Posted 8:16 AM by Robert

Flicking Thetans II

Matt Drudge runs a transcript of a Cruise/Lauer wrangle regarding Mr. Cruise's comments on Brooke Shield's recourse to psychiatry and anti-depressants following the birth of her child:

MATT LAUER: So, postpartum depression to you is .... googley-gook? ....

TOM CRUISE: But what happens, the antidepressant, all it does is mask the problem. There's ways of vitamins and through exercise and various things. I'm not saying that that isn't real. That's not what I'm saying. That's an alteration of what-- what I'm saying. I'm saying that drugs aren't the answer, these drugs are very dangerous. They're mind-altering, anti-psychotic drugs. And there are ways of doing it without that so that we don't end up in a brave new world. // the thing that I'm saying about Brooke is that there's misinformation, okay.

Now, this is a dust-up over Scientology and its beliefs - so Mr. Cruise's reference to the various things that can be done to relieve depression is intended by him to include the Scientology practice of flicking off those nasty body Thetans that are causing the depression by distracting the new mother from her natural understanding that she should be happy. It's Mr. Cruise who's push Scientology here:

Cruise, who zealously preaches the Church of Scientology's hatred of all mind-altering drugs, tells [Billy] Bush: "Here is a woman, and I care about Brooke Shields because I think she is an incredibly talented woman. You look at, where has her career gone?" .... She's currently starring in the London production of "Chicago." .... "These drugs are dangerous. I have actually helped people come off," Cruise maintains to Bush. "When you talk about postpartum, you can take people today, women, and what you do is you use vitamins. There is a hormonal thing that is going on, scientifically, you can prove that. But when you talk about emotional, chemical imbalances in people, there is no science behind that. You can use vitamins to help a woman through those things."

And he has apparently caused Shields some real pain:

"Tom Cruise's comments are irresponsible and dangerous," Shields said in London last week. "Tom should stick to saving the world from aliens and let women who are experiencing postpartum depression decide what treatment options are best for them." Shields recently published Down Came the Rain, a personal chronicle of her struggle with depression following the 2003 birth of her daughter, Rowan.

So why is it that Mr. Lauer can't bring himself to ask the very aggressive and opinionated Mr. Cruise about the alien Thetans? Suppose Mr. Lauer had been interviewing, say, a serious Christian politician who was publicly criticising some movie starlet for having an abortion on the grounds that all it does is mask the problem. I'm saying that abortion isn't the answer, that procedure is are very dangerous. And there are ways of doing it without that so that we don't end up in a brave new world. Or suppose Mr. Lauer had been interviewing an Orthodox Jewish or Muslim guest who maintained that all mosques or synagogues, respectively, in Jerusalem must be torn down as a matter of keeping "faith." Does anyone doubt that Mr. Lauer would then proceed to ask his guest exactly what aspect of "faith" he was talking about? Of course Mr. Lauer would do that!

In this case, Mr. Cruise is even appearing on the Lauer show exactly to pump a movie about an alien invasion - and he is pushing his "faith" in that connection. So why not ask about the alien body Thetans, how they cause postnatal depression, and what "practical approaches" Scientology has to get rid of the nasty little buggers?

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An earlier version of this post included some insufficiently bracketed references to this parody site (which I think is hilarious). I apologise for any confusion.