Man dies, another injured, in 'sweat lodge' incide

[debbieredbear]

http://www.indianz.com/News/2004/005187.asp

Man dies, another injured, in 'sweat lodge' incident
Thursday, November 4, 2004

Authorities in Australia are investigating after a man died and another was
injured in a "sweat lodge" ceremony.

Rowan Cooke, 37, died at the scene. Participants in the sweat lodge tried to get
help after it appeared he was suffering from dehydration.

Adrian Asfar, 30, is hospitalized for serious dehydration. He says he "zoned
out" in the heat of the sweat lodge.

[debbieredbear]

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Tragic-end-to-a-secret-ritual/2004/11/04/\
1099547319204.html?oneclick=true

Tragic end to a secret ritual
By Penelope Debelle
Adelaide
November 5, 2004

At 8AM on Wednesday in the rugged mid-north of South Australia, two men drove up
to the house of Yankaninna sheep station owner Paul Doran and asked to use the
phone.

They had been staying on his 560-square-kilometre property on the western flank
of the Gammon Ranges without his permission and Mr Doran told them straight off
they should not be there.

They explained that two of their friends at a campsite 10 kilometres away were
suffering from dehydration. One, Rowan Cooke of Melbourne, was almost comatose
and they needed to get help.

They did not say that the campsite had secretly been used before by members of
the group seeking to re-create the native American ritual of sweat lodges, a
rigorous physical purification used by Indian warriors before going to battle or
to hunt bison.

Nor did they say that Mr Cooke, who has a young son, was the most experienced
sweat lodger of them all and had been teaching them what to do.

"I don't think they thought it was that serious," Mr Doran said yesterday. "They
didn't realise how long it would take to get a helicopter up here. A person who
is severely dehydrated and in a comatose state hasn't really got any time."


Mr Doran's wife, Kylie, phoned the Flying Doctor Service and the Leigh Creek
ambulance. Mr Doran followed the couple back to the campsite where he found Mr
Cooke, 37, lying on the ground wrapped in blankets, struggling to breathe.

"He was in virtually a comatose state, no verbal response, no recognition, very
weak, shallow pulse and breathing erratically," Mr Doran said. "I decided the
best thing to do was to get him into the car as quickly as possible and get him
to the ambulance but by the time they went to seek help it was too late."

With the fatally ill Mr Cooke being looked after in the back of the car by a
female member of the group, Mr Doran headed for the town of Leigh Creek.

About 9am, some 20 kilometres from the town, they met the ambulance and started
to transfer Mr Cooke from one vehicle to another. Lying on a stretcher on the
lonely country road, he died.

The other dehydrated man, Adrian Asfar, 22, also from Melbourne, was in better
shape in the car behind. Able to sit up and occasionally speak, he was taken to
the Port Augusta Hospital.

Yesterday he was struggling to come to terms with the fact that someone had died
after engaging in a ritual that reportedly was celebrating one of the group's
arrival at menopause.

"It's totally tragic, I'm still trying to deal with that," Mr Asfar told Central
GTS-BKN television in Port Augusta. "He was an absolutely beautiful person and
he had such experience in this sort of work. It is absolutely mind-blowing that
if it happened to anyone it happened to him."

Mr Asfar said Mr Cooke was the most experienced of the group and had bonded
before in sweat lodges, called inepis, around the Melbourne area.

"He'd being doing it for years and years and he planned a yearly desert trip and
invited us to come along and learn how to build them ourselves," Mr Asfar told
journalist Alex Hart.

"We all just pitched in a couple of hundred bucks each to cover the trip and
came up, and he taught us how to build them according to traditional native
American Indian style."

Sweat lodge physical and spiritual cleansing sessions have been practised for
years in Canada and the US and are quietly gaining favour in Australia among
alternative lifestylers.

But they are a serious business, said San Francisco sweat lodge veteran Dean
Fernandes, who worked as a web-design consultant to the SA government in the
1990s. He said even the choice of rock was critical because volcanic rock
exploded when it overheated. "It is a really powerful conduit for getting in
touch with the spirit, but it is a dangerous thing to play with physically if
you don't get all the pieces in place," he said.

In a typical session, carefully selected super-heated stones are placed in a
circle of fire inside the small hut, tepee or lodge and the group sits on the
ground, praying or using invocation. The leader splashes water on the heated
rocks, creating intense bursts of steam that can reach 50 to 60 degrees. "It is
very extreme," Mr Fernandes said. "When it flares up you feel like your skin is
on fire."

In this case, Mr Asfar believes toxic steam may have overcome them after the
campsite ran out of fresh water four days ago and took heavily oxidised bore
water from a pump on the station.

