The Tragic death of Jett Travlolta

I do not want to sensationalize this story but I think the Scientology part needs examining. From Religion News Blog.


Jett Travolta’s death shines spotlights on cult’s quackery

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ReligionNewsBlog.com • Item 23123 • Posted: Monday January 5, 2009

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More articles on this topic: Quackery, Scientology
The most unethical cult on earth is in the spotlights again — but not with the type of publicity it prefers.

The tragic death of John Travolta’s son may or may not have been related to Scientology’s quackery — but given that cult’s insane approach to anything health-related, the Travolta’s adherence to this alleged ‘religion’ can not have helped.

Elizabeth Snead at the LA Times provides a good overview of the controversy:

Avid critics of John Travolta’s church, the Church of Scientology, are now linking to a website that eerily predicted his son Jett’s death in 2007.

The critics claim that Jett was autistic and was not given the proper diagnosis and/or treatments because Scientology disapproves of psychiatric and drug treatment of autism, also rejecting psychiatry as a pseudo-science.

- Source: Scientology critics cite 2007 prediction of Jett Travolta’s death, Elizabeth Snead, LA Times, Jan. 4, 2009 — Summarized by Religion News Blog
Do follow each of the links in that item to additional information. You’ll see why Damian Thompson at the Telegraph (UK), concludes:

I sense that a major story is in the process of breaking. I could be wrong, and maybe I’m being exploitative. But if certain questions need answering, then - with all respect to the bereaved parents - they must be asked.

- Source: Anti-Scientologists post link to website ‘predicting Jett Travolta’s death’, Damian Thompson, Telegraph (UK), Jan. 4, 2009 — Summarized by Religion News Blog
Owen Thomas at Gawker is more direct:

The tragic death of John Travolta’s teenage son Jett could spell the end of Scientology, sci-fi author L. Ron Hubbard’s loopy, medicine-hating cult from the 1950s.

Jett’s parents, Travolta and Kelly Preston, are both “clear” — an exalted, expensively attained status in Scientology. Critics of Scientology have long known that the pseudo-religion, based on Hubbard’s Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, discourages adherents from seeking medical help for problems they deem “psychosomatic.” That old line about it being all in your head forms the basis of Scientology’s weird belief system; most problems, even if they manifest themselves physically, are spiritual in nature, stemming from the patient’s “reactive mind.” Even aspirin is deemed a mood-altering drug to be avoided — too bad if you take it to prevent blood clots.

Hence the controversy over Jett Travolta’s apparent death from a head injury, likely incurred after he suffered a seizure in the Bahamas condo where the Travolta family and their two nannies were staying.
[...]

- Source: Time to Audit Scientology’s Anti-Medicine Stance, Owen Thomas, Gawker, Jan. 4, 2009 — Summarized by Religion News Blog

Scientology’s Quackery
• Medical claims within Scientology’s secret teachings

• Scientology verses Medicine

• The healing claims of Scientology



This is from a former Scientologist:

What Scientology will probably do about the tragic death of Jett Travolta.

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Scientology and the death of Jett Travolta.

The news of the tragic death of Jett Travolta today is a sad event indeed.
My sincere condolences go to the whole family and I hope they can somehow eventually turn this situation into something positive in the medium-long term. Life has ways of bringing the sunshine back after dark clouds have lifted.

For those fans and media who will be trying to come to a real understanding of what will happen with the John Travolta, Kelly Preston and Scientology with regard to this, I can offer some educated guesses based on a very long term (24 years) devoted experience and membership in Scientology. [NOTE: I left Scientology in 1997 after severe "irreconcilable differences" prevented me from wanting to continue, so I am not a proponent of Hubbard or of Scientology now. Indeed, I sued Scientology for fraud and other matters in 1998, but my extensive experiences of how things work in the cult are still intact and I doubt that Scientologists will be very open to providing such information to the media or public].

The vast majority of people will have no idea what this kind of thing will probably entail as far as Scientology style "follow up" is concerned.

Firstly, information about what the family is doing will most likely be curtailed or cut.
Scientology spokespeople will very likely give out generalized "press releases" through lawyers or PR personnel that will give no real substance for informing the public.

Secondly, the questions that have arisen about whether the anti-drug/anti-pharmaceutical tenets of Scientology might possibly have actually prevented Jett from receiving proper medical treatment or preventative assistance will be downplayed, denied, ridiculed and/or harshly criticized to try to get attention off the issue as fast as possible. This aspect, however, may not just "go away". It is a question of life or death, after all...

Thirdly, the family will very likely go to Clearwater, Florida (or maybe have Scientology professionals come to their Florida home, but this is far less likely) to the Oak Cove building and/or Sandcastle Hotel for what Scientology calls "handlings". These handlings will very likely entail the following;

0. Meeting with the staff member who deals with grieving people to cover physical details of a funeral and/or a memorial. Then those arrangements would be planned and carried out. The liaison would probably be done the current celebrity handler who would be a high ranking Sea Organization member.

1.Ethics interviews and associated procedures. (Scientology's "Division 1" services.)

This aspect of services would look into the unfortunate and tragic event of Jett's death being a possible result of some kind of personal ethics breach or lack of integrity by the parents. In particular the individual parents would have separate interviews about their own role in the tragedy or how come they "pulled in" (a Scientology ethics jargon term) such an awful situation by something in their own behavior.

The Scientology celebrity ethics officer would also actively look for one or more people in the Travoltas' circle of friends, acquaintances who might be antagonistic to or even anti-Scientology and who could have had sufficient negative influence to "cause" such a tragedy. That person would then be the target of possible disconnection (shunning), firing or lawsuit/fair game. There would be many steps possible for John and Kelly coming out of the "Ethics" handlings, and these could not be predicted here.

***It is worthy of note that the potential question of NOT giving proper or adequate medication would not be considered a Scientology ethics violation due to L.Ron Hubbard's indoctrination to avoid such medical or psychological types of treatment. In fact, the failure to give doctor-recommended drugs or medications to Jett might factually be considered to be a laudable Scientology ethics matter.***


2.Correction interviews and procedural steps (Scientology's "Division 5" services).

These steps, sometimes called "Review" would be services designed to address any failures of John or Kelly (and/or Jett's caretaker, as I believe he is a Scientologist) to have properly applied relevant Scientology technologies to their son or his living situation within the family. Any strictly Scientology-dictated ways of living that are detected as to having been omitted or misapplied would have to be re-studied and drilled till they become second nature.


3.Technical sessions ("auditing") (Scientology's "Division 4" services.

This would be some very expensive counseling sessions and personal programs designed to remove, if possible, all the negative emotions from this awful tragedy. This can cost up to $1000 an hour. The outcome of this step is varied in its success and can take weeks or months to complete.

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A more cynical prediction: I would also comfortably estimate that Scientology, as an organization, would attempt to get the maximum financial and public relations benefit from this horrible tragedy. It will be interesting to watch how they go about doing this. In any case the organization through its spokespeople will tend to avoid truth, responsibility and facts. It will also use the media without being of any real service to the media. Hubbard hated journalists almost as much as he hated psychologists, doctors and psychiatrists.

Michael Pattinson