Book by former Missionaries of Charity nun describes abuse in cult of Mother Teresa

Chain The Dogma

Book by former Missionaries of Charity nun describes abuse in cult of Mother Teresa

by Perry Bulwer


I just read a short review of a new book, An Unquenchable Thirst, by a former nun, Mary Johnson, in Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity order who describes experiences commonly found in many religious cults. The reviewer highlights just a few of the "dozens of uncomfortable moments the former nun recalls", yet in just those examples it is easy to identify several cult characteristics.

Recalling just one of those moments, the reviewer says it "exemplifies the degree to which she saw life around her as one of repression, repercussions and guilt", which could be a description of life in any number of cults and sects. Dozens more examples drive home the point that life in Mother Teresa's order was not an ideal but an ordeal. Certainly, anyone joining that order knew what they were getting into. Serving God by living in poverty to help the poor (and as Christopher Hitchens wrote, to keep them poor) was part of the idealism they signed up for. What they didn't sign up for was the spiritual, emotional and verbal abuse from "superiors who became drunk with power, whose normal mode of communication was to shout and invent irrational accusations against those below them." If I didn't know better, I would think that was a description of David Miscavige  or David Berg, leaders of Scientology  and The Family International, respectively.

Most cult survivors are familiar with that or similar kinds of abuse from their former spiritual leaders as well as with the inability to directly confront that abuse when it occurred. "Because arguing back was considered a sin against humility, even the most irrational charges could not be countered properly for fear of appearing to be proud or arrogant." I experienced that personally many times in The Family International  previously known as the Children of God,  earning a reputation as a trouble maker for daring to question or criticize leaders. I was punished with spiritual threats, demotions, forced separation from loved ones and internal exile many times by leaders of that cult who are still deceiving, manipulating, exploiting and abusing people as they have always done. But if it was so abusive, why did you stay so long, I can hear you ask?

That is a question commonly put to cult survivors, and one the above reviewer asked of Johnson, expressing his incomprehension that anyone could stay in such an abusive environment for 20 years. Her response is right on the mark: "We'd always been told you are here because God has called you, so the worst thing you could do is leave." Allured by what she considered the radical nature of Mother Teresa's order, which often attracts people to cults, she had joined out of a conviction that God was calling her to that extreme mission. A religious conviction of that nature is far stronger than any secular calling and more difficult to abandon because to do so is to disobey and disappoint God, so it is not surprising that people who have not experienced that cannot understand why one would stay in an abusive environment. When a person is indoctrinated to think that God has a special mission for them, it is extremely difficult to walk away from that, even if they are being abused.

Spousal abuse, mostly perpetrated against women, is a secular example (though often with religious, patriarchal roots) that helps some people understand why abused religious cult members stay in the group or only leave after many years. It seems unthinkable that any woman would stay with a husband that beats, humiliates, threatens or otherwise abuses her, yet it happens all too frequently. When the same question is put to battered spouses as is put to cult survivors, asking why they did not just leave their abusers, the answers they give are strikingly similar to the ones given by former cult members. This list of reasons on a support website for battered women explains why many do not leave their spouses  and can easily be applied to cult members. The following video makes the same point.

Set Yourself Free - Is religion a form of abuse?

There are a few other examples of cult characteristics in that short review I am referring to (imagine how many are in the actual book). Johnson points out that what she experienced in Mother Teresa's order is not typical of other women's religious orders, thus setting it apart from the norm. She gives the example of social isolation, even within the order. The radicalism that initially attracted her to the order ultimately led her to leave it. "As I lived it out, I realized that sort of radical draw also brought these drawbacks where people didn't have any way of pursuing any form of pleasure or relaxation," she said. While other orders allow members to keep in contact with their families, friends and engage with the outside world, Johnson says, “We weren’t even allowed to be friends with each other. All our contacts were cut off.” That is very typical of cults, and a common theme in cult survivor's stories. It is one more reason why it is so difficult to leave. When you burn all your bridges behind you, or they are burned for you, or you were born in a cult and never knew those bridges even existed, it makes it far more difficult to escape the abuse and find your way back to normal.