[debbieredbear]

I suspect that had something to do with it because it pretty much knocked us
all out," he said. "But until we find out exactly (the cause) I don't want to go
into too much detail."

Part of the reason Mr Asfar agreed to limited interviews yesterday was to
correct what he said was misinformation about the incident, including
suggestions that they were a cult who daubed themselves in ash. He said they had
simply crawled out of the lodge and collapsed near the fire, which explained why
they had ash stuck to them.

He said the group engaged in a purification practice that sweated out toxins,
comparable with a sauna, accompanied sometimes by singing. "You could say Sunday
Mass was a far greater ritual than what we were doing here," he said.

The group of 11 had been at the campsite since Thursday last week and had used
the lodges without incident until Tuesday. Mr Asfar said he was unaware they had
been trespassing.

His uncle, Robert Asfar, said his family was relieved he was alive, but
concerned about what took place at the ritual. "It looks like the people who
were there didn't know what they were doing," he said. with Sasha Shtargot

[elaine]

Some folks will never learn.

Additional article:

Sweat lodge adherents reject 'cult' label
By Marc Moncrief
November 5, 2004 - 2:29PM

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Sweat-lodge-adherents-reject-cult-label/2004/11/05/1099547370032.html?oneclick=true

Sweat lodge enthusiasts have denied that their ceremonial groups are cults and have called the death of a Melbourne man in South Australia during a traditional American sweat lodge ceremony, "a senseless tragedy".

Rowen Cooke, 37, was pronounced dead on arrival at Leigh Creek Hospital on Wednesday after apparently succumbing to severe dehydration.

A woman claiming to be a friend of Mr Cooke told ABC radio's Jon Faine this morning the rituals may seem strange to outsiders, but they give one a sense of peace and balance, and of closeness to god.

"When this news filtered through yesterday, we were profoundly aware of the perceptions of the wider community about the practices that we do ... and how unusual Rowan's death has been," said the woman, who gave her name as Joanne.

"When we hear the word 'cult' that causes a great deal of pain because that's actually not who we are at all. We're more eclectic than that. We don't believe the same things. We share common values, common goals, common aspirations, common ways of being, and that's really about it."

Advertisement
AdvertisementMr Cooke has been identified as the leader of the group involved in the ceremony in which he died. A group member said the use of bore water might be linked to his death.

Adrian Asfar, 30, who was hospitalised but survived the tragedy, said the only thing different to previous sweat lodge sessions was the use of underground water.

"The only thing I can think of that was different was that we used bore water," he told reporters.

South Australian police were still preparing a report for the state coroner in relation to the incident which claimed the life of a 37-year-old Victorian man.

Mr Asfar was airlifted to the Port Augusta Hospital for treatment and remained in hospital overnight.

They were among of a group of 11 friends, all from Melbourne, who had been camping on a property 100 kilometres from Leigh Creek to take part in the purification rituals which involve sitting inside a small tepee like structure for several hours with hot rocks and water used to raise the temperature to up to 60 degrees celsius.

Joanne said sweat lodges were known to sometimes go wrong, but that such instances were "few and far between".

"'Rowan is somebody who we loved. This was an incredibly beautiful human being who has a wife and a 12-month-old son and people who loved him. This is a senseless tragedy," she said.

The death was not the first attributed to sweat lodges, with two people dying during a similar ceremony in California in 2002 and others in Britain and Texas in the 1990s.

The ceremony, said to align the body, mind and spirit, involves meditation and sometimes chanting and drumming with participants pouring water over hot rocks, lifting the temperature comparable to that of a traditional steam sauna.

But unlike saunas, those taking part in the ceremony can stay inside for several hours at a time.

[educatedindian]

The Asfars are website builders, I haven't been able to find out so far who taught (or failed to teach) this group how to do a sweatlodge.

And Australia's AMA issued a warning. Trish, could you post this on NAFPS.net?

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Dehydration-death-prompts-AMA-warnings/2004/11/04/1099362284509.html?oneclick=true

Dehydration death prompts AMA warning
November 4, 2004 - 3:57PM
 
A group of campers taking part in a purification ritual borrowed from Native Americans would not have realised one of them was in grave danger.

Australian Medical Association South Australian president William Heddle said the effects of severe dehydration on young people often went unnoticed until it was too late to get help.

"For young, healthy people it can be disastrous because it's hard to tell when you get into trouble," Dr Heddle said.

"Younger people tend to be able to withstand stress for a longer time but then they reach a critical point where everything breaks down very, very quickly."

