Friday, February 27, 2009

Study shows that Narconon Drug Education Works

A peer-reviewed study published in the Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention and Policy Journal shows that the Narconon Drug Education program is effective in reducing drug use amongst youth.

The study said:

Results
At six month follow-up, youths who received the Narconon drug education curriculum showed reduced drug use compared with controls across all drug categories tested. The strongest effects were seen in all tobacco products and cigarette frequency followed by marijuana. There were also significant reductions measured for alcohol and amphetamines. The program also produced changes in knowledge, attitudes and perception of risk.
Conclusion
The eight-module Narconon curriculum has thorough grounding in substance abuse etiology and prevention theory. Incorporating several historically successful prevention strategies this curriculum reduced drug use among youths.

You can read the entire published study here: The NARCONON™ drug education curriculum for high school students: A non-randomized, controlled prevention trial

Monday, February 23, 2009

History of Psychiatry: 1920s Los Angeles

Over the weekend I saw a movie that came out last year called "Changeling". It is based on the true story of a woman in 1920s Los Angeles whose child went missing. The LAPD at that time was a corrupt organization that didn't take kindly to anyone crossing them, so when the woman's "son" was brought back and she pointed out the fact that this boy was not her son, they did what any self-respecting fascist would do: they had her committed.

The psychiatrists at the local psych hospital were quite happy to do as they were told so she was incarcerated and given "treatment" which to anyone other than a psych was obviously torture used in an attempt to shut her up.

While in the hospital she discovered many other women who were also there because they crossed the LAPD.

In the end, she was released and she campaigned until all the other women were also released and the law was changed so such easy commitment could not happen in the future.

But the sad truth of this movie is that it really happened and the psychs were happily complicit in this obvious violation of human rights as they have been throughout their history: Communist Russia where they were used to shut up dissidents; Nazi Germany where they were in charge of sending people to the death camp; 50s America where they ran the mind control experiments for the CIA, and on and on.

I highly recommend this movie as part of your education in the history of a dangerous subject which seems never to have had the good of mankind in mind.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

There is Hope for me (Satire)

It seems the FDA has finally approved a new type of drug called depressants. These are drugs aimed at helping those of us who are too cheerful.


FDA Approves Depressant Drug For The Annoyingly Cheerful

It had to happen.

Bad Memories

Here is a comment thread that I thought might be of interest.

Jim Gatos said...
Grahame, would you please look at this link? I saw this at the BBC RSS feeds.

Is this supposed to be "auditing by prescription"?

Heart pill to banish bad memories

I think it's bad news...

Grahame said...
Hey Jim,

I agree - very bad news.

It looks to me, from what the article says, that the conclusions the researchers have come to are erroneous.

Surely a more logical conclusion is that the drugs merely made the subjects less aware of their environment. The fact that they reacted less to present-time "startling" stimuli shows this. It proves nothing about their memories.

The experiments with animals also show this. As the article says, "Experiments on animals has shown beta blockers can interfere with how the brain makes sense of frightening events." The creatures were confused. The drugs disoriented them. It had nothing to do with erasing memories.

Seems to me that someone is trying to get a nice big grant from a drug company.

Grahame said...
Hey Jim,

One other thing.

Scientology Auditing does not erase memories as the article implies that the drugs do.

Auditing erases the trauma associated with the memories. The memories themselves are still there, it's the pain and suffering associated with them that is gone.

If you had an accident and the memory was completely removed then you could easily make the same mistakes again and repeat the accident. If you have the trauma removed then you can remember exactly what happened and thereby learn from your mistakes.

I think that's a much better solution.

Friday, February 13, 2009

A Human Rights/Educational Program worth supporting

The Way to Happiness is a common sense moral code that is not part of the Scientology religion (because it is non-religious), but is followed by most Scientologists.

One of the precepts is Do not harm a Person of Good Will. Taking it one step further I think we should support people of good will.

