1/4/2010 6:28:00 AM Witnesses give account:
sweat lodge experiences
Photos courtesy of Yavapai County Sheriff's Office: Evidence photos of James Arthur Ray's Spiritual Warrior retreat sweat lodge at Angel Valley south of Sedona.
Photos courtesy of Yavapai County Sheriff's Office: Evidence markers of the heated rocks used during the sweat lodge tragedy.
SEDONA -- Documents released this week of the sweat lodge deaths investigation in October are very telling about the conditions beneath that super-heated tent.
The event proved to be a fatal outcome of James Arthur Ray's Spiritual Warrior retreat at Angel Valley south of Sedona.
The Yavapai Sheriff's Office spoke to participants and witnesses Oct. 8. Participants sought enlightenment and financial reward from Ray's teachings and the two-hour sweat lodge experience that culminated the retreat.
Witnesses said the event was "so hot they could not breathe." Officers were told that James Arthur Ray advised them they would feel like they were going to die, but they would not die. Ray told participants to push themselves and would only allow participants to leave when the flap was up. Ray controlled when the flap would open.
According to documents released by court order this week by the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office, Ted and Debra Mercer constructed the sweat lodge, one of many they have built. Ted was the "fire tender," responsible for heating the rocks and bringing them to the door of the tent. Debra would use a pitch fork to pass the rocks into the tent. Inside, someone would take the pitch fork, deposit the rock in the center of the tent, and then return the pitch fork. Debra and Ted were not allowed inside the lodge and could only see inside when the door flap was open between rounds.
Ted Mercer told investigators there have been problems on only three occasions with his sweat lodges. All three times he was working with James Ray, he said.
Ted Mercer said the number of rocks requested by James Ray would determine how hot the sweat lodge would get. This year's sweat lodge consisted of eight rounds. During the past two years, people would exit the sweat lodge in medical distress. He said that Ray's sweat lodges are much hotter, more intense and longer lasting than the other sweat lodges he has assisted with.
The normal number of people for a sweat lodge is 15 people, according to Mercer, but James Ray always has large groups of people. He said he didn't plan to help Ray with the sweat lodge this year but that he has been out of work and needed the money and James Ray had a nurse on staff that he believed would assist if there were problems.
Mercer said people did not have to stay in the lodge the whole time, but were encouraged to do so to bring them to the next level of consciousness. Participants fasted for two days prior to the sweat lodge and didn't drink enough water. He said there was not a safety plan for the event.
According to the sheriff's investigative report, Mercer's wife, Debra, was advised by participants that two people inside the sweat lodge were unconscious, between the seventh and eighth rounds of new stones. She heard it from outside the lodge but Ray did not seem concerned. She said that Ray's response was that "they would be OK and there is only one more round."
After the fourth round, two people had to be dragged out of the tent, Debra Mercer told the investigators. She explained that participants in medical distress would be dragged to the door of the tent. Others would then drag them the rest of the way out. Debra Mercer said that one of the people who emerged from the tent believed he was having a heart attack and thought he was going to die. He kept saying, "I don't want to die, I don't want to die."
Debra Mercer told investigators that there were problems with the sweat lodge the prior two years. She took pictures in 2008 and gave them to investigators. Some participants in the pictures seemed to be in distress and possibly unconscious.
Debra said the rest of the occupants left the tent after the eighth round, but she remained concerned about the comments that there were two people passed out after the seventh round. She said James Ray was now sitting in a chair in the shade. Debra looked inside the tent and saw three people near the back. She was able to drag one of the women out. That was possibly Liz Neuman, who died later in the hospital of injuries. Two others were still inside, James Shore and Kirby Brown.
According to the investigative report, when Debra Mercer told Ray she needed to open up the back of the tent, James Ray told her it would be "sacrilegious" and she could only do it if it was necessary. Someone eventually held open the tent and she dragged Kirby Brown out. The woman wasn't breathing.
Debra got more assistance and was able to drag out James Shore. A woman Debra thought was the nurse employed by James Ray was next to Kirby. The "nurse" told her Kirby wasn't breathing and asked Debra what to do.
Investigators also interviewed the Mercer's 17-year-old daughter, Sarah. She was outside of the sweat lodge, assisting people as they came out by putting cool water on them and giving them drinking water and electrolytes. She said toward the end of the ceremony, someone had said that there were people unconscious in the lodge.
Once everyone was out, her mother looked into the lodge and saw three people still inside who appeared unconscious but no one would help. Sarah and her mother went to the back of the sweat lodge, pulled up the back and pulled the people out.
Sarah stated that there were three people inside, one was a "real big guy" whose lips were purple and blue and face was purple and blue.
Sarah stated that there was a girl sitting next to the big guy and they were holding hands, but she was face down in the dirt. Sarah said she had to walk away after that.
CPR was initiated on Kirby Brown and James Shore, who were pronounced dead on arrival or shortly after arriving at Verde Valley Medical Center. Information from Verde Valley Medical Center was that they ruled out carbon monoxide as a contributor to the death or illnesses of the people being brought in from this event.
Sidney Spencer was transported to Flagstaff Medical Center by helicopter. Spencer of Patagonia, Ariz., was hospitalized with kidney and liver failure and respiratory arrest after collapsing.
A wrongful death suit has been filed by the family of 49-year-old Lizbeth Neuman of Prior Lake, Mich.