A 37-year-old Victorian man was pronounced dead on arrival at a hospital at Leigh Creek, in SA's far north, on Wednesday, after suffering what was believed to be severe dehydration.

Another man, Adrian Asfar, 30, was in a stable condition after being airlifted to a hospital at Port Augusta, in the state's mid north.

Both men were among a group taking part in a sweat lodge ritual, a ceremony involving water and hot rocks to align the body, mind and spirit used by Native American tribes such as the Apache, Navaho and Sioux.

The ceremony involves meditation inside a tepee-like structure where participants inside pour water over hot rocks, lifting the temperature to up to 60C, comparable to that of a traditional steam sauna.

Unlike saunas, however, those taking part in the ceremony can stay inside for several hours at a time.

Dr Heddle said the deceased man typically would have noticed a loss of feeling in his hands and feet as his blood circulation slowed to cope with the extreme conditions.

His skin would have sagged as it was robbed of vital moisture, his body tissue would have deteriorated and the blood flow to his gut and other organs would have slowed.

Less important organs would shut down to reduce the impact on the heart, brain and kidneys.

Loss of consciousness was expected, Dr Heddle said.

"You eventually reach a point where the body can't cope anymore and you don't have enough (blood) flow to go to the heart and brain (and) you get into trouble very quickly," he said.

Dr Heddle said despite the stress Mr Asfar's body had endured, he was likely to make a full - but slow - recovery.

"There's unlikely to be any permanent residual effects," he said.

"But it will take a while for him to recover."

Dr Heddle said the process to rehydrate Mr Asfar would be carefully monitored, as problems could arise if hydration occurred too rapidly.

[elaine]

Sweat lodge group coming here

SIMON ATKINSON
07nov04

http://www.thesundaymail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,11306425%255E2765,00.html

A RELIGIOUS group which uses sweat-lodge rituals similar to those that claimed the life of a Melbourne man is establishing a branch in Queensland.

Spirit of the Earth Medicine Society is registered as a church and has up to 400 members in Australia – mostly in Western Australia – and now seeks a foothold in Queensland.

Founder of the Queensland "clan", Martin Kornaus, says would-be members have nothing to fear from the sweat lodges, which he describes as a ceremonial sauna.

But yesterday the movement said it was suspending the practice until it had reviewed procedures.

The decision follows the death of Rowan Cooke early on Thursday after a sweat-lodge ceremony on a remote South Australian property.

His father Douglas Cooke said father-of-one Rowan, 37, was led astray by svengali-like leaders of a bizarre spiritual group.

Mr Cooke said the spiritual rituals had been an enjoyable part of his son's life until a man – whom he refused to identify – took over the group, which he described as "possibly evil".

"The first time I met them they made my skin crawl," he said.

He was furious when he read Rowan had been named as the leader. "They used him as a scapegoat because he couldn't testify," he said. "The real culprit has disappeared into the wallpaper."

Sweat lodges – based on Native American tradition – are the Earth Medicine Society's main focus but Mr Kornaus said Mr Cooke's death was unrelated to his group. "Out of respect and to take a closer look at what happened in South Australia, the society has decided not to hold sweat lodges for now," he said.

"I'm very upset by what happened but we need to keep it in perspective. I've participated in more than 1000 of these and this is the first time I've heard of a death."

Mr Kornaus held the ceremonies once a fortnight near his Sunshine Coast home, where hot stones were brought inside a tent-like structure, and cold water poured on them to create steam.

"I gain enormous mental, physical and spiritual satisfaction and fulfilment from it and the health benefits are tremendous," Mr Kornaus said.

"There are a thousand different ways of running them, from people being fully dressed in elaborate costumes to being totally naked.

"It can be an ordeal for some people but afterwards you feel fantastic."

He said organisers were experienced and trained in first aid. At the first sign of trouble, such as laboured breathing, "the procedure is to open the door and let them out".

The family of another victim has called for the ritual to be outlawed.

In July 2003, Kylie Watts, 30, died after taking part in a ceremony at a Byron Bay retreat. Doctors told her father Keith that her blood was boiling during the ceremony in which the temperature inside the lodge would have peaked at more than 60C.

Her stepmother, Kathleen Watts, said Kylie had found the sweat lodge in a search for something different. "It has to be stopped – one person dying is bad enough but there have been quite a few now," she said.

[educatedindian]

Led by an exploiter from academia.

