Narconon
abl...@my-dejanews.com
It came to my attention that Chris Owens has put up a set of web pages on
Narconon which have been updated as of early June. At a quick glance it seems
quite out of date and selectively leaves out relevant data.
While it is true there are Narconon centers in the U.S., Canada and Europe
he leaves out the fact that there are now centers in Mexico, South America
and in several different countries in the Confederation of Independent States
(formerly, the Soviet Union).
While it is true Federal income tax records show that Narconon,
Massachusetts (a public benefit non-profit corporation) earned $715,771 from
school lectures alone in the period between 1989 and 1994, what it does not
state is that this resulted in 475,000 students receiving drug education
lectures in New England costing $1.51 per student.
To put this much effort into a web site that attempts to discredit a
workable drug rehab program makes it loud and clear that someone is more
interested in getting people on drugs than off. Narconon has enlightened
thousands of youth around the world on the harmful effects of drugs, and its
program gets people off drugs for good.
The facts and the intentions of this "new" site are suspect at best.
Narconon Research Director
Shelley Beckmann, Ph.D.
-----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==-----
http://www.dejanews.com/ Now offering spam-free web-based newsreading
abl...@my-dejanews.com
abl...@my-dejanews.com
It came to my attention that Chris Owens has put up a set of web pages on
Narconon which have been updated as of early June. At a quick glance it seems
quite out of date and selectively leaves out relevant data.
While it is true there are Narconon centers in the United States, Canada and
Europe, he leaves out the fact that there are now centers in Mexico, South
America and many in the Commonwealth of Independent States (the old Soviet
Union).
While it is true Federal income tax records show that Narconon,
Massachusetts (a public benefit non-profit corporation) earned $715,771 from
school lectures alone in the period between 1989 and 1994 - what this does
not state is that it resulted in 475,000 students receiving drug education
lectures in New England costing $1.51 per student.
To put this much effort into a web site that attempts to discredit a
workable drug rehab program makes it loud and clear that someone is more
interested in getting people on drugs than off. Narconon has enlightened
thousands of youth around the world on the harmful effects of drugs and its
program gets people off drugs for good.
The facts and the intentions of this "new" site are suspect at best.
S. Beckman
Narconon Research Director
abl...@my-dejanews.com
It came to my attention that Chris Owens has put up a set of web pages on
Narconon which have been supposedly updated as of early June. At a quick
glance it seems quite out of date and selectively leaves out relevant data.
While it is true there are Narconon centers in the United States, Canada
and Europe, he leaves out the fact that there are now centers in Mexico,
South America and in many of the Commonwealth of Independent States (the old
Soviet Union).
While it is true federal income tax records show that Narconon
Massachusetts (a public benefit non-profit corporation) earned $715,771 from
school lectures alone in the period between 1989 and 1994, what is not
mentioned is that this resulted in 475,000 students receiving drug education
lectures in New England at an average cost per student of $1.51.
To put this much effort into a web site that attempts to discredit a
workable drug rehab program makes it loud and clear that someone is more
interested in getting people on drugs than off. Narconon has enlightened
thousands of youth around the world on the harmful effects of drugs, and its
program successfully gets many people around the world off drugs for good.
The facts and the intentions of this "new" site are suspect at best.
S. Beckmann, Narconon Research Director
abl...@my-dejanews.com
abl...@my-dejanews.com
It came to my attention that Chris Owens has put up a set of web pages on
Narconon which have been updated as of early June. At a quick glance it seems
quite out of date and selectively leaves out relevant data.
While it is true there are Narconon centers in the United States, Canada
and Europe, he leaves out the fact that there are now centers in Mexico,
South America and many in the Common Wealth of Independent States.
While it is true Federal income tax records show that Narconon,
Massachusetts (a public benefit non-profit corporation) earned $715,771 from
school lectures alone inthe period between 1989 and 1994 - what this does not
state is that it resulted in 475,000 students receiving drug education
lectures in New England costing $1.51 per student.
To put this much effort into a web site that attempts to discredit a
workable drug rehab program makes it loud and clear that someone is more
interested in getting people on drugs than off. Narconon has enlightened
thousands of youth around the world on the harmful effects of drugs and its
program gets people off drugs for good.
The facts and intentions of this "new" site are suspect at best.
S. Beckmann Research Director Narconon
nn...@earthlink.net
It came to my attention that Chris Owens has put up a set of web pages on
Narconon which have been updated as of early June. At a quick glance it seems
quite out of date and selectively leaves out relevant data.
While it is true there are Narconon centers in the United States, Canada and
Europe, he leaves out the fact that there are now centers in Mexico, South
America and many in the Commonwealth of Independent States.
While it is true Federal income tax records show that Narconon,
Massachusetts (a public benefit non-profit corporation) earned $715,771 from
school lectures alone in the period between 1989 and 1994 - what this does
not state is that it resulted in 475,000 students receiving drug education
lectures in New England costing $1.51 per student.
To put this much effort into a web site that attempts to discredit a
workable drug rehab program makes it loud and clear that someone is more
interested in getting people on drugs than off. Narconon has enlightened
thousands of youth around the world on the harmful effects of drugs and its
program gets people off drugs for good.
The facts and the intentions of this "new" site are suspect at best.
S. Beckmann
Narconon Research Director
Tilman Hausherr
> Narconon Research Director
> Shelley Beckmann, Ph.D.
Could you please make an announcement when the first person will be
proven to be drug-free through Narconon? According to a german court
decision, there is no scientific or legal evidence of a single
successful drug rehab in narconon.
Embarassing, isn't it?
--
Tilman Hausherr [KoX, SP4]
til...@berlin.snafu.de http://www.snafu.de/~tilman/#cos
Resistance is futile. You will be enturbulated. Xenu always prevails.
Find broken links on your web site: http://www.snafu.de/~tilman/xenulink.html
Annoy scientology by buying books: http://www.snafu.de/~tilman/bookstore.html
LilAlex742
S. Beckmann writes:
>To put this much effort into a web site that attempts to discredit a
>workable drug rehab program makes it loud and clear that someone is more
>interested in getting people on drugs than off.
What a stupid bit of reasoning on your part, S. Beckmann. Just because Chris
Owen's page about your organization discredits it, does not in any way imply
that he wants to get people "on" drugs. ( This is the kind of reasoning that
makes Scientology infamous, by the way.)
As far as Narconon being "workable" (you guys love that term, don't
you--workable tech, workable religion, workable drug rehab--y'all ougtha get
tattoos)--if Narconon is workable, it is so in spite of itself. Addicts locked
down in a sober environment with other addicts who are trying to get sober, as
well as a 7/24 focus on sobriety, is likely to produce sobriety among some
individuals regardless of the techniques employed. This does not validate the
Narconon process. This does not make it "workable."
Do I believe that at least some of the people at Narconon are sincere about
what they are doing? Yes.
Do I think that recovery through Narconon is a better fate than ODing in an
alley? You bet.
Do I think that Narconon is above criticism because they are a drug rehab
program? No way.
At the end of your post, you say:
> The facts and intentions of this "new" site are suspect at best.
You should be ashamed. I would say that it is >your< intentions that are
suspect at best. Chris Owen has done fine work putting up a detailed web site
about Narconon--far for detailed than anything Narconon ever has to say about
itself.
By the way--I notice that your letter mentioned only a few minor disagreements
with the web site. Is this because you were unable to refute the rest? If you
can refute it, maybe you should. Until you do, you should know that your puffy
little note of disapproval acts, for many, as a stamp of approval for Chris
Owen's web site.
LilAlex
It is claimed that the program (Narconon) is well founded
in medical literature. There is however no scientific reference given for
this statement.
