Friday, December 11, 2009

Medicine

Yet another reason that Scientology has been in the news is for its beliefs regarding medicines and drugs. In general, news stations tend to paint the picture that Scientology does not allow for any of its members to take any medicines at all. At least, this is the impression that I have received over the years. Part of the reason I took on this topic for my blog was to discover more about this aspect of Scientology.
I found that within the “Handbook of Scientology,” there is quite a strict policy involving medicines and drugs. To the public, Scientologists like to reveal that there is “no problem with Scientologists taking drugs prescribed by a physician.” However, this view of medicines can be altered, as the site claims that no one truly knows how certain drugs work or may alter the mind. Other drugs, especially, “the use of street drugs or psychiatric mind-altering drugs, is forbidden." I understand this part. First of all, in most places, mind-altering drugs are illegal, and second of all, to be high while discovering one’s spirituality and higher state of being is an awareness that can mistaken if done while on drugs.
The part of Scientology’s medicine policy that I cannot agree with, however, is the section that forbids pain-killing drugs and anti-depressants. The site claims that painkillers are “derived by accidental discoveries that ‘such and so depresses pain’…the effects of existing compounds are not uniform in result and often have very bad side effects.” They completely disregard all science. Instead, the leaders claim that pain is nothing more than “mental image pictures created by the thetan which press against and affect the body.” They use the following graphics of a figure with squiggly lines to prove their point:


http://www.scientologyhandbook.org/img/p259_1.jpg



http://www.scientologyhandbook.org/img/p259_2.jpg


Therefore, Scientology, concludes, members should not allowed aspirin or other painkillers. They will all ultimately become aspirin addicts.

If the Catholic Church can come to terms with the discoveries of Darwin, I would hope that Scientologists can someday realize the positive effects of Advil.


http://www.scientologyhandbook.org/img/p259_2.jpg

http://www.scientologyhandbook.org/img/p259_1.jpg

http://www.scientologyhandbook.org/SH7_2A.HTM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_claims_in_Scientology_doctrine#Scientology_and_mainstream_medicine

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