-----
http://www.sotems.com.au/vision_quest.htm
The Vision Quest Leaders
Dr. Ralph Locke
Dr. Ralph Locke, the Ceremonial Leader of SOTEMS, who is an initiated shaman and medicine person within Native American Traditions and who has worked with healers and shamans in many cultures. He has been conducting Vision Quests for over 20 years.
Roman Ilgauskas
Roman Ilgauskas, is an outdoor wilderness trainer who has assisted and facilitated over 35 Vision Quest programs since 1991. His experience includes Canada, North America, Mexico and South America. He is a senior ceremonial leader of SOTEMS and a member since 1995. Roman has certified Wilderness First Aid.

-----
And with a bizarre view of sweatlodges, mixing in white pagan deities and Australian animals as "totems".
-----
http://www.sotems.com.au/sweat_lodge.htm
Spirit of the Earth Medicine Society (SOTEMS) has a fundamental goal to create a pathway to express the unique spirituality of this continent and its people, drawing on the wisdom and healing traditions of many cultures as a starting point. The SOTEMS sweat lodge ceremony has been developed as part of the ongoing creation of a healing community distinctive to Australia. It is not part of the Lakota (North American Indian) traditions.
The sweat lodge itself is rather like a womb within the Earth: dark, fecund, warm. We live again within Mother Earth. It is circular, and the participants sit in a circle. The circle is a powerful symbol, for in a circle everyone is equal.
The doorway of the lodge faces the East, the origin of new beginnings, the place where the sun begins his journey at sunrise each day. Two important markers map our journey in the sweatlodge:
The myth that forms the basis of the ceremony is the map of the journey, which we all take to the centre of our worlds.
The four directions and their virtues mark both the inner and outer worlds we live in.
East: Sky father, purpose and direction, the sun, creative seed. Gwana the great wedge tail eagle.
North: Courage, strength and endurance, the vitality of youth. Moving into and through difficulty. The Goanna.
West: Earth mother, moon, healing, humility and compassion. Ungar the snake.
South: Wisdom, guidance and intuition. Our special connection with Nature (totem), experience and knowledge, which comes with age. The Dingo.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA
17 Sulfolk Street Fremantle
Mixed Every Thursday 6.30pm
Womens 2nd and 4th Friday of the month 6.00pm
Mens Sundays 6.00pm

Contact Terry Larson (08) 9362 6175

SOUTH AUSTRALIA
Victor Harbour on the South Coast
Mixed Lodges Every Saturday at 6pm
Women's Lodges First Friday of every month
Contact Maureen Longmore (08) 85542333

Coromandel Valley
Beginning in October
Mixed Lodges every Sunday at 5pm
Women's Dark Moon Lodges at 7pm
Wed 15 Sept / Frid 15 Oct / Sat 13 Nov / Sat 11 Dec
Men's Full Moon Lodges at 7pm
Fri 29 Oct / Sat 27 Nov / Mon 27 Dec

VICTORIA
CERES 8 Lee Street, East Brunswick
Mixed every Sunday 6pm
Women’s 1st Thursday of the month 7pm
Men’s 1st Monday of the month 7pm
Contact details to be left on the virtual phone line (03) 95135959

QUEENSLAND
Mooloolah Valley, Sunshine Coast (approximately 1 hour from Brisbane)
Mixed every second Sunday at 515pm for 6pm start:
Sun 17  Oct / Sun 31 Oct / Sun 14 Nov / Sun 28 Nov / Sun 12 Dec
For details and address contact Martin Kornaus (07 54929363)
-----

One of its members claims to be a "Toltec" and worked with fraud Victor Sanchez.
-----
http://www.phoenixinstitute.com.au/page10.html
Lloyd Volkwyn
Qualifications
Diploma in Hypnotherapy (Academy of Applied Hypnosis),
Clinical Member, Australian Hypnotherapists Association
Affiliate Member, Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia
Diploma in Transpersonal Counselling (Ikon)
Member, Society of Natural Therapists and Researchers
Member, Australian Charter of Natural Health Practitioners
Bachelor of Commerce (University of the Western Cape) - Accounting & Business Economics
Over the past twelve years, Lloyd has been working in various capacities including that of Hypnotherapist and Transpersonal Counsellor. He has been teaching Transpersonal Counselling at the Phoenix Institute of Victoria for the past 4 years, and at the Australian College of Complimentary Medicine in NSW.  Lloyd's interest in the transpersonal began in 1977 with a study of the Dead Sea Scrolls.  His inquiry took him into the world of Theosophy, Eastern Mystery Schools, and the teachings of Gurdjieff, Osho, J.Krishnamurti and Yogananda.  In the early 90's Lloyd studied hypnotherapy, and in the mid 90's became associated with Victor Sanchez and the AVP Toltec School in Mexico.  At present he is a faciliator and presenter of Toltec proposals for living purposefully; and a Ceremonial Leader in the Spirit of the Earth Medicine Society.  His special interest is in state change as a process oriented healing modality.

