A young man was sent to me recently by Probation and Parole for treatment of his OCD. He was on Parole. That is, he had committed a serious enough crime to have been given a jail sentence and had since been paroled for it. An interesting combination I thought - OCD and the criminal system. the connection between the two was not completely obvious and no all that usual.
He had been convicted of crimes that involved obsessing about a woman. He had pursued her and then eventually hated her because she rejected him. He turned his attention to revenge on her. Not a comfortable development at all. He did not succeed in hurting her physically but relentlessly discredited and humiliated her publically and professionally. A prison sentence may well have been the circuit breaker that stopped a more unhappy outcome.
More interesting, perhaps, is the thought patterns beneath his very still surface. He does look unusual. He has very direct eye contact, no intonation in his speech and no emotion. He speaks as little as possible and never has physical contact. His condition at the moment manifests with compulsive washing of his feet. Many, many times per day. He is very bright.
He writes rather than speaks a lot in session. He writes about the hatred he harbours for the "Christians" that bullied him at school. He writes about the "eutherial slime" that he washes off. He washes off the contamination of people who are hateful and who have hated him in the past. It isn't germs in the conventional sense he is anxious about, it is the germs of the soul that he wants to avoid at all costs.
|
|
|
|---|
In the past twelve months I have come across a number of people who have become victims of a system that was set up with the best of intentions but which has in some cases gone horribly wrong. Imagine a woman who seeks and gets an AVO (perhaps for good reason) but then travels from Sydney to the Central Coast to harrass her husband into breaking it. She sits in the back of his truck, takes his tools out of the truck and steals his work mobile phone. He cannot touch her or restrain her. He can do nothing but stand and watch because she has an AVO against him. If he touches her he is looking at prison. What is the alternative? This story is one of many that are similar. The AVO used as a weapon. Women absolutely need the protection of the legal system but I wonder if it needs a bit a re-vamp to get it working properly again?
People are increasingly turning to self-help books, Amazon's list of the top 20 UK bestsellers suggests.
Five of the top-selling books are self-help related, with hypnotist Paul McKenna's I Can Make You Thin the most popular at number four.
It comes after there was a 38% increases in sales in the genre during 2004, the online retailer said.
But doctors warned while the books can be helpful, people should seek advice if they have health concerns.
Amazon predicts the number of sales will continue to grow after GPs in Devon unveiled a scheme to prescribe patients with depression self-help books instead of pills.
Rising sales
Amazon books editor Fiona Buckland said: "It seems that many people are turning to these books as trusted companions to help them in 2005.
"We have noticed sales rising by over a third in the past year, which suggests that more people are actively seeking to better their lives through literature."
She said during 2003 spiritual healing and advice books were the most popular, whereas last year the public turned towards practical help books.
It comes after there was a 38% increases in sales in the genre during 2004, the online retailer said.
But doctors warned while the books can be helpful, people should seek advice if they have health concerns.
Amazon predicts the number of sales will continue to grow after GPs in Devon unveiled a scheme to prescribe patients with depression self-help books instead of pills.
Rising sales
Amazon books editor Fiona Buckland said: "It seems that many people are turning to these books as trusted companions to help them in 2005.
"We have noticed sales rising by over a third in the past year, which suggests that more people are actively seeking to better their lives through literature."
She said during 2003 spiritual healing and advice books were the most popular, whereas last year the public turned towards practical help books.
Dr Graham Archard, vice-chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: "Self-help books certainly have valuable a place in society.
"Indeed, without self treatment and prevention the NHS would not be able to cope with patient demand.
"However, if people have serious concerns about their health they should make an appointment to see their GP."
And Glasgow psychologist Dr Jim White, a spokesman for the British Psychological Society, added: "Self-help books can be really helpful but it does depend who has written it.
"Some should be seen as just a bit of fun, whereas others can make a real difference.
"Another problem is that the books are often not easy to understand, they are written for Guardian readers, and problems are often more common as you go further down the social scale."
Also in the top 20 were The Mind Gym: Wake Your Mind Up, What You Wear Can Change Your Life by TV fashion gurus Trinny and Susannah, the GI Diet Book by Rick Gallop, Gillian McKeith's You Are What You Eat and Embracing Change by Tony Buzan.
"Indeed, without self treatment and prevention the NHS would not be able to cope with patient demand.
"However, if people have serious concerns about their health they should make an appointment to see their GP."
And Glasgow psychologist Dr Jim White, a spokesman for the British Psychological Society, added: "Self-help books can be really helpful but it does depend who has written it.
"Some should be seen as just a bit of fun, whereas others can make a real difference.
