James Arthur Ray Sweat Lodge Trial: Day 17

Buy at Allposters.com

Just a few more thoughts on Laurie Gennari:

I realize that it may sound to some people like I'm being overly preferential to her because she's a good witness for the prosecution. I've never made it a secret that I'm biased in this case and that it would take a lot to convince me that James Ray was not responsible for this tragedy. I would make a lousy juror. I've been following this event since it occurred and he rapidly made a very negative impression on me. But that's not why I find Gennari so credible.

The truth is I'm relatin' to Laurie Gennari way too much. And a lot of the hairs split by Li in yesterday's cross are meaningless to me because I've been where she is and where she was.

• Over-committed and hyper-achieving? For much of my life. 
• Looking at people through rose colored glasses? Check. 
• Insisting, including to myself, that I was fine when I wasn't? Yup. 
• Forced cheerfulness especially when I was really at my worst? Hells yeah. 
• Handing over way too much power to people who seemed to know more than I did? Learned the hard way on that one. 
• Rescripting things that people have done and said to make them look better in my own mind? Oh yes.

I've never had the misfortune to be in anything as horrific as that sweat lodge and its aftermath. But the dynamics Gennari is now realizing she was involved in and the painful disillusionment that goes with that? Been there, done that, got the t-shirt.

Melinda Martin

I want to call Melinda Martin "Event Coordinator Barbie" -- Because of the resemblance and because she was the event coordinator for JRI. But also because I've always thought of Barbie as a very smart, capable, independent woman of numerous careers and aptitudes. Martin strikes me as level headed and capable and exactly the kind of person you want in a job like that. That is, unless you're James Arthur Ray and value sycophancy over ability. Martin testified, for instance, that Dream Team members were hired based on how easy they were to get along with. And Martin, who had only a passing acquaintance with Ray's "teachings" was clearly nowhere near brainwashed enough in her short job tenure to go with the flow when all hell broke loose after the sweat lodge.

Martin's testimony started to become really interesting when she was asked about the Marzvaan sisters. These mysterious Russian gals have been referred to by the defense repeatedly. We've heard from Li, Kelly, and Do, on various occasions that they exercised their free will and they left because they didn't care for the event. It turns out their exercise of free will did not go smoothly. Martin had witnessed an argument between Soheyla Marzvaan and Megan Fredrickson. Soheyla wanted to take her sister and go home. "I want to get my sister. She came here with me. And I want to leave."

Two Dream Team members blocked the door and told her that her sister was "having her own experience."

The argument between Fredrickson and Marzvaan escalated in volume and intensity. Martin quietly alerted Josh Fredrickson as soon as she saw the problem developing -- because she has some acquaintance with professionalism. He stepped in to defuse the situation. He told Martin to get the sister out of the Samurai Game, pack them up, and get them out as quietly as possible.

Martin took them on a golf cart to their rooms to pack up and attempted to do some damage control. The Marzvaan sisters felt they were being "forced to stay" and that it was "too much work for them to leave when they wanted to."

Martin says the entire episode lasted about forty minutes.

Sheila Polk asked Martin about her observation of the recapitulation journaling. She said she had seen participants spend "countless hours" writing in their journals. We already know that many of them were foregoing sleep to write.

The more concerning revelation that came through her testimony was the extent to which James Ray was personally involved in the journaling. She had witnessed numerous recapitulation events, in the Crystal Hall, in which participants discussed their journals with Ray. There was a lot of crying and "breakdowns."

The reason I find this revelatory is that it answers the question I've had about just how private these journals were. It was definitely not as simple as purging onto some pages and throwing them in fire before the sweat lodge as a cleansing ritual. Ray was directly involved in their psychological processing. His hierarchy of help with recapitulation has been discussed. But it sounds like he was very involved in hearing these very personal details. This is particularly alarming considering that the theme was sex... and that there was a lot of crying.

Martin also assisted in the Holotropic Breathwork. Martin had been instructed to do the breathing in people's ears if they stopped doing the rapid breathing. I'm quite sure that Martin is not certified by Stan Grof either.

The subject of certification came up in Polk's questioning, not about Holotropic Breathwork, but about the Samurai Game, or should I say the the Samurai Game^®. This was shot down immediately with a sustained objection from the defense. I don't know what the legal reason is for that or whether the issue will be taken up at a later time but the simple truth is that James Ray is not a certified facilitator of this proprietary game. I know this because I downloaded a pdf from the website which lists their certified facilitators and his name does not appear.

Martin was an angel of death. She and the others wore Scream costumes. Among other responsibilities, this meant taking the dead to the cemetery by golf cart, where they were supposed to remain motionless.

Martin explained what happened if anyone moved after death. They were brought before "God" and he would decide which of their townspeople would die. People had to slit their own throats or stab themselves in the stomach.

She described Kirby Brown as being very uncomfortable after the event but we all knew that. Holding your water for hours and swallowing your own vomit takes a toll.

Melinda Martin was also present for the wine incident. She explains that it was after Dream Team members had spent a day enjoying themselves in Sedona, while participants were in the desert without food or water. Martin testified that she had breakfast with Ray who also had a meal. In other words, he did not participate in the vision quest activities. Lead by example and all that.

While in town a number of them had had their auras read by one of the many psychics in Sedona. When they returned and were setting up their dinner in the Crystal Hall, Ray came by. Some of the women wanted to have their aura's read by Ray, their admired leader and teacher. His assessment of their auras? "Sex, sex, sex, sex." That was all they were thinking and talking about, according to Ray. Martin testified that they had not been talking about sex at all. The women were very hurt after having had lovely and affirming aura readings done earlier in town, to have gotten nothing but judgment for having sex drives by Ray. 

As a side note, I find it interesting that Ray needled them for their focus on sex when he had his participants journaling and crying endlessly over sex, sex, sex, sex.

About an hour later, Ray came through again and saw the open wine bottles on the table. He "admonished" the entire group but singled out Martin in particular. He was "shaking and pointing his finger" at her because she was a paid employee and, therefore, responsible. The women had said that they'd had wine during their off time without incident in the past. Martin had also cleared it with Angel Valley. But Ray was "so angry" there was really no discussing it.

After they all apologized to him -- well, except for Jennifer Haley -- Ray indicated that he still blamed Martin.

Martin also had a bird's eye view of the sweat lodge. And she soon became concerned that something was wrong.  So, apparently, did one of the participants who left the sweat lodge early on saying, "This is bad. This feels really bad... This is wrong."

She spent a lot of time taking care of people as they left the sweat lodge in increasing numbers and increasing distress. She bandaged Lou Caci's "melting" arm. She heard Dennis Mehravar's screaming about not wanting to die.

She began to get disapproval from the seasoned support staff. She was directed by Marta Reis to "get that look off [her] face because people are gonna think something's wrong." But Martin thought something was wrong. Reis told her that it was all perfectly normal. Martin was incredulous.

This is where it gets, I think, very tricky for the defense. If this was poisoning and these symptoms -- the fainting, the vomiting, the delirium -- were from a toxin, why did Ray and his staff think it was all normal?

It was normal for James Ray. He and two of his staff members, Megan Fredrickson and Taylor, came out looking like they'd been in a spa. Everyone else looked like hell. Even Josh Fredrickson looked like hell. Martin found Ray's condition baffling. But by then she was in emergency mode, attending to the needs of the many people who did not look like they'd been in a spa.

Someone named Kristina Bivins needed help. She was hanging off the tarp in the gravel. Melinda tried to help her get onto the tarp and comfort her. But Bivins was irrational; kicking and screaming "I don't want you. I want James." Martin recognized that she was not in her right mind.

She also performed CPR on Kirby Brown who was a "grayish, purple color." She was making a strange sound that Martin described as a "death rattle" and she was vomiting a lot. She worked with her until Jeanne Armstrong took over.

Like every witness so far except for Jeanne Armstrong, she did not see James Ray do anything at all.

Martin also assisted the paramedics when they arrived. She helped to convince Lou Caci to go to the hospital. He thought he was fine and was more concerned about Liz Neuman. But Martin recognized that he was "not in his right mind."

She followed ambulances to Cottonwood Hospital at the request of the paramedics. But once she'd arrived, she was denied access because she wasn't family.

She found out the helicopters had gone to Flagstaff and drove the hour and half there. Stephen Ray, Tess Wong, Sidney Spencer, Liz Neuman, were there and in terrible shape. Wong was intubated and unconscious. Spencer was vomiting blood. She stayed with Liz Neuman for as long as she could having grown very fond of her.

