Sunday, March 27, 2011

David Gaiman

Copypasta from Wikipedia:

David Bernard Gaiman (1933 – 7 March 2009[1]) was a prominent British member of the Church of Scientology. He and his wife Sheila joined Scientology in the early 1960s and Gaiman served as public relations director and was commonly in the media during the British controversies over Scientology in the 1960s and 1970s.

Gaiman's family is of Polish Jewish origins; after emigrating from the Netherlands in 1916, his father eventually settled in the Hampshire city of Portsmouth on the south coast of England and established a chain of grocery stores. Born in 1933, Gaiman was educated at The Portsmouth Grammar School, though he did not excel academically. He subsequently joined the British Army where he rose to the rank of sergeant. He returned to Portsmouth on leaving the army to work for his father in the grocery stores, though he detested this job.[2]

He married Sheila on March 1, 1959.[3] He eventually decided to go into business for himself, much to his father's displeasure,[2] and the family moved away from their home in Portchester in 1962.[4]

When the Gaimans discovered Scientology they moved to East Grinstead, West Sussex in 1965.[2] David Gaiman joined the staff of the Church of Scientology at nearby Saint Hill Manor, eventually becoming the Church's chief UK media spokesman.
[edit] Guardian's Office

He joined the Guardian's Office (GO), the Church's public relations bureau / intelligence agency. In 1969, Gaiman was involved in an attempt by the Church to take over the British mental health charity, the National Association for Mental Health (now Mind). Some 300 Scientologists joined the group and nominated Gaiman, among others, for high office. Gaiman was nominated for the Chairmanship. Eventually, the Scientologists were asked to resign but contested that request in court. Scientologists also held demonstrations for, according to Gaiman, "humane treatment and a bill of rights for mental patients and the protection of their bodies and their well-being. We want an independent enquiry into conditions in mental hospitals. We want no more whitewashing from certain mental health organisations like the one across the road. Our stand is not on being asked to resign but for humane psychiatry."[5]

In the 1970s he became Deputy Guardian for Public Relations[6] World Wide and Minister of Public Affairs for the Churches of Scientology Worldwide, as well as serving as public spokesman.[7][8]

According to documents in the US vs Kember and Budlong case, Gaiman issued an order in 1975 for an operation to put false information in U.S. security agency computers using planted agents. It was known as 'Operation Cat'. Kember also credited Gaiman with the strategy to claim that CoS plants inside the American Medical Association were reporters for Freedom Magazine.[9]

He rose to become the head of GO Public Relations and was a member of the powerful Watchdog Committee. In 1981 he was promoted to the position of Guardian (i.e. head of the Guardian's Office), replacing Jane Kember following her criminal conviction for conspiracy against the US Government (she had been part of Scientology's Operation Snow White).[10]
[edit] Vitamin Shop and later life

In 1965, David and Sheila Gaiman co-founded a vitamin shop, G&G Foods. By 2005 the company had become a major local employer, with 80 employees and an annual turnover of over £4 million. The Gaimans were prominent figures in the local community and well known for their sponsorship of the local arts scene.[2] David was also a trustee of Greenfields School since its formation in the 1980s.[11] Gaiman had three children, a son and two daughters:[2] Neil Gaiman, the well-known fantasy author[12][13], Claire Edwards, head of Scientology Missions International,[14] and Lizzy Calcioli.[11]

Gaiman took part in the inaugural London Marathon, in 1981, and came joint last.[15]

Gaiman, aged 75[16], died on Saturday 7 March 2009, of a heart attack during a business meeting.[17] A memorial service, attended by hundreds, was held for him at Saint Hill Manor, East Grinstead,[11] and, on March 12, 2009, his Jewish funeral service was held in Brighton.[3][11]

America's Official Religion

Sunday, March 6, 2011

If you put too many "we believes" on your mental health site I will hate you

Postmodernism is such fail. When you claim that reality results from social agreement, period, you are one step away from madness.

Used to be mostly college hipsters reading Jean-François Lyotard, Michel Foucault, Baudrillard, etc., pressing the pomo thing, probably because when you’re in your early 20s your sense of self can shift as you move between different social settings. In your 20s getting everyone to agree that you are pretty cool seems just as good as actually being pretty cool.

In the 1980s it wasn’t hard to ignore the crowd talking vague incomprehensible nonsense, and the French. But then the hippies grew up and got rich, and with their narcissistic super powers combined they spawned an Oprah, who then infected everyone with the meme virus known as “the Secret,” resulting in a widespread encephalopathy characterized by the Four Agreements.