LRonsScam
>From: abl...@my-dejanews.com
>Date: Thu, Jun 18, 1998 16:50 EDT
>Message-id: <6mbujj$jqi$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>
>
>
>
>
> It came to my attention that Chris Owens has put up a set of web pages on
>Narconon which have been updated as of early June. At a quick glance it seems
>quite out of date and selectively leaves out relevant data.
>
> While it is true there are Narconon centers in the United States, Canada
>and
>Europe, he leaves out the fact that there are now centers in Mexico, South
>Union).
>
> While it is true Federal income tax records show that Narconon,
>Massachusetts (a public benefit non-profit corporation) earned $715,771 from
>school lectures alone in the period between 1989 and 1994 - what this does
>not state is that it resulted in 475,000 students receiving drug education
>lectures in New England costing $1.51 per student.
>
>workable drug rehab program makes it loud and clear that someone is more
>thousands of youth around the world on the harmful effects of drugs and its
>program gets people off drugs for good.
>
>
> S. Beckman
> Narconon
Can't you Scientologists do anything but spam this NG. At least put it in one
post. Uhggggg, the tech at work.
Research Director
>
>-----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==-----
>http://www.dejanews.com/ Now offering spam-free web-based newsreading
></PRE></HTML>
.
.
__
In Xenu We Trust.....
A does equal A, does equal A, does equal A. What was Hubbie trying to
say?.....
." Life is a cartoon." Howard Stern while referring to Lisa Marie Presley's
involvement with Co$.
LilAlex742
S. Beckmann writes:
>To put this much effort into a web site that attempts to discredit a
>workable drug rehab program makes it loud and clear that someone is more
>interested in getting people on drugs than off.
LilAlex742
LilAlex742
LilAlex742
LilAlex742
LilAlex742
Ydrrisil
SBeckman wrote:>> To put this much effort into a web site that attempts to
discredit a
workable drug rehab program makes it loud and clear that someone is more
thousands of youth around the world on the harmful effects of drugs and its
program gets people off drugs for good.>>
Ah - a workable drug rehab program?
I earnestly applaud your posting this to ARS and also taking issue publicly
with something that you disagree with. As you have made the claim that Narconon
is a workable drug rehab program perhaps you could supply the published
independent studies that back up your claim? It would be nice - for once - to
see someone from Narconon or the Church of Scientology actually provide
evidence for the claim.
So far in your web pages only two studies have been cited - an anonymous
study in Sweden, apparently of 13 or 17 people and one in Spain, Both studies
apparently done by Narconon or at Narconons behest.
Do you have ONE, yep just one statistically rigorous and independent study
that backs up your claim?
No anonymous "success stories", no "anecdotal" references from "an official
of the Canadian Pentitentiary service". Just a straightforward scientific,
rigorour study?
After all - if it is workable this should be easy to provide - shouldnt it?
/\ndroid <at
The first of this many posted message had this signature:
>
> Narconon Research Director
> Shelley Beckmann, Ph.D.
>
However, all the other postings have this one:
>
> S. Beckman
> Narconon Research
Director
>
Odd how Shelley lost a Ph.D and changed the spelling of the last name
between posts.
"Narconon Research Director" Hahahahaha! Now there's a gold-bricking job!
Or (as I smile) can we actually see some of the results of this
peer-reviewed research?
/\<.
Remember kids, say away from Scientologists, or you might catch Body
Thetans!
Rebecca Jo McLaughlin
abl...@my-dejanews.com wrote:
: The facts and the intentions of this "new" site are suspect at best.
: Narconon Research Director
: Shelley Beckmann, Ph.D.
As Research Director, you are in excellent position to further
defend your program with something other than PR. Can you provide us
with independent publications describing:
1. the underlying science of the therapy and references supporting it
2. evaluations of the methods used - please provide the complete
citations. Articles in refereed journals would be excellent.
3. Independent evaluations of Narconon effectiveness.
Your CV would be nice, too.
Thank you.
Beck
Cat O'Blivion
abl...@my-dejanews.com wrote several
posts, almost exactly alike, stating:
<buncha Narconon PR snipped>
Are you spamming, or are you just too clueless
to figure out how to post something just once?
Sheesh. You Scientology spokesbots get
lamer by the minute.
Cat
SP4, KoX
heretic-at-large
"I'm buried deep in mass production,
you're not nothing new..."
Jim Lewis
In article <fuhi1.238$24.14...@news.itd.umich.edu>,
I just searched the Medline and PsycInfo databases. No hits from
PsycInfo, but I found this in Medline:
Shields M; Beckmann SL.
Safety and side effects of sustained-release niacin [letter; comment].
Jama, 1994 Aug 17, 272(7):514; discussion 514-5.
Pub type: COMMENT; LETTER.
I presume "Shields M" is Megan Shields. Sounds like they're probably
discussing the Purif here...I couldn't find this letter webbed anywhere,
though. It would be nice to see it discussed here...
There was another Medline hit on "Beckmann SL", but I'm not sure if it's her:
Beckmann SL; Os I; Kjeldsen SE; Eide IK; Westheim AS; Hjermann I.
Effect of dietary counselling on blood pressure and arterial plasma
catecholamines in primary hypertension.
American Journal of Hypertension, 1995 Jul, 8(7):704-11.
Pub type: CLINICAL TRIAL; JOURNAL ARTICLE; RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL.
I found this on http://www.narconon.org/html/30thanni/html/intboard.htm :
Shelley Beckmann, Ph. D.
Dr. Beckmann holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Biology and has published numerous
papers on the efficacy of detoxification. She currently serves as the
Research Director for Narconon International.
Funny that of these "numerous" publications, none of them seem to be in
Medline's database...I bet many of them were conference proceedings, which
often involve little or no peer review prior to publication. You can
see one at http://www.hit.net/~narconon/sauninfo.htm :
Reduction of Drug Residues: Applications in Drug Rehabilitation
Megan Shields, MD, Shelley Beckman, PhD, and R. Michael Wisner
Presented at the 123rd Annual Meeting of the American Public Health
Association.
This paper gives a few graphs of drug concentration in sweat or urine
versus time, during the Purif (referred to in this paper as the "Hubbard
Program". The graphs don't give any error bars, and no statistical analysis
is presented to support their contention that the concentrations in sweat
and urine increases during the Purif. (The paper states "Five of the
eight clients showed an increase in the concentration of drug metabolite
in sweat or urine when the detoxification program was initiated", which
sounds about as close to a null result as you can get...)
Typical concentrations of benzodiazepine (i.e. Valium) in sweat look to be
around 150 nanograms/milliliter during the purif, per this paper. So if you
sweat out, say, 20 liters (!) during the course of the rundown, you'd eliminate
a grand total of about 3 milligrams of the drug from your system.
I find it extremely hard to believe that that would be anywhere close to
clinically significant! It lets Narconon say that, indeed, the drugs are
eliminated in sweat, but they don't tell you that it only happens in
barely-detectable trace quantities.
-- Jim Lewis
Experimental Astrophysics Group
Åke Wiman
abl...@my-dejanews.com wrote <6mbujg$jqf$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>...
>
> It came to my attention that Chris Owens has put up a set of web pages
on
> Narconon which have been updated as of early June. At a quick glance it
seems
> quite out of date and selectively leaves out relevant data.
>
>
> workable drug rehab program makes it loud and clear that someone is more
> interested in getting people on drugs than off. Narconon has enlightened
its
> program gets people off drugs for good.
>
>
> Narconon Research Director
> Shelley Beckmann, Ph.D.
So they say in Sweden as well.
But NO evidence whatsoever have been public that this system with
tranformation from drugs to body-thetan exorcism works.
Narconon have been lying about their statistics for years now.
Put some effort in stopping your master-organization $cio - they kill
people !
--
-----------------------
Åke Wiman
''You know, people die if they criticize scientology - I should take care
if I were you'' Marcus Nyman, OSA (former GO), $cio-org, Stockholm, Sweden.
"Somehow I get the feeling that the entire CoS, top and bottom, is an
asylum for people that should have been helped elsewhere."
Zenon Panoussis
Ron Newman
> It came to my attention that Chris Owens has put up a set of web pages on
> Narconon which have been updated as of early June.
How "ABLE" can you be when
(1) You can't spell the name "Chris Owen" correctly
(2) You post the same message 7 times in one day?
--
Ron Newman rne...@thecia.net
http://www2.thecia.net/users/rnewman/
Chris Owen
In article <6mc009$ls2$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>, nn...@earthlink.net writes
[posted/mailed]
> It came to my attention that Chris Owens has put up a set of web pages on
>Narconon which have been updated as of early June. At a quick glance it seems
>quite out of date and selectively leaves out relevant data.
Out of date when it was updated as recently as early June? For shame!
:-)
> While it is true there are Narconon centers in the United States, Canada and
>Europe, he leaves out the fact that there are now centers in Mexico, South
>America and many in the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Fine; that's data I didn't have before. I'll add references to Mexico
and South America. Regarding the CIS Narconon centres, in what other
CIS states (other than Russia) are they? Russia is the only one with
its own page, http://www.narconon.org/html/30thanni/html/russia.htm ,
which for some reason doesn't mention the 1996 Federal ban on "the
techniques of detoxification and other techniques of Scientology and
Dianetics arising from the teaching of R. Hubbard." The history of
Narconon in Russia is covered rather more comprehensively on my site
than it is on www.narconon.org; you won't find the original text of the
banning decree on any other Web site.
> While it is true Federal income tax records show that Narconon,
>Massachusetts (a public benefit non-profit corporation) earned $715,771 from
>school lectures alone in the period between 1989 and 1994 - what this does
>not state is that it resulted in 475,000 students receiving drug education
>lectures in New England costing $1.51 per student.
Again, this is data which I didn't have before and will add to the
relevant page. I did not criticise the sum received, instead simply
reporting that:
------
"[Narconon] is undoubtedly a profitable business; Federal income tax
records show that one Narconon organisation, Narconon Inc. of
Massachusetts, earned $715,771 from school lectures alone in the period
1989-94."
------
Am I to take it that you object to this statement of Narconon's success
in making money?
> To put this much effort into a web site that attempts to discredit a
>workable drug rehab program makes it loud and clear that someone is more
>interested in getting people on drugs than off.
Aha! I knew this was coming. Your boss John Duff, President of
Narconon International, made this remarkable statement in the Newkirk
Herald Journal around 10 May 1989:
------
"Only those that are in favor of a drug ridden society or those who are
directly profiting from the drug racket would oppose such a program."
------
Likewise, the Associated Press reported on 13 July 1989 the following
comments by a Narconon spokesman:
------
Narconon spokesman Gary Smith said he tried to reassure the town
[Newkirk, OK] that Narconon's "sole intention is to get people off
drugs." He said the town has been misled. "There's fear being put into
the town by false information being fed in there by somebody who's in
favor of drug abuse. They're either connected to selling drugs or
they're using drugs," Smith said.
Smith declined to be more specific about the identity or whereabouts of
these "outside sources with criminal motives."
"Trust me, I know," he said.
------
Plus ca change, it seems...
>Narconon has enlightened
>thousands of youth around the world on the harmful effects of drugs
There's no doubt that its activities *have* raised awareness of drugs,
so that's undoubtedly a good thing.
>and its program gets people off drugs for good.
How many people? And on what basis do you make that claim, given that
the two (supposedly) independent reports cited in Narconon literature
are next to impossible to obtain, even from Narconon itself? Why aren't
those reports on the Narconon website? I'll make an offer: if you let
me have a copy of the two reports - one identified only as "an
independent 1981 Swedish study" and the other by Tecnicos Asociados de
Investigacion y Marketing in Spain - then I'll put them on the web for
you.
If these reports support your case, then why on earth aren't you making
them available?
> The facts and the intentions of this "new" site are suspect at best.
I have at least tried to give extensive background documentation,
including analyses by competent medical authorities and independent
reports. I don't see anything of that nature on www.narconon.org.
My "intentions", as you put it, are in no way anti-Narconon or pro-
drugs. I simply fail to understand why Narconon is so silent on issues
which I would have thought were critical to any drug rehabilitation
programme; most particularly, does your therapy actually work and if so,
what is your success rate? You have provided no independent assessments
of this. None. Not one.
Moreover, nobody outside your organisation has been able to uncover the
two studies quoted in your literature. I'm being seriously charitable
in assuming that they actually *exist* in the first place.
> S. Beckmann
> Narconon Research Director
So why, Ms. Beckmann, is none of your research up on the Narconon
website or published in peer-reviewed medical journals?
I find your "rebuttal" curiously unconvincing, as it doesn't address in
any way the substantial issues examined on the site - Narconon's lack of
widespread medical or scientific support, the serious flaws in its
theoretical basis, the unacknowledged convergence of Narconon and
Scientology course materials, the nature of the relationship between
Narconon and the Church of Scientology.
If you want to address those issues, then please be my guest.
Otherwise I and the other readers of this newsgroup can only conclude
that you're deliberately trying to avoid those issues.
For those interested in looking at the site, its URL is:
http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~cowen/essays/narconon/narconon.html
--
| Chris Owen - chr...@lutefisk.demon.co.uk |
|---------------------------------------------------------------|
| WORLD'S BIGGEST SINCLAIR WEB ARCHIVE: |
| http://www.nvg.unit.no/sinclair |
| OFFLINE VERSION: http://www.nvg.unit.no/sinclair/plansinc.zip |
© Anti-Cult ®
On Thu, 18 Jun 1998 20:50:56 GMT.
abl...@my-dejanews.com.
From: Deja News - The Leader in Internet Discussion.
Wrote on the subject: Narconon:
>
>
> It came to my attention that Chris Owens has put up a set of web pages on
>Narconon which have been updated as of early June. At a quick glance it seems
>quite out of date and selectively leaves out relevant data.
>
> While it is true there are Narconon centers in the U.S., Canada and Europe
>he leaves out the fact that there are now centers in Mexico, South America
>and in several different countries in the Confederation of Independent States
>(formerly, the Soviet Union).
>
> While it is true Federal income tax records show that Narconon,
>Massachusetts (a public benefit non-profit corporation) earned $715,771 from
>school lectures alone in the period between 1989 and 1994, what it does not
>state is that this resulted in 475,000 students receiving drug education
>lectures in New England costing $1.51 per student.
>
> To put this much effort into a web site that attempts to discredit a
>workable drug rehab program makes it loud and clear that someone is more
>interested in getting people on drugs than off. Narconon has enlightened
>thousands of youth around the world on the harmful effects of drugs, and its
>program gets people off drugs for good.
>
> The facts and the intentions of this "new" site are suspect at best.
>
> Narconon Research Director
> Shelley Beckmann, Ph.D.
>
>-----== Posted via Deja News, The Leader in Internet Discussion ==-----
>http://www.dejanews.com/ Now offering spam-free web-based newsreading
And now for some facts about Narconon. Narconon is in no way a workable
technology to get people off drugs. I will here repost a translation of
the expert advice on Narconon given to the Swedish National Board of
Health and Welfare, who are responsible for medical practices including
drug abuse treatments in Sweden. This was mentioned in recent Swedish TV
programs on Narconon.
The report was written by Folke Sjoqvist, Professor, Scientific Advisor
in Clinical Pharmacology. The report is translated from Swedish to
English by stel...@hotmail.com (Catarina Pamnell), and it will later
on be available at my site with the URL stated in my signature.
This report was originally posted in three parts, but I will include all
parts in this article.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1)
961126
Socialstyrelsen [The National Board of Health and Welfare]
Halso- och sjukvardsgruppen [Health Care and Medical Services]
Allmanna enheten [General Division]
Att. Byradir [Director] Bengt Wennermark
106 30 Stockholm
_Diary number 00-10129/95, 960209 regarding Narconon's treatment
program_
In my capacity of scientific advisor to Socialstyrelsen [National Board
of Health and Welfare] I have been asked to make a statement regarding
the detoxification program for drug addicts by the use of, among other
things, vitamins and sauna that is practised within Narconon. I have
been asked to answer as many as possible of the following subproblems:
1. Can this method of detoxification be considered to conform to
scientific standards and medical experience? ["vetenskap och beprovad
erfarenhet"]
2. Could this method risk the health of the client?
3. Could this method lead to permanent damage?
4. Should this program be prohibited?
5. May medical doctors prescribe the stated doses of vitamins; if so, on
what indications?
The cover letter is supplemented by documents from Livsmedelsverket
[National Food Administration], that describe the treatment program,
especially the vitamin program, and a publication titled "Narconon - the
detoxification program for a new life". In this publication the
detoxification program is popularly described and illustrated by
drawings. It is claimed that by a combination of sauna and vitamins one
can expel drug residues and residues of other addictive substances (such
as bensodiazepines) from the fat depositories of the body. It is
further claimed that tens of thousands of people have successfully
completed the detoxification program.
(2)
The publication is accompanied by statements from anonymous persons,
but scientific data is completely lacking. Some quotes from a number of
unsubstantiated statements about this program (appendix 1):
"LSD may stick in the tissues of the body, primarily in fat tissue, and
may remain there for years after the person stopped taking it. It can
become reactivated years later and cause unpredictable trips, just as if
he had taken more LSD" (pp. 12-13)
"Further research has now revealed that other drugs - heroine, cocaine,
"angel dust", mescaline, marijuana, to mention a few - can also stick in
the body" (p. 14)
"Two to three years after my announcement of the discovery that drug
residues may stick in the body, medical experts who were doing autopsies
confirmed this" (p. 20)
This implicates that the author, i.e. L Ron Hubbard, made this discovery
which is incorrect. It is, of course, absurd to believe that at an
autopsy one would be able to discover microgram quantities of drug
residues.
"Drugs are basically poisons. Drug residues that have been stored in
tissues take their toll. They burn up the body's reserves of vitamins
and minerals and can cause nutrient deficiencies" (p.21)
The program is described in the following manner:
"A well-planned personal schedule will be worked out for you, which you
shall adhere to every day. It includes: Exercise and sauna (most people
will get the best result from a combination of jogging and sauna, five
hours a day, of which the greater part is spent in the sauna)" (p. 40)
"Another remarkable factor: Due to the large amounts of niacin taken and
due to the heat of the sauna, the program might result in the
elimination of effects of radiation" [no page number given]
(3)
"While on the program, I got all the various symptoms of radiation
sickness - vomiting, flushed and tingling skin. When I continued the
program all this ceased and has not since returned. Now I feel much
more alert - (W.M.)" (pp. 64-65)
"During the Vietnam war I was exposed to deadly gases and poisons,
especially 'agent orange' and some kind of nerve gas. These poisons
were dulling my perceptions and I could not think clearly and logically.
Ever since then I considered my environment to be dangerous. During the
program I was brought out of this condition and these poisons and gases
were completely flushed out. I feel healthy and in control of my body.
Now life is definitely worth living and creating. I can say that there
is hope for the Vietnam veterans - W.B." (p. 71)
"I have suffered from a skin fungus disease for about 18 years, that
disappeared when I did the program. All my most important senses -
sight, taste, smell etc. - also seemed to improve - PG" (p. 73)
From these quotes it is quite clear that the ambition of Narconon is not
limited to the treatment of drug abuse, but that they aim for more
universal effects. As for the rest, the quotes speak for themselves.
_Contacts with Narconon_
In the early stages of my inquiry, I was contacted by the chairman for
Narconon Europe, Bosse Persson, Eslov, who later sent documentation
and certificates ["intyg" - written and signed statements] regarding the
treatment program of Narconon. I have also during spring of '96 been
contacted by Hakan Larsson, Narconon, who via my secretary tried to
gain access to my office room, in order to find out what basic
information Socialstyrelsen had supplied me with in this matter.
I have gone through the material I received from Narconon. It consists
of four American certificates regarding the treatment program, two
Swedish doctor's certificates regarding the absence of side effects, and
finally a file of
(4)
off-print and congress material, especially regarding the
part of the treatment program that concerns exposure to environmental
toxins.
The four American certificates were written by Shelley L Beckman, PhD,
Megan Shields, MD, Forest Tennant, MD and Alfonso Poredes, MD.
Shelley Beckman lack medical education and the main sphere of interest
of Megan Shields is chlorated pesticides. Forest Tennant, on the other
hand, has extensive scientific merits in the field of addiction
medicine, with 166 publications on the abuse of alcohol, cocaine,
opiates, anabolic steroides, etc. and he has among other things
administrated drug abuse issues in the field of sports. However, he has
among all of his publications not one that concerns the evaluation of
Narconon's treatment program. The main point of his certificate is:
"Narconon may have its faults but it has attempted to use nutritional
supplementation, exercises, saunas and simple educational courses to
better the alcoholic and addict" (appendix 2). Like Shelley Beckman he
states that drugs are excreted in sweat, but this is pharmacologically
self-evident and has no quantitative importance (see below).
Two Swedish physicians, medical doctors Tom Norman and Ture
Alander have at the request of Narconon certified that the treatment
has not resulted in any side effects (appendix 2). They do not state
what side effects have been screened for, nor how this was done.
-----(continued in part 2)
-------(part 2 continued)
The file of documentation I received from Bo Persson conforms mostly
to "International Conference on Human Detoxification", Dec 1-2, 1995
in Los Angeles. Much of the material concerns aspects of environmental
toxicology (such as how PCB, PBB and chlorated pesticides are affected
by the Hubbard treatment). Narconon claim their treatment program is
effective also for detoxification from these substances, but I judge
this question to lie outside of my mandate. If an evaluation of this
aspect of the treatment program is desired, I would like to refer it to
a suitable unit of environmental medicine. To do such an evaluation it
would be necessary to, among other things, review what methods of
analysis were used for these substances.
Apart from the material on environmental toxicology, the file contains
an overview of the scientific literature that supports Ron Hubbard's
detoxification method (appendix 3).
(5)
Here one finds correct references to the well-known fact that
psycotropic substances, both on acute and repeated intake will
accumulate in fat. Thus there is a reference to the classic publication
in 1957 by Nobel Prize laurate Julius Axelrod, who showed that LSD
accumulates in fat tissue.
Then follows a discussion from a theoretical point of view on how to
reduce the amount of "bioaccumulated" products in the body. There is
no mention of the vital fact that fat soluble drugs must first be
redistributed from tissues to the bloodstream and then metabolized
(broken down) before they can be excreted, and that there are presently
no known methods for speeding up these processes. (One exception is
the administration for several days to weeks of certain other drugs,
e.g. phenobarbital and rifampicin who speed up the metabolism of certain
drugs.) The important biological function of drug metabolism processes
is to transform fat soluble drugs to water soluble products. This is
achieved by, among other things, a series of oxidations, so called
hydroxylations, followed by conjugation with endogenous substances, for
example glucaronic acid and sulphate. In this way, e.g. psychoactive
drugs can be transformed into a number of metabolic products that
eventually reach a high enough level of water solubility to be
spontaneously excreted and in high concentrations via the urine.
