James Arthur Ray, 67, a self-styled self-help “guru” whose sweat lodge retreat event led to the death of three people in October 2009 at the Angel Valley Retreat Center five miles southwest of Sedona, died on Jan. 3, according to a statement posted on his official X account by his sister on Jan. 4.

A former telemarketer turned motivational speaker, Ray was one of the narrators of “The Secret,” a 2006 Australian-American spirituality documentary based on the pseudoscientific “law of attraction,” which purported to teach people how to “manifest” wealth and personal benefits through positive thinking. He appeared on “Oprah” and other cable talk shows promoting the concept and later the film.

Ray also led “Spiritual Warrior” retreats, including several over the years at Angel Valley, charging participants as much as $10,000 for the multiple-day event. The final day of the 2009 event had attendees participate in a ceremony held in a large tentlike structure that was heated to high temperatures with water poured on hot rocks that Ray billed as a “sweat lodge ceremony” he claimed was similar to the religious ceremonies of the Lakota Sioux.

On Oct. 8, 2009, numerous Verde Valley fire district crews and Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the retreat center for a mass casualty event after one man who exited the tent collapsed from reported heat exhaustion. In total, 21 people were taken to area hospitals with illnesses ranging from dehydration to kidney failure.

Kirby Brown, 38, of Westtown, N.Y., and James Shore, 40, of Milwaukee, were pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital. Lizbeth Neuman, 49, of Prior Lake, Minn., died at Flagstaff Medical Center on Oct. 17.

After the deaths, Ray held a conference call with several victims, one of whom recorded the call and provided it to the Associated Press, and with someone who was a self-described channeler who alleged they had communicated with the dead victims and claimed that the dead did not want to return to their bodies because they “were having so much fun.”

YCSO arrested Ray, then 52, on Feb. 3, 2010, after he was indicted on three counts of manslaughter. Pending trial, he was initially required to post a $5 million bond, later reduced to $525,000, which he paid.

The subsequent trial in Camp Verde, which was set to begin on Aug. 29, 2010, garnered nationwide attention, including for the prosecutor, Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk, who planned to call as many as 140 witnesses to the stand, including victims, doctors, nurses and emergency response workers and Ray’s company’s employees.

The trial was ultimately delayed until March 1, 2011, due to pretrial motions.

The prosecution called 34 witnesses to try to paint Ray as a man who knew the risks involved in running a sweat lodge and who failed to provide adequate safety measures and ignored participants who were clearly in distress.

Those signs included unconsciousness, shaking and foaming at the mouth. It was continually brought up by witnesses that Ray warned participants beforehand that his sweat lodge was more intense than others, and those inside could “feel like [they] are going to die.”

The defense argued other factors beyond Ray’s control could have contributed to the deaths, including possible pesticides on the tarps used to build the makeshift structure. In the end, the jury felt Ray was responsible for the deaths that the state argued could have been prevented.

However, he was not convicted on the original charges of manslaughter, which could have led to 30 years in prison, but instead convicted on June 22, 2011, on three lesser charges of negligent homicide, with a maximum sentence of just over 11 years. Yavapai County Superior Court Judge Warren Darrow sentenced Ray to two years in prison.

Polk stated in her 2022 retirement announcement that she would personally always value the role she played in Ray’s conviction.

Ray also faced other legal battles in civil court, where he settled with families of the victims for more than $3 million, which was paid out by his insurance.

He later appealed his conviction, alleging prosecutorial misconduct, but courts rejected his appeals. He was released by the Arizona Department of Corrections on July 12, 2013, after serving 87% of his sentence.

“Ray drew the ire of Indian country from the start because the ceremony which he was selling bore little if any resemblance to an actual sweat lodge ceremony,” Indian Country Today wrote on Oct. 8, 2013, when announcing his release from prison.

Phoenix New Times, Nov. 25, 2009: Sweat Lodge Saga Continues; South Dakota Indian Tribe Suing James Arthur Ray For “Desecration of a Sacred Lakota Ceremony.”

Ray later restarted his self-help career in Phoenix after an appearance on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Live.” His civil rights were restored in 2017, but the judge refused to vacate his conviction.

Ray’s career and the deaths of Brown, Shore and Neuman were later featured in CNN Films’ documentary “Enlighten Us: The Rise and Fall of James Arthur Ray” and investigative journalist Matt Stroud’s true crime podcast “Guru: The Dark Side of Enlightenment” for Wondery.

The 716-word post on X by Ray’s sister announcing his death makes no reference to his trial, his conviction or his three victims.