Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
AFP reports that there are Scientologists down in Haiti practicing a rather odd form of faith healing:
Amid the mass of aid agencies piling in to help Haiti quake victims is a batch of Church of Scientology "volunteer ministers", claiming to use the power of touch to reconnect nervous systems.Clad in yellow T-shirts emblazoned with the logo of the controversial US-based group, smiling volunteers fan out among the injured lying under makeshift shelters in the courtyard of Port-au-Prince's General Hospital.
A wealthy private donor provided his airplane to fly in 80 volunteers from Los Angeles, along with 50 Haitian-American-doctors, in a gesture worth 400,000 dollars, said a Parisian volunteer who gave her name as Sylvie.
And here's how they're doing it:
"We're trained as volunteer ministers, we use a process called 'assist' to follow the nervous system to reconnect the main points, to bring back communication," she said."When you get a sudden shock to a part of your body the energy gets stuck, so we re-establish communication within the body by touching people through their clothes, and asking people to feel the touch."
And this rather outlandish story of a "success":
Next to her lay 22-year-old student Oscar Elweels, whose father rescued him from the basement of his school where he lay with a pillar on his leg for a day after the deadly January 12 quake.His right leg was amputated below the knee and his left leg was severely bruised and swollen.
More than half of his fellow students died in the rubble of his school, although the rest of his family was unscathed, he said, thanking God.
"One hour ago he had no sensation in his left leg, so I explained the method to him, I touched him and after a while he said 'now I feel everything'," said Sylvie.
"Otherwise they might have had to amputate his other leg. Now his sister knows the method and she can do it."
Asked about the method being used on him, a smiling Elweels described it as "a sort of harmony between the nerves, a kind of exercise. I couldn't feel at all, but then I could."
Wow, how compelling. Haven't these people suffered enough? The last thing they need now is Tom Cruise and his gang of credulous fools.
Politics
Comments
Was this at the same time other planes were being turned away from Port-Au-Prince airport?
When I tried that, I got a police caution.
Posted by: Matty | January 27, 2010 9:26 AM
This is brilliant on the part of the Scientologists. The results will be random, but the "failures" will be ignored while the "successes" will be trumpeted, providing anecdotal "data". It's the lifeblood of quack medicine.
Posted by: Taz | January 27, 2010 9:33 AM
For those that think they're doing good given they're bringing supplies, think again. This article on John Travolta using his jet to haul in supplies along with scientologists reports his success at getting into the country in spite of a continued bottleneck at the airport. For example, Doctors without Borders are not able to get the totality of their offerings into Haiti yet.
If scientologists' intentions were purely good, we'd see them stashing doctors on board in place of the scientologist woomeisters. I'm wondering if Travolta got to the head of the line in spite of not having anything marginally better to offer than other planes not able to land and unload. We certainly know part of his load was marginally worse.
Posted by: Michael Heath | January 27, 2010 9:34 AM
That may be its price equvalent. But calculating worth is ususally considerably more difficult. In this particular case they were close. They just needed to multiply their result by -1. These con artists are preying on the vulnerable while taking up resources and space that could otherwise go to legigitimate aid efforts. For shame.
Posted by: Abby Normal | January 27, 2010 9:34 AM
In fact, an earlier flight that the Scientologists arranged had agreed to transport doctors and nurses, some of whom came a long distance to hitch a ride with them. However, the Volunteer Ministers goofed the floof and left without them. They did, however, take their medical supplies.
http://www.ny1.com/1-all-boroughs-news-content/112541/boarding-mixup-grounds-medical-mission-to-haiti
All of this nonsense comes as absolutely no surprise to regular observers.
Posted by: Jen | January 27, 2010 9:43 AM
[to self]Coffee then comments.[/ts]
Sorry about the spelling.
Posted by: Abby Normal | January 27, 2010 9:50 AM
Hey, hands off!
I thought fundies had dibs on the laying on of hands. What will Scientologists do next, speak in tongues?
