Sweat Lodge Fire Tenders Tell a Fishy Tale

The Verde News today, revealed that "Fire tender" Ted Mercer claims there was no safety in James Arthur Ray’s Plan. Well, that raises a whole lot of questions in my mind about why the Mercer's decided to take James Arthur Ray's money this year. I know we're in a depression, but there's a lot of ways to make money in Sedona that don't involve risking innocent folks lives.

First let me tell you a bit about myself. I’m a Jesus freak and something of an old style hippy, but I have lots of friends who sweat by sweat lodges for detoxifying and bringing them closer to nature and I don’t’ begrudge them their spiritual longings. Personally, I believe it’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven that it’s our obligation to be Good Samaritans to each other and the only he who is without sin should cast the first stone. That having been said, I also don’t believe in judging other folks religious beliefs, but there’s something about what went on at Angel Valley that’s starting to really bother me.

The more I hear about the tragedy at Angel Valley, the more confused I get. Everyone wants to place the blame squarely on James Arthur Ray’s shoulders, and I’m not saying his bizarre beliefs, a whole lot of greed and ambition and maybe his steroid habit didn’t lead him to make some poor decisions where the welfare of his followers were concerned, but why isn’t anyone looking at Ted and Debra Mercer when assigning blame? These are two grown folks who claim to know a lot about conducting sweat lodges safely. So why did they continue to do sweat lodges for James Arthur Ray for three years after they say people getting “medically distressed” and after they already had doubts about the safety of James Arthur Ray’s retreats?


Does anybody even know who Ted Mercer is? Is he local? I googgled him and I couldn’t even find a website. Do Native folks think this guy should be leading sweats? The blog-o-sphere has been silent on this guy. Mercer’s behavior is pretty fishy to me. He claims to know all about how to conduct a sweat lodge safely, but there’s no evidence in today’s Verde News that he did anything pro-active to see that everyone at Angel Valley had a safe experience. And after all, he was supposedly the expert on site.

Here are a few things that don’t ring true to me:

In the article, Ted Mercer claimed the “normal” number of people in a sweat lodge was 15, yet he willingly consented to conduct a sweat lodge intended for much more than 15 people. Well, why did he build a sweat lodge that would accommodate so many people? Why didn’t he just refuse to build such a big lodge and look for some other way to make a living this year? Why didn't he build a smaller lodge and insist that the 50 go in shifts? The Mercer's seem to be trying to blame James Arthur Ray for the whole tragedy, but what happened to their common sense? What happened to heir accountability to other people and their ability to say, “No! I can’t be a part of this, it isn’t safe.”?

Now, the article does mention that the Mercer’s were not allowed inside the sweat lodge, which is strange. Yet, they themselves say that they could hear what was going on inside the lodge. They could count. They knew how many rocks they were passing to James Arthur Ray and the probable effect of the heat from all those rocks. Debra Mercer claimed to have heard someone inside tell James Arthur Ray that some of the people in the sweat lodge were unconscious, between the seventh and eighth rounds of new stones. She said that James Arthur Ray did not seem concerned and heard him say, "they will be OK. there is only one more round." Well, Mrs. Mercer knew that James Arthur Ray wasn’t a medical doctor. She said there was supposed to be a nurse there, why didn’t she run and get the nurse. Wouldn’t any decent person with any sense do at least that?

Instead of listening to someone who thinks he’s god tell you that dragging people out of a hot tent is “sacrilege” why didn’t she call 9-11 immediately. We hear that she even took photos of unconscious folks in 2008. Well in my mind, that makes her even more responsible because she knew what could happen in one of these Spiritual Warrior sweat lodges. Someone who knows that something bad can happen, and doesn’t act pro-actively, to my mind, is more guilty than some fool with a bizarre religious belief.

The thing that really disturbs me is the account of the Mercer’s 17 year old daughter, Sarah. The way Debra Mercer tells it, there were folks left unconscious in the lodge and she and her 17 year old daughter dragged them out. Now that’s mighty fishy to me also. If my 17 year old child is around an area where folks may be dying, the first thing I’m going to do it to get her out of there. I’m going to tell to run and call 9-11 and make sure that she doesn’t see anyone dead. That’s what loving parents do and think of when their child is around an emergency scene – protect the child from trauma. The next thing I’m going to do is to get my husband, the big strong man (I assume) to help me drag folks out. I’m not going to have a 17 year old girl do the dragging. It just seems incredible to me that a mother would let a 17 year old girl see a man with purple lips and blue and face who might possibly be dead. Decent parents protect their children from seeing such things.

There’s just a lot of fishy things that don’t add up about this whole thing. I’ll leave it for a jury of 12 to decide what really happened that day and whether James Arthur Ray bears any responsibility for the death of 3 people, but I need to see Debra and Ted Mercer right up there next to James Arthur Ray.

I’ve always been gung ho for the first amendment and freedom of religion. I’m not a fundamentalist, literalist Christian, but when people start dying, we need to think about what is our responsibility as members of the Sedona community to protect the people who come to visit this beautiful land. I know the chamber of commerce gets a kick out of promoting the vortexes and the alleged visits from space aliens as a tourist attraction and just harmless fun, but is it? When folks start dying because of the far-out beliefs that some folks are selling to tourists here, what is our responsibility to the public to protect them from harm? I’d like to see all the retreats start self-policing and really thinking about who they allow to lead spiritual retreats in our area.

In hindsight, I think that the extreme beliefs that this group was starting to manifest may have played a role in the death of 3 people. Maybe we need to come together as a community and decide where to draw the line. What kinds of education do we need to implement to stop another guy with offbeat beliefs from endangering lives? If we could just educate folks how to deal with hyperthermia, heat exhaustion and heat stroke in a sensible, accepted manner that would be going a long way. Living in Sedona, I know there are more folks who distrust “Western Medicine” and practice holistic or ayurvedic medicine. That's their right, as long as no one gets hurt, but somebody got hurt by some folks who claimed to have a nurse in their midst and that nurse didn't know what to do with a heat stroke victim.


How are you going to break through spiritual and political convictions and educate folks about what needs to be done when someone is suffering from Sweat Lodge syndrome. What do you say to someone who channels angels and honestly believes that these folks just stepped out of their bodies for a lark?

These are all questions we need to come together as a community and deal with honestly, before the government gets involved and starts telling us what to do. I feel the most important question the people of Sedona need answered is, if Ted Mercer knew how to conduct a safe sweat, why didn’t he?

For folks who can't get it online,

The Verde News


[http://verdenews.com/main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=34308]


Witnesses give account: sweat lodge experiences

Monday, January 04, 2010

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.

She died in the hospital a week after the event.


As usual, I welcome constructive comments.


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