Kelly Crosses Martin

Melinda Martin is an exaggerator. If jury members didn't know that before Tom Kelly's cross examination, I'm sure they do now. I lost count of the number of times he used various forms of the word "exaggeration" in his questioning. He took every available opportunity to point out that she was exaggerating. He was only slightly more artful than George W. Bush was with the endless use of the phrase "war on terror." In politics, it's called message discipline. Say something enough times and people will begin to believe in as axiomatic. And, yes, a direct comparison between message discipline and the previously discussed thought stopping jargon can be made.

Kelly could be fairly described as hostile toward Melinda Martin. He didn't get far before he started outright insulting her. Of course, that's because of her tendency to exaggerate.

At least some of his hostility stems from her media interviews. He specifically challenged her for saying on ABC news that the EMTs thought it was a mass suicide. But Martin stood by her story. So if anyone was exaggerating it was that EMT.

He badgered Martin endlessly over waivers even though she repeatedly explained that this was not part of her job description. She had, apparently not been required to sign a waiver as an employee.

Then he began to ask her numerous questions about the employees and structure of JRI which Martin explained was beyond the scope of her knowledge as well. Said Martin, "Of course you know I'll be guessing on all this."

Kelly drew a chart anyway, based on Martin's unqualified memory of the corporate structure. But Judge Darrow clarified that a lawyer's statements and drawings are not evidence.

Kelly proceeded to name employees and their jobs and ask if she knew them and what they did. She had no clear idea of who did what, so she mostly answered, "If you say so." 

After establishing that Martin could barely help him with his chart Kelly snarked, "You did know that your were there as the event coordinator?"

Kirby challenged Martin over her previous claims that she had little contact with Ray and that he was protected by Megan. His point, though, is to further insulate Ray and imply that Ray is not in charge of things. JRI is.

And the reason I point that out is remember that whole thing about exaggeration? You were asking, answering questions attributing it to my client when actually it was JRI... And you were part of that corporate entity; part of this group... I believe there's twenty-seven employees... pretty good sized company. And all of them with different roles and responsibilities... James Ray was not putting on the Spiritual Warrior by himself.

He described Ray as someone who came in to lecture and lead various activities. All else falls under the providence of JRI, according to Kelly.

This is from what seems to be a widowed page on James Ray's website. (I couldn't find a website for JRI.)

James is President and CEO of his own multi-million dollar corporation, James Ray International (JRI), which was named to Inc. Magazine's coveted Inc. 500 list of America's fastest-growing private companies in the September 2009 issue, reaching a remarkable 547.4% growth over the previous three years.

Kelly Plays JRI Pictionary Game

Presented with a photograph, Martin said she couldn't identify it with any certainty as a picture of the 2009 sweat lodge. Kelly responded, "Let's assume for a minute that is."

He then began pointing out everyone who didn't look shaved to him. The defense's new tack is to say that it wasn't head shaving but hair cutting. So now they're splitting hairs over hair length. Apparently, in this photo, that may or may not be from the sweat lodge in question, some of the people aren't quite bald. Kelly wants her to say that it was a cut, then, not a shave. Martin says, "I saw a buzzer."

Kelly's claim is that unless a person is shaved bald -- something we know James Ray insisted on in at least some cases -- it's a cut, not a shave. That Martin thinks it's a shave is, you guessed it, an exaggeration.

After a brief recess, Kelly came back with more questions about her media appearances. Martin explained that she had been "ambushed" by ABC News, having declined to be interviewed, and having not intended to talk to the media at all. Eventually though, she figured she was in for a penny, in for a pound. Also she found talking about the incident therapeutic.

At that point, Kelly seized on the therapy comment, insisting that she had been told by a therapist not to talk about it. Martin, clearly, had no idea what he was talking about. After some wrangling, Kelly produced a letter from a doctor, not a therapist, who had written a letter for Martin to excuse her from returning immediately to work. Funny thing is, it didn't appear to say anything at all about how she should not talk about the event.

What followed was the production of a Disability claim. Martin explained that Megan Fredrickson had insisted on filling one out for her and she had signed it but that she had never wanted to pursue it and let her claim drop.

Kelly kept reminding her that she was under oath which she seemed untroubled by. He seemed to be under the impression that it was Disability who had dropped the claim, not Martin.

Once again, the defense has produced documents without providing them to the prosecution and with specious reasoning. The document from her doctor, which he'd produced to impeach her testimony, was not from a therapist, as he had claimed, and didn't say anything about her being advised not to talk about it. This, of course, led to more lengthy legal wrangling over what falls under disclosure rules. That remains unresolved.

What came out, though, under his relentless questioning, was a good description of PTSD... once again. Martin has had a very hard time processing the events of that day.

It seems to me, that Kelly is making the same mistake with Martin that he did with Beverley Bunn. When finding them to be a little too smart to sign off on his narrative he loses his bearing and becomes increasingly nasty and sarcastic. He repeatedly snapped at Martin, "You having difficulty understanding my question?" Her consistent response? Yes.

The problem for Kelly is that his questions are often poorly phrased and/or based on erroneous information. And when the witnesses become confused by his questions or keep answering him in the negative, he turns it back on them as if they're lying, stupid, or both. This just makes him look like a bully who doesn't have his facts straight.

I don't see how Kelly's acting like a dick helps the defense. I'm not in the jury and this could be my problem entirely. I, personally, have an aversion to condescension but I can only speak for myself on that.

All information on the trial comes from news articles with provided links or live courtroom footage on TruTV's "In Session" or CNN's live feed. All quotes and paraphrased statements that are not linked to a source document are my best attempt to transcribe material from live broadcasts.

Comments on this entry are closed, on this blog. If you wish to comment, please find this and all newer blog entries crossposted on Celestial Reflections.

James Arthur Ray Sweat Lodge Trial: Day 16

Ray and Kelly Listen to Gennari's Cross

Today was operation impeach Laurie Gennari. This began with Luis Li splitting hairs between her post event police interview and her current trial testimony. She was less critical of the vision quest in her police interview, saying she enjoyed the experience and, one could infer from comments, did not get dizzy. By the end she said she could have gone on, even without food. She had distracted herself whenever she started to feel hungry by journaling. Last Friday she claimed to have been hungry, dizzy, and headachey. She'd said, "My body was just not happy with no food." Slight disconnect but really more in attitude and emphasis than fact. In both cases, she said she was hungry. In the police interview she emphasized her ability to distract herself from it.

It quickly became clear, under Li's cross, that Gennari's overall take on the events of that week and in James Ray has darkened considerably. She had thought that Ray was kind of a character who could be a bit too much. Now, she's contemplating the possibility that he was sometimes "abusive," a "bully," and a "tyrant." Gennari explains that disconnect thusly:

I don't recall. This has been quite the journey of, of figuring out a lot of things in my head the last year and a half.

Li played a segment of the recorded police interview. Not as big a segment as Sheila Polk would have liked but Judge Darrow said she could put it in context on redirect.

I would go to events and I'd think, okay, great information, great information. Oh come on, dude. Get over yourself... It's like having a big dog that comes and slobbers on you and going, yeah, yeah, we put up with that because he's a nice, big dog.

Li attempted to bring these two characterizations of Ray into sharp relief.

Li: You said that you would put up with this because he is a nice, big dog, correct?

Gennari: At the time, that's what I thought.

Li: You did not say that you would put up with a big abusive, tyrannical bully dog, did you?

Gennari: Nobody wants to believe that of themselves. [emphasis added]

And there we have it. As I've said more than once, no one thinks they're brainwashed when they're brainwashed. The degree to which we've been manipulated is something that we begin to understand in retrospect. That process is often extremely painful, especially if we've been leveraged through our more vulnerable emotions. It's a violation and violation can be humiliating.

So, as Lauri Gennari testifies about her activities at Spiritual Warrior, much of her recollection is caveated with a nod towards her retrospective viewpoint. She uses a lot of statements like, "That was my mindset. Follow the program."

In most cases the inconsistencies were a difference between describing the event immediately afterward in less sharply critical language and her current disdainful approach. Although the basic description of the events and her reactions to them are extremely similar. Basically it sounds like before and after the rose colored glasses came off. And Li's questions mostly come off like so much parsing.

That said, this was probably the most effective I've seen Luis Li. His questions were purposeful and he seemed very confident in that line of questioning. The defense clearly did its homework over the weekend, They've been poring through Gennari's police interviews looking for any shade of difference.

Li's questions pertaining to "force" became quite pointed. Gennari struggled with the word but ultimately said it would not be the right way to characterize what occurred. So Lee asked her a series of questions about the various forms of physical force and threatening behavior that obviously hadn't happened. Gennari agreed that neither she nor anyone else were ever physically restrained from leaving the sweat lodge. "He didn't have to," said Gennari.

As Li went along, his questioning became increasingly language specific, as if he were reading from prepared text. The careful listener could her the click, click, click of a trap being set.

Li: Now, have you ever claimed that when you tried to leave the sweat lodge, Mr. Ray blocked your passage with threats of offensive touching?

