See http://narconon-exposed.org for the facts about Scientology Inc.'s
dangerous and ineffective "drug 'treatment' program."
The Purification Rundown -reported in IF magazine l998
Lori Bishop & Sarah Hughes
I.F. Magazine
Jan-Feb 1998
Jerry Whitefield sat in his doctor's waiting room with his head in his
hands. The news wasn't good. The medical tests showed that Whitfield's
liver was damaged. It would never by fully functional again. What was
less clear was why.
Twenty-five years ago, Whitfield had suffered from Hepatitis B, a
possible cause of his liver ailment. But he also had been a member of
the "Church" of Scientology for 10 years. During that time, he had
undergone what is called the "purification rundown," a regimen that
the "Church" claims will "assist in releasing and flushing out of the
body the accumulated toxic residue which may be lodged in the
tissues."
The controversial program puts a member through two or more weeks of
running, lengthy sauna treatments, a special diet, and high doses of
vitamins and minerals, including niacin. Participants are advised to
consult a physician before starting, but often the advice comes from
an in-house doctor who is a member of the "Church" of Scientology.
Whitfield was not disqualified despite a liver that already might have
been weakened by his bout with hepatitis.
"I was worried that the problems with my liver were connected to
having taken niacin" in large dosages, Whitfield said in an interview.
"I couldn't prove that it was the niacin, but . . . "There were also
the four-hour sessions in the sauna for a period of 30 days. "A friend
of my wife collapsed from the heat," he recalled.
Since 1978, about 100,000 individuals have undergone this
"purification rundown" and "Church" officials defend the practice.
According to John Carmichael, head of the "Church" center in New York
City, the "rundown" is "immensely useful" and has caused no "real
problems that I've heard of."
But some "Church" critics allege that the procedures are rooted in
scientific quackery and put dangerous pressures on the body through a
combination of physical exertion, heat and heavy ingestion of
vitamins. The critics contend that the "rundown" endangers the health
of trusting "Church" members, including celebrities drawn to the
"Church's" promises of self-improvement.
Last June, the supermarket tabloid Star trumpeted a story attributing
ailments of 29-year-old Lisa Marie Presley, Elvis Presley's daughter,
to a Scientology "cleansing" ritual.
On Dec. 1, and article in The New York Times highlighted another
controversy about Scientology's unorthodox handling of medical
problems. A year earlier, a 36-year-old Scientologist with apparent
psychological problems checked out of a Florida hospital and into the
care of Scientologists who kept her under a 24-hour watch at a hotel
they owned in Clearwater, Fla. Two-and-a-half weeks later, the woman
-- Lisa McPherson -- died.
The county medical examiner stated that McPherson was deprived of
water for at least her last five to 10 days and died of a blood clot
brought on by dehydration. The Scientologists disputed the examiner's
finding and rejected responsibility for the death. But the case has
focused more attention on other treatments prescribed by the "Church"
to its followers, including the "purification rundown."
The "purification rundown" was invented by L. Ron Hubbard, a popular
science fictions writer who founded the "Church" of Scientology in Los
Angeles in 1954. Hubbard, who died of a stroke in 1986, argued that
toxins ingested and absorbed by the body -- from street drugs to food
additives, from perfumes to radiation -- remain as harmful residue
until they are removed through the purification process.
Hubbard expressed particular concern about LSD, which he claimed
"apparently stays in the system, lodging in the tissues, and mainly
the fatty tissues of the body, and is liable to go into action again
-- giving the person unpredictable 'trips' -- even years after the
person has come off LSD." (For more details, see Hubbard's Clear Body
Clear Mind: The Effective Purification Program.)
But some medical experts question Hubbard's grasp of nutritional
science as well as his supposed cure. They warn that the program's
extremes -- long hours in a sauna after running and massive dosages of
niacin and other vitamins -- can be harmful.
"I've talked with several psychotropic pharmacologists -- specialists
in psychotropic drugs like LSD," said Michael Glade, a doctor with the
American College of Nutrition and coordinator of the college's Council
on Endocrinology and Minerals. "None of them thinks there's very much
of any psychotropic drug stored in fat. So there isn't much to release
in the first place. And if you're going to say that someone is going
to go on an LSD trip from burning or releasing LSD stored in their fat
tissues, those people would have died long before of an LSD overdose"
since the volumes originally ingested would have been huge.
