Just a few days ago several people died in a sweat lodge at the Angel Valley Retreat in Sedona, Arizona. This isn't the first time people have had the worst sort of spiritual experience in a sweat -- a few years ago I heard of some Native Americans who expired from carbon monoxide poisoning after burning herbs during a ceremony. I found mention online today of a fellow in Australia who died of dehydration and heat in a sweat lodge there.

I think people lose sight of the meaning of the sweat lodge, which is one of those things that exists on more than one level. Some use it as a place for ceremony or a way to initiate contact with spirits, but it has also been used for practical purposes. A good sweat takes all the smell out of a person, and makes them undetectable on a hunt at least for awhile. If you want to open your pores and get a good cleanse, a sweat will do it.

Quite a few years ago I developed an interest in the ceremonial part of this and joined a sweat run by a Native American fellow in my old community. He did the sweats for religious purposes and invited others to join in as long as they respected what he did. His lodge was small -- probably you could have crowded in eight people but it would have been pretty chummy circumstances. Joe built it from a sapling framework laid over with old carpet remnants, which may seem a little junky but worked very well. The weave of the carpets kept warmth in, cold air and sunshine out, but leaked just a little bit everywhere. Obviously you don't want to eliminate all fresh air, because it gets a little crowded and people need to breathe.

Even a small lodge takes a lot of cover to work well. Buffalo hides used to be the preferred material, and always had plenty of air gap underneath them. Buffalo hides are a little too expensive now. Money, or a dislike of spending it, is actually the problem with building new sweat lodges today. People want to do this cheap. Even carpet remnants cost quite a bit if you need twenty five to cover a small lodge. The easy way is to buy a big tarp, or maybe several of them, which is what happened in Arizona at Angel Valley. Tarps are waterproof and if you tie them down tight you don't get much airflow. To keep the light out, you need quite a few layers of tarps, and you wind up with a sealed chamber when you drop the cover over the doorway.

That's only part of the problem, though. Sweat lodge gets treated as something like firewalking -- one of the things people want to prove is that they can overcome pain and survive things that are difficult. People want to raise their personal limits, even want to use suffering as a way to experience the supernatural. Joe told me that the ancestors think a little suffering is good for you, and making things difficult helps bring the old spirits in. I don't think I ever found that absolutely necessary to catch the attention of the old spirits. Life has plenty of suffering built into it already, and pleasant things can be just as enlightening and mind-bending as pain. But it's a belief I do respect and I understand the thought behind it.

Still, you can take those things to an unhealthy extreme. Joe often did sweats so hot that even if you hugged the dirt when the steam rolled off the stones it raised blisters on your back. I sat up for most of the sweat we did, experiencing what it's like to overcome physical pain and suffering, and wasn't very impressed by it. When I came out I had flash burns on my face and my outer skin layers were peeling off in long strips. Ever since then I've thought that wasn't really the wisdom I was seeking. I learned something really important, and I mean that in a serious way.

What happened in Sedona is a sad thing. Sad because of the people who died but also sad because people thought paying for the experience could prove something that's intangible and free. Sad because people get cocky and think they can abuse old ways of doing things and not pay the consequences. Sad because it may bring the government's attention down once again on Native Americans who practice the old ways. There's been enough of that helpful intervention already.

The audio's not clear but if you pay attention you'll learn something.