Although Johnson is able to identify most of the issues behind the abuse she suffered at the hands of her superiors, she seems unable to place ultimate blame where it belongs, on Mother Teresa. She is "careful not to sully Mother Teresa" in the book and attended her beatification ceremony in 2003. But even that is typical of some religious abuse survivors. They are willing to blame the persons who directly abused them, but hesitate to blame those with ultimate authority, whether it is the leader of their order, cult, church, or even God. After all, if God called Johnson to serve him in Mother Teresa's order, then why did God not protect her from the abuse she obviously suffered? It is as if they have accepted the common excuse made by religious leaders that the abuse is the result of a few bad apples, whereas the real cause is the structures, systems and dogmas of religion. Mother Teresa was no saint, yet Johnson still seems to think she is. Perhaps she has not read the reports of how Mother Teresa ignored the abuses perpetrated by her Jesuit adviser, one of the most notorious abusers in the Catholic church. Here are a few excerpts from some articles I've archived on the subject.

San Francisco Weekly - May 25, 2011

Let Him Prey: High-Ranking Jesuits Helped Keep Pedophile Priest Hidden

By Peter Jamison

The conservative Catholic family lived on a quiet cul-de-sac in Walnut Creek and took pains to observe the traditions of a church racked by social change. Their lives appeared driven by the famous motivational phrase of Saint Ignatius, "Ad majorem Dei gloriam" — for the greater glory of God. It was the same motto that ostensibly guided the Jesuit priest, Donald McGuire, to whom they turned for spiritual guidance.

Then, in 1993, they learned that McGuire had done unthinkable things with their 16-year-old son, Charles, who traveled with him as his personal assistant. The boy and the priest had allegedly looked at pornographic magazines, masturbated, and taken showers together. The family took this devastating news to an esteemed San Francisco priest, Joseph Fessio, who, like McGuire, had once been a teacher at the University of San Francisco.

Fessio runs the Ignatius Press, a Catholic publishing house based in the Sunset District that is the primary English-language publisher of the pope's writings. He and McGuire shared a reputation for doctrinal orthodoxy. McGuire, for his part, was a cleric of worldwide renown, functioning as adviser and confessor to Mother Teresa. [see related article links below] While family members considered reporting the abuse to secular authorities, Fessio urged them to stay quiet until he could confer with Jesuit higher-ups.

Confronted with the allegations, McGuire, a famously manipulative man known both for his charm and periodic rages, denied Charles's accusations or made excuses. His Jesuit bosses in Chicago, where McGuire was technically based, ordered him to undergo a residential treatment program at a psychiatric hospital for priests. In about seven months, McGuire was released and returned to active ministry. He continued to prey on other children for the next nine years.
...
http://religiouschildabuse.blogspot.com/2011/05/jesuit-priest-being-considered-for.html

New York Times - March 28, 2011

Suit Says Jesuits Ignored Warnings About Priest

By ERIK ECKHOLM

The case has been acutely troublesome for the Jesuits, an order known for its scholarship and its elite high schools and universities. Father McGuire was by all accounts a mesmerizing teacher, and after he was barred by some Jesuit schools in the 1960s and 1970s for suspicious behavior, including having students share his bedroom, he went on to became a popular leader of eight-day spiritual retreats around the country and the world.

For about two decades, starting in the early 1980s, he was a spiritual adviser to Mother Teresa, who put him in charge of retreats for the nuns in her worldwide order, Missionaries of Charity. Several times each year, in India, the United States, Russia and other countries, he led retreats for the sisters.

