Comments on: Mission Impossible

By: MJ

MJ — Sat, 24 May 2014 02:11:20 +0000

In reply to Odd Thomas. Well expressed Odd.

By: Odd Thomas

Odd Thomas — Sat, 24 May 2014 00:02:16 +0000

I’d like to add to some of the above comments made about the Psychs vs Scientologists debate that was being discussed above.It’s been my experience that the further we get from the actual object or experience being discussed, the less real it becomes. When I joined staff at Narconon in LA in 1973, I dealt directly with people who had been treated in various ways by psychiatry. Some of them had Talk Therapy or whatever the equivalent modality was at that time, and they thought it was pretty benign and had some gains. Some had a combination of talk therapy and the administration of drugs, which produced mixed results in my opinion. These people appeared emotionally suppressed, unable to communicate certain ideas or address certain subjects because the emotions attached to them, had been thoroughly suppressed. Communication didn’t come easily for these people but it did come.

Then there were those who obviously, at some point in their relatively short lives, had been deemed a real problem, and were therefore subjected to much higher doses of some pretty potent medications.Trying to carry on a conversation with someone manifesting Tardive Dyskinesia is not a very pleasant experience for the observer, though ten times more difficult for the speaker.

Then there are those like my friend Matt, who had multiple sessions with ECT. It’s hard to describe the nightmare that Matt went though on a daily basis, because it was difficult to confront what he was going through and how ECT’s effects presented themselves. He would frequently transition from a sweet, caring and interested person into a non-responsive, chain-smoking automaton that moved non-stop (literally) for up to 48 hours at a time.

I was affected by my experience at Narconon and didn’t think too highly of Psychs in general. However, over time I have observed a change. They currently rely more heavily on communication and understanding. They draw from studies that actually try to determine why people react in certain ways given certain environmental conditions. They have, in my opinion, become very Scientological in their approach to helping people.

The RCS has not progressed past 1972 in their approach to the Psychs. They remained fixed in time, viewing abuses that did happen but seeing no changes because they stopped looking for them. Everything evolves. The church, psychs, everyone. No one is all bad or all good. The psychs have been “the Why” for many of the RCS’ problems for decades and they’re obviously the wrong why because things have not changed for the better.

Condemning every Psych and every Scientologists for the acts of a few or a few hundred is just stupid. It doesn’t produce a result, it doesn’t improve conditions. Yeah, abuses can be found in both camps, plenty of them I suppose, but in the end, so what! The Past provides us with perspective and some information, but it’s what we do in the Present that matters most. That’s what we need to focus on. The rest is just a distraction.

Odd

By: MJ

MJ — Wed, 21 May 2014 04:33:57 +0000

In reply to indie8million. IAS = I ate shit.

By: indie8million

indie8million — Wed, 21 May 2014 02:31:42 +0000

Bravo, Mike. A major reason for all of this hatred toward psychs is because it’s a diversionary tactic. If we can prove that ‘THEY’ are evil, no one looks inside our group. Plus, it’s well known that the thing that keeps a group together is a mutual enemy. Hence all of the campaigns, including all of the IAS events with Chill E. B.

I hope that Chill E. B. gets access to true information on the group he’s working for, since he is campaigning against psychs for the IAS. Not that psychiatry doesn’t harm. Those who do should be exposed. But I’m sure that Chill E.B. has no idea of how abusive and wrong the IAS and Miscavige are. Norman Berry (Chill E. B.) is a man of justice.

If he left, that would be a huge blow to the IAS funding machine.

By: Espiritu

Espiritu — Wed, 21 May 2014 00:27:42 +0000

Yeah. These days it is completely hypocritical for the COS to say it wants to “clean up the field of mental health”. First they would need to acknowledge their own transgressions in this area and clean their own house before anyone would ever listen to them. They are like a bank robber saying how immoral it is to steal.

Decades ago, the press did appreciate Freedom Mag exposees such as the “deep sleep” program in Australia, Cointelpro, Project MKUltra and others. Nowadays, and no-one listens or takes seriously anything that is said which has the word “Scientology” connected to it due to the COS’s out tech and abusive applications.

Besides cleaning up their act, at this point they could really really really use someone who actually understands the subject of public relations like Mike Rinder or Heber Jentzsch.

By: David Cooke

David Cooke — Tue, 20 May 2014 12:21:17 +0000

Paypal? Isn’t that some kind of electronic begging bowl?

By: Mike Rinder

Mike Rinder — Tue, 20 May 2014 11:52:52 +0000

In reply to Espiritu. I agree, what I disagree with is the hypocrisy. And the generalities.

By: Espiritu

Espiritu — Tue, 20 May 2014 07:31:41 +0000

Mike, I don’t think that all of this is a bad activity. I think that maybe they could do a lot of good by outing the many psychiatrists who have abused their positions and power. I recently extricated an elderly friend who had been sent to a mental institution and drugged until he was drooling simply because he stated at the convalescent home where he was recuperating that, yes, it was depressing that he had hurt his knee and was not able to walk. There was a whole ward of elderly people who were in the same boat who were just being bled by these predatory people for their medicare and medicaid payments.
But at the same time I REALLY like your idea of complaint forms targeting abuses by the Church of Scientology! I don’t know if it would result in as many complaints simply because there are way more psychiatrists than there are practicing Scientologists, but it would still do a LOT of good. In both cases it might even lead to reforms within these groups as the light of truth exposes the evil intentions of self centered misanthropes (people who don’t like people) who have been doing harm to others.

By: FOTF2012

FOTF2012 — Tue, 20 May 2014 07:18:00 +0000

In reply to Valerie. Yes, Valerie, that would be interesting. Somehow, Scientology is blind to its own shortcomings, but adamant about the failings of others. Reminds me of a Biblical verse: Matthew 7:3 "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"

By: FOTF2012

FOTF2012 — Tue, 20 May 2014 07:14:05 +0000

In reply to Mike Rinder.

Thanks Mike. Let me clarify my intent. I do not at all think that everything or everyone in Scientology is bad. Not at all.

My aim was to illustrate that the dreaded “psychs” could make exactly the same claims against Scientology as to criminal activities and that therefore it is preposterous for OSA or Scientology to take their occasional “psych” stories as proof of some sort of evil empire. It is equally ridiculous for “psychs” to believe that all Scientologists are somehow evil.

But here’s the difference. Psychologists and psychiatrists do not as far as I can see consider Scientologists to be evil or bad. In fact, they may tend to have empathy. It is only Scientology that paints with the broad brush of condemning the whole group of “psychs” as whole track SPs.

My sense is that actual criminal activities in either group — “psychs” or Scientologists — is probably quite low. Criminal activity is fairly low in humans in general. We’re a rather cooperative, social species — for the most part — in day to day life.

I hope that clarifies some of my thinking, since like email, blog entries can get misunderstood.