During a sweat lodge ritual, a man died of heat exhaustion while ritual activities continued around him.  Everyone assumed that he was astral traveling in a deep meditative state, and no one had medical training to recognize and properly treat the problem.

The article is dripping with the contempt the mainstream media normally shows paganism.  The reporter can’t say the phrase “steam lodge” without putting it in quotation marks, along with words and phrases such as  “new age healer,” “pipe ceremony,” “cleansing,” and “vision quest.”  The title of the article even suggests callousness on the part of the participants: “Man died as friends danced.”

I am tempted to excuse the contemptuousness since, after all, a man died.  One might wonder at the ignorance that would cause people to put blankets on a man dieing of heat exhaustion, or that would engage in such a dangerous activity without preparation to handle the potential dangers, but is that the fault of their “new-age-ness?”  People do dangerous things unprepared all the time.  We wouldn’t see an article about a “snow skier” going on a “cross-country” trip who died of hypothermia and titled: “man died as friends skied,” would we?

Another thought occurs to me, though: this once again highlights the need for “guardians” or “warriors” at ritual.  When a ritual is in public or there are potential dangers, there should always be at least one person who stays outside the ritual, trained in first aid, and prepared to help with emergencies.