With that in mind, here is a cause worth supporting: Pennies for Peace

Saturday, February 07, 2009

Personal Integrity (Continued)

Beacon Schuler made a long comment on my post "Further comments on Personal Integrity". You'll find what he said in italics and my replies in plain text:

In discussing touch assists, you say the following: "both she and I could observe that the assist had worked because the pain in her hand was gone - which is the end product of an assist." You suggest that relief from pain is a positive indicator that the touch assist has worked. How is that not a medical claim?

The answer is here: Factors of Assists. among other things it says:
"All Scientology processes address and handle a wide range of conditions affecting the spirit, the being himself." It also says, "Illnesses caused by recognizable bacteria and injury in accident are best treated by physical means. These fall distinctly into the field of medicine and are not the province of Scientology."

Also see this: Helping an Individual Heal Himself, which says:
"An assist in no way intrudes upon the role of medicine. Medical examination and diagnosis should be sought where needed, and where treatment is routinely successful, medical treatment should be obtained. As an assist can at times cover up an actual injury or broken bone, no chances should be taken, especially if the condition does not easily respond."

The What Is Scientology website, whose words I obviously won't hold you personally to, states the following: "They can be done on a dull pain in the back, a constant earache, an infected boil, an upset stomach. In fact, the number of things this simple but powerful process can be applied to is unlimited!" Perhaps this statement only refers to attendant "spiritual trauma" but if it is the spiritual trauma itself that is being treated and not the injury, illness or infection, then surely the touch assist should only be discussed in those terms. Bringing a shopping list of ailments in at this point can only confuse the touch assist's purpose. As I say, these aren't your words, so I won't belabor the point.

It is part of the definition of an assist that it is a spiritual process. I think it would be pointless to keep adding, "and by that we mean spiritual" to every place that mentions what an assist can do. Also to omit examples of what an assist can be applied to would fail to communicate the full scope of where they can be used.

Further, I hold to my statement that one persons experiences are not enough to validate these sorts of falsifiable claims.

I gave you one example. I personally have given hundreds of assists, received many and I know many other people who have done the same. Assists work.

You cite the discovery of penicillin as being down to observation, but this is observation in a controlled framework designed to prove a hypothesis. Doing a touch assist on someone who is suffering from pain until that pain subsides is not such a framework. You'll never know what would have happened if you hadn't done the assist; and if you hadn't done the assist, you'd never know what would have happened if you had.

I'm not trying to prove to you whether assists work or not. If you want to conduct such experiments then feel free, but if someone comes to me injured and I can do something to alleviate the pain, then I'll do it.

I'm not trying to prove anything to you or anyone else. Once an individual has received or given a few assists the fact that they take the pain away is very obvious and the person will know for themselves whether they work or not.

Before the clinical trial was used, medicine was ruled by dubious authority. Doctors would train under other Doctors, learn from those Doctor's personal experiences. Differences of opinion arose, but there was no method for determining which treatments, if any, were appropriate. It wasn't really until Lind's study into scurvy that this began to change.

When we are talking about something that has potentially damaging side-effects like drugs then I think tons of trials (not paid for by the company marketing the drug) should be undertaken and all the results (not just the favorable ones) should be published.

The point, in general, is that one has to look beyond one's own beliefs and opinions and prejudices in order to make one's mind up about such things. The other important aspect about clinical trials is they can be repeated. Scientists can check out other people's findings for themselves. To me this is just as important a part of personal integrity - to get all the data in when making these decisions.

I agree. As long as all the data from clinical trials is made public, not just the favorable results. Without all the data (and that includes who is financing the trials and the doctors reporting the trials) you can't come to a correct conclusion.

That's why I also think that one ought to discuss, discuss and discuss again one's beliefs. It's mutually beneficial - you put your own convictions, and those of other people, to the test, and you've nothing to lose but the stuff you're better off without.

That sounds reasonable.

I'd like to make the point that Scientology is not a belief based religion. It is an observation based religion: here is data, use it, see if it works, make up your own mind. That is how you are expected to do things in Scientology. There are few beliefs to discuss.

The only beliefs in Scientology are given here: The Creed of the Church of Scientology.

If you want to discuss that then leave a comment.