James Arthur Ray guru from "the secret" is investigated for 3 murders!

I know some of you are into "The Secret" check out what happened to James Ray. WOW! Do you think this will start having self proclaimed gurus investigated more now?

I am glad to see that he got nailed. All he did was rip-off an age-old concept that goes as far back as the bible. He just re-packaged it and made zillions from it.

In 1902, a man named James Allen wrote a book which is based on the same biblical concepts and is still sold today, called "As A Man Thinketh". The book begins as follows:

"Mind is the Master power that moulds and makes,
And Man is Mind, and evermore he takes
The tool of Thought, and, shaping what he wills,
Brings forth a thousand joys, a thousand ills:—
He thinks in secret, and it comes to pass:
Environment is but his looking-glass."

And here are more quotes from the 1902 book by James Allen
called "As a Man Thinketh":

* Men do not attract what they want, but what they are.
* A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.
* Cherish your visions. Cherish your ideals. Cherish the music that stirs in your heart, the beauty that forms in your mind, the loveliness that drapes your purest thoughts, for out of them will grow all delightful conditions, all heavenly environment, of these, if you but remain true to them your world will at last be built.
* The soul attracts that which it secretly harbors, that which it loves, and also that which it fears. It reaches the height of its cherished aspirations. It falls to the level of its unchastened desires - and circumstances are the means by which the soul receives its own.
* Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves, they therefore remain bound.
* Every action and feeling is preceded by a thought.
* Right thinking begins with the words we say to ourselves.
* Circumstance does not make the man, it reveals him to himself.
* You cannot travel within and stand without.
* As the physically weak man can make himself strong by careful and patient training, so the man of weak thoughts, can make them strong by exercising himself in right thinking.

Does The Concept Sound Familiar To "The Secret"? . . . It should.
All that James Ray did was to take this Public Domain book and
re-package it, and build a "cult" around the concepts.

And all of those poor idiots think he is a spiritual genius

Gimme a break . . .

"Wiz"

Great, now maybe people will stop talking about that book. Anyone that sells that kind of snake oil doesn't have any integrity.

Offtopic:
This sound like the book i am reading currently, its called Essence of Reality, it is one of the best things i have ever read.
Check it out, you wont regret, its not philosophy or something like that.

I've been to one of James Arthur Rays seminars, actually met and talked with the man. And a good friend of mine has had many life altering experiences from following exactly the ideas set forth in The Secret.

I also agree that The Secret is nothing more then rehashed ideas from many different historical gurus and teachings and is now being reintroduced to a society in desperate need of something to believe in.

Alot of different gurus have emerged from the movie. It seems that everyone involved has taken part of the idea and found a way to spin it to line their pockets and create a small empire.

JAR seemed to stand ahead of the rest because of his enthusiasm, good looks and likability. He really knows how to work a crowd. I think that like so many gurus his intentions were honorable. He really wanted to help people, but got caught up believing his own PR. I guess with everyone falling at his feet and nobody left to question him his ego got ahead of his good sense.

All this being said the deaths in Sedona are definitely a tragedy and someone needs to be held accountable. I hope that JAR realizes that the responsibility ultimately falls to him. Yet we shouldn't forget that no one in attendance was forced to be there. Everyone had the freedom to question the proceedings and leave whenever they wanted.

I guess the most important ideas to take away from this are...
Think for yourself and
Power Corrupts...

To t ezra:

You said, "I guess the most important ideas to take away from this are... Think for yourself and Power Corrupts... "

Well, I can add to that idea . . . "Don't Be A Sheep." Sheep get eaten by wolves . . . and James Ray is a Wolf, as are all of the self-help/spiritual gurus. In the end, it's all about power and money.

We can't judge him....

Anyway, as Wiz already pointed out... The Secret is just rehash.

And As A Man Thinketh is not the only book... There are thousands... even old ones... mostly New Age, New Thought, Occult, Rosicrucian, Theosophy literature.

Be your own guru, ye are gods!

And also beware of those that says "fuck the gurus" to promote their own products in a us-vs-them copywriting style.

The blind are leading the blind.

So wut if its rehased. its still works and everything thats written is gonna have concepts and parts from another book because the author isnt born with the information he reads/ learns it. As for it being like the bible i dont know where you got that. The bible is a story book filled with fairy tales that science has proven cannot happen. If you were dating a virgin and she told you that shes pregant but never fuck youd be an idiot to belive that. So why belive that mary got pregnant if she was a virgin.

To ricaum:

Yes . . . I have read volumes of those types of books. There was a five-year period in my life when I was on a "spiritual quest". I spent thousands of dollars buying books, tapes, videos, going to seminars, retreats, zen temples and what have you.

In the end, I just breathed a sigh and lit a joint . . . and had a big laugh

Now I am enlightened . . . because I say so

t ezra said:

Alot of different gurus have emerged from the movie. It seems that everyone involved has taken part of the idea and found a way to spin it to line their pockets and create a small empire.

Click to expand...

Isn't that what all the marketers teach us to do? That's what JAR as you like to call him did. It is pitiful on one end and on the other end he just done what 99% of the marketers teach. The people who teach how to market all say the same thing so this is an extension of the industry. ONE BIG MLM.....
The way to get rich they tell you is to 1.Be an expert in your field(it is presumed that you have knowledge of something). 2. Add your personality/spin to it because no one is like you.


JAR's spin was calling it a ?Spiritual Warrior? retreat....
milking the market with a seminar, and, thanks to sheep looking for leadership, now has the opportunity to be held accountable for a small fortune of $10,000. It will be interesting to find out what will happen in this case and other gurus better be on the look out because they will be next. The spotlight is on now....

To farfetchedmoney:

Yes . . . You are correct. It's all marketing. The guru's always have a back-end/upsell.

