NEW YORK, Nov. 26 (UPI) -- Former self-help guru James Arthur Ray says it was his personal arrogance that led to the deaths of three people inside an Arizona sweat lodge in 2009.
Ray made the comments only months after his release from a 20-month prison sentence for negligent homicide, CNN reported Tuesday.
The deaths of Kirby Brown, 38, of New York; James Shore, 40, of Wisconsin; and Lizbeth Marie Neuman, 49, of Minnesota, were "just the antithesis of anything that I had ever stood for or wanted," Ray said in an interview.
Prosecutors had argued during Ray's trial his recklessness caused him to fail to monitor the temperature inside the overheated sweat lodge or the more than a dozen people taking part in the ceremony on a ranch outside Sedona.
Ray admitted his own arrogance had led him to make mistakes.
"I can be arrogant," he said. "And I think there's a lot of hubris that comes in my former business. You know, people flying all over the world and asking me how to have a better life. You tend to think you've got all the answers, and so you get humbled."
Ray says he won't do a sweat lodge again, adding, "If I could trade places with any of the three, James, Kirby or Liz, I would do it."
Family members of the three victims say they plan to watch Ray to make sure he doesn't try to rebuild his self-help business.
