
In 2009, 50 people attended a "Spiritual Warrior" self-help retreat in the Arizona desert.
Led by guru James Arthur Ray - who appeared in the film The Secret and wrote a number of popular self-help books, including The Science of Success - the retreat cost roughly $10,000 to attend.
Throughout the five-day retreat in the Red Rock Canyons of Northern Arizona, participants – who were predominately high-achieving professionals – were encouraged to achieve a breakthrough in their thinking by undertaking limit-pushing exercises.
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By the end of the retreat, three people were dead.
At the time of the Arizona retreat, Ray was exploding into the spotlight, becoming a major figure in the self-help space with appearances on Oprah and Larry King Live.
Describing himself as a "thought leader", Ray's movement largely focused on 'The Law of Attraction', which is the belief that people can "attract" things into their lives through the power of their thoughts.
While the movement may sound relatively harmless at face value, Ray's events were known for being risky and particularly intense.
At one event in Hawaii in 2008, several attendees reportedly "full-on" broke their hands after Ray told them to punch through a brick.
On another occasion in San Diego in 2009, a woman who attended a seminar hosted by Ray fell to her death at the Horton Plaza Mall after she was instructed to spend a day pretending to be homeless.
"We put grease in their hair and dirt on their face and we dropped them off on a bus in downtown San Diego, where they would walk around and try to survive or thrive as a homeless person," Melinda Martin, who previously worked with Ray, told ABC.
But it wasn't until the October 2009 Arizona retreat that Ray's practices were truly brought to the public's attention.
James Arthur Ray in 2016. Image: Getty.
Top Comments
The safety net must be handed to the participants themselves, and not controlled by the facilitator. If someone needs out, they simply must be allowed to leave. This encourages participants to set their own boundaries and be responsible for themselves.
If that is taken away it is likely that the facilitator is a dangerous control freak.