PRESS RELEASE October 13, 2009
A tragic and unexpected accident took place at Angel Valley on Thursday afternoon, October 8 during a sweat session under the direction and control of facilitator James Ray, who rented our facility for his Spiritual Warrior Retreat.
We express our deepest feelings of sympathy, love and support for the families and friends of those who passed on and for those who are still recovering.
We want to thank all the many people who have sent us tokens of their love and who have offered their support. Many prayer circles have been created to pray for all involved.
We want to express our sincerest feelings towards the Native American Community for this having taken place on the sacred land that we are the stewards of. We have been offered assistance by Native American friends to heal the land, which we have accepted with gratitude. We also know that an initiative has been taken among those who lead sweat lodges in the authentic way, to get together and review how incidents like this can be avoided in the future. We feel the pain of the Native American Community.
Our Angel Valley team is in pain and grief by what has occurred. Since Thursday evening we have been attending to the needs of those involved in the accident along with their family and friends. We drove to the hospital to pick up people after they were released, we collected their belongings and were in contact with family members.
From the moment we dialed 911, minutes after people were brought out of the sweat lodge, we have done the best we could to assist and provide the space for the paramedics and the police to do their work. We want to thank both departments for the gracious and thorough way they went about performing their tasks.
We are being inundated by the media and we understand their need to report the News. Yet, we felt that it was our priority to take care of the participants of the retreat as well as our own staff. We told everybody that we will speak, but asked to give us some space to tend to our priorities.
Saturday October 10, after the police had released the site of the accident, we performed a ceremony in prayer and meditation on the sweat lodge site, together with those participants of the retreat that were still around and our staff, finalized by a prayer song by a Native American Elder. Our ceremony was our attempt to come to terms with what had happened,
We prayed for Kirby Brown and James Shore and their families, for all others involved who need support, either physically or emotionally, for the Native American people and their tradition, for all those who struggle with what took place and for our own healing.
We laid a heart in stones as a memorial to Kirby and James.
We ask all who see this to send your prayers and love to all involved and affected.
We ask to help transform anger and judgment.
We ask to pray that something positive will come out of this.
Michael and Amayra Hamilton,
Co-founders of Angel Valley Spiritual Retreat Center and owners of the land.