In these travels he routinely took along a teenage boy as an assistant, saying he needed help administering his diabetes treatment. In complaints voiced by some parents and priests at the time, and in later depositions, those assistants said their duties often included sleeping in the same bed as Father McGuire, showering and reading pornography together, providing intimate massages and watching him masturbate.
...
http://religiouschildabuse.blogspot.com/2011/03/jesuit-leaders-concealed-40-years-of.html

SF Weekly - July 27, 2009

For He Has Sinned

A new lawsuit sheds light on the San Francisco years of Mother Teresa's spiritual adviser – who is also one of the Jesuit order's most notorious convicted pedophiles.

by Peter Jamison

Kevin McGuire said his uncle's time as a professor in San Francisco, and his later trips to the Bay Area and around the world, were encouraged by superiors as a "pass-the-trash" strategy to keep the predator priest far from his home base. "USF was a place where the Chicago Province sent Father McGuire to get him the hell out of their hair," he said. "That's why this guy was allowed to roam around the country. They wanted him everywhere but Chicago."

And he said that while there's no evidence Mother Teresa herself was consciously covering up for the priest whose piety she admired, the nun, who died in 1997, should have known something wasn't right.

"I think Mother Teresa had plenty of evidence in front of her that something was wrong," Kevin McGuire said. "When you see Father McGuire seven to nine times a year at your retreat houses or nunneries around the world, and he's constantly with teenage boys who are essentially his slaves, and to have these boys in your bedroom — yeah, I think that's plenty of notice to anyone with oxygen in your brain. I don't care how holy you think your confessor is. Something's wrong."

http://religiouschildabuse.blogspot.com/2010/11/mother-teresa-failed-to-protect-teen.html

UPDATE: 

Perry Bulwer July 11, 2012

A few months ago, I had an email conversation with Mary Johnson, the former nun and author of the book reviewed in this blog article.

I based my comments in this blog article solely on the Toronto newspaper article. I owe an apology to Mary for some assumptions I made about her and her current perspectives on Mother Teresa in the last paragraph of my article, just before I quoted from three newspaper accounts. I made those assumptions based on the reporter's perspective, which may not have accurately portrayed her position, so I am sorry if I made any inaccurate statement about her. After communicating with her, I realize there is almost no difference between our positions on these matters.

Mary has an impressive website and works to help other women writers to tell their stories. See: http://www.maryjohnson.co/ and  http://aroomofherownfoundation.org/weneedyou.php

What prompted me to write this apology note now is the article posted in the comments below on July 11, 2012 titled:

"Abuses At Legion Of Christ-Run High School, Immaculate Conception Academy In Rhode Island"


Here is Mary's version of The Apostles Creed found at: http://www.maryjohnson.co/humanist/

I don’t believe in God, an imaginary father with almighty power.

I don’t believe in heaven; I do believe in earth.

I believe that a man called Jesus of Nazareth lived in Palestine at the beginning of the Common Era,

That he was conceived in the way of all human beings, that he was born of a woman called Mary, that he had a following large enough to trouble the authorities of his day, that it’s very difficult to separate what he actually said and did from what people would later say he said and did, that odds are good that he was a more than decent man.

I believe that this Jesus suffered under Pontius Pilate; that he was crucified, died and was buried, that there were no souls in hell waiting for him to set them free, that his death was in no way redemptive, that crucifixion has to be hell enough for any person.

I believe that when Jesus died, he remained dead. He did not ascend into an imaginary heaven, nor does he sit at the right or left hand of God, an imaginary father.

I do not believe that Jesus judges human beings. It seems to me that far too much judging goes on in his name, and that most of us try to do the best we can with the lives we’ve been given and that all of us fall short of the unreachable ideals we sometimes set for ourselves, that we ought to be kinder to ourselves.

I do not believe in ghosts, holy or otherwise.

I believe that the church is a human institution that still has much to learn about the humane exercise of power and authority.

I believe that each human being is connected with every other human being by bonds we do not often perceive, that what we do matters because our deeds affect beings animate and inanimate, for better or for worse.

I believe that justice and mercy are both essential and that forgiveness is often one of the deepest kindnesses we can extend to others and to ourselves, but that it should not be offered indiscriminately.

I believe that when we’re dead, we’re dead, and that while we, for a brief stretch of years, breathe upon this planet, we experience mysteries we ought not pretend to understand, though one day human beings will understand them better than we do now. I believe that we should affirm as true only those things we know with reasonable certainty, according to rigorous standards of history and science, that to cede our intellect to religious tradition is to allow ourselves to be manipulated by those who benefit from our credulity. I believe in the value of helping others and nurturing ourselves so that we can live lives as full as they can be. Amen.