Gennari: No.

Li: Have you ever said, have you ever claimed that you witnessed Mr. Ray or, do so to other participants?

Gennari: No.

Li: Have you ever claimed that when you wanted to leave the sweat lodge, Mr. Ray physically touched you in an offensive way, thereby causing you injuries and extreme emotional distress?

Gennari: No.

Li: Have you ever claimed that Mr. Ray somehow deprived you of rational thought.

Gennari: I didn't know that 'til much later.

Li: Okay, but have you ever claimed that?

Gennari: Claimed it in what...

Li: Have you ever claimed that Mr. somehow deprived you of rational thought?

Gennari: In what context would I be making this claim?

Li: Let me move on. I'll ask you another question. Have you ever claimed that you were forced into the sweat lodge?

Gennari: No.

Li: Because in fact you had not been forced into the sweat lodge.

Gennari: We walked in.

Li: And if somebody said that you had been forced into the sweat lodge would be untrue?

Gennari: True.

Then came a balance throwing non sequitur about her employer possibly going out of business.

Yes, the defense definitely spent the weekend lining up its ducks. More importantly, they stuck in their thumbs and pulled out a law suit. So the source of that specific language became clear. Gennari has a pending lawsuit against JRI. The defense's contention? The soon to be out of work Gennari has a vested interest in the outcome of the criminal case to bolster her civil suit and make a little ka-ching.

And then things began to derail.

Li Argues to Keep Out Document He's Quoted

Prosecutor Sheila Polk raised serious objections to the reading of a legal document not written by Gennari but by her attorney. (Here commences a lengthy discussion on an element of the Hernandez decision and whether or not it applies to someone who is not a party in the current case. This is way too lawyerly for me to get into.)

Worse, it would seem that once again the defense has attempted to skirt disclosure rules by introducing text from that legal filing without ever having turned it over to the prosecution. And, once again, their argument is that the state should have found it on their own. In one particular bit of deliciousness, Li claimed that he was not reading from the legal document but from his own outline. But, as Polk pointed out with just the vaguest hint of indignation, those notes were copied from a complaint that was never disclosed or put into evidence in a flagrant attempt to skirt discovery rules. Once again, I am somewhat awed at the audacity of defense's argument.

Also, by not turning the lawsuit document over to the prosecution and having it admitted as evidence, they are reading it selectively and not allowing the prosecution to read other portions of that claim that might not reflect well on Mr. Ray. It becomes clear that Li doesn't want it in evidence, just to impeach with inconsistent statements and show bias. But the statements aren't really hers; they come from her attorney. Ultimately Judge Darrow ruled that it needed to be disclosed and that the prosecution may redirect on portions of it, even though it had not been moved into evidence.

When the trial resumed with Li's cross, he had changed focus from the lawsuit to the liability waivers. Li points out that the waiver actually says that there is no requirement to participate in the activities; something she and many others apparently missed. It's one sentence, buried in a paragraph, which might have something to do with that. Doncha love legalese?

I fully understand and acknowledge that there is no requirement whatsoever that I participate in the Activities.

Li continues reading.

If I do choose to participate in any of the Activities, I affirm that I have not been nor will I be coerced or persuaded in any way to do so...

Gennari quips, "I'm supposed to be precognitive?"

Quip or no, she makes a point. There certainly was aggressive persuasion. Just ask the woman who was berated for missing yoga.

Li completes his reading of the paragraph:

...and I assume full responsibility for and risk of any injury sustained in connection with the Activities, whether caused by the negligence of Releasees or otherwise.

He then abruptly turned to questions about Liz Neuman. He continued to question Gennari about the difference in tone, if not fact, between her testimony immediately after the event and now. Did the cooling dirt she dug into with her fingers delight her or did it make a miserable environment bearable. Did Liz Neuman sound like she was drunk? Or did she just say, "No, no, no," without slurring so much like in the recording?

The one factual omission that came out on cross, was that Gennari didn't realize she had blacked out until someone pointed out that she was missing time in her recollection of the events at the end of the sweat lodge. She had, therefore, not told police at the time about it. Li tried to make tremendous hay of this by playing recordings of her describing the period of time after she had come to and was in the process of being taken out. He quotes her as having said she was fine. None of this, however, conflicts with her previous testimony of having blacked out, but afterward wanting to get out by herself and rejecting the help of the woman who wanted to drag her out. She, no doubt, said a lot of things to get the woman's hands off of her.

His entire examination is about that honest.

Li: Is it fair to say that before this lawsuit that you filed in September 2010 you had never mentioned to the police or to anybody else that you had blacked out.

Gennari: I don't know.

. . .

Gennari: Everything was foggy for a very long time.

Gennari had for some time after told people she was fine; friends, the police, everyone. I guess to people who've never been through trauma, that sounds damning. I've been through trauma. I've also been through codependency and denial. So I well know how much easier it is to tell everyone you're fine, rather than peel the lid off of the ugliness. None of us do it... until we have to.

Bench Conference

Sheila Polk started her redirect by delving into the police interview. In the process, Gennari disclosed that shortly after returning from her sweat adventure, she had gone into Urgent Care with breathing problems.

Gennari hadn't felt right after the sweat lodge, at one point experiencing dizziness, and feeling like she couldn't move her arms and legs. She had been placed on the floor. She was attended to by the Angel Valley staff who supplied her with electrolyte and other mystery beverages and insisted she keep drinking them, which helped.

She had refused the suggestion to go to the hospital.

At the time I had come up with plausible explanations for how I felt and, didn't, and, also, really, really didn't want to end my vacation in the hospital.

Once home she drank Pedialyte and convalesced. But by Sunday night, she was still feeling off and became concerned that she hadn't recovered in a reasonable period of time. She took herself to Urgent Care. She underwent tests. She had an EKG and intravenous fluids, "which was heaven." They sent her to the emergency room. There she had a more thorough EKG and blood tests -- well, the results were suppressed -- but after that, came a series of weekly doctor visits. So, I'm guessing there was something concerning in those tests. The doctor wanted to put her on disability. She was unable to work for 3 weeks and returned at half time for 2 weeks. She was having trouble breathing and was frequently out of breath.

She also had emotional issues. She, "spent a lot of time crying." Random things would remind her of the sweat lodge and she'd start crying. She was losing time and having trouble knowing where she was and what she was doing. "It was like my brain shut down." (Some of this sounds an awful lot like PTSD.)

Polk redirected Gennari on the blackout question and asked her to read through the transcript and find the part that was missing from the tape played. At which point, Li blatantly lied about what how much of the interview had been played. Seriously. I can't believe that he was just misremembering what he did and did not play of the interview. Kind of mind-blowing, actually. But through clever restatements of the question, Polk managed to have her recall the period when her eyes were closed.

Polk: Miss Gennari when you told the detective that, "well, I finally, I opened my eyes and I saw there was no one to my right." 

Gennari: Yes.

Polk: What do you remember about when your eyes were closed?

Gennari: Nothing. From the time that there was front row, back row, then there's a big blank spot in memory from then till I opened my eyes.

Polk: And when you were interviewed by the detective, did the detective ask you follow up questions about the time your eyes were closed.

Gennari: No.

Polk continued to walk Gennari through the events from the time of her blackout and after. Polk has a real gift for putting those things back into context that the defense has taken out of it.

Polk also sought clarity on Gennari's statements about no longer believing that there was any value in Ray's teachings. She produces a James Ray quote that is truly revelatory... about Ray's character I mean.

Learning occurs on the border of chaos and order.

This was his explanation of why he would deliberately overwhelm people with information. Said Gennari of those lessons, "I'd realize the gears in my head had sort of stopped."

Another Ray teaching:

Keep the goggles on.

It pertained to a NASA study wherein people wore goggles that flipped images upside down. It would take them a while to see properly without them. Gennari described that as meaning that the goggles are Ray's teachings and that they needed to stay immersed in them and to not go back to their old way of thinking and seeing.

Many people have asked if Ray was deliberately using cult brainwashing techniques. Asked and answered.

On cross, Polk addressed the lawsuit. It was prepared by the lawyer. Gennari had not read much of it nor had she signed it. So Li was trying to impeach her testimony based on a document that didn't even bear her signature.

Polk proceeded to read from the claim and formulate questions pertaining to it.

My favorite question:

Has Mr. Ray's refund policy affected your attendance?

I've been waiting and waiting for the prosecution to get that in, and it looks like it had to be shoehorned between a lot of objections. But the claim Li introduced stated there were no refunds. As discussed, whatever waiver they've signed or second thoughts they've had, to "choose" not to participate is to forfeit thousands of dollars. Gennari affirmed that her inability to get her money back was a key motivator in sticking things out.

