Cultic Studies Review, Vol. 8, No. 3, 2009, Page 67
transformation seminars, which take place usually in hotel meeting rooms and last two or
three long days, can be intense.
Cult expert Rick Ross remarks: ―The underlying assumption is that one size fits all, and this
world view or mindset will resolve all your problems.‖ He also notes that leaders sometimes
closely control the environment, even dictating when participants can come and go and eat
and drink. He says they use communications methods to break down participants and then
rebuild them with the leader‘s ―program‖ installed, ―What it boils down to,‖ Ross concludes,
―is the use of coercive persuasion techniques.‖
Michael Langone, the PhD. psychologist who heads the International Cultic Studies
Association, calls the process ―The engineering of experience. ...If you run people through
a predetermined set of exercises, you can almost guarantee that they‘ll have an experience
that they‘ll define as transformative. It‘s going to be an emotional experience, a cathartic
experience.‖ The emotional high, he says, provides an opportunity for the leader to sell
books, DVDs and, perhaps most important, subsequent seminars.
Langone, responding to a query about Ray and the sweat lodge incident, said that some of
the statements made by participants in the New York Times about Ray and the sweat lodge
deaths ―tweak my nose.‖ One such statement cited by Langone was: ―Deaths have not
shaken all of Mr. Ray‘s supporters.‖ ―Why are some of his supporters,‖ Langone asked, ―so
loyal to this man after such a horrific event? What has been his relationship to his
supporters? Has he actively promoted an uncritical adulation? I'd want to talk to a large
number of people who have gone through his trainings to determine whether or not a cultic
dynamic is at work.‖
Langone cited the remarks of sweat lodge survivor Yana Paskova, who described a game
played at an earlier retreat in which Ray, wearing white robes, plays God and orders some
participants to commit mock suicide. ―This adds to my suspicions about grandiosity leading
to more grandiosity and ultimately to very poor judgments,‖ Langone said.
Langone also addressed a statement, made by the lawyer of a third participant, to the effect
that Ray was very intimidating and discouraged people from leaving the lodge. ―Did some
people,‖ Langone asked, ―assert themselves sufficiently that they left the lodge, even
though Ray seemingly was discouraging them? If so, this will probably form part of his
defense in legal cases that may arise, i.e., if some people left, then, he may argue, he did
not force people to stay. This is a common argument made by manipulators. It ignores the
reality that the effectiveness of a particular manipulative tactic is partly a function of the
manipulator's ‗skill‘ and the manipulatee's psychological makeup. It also ignores the
question of what are the leader's ethical and legal obligations to participants. ..We have all
kinds of laws constraining would-be fraudsters in the business realm, but we have virtually
nothing constraining manipulators in the psychological realm.‖
Ray, in a statement on his blog, seems to deny responsibility (as does Oprah, who
promoted him). ―I have reached out to all of the families personally, but feel the need to
say more. I feel your pain. I accept your anger. And I pray for you all to have some
measure of peace and comfort. I want you to know that I too want to know what happened
that caused this horrible tragedy. My team and I are working with the appropriate
authorities and have even hired our own investigators to find out the truth.‖ The daughter
of one of the people who died in the sweat lodge says that Ray encouraged participants to
continue even as she saw her mother and others collapsing and dying around her. She says,
nonetheless: ―It‘s not like James Ray cane up with something that was totally his own. He
just packaged it in a particular way. So a lot of the teachings are a lot bigger than him and
can remain true despite his actions.‖
transformation seminars, which take place usually in hotel meeting rooms and last two or
three long days, can be intense.
Cult expert Rick Ross remarks: ―The underlying assumption is that one size fits all, and this
world view or mindset will resolve all your problems.‖ He also notes that leaders sometimes
closely control the environment, even dictating when participants can come and go and eat
and drink. He says they use communications methods to break down participants and then
rebuild them with the leader‘s ―program‖ installed, ―What it boils down to,‖ Ross concludes,
―is the use of coercive persuasion techniques.‖
Michael Langone, the PhD. psychologist who heads the International Cultic Studies
Association, calls the process ―The engineering of experience. ...If you run people through
a predetermined set of exercises, you can almost guarantee that they‘ll have an experience
that they‘ll define as transformative. It‘s going to be an emotional experience, a cathartic
experience.‖ The emotional high, he says, provides an opportunity for the leader to sell
books, DVDs and, perhaps most important, subsequent seminars.
Langone, responding to a query about Ray and the sweat lodge incident, said that some of
the statements made by participants in the New York Times about Ray and the sweat lodge
deaths ―tweak my nose.‖ One such statement cited by Langone was: ―Deaths have not
shaken all of Mr. Ray‘s supporters.‖ ―Why are some of his supporters,‖ Langone asked, ―so
loyal to this man after such a horrific event? What has been his relationship to his
supporters? Has he actively promoted an uncritical adulation? I'd want to talk to a large
number of people who have gone through his trainings to determine whether or not a cultic
dynamic is at work.‖
Langone cited the remarks of sweat lodge survivor Yana Paskova, who described a game
played at an earlier retreat in which Ray, wearing white robes, plays God and orders some
participants to commit mock suicide. ―This adds to my suspicions about grandiosity leading
to more grandiosity and ultimately to very poor judgments,‖ Langone said.
Langone also addressed a statement, made by the lawyer of a third participant, to the effect
that Ray was very intimidating and discouraged people from leaving the lodge. ―Did some
people,‖ Langone asked, ―assert themselves sufficiently that they left the lodge, even
though Ray seemingly was discouraging them? If so, this will probably form part of his
defense in legal cases that may arise, i.e., if some people left, then, he may argue, he did
not force people to stay. This is a common argument made by manipulators. It ignores the
reality that the effectiveness of a particular manipulative tactic is partly a function of the
manipulator's ‗skill‘ and the manipulatee's psychological makeup. It also ignores the
question of what are the leader's ethical and legal obligations to participants. ..We have all
kinds of laws constraining would-be fraudsters in the business realm, but we have virtually
nothing constraining manipulators in the psychological realm.‖
Ray, in a statement on his blog, seems to deny responsibility (as does Oprah, who
promoted him). ―I have reached out to all of the families personally, but feel the need to
say more. I feel your pain. I accept your anger. And I pray for you all to have some
measure of peace and comfort. I want you to know that I too want to know what happened
that caused this horrible tragedy. My team and I are working with the appropriate
authorities and have even hired our own investigators to find out the truth.‖ The daughter
of one of the people who died in the sweat lodge says that Ray encouraged participants to
continue even as she saw her mother and others collapsing and dying around her. She says,
nonetheless: ―It‘s not like James Ray cane up with something that was totally his own. He
just packaged it in a particular way. So a lot of the teachings are a lot bigger than him and
can remain true despite his actions.‖
