairs,
with a stage in front,

which kind of looked similar to
some of the personal development
programs I'd taken in the past.

- I'm not sure exactly why
you're here tonight, yet.

But there's two things
I absolutely know about you.

- Everybody in that room,

there was something
going on in their life.

Could have been anything.
Could have been a divorce.

It could have
been, um... financial.

It could have been anything.

- [Ray]: There's at least
one area of your life...

- Part of me was in a haze, and I wanted that part to wake up.

I want to be happier.
I want to be more successful.

I'm not quite sure
what that means yet,

so I'm looking, I'm searching.

- I knew that I was
an intelligent person.

I was very motivated. I felt
like I could do anything,

but I always felt like
there was just some

little piece missing that
I didn't have the answer for.

- How many of you
are truly committed

to taking your life to the next
level of solid achievement?

Really committed?
- I thought, maybe James Ray

has the one thing
that I need to hear.

- So let me ask you this
question. If I told you exactly

what you needed to do to
accomplish anything and
everything

you choose to accomplish,
would you do it? No or yes?

- [crowd]: Yes!
- Even if it seemed unusual,

would you do it? No or yes?
- [crowd]: Yes!

- Good. I want to congratulate
you for being here,

and I can help you.
I really can.

[car passing]

- He's gonna be in heaven.

Kombucha tea.

He loves it.

Protein bars and...

blueberries and strawberries.

He hasn't had any real fruit.

I think he gets
one apple a week.

We're going to get
James out of prison.

It's, um, exciting

to have him come out

and be free.

But I think we're
just starting, you know?

It's starting over.

- [reporter]: Good morning, everyone. We're here in Buckeye,

Arizona, at the Lewis State
Prison. You see the guard
shack here.

We've been watching cars
go by that guard shack.

A lot of media out
here right now.

- [other reporter]: He was once a popular motivational speaker.

He had appeared on Oprah,
in the movieThe Secret...

James Arthur Ray, though,
has spent the last two years

behind bars after a deadly
sweat lodge ceremony in 2009.

Today, after paying
his debt to society --

about two years in prison --

he's about to be released.

- [man]: Ryan,
I think that's him.

Do you think it's him, or no?
- I think it is him.

- I think it is too.

- [reporter]: James Ray
was indeed released

from the Lewis prison and now,
he will be on probation

for the remainder of his sentence, right here in Phoenix.

[patting]
[small grunt]

[sniffling]

[dog barking]
[woman shushing]

- Don't cry, man.

You're gonna make me cry.
[laughing]

- Couldn't have made it
without you.

- Yeah, you could've. It just
would've not been the same.

[groaning]

It's all good, man.
You're... You're good.

You're good.

- A new day.
- Yeah.

- I found myself
sitting in a chair today,

really talking to myself
and saying, OK, James,

get your head on
and be grateful.

You know, when I first went in,

it spun me out really hard.

And I went through everything:

from shock to anger

to victim to hating God,

blaming God.

You know, look, why?

I tried to help people
and this is my reward?

And now I look back at that
and I think, how arrogant.

Who am I

to think that I should

not have any challenges because
I'm trying to do something good?

And what's your
motive for doing it?

- Be strong.
- I will.

- You got this.
- I will, bud. I will.

Appreciate it.

- [woman]: How do you
feel right now?

- Just really blessed,

because, um...

again, I...

I have nothing
to complain about.

- It's painful,
because I know who he is

and I know what he has to offer.

Can he still help people?
Absolutely.

But you know, he's got
to help himself right now.

I guess the irony is that

really, to help himself
he's got to help other people.

Because that's what he does.

[clapping and cheering]

- Whoa, yes! OK.

- Hello. This is... I'm Laura,

from Kelowna, British Columbia.

I've been working
on control all week.

- Are you controlling control?

[scattered laughs]
- I'm not really sure.

I was there looking
for transformation.

I was at a point in my life
where something needed to change

in order for me to
move to the next level.

- So what could
you do right now,

just to prove to yourself
that you don't care

what anyone else in here thinks?

- Singing would be a problem.

- Singing would be a problem?
- [laughing]: Yeah.

- Because you're worried about
what other people think

of your voice.
- Yeah.

- OK. So... what song
are you going to sing?

[chuckling]

- O Canada.

- O Canada.
[crowd laughing]

- As the workshop progressed,

I could feel
my wall coming down.

♪♪ We stand on guard

I really did learn how to take
my guard down with people.

♪ O Canada

♪ We stand on guard for thee ♪

[loud applause]

[Laura laughing]
- You were awesome!

Great job!

Now wait, hang on a second.
Now is that a breakthrough?

If I'd have asked you a week ago

if you'd stand up in front of
300 people and sing "O Canada,

we stand on guard for thee..."
[chuckling]

...would you have told me
I was insane?

- Yes.
- Yes.

- [quietly]: Thanks.

- That's a breakthrough, huh?
- Yeah.

[clapping]
[James laughing]

- Who's next?

[crowd laughing]

- It takes unwavering
self-confidence to say,

"I understand exactly how
to fix not just myself" --

which alone would be
a huge accomplishment --

"but all of you strangers who've
just shown up in this room."

- I was sexually
abused as a child

and I was so scared.
I thought I wasn't important

and I've come full circle.

So I just wanted to
share that with anybody

that's feeling like me,
'cause you can do it.

- We're all carrying
all of this pain--

- You were.
- We were.

- And looking back upon
how you used to be,

how does it feel to be totally
and completely different now?

- There will be no stopping me.

[cheering]

- That fundamental human need

to express your pain and try to find some way of ameliorating it

is at the heart of all of this.

The self-help industry
is a huge industry.

It's $10 billion a year

and that desire
to improve yourself,

that's not going anywhere.

It's the history of America.

We've always been seekers,
on one level.

- It's scary to have to get
into your emotional issues,

'cause it's uncomfortable.

But you know what's
scarier, is not.

- James kind of represents
his audience, in a way,

because he's a striver.
He was saying,

"I have the tools and the skills
and the this and the that

"to help you achieve
your dreams,

"while I myself am actually...

This is me trying to
achieve my dreams."

When I wrote about him in 2008,

his goal was to be the top.

- Most people look at their
current state of affairs

and they say, this is who I am.
- He had been inThe Secret,

which was this mega best-selling DVD of motivational gurus.

And now he was taking his shot
to be that next big thing

in the motivational
speaking world.

You had these giants
of the industry.

- Things which matter
most must never

be at the mercy of things
which matter least.

- Stephen Covey is financial,
Deepak Chopra, spiritual...

- You and your mind
and your emotions

cannot be squeezed
into the volume of a body

or even the span of a lifetime.

- Tony Robbins
was really the king.

- Whatever you think you came
for -- more energy, more focus,

more determination, more
confidence, more certainty,

more love -- whatever it is,
I can tell you this:

that's not why you came.

- But no one kind of ticked all
the boxes. It was spiritual,

financial, wellness...

That's what James
was trying to do.

- I've studied for three years
with the Jivaro Indians,

who are the direct descendants
of the Inca, at 16 500 feet

in the Peruvian Andes Mountains.

I've studied in the mystery
schools of Egypt and I've
crawled through probably

more temples and tombs than
anyone you'll ever meet...

and I've studied in the
business schools of AT&T.

[crowd laughing]
Which kind of
means I'm eclectic.

