Police arrested self-help guru James Arthur Ray on Wednesday for the manslaughter of three people who fell ill during a ceremony in a “sweat dome” at a retreat in northern Arizona last year.

Two people passed out inside the sweat lodge and died that night at a hospital. A third person slipped into a coma and died a week later.

Authorities said they quickly determined the deaths were not accidental and focused their investigation on Ray. [video]

Motivational speaker James Arthur Ray who led a sweat lodge ceremony in Arizona that turned deadly said he feels horrible about what happened but declined to comment on whether he was responsible for the deaths.

He refers instead to letters drafted by his attorneys that state he was not criminally negligent.

U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar is asking both the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate the circumstances related to the “Spiritual Warrior” program run by motivational speaker James Arthur Ray.

Three people died as a result of Arthur’s New Age version of a sweat lodge ritual.

“I’ve taught that we’re all going to have adversity and we can’t run from it,” Ray said at a recent recruitment session in Denver.

Meanwhile the founder of the website Americans Against Self-Help Fraud says he hopes and prays the sweat lodge incident “will put a chilling effect on the self-help industry.”

On one level, 51-year-old James Arthur Ray—who, the year after his life-altering television appearance authored the runaway bestseller Harmonic Wealth: The Secret of Attracting the Life You Want, and these days is involved in a homicide investigation—is just another Oprah guest gone bad.

On another level, he is a wakeup call for anyone who would dismiss all New Age dabbling as merely risk-free recreation, like incense and crystals.

When participants exhibited weakness, Ray urged them to push past it and chided those who wanted to leave, she said. “I can’t get her to move. I can’t get her to wake up,” Bunn recalls hearing from two sides of the 415-square-foot sweat lodge. Ray’s response: “Leave her alone, she’ll be dealt with in the next round.”

It marks a significant revelation in the criminal investigation into Ray over the episode because it portrays him as driving participants to stay in the lodge despite signs all around him that the situation had gone bad. [video]

James Arthur Ray has become a self-help superstar by packaging his charismatic personality and selling wealth. Those who first attend his free seminars hear a motivational mantra that promises that they can achieve what he calls “Harmonic Wealth” — on a financial, mental, physical spiritual level.

He uses free seminars to recruit people to his expensive seminars, starting with $4,000 three-day “Quantum Leap” workshops and moving on to the weeklong $5,300 “Practical Mysticism” events and the $9,000-plus “Spiritual Warrior” retreats like the one that led to the sweat lodge tragedy.

The investigation into the two deaths and numerous injuries that occurred during a James Arthur Ray “Spiritual Warrior” seminar at the Angel Valley Retreat near Sedona has turned from a death investigation into a homicide investigation, said Yavapai County Sheriff Steve Waugh said.

Asked why the deaths have been classified as homicides and the investigation upgraded, Waugh said, “We believe there are indications that it was not accidental, and … we feel that there should be some culpability on some individuals.” [video]

James Arthur Ray, the organiser of a US spiritual retreat, during which two people died and another 19 had to be admitted to hospital, has been caught deleting potentially incriminating tweets he published during the event.

US authorities are trying to determine if criminal negligence played a role in the deaths, which occurred in a sauna-like sweat lodge at a resort in Arizona during a two-hour “spiritual cleansing ceremony” last Thursday evening.

Two people have died and 19 others were taken to hospital after being overcome while in a sauna-like room at a spiritual retreat in Arizona.

Investigators are speaking to staff and guests and carrying out toxicity tests in an effort to find out what happened.

Reports said some of the sweatbox participants had paid up to $9,000 for their stay at the retreat. [video]