Two Dead In Arizona During 'spiritual Cleanse' Options

http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topst...at_lodge_deaths

Here's one link to the story, I'll get back and comment later when I've got more time.

Sounds like he is manic and possibly took advantage of people in a weakened mental state (when they were deprived of air and probably delusional) by demanding they stay put during the hazardous situation. He should be charged with negligence, people trusted him and he led 3 to an unnecessary death.

There are many self-made guru types who are megalomaniacal, narcisisistic, grifting and ultimately a bit on the delusion and manic-depressive side. The media sensation The Secret is chock full of those types if you look into their backgrounds and the project no doubt was a scheme to promote them into notoriety and wealth. I mean $9000 for an event with this guy? It would crack me up except that I know of an ob/gyn in my neighborhood who caters to the wealthy in Fairfield, CT and wears an association with Sai Baba on his sleeve (another wildly revered cult icon some of whose doings are questionable) . He tried to recruit me to a medtiation group he was leading. Participation cost $900 for 10 weeks. Hah! I had been practicing meditation with high level swamis and gurus for free for decades. Ironically, I was leading a musical meditation group across the street from this doc that I usually did for free. A handful of people used to wander into my meditation group--don't know what the doc's high-end turn out was. For $900, yabyum should've come with the deal.

I've also made the acquaintance of yoga practitioners, New Agers, and Pagans who also have dreams of grandeur about becoming celebrity teachers. None have attained notoriety of a significant degree but most all have already fallen from grace.When they do, they pick up and start over with a new group. I'm guessing these celebrity types did the same thing over and again until they found the golden goose and hit the big time and then when they fall, they do not merely twist an ankle, they tumult from heaven to hell. (Then they move out of the country instead of out of state and start all over again!)

The leaders of these groups often do not have training or a reputable background as spiritual teachers--or any kind of teacher for that matter. They often are either clueless and simply think themselves too grand to care about how they affect other people and engage in ambiguous and hypocritical behavior (like Hindu and Buddhist gurus who insist that their followers be celibate or vegetarian while they are indulging in a secret harem and feasting on pork ribs or who live in mansions because their groupies have given them all their assests and live in tents and trailers.)

Their self-inflation and lack of authenticity drives them to the type of behavior and consequences related to Ray. But in a way, the people who are taken in by this type of person and agenda bear responsibility for their own actions and decisions. It becomes a brutal lesson about life and about what spirituality is and is not.