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Hot and Holy What's so spiritual about sweat lodges?

By Juliet LapidosPosted Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2009, at 5:30 PM ET

A Nez Percé sweat lodgePolice in Yavapai County, Ariz., are continuing their investigation into the deaths of two people who collapsed during a sweat-lodge ceremony Thursday night. Inquiries are focused on self-help guru James Arthur Ray, who led the high-temperature affair as part of a "Spiritual Warrior" retreat. What's so spiritual about being really hot and uncomfortable?

It's purifying. It's a common practice among American Indian cultures to place hot rocks in a round dome to create a saunalike experience. Although the specifics of the ceremony vary from tribe to tribe, the general concept is that intense heat (between 100 degrees and 120 degrees) can heighten awareness and help the participants focus on prayer. Enduring the heat itself is a sort of trial or test of mental vigor. Copious sweat, meanwhile, is a physical manifestation of spiritually malignant elements exiting the body.

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Sweat ceremonies are highly symbolic. The Lakota believe they have ancient origins—that ritual sweating was passed down from the White Buffalo Calf Woman to help humans straighten out their lives. Rocks, considered the oldest substance on earth, are in themselves sacred, and the steam that rises off them is thought to be their breath. The dark, round physical layout of the lodge is compared by ethnographers and others to the womb. And the participants, who often crouch for the duration of the sweat, are like fetuses. When they leave the structure, they should feel reborn (the Lakota word for the ritual is inipi, which means to revivify) or rejuvenated.

Sweat-lodge enthusiasts also claim that the ritual has health benefits—that sweating can improve your skin and flush out harmful toxins like copper, lead, and mercury. According to an article on the practice published by the Indian Health Service (PDF), the mild elevations in body temperature induced by sweat lodges may promote "the production of antibacterial substances … and the antiviral activity of interferon." Sweat baths, according to the same article, may also lead to healthier skin. Heat increases cardiac output, which in turn increases blood flow and the delivery of oxygen and immune agents to the skin, which can help heal epidural wounds. Sweat also acts as a natural moisturizer.

But the proposition that sweat lodges are "detoxifying" is questionable at best. Toxins are filtered through the kidneys and liver, while perspiration consists mostly of water and trace minerals. There's no clinical evidence that perspiration is an effective means of combating, say, mercury poisoning or other toxic conditions. On the other hand, the rigorous strain associated with enduring high temperatures can lead to dehydration, heat stroke, and even cardiovascular collapse.

The sweat ceremony dates back at least to before Columbus (early Europeans came across lodges), but it's probably centuries older. The basic concept of getting really sticky in a small room (often by pouring water on hot rocks) is shared by many cultures globally—there's the Finnish sauna, the Russian banya, and the Turkish hamam, to name a few.

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Explainer thanks Raymond Bucko of Creighton University.

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Juliet Lapidos is a Slate assistant editor.

Photograph of Nez Percé sweat lodge from North American Indian by Edward S. Curtis.

COMMENTS

The sweat lodge is where the Lakota participate in the Inipi - the right of purification. A rite that draws its powers from the earth, fire, water, and the air we breathe.

Water is looked-upon as Wakan Tanka - The Great Spirit, who is always flowing and giving power to everything. The rocks represent earth, and are heated by the fire, which represents that power of Wakan Tanka who gives life to all things that grow, walk, crawl, or fly.

The Lakota, which means friends, are comprised of three groups further, broken down into seven tribes. One of those tribes is the Oglala - scatters their own. It is 1/2 of my family tree through my Mother. I thought I'd share today. : - )

-- Tyrtaios-rising
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I have been sweating in my own lodges and in the lodges of Native Medicine People for 17 years. Your essay focused on the health benefits of sweating, but that is only a small part of the lodge. Fundamentally, the lodge is a spiritual experience. A native elder, Ywani Iwahoo, says that in the lodge "worlds come together." What this means is that everything that is, that ever will be and that ever was is present in the lodge. The lodge is a transpersonal experience. In the lodge, we connect with our Power Animals and Spirit Guides. The Universe transmits information through the lodge.

You focus on the physical toxins released in the lodge. Spiritual toxins like dishonesty, closed mindedness, and unwillingness are released in the lodge, and so are mental toxins like denial, and emotional toxins like anger and shame.

In the world-view of Humanity Rising, we are one with the Universe, and it is the Power Greater than Ourselves we open to, surrender to, believe in, and trust.

In the lodge we become one with All Our Relations, every living thing. The Stone People are considered to be living things. In the lodge, we say "O Mitakuyue Oyasin," which means All Our Relations, and it signifies that we sweat and sacrifice for the benefit or every living thing, not just for ourselves.

O Mitakuyue Oyasin!

-- Shaman Omaha
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