RELATED ARTICLES ON MY BLOGS



Mother Teresa failed to protect teen boys from her spiritual adviser, the Jesuit order's most notorious convicted pedophile

Jesuit leaders concealed 40 years of warnings about pedophile priest who became spiritual adviser to Mother Teresa

 

Corporal Punishment, the Abuse of Authority and the Rights of Children

Nuns among worst perpetrators of horrific violence and sex abuse in Jesuit-run schools and missions on Indian reservations

Jesuit priest being considered for sainthood among order's leaders who protected "the Hannibal Lecter of the clerical world"

Jesuits pay record settlement for decades of psychological abuse and rape of over 450 Native American children

Abuse was common in religious orders

Oregon Jesuit province files for bankruptcy

$50 million for Alaskan abuse plaintiffs

Diocese of Fairbanks launches multistate search for possible sexual assault victims

Canadian Indian residential schools designed to assimilate natives traumatized individuals and generations

Canadian Indian residential school hearings identify thousands of abusers including some students who were also abused

Survivors of Indian residential schools need to tell their stories to restore self-worth after trauma of abuse

A brief history of Canadian residential schools designed to indoctrinate and assimilate aboriginal children

Canadian Truth Commission investigates fate of thousands of aboriginal children who died in mysterious circumstances

Canadian residential school Truth Commission begins to address over a century of child abuse, thousands of children still missing

‘Apology? What apology?' Church’s attempt at reconciliation not enough, says counsellor

Church-run Canadian residential schools denied human rights to all aboriginal children in their custody

'This Is How They Tortured Me' [book review]

Mothers of a Native Hell

Fugitive priest hiding in Belgium and Lourdes, France sent back to Canadian territory Nunavut to face sex abuse charges

Canadian priest convicted of pedophilia, wanted by Interpol for 15 years, surrenders in Belgium but authorities let him go

Pope expresses 'sorrow' for abuse at residential schools - but doesn't apologize

When will church learn lessons about abuse scandals?

Edmonton mural celebrates Catholic bishop's role in the horrific abuse of aboriginal children in residential schools

Lawsuit claims, but Seattle U. president denies, that he knew of priest's abuse



Prosecuting the Pope for Crimes Against Humanity


Are Priests Their Brother's Keeper? A Catholic Morality Tale


Vatican more upset by Catholic Prime Minister's criticisms than clergy sex crimes against children


Philadelphia archbishop resigns due to old age, not for failing to protect children


Catholic child protection policies are merely public relations ploys


Best city in the world honours man who protected notorious Catholic child abuser


The Catholic Church and The Family International: popes and prophets who protect pedophiles


What the Pope should have said in his Easter sermon: "I did it. I was wrong. The buck stops here."

Violating the Sanctity of Scriptures

Chain The Dogma 

Violating the Sanctity of Scriptures

by Perry Bulwer


The Second Global Conference on World’s Religions After Sept. 11 is taking place tomorrow in Montreal. The organizer, Arvind Sharma, a professor of comparative religion at McGill University, says the purpose of the conference  "... is to bring together the various religions of the world in an ecumenical spirit to address the many issues facing the world today, in the hope that this will help all of us become better human beings." According to the Montreal Gazette, Sharma

... says the goal is to debate how religions can contribute to peace in the world. He is also hoping to have the participants adopt three resolutions, including one which says that violating the sanctity of the scripture of any religion amounts to violating the sanctity of all religions.

The conference speakers are hardly representative of all religions in the world,  but even if they were it is highly unlikely this particular group of god frauds can make any useful contributions to world peace and the betterment of humans based on religion. The Gazette article cited above includes a photo of the Dalai Lama, one of the speakers, praying for and blessing a river in Washington. Just what we need to make us better humans and achieve world peace: a religious leader who believes he is the reincarnation of his predecessor, whose worldview has been totally formed within the framework of a spiritual fantasy world, who prays for and blesses rivers.