Hubbard himself was no scientist, just a science fiction author. In
his public writings, Hubbard never explained how he conducted his
studies: how many subjects he used or whether he had a control group
-- data a trained scientist would be expected to provide.
Nonetheless, Hubbard's authoritative writing style, which made his
1950 book, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, a
long-running best-seller, added seeming legitimacy to the program.
After his death, Hubbard's theories gained an aura of dogma within
Scientology as the "Church" simultaneously grew richer and more
combative against critics. Aggressive use of libel law silenced
questions about the safety of the "rundown" and other practices.
Yet current medical opinion auggests caution, even over the milder
parts of the "purification" regimen, such as 30 minutes a day of
running to "get the blood circulating deeper into the tissues where
toxic residuals are lodged." Though running is a popular exercise for
many people, Dr. Stanley Wallach, executive director of the American
College of Nutrition, argued that "making a blanket advocacy, not
knowing the cardiovascular competence of the patient, can be
dangerous."
Even riskier, Wallach said, was putting an individual who just
finished a long run in a sauna for four hours or more at temperatures
of 140 to 180 degrees Fahrenheit. Hubbard's theory was that heavy
sweating could help purge the toxins. "The impurities which have been
freed up by the increased circulation [from the running] can now be
dispelled from the system and leave the body through the pores,"
Hubbard wrote. "So where one is doing the Purification program, one
should be very careful to ensure that actual sweating occurs and in
volume."
Safety standards for saunas, however, warn that a person should not
exceed 30 minutes in a sauna and that anyone with poor health should
consult a physician. Wallach called the lengthy sauna sessions "a
dangerously excessive time," which could lead to hyperthermia, heat
exhaustion, salt or potassium depletion and heat stroke.
Hubbard did include advice for copping with the potential health
hazards, but medical experts view the home-style remedies as failing
to grasp the seriousness of the conditions. For heat exhaustion, for
instance, Hubbard wrote that "when a person gets too warm or begins
feeling faint, should the body temperature get too high, the
recommendation is to go out and take a cool shower and then go back
into the suana."
For heat stroke, a potentially life-threatening condition, Hubbard
suggested checking a first-aid manual, putting the person in a
gradually cooled shower and administering fluids, salt, potassium
gluconate or bioplasma. A trip to the hospital was not mentioned.
In an interview, Scientology leader Carmichael confirmed that there
was no specific medical supervision of participants in the sauna
program. But he added that people "do it with a twin, so that if there
are any problems, somebody's there. If you fainted, you wouldn't be
left lying on the floor."
Carmichael said he underwent the program himself and experienced some
initial fogginess of the brain, which he blamed on drugs he had taken
in the past. "But eventually, my mind became clear and I could think
clearly again," he added. Educated Vitamins
Others who subjected themselves to the "purification rundown"
complained of more severe complications. "Two weeks after I had
finished the program, my appendix burst," said Dennis Erlich, a former
"Church" member. "I also suffered from hyperthermia. Since then, I
frequently break out into sweats for no reason."
As part of the cleansing process, Hubbard also recommended the
drinking of large volumes of water and the ingestion of vitamin and
mineral supplements. Hubbard called niacin the "educated vitamin" and
claimed that "taken in sufficient quantities, niacin appears to break
up and unleash LSD, marijuana and other drugs and poisons from the
tissues and cells . . .
"I have seen a full-blown case of skin cancer turn on and run out on
niacin dosages . . . Other lesser manifestations that may turn on with
niacin are hives, flu symptoms, gastroenteritis, aching bones, upset
stomach or a fearful or terrified condition." The "purification
rundown" recommends niacin dosages starting at 100 milligrams and
rising to 5,000 milligrams.
But critics contend that the recommended high dosages were potentially
toxic themselves and actually cause some of the ailments that Hubbard
claimed were being driven from the body. "By the time you get up to
3,000 milligrams, you have a high incidence of very severe facial
flushing," said Michael Glade of the American College of Nutrition. "A
lot of people think that means they're purging themselves of some bad
stuff. [But it is] an adverse reaction, not a desirable response."