Li started to make noise about admitting the entire complaint into evidence.

Said Polk, "Your honor, the prosecution does not believe this should be admitted but it is Mr. Li who opened this line of questioning in his cross examination."

It turns out that "offensive touching" is a legal term in California. Much of the complaint appears to have been structured to start the process by hitting certain legal wickets.

Polk continued to walk Gennari through the document, clarifying what was true and where the lawyer had misstated the facts as she believed them to be. At that point, Li began demanding that it be admitted into evidence.

Judge Darrow agreed and admitted the document into evidence with a stipulation. Said Polk, "That's fine your honor. Thank you."

I'm beginning to think that Sheila Polk is diabolically clever. She has got the defense begging to admit evidence that they would have fought her tooth and nail on had the prosecution tried to admit it. Here we have a document that Li tried to sneak in piecemeal, unscrutinized as to its authorship and signature. Now it's in evidence and it, indeed, reflects badly on James Ray because it contains some rather damning facts.

Polk asked Gennari why she filed the lawsuit.

I have a lot of medical bills piled up and I felt like, to some extent, it was my duty to make as big a noise as possible so that this never happens to anybody again.

The jury had one question for Gennari. They wanted to know if she really went shopping in Sedona, so they may really be struggling with how authentic her description of distress is.

She described herself as "dazed" and barely seeing anything and "just kind of looking at the shiny objects." Her friend Laura had initiated the trip because she wanted to "get away from Angel Valley."

Li became characteristically nasty. "After the incident in which two people passed away, you went shopping, correct?" Hmmm.... And what did James Arthur Ray do? Oh, right. He flew home before police could question him.

Laurie Gennari was excused subject to recall.

All information on the trial comes from news articles with provided links or live courtroom footage on TruTV's "In Session" or CNN's live feed. All quotes and paraphrased statements that are not linked to a source document are my best attempt to transcribe material from live broadcasts.

Comments on this entry are closed, on this blog. If you wish to comment, please find this and all newer blog entries crossposted on Celestial Reflections.

James Arthur Ray Sweat Lodge Trial: Day 15

When I was a kid, my family and I had an extended visit with my aunt and uncle in Idaho. It was my introduction to "dry heat." I marveled at how long I could play outside in temperatures twenty degrees higher than I was used to. How was it that I could play croquet in the backyard for hours in temperatures over a hundred degrees when the high eighties made me wilt back home? My family's explanation: You feel the heat more when it's humid. Not explained to my child mind's satisfaction was why. But I did note that my aunt kept a bottle of lotion near her at all times and could go on at some length about the relative merits of various moisturizers.

This memory came back to me when I was researching the question of heat exhaustion in James Arthur Ray's sweat lodge. Short answer to Ray's defense team: No, you don't have to be dehydrated to suffer heat related illnesses, up to and including heatstroke. Anything that interferes with the body's natural cooling system can cause heat related illness. That includes temperatures too high for any bodily process to combat and high humidity. When an environment is humid perspiration cannot evaporate off the skin properly, which is how perspiration cools the body down. Jeanne Armstrong was wearing a Nike Dri-Fit, moisture-wicking sports shirt. It may have saved her life. It almost certainly made her experience more comfortable.

James Ray poured way too much water on the rocks. Someone called Rubies explained in a recent comment on the Salty Droid:

I have been in screaming hot lodges before (Lakota teacher) but the difference was there was always a cool down in between rounds and only 4 rounds. We have had over 100 rocks in a smaller lodge and the only water put on the rocks was from an eagle fan dipped in water and dripped onto the rocks not gallons and gallons that Ray dumped on the rocks. The man knows nothing of a ceremony. It was not a ceremony it was a sweat event.

In my limited experience of sweat lodge ceremony, that was also the case. The water was sprinkled and the air was just moist enough to make it breathable and comfortable. But Ray's objective always seems to be discomfort and the endurance of it.

Also, as my husband has said repeatedly, Ray created a perfect storm. My husband is not an expert on heat related illness, either. But he is a Marine and protecting yourself against the dangers of hyperthermia is one of the first things you learn in military training. A single episode of heatstroke can cause a member of the military to be medically separated because you're body's thermostat never functions the same way thereafter. My husband has also done a lot of survival training in addition to his military training. Here's his breakdown as to why this was a disaster waiting to happen. There are five ways the human body sheds heat: perspiration, respiration, radiation, conduction, and convection. That sweat lodge was set up in such a way as to negate every one of those mechanisms.

Perspiration would not evaporate because of the heavy steam. as discussed. Respiration would have been compromised because this lodge appeared to be more airtight than a traditional sweat lodge. (Yes, the "blue material" is still a matter of dispute.) The reduction of air flow cuts down on oxygen. And the high heat would cause people to take shallower breaths. You'd be taking in superheated air that wouldn't cool the body. The air was hot, stagnant, and carbon dioxide-heavy. When it comes to radiation -- that's the body emitting heat into the air -- these were a bunch of hot, wet, nearly naked people radiating heat into a hot, wet environment, where that radiated heat was not being ventilated. Heat was radiating from the rocks, the bodies, and the sun -- because it was daytime -- and that heat had nowhere to go except to concentrate in the lodge. Conduction is when you sit on the ground and radiate your body heat into the coolness of the earth. This sweat lodge was so hot that a woman burned herself from touching ground. So it was more like a kiln. Convection is air circulation and there wasn't any. Many people have testified that even when the flap was open they couldn't feel a breeze. There were no cross-currents.

Someone called anonymous also passed along this article. In it, a sauna expert has calculated the oxygen depletion, based on air volume, number of bodies, amount of steam, etc. My one bit of confusion with that article is that they refer to carbon monoxide replacing oxygen. I can't see that happening unless there was a source of carbon monoxide. Burning natural materials such as wood releases some carbon monoxide. Burning tobacco releases carbon monoxide and some people have testified that tobacco was among the herbs thrown on the rocks. In that environment even a small amount of carbon monoxide could have been disastrous. But I know that in at least one medical report -- I believe it was Stephen Ray's -- they suspected carbon dioxide poisoning. Human beings exhale carbon dioxide so in that enclosed environment, I would imagine there was a glut of carbon dioxide and a paucity of oxygen.

Listening to Laurie Gennari

Late in the day on Friday, Laurie Gennari started her testimony. I needed to take the weekend to process that because it was very rich testimony. In Gennari's case, Judge Darrow has agreed to her request not to appear on camera. (This may have been the discussion before Lou Caci testified, previously attributed to his appearance.) So Gennari appears throughout as a disembodied voice, which is a little frustrating, but it does provide more camera time to James Ray's reactions to that testimony. And the testimony is damning.

There are two major revelations that came out during Gennari's direct questioning. The first is that Ray badgered participants out of taking unscheduled bathroom breaks; more echoes of EST training. The second is that Ray prevented Gennari from leaving the sweat lodge when she made for the door.

Gennari's testimony was also explosive because she's very insightful and describes things in colorful, poignant language. I found myself deeply impressed with her intelligence and relating far too much to her perceptions. I've been where she was and I've been where she is in processing this experience.

From the beginning of her testimony, Gennari nailed the dynamics in a way that other witnesses have noticeably struggled to. When Polk asked her what the phrase "play full on" meant to her, she replied, "Mostly, to me that meant, do as he says. Do what he wants."

Gennari went along with most of what Ray wanted but she did not shave her head. She explained in her testimony what she had explained to numerous seminar participants. She'd already done it twice in her life "for no apparent reason." It wasn't meaningful for her and she knew she wouldn't get anything out of it. She compared the reaction from other participants to being shunned in junior high school. She experienced a lot peer pressure for her lack of conformity over what is purported to be ego annihilating exercise. Irony thy name is a James Ray seminar.

Gennari doesn't think she got more than three or four hours of sleep any night that week. She explains the lack of sleep as being tied to Ray's direction to do a lot of writing "because you won't do it at home." So I guess the point of the seminar was not about learning self-discipline. What would be the value in teaching a self-help practice that he doesn't expect people to carry over into daily life? What occurs to me is that it fosters dependency on James Ray. He's positioning himself as the discipline structure rather than teaching choice and self-reliance.

Gennari had done Holosync meditation on her own with the cd's which she describes as producing a "wacky meditative state." According the literature it induces a delta brainwave pattern. That's a very deep level of meditation; actually the level of deep, dreamless sleep. Most meditation and journeying techniques induce a low alpha to theta range and even that can be a bit much over an extended period. Ray had them doing double sessions. She believes that on one occasion Ray actually had them doing three straight hours. Said Gennari, "If it's possible to overdose on meditation, that's what we were doing."

Yes it is possible to overdose on meditation and it says so right in the Holosync FAQ. I posted this earlier in regards to Dennis Mehravar who had also OD'd on Holosync. It bears repeating. The recommended usage is to build up to one hour a day. Listening for an extended period can be overwhelming.

