James Arthur Ray, 67, Self-Help Guide Whose Retreat Became Deadly, Dies

A rising star among New Age motivational speakers, he was brought down by a disaster during one of his retreats in Arizona, where three people died in a sweat lodge.


James Arthur Ray in 2016. In 2008, Fortune magazine called him “the next big thing in the highly competitive world of motivational gurus”; two years later, he was convicted of negligent homicide. Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images for Tribeca Film Festival

By Clay Risen
Published Jan. 10, 2025
Updated Jan. 11, 2025, 11:14 a.m. ET

James Arthur Ray, an Oprah-endorsed motivational speaker who spent two years in prison after the 2009 deaths of three people in a sweat lodge, the culmination of a three-day spiritual program he ran in the Arizona desert, died on Jan. 3 in Henderson, Nev. He was 67. … His brother, Jon Ray, announced the death on social media. He did not say where in Henderson Mr. Ray died or cite a cause, but he did say the death was unexpected.

Mr. Ray was struggling to succeed as a motivational speaker when he appeared in “The Secret,” a 2006 documentary made by the Australian television producer Rhonda Byrne. The “secret,” which Mr. Ray and others espoused, was the idea that positive thinking can literally make the world shift in your favor.

{snip}

Still, no one was prepared for what happened on Oct. 8, 2009. Mr. Ray packed about 50 people into a temporary structure made of a round wood frame covered in tarps, measuring about 25 feet in diameter and only five feet at the center. He poured gallons of water over fire-heated rocks, filling the lodge with hot steam.

Though he told participants they could leave at any time, many said later that they felt pressured by him to stay. Eventually the conditions inside grew unbearable, and the crowd flooded out; many people collapsed on the ground. … Someone called 911; one first responder later said that the scene looked like the site of a mass suicide. Twenty-one people were taken to the hospital.

{snip}

Clay Risen is a Times reporter on the Obituaries desk. More about Clay Risen

A version of this article appears in print on Jan. 12, 2025, Section A, Page 26 of the New York edition with the headline: James Arthur Ray, 67, Self-Help Guru Faulted For a Tragedy at Lodge. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe