Scientology and the Competitive Enterprise Institute: Exposing the Alliance
somatic aura
They use various front organizations, such as the Citizens’ Commission
on Human Rights (CCHR) to advance their position. On occasion, non-
Scientologist “experts” get involved.
In the case of the anti-psychiatry campaign, Thomas Szasz is a key
figure.
Szasz has close ties to the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI).
The CEI is nothing but an extension of the oil and tobacco industries.
Firms such as ExxonMobil have been known to pay six figure retainers
to CEI “experts” such as John Berlau, Myron Ebell, and Marlo Lewis
despite the fact that their expertise, such as it is, is in “spin” as
opposed to science.
Andrew Langer was with CEI; he left to join the National Federation of
Independent Businesses (NFIB) and he now heads the Institute for
Liberty (IFL).
Langer is a committed member of CEI’s camp. He has defended Berlau
against attacks on his pseudoscientific beliefs (e.g., that heating a
gas makes it heavier). Langer is also an outspoken opponent of free
speech.
Brooke Oberwetter is another “refugee” from CEI. Her current project,
DC Signal, claims to be a telecommunications policy consultancy. It is
not clear what that means; it is, however, clear that they play a role
in the propaganda attacks mounted by the opponents of psychiatry.
Berlau, despite his odd ideas, does not seem to lack supporters.
Another is Jacob Sullum, with Reason Magazine. Sullum, of course, is
known to be a paid consultant to the tobacco industry, so this is not
surprising.
Another contingent has an irrational hatred of those who seek to treat
adopted children with psychiatric problems.
Jean Mercer holds a Ph.D. in psychology, but she has never held a
professional license, that means she’s never treated a patient. She
has a blog sponsored by Psychology Today, but when people posted
comments on her blog asking about her background, she disabled the
comment feature. This is censorship, so typical of Scientology and the
“statist” ideology espoused by the likes of Berlau, Ebell, Lewis,
Langer, and Oberwetter.
Larry Sarner describes himself as an inventor. It is documented that
he at least attempted to invent a voting machine. It is also
documented that his machines did not work, resulting in significant
losses to the investors, a financial scandal, and bankruptcy
litigation. Sarner now spends his time promulgating quack theories on
mathematics and science and running a propaganda campaign against
qualified medical professionals.
Sarner’s wife, Linda Rosa, should know better. She is a nurse.
Nonetheless, instead of helping people, she has joined Sarner in his
hate campaign.
A frequent collaborator of Mercer, Sarner, and Rosa is Monica
Pignotti. Pignotti was a Scientologist. Pignotti, after leaving
Scientology, was also a practitioner of the bizarre disciplines of
Thought Field Therapy and Voice Technology. Pignotti spends a great
deal of time running her own hate and propaganda campaigns.
A disturbing theme uniting the campaigns of Sarner, Rosa, Mercer, and
Pignotti is the torture of children.
Finally, we have Charly D. Miller. Miller claims to be a retired
paramedic. Miller has plans, yet unrealized, to write travel guides
for the locations in the Harry Potter books.
Miller runs a website, with “opinion papers” that are often cited by
Sarner and Rosa; these papers have been described as “incisive” but
that must be a minority opinion!
Miller’s site changes frequently. No, not because she adds new
content, but because she tends to post copyrighted material. She will
not respond to polite requests for its removal, so copyright owners
have had to resort to legal means to force her to do so.
Monica Pignotti
Your real agenda here is to spam the usenet with your lies about Jean
Mercer and others who are very well known within the community of
skeptics such as Linda Rosa and Larry Sarner who have nothing
whatsoever to do with the groups you name, who are exposing your bogus
therapy for what it is. Your attempts to tie these people in with
Scientology are truly lame. I left Scientology 33 years ago and as
people here know I have spoken out against it for decades. What you're
really upset about is the articles Dr. Mercer and I have published in
peer reviewed journals criticizing your therapy. Just because
Scientologists are opposed to all psychiatry and mental health
practices doesn't mean that there are no bogus therapies out there
that are deserving of criticism and the bogus "attachment therapy"
practices you appear to be defending richly deserve criticism. The
fact I joined Scientology as a 17 year old and left 33 years ago does
not change the validity of my criticisms one iota. People can go to
the following website and decide for themselves if there practices
deserve criticism:
http://www.childrenintherapy.org
This is a website that you and your friends have repeatedly tried to
have taken down, as you did Charley Miller's website. Your attempt to
take down the ACT website was FAIL, though because they have an ISP
with the courage to stand up to cyber bullies such as yourself. If you
want to talk about Scientology behavior, you had better take a good
long look in the mirror. The difference between you and I is that I
have admitted to and learned from my mistakes whereas you and your
sock puppets obviously have not.
Monica