I've been reading some news articles about the people who died or nearly died in a Sweat Lodge ceremony.
The quick version: People paid about $9,000 for a weeklong spiritual retreat promised to "absolutely change your life." They fasted, then ate some breakfast and packed into a sweat lodge for a couple hours.
(Think native american sauna, a place to be spiritually purified, typically a group of a dozen or fewer)
The space was 415 square feet, 53 inches tall at the center and about 30 around the edges. Hot rocks were brought in and water was dumped on them to fill the space with hot steam. Apparently sandalwood incense was included as well. Normally, these are made with all natural materials, and the some of that steam can escape. This one was covered in plastic tarps.
Then 55-65 people spent a couple of hours in it.
So, figure the roof supports were probably fairly straight, giving a cone like roof more than a domed one. To make the math easier, let's average the 53 and 30 inch figures, and get an average roof height of about 3.5 feet. That gets us about 1450 cubic feet. Divide that by just 55 people, and you've got about 26 cubic feet per person. That's not quite a three foot cube per person. And that's without allowing the space above the hot rocks. Presumably nobody was sitting on those. Fully packed at 65 people, you've got just 22 cubic feet each, or about 2x2x5.5, which is probably a little small by coffin standards.
Would you seal yourself in a plastic wrapped coffin in a sauna for two hours?
So after a couple of hours people start collapsing. That's a lot of people competing for oxygen, for one. Two die, others suffer from burns (probably from falling on said hot rocks), dehydration, oh and kidney failure.
These were healthy people. Surfers and yoga enthusiasts. How much does it take to dehydrate someone to the point of kidney damage (let alone failure) in two hours?! Eep.
Now, having spent my weekend at something of a spiritual retreat myself, the subject came up Saturday morning.
People, you don't have to spend big money to change your lives. Heck, my total cost including gas and food was only about $300.
One major topic we covered was when you're working for someone else spiritually you have to seriously consider what kind of vested interests you have in the client, or the work. One of them had at one point had to stop accepting any kind of payment for his work, because the need for money became a vested interest. If you had 65 people paying you $9,000 or more for an experience, do you think you could remain at all dispassionate about trying to give them a $594,000 experience? (And don't you think you could afford better than plastic tarps, but I'm just sayin'...)
I'm sure he's a great guy. I'm sure he's passionate about helping people change their lives. Some of those people will never be the same, that's certainly true. I'm not gonna talk more about him because I honestly know very little about him.
But whenever you are asking someone to help you, with anything, ask yourself what their vested interests might be. Are they in your best interests, or theirs? I think that will tell you a lot.