May 27, 2014

James Ray's New Tune

Crossposted from Reflections Journal.



I saw this on Connie Joy's Tragdedy in Sedona page and, well, yuck. As we know James Arthur Ray was unfortunately turned loose on the public a while ago and he's plying his craft once again. He's posted some clips of his new spiel. I hate to give him the traffic but ya gotta see it to believe it. As with his recent, hideous appearance on the since canceled Piers Morgan, he's a font of crocodile tears and self-pity. It's so sad that a "terrible accident" claimed his "3 great friends." No mention of how he was convicted for causing said "accident" with his own gross negligence.

Note the comment from Liz Neuman's son Bryan in the comment thread on Connie's page. No, he did not even deign to visit his "great friend" as she lay in hospital, for nine days, dying from hyperthermia. I would add that friends don't let friends remain listed as Jane Doe in the hospital registry when they have all their paperwork on file, but are too busy hiding said paperwork from law enforcement to consider their medical needs.

I'm still waiting for this man to have a single, genuine moment.

Oh, and he's an alchemist now. Sure. Why not? Alchemists, you see, turn bad things into good things, which seems to be how he's interpreting the whole lead into gold thing. Mmmkay... He's an alchemist who quotes mysterious high level Zen masters -- the kind that don't have names, apparently. This one, though, is "the highest ranking outside of Japan." Seriously, I've searched his site and found a few references to various Zen masters. None of them have names. Well, sure. Because we all know what happened the last time Ray gave the name of one of his super, high level teachers. He turned out to be a tour guide. So best to keep those identifiers on the DL. 



But seriously folks, James Ray has embraced the shadow path and that might be a good thing, for his students if not for himself. Well, so long as he manages not to kill or maim them and the jury's still very much out on that one. He has even, to his credit, disowned pretty much all of his previous work. His new message is not just different. It's about 180 degrees out from the material he built his entire career on.

Then there’s the more upbeat and “up to date” pontificators in religious crowds that are more like motivational speakers than traditional preachers. Rather than the fear of hell fire and damnation, they propagate that God’s will is to make you “prosperous” and constantly “bless you.” In other words, rather than saving myself from “eternal damnation” I’ll be “saved from poverty, pain and suffering right now; and become endlessly abundant and prosperous.

But what does all that really mean? If everyone was meant to be a multi-millionaire how much would multiple millions be worth? It’s already much less than it used to be, as our standard of living (and cost thereof) has continued to rise (particularly in the West).

The close cousin to the prosperity preachers in religious circles, are those in personal development. Those who teach that if you learn the “law of attraction” properly or you “learn the latest brain technique to eradicate limiting beliefs” (my Facebook feed is full of them), you’ll attract multiple millions; and nothing will ever come to you but what you deem to be good. Bees’ wont sting and your stuff won’t stink.

To a large degree I realize in retrospect that while not totally espousing these fantasies in the past… I was doing so to a large degree. I was a close cousin. I was wrong. I was living in denial. My intention was good; and I apologize.

Wow, would I like to think he's serious. But, excuse me, he wasn't "totally espousing" these ridiculous law of attraction teachings? Is he fucking serious?

Yup. Still waiting for a sincere moment.

3 comments:

  1. My stuff stinks? Which stuff? Old gym socks? My cooking? My taste in music?

    Seriously though, thanks for continuing to sniff out and comment on these charlatans. One wonders what Mr. Ray is planning on doing to make a living now... maybe a guest correspondent for Fox News on religious cults? Professional apologist? Writing his memoirs?

    Mr. Ray, YOUR stuff DEFINITELY stinks.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I know. And the funny part is he says something about feeling "like shit" in the same video. His avoidance of profanity is selective... like most everything with him. Fox correspondent, maybe. Are there still carnival barkers working anywhere in the world? If this depressing self-help guru thing doesn't take off, I'm afraid his career prospects are limited.

    ReplyDelete

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