Listening for extended time periods can give the brain too much input and bring too much unresolved unconscious material to the surface, just like too much exercise can be harmful to the body. Listening all night, or even for several hours, can often create a state of severe overwhelm. Again, it is best to follow the instructions closely.

As with everything else he makes his participants do, Ray pushes the envelope. If an hour of meditation is good, two hours is better, and three is phenomenal. If a normal sweat lodge is a beautiful healing experience, jacking the heat up to nth degree is total transformation. He has no concept of subtlety.

Worse, he induces people to stop listening to their own instincts or honor their own process. When people start having trouble with a spiritual process, the answer is never really as simple as "push through it." Pain, whether physical or emotional is the body's warning system. It's important to listen and assess.

Like many of the participants, Gennari did not believe that yoga was optional. The woman who didn't go one day was bullied by Ray. Here, her testimony gibes with Bunn's. And like Bunn she found the experience very intimidating and reinforcing of her desire not to be singled out in the same way. She decided to "pretty much keep my head down and stay off that radar... by going along with what was going on and not making waves."

Gennari is clever and she quickly grokked that the theme of the week was "death." Although she appreciated the poetic appeal death and rebirth symbolism. But she felt that Ray was not helping people use their innate tools better and more selectively. It was more about throwing half your tools and personality traits away because they're bad. She also thought it was dramatic and over the top.

Over the course of the various events, what I had seen was that when people had stood up with questions and had tried to explain that they saw things differently, they would get, not just shot down, but told that the reason their life was a mess was because of that point of view they had. And it always, I was always conflicted about that. 'Cause on the one had I could see where certain thought patterns or personality traits were the things getting in my way. But in other ways I could see that they were, they worked for me as well. And I felt like there wasn't a nuanced enough view of people and who people are.

So if you disagreed with Ray's views something was wrong with you. That's really what it comes down to. Disagreement is flipped back on the person. And, since we're all flawed and not where we really want to be life, that lack of satisfaction is leveraged by Ray to make people question their own inner truth. Result: Increasing dependence on Ray for guidance.

Gennari found Ray to be compelling and entertaining. But she was "always also waiting for the other shoe to drop. That, that I knew, you know, the Jekyl-Hyde moment would come." After much maneuvering this observation was stricken.

The Samurai Game was a little silly according to Gennari. But for Ray it was the gold standard of life. "However we showed up in the game is how we showed up in the world." This only served to make her feel as if she wasn't good enough because she didn't particularly feel like jumping in with both feet .

In other words, what matters to James Ray, what he thinks is a good game, is the barometer for all things. It couldn't just be that you didn't like the game.

Now bear in mind that Kirby Brown played the Samurai Game with such gusto and dedication that she nearly burst her own bladder. The next revelation may provide a little more background into why she would have thought Ray would not make exceptions for the call of nature. According to Gennari, James Ray has a history of chastising people for bathroom breaks. which made her reluctant to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. She had seen Ray get "very upset" with people at other events for going to the restroom when they needed to rather than during scheduled breaks.

Polk asked if she had known there'd be a sweat lodge, would she have made more of an effort to hydrate. Answer, "Yes."

Later in her testimony she clarified:

Polk: Were you not permitted to leave an event when you wanted?

Gennari: Trying to leave during, while he was talking instead of at a break would usually get somebody hassled for it. We're gonna talk about what you need. You're gonna miss things that are important. They'd get badgered into staying.

Polk: And would that include, did that effect how much you hydrated during the week?

Gennari: Yes.

Polk: And in what way?

Gennari: I, I ran a little dry.

Polk: How come?

Gennari: 'Cause I didn't wanna have to, I didn't wanna have to be the person who couldn't stand it any longer it and got up in the middle of something and got berated.

Gennari hadn't grokked that the sweat lodge would be so hot. She likes heat so what is usually too hot for other people is comfortable for her. In other words, she has a higher than average heat threshold. And yet, she found it nigh well unbearable. She also thought Ray was being overly dramatic in his description of how hot it would be. For instance, Ray had said, "You may pass out but that's alright. We'll get you out."

Said Gennari, "I thought it was hyperbole." Sadly, it was not... well except for the part about getting them out. 

She also had no real interest in doing a sweat lodge. She was already done in by the week's activities and about ready to go home. Polk asked her to explain, then, why she went to do the sweat lodge.

By that time, it, it would never have crossed my mind to depart from the group.... Well, I had arrived expecting this week to be full of different experiences, having paid more money than I've ever paid for anything I couldn't drive. Um, and determined to do as much as I could to get the most out of it. And, the, within the first couple of days the group became very cohesive. Um, and everything we did was, was we. We go back to lecture. We go to breakfast. We go to lunch. We go do this. We go do that. So this was just we go do a sweat lodge. We go change clothes. We come back. We do a sweat lodge. And it was just what was on the program.

So, the three major factors in her formulation as to why to proceed with a sweat lodge she felt too tired for and had no real desire to try were:

• Getting out of the week what was promised. 
• Getting her money's worth having spent a lot to be there. 
• Group-think.

Gennari did not immediately find the heat unbearable but the environment started to wear on her for other reasons. She recalls a Latina who was "whimpering" about how uncomfortable she was. This brought chants from the people around her of "You're more than that. You can do this. You're more than that." She annoyed the still lucid Gennari enough that she whipped her head around towards the woman and barked, "You need to do what's right for you." Shortly thereafter the woman left.

Gennari remembers the incident over light coming into the tent. She said of Ray's outburst, "It's the not quite screaming but you're definitely being yelled at voice."

For Gennari's part, she was just annoyed that the exchange was delaying things. "I recall," she said, "having a fleeting thought about how typical that was for him to get pissed off when something didn't go exactly right." 

Then things really started to go south. Said Gennari, "I think the draggings started somewhere in [round] 3 or 4."

She thinks the first guy she noticed being dragged out was Sean Ronin. He was "raving" and "thrashing." He was punching people as he flailed around. It took a number of people to subdue him and drag him out, but it was not enough to make Ray stop the ceremony.

At another point she heard somebody yelling, "She's not responding." And later, "She's not breathing." Ray responded, "Leave her there. We'll deal with her at the end of the round." I'm guessing this was Sidney Spencer and the episode recounted by Beverley Bunn.


Around the sixth round she started to become concerned about Liz Neuman. But, she thought, Liz was experienced, having done four or five of Ray's sweat lodges before.

Asked to describe the reason for her concern she said, "The look on her face was very similar to somebody who's drunk. Um. She was sort of spacey and lolling her head."

But, she knew from her experiences throughout that week that she had to "let other people have their experience."

Gennari explained that she is normally the kind of person who takes over in high stress situations. She had "suspended normal me" to have the experience she had signed up for. In other words, I guess she was trying to pull a George Castanza and do the opposite, in hopes that she could shift her normally, introverted, defended personality.

Throughout the seventh round, Gennari was really struggling. But Laura Tucker asked for her help in supporting Liz. This is the point at which they propped Liz Neuman up on their knees as earlier described in Tucker's testimony.

Laura Tucker had asked Liz if she wanted to get out and Liz said "No, no, no, no." When Gennari imitates Liz, she slurs her speech a little like a drunk, and analogizes it to "the friend you need to take the keys from and not let them drive home.

After the seventh round, during the break, Gennari had had all she could take and started crawling out, scraping her hands and knees on the gravel. She went out appropriately clockwise. Asked why she would go the long way when she so needed to leave, she explains that it would not, by then, have occurred to do anything but follow the rules. When she got within about four feet from the door, Ray bellowed at her, "No. You're too late. The door's closing. We're starting again. Find yourself a spot." She dove for the ground and decided to wait it out. The flap was still open and she saw it close. But the ground was much hotter on that side of the tent and she couldn't find a cool spot to rest her face on as she had in her previous spot. Her heart was racing by the time it was over. As Ray began directing everyone out and she tried to figure out her path of exit, she blacked out and missed everybody leaving. As she explained later, she never saw it coming. She had no idea she was passing out until she was coming to. By then they were dragging people out. Someone tried to drag her out. She wanted to crawl out but the woman said she had to "crawl fast." Ultimately the woman "threw" her out of the tent so that she "landed face down in the mud." She was aggressively hosed with cold water, much of which went up her nose.

Why did she not just keep going and get out? "I froze. I didn't stand a chance. I was, I was tired. I was hungry. I was terrified. I was panicking. I just, none of my rational systems were functioning at that point."

What kind of voice did Ray use? "Authoritative."

So Ray prevented Laura Gennari from leaving and the round hadn't even started. I'm going to say this again: James Ray prevented Laura Gennari from leaving.