The New Thought tribe wants agreement. It wants you to click this Facebook link if you agree. The more agreement the more real.

The tribe is peaceful and pleasant toward outsiders provided that they signal sufficient elasticity in their relationship to reality. The hard-headed, rule-bound thinkers are marked as sources of counter-intention, negativity, and suppression.  The New Agers make a big deal out of "respect" and "dignity." But what they're really after is an environment in which blunt criticism is not allowed. The "respect" they value does not extend to basic rules of evidence.

Yesterday I visited a number of mental health websites and was disturbed to read sentences beginning with, “We believe…” The New Age creep into medicine appears to be moving right along. I see no WTF? in response to the authority of “we believe.”


The Sidran Institute is peppered with trademark and copyright symbols, which is a big red flag for me. If you discover a novel, helpful way of talking with patients suffering with mental illness, write that shit down and get it in a journal so the rest of us can review and criticize your work. Don't be trade protecting it before that step, or I will hate you. Typing the ® and the ™ is a huge pain in the ass.


The marketing people recommend that health professionals brand themselves with a niche expertise. But this is dangerous. We ought not reify something like "trauma informed therapy." Therapists should remain generalists ready to shift their formulation of a patient's problem as new information becomes available.

Although there is some good information about medications for PTSD on the Sidrian Institute's web site, such as this essay by Jonathan Shay MD, there's a bit of anti-psychiatry in there also. For example, if we have medical advance directives which can include instructions regarding any hospital based treatment, why do we need a separate psychiatric advance directive?

I never paid much attention to psychiatric "survivors" groups. I reasoned that if a patient were harmed by a psychiatrist, joining a group of sympathizers is probably helpful. But then I discovered the sneaky, relentless, Scientology orchestrated political movement designed to "obliterate" psychiatry, for the sake of something less "materialist."  That shit is not okay.

If somebody tells me he's a "survivor," meaning that I or someone like me nearly tried to kill him but failed, then he needs to GTFO my office. I did not cause the Holocaust, nor did I have anything to do with 9/11, nor am I the "aberration casting a dark spell across the planet."

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Truth Publishing International Ltd

This is a dump of some notes I took a while back when I was trying to find out more about Truth Publishing International Ltd. Wish I could remember exactly how I came up with this stuff.

Address:
12F-4 No 171 Sec 4 Nanjing E Rd Taipei Songshan District 105

Registrant:
Volusion, Inc. 1736 Erringer Rd Ste 202 Simi Valley, CA 9306

Domain name: VOLUSION.COM

Administrative Contact:
Sproles, Kevin Email Masking Image@volusion.com
1736 Erringer Rd Ste 202
Simi Valley, CA 93065
US
+1.8006463517
Technical Contact:
Sproles, Kevin Email Masking Image@volusion.com
1736 Erringer Rd Ste 202
Simi Valley, CA 93065
US
+1.8006463517

Registration Service Provider:
Hover, Email Masking Image@hover.com
416.538.5498
http://help.hover.com

Truth Publishing
1820 E. River Road Tucson AZ 85718
Steve Diaz
520-232-9300

NewsTarget.com
www.taiwan-suppliers.ru
www.taxtyranny.ca
www.calltodecision.com
ourkangenfamily.com
www.naturalpedia.com
orbisvitae.com
evilscience.tribe.net
blog.promindful.org
www.organicconsumers.org
abel-madona.blogspot.com
www.coretan.tk
www.organicconsumers.org
www.testcompany.com
stienster.blogspot.com
letsrollforums.com
herbreference.com
www.bioweb.no
sq-al.facebook.com
www.surcentro.com/en/info/www.consumerwellness.org
www.malagent.com
BIOLOGICALWARFARE.COM
www.freedomofchoiceinhealthcare.ca
www.healthcanadaabuse.ca
www.drdavidrowland.ca
www.friendsoffreedominternational.org
www.livelongereducationalfoundation.com
www.psychologydebunked.com
margotbworldnews.com
www.medkb.com
sunandsticks.com/wordpress
iowajohnbirchsociety.spaces.live.com
https://host.tucksprofessionalservices.com
www.thebirdman.org
www.redswanandco.com
# healingfoodreference.com - 8 days ago
# chlorellafactor.com - 26 days ago
# healthrevolutionpetition.org - 23 days ago
# herbreference.com - 18 days ago