About thirty years ago it was believed, even within established
medicine, that by enforced excretion methods, for example enforced
diuresis, it would be possible to remove substances affecting the
central nervous system, such as barbiturates. In the middle of the
1960s, considerable effort was taken to remove this obsolete treatment
method from Swedish medical care. The only possibility to noticably
affect the excretion of such drugs by enforced diuresis is to heavily
manipulate the pH of the urine, which in itself may cause side effects.
This method is effective only for a small number of drugs, and that is
when the so called pKa-value (acid-base properties) of the drug is close
to the physiological pH (see for example my chapter on interactions in
FASS [the Swedish standard medical drug encyclopaedia] ).
Then the detoxification program of Ron Hubbard is described, which has
been designed to mobilize and speed up the elimination of foreign
substances stored in fat. It is claimed that the program is well
founded in medical literature. There is however no scientific reference
given for this statement.
(6)
The components of the program are described as exercise,
sauna, vitamin supplements, replacement of fluid lost during sweating,
regular diet, good sleep, etc. It is said that a number of studies show
that exercise, apart from improving circulation in tissues, will also
mobilize fat from tissue depositories and that this mobilization of fat
depositories is followed by a mobilization of the toxins stored in fat
tissue. Here some references are given to animal studies that solely
deal with DDT or PCB.
Regarding the sauna, it is pointed out that mobilizing chemicals from
fat tissue is not desirable unless the elimination is simultaneously
increased. The purpose of the sauna is to increase "heat stress" to
increase circulation in tissues, and to increase elimination of various
compounds through sweat and sebaceous glands. In this context it is
stated that methadone, amphetamines, morphine, etc. has been shown to
occur in human sweat. However, this is self-evident, since all compounds
present in the blood stream can be detected in other body fluids
including sweat. The news is that during the last twenty years, the
methods for analyzing drugs have developed such a sensibility that it is
now possible to detect even very low concentrations (thousands of a
microgram) of foreign substances in body fluids such as sweat, saliva
and also hair and nails (see for example P Kintz, Drug testing in
addicts; A comparison between urine, sweat and hair. Therapeutic Drug
Monitoring 15, 450, 1996). These concentrations are however often very
low compared to the total amount of the drug in the body. For most
psychotropic substances, the amount in the total blood volume is
negligible or very small in comparison to the total amount in the
body. The relationship between the concentration in the rest of the
body, and the concentration in plasma is given by the so called
distribution volume. This is for most psychoactive drugs and abused
substances in the magnitude of several liters per kilogram, which means
that the average concentration in tissues is several times that of the
blood. Consequently, it is impossible to expel such substances from the
body by trying to influence the fraction that is present in the blood
volume, for example by dialysis and enforced diuresis. The
retransportation of the substances from tissues to blood is the speed
limiting factor. In some extreme cases, such as the malaria drug
chloroquine, the distribution volume is 100 L/kg, that is the
concentration in tissues is 100 times higher than the blood
concentration. Chloroquine in tissues is slowly distributed to the
blood, and may therefore with sensitive methods be detected in urine for
up to one year after the termination of treatment.
(7)
Then, however, blood concentrations are "homeopatic", that is so low
that they lack pharmaceutical importance.
This part of the documentation does not contain any quantitative
discussions about how large are the amounts of various drugs that can be
excreted in sweat. To make such estimates would require full metabolic
studies and every drug has to be studied separately, as their pharmaco-
kinetic properties such as distribution volume, half-life, metabolism,
etc. vary. It is thus impossible to generalize.
Regarding the vitamin treatment, it is said that niacin initially will
reduce the mobilization of fatty acids, and then increase it. It is
claimed that this mobilization of free fatty acids is accompanied by a
simultaneous mobilization of chemicals stored in fat. Again there are
references made to animal studies regarding environmental toxins.
Regarding vitamin supplementation, it is claimed that this part of the
treatment program among other things aims at restoring the vitamins lost
through sweating (no figures given). Another aim is to compensate for
vitamin deficiency that has arisen in connection to various types of
drug abuse. Yet another aim seems to be the prevention of vitamin
deficiency, as this is said to prolong the metabolism of drugs. This is
also an unsubstantiated claim from the point of view of human
pharmacology, just like the claim that vitamin supplementation could
benefit the metabolism of various chemicals.
In the part about results of the treatment program, it is claimed that
it will reduce the levels of various fat stored chemicals. There are
again references to works on environmental toxins in Vietnam veterans,
but no reference to drug abuse substances.
-------------(continued in part 3)
-------(part 3 continued)
Here is also an unpublished article by Megan Shields, Shelley Beckman,
Forest Tennant and Michael Wistner: "Reduction of Drug Residues:
Applications in drug rehabilitation", presented on the 23rd annual
meeting of American Public Health Association (appendix 4). 249 clients
with drug abuse problems have been asked to estimate their own symptoms
before and after the Hubbard treatment, and on 8 clients the
concentrations of drug abuse substanses have been measured in urine and
sweat, before and during the treatment.
(8)
The first part of the study may be disregarded, since it is totally
uncontrolled and open to various forms of bias. The observations on the
8 drug addicts concern determination of drug metabolites. It is not
clear what method of analysis has been used. There are mentions of both
"fluorescent immunoassay" and "polarized fluorescent immunoassay".
Probably this refers to fluorescence polarization immunoassay (FPIA),
that is Abbot's method which is used in Sweden for screening. It is
semi-quantitative and unspecific, that is it measures the sum of active
substance and inactive metabolites. Four addicts had smoked cocaine,
three used amphetamine and diazepam frequently, and one used both
cocaine and heroine. Here drug metabolites were detected in sweat and
urine in seven of the eight clients. In five, a quantitatively
unimportant increase of the drug metabolite concentration in sweat and
urine was shown after the start of the detoxification program. The
graphs shown in this unpublished work are also to be found, but with
totally incorrect scales, in the magazine "Narconon-Nytt" [Narconon
News] number 3, 1995, that has also been sent to me (appendix 5).
There, the drug concentration is given in the unit microgram/milliliter,
while the unit in the original publication is nanogram/milliliter, that
is 1000 times less. The Narconon article is obviously unreasonable,
since it would mean that one of the patients, if he urinated one liter
per day, would excrete one gram of opiates per day for more than one
week!
The correct graphs (appendix 4) show, for both cocaine metabolites and
bensodiazepine metabolites, that the concentrations in sweat lie below
or on the same level as those for urine.
Starting from these graphs, it is possible to calculate the excretion of
drugs through sweat and urine, and for the sake of simplicity we will
assume 1 liter of urine and 1 liter of sweat per 24 hrs.
Client 1 then excretes a total of about 3.7 mg cocain metabolites,
probably [bensoylekgonin] during days 7-47. According to Martindale a
"normal dose" of cocaine is 8-16 mg per 24 hrs.
(9)
Client 2 has during day 2 the concentration 1000 ng/ml in both sweat and
urine. During days 11-14 the total amount excreted is approx. 0.06 mg
cocaine metabolites.
Client 8 has taken bensodiazepines which makes a statement more
difficult, since one does not know what bensodiazepine the person took.
The analysis is calibrated with nordiazepam, but all bensodiazepin
metabolites have a lower cross reactivity. The person excretes the
equivalent of 3.4 mg nordiazepam during days 1-13. All observations,
however, fall below the Abbott recommended cut-off level of 200 ng/ml.
That limit should be adequate for oxazepam and diazepam abuse, which is
the most common in the US.
