The True Story of a Deadly Self-Help Retreat and America's Misguided Quest for Wellness
Plastic Shaman
A spiritual quest turns into a fatal disaster in this gripping true crime investigation of the wellness industry.
In October 2009, more than fifty people attended a $10,000-per-person wellness retreat led by a celebrity self-help guru. For these enlightenment seekers, their time in Sedona, Arizona, culminated in a fake Native American sweat lodge ceremony. Three of them would not make it out alive.
This tragedy exposes the dangerous truth about the booming $2 trillion wellness industry where promises of spiritual awakening and financial success often mask dangerous practices underpinned by cultural appropriation and commodification of nature. Journalist Annette McGivney explores this world, exposing the manipulation and greed that allow charismatic influencers to prey on vulnerable people in search of happiness and healing—no matter the cost.
Praise for Plastic Shaman
“A true-crime thriller that will alter the way you think about the New Age, self-help, and wellness industries. Plastic Shaman stands as a profoundly unsettling treatise on the toxic legacy of our nation’s treatment of its original inhabitants, told by a writer whose wisdom, eloquence, and moral courage continue to grow with each new title she brings into the world.”
— KEVIN FEDARKO, A Walk in the Park
“Not since Killers of the Flower Moon have I read a true crime account that is so grounded in the context and history of American-Indigenous relations and American colonialism. A masterful blend of empathy, research, and personal reckoning that breathes life into this tragic chapter in America’s spiritual history.”
—MOLLY IMBER, Maria’s Bookshop
“As a Yavapai-Apache, I’m often asked, ‘What’s the real harm in appreciating—even mimicking—Native American culture and ceremonies?’ McGivney’s masterful Plastic Shaman is the answer. Readers would do well to heed McGivney’s concluding invitation to find rootedness in their own land and culture, not as New Age culture vultures whose practices actively harm themselves and Native Americans.”
—MAURICE CRANDALL, These People Have Always Been a Republic
“Plastic Shaman is a fascinating, deeply personal investigation of a despicable grifter, James Arthur Ray, whose New Age scams led to the gruesome deaths of four people. McGivney reveals how the appropriation of spiritual traditions is a lucrative, dangerous racket that does tremendous harm to genuine Indigenous peoples.”
— JON KRAKAUER, Under the Banner of Heaven
“Plastic Shaman is a fresh, deeply reported cautionary tale of what can hap-pen when the search for wellness meets the gospel of consumerism, the cult of personality, and the shame of cultural appropriation.”
—FLORENCE WILLIAMS, The Nature Fix
“Gripping, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful. I couldn’t put it down. It’s so good—and so important.”
—BETSY GAINES QUAMMEN, True West
“Can non-Native settlers create a spiritual life in harmony with the lands of this continent—and do so without shamelessly stealing life and breath from Indigenous peoples? This riveting narrative seeks, with compassion and rigor, after an answer.”
—PHILIP J. DELORIA, Playing Indian
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