People

Rant

John Travolta admits Jett had Autism

Posted 32 months ago|22 comments|3,052 views
Written by
DeanFox
England
Quoting from the statement report of John Travolta's statement to the Royal Bahama's Police Force on 25th February 2009, as reported in the National Enquirer On line and subsequently in Gawker and Glosslips:

"On Monday 29th December 2008 I travelled to Grand Bahama Island. I was accompanied by my wife Kelly Preston, my son Jett Travolta, my daughter Ella Travolta, Eli Wheaton, Jeff Kathrein and others. We stayed at town houses at Old Bahama bay, Grand Bahama. My son Jett suffered from a seizure disorder and HE WAS AUTISTIC."

Why is this admission by John Travolta with respect to the tragic death of his son so important? Well because publicly John Travolta and his wife Kelly had both denied Jett suffered from autism and instead insisted that he suffered from a rare condition known as Kawasaki's syndrome; Kawasaki's syndrome tends to affect young children, with 80% of sufferers being under 5 and has visible symptoms such as rashes, swollen lymph nodes and swollen red cracked lips.

It is well known John Travolta is a member of the organisation calling itself the church of scientology. According to the organisation's de-facto leader, David Miscavige the organisation is on a mission for the "global obliteration of psychiatry". The organisation denies all psychiatric disorders as inventions of the psychiatric industry so they can make a profit; a potentially believable view were it not taken to the extreme. As a result they also deny all psychiatric treatment, even going so far as to suggest such treatments are only meant to enslave one to the treatment.

Although the organisation calling itself the church of scientology always claims it does not treat medical conditions and that a "detoxification program" called the purif run down is a spiritual practice rather than medical Kelly Preston claimed a detoxification program based on the teachings of the organisation helped improve Jett's health when he was just 2 years old; the purif run down involves g hours in a sauna and high doses of vitamins in order to dissolve, sweat and drive out toxins.

As a members of the organisation calling itself the church of scientology and an adherents to the teachings of same, John and Kelly could not come to admit their son had autism even later in his life, although there is some evidence they were torn with respect to his treatment; apparently Jett was from time to time prescribed proper drugs to control his mental state and seizures.

The somewhat patchy treatment of Jett might be down to the influence of John's brother Joey who holds a degree in Special Education and started the non-profit organisation Actors for Autism in 2004. Alas this was not enough and Jett's seizures were apparently uncontrolled at the time of his unfortunate death; apparently Jett's seizure medication Depakote was "becoming less effective" but rather than seek an alternative, as is often necessary in such cases, John and Kelly chose instead to simply stop giving it to him.

The admission by John in his interview to the police on Feb 25th, over a month since his son's death on Jan 2nd 2009, is important because it suggests may be John Travolta is having some justifiable doubts about the teachings of the organisation calling itself the church of scientology as well as the part he played in the tragic death of his son; had he and his wife chosen to ignore the teachings of the organisation calling itself the church of scientology and got proper treatment Jett's seizures would have been under better control and on balance this tragedy would not have happened.

I cannot imagine the hell a parent goes through on loosing a much loved son or daughter and I certainly cannot imagine the hell of someone who comes to the realisation that the loss could have been prevented were it not for dogmatic beliefs they've held for most of their life.
EMAIL|FLAG THIS POST
COMMENTS
DeanFox
DeanFox
England
32 months ago: OK, deleted original and reposted because I forgot to credit the National Enquirer with first reporting this "World Exclusive". Doh.
32 months ago: Maybe you did credit the National Inquirer in the original, I may have missed it. If so, my bad. I hope the police report document is real. I've always thought Travolta was in denial about Jett having autism. Now, I can only hope that he'll re-evaluate his involvement with Scientology.
DeanFox
DeanFox
England
32 months ago: Nah, I meant to do it in the first paragraph as above but got carried away with myself and simply missed it. Think way to fast for me to type and should proof read more.
32 months ago: This is amazing considering that the church of scientology says there's no such thing as autism.

32 months ago: I did see the article on Glosslip after I sent my first comment earlier on the prior post. What I would really like is to see it on CNN or MSNBC with a confirmation of the authenticity. That would be awesome.
32 months ago: Once again a religious belief gets in the way of common sense. Faith is a wonderful thing, as long as it is not allowed to take control of realistic thinking and a persons ability to reason.

Tragic and avoidable.
32 months ago: If Mr Travolta had written about exteriorization of the thetan it would have likely been misunderstood by the police. You have to write statements in a language that can be understood by the reader.