Another spiritual con artist  speaking at the conference is Deepak Chopra. Here are a few of the extraordinary, supernatural claims he makes without backing them up with extraordinary evidence:

That a person is a field of vibrating energy, information and intelligence connected to the entire cosmos.

That this view is substantiated by Ayruvedic medicine of ancient India as well as theories of quantum physics.

That all organs of the body are built up from a specific sequence of vibrations, and that when organs are sick they are vibrating improperly.

That certain herbs and aromas, when applied, can help restore proper vibrations to malfunctioning liver, heart, stomach, etc.

That certain gems and crystals can rejuvenate human skin.

That good thoughts can heal the body and reverse the aging process.

That people can levitate and that he, while sitting and meditating, has flown a distance of four feet.

That one can know God at seven different levels corresponding to physical and psychological reactions in the brain, and that miracles, including visits by angels and reincarnated relatives, occur when a person leaves the material level of existence and intersects a "transitional" level called the "quantum domain."

Assuming, for the sake of argument, that the conference speakers really can have meaningful discussions that further world peace, all of their efforts will be completely undermined and wasted if they adopt the resolution proposed by Sharma, which proposes to prohibit blasphemy.  That seems to be what he means by "violating the sanctity of the scripture of any religion". Whatever Sharma means by that, it is simply ridiculous for him to claim that it amounts to violating all religions. Obviously, not all religions can be true because many contradict each other, which means at least some are false, though I think they all are. Given that fact, it is necessary for some people to question, doubt and criticize religious scriptures as they search for religious truth. That is a futile search, in my opinion, but for those inclined to search the freedom to question and criticize is necessary. However, there will always be believers who are offended by such criticisms of their scriptures, so Sharma's solution appears to be to deny everyone the right to criticize all religious scriptures, even the most blatantly fraudulent and fictional ones such as the Bible, the Book of Mormon or the writings of Scientology founder, Ron Hubbard.

On the conference website, Sharma's message invites attendees "to explore the more positive possibilities of the religious dimension". Apparently, he wants to ignore the negative possibilities of the religious dimension, and so his resolution to prohibit free speech as it relates to religious scriptures. But any debate or discussion on the possibilities of religion fostering world peace is a meaningless, one-sided conversation if it does not allow or acknowledge any criticism of the doctrines found in the scriptures of various religions that foster bigotry and war.

Quakes, Quacks and Kidnappers: Baptists, Scientologists, DreamHealer and Bad Consequences of Good Intentions

Chain The Dogma    March 16, 2010

by Perry Bulwer



Natural disasters tend to bring out the best, and the worst, of people. There were amazing stories of rescue and survival in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti. There were also sad stories of exploitation by charlatans taking advantage of the situation to proselytize or practice their pseudo-science quackery.

Take those American Baptists, for example, who attempted to smuggle dozens of children out of the country without authorization. They claimed, of course, that they did it with the best of intentions, for the sake of the children. However, good intentions alone are not enough since they often have unintended consequences that make things even worse. Those Baptists thought they could 'rescue' a few dozen children, some of whom were not even orphans, but seemingly gave no consideration to the consequences of their good intentions. Here is just one major consequence:

Some groups are urging a long moratorium on new adoptions from Haiti, saying there is too much chaos, and the risks of mistakes or child trafficking are too high.

Other groups fear any long-term clampdown will consign countless children to lives in institutions or on the street, rather than in the loving homes of adoptive parents.

Chuck Johnson, chief operating officer of the National Council for Adoption, said the arrests of 10 U.S. Baptists would probably undercut his organization's push to expand adoptions from Haiti.

"It was a critical mistake — the Haitian government has been very clear they did not want any children leaving without its express permission," Johnson said Monday. "Maybe the Americans thought they were helping 33 kids, but now there's going to be a much slower process and maybe even a ban on future adoptions — and that would be a tragedy."

see: Arrests stir debate over Haiti adoptions

Claiming the best of intentions to help a few Haitian children in a tragedy does not legitimize what they attempted to do. Their good intentions had the opposite effect, making it more difficult for all Haitian orphans to be legitimately adopted. Perhaps one good result is that this case highlighted the issue of religiously motivated child-trafficking, particularly by Christian evangelicals.