"Another problem is that the books are often not easy to understand, they are written for Guardian readers, and problems are often more common as you go further down the social scale."
Also in the top 20 were The Mind Gym: Wake Your Mind Up, What You Wear Can Change Your Life by TV fashion gurus Trinny and Susannah, the GI Diet Book by Rick Gallop, Gillian McKeith's You Are What You Eat and Embracing Change by Tony Buzan.
by bbc
Yavapai County Sheriff Steve Waugh said Saturday that his detectives were focusing on the self-help expert and his staff as they try to determine if criminal negligence played a role in the tragic deaths at the Angel Valley Retreat Center in Sedona, Ariz., on Oct. 9.
The town is a desert vacation spot two hours north of Phoenix that is popular with those seeking meditation and spiritual health.
Waugh said Ray refused to speak with authorities and has since left the state.
"We will continue this investigation down every road that is possible to find out if there is culpability on anybody relative to the deaths of these individuals," Waugh said. He said it could be three to four weeks before they knew if criminal charges would be filed.
Ray's recent postings on his Twitter account said he was "shocked and saddened" by the tragedy.
"My deep heartfelt condolences to family and friends of those who lost their lives," he wrote. "I am spending the weekend in prayer and meditation for all involved in this difficult time; and I ask you to join me in doing the same."
Ray claims to help people achieve both spiritual and financial wealth. "The real key to creating the life of your dreams is achieving true Harmonic Wealth®," he says on his Web site, trademark included.
The self-styled success guru says people are ready for his wisdom if "You simply (and deeply) want to make more money and become more successful" and "want to double, triple, even multiply by ten the size of your business."
It's not clear what type of financial wizardry was being taught inside the 415-square-foot homemade sweat lodge when a 38-year-old female surfer and a 40-year-old father of three dropped dead.
Ray's company, James Ray International, is based in Carlsbad, Calif. Ray's publicist, Howard Bragman, expressed condolences in a statement Friday but declined to speak about the deaths. Bragman didn't return a call for additional comment Saturday.
The Angel Valley Retreat Center is owned by Michael and Amayra Hamilton, who rented it to Ray for a five-day "Spiritual Warrior" retreat that promised to "absolutely change your life."
On Saturday, Amayra Hamilton said Ray has held the event at the resort for seven years, and there never have been any problems.
Hamilton said the resort remains closed to the public. The sweat lodge has been dismantled and a ceremony was conducted for those affected by Thursday's incident.
"The whole situation is very traumatizing for everybody," she said.
The people at Ray's retreat, whose ages ranged from 30 to the 60s, paid between $9,000 and $10,000 to attend.
Ray and his staff constructed the temporary sweat lodge with a wood frame and covered it with layers of tarps and blankets, Waugh said. The sweat lodge — a structure commonly used by American Indian tribes to cleanse the body and prepare for hunts, ceremonies and other events — was 53 inches high at the center and about 30 inches high around the outer edges.
Between 55 and 65 people were crowded into the 415-square-foot space during a two-hour period that included various spiritual exercises led by Ray, Waugh said. Every 15 minutes, a flap was raised to allow more volcanic rocks the size of cantaloupes to be brought inside.
Authorities said participants were highly encouraged but not forced to remain in the sweat lodge for the entire time.
Joseph Bruchac, author of "The Native American Sweat Lodge: History and Legends," called the number of participants in the lodge "appalling."
"If you put people in a restrictive, airtight structure, you are going to use up all oxygen," he said by phone Saturday from his home in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. "And if you're doing a sweat, you're going to use it up that much faster."
American Indian sweat lodges typically hold about 12 people and are covered with blankets made of natural materials, such as cotton or wool, and the air flow isn't restricted, he said.
"I don't see how the person running that lodge could have been aware of the health and well-being of that many people," he said.
The participants had fasted for 36 hours as part of a personal and spiritual quest in the wilderness, then ate a breakfast buffet Thursday morning. After various seminars, they entered the sweat lodge lightly dressed at 3 p.m.
Two hours later, a woman dialed 911 to say that two people, whom Waugh identified as 38-year old New Yorker Kirby Brown and 40-year-old James Shore of Milwaukee, did not have a pulse and weren't breathing.
According to a family spokesperson, Brown was an avid surfer and hiker who was "in top shape," before the mysterious sweat lodge death.
A nurse hired by Ray was directing rescue efforts including CPR when emergency crews arrived, Waugh said. Shore and Brown were pronounced dead when they arrived at a hospital.