[birds chirping]

Any time I'm talking about
the past I'm over here,

right? Young, 6-year-old boy.
I'm taking you to the future

over here, because people
read from left to right.

If I want you to think
about your vision,

I'm going to do this.

What is it you're going to
create in your life?

What are you going after?

Or if I want you to
let go of something...

you know, those old doubts
and insecurities and fears,

I'm going to put them into the
past. Now that's really subtle,

but unconsciously, you start
to organize these things.

If I really want you to
get down into your heart,

I'm like,
creating a different inside.

Wait, wait, wait, wait,
wait, wait, wait.

OK.

- James was at the top
of his game as a speaker,

and all of these opportunities
were opening up to him.

And then the sweat lodge
happened and literally,

bam, in one moment, all gone.

Friends, colleagues,
business associates,

people he paid for years
did not stick with him.

Didn't want to have
anything to do with him.

Assumed he was guilty the
moment they heard something

and literally ran for the hills.

- Come on, Sunshine.

- I don't think any of us know
the lowest that it went,

or has gone, or if
it's even hit that point.

But there's a lot
of strength in him,

and he's not a quitter.

- Remember I said to you
a few days ago

that it appears to be
our fundamental truth

that the people who grow
the most and evolve the most

are the people who experience
the greatest amount of what?

- Pain?
- Pain.

Challenges. Difficulty.

Because it's through
those challenges

that we recognize
who we really are.

- The movement that James Ray
is part of really began

in the early 20th century.

There were books
like Dale Carnegie's

How To Win Friends
and Influence People,

or Norman Vincent Peale's
Power of Positive Thinking.

The model was one of book-
writing and speech-delivering.

[clapping]

But in the late 1960s,
early 1970s,

the movement began to
undergo a radical change,

due in part to the popularity

of what was called
the Encounter Group.

- If you came in here
to get better,

if you came in here
to stroke yourself,

if you came in here
for all that nonsense

it's the wrong place to be. This
is not about getting better.

This is about completing
your transformation.

- "Est" started in
San Francisco in 1971.

A lot of people
would note it today

as the progenitor
of Landmark Forum.

People would come
into a seminar room,

booked in a hotel
over a weekend.

What it really became known for

was the kind of shockingly
confrontational nature

of the actual seminar.

- Why do you have
to be a nice guy?!

Why do you have to look hip?

Why do you have to look cool?

- It was challenging for the
people that were there.

It was a little outrageous
for the people who weren't.

Est was sort of a dam break.

Then you also had talk shows,
Oprah to Dr. Phil,

that created this experience
with a studio audience.

You have this wider acceptance

of the idea of, um, a group
of people coming together

to be completely
radically transformed.

- I guess I don't know
the value of money.

I don't know what a penny's
worth, I don't know

what a dollar's worth. I've
never had very much in my life.

- Where'd you learn
that one, Steve?

Mom or Dad?
- I would say my mom.

- Mom. Mom a happy person?

- No.
- No. Didn't think so.

Mom still alive?
- She passed away two years ago.

- Mom still alive?

- I, I... You're getting into
stuff that I didn't want,

want to talk...
- I understand that.

But you see, you're right on the
edge of a breakthrough here,

my friend.

[sniffling]

Do not touch him, please.

- James took, perhaps,
a slightly different approach

to self-development than
some of the other people

in the industry. He was
a little more direct about it.

He didn't sugar-coat
a lot of things,

but he really made you
stop and think.

- Are you listening or are you
wanting just to defend
your position?

- I was going
to agree, actually--
- Yeah, yeah, well, listen.

Because you see, so many times
people ask me questions not to

get the answer. They ask me
questions so that they can prove

what they know.
And you don't like that,

'cause I called you
on your shit.

But you know what?
That's why you paid me money.

So do you want to learn, or do
you want to stay where you are?

- I'm standing here.
I want to learn.

- Then let go of pissed,
right now,

and tell me what's good about me
calling you on your shit.

Why are you happy that
I called you on your shit?

- Makes me uncomfortable.
I grow.

- Yeah, good! Nice job.

- He does have that flavour of, you know, pushing beyond limits.

He would say, "OK,
you can get this far.

"OK, you got here,
now you can go this far.

Now you got here, now you
can go a little further."

- [Tucker]: One of the things that James understood very well

was that people grow, people
transform in challenge.

[various voices yelling]
- [woman]: Let it go and
reach for the bar!

Come on, you can do it!

- So he would create
these challenges.

[cheering]

They were manufactured
challenges,

but they became
an opportunity for

realizing that you
could do something

that you didn't think
that you could do.

[cheering]

- They seemed to get
more and more

elevated in difficulty.

- Just look eye-to-eye.
Connect eye-to-eye here.

- There was bending rebar.
So two friends

would put a piece of rebar
between them and then

you bend the rebar
using your throat.

- It's going,
it's going, it's going!

Come on, come on,
come on! Come on, dig in!

Dig, dig, dig, dig!
Good! Yeah! Yeah!

[cheering and whistling]

- You would also
walk across fire.

- Make sure, remember
to wipe your feet.

There's a water bucket
right on the end.

Let's go.
[drum beating]

YEAH!
[cheering]

[applause and yelling]

Sticking your hand
in a pit of snakes.

Why the hell would you do this?

[squealing]

If you don't go through
that brick, it'll sting.

But you will go through
that brick and you can,

and it has nothing to do with
strength. It's about energy.

We've talked about this all
week; here's a chance to
practice it. Do whatever

you need to do. Breathe from
the now, bring that energy up.

Circulate that energy.
Bring it out your arm.

BAM! Right through the brick.
- You see some people

freaking out about
just the thought

that they would break a board.

[loud cheering]

And then you'll see them break through it, and you'll just see,

like, the sheer joy that
comes across their face

of, like, being able to
accomplish something that

they thought was impossible.

♪♪♪

It's pretty powerful.
[cheering]

- Give yourselves a big round
of applause! You kicked ass!

[clapping]

You faced your fears,

you went forward and you gave it
everything you've got,

so I want you to remember that.

You see, only he or she who
is willing to go too far

will ever find

how far one can go.

Are you willing

to play so fully

that you maybe go too far,

to realize who you really are?

- This isPiers Morgan Live.
Welcome to our viewers

in the United States
and around the world.

I want to begin with the story
of how it all went so very wrong

for the king of self-help.
Here's CNN's Ted Rowlands.

- At the peak of his popularity, self-help author

James Arthur Ray was one of
the world's top motivators.

But in October 2009,
he pushed too far.

- [911, where
is your emergency?]

- [woman]: [Angel Valley Road.]
- [OK, what's the problem?]

- [Two people aren't breathing.]

[There's no pulse.]
- [Not breathing?]

- [Yes.]
- [OK, is this the result
of a shooting or something?]

- [No, it was a sweat lodge.]
- [A sweat lodge?]

- [Yes.]
- It was James Ray's version

of a Native American
sweat lodge ceremony,

where temperatures reportedly
reach 120 degrees,

killing three of his followers and sending 19 to the hospital.

Ray was charged with three
counts of manslaughter

for the deaths of
38-year-old Kirby Brown,

40-year-old James Shore and
49-year-old Liz Newman.

- And James Ray now joins me
exclusively, to remind viewers,

the first time he has spoken
since coming out of prison

after all this dreadful tragedy.

So James, you know,
your career was rocketing.