Scientologists

Christian kidnappers were not the only fraudsters to invade Haiti in the aftermath of the quake. So too did the Scientologists with their pseudo-science quackery. The science-fiction cult actually has a doctrine called 'Casualty Contact', which founder Ron L. Hubbard invented as a way of recruiting followers in times of tragedy. Here's what he wrote in 1959:

"Casualty contact is very old, is almost never tried and is almost always roaringly successful... This is a pretty routine drill really. You get permission to visit. You go in and give patients a cheery smile. You want to know if you can do anything for them, you give them a card and tell them to come around to your group... Your statement, 'the modern scientific church can cure things like that. Come around and see' will work. It's straight recruiting!

Although certainly deceptive, it does not suggest they are trying to intervene medically in disasterous situations, but are only interested in proselytizing. In other words, as that doctrine was articulated 50 years ago, the idea was not to 'heal' disaster victims on the spot, but to convince them they could be 'cured' by attending a Scientology 'church'. The 'casualty contact' doctrine developed into a formalized program called Volunteer Ministers and is now being used in far more dangerous ways that actually endanger or cause harm to those targeted by Scientologist's recruiters. Just think of New York after 9/11 and that pseudo-science, 'Purification Rundown' promoted by Tom 'Fool' Cruise, which was derided by toxicologists as pure quakery.

As I monitored news reports from Haiti and first heard that John Travolta was flying his own plane filled with supplies to Haiti I thought that perhaps he had finally come to his senses, prompted by the needless death of his son due to Scientology's quackery, and was going to do some actual good for the unfortunate Haitians. My optimism only lasted until the next news report that revealed that Travolta's plane had been given priority landing at the congested Port-au-Prince airport, controlled by U.S. military, even though there were hundreds of relief planes on the waiting list ahead of him. The medical aid organization, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders, reported that several of their planes loaded with medical supplies and real doctors and nurses were denied landing permission in Haiti and were instead rerouted to the Domincan Republic, resulting in unnecessary deaths. No doubt Travolta's intentions were good, just like those Baptists, but the consequences were very bad for those who got 'treated' by the quacks he brought with him instead of actual doctors with real medical training.

Scientologists claim they can heal and cure people by merely touching them, which they call 'Touch Assists'. Hundreds of unprepared, yellow-shirted Scientologists went to Haiti pretending to heal the wounded. A group of them supposedly helping out in a courtyard of a hospital in Port-au-Prince claimed that “they were healing patients through 'the power of touch to reconnect nervous systems'. Sylvie, a French woman, said: 'We are trained as volunteer ministers, we use a process called 'assist' to follow the nervous system to reconnect the main points.'” But doctors in Haiti said that many wounded were coming to them saying they didn't want to be treated by those people in yellow shirts. Obviously, a quack sounds the same in any language, and those that recognized that sound are the lucky ones. Not so lucky are those that were given food by Scientologists, even though they were scheduled for surgery, thus causing complications during the operation. Again we see good intentions result in very bad consequences.

DreamHealer

Now to a quack of a different kind, one who doesn't need to touch people to 'heal' them, like Scientologists. One who claims not only that people can heal themselves merely by their intentions, but that anyone can heal anyone else simply by focusing their intentions, even at great distances between the 'sender' and 'receiver' of those intentions. Furthermore, he claims that the focused intentions of many people can even effect the environment, such as by reducing the size of tsunami waves. I'm not joking, I'm talking about a young Canadian who calls himself DreamHealer.