Client 9 excretes the equivalent of 1.3 mg of nordiazepam in urine only
during days 1-7, and 2.3 mg in both sweat and uring during days 7-16.
From these calculations it is clear that it is impossible to noticably
influence the body concentrations of these drug abuse substances through
enforced sweating (sauna). The speed limiting steps of elimination of
these substances are the redistribution from tissues to blood, and the
metabolism in the liver to inactive metabolites. To speed up the
excretion of inactive metabolites of for example cocaine and diazepam is
of no pharmaceutical importance, since they do not affect the body
anyway.
_The vitamin and mineral components of the treatment program_
The subproblem of the vitamin and mineral components of the treatment
program lie within the field of competence of Livsmedelsverket
[National Food Administration]. Therefore, I have turned to them for
their point of view on the doses used of vitamins and minerals. A
statement has been given on 960625 by toxikologiska enheten [Department
of Toxicology], Ulla Beckman Sundh and Helena Hallstrom (appendix 6).
From this it is clear that side effects might be caused by several of
the components, if doses are given according to the treatment program.
(10)
I find it out of the question that vitamins and minerals could have any
pharmacological effect on storage and excretion of drug abuse
substances. They [vitamins etc.] are distributed, bound and eliminated
from the body in totally different ways from drug abuse substances.
Interactions between them are not known. Probably the vitamin part of
the program is built on analogies with for example alcohol abuse, where
vitamin deficiencies may occur.
International search for documentation on the treatment program_
I have, with the help of lakemedelsinformationscentralen [the
information central on pharmaceutics] of Huddinge hospital, made an
international literature search in order to find documentation on the
treatment program. The search covered the last 30 years, and it includes
the experts referred to by Narconon (see p. 4). No documentation apart
from that sent to me by Narconon has been found.
I have also consulted the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Maryland,
USA (Dr Peter J. Delany) by phone, and got the answer: "In response to
your request for information about the Narconon program. We know of no
peer reviewed scientific literature to support this program."
_Summary_
As evident from this compilation, there is no documentation to show that
the Hubbard method of detoxification from drug abuse conforms to
scientific standards and medical experience [vetenskap och beprovad
erfarenhet]. On the contrary, one may from a pharmacological point of
view strongly question the idea of using enforced sweating to expel
drugs from the body. The risks and side effects of the treatment method
have also not been evaluated in a serious way. Methods that have not
been evaluated and/or rest on incorrect theories should not be used in
Swedish medical care. Medical doctors are to prescribe vitamins in the
doses recommended by Livsmedelsverket [National Food Administration],
and only on the indications approved by Livsmedelsverket and as stated
in FASS.
[signed]
Folke Sjoqvist
Professor, Scientific Advisor
in Clinical Pharmacology
----------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------
"Somebody some day will say 'this is illegal'. By then be sure the
orgs say what is legal or not."
-- L. Ron Hubbard, HCOPL 4 January 1966--
---------------------------------------------------------------------
********* I'm so entheta I mock up *your* reactive mind too *********
*********** http://www.users.wineasy.se/noname/index.htm ************
* Multimedia: http://www.users.wineasy.se/noname/multimed/index.htm *
******** The.Galacti...@ThePentagon.com (Anti-Cult) ********
***** Public PGP key: http://www.users.wineasy.se/noname/pgp.htm ****
---------------------------------------------------------------------
© Anti-Cult ®
On Thu, 18 Jun 1998 21:14:49 GMT.
nn...@earthlink.net.
From: Deja News - The Leader in Internet Discussion.
Wrote on the subject: Narconon:
>
>
> It came to my attention that Chris Owens has put up a set of web pages on
>Narconon which have been updated as of early June. At a quick glance it seems
>quite out of date and selectively leaves out relevant data.
>
> While it is true there are Narconon centers in the United States, Canada and
>Europe, he leaves out the fact that there are now centers in Mexico, South
>America and many in the Commonwealth of Independent States.
>
> While it is true Federal income tax records show that Narconon,
>Massachusetts (a public benefit non-profit corporation) earned $715,771 from
>school lectures alone in the period between 1989 and 1994 - what this does
>not state is that it resulted in 475,000 students receiving drug education
>lectures in New England costing $1.51 per student.
>
> To put this much effort into a web site that attempts to discredit a
>workable drug rehab program makes it loud and clear that someone is more
>interested in getting people on drugs than off. Narconon has enlightened
>thousands of youth around the world on the harmful effects of drugs and its
>program gets people off drugs for good.
>
> The facts and the intentions of this "new" site are suspect at best.
>
> S. Beckmann
> Narconon Research Director
It has come to my attention Shelley, that you have posted many of these
messages. I however, will only post two replies. Or one for each new
from address you use.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1)
(2)
(3)
_Contacts with Narconon_
(4)
(5)
(6)
(7)
(8)
(9)
(10)
_Summary_
LilAlex742
Chris Owen says:
>For those interested in looking at the site, its URL is:
>http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~cowen/essays/narconon/narconon.html
And, it is a very nice site, indeed. Please take a look if you haven't.
LilAlex
It is claimed that the program (Narconon) is well founded
Rebecca Jo McLaughlin
Jim Lewis (j...@wizard.ssl.berkeley.edu) wrote:
: Funny that of these "numerous" publications, none of them seem to be in
: Medline's database...I bet many of them were conference proceedings, which
: often involve little or no peer review prior to publication. You can
: see one at http://www.hit.net/~narconon/sauninfo.htm :
In conferences that I'm familiar with, any member of the sponsoring
organization may make a presentation. That's the point of these
conferences - to show off your data and check out other peoples'. You can
get a refereed pub out of a such a preliminary report - but again, that
means your presentation data must be submitted for the review of your
colleagues.
It would be nice to know if her presentation was (a) invited, (b) oral,
or (c) poster, and what the membership requirements are for the APHA.
: I find it extremely hard to believe that that would be anywhere close to
: clinically significant! It lets Narconon say that, indeed, the drugs are
: eliminated in sweat, but they don't tell you that it only happens in
: barely-detectable trace quantities.
Yup. Yet another scintillating example of No Science in Scientology.
Beck
Cornelius Krasel
Jim Lewis <j...@wizard.ssl.berkeley.edu> wrote:
> I just searched the Medline and PsycInfo databases. No hits from
> PsycInfo, but I found this in Medline:
>
> Shields M; Beckmann SL.
> Safety and side effects of sustained-release niacin [letter; comment].
> Jama, 1994 Aug 17, 272(7):514; discussion 514-5.
> Pub type: COMMENT; LETTER.
>
> I presume "Shields M" is Megan Shields. Sounds like they're probably
> discussing the Purif here...
Not necessarily. High doses of niacin are used in the treatment of
hypercholesterinemia. (Then, given the author constellation, you are
probably right :-)
--Cornelius.
PS: Chris Owen's Narconon sites are at
http://wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de/~cowen/essays/narconon/narconon.html
--
/* Cornelius Krasel, U Wuerzburg, Dept. of Pharmacology, Versbacher Str. 9 */
/* D-97078 Wuerzburg, Germany email: pha...@rzbox.uni-wuerzburg.de SP4 */
/* "Science is the game we play with God to find out what His rules are." */
Michael T. Richter
abl...@my-dejanews.com wrote in message
<6mbujg$jqf$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>...
> It came to my attention that Chris Owens has put up a set of web pages on
>Narconon which have been updated as of early June. At a quick glance it
seems
>quite out of date and selectively leaves out relevant data.
> While it is true there are Narconon centers in the U.S., Canada and
Europe
>he leaves out the fact that there are now centers in Mexico, South America
>and in several different countries in the Confederation of Independent
States
>(formerly, the Soviet Union).