Were you a nice person then,
when you look back on yourself?

Do you look back at yourself
with a certain degree

of disgust, perhaps,
at your actions,

and recognize that there was
a character trait in you

that you had to change?

- There was definitely
character traits in me

that I had to change. Um...

And there still are.

I don't know that I would say
disgust, you know? I'm human.

- To go from that kind of wealth
to getting wiped out

and to lose your liberty,

it's a huge toll on anybody.

But do you think, looking back,

it was an appropriate
punishment?

Given that three people who paid
money to be in your tutelage

lost their lives?
- I... I have no complaints.

You know? I feel like

I've taken the punishment

and that God gives us
what we deserve.

Until I create a compelling
now and future,

what's the topic? The past.

It's been years

of people telling me what
to do and where to be

and what to say,
what not to say.

I, I, I gotta get back
in the driver's seat again.

Hey.
- Hi.

- Thanks for meeting me.

- Hi Juliana, nice to meet you.

You guys all part
of James Ray's team?

- This is James Ray.
- Oh, hi!

- Hi. Nice to meet you.
Thank you so much for having me.

- Oh, we're so excited.
- How are you?

- Good. Just coming to
kind of look at the room.

You said you keep a cool room?
They're going to cool this down?

- Yeah, I just told them.
It's going to go way down.

- Yeah, 'cause this is...
- It's way too hot.
- Stifling in here.

Do we have a stool
for me to sit on?

- Yep, I have it.
- I'll give you my notebook

and my water and all that,
and if we just have a glass...

- Make sure it's up there.
- ...and tissues.

And I'll just pick the stool up
and walk over here

and set it down and
climb up on it and go.

- OK, good.
- That'll work.

OK, good.

- Sure.

[crowd cheering]

[clapping]
[distant music]

- Um, I got a mail, and I've
been reading The Secret.

And...
- That was a long time ago.

That was 2005.
- Yeah, that was like a boom!

- Yeah.
- Yeah. Have you seen the movie?

- [all]: Yeah.
- Movie and the book.

- After this movie,

I start dreaming about America,
that I have to go to America.

- Good for you.
Where'd you come from?

- From Russia.
- Oh, yeah? So make sure

you stay and listen, because
I think, I think there'll

be some good information.
- Do you have something more
to say besides secrets?

- A lot more. A lot more.
- OK.

[continuous cheering]

- Thank you.

[applause]
Thank you!

On October 8th, 2009,

I was involved
in a terrible accident.

[voice breaking]:
And I lost three friends.

People who I really cared about.

And I can't tell you

how much anguish and pain

that caused, and
still does for me.

Can we bring the
lights up, please?

Have you ever had
a situation in your life

where you felt like

you got hit so hard
in your stomach

that you can't even breathe?

Life is hard.

False or true?
- [various]: True!

- And life sometimes deals you
some really tough blows.

False or true?
- [various]: True.

- And at some point in time,

you have to decide --

we all have to decide --

if we're going to fold
or move forward in faith.

Life has taken some really
tough swings at me,

and by the grace of God,

I'm still here. I'm still here.

[clapping and cheering]

Thank you.
[whistling]

[continuous applause]

Thank you. Thank you.

♪♪♪

What do I do?
- What do you do?

- That's the million-dollar
question, isn't it?

You get it? OK. My pleasure.

I really believe
that I help people

experience more life.

- Thank you very, very much.
- My pleasure. Thank you,

sweetie. Thanks for being here.
I started my search

when I was really young,
because I wanted to find --

as a very insecure,
skinny, frail,

buck-toothed young man

with an extremely
domineering father --

I wanted to find myself.

I grew up in Tulsa, Oklahoma,

in the Bible Belt. Right in the buckle of the Bible Belt.

My father was
Protestant minister.

- Jesus' miraculous ministry of the flesh was coming to a close.

- He was very charismatic.

He really could touch

his congregation.

And he was my first "wow."

- Back then, he was a hellfire
and brimstone preacher,
to tell you the truth.

And he went very far with that,

because our church
was very strict.

- We all never went to the
hospital or anything.

We prayed and we believed
in healing and...

- God healed us.
- God healed us.

And we weren't making
a whole bunch of money

in those days, either.

- Dad was pretty easy.

Mom was extremely strict.

She was brought up in
a very, very staunch,

religious family,

and everything was a sin.

We couldn't go to movies,

we couldn't play pinball,
because Mom considered that

a form of gambling.
Because if you

played well enough,
you could win a free game.

-[Joyce Ray]: It's basically that you just keep yourself away

from the world and all
the world's foils.

He's only six weeks old. Ha!

James and I were together day
in and day out for four years

before Jon-Jon came along.

He was my life.

I always believed in him
and I always knew

he had a special calling.

I told him that from childhood.

I don't know if I put it in him,

and I wondered if
I was wrong in doing so.

But I really felt like
he was a special child.

- I love them both, but, uh,

I think his mother's closer
to James than I am.

With Jon-Jon,

I have a lot more fun.

- James was always
very, very disciplined.

I mean, I remember when he
had a morning paper route

and he would get up at four
o'clock in the morning.

To me, he was always
larger than life,

because he was
my bigger brother.

But he was actually
kind of reserved.

He was a goofy-looking kid.
[chuckling]

If you put goofy-looking kid

and introspective together,

it's a recipe for inadequacy.

[everyone clapping]

- Nice. Oh, yes!

Grab a seat.
Just humour me for a moment,

because two of the most
important people

in my entire life
are in the room.

I call them Mom and Dad, so if
they'll stand up right here...

[applause]

My mom is the most
loving, beautiful,

um...

angelic...

[small laugh]
...person I've ever known.

And she has to be
to live with Dad

for all those years.
[crowd laughing]

Give them one more round of
applause for me, please. Thanks.

[cheering and clapping]

Thank you for proving
my point. Um, now...

My dad and I have always had

this "frictionous" relationship.

You know, he never really wanted
to allow me to do what I do,

and he always... It was always
like this competition,

for whatever reason.
It's bizarre.

And it was really
tough growing up,

because it was never
good enough for Dad,

and it was never anything close
to what he'd accomplished.

He wanted me to become
a Protestant minister,

but I went into business
and I did really well.

I worked for AT&T in
a telemarketing office.

I ran the morning crew and
I didn't follow the manual.

Like, when my people
would come in...

I remember this was
back in the 80s

and I've always been
a big rock and roll fan.

And so when they'd come in in
the morning I would play

Welcome to the Jungle
by Guns N' Roses, you know?

And I still love
that song today.

I had it up loud and
I had it on a boom box,

and nobody was doing
anything like that.

And my people were like, "Yeah, this is cool!" You know?

And they're all psyched up. And it was so very cool for me,

because I realized, man,
I can get people inspired

and they can do things that
they don't think they can do.

It felt like I had an ability

that I didn't know I had.

It made me feel like I could
conquer the world.

- [Joyce Ray]: Come in, Jimmy.
- This is the finest...

- This is clear...
- ...turkey carver
in the universe.

- Yeah.
[laughing]

- I'm not putting up with that!

- I started my first little
company and it was called

the Quantum Consulting Group.

- There's James A. Ray,
my first son.

President of...

- I taught everything, from time management to team building

toThe 7 Habits of Highly
Effective People

by Stephen Covey.
Good job.

