The ongoing saga of James Ray, the pseudo spiritual leader whose antics in Arizona has cost him and others dearly is the consequence of a sham artist with bourgeois ideals. He is now on trial for manslaughter from the deaths of three people who paid good money to an imposter in hopes of “finding themselves”..
I realize that people will continued to search for the answers to life and their spiritual being in more ways than one, but the concept of this particular scam is disgusting. The sweat lodge (inipi) ceremony was conceived by Native Americans as a cleansing and honoring purification and the white man’s attempt to profit from this ceremonial practice is a slap in the face to true Native Americans and only promotes the dilution of genuine traditions. For reasons left unstated, people want to take the easy way out with their search for spiritual/emotional health, whether with drugs, meditation, witchcraft, religion, or make-believe, but, any practice that encompasses genuine ceremonies of a specific culture are to be implemented by those of that specific culture.
Former governor of Maine, Angus King who was not a Maine native, was once told by a gentleman when King commented that now that he was governor, he was a Maine native, “Just because the cat had a litter of kittens in the oven doesn’t make them biscuits”. The same hold true here.
One of the thoughts I have (and I do have one now and then) is that many people who attempt these objectives have no culture of their own. We are a country based on a blending of cultures and tradition with nothing finite to grasp on to. This lack of culture and traditions can leave an empty hole in one’s psyche and the need to fill this vacancy results in lackluster results with less than intelligent efforts. Unfortunately, the erosion of cultures and traditions will continue as the human population interacts, marries and blends with a shrinking world and a bloated population. If you are fortunate to own a culture/tradition, hold them tight as once they have vanished, they will never return.
I point my peace pipe toward all these directions. Now we are one with the universe, with all the living things, a link in the circle which has no end. It means we were here long before the first white man came, we are here now, we will still be here at the end of time – Indian time. We will live!……Lame Deer
The Wisdom of the Native Americans
ryeder….
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