Scientology Beliefs

Here is an interview with Tom Davis regarding Jett Travolta's death and Scientology beliefs regarding the spirit and what happens to it.


It's not a bad interview. The simple concept of what happens to the spirit is a little confused by the interviewer who says something about "he will live again in someone else's body." I guess in such a short time the interviewee has to stick to only a few points so Tom didn't have a chance to clear that one up.

If you want to get a clearer concept of what the Scientology belief is regarding that then check out this video: The Parts of Man

In China they execute people for this

Let me begin by saying that I'm against the death penalty. I am for appropriate justice such as a sentence that gives the offender a chance to make up for the damage his criminal acts caused.

So, in China when people, in order to make a profit, carry out acts that kill or cause harm they are given pretty stiff sentences: Two condemned to death for role in China milk crisis and in 2007, Ex-Food and Drug Chief Sentenced to Death.

So what would have happened to the executives of Eli Lilly who pushed the killer drug Zyprexa on thousands of unsuspecting people. Here are a few quotes from an excellent article in Rolling Stone: Marketing a Phony "Miracle" Drug (Subtitle: Created to treat schizophrenia, Zyprexa wound up being used on misbehaving kids. How the pharmaceutical industry turned a flawed and dangerous drug into a $16 billion bonanza)

The mechanisms used to leverage this growth [of the antipsychotic drugs to $16 billion in sales a year] were in some ways the most modern and perfect the pharmaceutical industry had developed, but they were also, according to state and federal prosecutors, illegal. [Ely] Lilly has already agreed to pay $2.6 billion to settle charges that it built the market for Zyprexa first by concealing its side effects, and then by marketing it "off-label," for diseases for which it had not been approved.

... medical researchers who have studied the atypical antipsychotics say that, in the final tally, the drugs, which have already been linked to some deaths, may eventually be responsible for tens of thousands of cases of diabetes and other potentially fatal diseases.

I added the highlighting of what I consider the key phrases above. If that happened in China what do you suppose would be the sentence for the Eli Lilly executives? And what do they get in the USA? The company has to pay out $2.6 billion in fines. That sounds like a lot, but consider that antipsychotics make $16 billion a year. What is $2.6 billion compared to that?

So how was the entire medical community persuaded that these drugs were so wonderful that they should even be given to young children?

[Regarding atypical antipsychotic medication] "Almost the whole scientific community was conned into thinking — as a consequence of good marketing — that this was a different and better set of drugs. The evidence, as it's all added up, has shown this to be untrue."

... despite their early promise for treating schizophrenia, the drugs have not even performed any better than the crude and imprecise earlier medications that preceded them. "We have been paying $16 billion a year instead of $2 billion a year for drugs that seem to be no better and might be worse," says Douglas Leslie, a researcher at the Medical University of South Carolina who contributed to an extensive federal study of the drugs.

The story of how Zyprexa and other atypicals became a multibillion-dollar market suggests that the medical community — doctors, researchers, the institutions that back them — may be themselves prone to a placebo effect: the willed conviction that a new drug, presented as a breakthrough, must in fact be one, that a product sold as healing must in fact do good.

Read the article. It's a real eye-opener. Marketing a Phony "Miracle" Drug

Gulf War Syndrome - A Solution?

Here is an article by a Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps (retired) who is a veteran of the Gulf War and was suffering from Gulf War Syndrome. He found a program that handled the symptoms. Let's hope this solution can be more broadly used to help the vets who still suffer from this terrible affliction.

Gulf War Illness: Effective Treatment for Veterans Needed

Antipsychotics are killing people

More evidence has emerged of the dangers of the psychiatric drugs known as antipsychotics. Antipsychotic Drugs Shorten Lifespan of Alzheimer's Patients.

Most telling of all is this from the results of the study:

After three years, less than a third of people on antipsychotics were alive compared to nearly two-thirds that were given the placebo.

Perhaps the drugs work by killing the patient, thus "curing" them?

Scientology and Politics

With the inauguration of the new President of the United States yesterday, I thought this a good time to address politics.

The Church of Scientology is non-political. It has been a church policy for a very long time to stay out of politics. Very wise I think.

On a personal level, I am an independent. I see good ideas on both sides of the fence (and bad ideas on both sides). I don't see much sense in being obsessive about supporting one side over the other. Running a country isn't a game. The welfare of a great number of people depends on the decisions made by those in power.

A government is there for the benefit of the people of the country, not of a small clique, not of those in power and certainly not of vested interests.

I follow the precept in The Way To Happiness that says: Support a Government designed and run for all the people. Here is a video of that precept:

Thanks for your patience

I was out of town and got back to a huge pile of work and other urgent demands.

Thanks to everyone for your patience (see, I do know how to spell). I'll try to get to all the comments and adding new posts asap.

Just a hint on comments: if you want a comment answered quickly then keep it short and only address one issue. Long comments addressing several issues usually have to be put off until I have time to spend on them, and in the next couple of weeks I don't think I'm going to have much spare time.

Patience is a virtue

I'm going to be out-of-town for a few days and I won't be checking my blog much, if at all.