Sheriff's Lt. David Rhodes said authorities were checking whether there was a lag time between the first signs of medical distress and the emergency call.
Autopsies on Brown and Shore were conducted Friday, but the results weren't disclosed pending additional tests. Authorities have ruled out carbon monoxide poising as the cause.
Matt Collins, who knew Shore since seventh grade, described his friend as a wonderful husband and father whose life revolved around his three kids. "Everybody who got to know him absolutely loved him," Collins told The Associated Press.
Brown, a graduate of the State University of New York at Geneseo, had two sisters who recently got married, two new nephews and a focus on "making the world more beautiful for someone, not only with her art but with her heart," family spokesman Tom McFeeley said. Although the family is saddened by her death, he said Brown created a roadmap by which others should live.
"She was the least selfish, kindest person I knew," he said.
McFeeley said Brown had attended similar retreats, although he wasn't certain whether any were hosted by Ray. He said Brown, who grew up in Brooklyn and Westtown and spent time in Mexico, saw the outing as a chance to continue on a positive path in life.
by Neil Katz
SEDONA, Ariz. — James Arthur Ray led a group of more than 50 followers into a cramped, sauna-like sweat lodge in Arizona last week by convincing them that his words would lead them to spiritual and financial wealth.
But Ray's self-help empire was thrown into turmoil when two of his followers died after collapsing in the makeshift sweat lodge near Sedona and 19 others were hospitalized. A homicide investigation that followed has cast a critical spotlight on Ray's company.
Critics are citing the sweat lodge tragedy as evidence that Ray is a charlatan who is not to be trusted. A relative of one victim accused Ray of exhibiting a "godlike complex" during the event that he said recklessly abandoned the safety of participants. Dedicated followers say they fully trust Ray to lead them through exercises that greatly improve their lives.
Shawna Bowen, once a James Ray fanatic who was among those who tended to the ill, has had a change of heart since the deaths.
"I could not imagine people looking to him after he made such egregious errors with human life," she said. "I don't think he has the right to be leading others right now. I think he needs to take a good look at where his ego, where his power trip got in the way"
Ray wept openly during his first public appearance after the deaths. During a free recruiting seminar for his program Tuesday in Los Angeles, he broke down in tears, the confident pitchman momentarily gone.
"This is the most difficult time I've ever faced," Ray told a crowd of about 200 at a hotel in Marina del Rey. "I don't know how to deal with it really."
Ray has become a self-help superstar by packaging his charismatic personality and selling wealth. Those who first attend his free seminars hear a motivational mantra that promises that they can achieve what he calls "Harmonic Wealth" — on a financial, mental, physical spiritual level.
But his technique is not just motivational speaking. It's a combination of new age spiritualism, American Indian ritual, astrology and numerology. The sweat lodge experience was intended to be an almost religious awakening for the participants.
Ray uses free seminars to recruit people to his expensive seminars, starting with $4,000 three-day "Quantum Leap" workshops and moving on to the weeklong $5,300 "Practical Mysticism" events and the $9,000-plus "Spiritual Warrior" retreats like the one that led to the sweat lodge tragedy.
About 50 people attended the retreat near Sedona, the center of the new-age movement where practitioners draw energy from the surrounding Red Rocks and various vortexes to heal others.
Sweat lodges, commonly used by American Indian tribes, also can be part of the healing process. Stones are heated up outside a lodge, brought inside and placed in a pail-sized hole. The door is closed, and water is poured on the stones, producing heat aimed at releasing toxins in the body.
The ceremonies have been part of Ray's "Spiritual Warrior" retreats for years.
Few details of what actually transpired during the two hours participants were inside the 415-square foot sweat lodge have emerged. Sheriff's deputies in Arizona's Yavapai County are investigating whether Ray or his staff may have been criminally negligent. No charges have been filed.
The Rev. Meredith Ann Murray, spent three hours in a sweat lodge led by Ray in 2007 that she said was done safely and helped her conquer claustrophobia.
"You're warned about all the possible things that might happen, how to take care of yourself, how to listen to your body," said the 56-year-old real estate agent from Bellingham, Wash. "I've done some amazing things I never thought I could do."
But in 2005, during a previous "Spiritual Warrior" retreat at the same resort, a man had to be taken to the hospital after falling unconscious during a sweat lodge ceremony.
Ray, 51, grew up as the son of a Tulsa preacher. Bored with college, he says he pursued a career as a telemarketer and began leading training classes for his employer, AT&T. He began honing his self-help business in the early 1990s.
In a 2008 profile in Fortune magazine, Ray said 5,500 people paid for his seminars in 2007. His books also are major sales drivers, and he told the magazine his revenues went from $1 million in 2005 to an estimated $10 million in 2006.