Posted by: Reverend Rodney | January 27, 2010 9:57 AM
Actually, I thought that was a Paladin ability. (Sorry)
Posted by: catgirl | January 27, 2010 10:07 AM
Al Jazeera's got Haiti's head vodou priest weighing in on Pat Robertson's fundies and the Scilons. (I believe the video report is pre-Travolta)
http://jonathanturley.org/2010/01/27/head-haitian-voodoo-priest-objects-to-scientologists-and-others-proselytizing-through-aid-activities/
Posted by: Jen | January 27, 2010 10:27 AM
catgirl: Yeah, scientology is for magic-users, not paladins. Once you reach a high enough level you gain control over matter, energy, time and space. It's like crossing a Time Lord with a Jedi, in the Danger Zone.
Posted by: user@example.com | January 27, 2010 10:32 AM
Is this a PR move on the part of Scientology? I mean, the Haitians are not likely to be able to afford their various "courses" so they are not getting new members in Haiti.
Posted by: Kelly | January 27, 2010 11:20 AM
Posted by: James Hanley | January 27, 2010 11:28 AM
As usual, the Onion is on top of this issue:
http://www.theonion.com/content/statshot/what_are_we_sending_to_haiti
Posted by: t_p_hamilton | January 27, 2010 12:03 PM
Just another example of how a crisis brings out both the best and worst (snake oil dealers) in humanity.
Posted by: CHV | January 27, 2010 12:38 PM
Why did they wait until after the Haiti earthquake to begin practicing this new medical procedure? How come doctors throughout America are not using it? (A conspiracy, I guess.)
I guess the energy-got-stuck theory explains Ernst angely's method--a good smack on the head can unstick energy (and brains).
Posted by: mark | January 27, 2010 12:40 PM
Why is the COS even in Haiti? Noboy there can afford their $65K salvation ladder, required to get to the point where you learn about the origin of the space alien cooties and Xenu. Sheesh.
Posted by: Ian | January 27, 2010 12:41 PM
Wasn't that "wealthy private donor" of the plane the same guy who produced and acted in that famously horrendous scientology movie Battlefield Earth? I had read somewhere that he was going to be flying down there on his plane...
Posted by: mercurianferret | January 27, 2010 12:44 PM
Is the Church of Scientology Guilty of Human Trafficking?
http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/is_the_church_of_scientology_guilty_of_human_trafficking
Posted by: dontgothroughmybins | January 27, 2010 1:09 PM
re: Jen's citation in #5: how could people orgaqnizing a flight LOSE the passenger manifest at the last minute? That's like the head honchos at the Louvre forgetting where they kept the Mona Lisa. Even as an honest mistake, it shows a suspicious degree of incompetence.
And they knowingly chose to fly the medical supplies to Haiti and leave their rightful owners behind? That's dangerously close to "theft."
Oh, and I just had a look at the al Jazeera footage cited in #9. Since when did $cientologists wear crosses? Are they pretending to be Christians to appease someone?
(PS: I suspect al Jazeera made a major error: the Voudoun guy's name is Max, not Matt. My GF studied Voudoun under him before he moved back to Haiti.)
Posted by: Raging Bee | January 27, 2010 1:25 PM
@Raging Bee "Are they pretending to be Christians to appease someone?"
Misdirection or appropriation. They have claimed in interviews that you can be both a Scientologist and another religion at the same time, which is either intellectually dishonest or just a flat out lie.
The truth is more along these lines.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26H3yMA_pNg
Posted by: Jen | January 27, 2010 1:54 PM
If the Scientologists really wanted to help the Haitians thy'd have used their inter-planetary technology to stabilize the tectonic plates.
What would Xenu do?
Posted by: Rob Jase | January 27, 2010 7:18 PM
@Rob Jase #21
Xenu would have nuked 'em.
fusilier
James 2:24
Posted by: fusilier | January 27, 2010 9:20 PM
Posted by: JThompson | January 28, 2010 12:05 AM
"rather outlandish story of a "success":"
Yeah, but those are as good as peer-reviwed scientific studies to Scientologists, and they bank on those bringing people in. A Scientology "success story" is as true and scientific as the Theory of Relativity.
Posted by: bob dobbs | January 28, 2010 8:16 AM