The sweat lodge ceremony was supposed to be the highlight of the five-day “Spiritual Warrior” retreat near Sedona, Arizona.  James Ray, the self-made spiritual leader, told participants,  that it would be one of the most intense experiences of their lives.  At more than $9000 a head it better be!

About halfway through the two-hour ceremony some began feeling ill, vomiting and collapsing inside the 38.55sq m structure. Mr Ray urged participants to push past their physical weaknesses and chided those who wanted to leave.

“There were people throwing up everywhere,” said Dr. Beverley Bunn, 43, an orthodontist from Texas, who said she struggled to remain conscious in the sweat lodge, a makeshift structure covered with blankets and plastic and heated with fiery rocks.

Dr. Bunn said Mr. Ray told the more than 50 people jammed into the small structure — people who had just completed a 36-hour “vision quest” in which they fasted alone in the desert — that vomiting “was good for you, that you are purging what your body doesn’t want, what it doesn’t need.” But by the end of the ordeal on Oct. 8, emergency crews had taken 21 people to hospitals. Three have since died.

ABC News on James Ray arrest

Ray ‘Accepts Responsibility’ but That ‘Doesn’t Make It a Crime,’ Lawyer Says (ABC News)