He soared in popularity after appearing in the 2006's Rhonda Byrne documentary "The Secret," and he later was a guest on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and "Larry King Live" to promote it. His 2008 book "Harmonic Wealth" made the New York Times bestseller list.
Whether Ray manages to maintain his success in the wake of the deaths depends in part on his supporters, and how long the tragedy dogs him as he goes from city to city recruiting paying customers for his wealth creation/spiritual harmony philosophy.
Critics point to the Sedona events as yet more evidence that Ray is a huckster, who, like other motivational speakers, present their philosophies as a magic bullet to all of life's problems.
"It's honing in on peoples' needs, their hopes and desires, telling them what they want to hear," said Rick Ross, founder of a virtual library of information on controversial groups and movements. "That's how any good con man makes his mark."
Linda Jackson of Brentwood, Calif., already is looking forward to an event Ray has scheduled in the San Francisco Bay area later this year. The 59-year-old says Ray has a rare gift that coupled with charisma, power and a "walk the talk" attitude only helps mankind.
Only God knows whether the recent tragedy will help or hurt Ray, she said. "Maybe it was necessary because he has to be cautious about something."
Ray has no plans to slow down, said his spokesman, Howard Bragman. He'll continue conducting seminars and be a leader, educator and mentor to the thousands who seek his help.
"One of his messages is about dealing with adversity," he said. "He's very clear and his team is very clear that we're going to continue his important work."
About 50 people attended the retreat near Sedona, the center of the new-age movement where practitioners draw energy from the surrounding Red Rocks and various vortexes to heal others.
Sweat lodges, commonly used by American Indian tribes, also can be part of the healing process. Stones are heated up outside a lodge, brought inside and placed in a pail-sized hole. The door is closed, and water is poured on the stones, producing heat aimed at releasing toxins in the body.
The ceremonies have been part of Ray's "Spiritual Warrior" retreats for years.
Few details of what actually transpired during the two hours participants were inside the 415-square foot sweat lodge have emerged. Sheriff's deputies in Arizona's Yavapai County are investigating whether Ray or his staff may have been criminally negligent. No charges have been filed.
The Rev. Meredith Ann Murray, spent three hours in a sweat lodge led by Ray in 2007 that she said was done safely and helped her conquer claustrophobia.
"You're warned about all the possible things that might happen, how to take care of yourself, how to listen to your body," said the 56-year-old real estate agent from Bellingham, Wash. "I've done some amazing things I never thought I could do."
But in 2005, during a previous "Spiritual Warrior" retreat at the same resort, a man had to be taken to the hospital after falling unconscious during a sweat lodge ceremony.
Ray, 51, grew up as the son of a Tulsa preacher. Bored with college, he says he pursued a career as a telemarketer and began leading training classes for his employer, AT&T. He began honing his self-help business in the early 1990s.
In a 2008 profile in Fortune magazine, Ray said 5,500 people paid for his seminars in 2007. His books also are major sales drivers, and he told the magazine his revenues went from $1 million in 2005 to an estimated $10 million in 2006.
He soared in popularity after appearing in the 2006's Rhonda Byrne documentary "The Secret," and he later was a guest on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and "Larry King Live" to promote it. His 2008 book "Harmonic Wealth" made the New York Times bestseller list.
Whether Ray manages to maintain his success in the wake of the deaths depends in part on his supporters, and how long the tragedy dogs him as he goes from city to city recruiting paying customers for his wealth creation/spiritual harmony philosophy.
Critics point to the Sedona events as yet more evidence that Ray is a huckster, who, like other motivational speakers, present their philosophies as a magic bullet to all of life's problems.
"It's honing in on peoples' needs, their hopes and desires, telling them what they want to hear," said Rick Ross, founder of a virtual library of information on controversial groups and movements. "That's how any good con man makes his mark."
Linda Jackson of Brentwood, Calif., already is looking forward to an event Ray has scheduled in the San Francisco Bay area later this year. The 59-year-old says Ray has a rare gift that coupled with charisma, power and a "walk the talk" attitude only helps mankind.
Only God knows whether the recent tragedy will help or hurt Ray, she said. "Maybe it was necessary because he has to be cautious about something."
Ray has no plans to slow down, said his spokesman, Howard Bragman. He'll continue conducting seminars and be a leader, educator and mentor to the thousands who seek his help.
"One of his messages is about dealing with adversity," he said. "He's very clear and his team is very clear that we're going to continue his important work."
by James Arthur
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