> While it is true Federal income tax records show that Narconon,
>Massachusetts (a public benefit non-profit corporation) earned $715,771
from
>school lectures alone in the period between 1989 and 1994, what it does not
>state is that this resulted in 475,000 students receiving drug education
>lectures in New England costing $1.51 per student.
> To put this much effort into a web site that attempts to discredit a
>workable drug rehab program makes it loud and clear that someone is more
>interested in getting people on drugs than off. Narconon has enlightened
>thousands of youth around the world on the harmful effects of drugs, and
its
>program gets people off drugs for good.
> The facts and the intentions of this "new" site are suspect at best.
> Narconon Research Director
> Shelley Beckmann, Ph.D.
Given the fact that I have *repeatedly* asked for citations of the claimed
peer-reviewed studies demonstrating the effectiveness of Narconon's
techniques, and given that I have *repeatedly* been given a runaround in the
form of "dog ate our homework" excuses and being shunted off from one person
to another, I rather doubt that Narconon is a "workable drug rehab program".
*Real* rehab programs are all too eager to prove themselves. Narconon
evades every time it is asked a clear question.
The facts and intentions of Narconon are suspect at best.
--
Michael T. Richter
m...@ottawa.com
http://www.igs.net/~mtr
William Barwell
In article <6mbuji$jqg$1...@nnrp1.dejanews.com>, <abl...@my-dejanews.com> wrote:
>
>
> It came to my attention that Chris Owens has put up a set of web pages on
>Narconon which have been updated as of early June. At a quick glance it seems
>quite out of date and selectively leaves out relevant data.
Here we go again. We have had a lot of information from respectable
researchers that Narconon is a crock. We have had lots of respctable
reporters who have examined Narconon and found it grandly overstates
what minor positives it mighthave and utterly refuses to admit its
many faiulres.
The "science" in Narconon's "purification rundown" is a crock.
it is pseudoscience, and it is baloney.
> While it is true there are Narconon centers in the U.S., Canada and Europe
>he leaves out the fact that there are now centers in Mexico, South America
>and in several different countries in the Confederation of Independent States
>(formerly, the Soviet Union).
Just because a cult peddles a quack drug cure program world wide (and
lied about being behind Narconon for years) does not mean it is
not quackery, is useful, nor does it mean it is credible or laudable.
>
> While it is true Federal income tax records show that Narconon,
>Massachusetts (a public benefit non-profit corporation) earned $715,771 from
>school lectures alone in the period between 1989 and 1994, what it does not
>state is that this resulted in 475,000 students receiving drug education
>lectures in New England costing $1.51 per student.
>
$715,771 wasted. Worse than DARE.
> To put this much effort into a web site that attempts to discredit a
>workable drug rehab program makes it loud and clear that someone is more
>interested in getting people on drugs than off.
What a cheap little libel.
********* tripe deleted **********
> Narconon Research Director
> Shelley Beckmann, Ph.D.
How funny. All Scientology's pet "Narconon Research Director"
can do is ladel out truely scummy libels.
Numerous critics have scanned the literature closely looking
for Narconon's 'research'. Ain't any! As Narconon's alledged
"research director", let me challenge you.
Show us any research that backs any of Narconon's more idiotic
claims that underlie Narconon's use of Hubbard's Purification rundown.
Does LSD collect in fatty tissues? Can this be removed through
the swaet glands in a sauna?
Show us a list of research from Narconon that has been published
in bona fide refereed professional journals.
Show us a list of actual Narconon locations where Narconon
has facilities, and is licensed.
Show us how many people have taken Narconon's programs and have
actually managed to stay drug free.
Show us where they have submitted their results to bona fide
professional scrutiny of any sorts.
Wandering around and blathering at a crowd of nose pickin'
school kids that drugs are baaaaaaaaaaaddd is easy, lots
of programs do it, many aren't that successful. DARE is
a now notorious example. Why should we believe Narconon
is actually effective at anything except absorbing tax payer
money for such programs?
Hard evidence now.
Sorry, libels are not an acceptable substitute.
Show us any real bona fide resaerch at ALL in any journal
dealing with Narconon and any of it programs.
No bafflegab. No libels and name calling and sneering.
No handwaving and empty recitations of how many school
kids you have gabbled at.
Show us hard research to prove Narconon does anything
worthwhile at all.
After all these years, you all have NOTHING.
You just handwave, get self righteous, and libel people.
Not good enough!
Pope Charles
SubGenius Pope Of Houston
Slack!
Zenon Panoussis
/\ndroid
>
> The first of this many posted message had this signature:
>
> >
> > Shelley Beckmann, Ph.D.
> >
>
>
> >
> > S. Beckman
> > Narconon Research Director
> >
>
> Odd how Shelley lost a Ph.D and changed the spelling of the last name
> between posts.
>
> "Narconon Research Director" Hahahahaha! Now there's a gold-bricking job!
> Or (as I smile) can we actually see some of the results of this
> peer-reviewed research?
Yes, you're right about the PhD and yes, you can see some results
of peer-review of this research. Quote from a review of the Narconon
programme by Folke Sjöqvist, Professor and Scientific Advisor in
Clinical Pharmacology to the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare
(translated by Catarina Pamnell and posted elsewhere in this thread by
Anti-Cult):
I have gone through the material I received from Narconon. It consists
of four American certificates regarding the treatment program, two
Swedish doctor's certificates regarding the absence of side effects, and
finally a file of off-print and congress material, especially regarding
the part of the treatment program that concerns exposure to environmental
toxins.
The four American certificates were written by Shelley L Beckman, PhD,
Megan Shields, MD, Forest Tennant, MD and Alfonso Poredes, MD.
Shelley Beckman lacks medical education and the main sphere of interest
of Megan Shields is chlorated pesticides.
Now taste it: as far as we know, one-fourth of all the "research" that Narconon
could put forward, came from its own staff. And the Narconon Research Director
lacks medical education. Can it get better?
Thank you Shelley for letting us know that you're on Narconon's payroll. Could
you please let us know if Megan, Forest and Alfonso are on the same payroll?
Z
--
oracle@everywhere: The ephemeral source of the eternal truth...
Zenon Panoussis
nn...@earthlink.net skrev:
>
> It came to my attention that Chris Owens has put up a set of web pages on
> Narconon which have been updated as of early June. At a quick glance it seems
> quite out of date and selectively leaves out relevant data.
> [...]
> To put this much effort into a web site that attempts to discredit a
> workable drug rehab program makes it loud and clear that someone is more
> interested in getting people on drugs than off. Narconon has enlightened
> thousands of youth around the world on the harmful effects of drugs and its
> program gets people off drugs for good.
>
> The facts and the intentions of this "new" site are suspect at best.
Dear Shelley
First of all, we would all appreciate it much if you could limit
yourself to posting only one copy per newsgroup of each one of your
articles. Contrary to what Josef Göbbels (and L Ron Hubbard) used
to say, nothing becomes true only because it's repeated over and over
again.
Secondly, no-one is *attempting* to discredit Narconon. Narconon has
already discredited itself well enough and all what Chris is doing
is to let the facts speak for themselves.
Thirdly, the reason why nobody in this newsgroup bothers much about
your organization is that we are busy bringing down your parent
company, the infamous CoS. We have assumed that when we're done with
that, there will be nothing left of Narconon anyway, so there is no
need to invest any effort in Narconon itself. However, people in
this newsgroup have been proved to have a very low tolerance of
empty claims, arrogant manners and know-it-all attitude. I would
therefore suggest that, unless you wish to focus the newsgroup's
attention to Narconon with all the catastophic results that that
may have, you abstain from postings like the above in the future.
Sincerely yours,
Zenon Panoussis
BTW, Karel, any comments? You are in Narconon's board, aren't you?