[TrishaRoseJacobs]

It's been added. I also took care of the redirection and adding a link to the new (and really quite wonderful) forum - GOOD WORK Crytstalmirror!

[Barnaby_McEwan]

The inquest was heard in June. I'd urge everyone to read the report. The stupidity and egotism of those involved in Cooke's death are quite stunning. The coroner directs blistering sarcasm throughout at David Jarvis, the group's leader, referring to

...events that in my opinion were characterised by fecklessness at an astonishing level

Mr Jarvis admitted that he really had no idea how one would distinguish a clinically unconscious person from one who was in a deep trance

The length of time in which the deceased and the other participants had been in the sweat lodge prior to their removal can only be gleaned from estimates provided by some of the participants.  Mr Jarvis was unhelpful in this regard.  In his evidence before me he appeared to regard time as an irrelevant consideration when in reality time spent in the lodge must have impacted significantly on the wellbeing of its occupants

We do not know with certainty what time of the morning it was when the deceased and Mr Asfar were removed from the sweat lodge.  However, it was still dark at that time because many of the group describe daybreak as occurring some time after their removal.  In the witness box, Mr Jarvis said it was still dark when they were removed but thought that this had occurred not long before sunrise. However, when pressed he thought it could have been as much as an hour before it became light

In my opinion it can therefore be deduced that the time between the deceased’s removal from the sweat lodge and Messrs Myers and Gifford leaving to get help was considerable.  Even if the journey to seek help took as long as half an hour, commencing say at 7:30am, it would mean that the deceased had been lying there unconscious from some time before sunrise at 6:17am until 7:30am before help was sought.  In addition, from a description of the activities that took place between those two events, as gleaned from the statements of those who had been present, it can be inferred that the period of time was considerable.  Whatever that period of time was, the deceased never regained consciousness

The only sensible reaction to all of this would have been for those present to seek, as best they could in the circumstances that they had put themselves in, immediate medical assistance. Instead, the condition of the deceased was rationalised by reference to bizarre thought processes

What the deceased needed at that point was rehydration by way of an IV saline drip that could only have been provided by professional help.  Mr Jarvis’ preferred method of treatment was to obtain his medicine drum, start banging it and to call the two men ‘back to earth’.  Mr Jarvis describes Mr Asfar as indeed ‘coming back’ because he started moving.  He seems to attribute this partial revival to his drum banging.  Mr Asfar’s lack of recall of the events after his collapse means that he is unable to shed any light on whether the drum banging played any role in his survival

Mr Jarvis says that the deceased, on the other hand, failed to come back and told me that he ultimately concluded that he could be of no further help.  Mr Jarvis stated that once it became obvious that the deceased was in a bad way, one of the other persons present, Daniel, suggested that the pipes that had been part of the initiation ceremony be offered as some kind of sacrifice, and that this could be effected by smashing the bowls of the pipes and throwing the stems into the fire.  Ms Collier agreed to this.  The other participants, Mr Asfar and the deceased, were in no state to express an attitude.  Nevertheless, the strategy suggested by Daniel was embraced with enthusiasm and so all the pipes were broken.  Other measures adopted in an endeavour to revive the deceased included the playing of the didgeridoo, further drum banging, chanting and burying the deceased’s feet in the soil, practices that failed to deliver a resuscitative benefit.

From the same source, a statement from one of the paramedics who were eventually called:

I was then shown to where the patients were.  The other people present at the camp (about 6 or 7) were standing about 4 feet away and were either banging drums or hugging each other.  No one was attending to them.  Both were lying down on blankets and were also covered with blankets.  One was under about four blankets, two of those were double folded and this would have been equivalent to being under about 6 blankets.

Spirit of the Earth Medicine Society (SOTEMS) is mentioned in the coroner's findings, though specifically not endorsed. They say they conduct 'proper' sweat lodges, and they have a full list of coming events.

Here's a photo of 'new age healer' David Jarvis, the leader of this fatal charade.

[debbieredbear]

The guys a murderer. That's it plain and simple. Religious freedom does not mean you can kill people.

[Barnaby_McEwan]

This should be a stern warning to anyone who's thinking of meddling with things that are not their business. You may die like Mr Cooke, lying in a coma plastered in your own excrement while your fellow spiritual explorers hug themselves and panic.

[chiefytiger]

It is shameful and disgusting ,we allowed the non -natives into our ceremonys and now we have to suffer for it. As well as letting other Natives to go abroad and sell our ceremonys and allowing them to teach non-natives ....