Dreamhealer, for those who have not yet heard of this new-age 'healer', is the pseudonym of Adam McLeod, a young man from the Vancouver area in British Columbia. Adam's claim to fame is that he can supposedly heal people by manipulating their energy or aura. He purports to be a trance healer and distance healer. He claims not only that he can heal others great distances away, but that he can also facilitate the healing of everyone in a large group by merging all of their energy or auras together. Perhaps his most famous claim, at least here in Canada, and one that he has been milking for years, is that he healed the musician, Ronnie Hawkins, of pancreatic cancer even though they were thousands of miles apart when the healing sessions took place. Skeptics, however, point out several other possible explanations for Hawkins' apparent cancer remission and even dispute whether Hawkins ever had cancer in the first place.

That so-called healing took place early in Adam's career. Eventually, he progressed from individual healing to group healing and has held large seminars attended by thousands of people mostly in North America. Out of curiousity, I attended one of his seminars in Vancouver a few years ago with a friend to see what all the fuss was about? There were well over 100 people there, some obviously very sick, and they hung on Adam's every word as he offered hope for healing and told his own personal myth describing healings and supernatural abilities. He even showed some photographs he took outside his home showing some strange lights that he claimed had no physical explanation. He didn't offer an explanation, leaving that to our imaginations, but the implication was that they must be of spiritual origin or that it was some kind of energy following him around. It reminded me of what cult leaders do, creating their own personal myths that include unverifiable healings, supernatural powers, mystical entities, secret knowledge, and promises, lots of promises.

It was a wasted two hours and a hundred bucks I'll never get back. I felt embarrassed just being there, especially since I had been conned into joining a cult when I was 16, and now I knew better. Watching Adam was much like watching one of those faith-healing televangelists that are so fun to mock, especially once he got into his trance state. The lights were dimmed and we were all supposed to close our eyes and focus our intentions, but who could resist taking a peek. I certainly couldn't, and if I wasn't yet convinced he was a quack, that certainly did it. There he was waving his arms about wildly like a mad maestro conducting an imaginary orchestra, supposedly connecting our auras and healing everyone there of whatever ailed them. It didn't work on me or my friend, but then Adam would say that it was our fault for not focusing our intentions, or in my case being too skeptical, just like a faith-healer would say it is lack of faith people don't get healed.

You see, intention is a big thing with Adam. He's all about intention and has set up an experiment of sorts called the Global Intention Heals Project to try and lend some scientific credibility to his incredible claims. The website for that project claims:

With Adam DreamHealer's innate healing abilities he is becoming one of the world's leading experts on intention. Most who are following Adam's journey know that our intentions influence our health and our reality. Since Adam knows without a doubt that our intentions have an influence on our health, he has a desire to prove it scientifically. Although many of you also understand this, it is important to conduct the scientific research to help others make decisions with regards to their healing.

So, what exactly was the first experiment that allows Adam to make his claims "without a doubt"? He arranged a specific time and place for a volunteer to be hooked up to a Q-EEG monitor and then 5 minutes before starting emailed a photo of that person to the thousands of people who registered to take part. Then at precisely the same time everyone was instructed to focus their intentions on that person. The monitor measured the volunteer's brainwaves, hoping to demonstrate that all those intentions affected a physiological change in those brainwaves.

You can read the results of that experiment here. The researchers involved with this experiment "are now considering writing a paper based on [their] findings to be submitted to a peer-reviewed scientific journal." But if the results are as conclusive and promising as Adam makes them out to be, then why are the researchers only considering writing a paper. If this is ground-breaking research, why the hesitancy to publish their findings? There is no such hesitancy on Adam's part. He plans similar experiments to confirm what he claims to already know, but already on his website and in his newsletter Adam uses the result from the first experiment as proof of his teachings. He can't be bothered to wait for peer reviewers to examine the experiment or for further experimental confirmations. He now declares, without a doubt, that:

The Intention Heals Project successfully proved that our intentions can change the physiology of others. At the exact time that intentions were sent to Christine, the scientists recorded a change in her brain waves. Two more world renown scientists will be analyzing the data and we will let you know when we receive their results. We cannot overestimate the importance of the initial findings of this research. It scientifically confirms the power of prayer and positive intentions. As self-empowerment is the focus of Adam's conferences and workshops, this establishes the importance of intentions. Every time we send thoughts or prayers to someone we are sending the energy of our intentions. This has been known and practiced since the beginning of time. Now we have scientific proof that the sending of intentions does affect another person's physiology at a distance. Now that we have conclusive results that our intentions can make changes to a person's physiology, the next project will focus on changing someone's health with our thoughts and intentions.

