(cont.)
On August 30th, 2003, my friend, the endangered adult, “ran” from Phoenix, AZ. to Reynolds, IN. where he then attempted suicide in an effort to escape his “unbearable emotional pain” during an episode of dysphoria that had been precipitated by his being subjected to the Scientology practice of “auditing” and a Scientology detoxification procedure known as the “Purification rundown.”
According to "The Anderson Report," the findings and conclusions of the official inquiry into the Church of Scientology conducted for the State of Victoria, Australia in 1965, “It is not to be doubted that scientology techniques worsen and prolong the mental troubles of the mentally ill and that they produce in even a normal person disturbances and anxieties which may precipitate mental trouble.”
Upon becoming aware of this and after having actually witnessed the effect that scientology techniques had on my friend, I submitted a citizen petition to the FDA that, if approved, will require that people be warned of the hazard that the practice of scientology poses to their mental health. (Docket No. 2006P-0390)
During telephone conversations that I had with my friend before all communication with him was shut off, he indicated that the amount of sleep that he gets has been abridged to sometimes as little as 3 hours per night by activity and the administration of cocaine, and that he has no privacy because his housemate and practicing Scientologist routinely searches through his personal belongings and intercepts his mail.
Abridgement of privacy and contact/communication with former friends/family are methods utilized in a program of coercive persuasion. Exposure to a program of coercive persuasion greatly alters one’s self-concept, perception of reality, and social relationships, and creates the psychological forces necessary for undue influence to be exerted over one’s independent decision-making ability. The U.S. Supreme Court has interpreted the federal crime of kidnapping to include the imposition of “an unlawful physical or mental restraint" to confine the victim against his will.”
Before all communication with my friend was shut off he told me that he had thought of leaving Reynolds, IN. numerous times but felt that he couldn’t.
In June of 2005, believing that we were friends and having no reason to believe that I would not be welcomed, I took the opportunity that a business trip afforded me to visit him in Reynolds, IN. He initially acted as if he was glad to see me, but then suddenly his eyes turned completely black and he began screaming "get off my land...get off my land. That was the only thing that he said to me as he physically attacked me and assaulted me with a hunting rifle. As he continued to pace and mutter to himself, I told his housemate that his behavior was not normal and asked that he get my friend professional help, to which he responded, "just go away." Note: A strong emotional stimulus (e.g., an unexpected pistol firing) will cause the pupils to dilate. The dilation will persist even if a bright light is presented to the eye, indicating that the emotional response can override the usual pupillary constriction to intense light stimuli. Animal studies have shown that pupillary dilation occurs with stimulation of the hypothalamus, thalamus, and reticular formation. These are brain areas that have been implicated in emotional behavior and behavioral arousal.
Shortly thereafter, I received a telephone call from the housemate, during which he stated that the conversation was being recorded. He then went on to say that he routinely intercepts the mail everyday in order to filter out all of the mail addressed to my friend. To illustrate his point, I received a package of 23 unopened letters that I had mailed to my friend between August 2003 and September 2005 with a letter from the housemate, the wording of which clearly indicates that he obstructs my friend's correspondence of his own volition with no regard as to whether my friend either knows or approves of his doing so.
I reported this violation of U.S.C. 18 § 1702, Obstruction of Correspondence to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and received a letter in response that had changed my complaint to one involving U.S.C. 18 § 1708, Mail Theft/Tampering and referenced letters addressed to me instead of to my friend. I wrote a letter to inform the Inspector of the mistake that had been made, but I received no response. Senator McCain’s office made an inquiry on my behalf, and I received a letter from the Inspector in Charge of the Inspection Service’s Detroit office in which he stated that a person removing mail from an authorized depository for mail matter with the intent of blocking the correspondence of another constitutes a “civil, non-mail property dispute that the Inspection Service will not become involved in.” I have reached the conclusion that in order for the postal inspector to have misinterpreted U.S.C. 18 § 1702, Obstruction of Correspondence to the degree that he did, he would either have to be a complete idiot or he did so intentionally. Needless to say, no investigation was conducted. No attempt was made to secure the recording of the telephone conversation nor was any interest shown in the unopened letters addressed to my friend that the housemate had returned to me.
I had personally witnessed my friend exhibit every single manifestation of borderline behavior. Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is classified as a serious mental illness in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fourth Edition, and it can be easily deduced how much more damaged someone with BPD can become by exposure to cult indoctrination by a group with a predisposition towards that sort of thinking disability.
I consulted with three (3) mental healthcare professionals to get their opinions on the behaviors of my friend that I was witnessing in order to confirm my suspicion of borderline personality disorder (BPD). The behaviors that I described were attributed to a hypothetical case and my friend was never personally identified during any of these consultations.
One of them stated: “I’m seeing some descriptions of symptoms that would be consistent with BPD. I’m also seeing some very disturbing things (i.e. the possible fugue states). He appears to have a very high degree of ‘pathology,’ and his identity disturbance per your description is quite pronounced. His compartmentalizing, as you noted, is probably one of the only coping mechanisms that he has to deal with the hideous abuse and neglect he suffered throughout his childhood and adolescence. I believe that you are sincerely trying to get help for your friend, and that’s not an easy thing to do for someone with BPD.”
The fact that my friend’s psychological vulnerability due to a serious mental illness is being taken advantage of, the fact that he is being denied proper mental health care, and the fact that exposure to an ongoing program of coercive persuasion without his knowledge or consent places him at great risk of sustaining additional psychological injury up to and including schizophrenia, self-mutilation, and suicide qualifies him as an endangered adult under Indiana Code § 12-10-3-2.
The Surgeon General’s Call for Suicide Prevention 1999 identifies specific risk factors for suicide and calls for an awareness of those risk factors and intervention before a crisis stage is reached:
“While there is no one cause of suicide, researchers tell us that suicidal behavior is associated with a number of risk factors that frequently occur in combination. These include:
*Clinical depression and other mental illnesses. More than 60 percent of all people who complete suicide suffer from major depression. Almost all people who take their own life have a diagnosable mental or substance abuse disorder or both.
*Adverse life events. Such events may be confusion about one's personal identity; a family crisis like death and divorce.
*Familial factors, such as a family history of suicide, of mental illness and substance abuse, of violence and sexual abuse.
*Prior suicide attempt, firearm in the home, or impulsive or aggressive tendencies…
…all of which apply to my friend.
His mental condition has deteriorated from “I hope to visit you soon...you are the best person I have ever met” to “I am in fear of my life and suspect that Jerry may attempt to harm me.”
Those with personality disorders are three (3) times more likely to commit suicide than those without, and 90% of completed suicides are those with untreated, under-treated, or undiagnosed mental illness.
10 to 12% of untreated cases of BPD end in suicide and he has already attempted once since “running” to Indiana in an attempt to escape his “unbearable emotional pain:”
*“Myth: A person who has made a serious suicide attempt is unlikely to make another.
*The truth is that persons who have made prior attempts are often at greater risk of completing suicide. A suicide attempt is a cry for help and a warning that something is terribly wrong and should be taken with utmost seriousness.”
My friend will most likely kill himself before this matter is taken seriously and that is unacceptable because it can be prevented