But at night, I was reading all these kinds of mystical books.

- [Joyce Ray]: What is it?
"Emotional Intelligence."

- Emotional Intelligence. And I knew that if I could take

this study into mysticism
and personal development

and psychology and, and, and...

and mould it
into a business model,

I was like, wow,
there's something here.

- James Ray has devoted
the last decade

to studying the thoughts,
actions and habits

of successful individuals.

And tonight, he's going to share
some of those secrets with you.

- I'm excited and I'm challenged
to be here this evening.

And I started keynote speaking.

And it was hard.

I can't tell you
how many hours I spent

standing in my living room,

telling my stories to my couch.

...very quickly left his
familiar environment

and started interacting
with different people.

And it wasn't very long
before he found out

that HE was different.

- The life of a self-help
speaker is very hard,

and it's very hard
to break into the field.

It's a tiny, tiny fraction
who ever have their own

television show, or who
are speaking in arenas

wearing a headset.
More often, they're speaking

at a lunchtime meeting

of insurance managers
or at a New Age centre.

- James showing Dad the pictures

of his beautiful house in
La Jolla, California.

He moved to California. That was a huge, huge leap of faith.

- [Joyce Ray]: Did you
land on it last time?

- You know, he was his product.

So if he wasn't selling himself,
he had no income.

- It was hit and miss.

And I was just like, man,

you know...

I'm getting older

and I thought I was going
to do something great,

and I haven't,

and it's probably
not going to happen.

- How many came 'cause you want
more? How many came 'cause
you want more? Say "ah"!

[cheering]
Oh, say "ah"!

- [crowd]: AH!
- I went to a Tony Robbins

seminar. I was like, holy shit.

- Whoa!

- It was like a rock concert.

[applause]

I remember saying
to one of his coaches

at the time... I said,
one of these days

I'm going to be doing this.

-[reporter]: A motivational speaker and best-selling author

who served nearly two years
in an Arizona prison

is in Scottsdale this weekend,
hosting motivational seminars.

-[second reporter]: James Arthur Ray is charging 300 bucks

for a one-on-one
self-help session.

- He believes he
can help more people.

The family of one of his victims believes he's done enough.

- [woman]: I still
think he's dangerous,

because he doesn't understand
that his actions

actually made these
deaths inevitable.

- We're having
an event for James

that is designed to be an intimate room full of people...

- Small number.
- ...who can bring...

It's ask what you want.

This is Steve.
- Hi, Steve. I'm Joanna.

- Having been in a room of
several hundred people

with James, and being
in our living room,

it's got a whole different
personality to it.

- Hey. Thanks for coming.
- [both]: Hi. You're welcome.

- Are you guys here local?
- No, we're from Canada,

actually.
- Holy Moses! You know...

Well, thank you,
double thank you for coming.

- I was at one of
your events in 2009

and I never got to get
that hug from you. Ever.

That's the one thing
I've always wanted to get,

'cause I owe you so much.

- Thank you, buddy.
- You're welcome.

- I appreciate that a lot.
- And I love your new spin
on everything,

compared to your old stuff and
your new stuff. It's just got

so much more soul and
passion to it and I just...

- Hi. James.
- Karen.

- Hi, Karen. Thanks for coming.
I appreciate you being here.

How do you expand awareness?
There's only one way.

[marker squeaking]

Pardon me?
- Especially bad experiences.

- Especially... Well,
but bad is relative, right?

Was my prison experience bad?

Yep.

Was it good? Yep.

I mean, you're here only
because I went to prison.

I wouldn't have
met you otherwise.

- It feels a little bit like
you're picking and choosing

which experiences
we're talking about here,

in terms of the struggles that
you went through. I mean,

it wasn't just about prison.
It was about--

- But let me ask you...
And I appreciate this question.

What determines bad?

- But what happened in the sweat
lodge seems bad to the people.

- So you're saying that
death is objectively bad.

- And death, definitely,
when you don't think

you're going to die would be--
- But you are.

- This to me seems like
a rationale. Honestly, like,

that kind of thinking,
I'm just saying, I feel like

there's a baseline
that can be established

that you can move on and
new decisions can be made,

but I think there can
be things that go wrong.

- Yes. You know,
all these tangents

are valuable and a whole
night in themselves,

and I'd like to come back to it,
but I will come back to it.

So let me ask you...

- The sweat lodge tested our
relationship with James,

but we've been supportive
because this work

really had some profound
effects on our lives.

We were going through
a tremendously difficult time.

- Hey, thanks for being here.

- To us, to me,
James was a "god," a guru,

or whatever you want to call
him. He was bigger than life.

One, two, three.

He came into our life
right at the point

when we were starting
to rethink ourselves.

There you go. Good.

Our business was falling apart. They were, you know,

foreclosing on our house.

And Donnita had
picked up this CD

called The Secret.

- An all-newOprah.

It's making its way around the
world, and the buzz
keeps building.

It is "the secret" to creating
the life you truly want.

Make more money? Lose weight?
Fall in love?

Land your dream job?
Find out "the secret."

- So many times, people say to
me, "Well, I'd like to double

my income in the next year."
- It may be calledThe Secret,

but it sure isn't much
of a secret anymore.

- The hottest self-help
program in years...

- And I guess the obvious
question here is,

what is the secret?

- Do you want me
to tell you the secret?

- Yeah.
- The secret, spoiler alert,

is that if you think positively,

positive things
will happen to you.

- Think of it as positive
thinking on steroids, perhaps.

Sales are soaring,
in part because of Oprah,

and in part because
self-help sells.

- The idea that you can just
sort of think more positively

and awesome stuff
is going to happen?

That just had amazing resonance.

It was the kind of thing people
could pass one to the other,

would buy for gifts
for each other.

And it became this
just absurd best-seller,

translated into
50 different languages.

-The Secret changed my life.

I'll remember the day
as long as I live.

I was sitting in my office

and my assistant came
running in and she said,

"James, Oprah's on the phone."

Oprah?!

- James, I love what you said
during the commercial break.

I hadn't heard that before.
What did you just say?

- "Thank you for giving me that
experience" is true forgiveness;

when you can get to that point
where you can truly say that.

- I've been here since 1875.

I hadn't heard it put that way.
[crowd laughing]

That's pretty good.

- I had several friends who got involved in that book and film,

but because James
is so articulate,

and "intelligenic,"

he was one of the people they
chose to be on the talk shows.

- There were four of us on Oprah and I got a callback

the very next day: "Oprah wants you to come back."

- We have some Secretteachers

back to talk about...
[applause]

- And that really was...
was his, you know,

his rocket ship to fame.

[cheering and whistling]

- Over the course of 2008, 2009,

I did all of the events.
[cheering]

- We went everywhere
his events were,

from California to Georgia...

- Aloha.
- ...Hawaii...

- Breathe in and out.
- In 2008,

we went to Egypt with James.
[loud exhale]

That was part of his
World Wealth Society.

- Just wanted to congratulate
you on all you've done.

Nice job. Great job.
[clapping]

- The World Wealth Society was
like James's inner circle

where you had some one-on-one
face time with James.

- You have a chakra
in the palm of your hand.

- It was amazing.

- And how much did it
cost to be in it?

- It was over 100 grand.

- For you and your wife?
- Yes.

- Per year?
- Yes.

- Grab a couple of hugs and
congratulate each other!

