In the wake of Jett Travolta’s death from a seizure, it is timely to present this audio recording of L. Ron Hubbard speaking about epilepsy:
And then people who have epilepsy, which is a type of disease which gives
them seizures, are almost always found on some minor drug that prevents them from getting these—they call them petit mal seizures. Thats epilepsy. I dont care how they call it. Sometimes they really seize and sometimes its just slight. One of those, if an epileptic ever took you by the hand and so forth, he’s liable to break every bone in your hand, if he suddenly had a seizure. But the doctors keep them on something to prevent this. Its just a tranquilizer and they keep them on that one year, year in and year out. And then you come along as an auditor and you try to audit the PC [pre-clear] and you tell the PC that he’ll have to go off that drug. And then all of a sudden, why something will happen from someplace or another that the PC will tell the doctor that they have been taken off the drug by the auditor. And the doctor will call up plaintively asking you to please put her back on the drug because she needs this. And you get into a collision between medical treatment and so on. Now I’ve been using a lot of medical words here or chemical words really. Just don’t pay any attention to them because they’re mostly gobbledygook, and there’s an awful lot of gobbledygook words. Gobbledygook just means nonsense chatter, you see. There’s an awful lot of them.
Tory Christman, a former Scientologist who is now one of the most vocal critics of the “Church”, struggled for years to keep taking her epilepsy medication. In 1971, she joined Scientology’s “elite” upper echelon the Sea Organization and was ordered to stop taking her anti-seizure medication and start taking vitamin pills instead. Inevitably, she started having seizures which increased in number and in magnitude. She states in an affadavit written in 2001:
This went on for I think 3 months. I was losing my memory due to all of the seizures. I would wake up in the morning and try to dash into the refrigerator. Daily I would have a petit mal (small seizure), and come to with all of the vitamins spread out all over the kitchen floor. The lady I was renting a room from had two children. Constantly they would come in and find me on the floor, and yell “Mommy, Tory dropped her vitamins again”. This woman was one of the kindest people to me, and I will never forget her. Her name is Mary Jessup, and she was married previously to Nate Jessup. All during this time the Scientologists were very evaluative to me, and many treated me like a leper, but not Mary. She was always very compassionate. She had left Scientology some time earlier.
Finally one morning in the shower I knocked my front teeth out during a Grand Mal seizure. All during this time my mother was begging me to go back on all of my medication. Being new in Scientology, I assured her Dianetics and Scientology would handle this. Finally, after so many seizures and so much trauma, I realized no matter what these people thought, I wasn’t going to live if I kept doing this. At that point I decided to go back on my medication in full, no matter what.
She eventually was allowed to take her anti-seizure medicine again, after stubborn persistence, and at the cost of a career in the Sea Org.
It was earlier reported that Jett Travolta was on the anti-seizure medication Depakote, but was taken off it because it supposedly caused health problems. This could be a plausible explanation, given that Depakote can cause liver damage. But was Jett Travolta taken off Depakote cold turkey, without being prescribed another anti-seizure medication? There is a list of other anti-seizure medication with fewer side-effects than Depakote, but there is nothing to suggest that Jett was on another medication.
Did the “Church” of Scientology persuade the John Travolta and Kelly Preston to give up on conventional medicine and instead treat their son with Scientology’s “alternative” therapy?
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3 responses
I am an epileptic, but have been seizure free for 25 years, because I take Dilantin/Phenytoin every day. I’m evaluated by a medical doctor on a regular basis who performs actual tests to measure my brainwave activity. It continues to show abnormality, therefore, I take my meds on a regular basis. I live a normal life, drive, swim, ride roller-coasters, and yes, take showers without fear of seizures. The Jett Travolta story is just very sad, but I’m sure there will be no formal inquest.
I have posttraumatic epilepsy and unfortunately, as of yet cannot have a normal life. I cannot drive, swim, have a bath alone or even be alone really as I have such horrendous tonic clonic seizures. I think the piece of dialogue shown by L Ron Hubbards reeks of naivety. First of all he refers to all epilepsy as ”petit pal” when we know ”petit mal” and ”grand mal” are two completely different types of seizure and he claims to be using technical jargon but clearly has no idea what he is talking about. Tranquilisers? Since when do we take tranquilisers? This is seriously frightening that people follow a religion lef by a complete a utter baffoon with clearly no medical knowledge or expertise whatsoever.
I did not have my diamond wedding rings on. They put me down as indigent. I was attending school when it occurred. They put me down as indigent. I told them I have no one here to call to come and get me. They put me down as indigent. I gave them my address, in an affluent section of town. They put me down as indigent. They went through every corner of my purse and wallet. They did not call any numbers that were there. I have friends and family, but when they are not local at the time, apparently the doctor considers me indigent. They asked where I work. I told them I don’t work. They put me down as indigent. They didn’t ask how I support myself. They put me down as indigent. I drive an older car to be frugal, but because the one that costs 8 times as much was in the repair shop. Now, I have a 4 figure bill from the hospital. What do I do? How can I prove anything if the hospital does not have the women sign the form as being in the room when the doctor did what he did? He did not have put his arms around me. I was not injured going into the hospital. I have been so afraid that if I sue, I could not prove anything.