After she was out of the tent, Gennari's breathing problems dissipated but her heart continued to race for some time afterwards.

As she started to recover she was urged by Tucker to help Steven Ray. His eyes were red and rolling in his head. His nose was running he was breath was rapid. She squeezed his hand and it felt dead. She tried to get him to squeeze his hand but he didn't respond. She stayed with him until the paramedics put him into the ambulance.

No one from Ray's staff assessed Gennari to determine whether or not she should be seen by the paramedics.

She continued to feel very shaky through dinner. She shivered with cold but could feel her skin radiating heat. The next morning she went into Sedona and walked around. She still felt like she was in shock.

Her overall assessment of that week:

Everything we did was about getting an order to do something uncomfortable and carrying through and doing it. And, whether it was the writing, the staying up all night, the, you know, eating a vegetarian diet, uh, you know, having breaks when they were specified. The whole week just, I mean we were, we were well trained (to do what we were told by the end of that week.) [The parenthetical was stricken.]

Intellectually, Gennari understands why she didn't rescue Liz. Emotionally, she's still beating herself up for not picking her up and dragging her ass out of there. Well, as Luis Li says, 20/20 is perfect hindsight.

Luis Li had just started his cross before the end of proceedings on Friday. After a clumsy attempt to build rapport over their mutual California background, it's a lot of him trying to coax a retrospective awareness of self-reliance out of Gennari. All that stuff she did -- the journaling for instance -- she could have just not done it. Here, he picks at Gennari's scab, by bringing up the assignment Ray had given her to write about the issue of her shyness.

Gennari: It wasn't a discussion. He told me to do that.

. . .

Li: You could back go back to your room and write about whatever you wanted write about.

Gennari: Yeah, this was, this was, was, was one more thing to add to the list of instructions.

Li: Okay but I guess this is just a fairly simple yes or no question. You could go back to your room and write about anything you wanted, correct?

Gennari: I don't feel right answering that as a yes or no question... I could have stood on my head in the middle of the place but that wasn't why I was there.

Li: Okay, that's a good point. And I'm not trying to argue with you. You could stand on your head if you wanted to, correct? Yes?

Gennari: Not if I were, not if I were, there to have the event.

Li: Okay, I'm gonna take... let's just talk about free will. Let's just talk about what you can and can't do as an adult. You can do whatever you want can't you?

Gennari: When I have my wits about me.

. . .

Li: You can decide to get in your car and leave.

Gennari: I could.

Li: You can call a cab, go to the airport, fly from Phoenix back to Redwood City, and leave, right?

Gennari: Only if I were to override all the reasons I was there.

Li: Yeah. And those reasons why you were there were reasons you came up with for yourself...

It goes on like that for quite a while.

The irony, here, is that Li sounds less like a defense attorney trying to prove that a witness made independent choices than a cult deprogrammer trying to rehabilitate an escapee. The defense has walked into its own trap.

All information on the trial comes from news articles with provided links or live courtroom footage on TruTV's "In Session" or CNN's live feed. All quotes and paraphrased statements that are not linked to a source document are my best attempt to transcribe material from live broadcasts.

It's Only a Supermoon

From Joe Versus the Volcano

This past Saturday many people witnessed what's called a supermoon. The moon looks bigger because it's closer to the planet. Here's a technical explanation from NASA.

"The last full Moon so big and close to Earth occurred in March of 1993," says Geoff Chester of the US Naval Observatory in Washington DC. "I'd say it's worth a look."

Full Moons vary in size because of the oval shape of the Moon's orbit. It is an ellipse with one side (perigee) about 50,000 km closer to Earth than the other (apogee): diagram. Nearby perigee moons are about 14% bigger and 30% brighter than lesser moons that occur on the apogee side of the Moon's orbit.

"The full Moon of March 19th occurs less than one hour away from perigee--a near-perfect coincidence1 that happens only 18 years or so," adds Chester.

I didn't get outside to see the event, myself. I had a very full weekend. And therein lies a tale.

James Arthur Ray Sweat Lodge Trial: Day 14

James Arthur Ray With His New Dream Team

I've been contemplating the embarrassing spectacle that was Luis Li's cross examination of Lou Caci on his work-out routine. Li was attempting to build rapport with a witness -- which is a solid tactic -- and to do so he needed to appear as if he was dropping his guard a bit. The thing is, I think he did drop his guard. He gave us all a little peak into his  psyche and the view wasn't pretty. He was at turns nakedly manipulative and disturbingly needy. There's a certain train-wreck quality to watching someone with no discernible people skills trying to be chummy.

Li has revealed himself to be a rather emotionally stunted individual. I'm sure he's a very smart guy, and that he knows the law well, but he does not get people. He has a high IQ and a low EQ. I think he's, in a sense, being very sincere when he questions the validity of the "cult indoctrination" theory. That's because because he's miles away from any understanding of how someone with the charm and charisma he so sorely lacks can exert subtler forms of influence. So Li spends his days battling a straw man idea of cult indoctrination that comes right out of a 1970s TV movie.

Li also reveals his psyche when Judge Darrow is hearing various motions. His arguments show, at turns, sharp legal acumen and the mental state of a five year old. I caught the tail end of a motion hearing yesterday and could only marvel at his petulance. He's not happy that the prosecution keeps picking up on things that the defense brings up during cross. If the defense wants to make analogies between a witness's athletic history and the risks during Spiritual Warrior, that doesn't mean the prosecution should be able to redirect on those same analogies. I'm sure there are some legal fine points to that that have merit. I'm not a lawyer. But whenever Li makes these kinds of arguments he starts to whine like a spoiled kid. Like... It's just so unfair that the other children get to play with his toys just because he's taking all of theirs.

At any rate, I don't think either the defense or Judge Darrow took Li's temper tantrum that seriously. Because you'd better believe Sheila Polk took that ball and ran with it after Li's endless, unbearable, homoerotic paean to former quarterback Lou Caci's athleticism.

Truc Do Cross Examines Dr. Jeanne Armstrong

Dr. Jeanne Armstrong seems like a very steady, grounded woman. She strikes me as someone who doesn't get ruffled by much. For the first hour of her testimony, I found myself thinking that she would be Sgt. Joe Friday's ideal witness. She gives the facts, ma'am. Just the facts. This also makes her a little dull. So it's kind of a double edged sword, I imagine, for the jury.

She became more animated and engaging as she described the post sweat lodge scene and how she was pressed into service as a doctor. Her memory for detail, spacial relations, and sequence, demystified the chaotic scene.  I expect her lack of emotionality made her invaluable in the unfolding crisis.

Dr. Armstrong, with her sometimes eerily detailed memory also seems to be the only person who remembers James Ray doing anything at all as the crisis unfolded. He asked if he could there was "anything else we could or should be doing." Armstrong told him to check with the camp to see if they had a portable defibrillator or AED. He went to check and came back empty.

Prosecutor Bill Hughes had her break down the spectrum of heat related illness from rash to heatstroke. She explained that fatigue and nausea are consistent with heat related illness and delirium is consistent with heatstroke. She also explained "the golden hour." This is the time after a traumatic injury when immediate intervention can improve outcome. In other words it can mean the difference between life and death. Unfortunately for Kirby Brown, James Shore, and Liz Neuman, the golden hour had passed before they got the attention they needed.

Under cross, Armstrong explained to Truc Do that she had been puzzled by the pattern of illness. Why was Kirby Brown, a fit, apparently healthy woman near death, when Armstrong, an overweight woman with an active dislike for heat was feeling fine? It is a puzzlement. Although, were I her, I probably wouldn't discount the fact that she had worn a Nike Dri-Fit shirt which, as she explained in direct testimony, is designed to wick moisture away from the skin, thus cooling the body. Not saying that was the only factor, but it might be worth considering.

Do queried Armstrong for some time on possible causes for illness. Did she assume heatstroke simply because the sweat lodge was hot? Obviously not. She's a doctor. She'd want to do a thorough exam before coming to any conclusion.

But as Do picked Armstrong's doctor brain she started getting answers she didn't like. In short, Do could not get Armstrong to explicitly state that dehydration is a necessary cause for heatstroke.

Frankly, this has been a question I've had from the beginning of this trial. The defense's position is that the diagnosis of heat related death doesn't hold water because many of those admitted to the hospital, including those who died, were not found to be dehydrated. Also, core body temperatures weren't as high as would be expected in heat related illnesses. The thing is that I'm not certain that dehydration is a necessary cause for heatstroke. I'm not a doctor and I'm certainly not a specialist in heat related illnesses, but it has not been my understanding that dehydration is always a factor.

Do: Generally speaking with heatstroke there are two components, uh, that, uh, doctors look at to diagnosis heatstroke. And that is elevated core temperature, correct?

Armstrong: Correct.