"Just wait until you buy my next book/video series, I will a reveal a secret that will . . . "

WizGizmo said:

To ricaum:

Yes . . . I have read volumes of those types of books. There was a five-year period in my life when I was on a "spiritual quest". I spent thousands of dollars buying books, tapes, videos, going to seminars, retreats, zen temples and what have you.

In the end, I just breathed a sigh and lit a joint . . . and had a big laugh

Now I am enlightened . . . because I say so

Click to expand...

You know that remind of the story Alan Cohen told in his book, "I had it all the time"....I will quote the chapter because he tells it better than I ever will...

In the film Razor's Edge, Bill Murray portrays a spiritual seeker on the journey to enlightenment. Larry is a voracious reader who is pulled away from his studies to weather the horrors of World War I. In the aftermath of his painful experience he makes a pilgrimage to India to find answers to his burning questions.
Larry makes his way to a temple near the top of the Himilayas, where he meets a wise guru. "I want to know the secret to life," he tells the master.
"Do you see that hut at the top of the mountain?" asks the sage. Larry's eyes scan the snow covered peak, where he spies a tiny lean-to near the summit.
"Take your books up there and stay until you find your answer."
Excitedly Larry gathers his volumes and hikes up to the flimsy shelter, where he builds a campfire. Eagerly he opens his books to find the answer he fervently seeks. This is the moment he has been waiting for!
Larry reads for days, then weeks. In each succeeding scene he looks colder and more fustrated; the stubble on his cheeks grows into a beard. Despite his intense efforts, Larry is no closer to enlightenment; to the contrary, he looks more dispirited than ever.
Larry is freezing. Snow is falling, bone-chilling winds howl, and tiny icicles cling to his moustache. If he doesn't do something soon, his quest for enlightenment will be carried over to another lifetime.
The fire dwindles and there is no more wood. Then Larry's eyes wander from the book in his hands to the fire, and back. Suddenly his face glows with spark of real understanding. Larry tears a few pages out of the book into the campfire. As the flame rises, Larry delights in the warmth, and an impish smile spreads over his face. Boldly he stands, rips out more leaves, and flings them into the inferno. His smile grows to a giggle and then a howling laughter. Victoriously he takes the entire volume and hurls it into the fire. Larry gathers the rest of his books and transforms them into fuel for warmth. From a distance we see a silhouette of Larry standing at the top of the darkened mountain, enfolded by a bright orange glow.
The next morning Larry marches triumphantly down the mountain to the base camp. He is happy. Larry has found his answer, and it was not in a book. His answer was to live; to do whatever was required to make life fulfilling and joyful in the moment. Enlightenment was not found by escaping into words or suffering in the cold. The answer was not somewhere out there. It was right where he was. He had it all the time.

farfetchedmoney said:

You know that remind of the story Alan Cohen told his book, "I had it all the time"....I will quote the chapter because he tells it better than I ever will...

Razor's Edge

Click to expand...

Ironic. The first time I heard of that book/film was because James Arthur Ray mentioned it on one of his seminars that I downloaded from torrents.

He not only mentioned it, he used the message of the book as a line to persuade his attendents to act now to buy his 3-day weekend.

:cow_yello

He will not get convicted....all he needs to do is concentrate really hard and think happy thoughts and he will get off

I became my own god a long time ago, but it's still easy to be distracted by all the glittering, shiney gurus with their feel good mantras. There's a great little read by Steven Harrison called "Doing Nothing: Coming to the End of the Spiritual Search".

Anyone in marketing, especially BlackHat, has to have flexible morals. Is there really a difference between collecting 10k for a weekend retreat and tricking some smuck into handing over his cc number to a "free" site with the promise of love or just some naughty pictures? The only way to sleep at night is to hold the sheep responsible for their own stupidity.

Of course in keeping with the Law of Attraction it would be interesting to know what JAR was thinking to "secret" this experience into his life.

ricaum said:

Ironic. The first time I heard of that book/film was because James Arthur Ray mentioned it on one of his seminars that I downloaded from torrents.

He not only mentioned it, he used the message of the book as a line to persuade his attendents to act now to buy his 3-day weekend.

:cow_yello

Click to expand...

Yeah that is very funny because the title of the chapter Alan Cohen uses from that movie is "burn this book"...

You got two people who is using the same movie for two different purposes. The movie is being used to not sell and upsell depending on who's information you look at,lol.

vegasvillan said:

He will not get convicted....all he needs to do is concentrate really hard and think happy thoughts and he will get off

Click to expand...

Hey, at least "The Secret" saved a prisoner from RAPE:

http://www.amazon.com/review/R2X2TB3S4O5I60?ie=UTF8&ref_=cm_cr_rdp_perm

ricaum said:

Hey, at least "The Secret" saved a prisoner from RAPE:

http://www.amazon.com/review/R2X2TB3S4O5I60?ie=UTF8&ref_=cm_cr_rdp_perm

Click to expand...

laughing my gotdamn head off you must've wrote that review OMG I need a rolling laughter icon....if any one is in here and want to read something funny read that please.

WizGizmo said:

To ricaum:

Yes . . . I have read volumes of those types of books. There was a five-year period in my life when I was on a "spiritual quest". I spent thousands of dollars buying books, tapes, videos, going to seminars, retreats, zen temples and what have you.

In the end, I just breathed a sigh and lit a joint . . . and had a big laugh

Now I am enlightened . . . because I say so

Click to expand...

Wiz when you gonna come down to Florida bud..I dont smoke anymore..but I would make an exception for you..hands down Wiz is a cool dude.

instead of focusing on the content, learn his marketing strategies, you will be impress how he manage to market it

i am sure 'anyone' of you can come out with better content, but face it, without solid marketing strategies to back you up, you are screwed.