PHOENIX, USA - The self-help guru who presided over a sweat lodge ceremony where three people died last October was arrested and charged with three counts of manslaughter on Wednesday.

James Arthur Ray was arrested and taken into custody in Prescott, Arizona, Yavapai County Sheriff's officials said. His bond has been set at five million US dollars ($7 million).

A county grand jury indicted Ray this afternoon. The charges against him stem from the deaths of three people at the Angel Valley Retreat Center outside the southwestern spiritual mecca of Sedona on October 9.

Yavapai County Sheriff's detectives held hundreds of interviews as they gathered evidence to bolster the indictment.

Sixty people paid self-help guru James Arthur Ray 9,000 dollars each to go on an Arizona spiritual retreat last year.

They were packed in a sweat lodge for two hours after a 36-hour fast. Three people died and 19 others were hospitalized as a result of the ceremony.