- The moment someone starts
getting attention,

everybody starts calling,
because they believe
there's money there.

- He's been called the rockstar
of personal transformation.

Now self-made millionaire James
Arthur Ray wants you to achieve

your dreams. He'll be here to
tell you just how to do it.

- We took a book
deal out with him

and closed it very big.
It was a seven figure book deal.

- He's a renowned success
strategist as well as the author

of Harmonic Wealth.He's here to
help YOU, 'cause you know
who you are.

- I spoke in front of my largest
crowd in Toronto, Canada.

14 000 people. It was a rush.

I was just buzzing.
And then it struck me.

I could speak to
20 million people

in the same timeframe
on television.

I felt this inspiration, I felt
this pull and it's going
to happen.

- I was introducing James
to different producers.

You know, looking at potential
TV appearances and things where
he could do his own show.

Warner Brothers Telepictures,
it was Harpo, Oprah's company...

- I'm James Arthur Ray
and I help individuals

all around the world create
harmony and wellbeing

in every area of their life.

- We shot a lot of tape.
- Hulk Hogan, probably

one of the most recognized
figures in the entire world...

- He had built a business and
build a frenzy. We figured,

if we can get him on the air,
he's gonna build a following.

[applause]

- I love you! Until
we meet each other again,

have a great journey. God bless.
Remember you're great.

I love you! Thank you!

[cheering]

[car driving]

- Hello, son.
- How are you doing?

- Better since
I've seen you, man.

- Looks OK.
- We got it all, man.

- [Joyce Ray]: Thank goodness
I'm not bent over.

[indistinct conversation]

[keyboard tapping]

- I've always had this intuition

that I would write
a memoir someday.

I hooked up with
a writing partner

who loved the idea

and I came up with a working
title, calledThe Fall,

and we went out and met with

four major publishers
in New York.

Well, story came back.
Every one of them:

"Great guy, great story,

"needs to be told...

Where's the comeback?"

[heavy breathing]

Here I am a year and three
months after my release,

and I'm extremely grateful --
don't get me wrong --

to be here and to have
a second chance at life.

I'm incredibly grateful.

And yet, nobody wants to be
starting over again in
their mid-50s.

[heavy breathing]

[grunting]

I worked for 20 years

to get a certain mind
share of the population.

And I got a nice little chunk.

That's like a piece of real
estate in the brain, right?

You know, OK... And those
people, once they connect it,

it's like, "OK, he does
another event and another,

"and this one and this one, oh,
and this one you learn something

different than you do
in this one." And you know,

after a while, you hit this
groove and there's a rapport

and you get a piece of real estate in the mind, if you will.

Well, where are
all those people?

Where did they all go? I mean,
they were beating down the door

to get into my events.
Where are they?

You guys have had a phenomenal
week of productivity over there,

to say the least...
Here I am, a startup again.

And I know what it takes.
And I get up and I'm like, shit.

You know? Do I still
have that in me?

How are we doing, numbers wise?

- [Numbers as in sales?]
- Yeah, total sales.

- [Well, I think the last
count was a total of...]

[up to 10?]

- [Yeah.]
- [Maybe 10.]

- I mean, this has
been a tough year.

You ready?
- Yeah. Let me get you mic'd up.

- I came out of prison in debt.

My credit is crap.

I'd like to begin
a conversation with you today

that I think you're
going to be interested in.

It's about the topic of wealth,

abundance and prosperity.

I've got nothing tucked away!

It's in the challenge,
the crucible of challenge,

that greatness is born.

You don't grow,
develop and advance

by tripping through the tulips.

[scattered laughter]

Going to prison sucked!

But you know what?
What greater place

to recognize
what's truly important?

What greater place to build
discipline and commitment?

What greater place to
practice what you espouse?

It's been an honour and
a privilege. You've been a great

audience today. I really
love and appreciate you

for your acceptance
and your participation.

Three words I'll leave you with:
start immediately,

begin flamboyantly,
no exceptions.

God bless. God bless you.
[clapping]

- [woman]: Thank you,
James Arthur Ray.

And as he and his team are
getting ready to go upstairs,

if our ushers will come forward.
- My pleasure, thank you.

[indistinct voices]

- Thank you very much.
- Hey, my pleasure.

Thanks for being here.
- Yeah, it was great.

I'll see you again.
- Keep doing good work.
- Thanks.

- What we're offering today
is the same investment

we normally offer for just
three online mentoring sessions.

- OK, alright.
- Yeah. You can talk to Maria

or Bear, they can answer
any questions you have.

- OK, thanks.
- OK? OK, hope to see you.

- I just wanted to come see
how handsome you are,

'cause I couldn't tell.
Can I give you a hug?

- Thank you. Sure, absolutely.
- Thank you, sweetie.

- I am coming in October.
- Oh, good! Did you sign
up yesterday?

- No, I haven't signed up yet.
- Well, right there!

Just go on. Come on, Carrie.
Make it happen.

Hey, Mike. Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you too.

In August I was almost
in a fatal car accident.

- Wow!
- This January my wife wanted

a divorce, and then at the end
of January I lost my job,

but I am so focused
on the positive

and I'm going to
be there on the 3rd--

- Good.
- And I do have a purpose.

- Thank you. That was wonderful.
- Thanks for being here.

- Very nice. I heard a lot of
things I needed to hear.

- That was rock 'n' roll.
I'm like, perfect place,

perfect time. You said
something that grabbed me.

Good one, good one.
- OK.

- Um...

So I started
a meditation carpet company.

I believe that
meditation carpets

should be in every
household like the Bible.

- I think I'm going
to do this one.

- Is there a reason why you
haven't considered this one?

What I would love
to do is work with you

over the next six months. If you
got a little inspiration today,

think about getting
that every single month.

Thank you very much
for that palm reading. I did
not expect to get that today.

- I'm going where you are, as
far as speaking and motivating.

- Good. Well, let me help you.
- I've been in my own,

my own crisis thing. It's not
what you went through--

- Let me help you.
I'd love to help you.

Thank you.
- So where do I sign up?

- Right here. Bear?
- I just need you to sign

with your finger here.
- My funny finger? OK.

- Hi, Carla. Nice to meet you.
- Hi. I like it much better

this way.
[chuckling]

- Can I work for you? I mean,
I worked my ass off on this.

I did this all by myself. You
can ask Dr. Sharon. Can I do it?

I'm not an ass.
I'm a really sweet lady.

Because I'm going
to be famous, you see?

- That's the wrong objective--
- I'd be happy to let the...

I'd let the whole world know...
- Please. No, now.

- ...that you were my mentor.
- See, no. No, see...

- I am glad for you. Thank you.

- Thank you.
- It was wonderful.

[people laughing]

I'm not arguing anymore!
- I'd like to see you soon.

♪♪♪

- The truth is, James never got quite as close to the sun

as he felt he
was destined to get.

You know,The Secret
got him on Oprah, got him

a fair amount of attention
by association with it,

but he was not a household name.

He's not Tony Robbins.
He's not Deepak Chopra.

In 2008, when I spoke to him,

he was quite open about
how what he was doing,

at the level he was doing it at,
was not really sustainable.

- Hey, I just got out of
a meeting and I wanted to

connect with you quickly.
I know I've sent you some emails

and a previous message
about my upcoming event

that happens once
every four years...

- He was basically
working every day,

every weekend, doing
something with somebody,

trying to get people to buy
more stuff all the time.