. . .

Do: Okay, and another component is dehydration.

Armstrong: Um, often people who are experiencing heat exhaustion are dehydrated yes.

Uh oh. But Do doesn't break a sweat. She launches into a series of questions in which she tries desperately to get Armstrong to clearly answer that only old people with heart conditions can die from heatstroke without dehydration; not young healthy people. But Armstrong insists on being all honest and sciency. She tries to explain that there are numerous variables, including underlying conditions on which she's not an expert, and she can't give absolute answers on any of it. At which point Do clarifies that Armstrong is not there to testify on heatstroke because she's not an expert on it and quickly moves on.

So, if I'm to take Armstrong's testimony as credible on the subject of heatstroke, I was correct. Dehydration is often a factor in heatstroke but it's not a necessary cause. Heatstroke occurs because the body builds heat faster than it can dissipate it. The body dissipates heat in three ways: perspiration, respiration, and radiation. Dehydration can cause the body to stop or vastly reduce perspiration and cause heatstroke. But there are other illnesses and conditions that can cause the body to stop sweating or otherwise dissipating heat. Here's one:

The other thing that can lead to heatstroke is very high humidity, which keeps sweat from evaporating.

In either case -- be it the lack of sweat or the inability to evaporate it -- the core body temperature can rise very quickly if it is hot outside.

Hmmm... Didn't a number of people say that the sweat lodge was very, very humid, in addition to being "hellacious hot?" Wasn't the water pourer, Mr. Ray, a bit liberal with the pouring? And wasn't Jeanne Armstrong wearing a moisture-wicking t-shirt?

On redirect, Hughes doesn't split that particular hair. But he does raise the point that I've wanted to see raised for a while. The core body temperature would probably have dropped after the patient had been doused with ice water, waited for quite a while for the paramedics, and been transported a distance to the hospital. Dr. Armstrong agreed on that. He also makes the point that many of the victims received IV fluids and could that make a difference in how dehydrated they were. She expected that it would.

Hughes also asked Armstrong if she thought an airborne toxin would have made everybody ill. In her opinion, it would have made at least the majority of them ill, yes.

So, Jeanne Armstrong did rather substantial damage to the defense's contention that the injuries and deaths were caused by poisoning rather than hyperthermia and heatstroke. I do wish, though, that the prosecution would find an expert to testify directly and explain that dehydration is not an essential component of heatstroke.

The jury had several questions for Jean Armstrong (paraphrased):

When Amy was taken out, was the flap open or closed? It was open.

When they became aware that Amy had passed out was the flap open? They became aware as the round was ending and took her out. It all happened roughly simultaneously

Is it at all possible that Armstrong fell asleep  or into a very relaxed state between rounds 3 and 7 of the sweat lodge? Yes, she was at least into a deep meditative state. She doesn't think she fell asleep but she had no concept of the time. Do asks if she was "lucid" during that time. She said she FEELS like she was lucid.

Hughes asks if she was participating in the speaking out part under Ray's direction? She was.

Was she paying attention to what was going on? She was not because everyone was speaking at once. After that she said it just became incredibly loud and annoying and she tuned out the fifty odd people screaming.

This last answer, I think, lends some insight into Jeanne Armstrong. She can be fairly described as narrowly focused. She is extremely aware of what she wants to be aware of and skilled at shutting out anything she considers to be a distraction. That would explain why her memory can be so detailed on some things but she seems oblivious to chaos, personalities, emotional context, and interpersonal dynamics. Those things don't seem to interest her so she tunes them out. She mentally bypassed all the drama so that it's like she was at a different event than every other witness we've seen so far.

All information on the trial comes from news articles with provided links or live courtroom footage on TruTV's "In Session" or CNN's live feed. All quotes and paraphrased statements that are not linked to a source document are my best attempt to transcribe material from live broadcasts.

Comments on this entry are closed, on this blog. If you wish to comment, please find this and all newer blog entries crossposted on Celestial Reflections.

James Arthur Ray Sweat Lodge Trial: Day 13

Lou Caci

Well, I'm cranky. In Session is preempted today and tomorrow by something appropriately entitled "World's Dumbest..." and some sports. I hate when sporting events preempt things. I've never been much of a sports fan... except for football. I grew up in a Ohio where the world pretty much revolves around football. I was in the band. That makes me a geek and the kind of person James Arthur Ray has open contempt for... but more on that at another time.

I'm particularly annoyed because I was looking forward to seeing Lou Caci's testimony from yesterday. I missed all but the very end because of an event at my daughter's school. It was Book Fair night. Reading is fundamental -- and fun for families! But I missed most of Lou Caci's live testimony. What I heard was heartrending.

The Salty Droid did some good live blogging of that testimony on Twitter, here. So, I've been able to piece some of this together. For starters, I've learned that Lou Caci didn't want his testimony to be on camera. Ultimately, freedom of the press won out over a traumatized man's desire for privacy. I'm ambivalent a little about that but, somewhat selfishly, glad to have access to his testimony.

Lou Caci looks like a haunted man and his voice trembles with emotion as he recalls certain things; like hearing Liz Neuman's breathing. He knows what dying sounds like. He watched his own father die of cancer. Liz Neuman sounded like his father did at the end. And Lou Caci is filled with regret. What if he'd said something? Could her death have been prevented? This is the kind of regret I was referring to yesterday. It's more loaded than survivor guilt. Survivor guilt leaves people wondering at fate and what made them more deserving than someone else of living through tragedy. This is the guilt of someone who doesn't really understand why he was so powerless to take an action that could have, maybe, prevented tragedy. It's the kind of guilt that reduced Beverley Bunn to tears when Tom Kelly twisted the knife in an unhealed wound. It's the regret of someone who gave his decision making power away to James Arthur Ray and now wonders why he had no personal power left to save a life.

How ironic that James Arthur Ray lectures endlessly -- and tediously -- about personal power. Ultimately he did teach some people real, serious lessons about how to set boundaries, how to say no, and how to start taking back their power. But he taught by bad example. Trial by ordeal is a hard way to learn about how we give our power away to abusers, to tin gods, to people we invest with authority over our lives. Carlos Castaneda wrote a lot about personal power, too. And virtually every word on the subject that tumbles out of James Arthur Ray's mouth is repackaged Castaneda. Castaneda was a power thief, too. Just ask Amy Wallace.

Lou Caci is often referred to as a long-time friend of James Arthur Ray. Ray even stood up for him at his wedding. Their friendship goes all the way back to a Tony Robbins seminar. I'm not surprised to hear that Ray took in a Robbins seminar or two. He's clearly learned a lot from Robbins about how to be a self-help leader by doing things like making people break boards with their hands. (I haven't heard a lot about broken hands and hospital visits after Tony Robbins seminars. Maybe Ray didn't complete that curriculum either.) Lou Caci learned at that Tony Robbins seminar to hitch his wagon to James Arthur Ray. In retrospect that might have been a mistake but hindsight's 20/20. (Unless you're Luis Li, but more on that later.)

Caci listed numerous James Ray seminars and it sounds like he's completed the Journey of Power sequence more than once. He did Spiritual Warrior, which is the culminating event, back in 2003, but it wasn't as hot. So, maybe he didn't gather enough power and needed to try an "hellacious hot" one. He knew from Ray's description that this sweat lodge would be much hotter but he felt safe. "I trust that [Ray] knows what he's doing," said Caci.

Caci is a "team player." He enjoyed the Samurai Game and didn't enjoy getting his head shaved but did it anyway.

Caci went into the vision quest tired because like so many others, he had not gotten much sleep.

Caci roomed with James Shore and remembers him doing some business related work while he was at Spiritual Warrior. I have to say that the emerging picture of James Shore is of someone who just wasn't down with the James Ray program. We already know that he didn't want to be there and would have canceled if he could have gotten his money back.

Caci started having trouble from the very first round. He was lightheaded and at some point he urinated, which he still feels uncomfortable about. I'm wondering now if he was the person who had asked Ray about bathroom breaks and whom Ray indicated should piss on the floor. It sounded like he found the experience somewhat degrading. Probably because it is degrading.

Caci is glad that it was only his arm that went into the rocks when he collapsed. He was delirious. He may have screamed but he's missing pieces of his memory. He has a vague recollection of Melinda Martin helping him. His arm was burned in three places.

Knowing what I know now I don't know why I went back in after I was injured.

He remembers Jennifer Haley telling him not to go back in. But he wanted to go back for the last round. Caci says he didn't want to be seen as a "failure" in Ray's eyes. He wanted to "play full on" so that he could achieve his goals in life.

Caci remembers helping moving Liz Neuman off of someone's legs. As he was re-entering the sweat lodge he heard someone (possibly Laura Tucker?) say, "Please get Liz off me." And he heard the distressed breathing.