All that talk of conclusive scientific proof certainly seems premature, but that's not stopping Adam. Soon after the earthquake struck Haiti, Adam sent out a request to his followers:

We have all heard about the earthquake in Haiti and the urgent situation that exists. Everyone would like to help in whatever way possible. Very few of us are able to physically be there to help but all of us can send our positive intentions to those in need.

The power of our collective intentions is very real as demonstrated by the recent Intention Heals Project. We are requesting your participation in joining our intentions to encourage a speedy and successful rescue for those trapped beneath the debris. The next few days are critical, so please send your visualization intention of their speedy rescue over the next 3 days. Visualize all the rescue crews and equipment in place working unimpeded as they find many survivors.

Thank you for your participation as we influence our global community with our intentions.

That was on January 13, 2010. Incredibly, five days later Adam sent out another message, this time claiming that those 'rescue intentions' had an impact on the actual rescues taking place thousands of miles away:

Thanks to all for sending your positive intentions to the Haitian earthquake survivors. Your intentions are continuing to make an impact as stories of miraculous rescues and survival continue. There continues to be unprecedented global support for the Haitian people during their time of need. Our gratitude goes out to you for making our world a better place.

Who needs scientific proof when you "know without a doubt"? Adam claims to be a scientist (so do the Scientologists) yet he seems to be using the scientific method merely to verify what he claims to already know, his 'innate knowledge'. Furthermore, he doesn't wait for further experiments or peer reviews for confirmation before declaring success, and he makes pronouncements no true scientist would make, such as claiming credit for 'miraculous' interventions. To say he knows "without a doubt" strikes me as the same kind of certainty religious fundamentalists have.

Adam was at it again recently with news of the earthquake in Chile on February 27, 2010. He sent out an emergency request to his followers:

As you are now aware there has been an 8.8 earthquake off the coast of Chile. A tsunami warning has been issued for the Hawaiian Islands, expected to reach there at approximately 1:30 pm PST. We are issuing an emergency request for you to use your intentions to minimize the impact of the tsunami. Visualize the ocean absorbing the energy to reduce the impact. Know in your mind that your intentions are having a powerful influence on this tsunami. From our previous Global Intention Heals Project we know that our intentions can have an influence on such events.

Then five hours later, Adam sent out another message:

IT WORKED!!! Thanks to all of you who were able to send intentions to minimize the effect of the tsunami on the Hawaiian Islands. The media projected a 12' tsunami which fizzled to about a 1' surge or a 3' wave in some areas. This is remarkable considering that the earthquake was an extremely strong 8.8. As per our visualizations the ocean did indeed absorb the energy of the tsunami. Thank you so much for sending your intentions which made a difference to our global community.

Incredibly, Adam claimed that those intensions reduced the size of the tsunami waves by as much as 9 to 11 feet. One problem with that claim, however, is that waves were never predicted to reach 12 feet, as Adam claims. The New York Times quoted Charles McCreery, director of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, who said that "some early forecasts predicted that waves as high as eight feet could wash into parts of Hawaii." Eight feet is not twelve feet, something Adam the scientist should know. But even if the waves were only projected to reach 8 feet, that still means Adam is claiming a reduction of tsunami waves by 5 to 7 feet by merely getting gullible people to intend that to happen. However, it turns out that there are other more reasonable explanations for the lower waves that reached Hawaii, scientific realities that Adam ignored in his haste to claim more 'proof' of his abilities.

Adam is just getting starting, so we certainly haven't heard the last of him, but just exactly what his intentions are is difficult to determine. He may have nothing but the best intentions, but as we have seen, those could result in very bad consequences for some.

RELATED ARTICLES ON THIS BLOG:


Wishful Thinking Won't Stop The Oil Gusher But Nuking It Would

Quantum intentions and prayers to deities: two sides of the same supernatural coin