- By this time, my overhead
was astronomical.

My events would cost a quarter of a million dollars to produce.

My company had to generate
$6 million a year

just to break even,

before I ever got paid a nickel.

Hey, this is James again. Still
backstage at Practical Mysticism

and I still want
to connect with you...

And then, 2008, the economy
was going sideways...

...the most important
time in your life.

People didn't care
about Harmonic Wealth.

They cared about
"save my house."

You must surround yourself

with people who think,
feel and act resourceful.

I look forward
to seeing you soon.

I was getting frazzled.
- Something...

...was going to shift,
eventually.

- James always had a pyramid.
Harmonic Wealth is the bottom

and the pinnacle
is Spiritual Warrior.

But you were supposed
to kind of graduate.

You're supposed to: grade one,
grade two, grade three.

But when I went to
Harmonic Wealth in 2009,

he had a special that day.

"Just for this group.
I've never done this before.

We're going to allow people to
go straight to Spiritual
Warrior."

- Most of you have seen this
before. Can we see the pyramid?

- It was a retreat, so we're the upsell for the business.

There's volume and then there's
price, right? So volume is,

"You can fill the stadium,"
and price is

"You've paid $1000
to come to this conference,

but you can spend
10,000 to do this retreat."

- So here's the opportunity.
Let's see it.

- That was where
the real money was made.

- These are people
just like you!

They're making an investment
in themselves. That means...

- I had met this girl
Kirby at the event.

She had done
two Harmonic Wealths,

I had only done one, but we were

kind of like, why not
go straight to the top?

- [Ray]: Spiritual Warrior
was a five-day retreat

that was difficult.

And I would tell people, hey,

don't come to Spiritual Warrior
unless you're ready

to roll up your sleeves
and do some hard work.

- He recommended from the
beginning that it wasn't

for everybody, that it was going
to definitely challenge you,

and if you really
wanted and needed

a way to push
through your boundaries,

this was it.

And I thought, well,
everything else that I've tried

hasn't been enough.

And so if this is
what he's advertising,

I would like to try it.

-[Ray]:
Welcome to Spiritual Warrior.

Time is short. Time is short.

Question's not if you're
going to die... You are.

Question is, how did you live?
Time is short.

Tick, tock. Tick, tock.

The theme of the week was:

there's been a lot of painful
events in my life,

and I'm going to acknowledge
that they're painful.

I gave them
a series of exercises

to dive deeply
into their own psyche.

Why is it you can't
have a great relationship?

Well, let's see how you were
programmed about relationships

and what did Mom and Dad do
and how did that affect you

and how... You know, all these
kinds of things, which is
not comfortable work.

If you really, truly set an
unbending commitment --

"I'm really going to do whatever it takes, no matter how
uncomfortable it is,

no matter how frightening" --
then you will have

a breakthrough.

That's what you really want,
isn't it?

- James would pick, like,
two or three people

at each Spiritual Warrior
that he would mentor,

and he actually picked me
as one of them.

- There's a reason
for everything

that we're doing here.
I want you

to get out of your traditional
ways of behaving.

In that way,
I can push your threshold.

You can push your threshold; I can help you facilitate that.

- He said, "This week,
to get the most out of it,

"you need to do this.
You need to follow the rules

and play full-on."

[buzzing]

- The head shaving started
on the first day.

He asked, "Is this
going to be just another

"program that you sit through,

"or is this going to
be the program where

"you really take it on

"and take your life to the next
level? How serious are you?

"And how are you going to
demonstrate to the universe

that you're really
serious about it?"

And so immediately,
some people get up

and they go
get their head shaved.

- I warned you in advance
it was intense.

Have I kept my word so far?
-[crowd]: Yeah.

- Yeah, well, we're
just getting started.

- He told us some of the
psychological practices

he was using. It was all
designed to push

physical limitations
and mental limitations,

so our natural intellectual
resistances would be weakened.

- You can choose to sleep,
but I wouldn't suggest it,

because it's going to be over
before you know it,

and the work you get done here
is the work you get done here.

- There was usually a main event that happened every day.

One day we played
a samurai game,

one day we did
the vision quest...

Everybody was pretty
much on a huge high.

We had had all these
breakthroughs

and now we were going
to go into the sweat lodge,

and it was going to be
a rebirthing process.

- Symbolically, when you're
going into a lodge,

you're going back into the womb.

And symbolically, what you're
going to do is to die.

I approach the lodge
with great respect.

I've been anticipating
it all day long,

because by about the
second or third round,

I'm normally thinking,
why the hell am I me?

[crowd laughing]

It will be the most intense heat that you've ever experienced

in your entire life. You will feel as if you're going to die.

When you emerge,

you will be a different person.

- When he was saying what
we're going to experience

in the sweat lodge, I was like, OK, it's going to be

somewhat intense, but not anything like what he described.

Then when I saw it, I was like,
what the heck?

It wasn't even a tent;
it was a dome.

And it was covered in plastic.
I was like, wow,

how's this going to work?

Aren't we going to, like,
suffocate in there?

- It was way worse
than I anticipated,

but I sit down.

I'm like, OK, trying to give
myself some space here,

and he's like, "Oh, no,
you have to scoot in."

So people would, like, touch
you. I'm like, oh, really. Wow.

And then the next group
of people would come in,

and they sat right
in front of you.

And so now you're
sitting cross-legged,

and now there's
people in front of you

and they're smooshed up against
you, kind of using you

as back support.

And so my space is literally,

like, this big.

- I was beside Liz Newman.

Liz was a member of the team

that was helping
to facilitate the event.

She had been at this event
numerous times in the past

and she gave us some tips on
what to do when it got hot.

- As we're all sitting there,
they close the flap.

A few people just panicked.

Like, screamed.
Just the initial of like,

holy moly, I'm in this really
claustrophobic space.

And then he says,
"Bring in the rocks."

And it starts getting
hotter and hotter.

- You could hear
various people talking

and some people were in distress

and unhappy about being there,

and trying to talk
themselves through it.

- He keeps bringing in
more and more rocks,

and at one point he pours on,

like, a five-gallon
bucket of water

and the whole thing
filled up with steam,

and it just kind of
waved over you.

Like, you could just feel it
touching your face,

burning your face.
It went down my nostrils

and into my throat
and I was freaking out.

- It was so, so, so intense.

You couldn't breathe.

At the fourth round
I said I had had enough,

and I crawled over

and James was at the door, and he's like, "Beverley, you know,

"you can do this. You can do
this. You're stronger than this.

You can get through
this. Play full-on."

- As a good mentor that they
paid me to be, I would say,

come on, now. Come on. You can
do this. Can't you? Come on,

you can stick it out. You know?
I would encourage them.

- I was like, yeah, OK, OK.

- What am I doing here?

Why am I putting
myself through this?

What is the point
of me, you know,

sitting here with
all these other people,

and is it worth it?

- I had to leave. But then I was
sitting there blaming myself,

like, golly, is there
something wrong with me

that I wasn't able to,
like, stick it out?

- Yes, there were people that
were having a hard time.

But every year there were
people having a hard time.

You know?

To me, it was no different
than running a marathon.

- At the end of
the seventh round,

James Shore was laying
right next to Kirby,

and he was saying,
"She's not moving.

She's not moving. She's not
breathing. She can't breathe."

