The Verge Quotes

On November 25, 2013, Ray re-launched his self-help business on CNN’s Piers Morgan Live. He had stipulated that no other guests could participate in the interview. Morgan asked whether Ray would return to self-help work, suggesting, ‘You could be in an even better position now to help people who had been through a nightmarish experience.’“

“He made no secret of his ambition, aiming to become the first self-help billionaire. He bragged about his financial success and promised it to his followers.”

“During his ‘Spiritual Warrior’ program, he’d asked participants to shave their heads, spend 36 hours in the desert meditating without food or water, and play the ‘Samurai Game’, in which a white-robed Ray, playing ‘God’, declared people dead, forcing them to remain motionless on the ground.”

The next day, the attendees were thrust together in the heat and darkness under the dome of the heated sweat lodge. “Outside Ray told them they were about to have an experience unlike any other. According to several attendees, he said, ‘You are not going to die. You might think you are, but you're not going to die.’ Each attendee should listen to his or her body, he said. Anyone could leave if necessary, but those seeking a higher level of consciousness would complete the experience. No one knew how many rounds that might be. Ray told them they ‘needed to surrender to death to survive it.’ Then they entered the lodge.”

“… emergency responders arrived at what one first took for a mass suicide, according to a witness. Many participants were dazed and disoriented, speaking or yelling deliriously. There was vomiting and crying; people frantically doused others with cold water. One man had fallen into the heated rocks, badly burning his arm. Medics performed CPR on at least three unconscious participants.”