Watch “Enlighten Us: The Rise and Fall of James Arthur Ray,” Saturday at 8 p.m. ET on CNN.
Back to the beginning: The sweat lodge ceremony, as intended
Sagkeeng First Nation, Manitoba (CNN)Smoke curls toward the sky as the sitting elder lifts the sacred pipe, lowers it to the ground and moves it around him. He’s recognizing the Creator, honoring Mother Earth and calling on spirits to lend support.
Ancient songs and drumbeats fill the simple dome-like structure. Constructed of gray willow branches and covered in black canvas, it sits low to the ground. The flap over the entry we crawled through has been closed, ushering in darkness. Medicinal water infused with juniper is poured over the red-hot rocks in a pit at the center. Fifteen of us sit on the ground, encircling this only source of heat.
The temperature rises, and together we go back to the beginning.
I’ve come to Canada to experience an authentic sweat lodge ceremony under the guidance of an internationally respected teacher. The sweat lodge, he says, represents a return to our mother’s womb, and the rhythm of the drums is her heartbeat. The water and steam are meant to purify those who enter, allowing each of us to emerge reborn.
That is the basic intention of the sweat ceremony, an indigenous custom that’s been preserved for thousands of years by Native Americans and Canada’s First Nations people. The ancient practice is meant to birth new life.
That may have been the objective when James Arthur Ray, then a self-help guru, led 55 people into a sweat lodge near Sedona, Arizona, in October 2009. Instead, three participants died after spending hours inside. Nineteen others were hospitalized.
Ray, who was sentenced to two years in prison for felony negligent homicide, is now free and attempting to reinvent himself. His story is the subject of CNN Films’ “Enlighten Us: The Rise and Fall of James Arthur Ray,” which premieresSaturday at 8 p.m. ET on CNN.
According to Native American and First Nations elders, Ray offered a gift that wasn’t his to share. He put a price tag on that which shouldn’t be sold, charging people nearly $10,000 for a four-day “spiritual warrior” retreat that culminated in the sweat lodge disaster.
“If you appropriate something that doesn’t belong to you, there’s a consequence,” says elder Dave Courchene Jr., 66, who leads our sweat lodge ceremony. “I’m not opposed to having people, having anyone, experience the ceremony in the lodges that we do. I welcome that. But what I will not relinquish is the right of leadership.”
That right to lead ceremonies is one he earned only after years of learning and searching.
Two young men who walked through that door join us in the sweat lodge ceremony. They each have stories of running with gangs, trying to find a sense of belonging. Now, instead, they share excitement about going on their first vision quest, maybe next summer.
The sweat ceremony consists of four rounds, marked by four songs. In the first we offer prayers for all of humanity, the second for our respective races of people, the third for our families and the fourth for ourselves. Between rounds, Courchene shares pieces of wisdom. After the second round, he announces that the spirits came to offer one of the young men — Donavan Sutherland, 16 — a spiritual name.
It’s his first and one he’s been waiting for. He is Pagamashi Kinew, or The Eagle Comes Flying Towards You.
After the ceremony, Donavan gets in Daniels’ car and heads back to the Turtle Lodge. As the car pulls onto the property, he spots a bird in a nearby tree. It’s a bald eagle.
Just as Donavan steps out of the car, the eagle flies toward him and swoops past — leaving him, and those he’s with, both awestruck and moved.
“When do you ever see eagles?” the city boy says, still excited about an hour later. “There’s a part of me I didn’t know before.”
Finding that part of himself, with the help of an ancient sacred ceremony, is exactly what his ancestors would have wanted.
Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2016/12/01/us/canada-sweat-lodge/index.html