If you make a comment and don't see it appear or get an answer in the next few days, please be patient. I'll get to everyone as soon as I can.

There are five or six comments waiting for me right now, some are a couple days old. I'm sorry for my tardiness. Unfortunately they won't get answered until I get back, so just chill. Remember patients is a virtue.

Scientology Funeral Service

There seems to be a lot of interest just now in the Scientology Funeral Service, so click the link and find out what it is.

Scientology is not against Psychiatry

I keep seeing people making comments on news sites and blogs about how Jett Travolta didn't get proper treatment because Scientology is against Psychiatry.

This is not true. Scientologists and the Church of Scientology oppose abuses in the field of Psychiatry. For the official Church statement check here: Why is Scientology opposed to psychiatric abuse?

There are plenty of psychiatrists who agree with us that something is rotten in the state of Psychiatry such as Peter Breggin, Thomas Szasz and others. These courageous individuals are willing to stand up and say that something is wrong.

If you watch the "Making a Killing" video you will see many more mental health professionals who agree with us.

So in future when you see "Scientology is against Psychiatry" just read it as "Scientology is against Psychiatric abuse."

Psychiatrists on Psychiatry

Here is a video where psychiatrists freely admit that there are no physical tests to prove the existence of any "mental illness" and that there are no cures in psychiatry. It would be funny if it wasn't so disgusting:

A balanced perspective

There is a nice article on Beliefnet about the Travolta Tragedy: Prayers for Travolta, Anger from Scientologists.

It actually quotes me, but that's not why I'm linking to it. It gives a balanced view of what is going on.

An outsider's view on the Travolta Tragedy

I've long been a reader of NaturalNews.com and I've found a lot of great data on health and nutrition there. I've also followed the site's exposes of the Pharmaceutical Industry. The guy who runs the site seems to have his finger on the pulse of the health sector.

Anyway, I was browsing on the site last night and I came across this: Baseless Accusations against John Travolta Demonstrate Cruelty, Intolerance of Pill Pushers and Religion Bashers. I thought it was a very good article and very enlightening if you follow some of the links he gives (especially the link to the famous "Death by Medicine" article - I recommend that everyone in the country read this article).

Anyway, check it out and tell me what you think.

The Travolta Tragedy

First let me give my condolences to the Travolta family. At a time like this there is comfort in having a family to support each other.

Now for my comments regarding the rumors about Scientology and medical treatment: It never fails to astound me how people who hate my religion will take any opportunity, no matter how ghoulish, to attack my Church.

You have all probably seen the news about the tragic death of Jett Travolta. He was 16 years-old and suffered from seizures. It seems that on Friday he had a seizure, fell and hit his head on the bath tub. The medical examination has not been completed so it is too early to say exactly what happened.

However, some ghouls have decided to use this tragedy to attack Scientology. Can you imagine what sort of creeps would do something like that? Take a terrible family tragedy and twist it into some perverted attack on the family's beliefs. That is so sick.

The rumors these sickos have started are now getting into the media (which contains its fair share of ghouls), so the Church of Scientology has had to give out a press release telling the truth about Scientology Members position on medical care.

Just the fact that the Church has had to do that is a sad reflection on our society and the ease with which false rumors can be gotten into the media and circulated world-wide.

If you want to know the truth about our views on medical care then check these articles: Scientology and Medicine, the Scientology FAQs, Scientology and medical care or Do Scientologists use medical doctors?

Further comments on Personal Integrity

I wish the guy who is making these comments would change his screen name. His comments are okay, but his screen name isn't. I have rules about responding to comments and I don't like to violate them. I'm making an exception here because I think some of the comments are good and I want to respond.

So dude, please do me a favor and change your screen name to something more acceptable.

Anyway, the comment was to this article, Scientology is Wisdom: Personal Integrity. The comment began: Thanks for answering, Grahame. My trouble with your example is that you're suggesting people learn by their own anecdotal experience, but anecdotal evidence isn't very good when it comes to medical treatments.

My article has absolutely nothing to do with medical treatment. When one has a physical problem then one gets physical (medical) treatment. My example involved something that addressed spiritual trauma. By concentrating on an example you are missing the whole point of personal integrity. I suggest you read Personal Integrity again.

Your comments on people learning is again missing the point. Personal Integrity is about a person observing for themselves and then having the integrity to stick by what they have observed.

Rosa Parks, the mother of the civil rights movement, had personal integrity. She observed something that was wrong and she had the courage to know and say what she had observed. Because of her and others like her the rights of all Americans were strengthened. If she had simply listened to the authorities of the time who "knew" that black people should be segregated from the "superior" whites, then she would have moved to her "correct" place on the bus and we would have heard no more of her and perhaps no more of the civil rights movement. But she had the guts to stand up to "authority" and say "No! I observe that this is wrong and I'm going to do something about it." That's what personal integrity is all about.

Your comments seem to want to invalidate "observation" by calling it "anecdotal experience". Read the story of the discovery of Penicillin and you will see how much the word "observe" is used. Observation is the essence of discovery and therefore the essence of learning.

On a much lesser scale than Rosa Parks, I have observed that everything I've done in Scientology so far has worked and made my life a thousand times better than it was before. I have observed that and I will stick by it because it is true for me.