Glade expressed concern, too, about recommended high dosages of other
vitamins, particularly the levels of vitamins A and D. The Scientology
program recommends a top level of vitamin A at 50,000 IU a day. Yet,
according to Glade, vitamin A is toxic starting at 20,000 IU. "People
who have been somewhat abusive of drugs or alcohol have enough liver
function compromise that 20,000 IU a day for a couple of weeks could
be fatal," Glade said.
High dosages of vitamin D also could hurt people over 40, Glade said.
"That level of vitamin D [2,000 IU a day] for a couple of weeks will
actually accelerate the person's next heart attack or stroke. It will
interact with the average wear and tear of the aorta and the cardiac
valves to form crystals and create hardening of the arteries."
Another questionable aspect of the rundown is the intake of oils or
what the "Church" calls the "Have-Waste Theory." By consuming clean
oils or fats, the theory goes, people could replace older fatty
tissues, which Hubbard believed contained toxins from drugs. To this
end, the "Church" recommends consuming a combination of safflower,
soy, walnut and peanut oils.
But medical experts again question the validity of the theory. "If
you're intaking the oils while you're doing the exercise regimen, then
the oils that you intake will be burned first and the other, older
oils will stay in your body," said Glade. "And if you're consuming
them while not exercising, that oil will be stored, and it won't make
any difference what fat burns when." Science Fiction
The "Church" of Scientology does include some cautionary advice to
participants. On its copyright page, Clear Body Clear Mind includes
the disclaimer: "The Purification program cannot be construed as a
recommendation of medical treatment or medication and it is not
professed as a physical handling for bodies nor is any claim made to
that effect. There are no medical recommendations or claims for the
Purification program or for any of the vitamin or mineral regimens
described in this book."
The "Church" also marshal some doctors to support the "purification
rundown," but often these physicians themselves have ties to the
"Church". The "Church" supplied us a report entitled "Summaries of
Published Papers Regarding the Hubbard Detoxification Method." But of
the seven journal articles listed, three were co-authored by Megan
Shields, a doctor who wrote the introduction to Clear Body Clear Mind
and has close ties to the "Church".
Another cited article did not show up on two major indexes of medical
journals which we examined. MedLine, an on-line database, draws from
3,500 of the most important medical journals, and Ulrich's
International Periodicals Directory contains information on 165,000
serials published throughout the world. The three other journal
entries on the "Church's" list did not appear on MedLine, but were
listed in Ulrich's.
Another problem is the apparent confusion among some "Church" members
in distinguishing between Hubbard's religious views and his
science-fiction fantasies. In the mid-1960s, according to some
ex-followers, Hubbard taught that humans were made of clusters of
spirits -- or "thetans" -- that were banished to earth some 75 million
years ago by a cruel galactic ruler name Xenu. Hubbard supposedly saw
these thetans as a cause for human unhappiness which needed to be
brought under control.
"If it had just been concerned with all of Hubbard's scifi rubbish,
Scientology would not be so harmful," argued ex-member Dennis Erlich.
"But the problem was that as the "Church" became more established, the
organization became more authoritarian and essentially dangerous.
Those who disagreed with Hubbard paid the price."
Jerry Whitfield, the former "Church" member with the damaged liver,
blamed the "Church" for holding to Hubbard's outdated theories and
ignoring new medical evidence on vitamin intake. "They ignored the
potential for liver failure within the program," he. "I'm suffering
the consequences of that."
Erlich and Whitfield are only two of many former "Church" members who
have criticized the "Church" of Scientology and the "purification
rundown." But many other ex-members will not talk publicly, because
the litigious "Church" has made examples out of other critics by suing
them.
Many news organizations also are hesitant to question the practices of
the "Church" of Scientology, apparently for the same reason.
Note -Many articles with regard to the Purification Run-Down on
Google. The IF magazine has gone by the wayside of many good
magazines. Bob Parry -news on Consortiumnews.com
--
http://desertphile.org
The I.C.R. Cult Exposed: http://holysmoke.org/icr-cult.htm
"Scientology: the 'science' of making money." http://holysmoke.org/theta.htm