By systematically targeting electroconvulsive therapy as part of its war on psychiatry, experts say Scientology could decimate a treatment that is “saving so many lives.”
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The Atlantic’s 2001 article explained that ECT [Electroconvulsive therapy] had emerged from a terrifying past to become a safe and effective treatment for some of the worst effects of serious mental illnesses. But Scientology, through its campaigns and by pushing legislation, was promoting outdated myths about the procedure for a public that knew little about it.
Miscavige’s November 3 speech illustrated that Scientology is still pushing this agenda more than 20 years later—but with one big difference.
While Scientology has continued to campaign against ECT on various fronts, it has pursued a little known but very effective strategy against ECT’s most vulnerable spot: Namely, the two small companies that manufacture the devices that physicians use during the procedure.
For decades, Scientology has quietly waged a litigation war against those two companies, SigmaStim and Somatics, and it has both nearly on the ropes.
Scientology knows that if the two companies go out of business, federal regulations mandate that doctors will no longer be able to use their devices, and ECT will become unavailable in this country and around the world.
Those medical providers say that ECT is a safe procedure that is saving lives every day, and they are extremely concerned that it is nearly on the brink of disappearing—and only because of the relentless attacks of Scientology on the device manufacturers, a war that has flown completely under the radar until now.
The biggest problem with Scientology is that it speaks to our politicians pockets. It’s definitely and sickeningly on its way to becoming Yet Another Religion, and it does so under the cover for legislation that still allows exceptions from the law for cults even when their “fair game” policy is well-documented. It speaks volumes about why certain religious regimes are allowed to do what they do.
Scientology targets the mental health industry because that’s the target base of their most ardent supporters, they are built on targeting the mentally ill and telling them “no, this isn’t an illness you suffer that will require time and effort to treat and will always weigh on you, it’s that you are special and channeling all of these thetans, which is just another name for spirit that makes it sound less recycled” and it gets intentionally crazier as you get to the higher tiers, which requires considerable wealth, so that only the most mentally ill reach it or the most manipulative do so, with the relatively normal people on the bottom trained to win intense staredown contests to make them seem imposing for the PR when they are just empty inside and suffering from a cultural and economical form of sunk cost fallacy.