A little dark comedy from the Salty Droid:

This morning Sheila Polk resumed direct examination of Lou Caci, picking up where they'd left off; after Caci had re-entered the sweat lodge. He doesn't think he should have gone back in and admits that he probably wasn't "thinking clearly."

After Caci came back in for the last round, he noticed a woman named Linda. She was unconscious and propped up against the tent wall with her head tilted to one side. (This was clearly the same Linda that Michael Olesen had raised concerns about but been told to ignore.) Linda was a heavy-set woman and completely unconscious so someone named Randy had to help Caci move her out after the sweat lodge had ended.  He's still not quite sure how they maneuvered her out of the tent.

Caci took in the scene and thought it looked like a battleground; like something out of a movie. He saw Stephen Ray with foam coming out of his mouth and his eyes bulging. He saw Sean Ronin delirious, crawling back and forth on the ground but doesn't know how he got out of the tent. He was busy getting poor Linda out.

Ray was gone. He'd left the tent immediately.

When he got to the hospital, they made two attempts to get an IV in. They had difficulty. They told him that his oxygen level was very low.

At some point Polk asked about where he first heard the idea that it could have been poisoning, but the defense's objection was sustained. But the question struck me. I think she may be laying the groundwork for an argument that the poisoning idea may have started with Ray's own staff and that it was they who put the idea in the paramedics' heads. We shall see.

One moment sticks with Lou Caci; a bittersweet memory of his roommate James Shore as they were walking across across the camp. "Man," he'd said, "I'm so glad I quit smoking, 'cause it was killing me."

Li and Caci Talk Sports

Li starts his cross examination with some friendly, male bonding. He and Li discovered their mutual interest in football when they met over the break.

Li: During your direct examination, you had some words with Ms. Polk about playing football.

Caci: Uh huh.

Li: Did you play for high school, or uh?

Caci: Yeah, high school and junior.

Li: Like, junior college or...

Caci: No. It was, it was junior. It wasn't university level. It was junior.

Li: Okay. Alright. So it was after high school but not at the university level.

Caci: Right.

Li: What position did you play?

Caci: Quarterback.

Li: You were the quarterback! Wow!

Caci: Yeah.

Li: In, um, high school I had the chance to play cornerback, uh, and it's pretty tough playin' football.

Caci: It is. It is.

And from there a casual discussion about windsprints turns a little more serious. Sometimes football players push themselves a little too hard don't they. Sometimes you end up lying on the ground, puking and gasping. Well... Caci doesn't remember ever puking but... it's pretty tough.

Caci played soccer, too. Yeah. He's something of a jock. He knows what it means to train hard.

Li: And you look like you're in, uh, pretty good shape, if I may say so.

Caci: Thank you. Gained uh, gained a few pounds last, over the last year but...

Li: These things happen. 

Caci: Yeah.

Li: Now um... You work out?

Caci: Yeah, I do.

Li: What kinda, what kinda stuff do you do?

Caci: I just do basics. I do treadmill and just, for about half an hour, forty minutes. And then I'll do a little bit of weights.

Li: So, you lift some weights?

Caci: Yeah. But I don't, uh, I don't go heavy. I'm just about maintaining; not about trying to build bulk.

Hey! Get a room you two!

Over five minutes this went on. But Li's point -- yes, it seems he has one -- is that Caci and Ray were buds and they worked out together on occasion. Ray even showed him a few pointers.

Ray's been helping Caci for years with the stellar advice in his many seminars... which he never shoves down anyone's throat.

Here it gets even more sickening than the jock talk, as the two of them have a friendly discussion on the "pillars" and about "impeccability" and "being courageous" and... squeezing all the drops out of life... or something... 'Cause, you know, Carlos Santana is still out there, playin' his guitar even though he's old.

Caci spent about ten grand to attend Spiritual Warrior.

Here, Li get's philosophical. Does anyone have the right to tell you how to spend your money? What to think? What to read? What courses to take? That you've been brainwashed?

Ta da! We've worked our way around to the first pillar of the defense strategy. He's an adult, successful, business owner, father of adopted children... "It's not a cult is it?"

No. It's not, says Caci. Except that cult is not really a negative word. "The Catholic church is a cult."

Okay, we've gone off script again. So, Li, reminds him that that's his definition.

The point is that these are all "decent folks" who are educated, successful, and go to their churches. There are teachers, engineers, entrepreneurs... Some of them are even doctors. Caci doesn't really know if there were doctors... but okay. The point is that these are normal people. They're normal!

Li: Now, Mr. Ray. He was at your wedding wasn't he?

Caci: Yes he was.

Li: He's not your guru, is he?"

Caci: [long pause] What do you mean?

Li: Yeah, okay. He's not is he? He's not a guru?

Caci: Well, he is good at what he, I mean, you... Mr. Li when someone teaches you certain things and becomes really good at what they do, then, yes, he is a guru. Well, that's what people refer to. It's just a terminology. It means just a good teacher.

Li: But you would never refer to him as a guru. You've never referred to him as your guru have you?

Caci: No. No I haven't.

Li: Let's do this. Let's not talk about it in the abstract.

Yeah. Let's not. This discussing philosophy thing? Mr. Li, you're over-matched.

Whenever Li takes on these subjects, he sounds like that kind of naive guy who has to ask his more adventurous friend a personal question to which he's hoping the answer is no. He's scared of getting the real answer because it might open up a whole lotta weird. And when he get's the answer he doesn't want, he keeps trying to convince himself that the answer was really no, and it's all just a horrible misunderstanding. It's actually a little hard to watch. It makes me cringe.

So, then we move to the third pillar of the defense strategy: poison.

Li asks Caci numerous questions he doesn't know the answer to about hospital tests he doesn't even know he was given. But, no, he doesn't do drugs. He doesn't even think he took pain meds. He doesn't believe in them. But that doesn't stop Li from trying every conceivable, time consuming way to ask. He even lists every drug for which Caci tested negative in the tox screen he doesn't know he had.

Conspicuous by its absence, in this discussion, is whatever he did test positive for. But, you know, it might have been poison. Could've been. Some doctors speculated about it.

And does Caci know who built the sweat lodge and what about the plastic tarp -- or, as Polk points out, the as yet to be properly identified "blue fabric." Nope. Caci has no idea.

Did the state tell Lou Caci that the people who died all died of heatstroke?

At this point, Caci totally loses his patience. "Did the state tell me they died of heatstroke?!... I'm sure that's private information so no, they did NOT tell me that!"

So, did he assume it was heatstroke? "Well, yeah! Because I was in there and it was hot!... It was hot."

So, yes, the sweat lodge. You know some people left? No.

It was so hot in there. The only thing you can focus on is yourself. So I don't know who left, who came in. And do I know how many people left? No. I don't know.

Watching Li question Caci made me a feel like an accidental voyeur. I know the underlying reason Li was so being so chatty was to try to win over a witness and it was more than a little manipulative. He didn't even beat him to death over the waivers. It's a better tactic than the aggression that's been coming from the defense against all the wrong people to piss off. But Li revealed a little too much of himself, here. He was more sycophant than fake friend; just a little over-awed by the athletic, alpha male.

That said, the defense made its case better here than with other witnesses. Of course it's not that hard to do, given that Caci is quite fond of the defendant and doesn't doubt for a moment that he's made his own choices all along.

But he still doesn't quite understand why he didn't help Liz Neuman. He'd help Mr. Kelly if he had a hypothetical heart attack. It's in his nature. But Li assures him that he couldn't really have known that Liz Neuman was in trouble. No one did. And unbeknown to Caci, Liz Neuman had said she was fine and didn't want to leave. Even so, Caci breaks down, baffled by the fact that no one did anything. Li explains that "20/20 is perfect hindsight" and that Caci didn't know.

But Caci did know. He makes it clear again under redirect that he's tormented because he knew what death sounded like and Liz Neuman sounded like death. No, he explains through tears, he doesn't think it was his responsibility but when asked whose responsibility it was, the defense's objection is sustained.

The jury had a few questions for Lou Caci. They wanted to know about the mysterious blue fabric, which Caci is still pretty unclear about.

They wanted to know if Caci saw Ray after the sweat lodge and what he had observed. "I saw him standing around." He didn't see him doing anything.

But mostly they wanted to know about the injury to his arm.

Lou Caci Shows His Scars to the Jury

Lou Caci has not been excused. He may be recalled at a later time.

All information on the trial comes from news articles with provided links or live courtroom footage on TruTV's "In Session" or CNN's live feed. All quotes and paraphrased statements that are not linked to a source document are my best attempt to transcribe material from live broadcasts.

Comments on this entry are closed, on this blog. If you wish to comment, please find this and all newer blog entries crossposted on Celestial Reflections.