Today I want to go into the wrongness of the actions of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers. But first, I want to say, SHAME on you John Travolta! Why? Because you know better. You know that Scientology and it's "assists" are a sham. You know from personal experience that they don't work, and yet you are still a shill for this organization. Make no mistake, The Volunteer Ministers program is not a certified disaster relief program, nor is it a charitable organization although many of the volunteers may be at disaster sites for altruistic ideals. You see the "church" not only deceives the public at large, but probably 99% of it's own parishioners as well.
Firstly, Scientologists are not trained in actual approved disaster response techniques. They are not trained in search and rescue. They are not trained in approved first aid. They are not trained in how to deal with their own emotional responses to the immeasurable pain and death that one would find at a full on disaster site. I will quote two volunteer ministers from the Haiti earthquake disaster:
"I came here to give touch assists to people, but how do you give a touch assist to a burnt corpse?" sobbed Annette Lolly from Clearwater, Florida. "This place is a stinking hell-hole and I want to go home!" She collapsed in tears and had to be helped onto the plane.
Tim Pedoski of Glendale, California, said he was not prepared for the things he saw. "These people need way more than we've been trained to provide," he said. "There is death and horror here and we were trained for scratches and mild upsets. The best thing I can do is get out of the way of the professionals."
If these people are still in the "church", you can bet they had to go through a long ethics program before they were allowed to go back on Scientology services. These people were not trained in how to even deal with themselves, let alone how to really help in a disaster. They have only been trained to hand out tissues to crying people, give out water bottles and deliver Scientology assists, and "Way to Happiness" booklets. The really sad thing is that if the "church" really wanted their volunteers to be effective, they would put all of their volunteer ministers through the C.E.R.T. program it is free in most U.S. cities and is the most intense and rewarding program I have ever been through. It teaches you how to be confident and truly effective in a disaster situation. You can find out more about that program here.
So what training do they get. The main training they receive is three Scientology processes called assists. The first is called the touch assist. It is touching the victims on various parts of the body and saying, "feel my finger?" and getting a response from the victim. Scientologists are told that this process is to get the person back in touch with their body and that it will alleviate pain and therefore bring the person back into present time, making that person more able to deal with whatever emotional trauma they are going through. What this process really is designed to do (although most Scientologists don't know it) is give the victim a temporary relief from the pain by misdirecting their concentration to other parts of the body, thereby making them think they feel better. Therein is the hook. Then you tell them you are a minister with the "church" of Scientology and that they feel better because of the things you learned there.
The next process is for victims that are suffering from emotional trauma and shock, to supposedly relieve that trauma and get the person back into present time and therefore more able to deal with the problem at hand, which is survival. The process is actually another sleight of hand misdirection. It does not actually remove emotional trauma. It temporarily buries is making you "feel better" for a time. The problem is, the trauma has not been effectively dealt with. The "auditing" commands for this process are, "see that tree? thank you, see that rock? thank you. see that light pole? thank you." and it goes on till you can answer some simple questions.
The last process is the "nerve assist". It is done without verbal commands. You run your fingers down and across various "ley lines" of the body in an effort to "release" and blockages in the nerve paths of the body. It is based loosely upon ancient Chinese acupuncture meridians although Hubbard never gave due credit to any other practice besides Scientology and never gave credit for any of his processes to anyone but himself. It also doesn't work as advertised.
As concerning the processes above, and trained medical or mental health technician will tell you that trauma and shock need to be treated as soon as possible medically because if it is not, it can have long term effects up to and including death. I don't know about you, but if I am injured in an accident I would really rather be treated by someone who is trained to help me than Tom Cruise. Just saying.
In New York in 2001, during one of the worst disasters in American history, Scientology Volunteer Ministers showed up in their yellow jackets with not only Scientology stenciled on them but N.M.H.A. as well which is the initials for the National Mental Health Association. Sleazy? Yes, but that is not the worst thing they did during this disaster. They actually had Fox News run (as a public service announcement) on the bottom of the screen, "National Mental Health Assistance 800-FOR-TRUTH". That phone number is a Scientology information line. Hubbard has said that you should never trust anything that says mental health and then they use mental health for their advertisements.
Oh yeah, I forgot, I wanted to mention one other assist. I have been Out of Scientology for more than 17 years so I do not know if it is still in the Volunteer Ministers Handbook. It is called the "Back to Life" assist. The "auditing command" is yelled at the corpse. It is "Get back in your body and bring it back to life!" There is absolutely no empirical evidence that it works.
Please be aware that Scientology is only interested in your money. The Scientology Volunteer Ministers are only another recruitment mechanism. They will stoop to these tactics and worse to get it. Please, if you are ever in a disaster or accident (which I pray never happens) ask for someone medically trained. It may be worth your life.
Thank you for stopping by today. I hope that I have helped you, in some way, to understand more about the insidious cult that is the "church" of Scientology. Stay tuned for more. If you have any questions or comments, please post them. And please, if you know anyone who needs to see this, pass it on. Again thank you.