The rest of your comment was about a subject I don't discuss (see my rules about comments). I don't discuss what it is or what it isn't, however I will say this: All levels in Scientology consist of a series of actions that one does. There are no "stories". One studies some theory, one studies some techniques, one practices the techniques and then one does it. At that point you can see if the theory bears out because you are doing it and seeing the results.

Scientology is not something you discuss. It is something you study and then do. And at that point Personal Integrity enters in again because when you "do," you should observe so that you will know if you got the predicted result or not.

When I have done the techniques of the Scientology Levels that I have completed I have observed that I have gotten the results without a doubt. I got those results to such a degree that my certainty of the truth of the theory behind those results is unshakable.

Thanks for your comments.

Scientology and Medicine

I have known people to confuse the beliefs of Christian Science with those of Scientology in regards to medicine. Christian Scientists believe that prayer can heal and so they generally choose it first when someone gets ill (See the Christian Science FAQs for full and accurate data).

In Scientology we recognize that the body is real and that it sometimes gets sick or damaged, so the first action to take is to get the appropriate physical treatment for the condition. For example, if you break an arm then you go to the emergency room and get it attended too.

Once the physical side is under control then any spiritual issues associated with the condition can be addressed. We have spiritual technology called "Scientology Assists" which can help a person recover quicker.

In my own personal experience I have found these assists to be extremely effective. For example, after my wife had a serious operation, I gave her a lot of assists, which helped her get off heavy pain killers and onto much milder medication in a matter of hours instead of days.

If you hear any other data about Scientologists and medicine, then the person giving you the data is misinformed.

For more info check out the Scientology FAQ article: Do Scientologists use medical doctors? and an article on the "Scientology and Me" blog with the same title: Do Scientologists use medical doctors?.

Scientology is Wisdom: Personal Integrity

An important principle in Scientology is:

Nothing in Dianetics and Scientology is true for you
Unless you have observed it
And it is true according to your observation.
That is all.

This quote is from a short article by L. Ron Hubbard called "Personal Integrity" which starts out with:

What is personal integrity?
Personal integrity is knowing what you know–
What you know is what you know–
And to have the courage to know and say what you have observed.
And that is integrity.
And there is no other integrity.

So what does this mean?

Let's look at a simple example: You are given a recipe and told that if you follow it exactly then you will produce the best cake you ever tasted. Do you now go around insisting it's the best cake in the world without ever baking it and observing for yourself whether it is or not? Not if you know what Personal Integrity is. If you wanted to retain your own personal integrity then you would bake the cake and take a bite or two so you would know for yourself.

In Scientology you are encouraged to observe the results of applying what you learn in Scientology to life, so that you can see for yourself if it works or not. That is something which people who are used to a religion based solely on faith and belief have a hard time understanding. (Not that there is anything wrong with religions based solely on faith or belief - I'm just using that as a comparison.)

Scientology is a practical religion that is not based on faith or belief. It consists of wisdom that you can actually do something with. E.g., You study how to do a touch assist, then you do one and you see for yourself if the person you helped feels better or not. It is that straightforward.

I recently received a comment that said: I've often been told that Scientologists don't have to believe in various bits of Scientology's writings. I was just wondering which bits you don't believe in.

My guess is that the writer has been talking to people who don't understand Scientology because you don't approach Scientology on the basis of "do I believe that?", you approach it on the basis of "when I use it correctly, does it work?"

I'll give you an example: The first time I did a touch assist I had no idea whether it would work or not. I studied how to do it, I practiced a bit then I went and did one. The woman I was helping had hurt her hand in a printing press. I went through the actions of the touch assist and at one point I asked her how she was doing, because I couldn't see that anything was happening. She said, "Nothing much, I didn't notice any..." then she stopped because she had been moving her hand and it didn't hurt her anymore. She was rather astonished. But the point of the example is that 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.

That is how you are expected to approach Scientology: Study it, use it, see if it works.

So you can see that the comment about "bits you don't believe in" is like asking which bits of physics you don't believe in. Physics contains data that you apply and observe. To say something like, "Oh, I believe in gravity but not magnetism," doesn't make sense because gravity and magnetism are both things you can observe and having observed them you "know" you don't need to "believe".

I hope this helps clarify the meaning of Personal Integrity and clears up any misunderstandings people might have about it.

Another Psychiatrist caught lying about drug industry money

There have been a lot of revelations in recent months about the undisclosed financial ties between leading psychiatrists and the pharmaceutical industry. The bright light of truth is being shone by Senator Charles Grassley as he continues his investigation into this sordid area of medicine.

So it's not surprising that another leading psychiatrist has been caught: Psych Doctor Nemeroff Barred from Emory University Chairmanship after Revelation of Secret Financial Ties to Big Pharma.

A Psychiatrist telling it like it is

The media (because they prefer "controversy" to facts) and those opposed to Scientology often attempt to characterize Scientologists as being totally against psychiatry. This is not accurate. We are against psychiatric abuses. For example, if every psychiatrist in the world were like Peter Breggin, I don't think we'd have much disagreement with the field of psychiatry.