And James said,

"Well, the door's closed.
This round has now begun,

and we'll deal with that at
the end of this next round."

- I became concerned about Liz.

I don't know if it was
the way she was breathing,

but I raised my voice
and I said,

"James, I'm concerned
about Liz." And he said,

"Liz has done this
before, Laura.

She knows what she's doing."

So I asked her
if she needed to leave,

and I got a head shake
and a "no."

When it was over, we were
amongst the last to leave.

I stayed in

until people
came in and took her

and she didn't get out
under her own steam.

And then I made
my way out into...

I just remember
how bright it was

and how chaotic.

- I was laying on the ground
and the woman to my right,

I saw that she was unconscious.

And then she started seizing.

- Some people had passed out.

Somebody went back in to check
whether everybody was out,

and there were still
three people in.

They lifted the sides,
pulled them outside.

- When they told me there were
people in serious distress,

I was like, what? You know?

And...

I just... I was in shock.

I mean, my entire life...

...completely collapsed

within the period
of about 15 minutes.

- [911, where is your
emergency?]

- [You said to call if anything
changed and one more]

[isn't breathing
and one person is burnt.]

- [OK, so we've got three
people not breathing...]

- [Yes.]
- [...and one burn victim?]

- People were shaking

and calling names to people
that were incoherent.

There was one lady
who was, like,

laying down and her eyes were
rolled back in her head,

and just...
[tiny breathing sounds]

Just, like, puffs of breath,
like she couldn't breathe.

- It looks like a MASHunit.
Literally, a triage.

Like, there's people laid out
everywhere on tarps.

Some of them are
kicking and clawing.

It was not right and it
wasn't under control.

And this is not
how it's always been.

- I figured Kirby would be doing
the same thing I was doing,

helping out. But I couldn't
find Kirby anywhere.

Then I looked through the tent.

She was right
next to James Shore,

getting CPR.

- The people who
were unconscious,

they were taken out first.

[sirens blaring]
I kept asking the policeman

who was coordinating, did you hear any news from the hospital?

And at some point
he said, "Yeah.

"Two people were declared
dead when they arrived

in the hospital."

And I said, whew.

After that, all police
cars came driving in,

because now there was a crime.

[helicopter droning]

They asked,
"Who is the leader of this?"

Well, James Ray. "Where is he?"

Well, he was not there.
- I had gone back

to my room and I was like,

still not all together,

'cause I've just run
this serious marathon

on the tail end of an extremely
emotionally taxing week already,

and so I get in the shower,

and when I get out
there's a rap on my door.

And it's the police.

"Are you James Ray?" Yes.
"Did you run this lodge?" Yes.

"You know we're investigating
this as a homicide."

What?!

You're scared shitless.
You're in shock.

It's real! And so
I grab my cellphone

and I call my lawyer and so he goes, "Well, you need

a criminal lawyer right away.
Let me call someone I know."

And so this criminal guy,

his name is Steve, I've never
talked to him before.

I've never met him. But he
calls me back and he said,

"You need to leave."

In my mind, it's like:

investigating
this as a homicide,

you might get arrested,

attorney's saying,
"Get out of there..."

I mean, what would you do?

- We went to the main hall. That's what they told us to do.

And then they started taking
depositions from us

as to what happened.

It was super confusing,

'cause nobody knew what each
other was supposed to do.

We all wanted answers.
How is everybody?

And then, where's James Ray?

Never to be seen again.

- He never came
to the dining room.

Every time the door opened:
James? No, not James.

- There was this opportunity

for him to really step into the
role of teacher and leader,

and he failed.

- My whole entire vision is just
this scared little boy...

running away from
something that he's done.

- When I first got this case,
I had never heard of James Ray.

I'd never even heard of the
self-help movement. I didn't
know there was one.

Initially, I thought that this
was probably some kind of cult

and this was some
kind of cult ritual.

Without having any of the facts,

that's what came to mind from
just looking at the sweat lodge

structure and talking to
some of the participants

who were still dazed.

Initially, we had no idea
why these people died.

We didn't know if there
was some kind of drug

that they were using to
get to this altered state

that they were seeking.

Eventually, I felt it
was clear what had happened,

that James Ray got
the sweat lodge too hot.

The question was whether
or not that's a crime.

- Whatever the reasons
why these folks died,

there's no question
but that it was an accident.

[shutter sounds]

Our first goal was
to talk to the government

about why this was
not a criminal case.

- [reporter]: It was supposed to
be a spiritual retreat.

- But right off the bat,
all the news trucks show up.

- Tonight, there is an
intensifying swirl

of questions and intrigue.

- Pushing people to their limit
or pushing too far?

- And we never saw
James Ray ever again.

[sniffling]

And he doesn't know what
some of us are going through.

- And so I think there
was a lot of pressure

to bring criminal charges.

- [reporter]: James Ray
is in serious trouble.

Three counts of manslaughter
against him in Arizona --

that's recklessly causing
the death of another --

each count carries
the possibility

of four to ten years in prison.

- I was so naive.

I never thought they
would ever prosecute.

I thought the world would know

that I was trying
to help people.

It was a nightmare...
It was a nightmare.

- [man]: Mr. Ray, do you have
anything to say to the family
members of the victims?

- [second man]: ...people who
died in the sweat lodge. What
would you say to them?

- Mr. Ray, do you
have anything to say?

- Not this morning, no.
- James, why do you believe

you're innocent?

[birds cawing]

- [reporter]: After months
of awaiting a court date,

James Ray has arrived here,
at the Yavapai County

Superior Court, after being
charged for the murder

of three people.
-Morning.

- The question for
the jury will be,

did these people know
what they were getting into?

Did they choose to stay because they wanted to push themselves,

or is Ray responsible
for their deaths?

- On October 8th, 2009,

three vibrant, healthy adults

entered a sweat lodge at
a retreat centre in Sedona.

Each one was seeking
to learn personal growth

and the tools to
success in their lives.

Instead of growth
and enlightenment,

Kirby, James
and Liz found death.

- The reason James Ray
was very dangerous

is because he's so good
at talking to people.

He can convince people
to do anything.

- Mr. Ray, through his staff,
recorded all of his sessions

with his participants
during this seminar.

- [Ray]: It will be
the most intense heat

that you've ever experienced
in your entire life.

I guarantee that. We're not
going to have lunch,

because the last thing
you want in a lodge

is a full stomach that has
to be emptied in the lodge.

- He tells the participants

that they're going to experience vomiting and an altered state

and that they might
lose consciousness.

He essentially gives them
the symptoms of hyperthermia

and tells them that that's what
they're going to experience,

as if that were
a positive thing.

- The state needs to prove
beyond a reasonable doubt

that Mr. Ray killed
the three deceased,

that he caused their deaths.

The state said that
people had died from heatstroke.

But looking at the medical
records at the time,

the doctors who were treating
the people were saying,

"Have these people been poisoned from, like, an insecticide?"

One of the first
things you would do

if you thought
somebody had a poisoning

is you would do a drug test
on them. They didn't do that.

What if you had
a blood sample right now

that they took on
the night of the accident,

'cause they could have.
What if they submitted it

and it says
"organophosphate poisoning"?

What are you doing
charging Mr. Ray?

The fact is this case was,

"Is James Ray a good guy
or a bad guy?"

And from the government's
standpoint,

James is a really bad guy.
He's a cult leader.