"Autistic" in this report probably means "would be mistaken for an autistic person by an ignorant person such as a psych". These are people who believe that a brain, which is basically a fleshy shock-absorber, does a person's thinking. Jett was a fully functioning thetan.
32 months ago: HAH!! Good try Jack!! Try the real world. Just maybe you'll realize what Scientology REALLY is.
Ron Savelo
Ron Savelo
Clearwater, FL
32 months ago: As a Scientologist, I am outraged at so much of the media's snide implication that Mr. John Travolta's religion was to blame for Jett's death. The truth is that Scientology provided John the tools to handle his son's spiritual condition through the standard application of LRH tech. Instead, John chose to poison his son with the psych drug Depakote. John, you are an embarrassment to all of Scientology for turning to the pseudoscience of psychiatry. This is the overt that pulled in the tragic end cycle of your son. Please, John, for the love of god, get your ethics in and PLEASE disconnect from the psychs.
thetagal
thetagal
Elma, WA
32 months ago: That is a very dumb statement. L. Ron Hubbard, the Founder of Scientology, talked about psychosomatic ills, 70% and the rest aren't. Something that a child is born with such as autism would fall under the other 30%.

Are you sure Dean Fox that the Church of Scientology really denies autism? I bet you can't find one Bulletin or Policy that says that.

So you are passing on garbage and false information.

I don't know what the Church is doing. But it shouldn't be a break with Scientology to acknowledge autism.

Freezone Scientolgists acknowledge autism.
DeanFox
DeanFox
England
32 months ago: thetagal. Agreed iT'Ssimplistic to say the organisation calling itself the church of scientology "denies autism" but in essence it is true. It would require another rant to explain the true thinking of the organisation regarding the believes of the organisation regarding autism based on their policies, statements of members and campaigns by the front organisation for the main organisation, the Citizen's Commission on Human Rights. Generally though the organisation believes their is no treatment for autism excepting maybe their own tech and failing that, well there are 2.5% of the population who cannot be saved as L Ron Hubbard said.

Freezone are not members of the organisation and generally seem fine on such issues; perhaps because they are not engaged in a campaign for the global obliteration of psychiatry. NOTE SCIENTOLOGY =/= ORGANISATION CALLING ITSELF THE CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY.
DeanFox
DeanFox
England
32 months ago: ok, I am going to rewrite that first paragraph above to make sense, should read:

thetagal: Agreed, it's simplistic to say the organisation calling itself the church of scientology "denies autism" but in essence they do. It would require another rant to explain the thinking of the organisation regarding autism which would be based on: their policies, statements of members (and ex-members) and "anti-psych" campaign literature and campaign communications from the organisation's anti-psych arm, The Citizen's Commission on Human Rights.

Generally though the organisation believes their is no treatment for autism excepting maybe their own tech and failing that, well there are 2.5% of the population who cannot be saved as L Ron Hubbard said.

Last paragraph is fine: Freezoners generally don't engage in the more rabid extremist activities and beliefs that the members of the organisation calling itself the church of scientology do, such as campaigns for "the global obliteration of psychiatry".

Freezone and practice / belief in scientology = OK. Organisation calling itself the church of scientology = Bad.
32 months ago: It is such a tragedy that Jett died. Critics, of course, are blind to grief and unaware that other people sometimes have loss. And thus, use any opportunity to press public opinion toward the confusion they are in.
DeanFox
DeanFox
England
32 months ago: Oh terryeo, once again another sweeping generalisation of no substance. I have to wonder are you even the same person as before?

Based on your statement, how do you feel about the campaigns held by the Citizens' Commission for Human Rights when they turn up at school shootings to push their propaganda?

Or how you feel about the Volunteer Ministers who spend all their time pushing "the tech" and the anti-psychiatry propaganda at disaster zones than doing anything actually useful?

L Ron Hubbard once said of criminals, they accuse others for the crimes they commit, since you accuse me I have to ask are not the CCHR and VM's also using "any opportunity to press public opinion towards the confusion they are in"? - both organisations being fronts for the one calling itself the church of scientology.
DeanFox
DeanFox
England
32 months ago: To properly answer your comment though, as stated in my last paragraph:

"I cannot imagine the hell a parent goes through on loosing a much loved son or daughter and I certainly cannot imagine the hell of someone who comes to the realisation that the loss could have been prevented were it not for dogmatic beliefs they've held for most of their life."

I can imagine it for myself but not for someone else.

I can postulate what processes a believer in scientology goes though:

They should benefit from the teachings of your organisation which state that the deceased will return, that the body is merely a vessel for the thetan. They will also know that LRH put grief and sympathy low on the tone scale.

There is an understanding of "grief" though: the loss of the comm line, the lowering of ARC, the re stimulation of previous deaths and losses etc. Grief, with sufficient present time (aka loss of a loved one) is considered rational, so OK. It can be helped by auditing. So grief after the loss of a loved one is not a mis-emotion.

There is however a general feeling in your organisation that one should get over grief "pretty quickly", after a while it is considered a mis-emotion and so an indication of being out-ethics or no-case-gain or extremely low-toned. All of which requires more auditing to help with. Cont:
DeanFox
DeanFox
England
32 months ago: I'm of course aware that others feel loss, am I exploiting this tragic event to make a point? Yes. Others are too.
This kind of "exploitation" goes on all the time in society and, as said above, your organisation does it too. Examining such events is actually part of human nature, a trait that contributed greatly to human survival. It is normal to ponder such things, to question the whys and wherefores of usual tragic events and to speculate.