Ralph Hilton
On 20 Jun 1998 17:21:27 +0200, Cornelius Krasel
<kra...@wpxx02.toxi.uni-wuerzburg.de> wrote:
>Jim Lewis <j...@wizard.ssl.berkeley.edu> wrote:
>> http://www.hit.net/~narconon/sauninfo.htm :
>>
>> Reduction of Drug Residues: Applications in Drug Rehabilitation
>> Megan Shields, MD, Shelley Beckman, PhD, and R. Michael Wisner
>>
>> Presented at the 123rd Annual Meeting of the American Public Health
>> Association.
>
>[...]
>
>> Typical concentrations of benzodiazepine (i.e. Valium) in sweat look to be
>> around 150 nanograms/milliliter during the purif, per this paper. So if you
>> sweat out, say, 20 liters (!) during the course of the rundown, you'd
>> eliminate a grand total of about 3 milligrams of the drug from your system.
>
>According to my physiology book [1], a man can produce up to 15 liters of
>sweat a day (!) when working heavily in a hot environment. Unfortunately
>the book doesn't give other numbers, such as for being in a sauna.
>
When doing the purif I would generally drink 3 gallons of liquid during the 5
hours. It generally would be unnecessary to go to the toilet during that period.
My weight wouldn't be significantly higher at the end.
Given that a gallon of water weighs 10 pounds one could assume a fluid loss
through sweating of around 3 gallons or 12.5 litres/day.
Over 30 days this would be 375 litres.
--
Ralph Hilton
http://Ralph.Hilton.org
Zenon Panoussis
(KareloJee;-) skrev:
>
> Zenon Panoussis <ora...@xs4all.nl> wrote:
>
> [First two justifications cut]
>
> >Thirdly, the reason why nobody in this newsgroup bothers much about
> >your organization is that we are busy bringing down your parent
> >company, the infamous CoS. We have assumed that when we're done with
> >that, there will be nothing left of Narconon anyway, so there is no
> >need to invest any effort in Narconon itself.
>
> As far as I know each Narconon runs on its own, so that is one thing
> you missed.
No, Karel, I didn't. I'm all too well aware of the standard cellular
structure of the CoS organizations. But as in all other instances,
even here you want to have the pie and eat it. All Narconons are
separate legal bodies, but they all want to profit from any good-
will the common name may carry: they pose as one to the public and
as many to the tax authorities. The drawback of this is that once
the common name carries nothing but bad will, they all go down
anyway. Eating the pie and having it never worked, Hubbard should
have told you so.
> Another thing you missed is that Scientology will be around on this
> planet for a long long time, very much longer than a single lifespan
> or even many lifespans. Narconons will cease to be needed before
> CoS will cease to be needed on this planet.
I don't think I missed anything; on the contrary, I agree completely
with you. Scientology will be around for much longer a time than I
will. I will be forgotten soon after I die, while Scientology will
be laughed at for centuries to come. I gladly grant you that.
> I am afraid there will be nothing left of you except maybe a speck of
> dust by the time Narconons will cease to exist. Your only salvation
> is the acceptance of your spiritual existence and taking the
> responsibilities which go with it and which you seem to be denying so
> desperately.
Hey, give credit where credit is due. I have accepted my spiritual
existence and I have taken the responsibilities that go with it,
i.e. the global dissemination of the NOTs. All the denying around
is done by you and your CoS associates, who refuse to give me credit
for having produced more OTs in barely two years, than your church
managed to produce in two decenia.
> >However, people in this newsgroup have been proved to have a
> >very low tolerance of empty claims, arrogant manners and know-it-all attitude.
>
> A psychologist would take this as an attempt by you to describe what
> you dislike in yourself Zenon. You could become tollerant, have good
> manners and reach a level called 'Know'.
WOW! Prominent scientologist and board member of Narconon Karel
Jeelof invokes the assumed opinion of "a psychologist" to support
his claim. Sensational, I'd say. Since when are psychologists
authorities Karel? Is your psychologist a Freudian or a behaviourist?
> >I would therefore suggest that, unless you wish to focus the newsgroup's
> >attention to Narconon with all the catastophic results that that
> >may have, you abstain from postings like the above in the future.
>
> Oeps, Zenon..... This is very badly put for various reasons.
> Per Dutch Penal Law this could be called 'Afdreiging' (Art. 318); I
> advice you not do that.
Oh, Karel, don't advise me, just make my day and go report me. I
beg you, go report me. Damn, you're a board member of Narconon,
you have the legal standing to press charges, please go report me.
Think of the beauty of it: you only have to make a simple report,
takes half an hour or so, the police and public prosecutor take
care of all the rest. No lawyers' costs, no bother, no nothing,
just the righteous justification of a court's ruling to your favour.
Why haven't you done it yet?
Or: you hot-air mouth, did you see a lawyer before you posted, or
is it Hubbard that gave you the ultimate knowledge in law as well?
Goddamn it, paragraph 2 says I can't press charges against myself
or otherwise I would. Just to ridicule you again. I'm very sorry I
can't. (Non-Dutch and/or non-lawyer readers: see end of posting)
> Also you should not try to stop Shelley from expressing her opinions
> or posting her information. You violated also the Internet ethnics.
Scieno logic: if you tell your opinion about someone's opinion,
you violate scieno ethics, unless you're a scieno. Scienos have
every right to an opinion, no-one else has. Well, comm-ev me Karel,
I've been unethical again.
> Now, last time we discussed that when I would have to give you legal
> advice again, you should pay me the standard legal fees. Please be so
> kind to do this now by making a donation to the Narconon in Holland
> of $ 100.
We discussed? No, you *said*. All I could give for your legal advise
is one used textbook in the basics of law and legal principles, which
I by now know that you badly need. If you promise to read it, you'll
have it.
Z
===============================================================
For those that have the perverse interest in what the law really
says, or in how scientology tries to pervert it:
Art. 318.
1. Hij die, met het oogmerk om zich of een ander wederrechtelijk
te bevoordelen, door bedreiging met smaad, smaadschrift of
openbaring van een geheim iemand dwingt hetzij tot de afgifte van
enig goed dat geheel of ten dele aan deze of aan een derde
toebehoort, hetzij tot het aangaan van een schuld of het teniet
doen van een inschuld, hetzij tot het ter beschikking stellen van
gegevens met geldswaarde in het handelsverkeer, wordt als schuldig
aan afdreiging, gestraft met gevangenisstraf van ten hoogste drie
jaren of geldboete van de vijfde categorie.
2. Dit misdrijf wordt niet vervolgd dan op klacht van hem tegen
wie het gepleegd is.
Which in English means
1. He who, aiming at gain for himself or another, by way of
libel, libelous print or publication of a secret, forces someone
to give up any property that partially or wholly belongs to him
or to a third person, or to put himself in debt, or to cancel
a credit debt, or to make available data with monetary value
in trade, will be punished as guilty of blackmail with prison
sentence of maximum three years or fine of the fifth order.
2. This offence shall not be prosecuted except upon demand
of him who is its victim.
Anonymous
In article <358EE6AC...@xs4all.nl>, Zenon Panoussis
<ora...@xs4all.nl> wrote:
> > Another thing you missed is that Scientology will be around on this
> > planet for a long long time, very much longer than a single lifespan
> > or even many lifespans. Narconons will cease to be needed before
> > CoS will cease to be needed on this planet.
>
> I don't think I missed anything; on the contrary, I agree completely
> with you. Scientology will be around for much longer a time than I
> will. I will be forgotten soon after I die, while Scientology will
> be laughed at for centuries to come. I gladly grant you that.
Zenon, you ROCK!
Sincerely,
H