The state says that these folks
were conditioned to obey.

"Conditioned."

- [Ray]: If you feel like you
just cannot transcend

and overcome this, then
when the gates are open,

if you have to leave,
you leave, and you leave very,

very in a controlled manner.

- You heard it. "If you
have to leave, you leave."

How does that

condition somebody not to leave?

- Would you please begin
by stating your full name?

- Beverley Bunn.

- Would you tell us why you
made the decision to stay?

- I felt that
I had a lot of stuff

that I was dealing with
and trying to get over,

and Mr. Ray obviously
knows better than I do,

having been through
these sweat lodges before.

Maybe he knew I needed
a little bit more help,

or I needed to stay there
a little bit longer.

And I also didn't want
to let him down.

- James Ray did not
want people to die. There's

no question in my mind. He
wasn't trying to kill anybody.

What makes this a crime
is that James Ray knew

that people were
in medical distress.

The participants told James,

"Kirby Brown's not breathing right," and he says, "Leave her

there till the next round."
That's on him.

- Remember, these people paid
an enormous amount of money

for this New Age
gibberish: $9600.

- People paid a premium fee

and were pushed
to extreme limits

in the name of self-improvement.

- We were labelled as
either a cult or cult-like.

- If you make James Ray
out to be a guru,

you become a devotee.
You become a follower.

- If I allowed myself
to look at the news

or go online and read
what people would write

and you know, particularly
when it comes to

those comment sections
on blogs and...

"Stupid," "fat,"

"deserved to be dead,"
all this stuff.

- You know, "Who pays
$10,000 for a retreat?

What a bunch of wackos."

- Either, "She's
mentally unstable,"

or, "She's not
an intelligent person,"

or, "Was part of a cult,"
or you know,

"These people are idiots."

- What I learned
from Spiritual Warrior

didn't come from the course.

It came from what
I had to overcome

in my life as a result
of having been there.

- We, the jury, do find the
defendant, James Arthur Ray,

on the offense of
manslaughter, not guilty.

We, the jury, in the
above entitled action

and upon our oaths, do find
the defendant, James Arthur Ray,

on the offense of negligent
homicide, guilty.

[birds chirping]

- [man]: So where are we and
what's the situation here?

- You know, um,
this is my dream home.

In 2006, when The Secrethit,

I became very blessed and I went
into a whole new arena,

and started getting into the
media and all these things.

I thought, you know,

it's time for me
to get my dream home.

What's happening next week

is an estate sales
company is coming in.

I'm having to
liquidate everything,

because my house is either
going to be foreclosed upon

very shortly...

I haven't been able
to make the payments

for almost a year now,
since the accident.

I really need to sell
as much as possible,

because I haven't
worked in two years.

- Just catch us up.
Where are we now

in the whole process?

- We're waiting for the
judge to make a decision.

Potentially, I could go over
and be sentenced.

I mean, the state is attempting
to put me away for nine years.

So you know,

God willing that doesn't happen.

My prayer now is just to be

in the place I need to be,

and to embrace
whatever the journey is.

As I look back now,
really honestly,

I recognize my arrogance.

There's a lot of hubris

that comes with being a saviour.

I want to convey
my deepest sorrow...

...to the families.

Nothing I can say
or do would be enough.

I know that.

I'm so sorry.

[shaky breath]

I'm so sorry.

- The evidence from the trial
and pre-sentence proceedings

show that Mr. Ray,

as misguided as he was,

believed he was helping people.

And the evidence is that

people believed
they were being helped.

The court is still
left to wonder,

how is it that so many educated,

knowledgeable people

ignored basic common sense?

But Mr. Ray, when a person
has your incredible abilities

to gain people's trust,

there is a large,
large responsibility

that goes with that trust.

And that responsibility
was not honoured.

It was violated.

- [reporter]: James Arthur Ray
has been sentenced

to two years in prison
in the deaths of three people

in a sweat lodge
ceremony in Arizona.

-[woman]: Andy, really
no one is happy

with the sentence tonight.
-[other woman]: That's right.

He could have gotten nine years, but instead he will spend

two years in jail. And the
victims' families lashed out,

saying two years is a joke
for the loss of three lives.

- Hello, there!
- What's up, buddy?

- How are you, my friend?
Great to see you again.

- Good to see you.
- Welcome to Phoenix.
- Thank you.

This is a nice room you have.

- It's kind of like my living
room. It's got a fireplace

and the whole bit, you know?

- David, there's your name tag
and then workbooks for
the two of you.

- OK.
- We'll be getting
you seated really soon.

- So with that we're
going to say hiii...

- [all]: Ya ya!
- Let's go. Come on, let's go.

In October

of 2009, my world changed

dramatically.

I... am... responsible.

There were things that were
overlooked and missed.

I'm responsible.

There were people assigned
to certain duties.

They were trained well.
They were paid well.

That was their job.

Doesn't matter.

I am responsible.

The case that ensued
set legal precedent:

the first time in the
history of this country,

United States of America,
that consenting adults --

not minors --

consenting adults

participated willfully
in a legal activity...

Not drinking and driving.

An action occurred and it was
prosecuted as a crime.

First time in the
history of our country.

That doesn't matter.

I am responsible.

- This is the box that's got all
of the course materials

and notebooks and my journals
from that period of time.

I've moved three times

since October 2009,

including across the country,

and it's kind of a box
that has followed me around.

I mean, I've got
these journals that...

I filled them full of stuff.

I don't think of James anymore.

One of the things that I believe
very strongly is that,

you know, our
environment is important.

And...

I don't include him
in my environment.

I stepped away,

very deliberately, from all
things personal transformation

for a number of years.

And then over the course of the last year and a half or so,

I started to get back to one
of those times in my life

where I started to realize that

in order to get
to the next step,

I was going to need
to go there again.

- I was very hesitant
for a long time,

but now I feel like, you know,

I may be ready for somebody
else's perspective.

- I haven't looked at this stuff
for, like, a couple of years.

His book is in here.

The Secretis in here.

This is a board
from Harmonic Wealth.

Talks about yourself and it
says, "Not worth loving,

not worth living." And you're
supposed to break this board

with your hand. And when
you break the board,

that means that you get...

what I feel I have now.

Love, joy and happiness,
and I deserve it.

I have it all.

Probably the biggest learning
lesson of everything for me

was to be responsible
for your choices in life.

I started travelling and
I started taking time off,

and I didn't feel like I had
to go to a networking project

to figure out how to make more
money or more friends or,

you know, things like that.

It was just actually
experiencing life, myself,

and letting myself experience.

So... And not forcing things.

[clapping]

- When I look at the event
in Sedona, I ask myself,

like, how did that happen?

I wonder if you ask
yourself that question.

- I think I know the
answer to that question.

It had to happen,

because it was the only way
I could experience and learn

and grow through the
things that I've done.

That's what I think

is the reason for me.

Am I drinking the Kool-Aid?
Maybe, but you know, that
Kool-Aid works for me.

[indistinct conversation]

I think you come out
of a situation like this

and you're either
bitter and angry,

or you're more
awake and grateful.

And I choose awake and grateful.

And I choose to see it
as a test of character

and a test through fire,

and I think I did OK.

[sigh]

[rock music]

[continuous clapping]

[crowd roaring]

[cheering]

♪♪♪

Closed Captioning by SETTE inc.