There are however ways to do this which are more "sensitive" than others.

It would be entirely wrong to confront those directly involved, like say turning up at the funeral or the location of the tragic event, such as the CCHR do. It is customary to acknowledge the feelings of the victims when doing so, as I did in my last paragraph but as the CCHR don't do.

That Jett died is tragic. The emotions being felt by the family must be strong and painful, this makes them normal. The fact remains there are questions about Jetts' death and John & Kelly's beliefs in the teachings of your organisation. These questions are being asked because both John and especially Kelly have been public proponents of the teachings of your organisation over and above those of the "main stream", ergo those beliefs are being questioned publicly in light of Jett's tragic death.
32 months ago: how do you know the Travoltas stopped giving him depakote?
32 months ago: Atuism has come into public awareness in recent years. Of course the condition isn't brand spanking new. "My boy isn't very bright but ..." and "The village idiot" are things people used to say.

And none of these are precisely descriptive. Because the condition isn't as clear as a missing finger or an extra toe. And then, a few of these sorts of people have a genius in a particular area. One might be able to tell you the day of the week for any date you give them, the condition, however common or uncommon, is not well understood.

It has always been understood that some people are smarter, brighter and more able than the average. That some learn quicker and others do less well with figures but can contribute with a broom or a shovel.

This psychiatry attitude that "happy drugs make happy people" has seemed disturbing to me since its beginnings in the 1980s. I simply don't believe you can drug a person out of depression or drug them into smartness or drug people into average. These unproven excuses about chemical balances are nothing but big business indoctrinating taxpayers into paying for expensive prescriptions. Which then result in occasional school, church and mall shootings.
32 months ago: again, how do you know the Travoltas stopped giving him depakote?
DeanFox
DeanFox
England
32 months ago: To Kimsense:

Travolta's lawyers, Michael Ossi and Michael McDermott made a statement to the effect:

"Jett took Depakote for several years, but it eventually lost its effectiveness...".

Lawyers acting on behalf of someone do not make statements without foundation.
DeanFox
DeanFox
England
32 months ago: Terryeo: I understand where you are coming from autism is a new diagnosis as are autistic spectrum disorders. As the latter suggests these cover a wide range of conditions and I would agree if your were to suggest the range may be too wide; indeed as research continues some "conditions" are actually being removed so to speak.

It is true to say autism is not well understood, as are savants - not a medical diagnosis rather a description of people with obviously poor social and learning abilities yet a profound specialist skill, such as drawing or with music.

Autism is increasingly being understood however with genetic markers being found for the condition and physical anomalies being found in the brains of autistic children; it is now known autism is caused by a physical condition.

As research continues in to the human body and the mind we are increasingly finding physical reasons for such things as personality, intelligence and moods.

Where they are debilitating some of the physical conditions can be addressed through drugs and counselling, others cannot.

The problems with autism vary with the individual but having seizures is a very profound and damaging aspect of the condition which can usually be controlled by an appropriate drug regime. Depakote is one such drug, there are others.

Typically when trying to bring seizures under control it is necessary to try a number of drugs because it is not practical to open up the brain to find out exactly what is going on within an individual in order to prescribe the right drug. Often too the brain being quite adaptive it will grow "immune" to a treatment at which point another needs to be tried or the quality of life is lost.

In the UK, where funding is limited at some point people who have seizures unresponsive to a number of medications are simply told to wear a crash helmet when not in bed and always be under the care of an adult. This at least addresses the main physical danger of seizures.
DeanFox
DeanFox
England
32 months ago: Terryeo again, with respect to "happy drugs make happy people", I totally agree with you this is marketing by drug companies mainly in the USA because they are allowed to market direct to people on television. It is also not completely true.

Chemical imbalances is a sweeping and simplistic phrase. Experimentation, as well as illicit drug use, has shown a connection with increased levels of certain chemicals in the brain and reduced anxiety, improved mood etc.

Ecstasy in its pure form results in increased levels of serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine in the brain. The universal effects of these chemical changes are euphoria, relaxation, a strong sense of inner peace and self-acceptance, increased sensory perception particularly touch and hearing, increased self awareness and short term memory lapses. Similar feelings can be induced, but to a significantly lessor degree by abusing anti-depressants, particularly SSRI's.

Based on the effects of Ecstasy and other recreational drugs it cannot be denied that drugs affect the brain through creating chemical changes.

SSRI's and other anti-depressants aim to do this but in a controlled way. They don't aim to produce the profound states that can be achieved with illicit drugs. Nor do they aim to be effective quickly, the effects build up over time.

What they aim to do is provide a person who tends to be predisposed to a conditions such as anxiety or depression with a chemical change that reduces their predispositions to such conditions.

Hundreds of thousands of people have tried anti-depressants. A fairly small percentage have had bad experiences and while many have found them very beneficial. A number of people have abused them too and a number of people have tried to claim the drugs made them commit heinous crimes, most with no success and the rest with very limited success.

Post a Comment
Sign in or sign up to post a comment.