Les critiques du Pr Touretzky l'ont fait placer sur la liste des ennemis déclarés de la secte. Il tient un site web Stop Narconon [équivalent partiellement traduit en français http://narconon.critique.free.fr ] contenant diverses mentions des médias sur ce programme. Des célébrités scientologues soutiennent le programme. La semaine passée, John Travolta et sa femme Kelly Preston ont organisé une récolte de fonds à Hawaii. L'actrice sientologie Kirstie Alley est une porte-parole du programme auquel Cruise a déjà apporté son soutien.

Les critiques contre Touretzky ont même envahi New York Press. Fin avril, on a posté sur notre blog divers messages pour Downtown Medical, Cruise et son appel de fonds, ainsi que pour défendre le programme. Le Pr Touretzky a répondu, sa réponse étant intégralement publiée. Deux jours plus tard, le site web de New York press avait droit au passage de "hackers" et un anonyme plaçait un message pro-DM anti-Touretzky sur le site web. Il fut ôté peu après.

Quand Woodworth découvrit le message pro-Touretzky sur le blog de NY Press, il accusa le journal de "prendre son parti" et demanda que nous considérions les critiques de Touretzky postées sur le site "religioius Freedom Watch", considéré quasi universellement comme une façade scientologue destinée à attaquer les critiques de la secte. Woodworth désigna spécifiquement les éléments du site expliquant que le site contenait des instructions pour faire des bombes, et l'accusant d'être raciste. "Si vous dites que ce type est un expert, je veux que vous dévoiliez exactement qui il est", nous dit Woodworth.

On trouve des instructions de bombe sur le site de M. Touretzky, ainsi qu'une explication du fait qu'il les a mises là parce qu'un webmestre d'un site anarchiste "Raisethefist" (Levez-le-poing") avait été arrèté pour avoir publié ces infos il y a longtemps. Touretzky explique qu'il maintient l'information pour "simplifier la surveillance de public quant à la loi qui fit condamner Austin", et pour faire porter l'attention sur les questions de Premier Amendement soulevées par ce cas. Il dévoile d'autres ressources sur le sujet des bombes, chez Amazon.com, Wikipedia et même sur le site de la CNN, instructions n'ayant pas valu à leurs auteurs d'être poursuivis, contrairement à Austin.

Quant à l'accusation de racisme, l'information du site sciento Religious Freedom Watch ne trouve aucun écho crédible ailleurs, et la recherche sur la base de Lexis-Nexis en fournit moins encore. Cette accusation est donc sans fondement et inutile."C'est ainsi depuis les débuts de la secte, dit Touretzky: ils attaquent sans relâche leurs opposants en espérant que ceux-ci se taisent et s'en aillent. Mais à l'ère Internet, ça ne fonctionne plus vraiment."

Si l'on ajoute les sommes des déclarations d'impôts et le financement Lopez, Downtown Medical a reçu plus de 900000 dollars de fonds provenant des contribuables depuis 2003. Peter Vallone Jr, membre du Conseil municipal du Queens, qualifie ces chiffres d'écoeurants. Il pense que le gouvernement ne devrait jamais financer Downtown Medical, et qualifie ouvertement la scientologie de"secte" : "C'est une secte riche jusqu'à l'obscénité, qui pourrait sans difficulté aucune financer le programme", explique Vallone, ajoutant que ce financement officiel aide la scientologie et DM à acquérir une légitimité imméritée.

Pendant que la version new-yorkaise du progralmmle de purification s'enrichit de fonds des contribuables, Narconon, qui utilise quasiment la même procédure de désintoxication que Downtown Medical, ne fait pas cadeau de son programme en Californie. Narconon avait offert des leçons sur la drogue et des programmes de réhab gratuitement à des écoles californiennes depuis 1991, dans 39 écoles en fait. En 2004, lorsque la critique des méthodes Narconon et de ses liens avec la secte ont commencé à s'intensifier, le district éducatif de San Francisco a demandé à un groupe indépendant - la société médicale de San Francisco - d'analyser les mérites de Narconon. Ils n'en ont trouvé aucun.

Dans un courrier de septembre 2004 aux responsables du milieu éducatif du district, Steve Heilig, directeur de la Santé et de l'Education pour la société médicale de San Francisco, a confirmé ce que les critiques disent depuis des années: Narconon n'est pas science. Dans sa lettre, Heilig explique que lui-même et cinq autres ayant évalué le programme, ont estimé qu'il parle souvent de faits dépassés, de faits sans preuves et a une approche fréquemment inexacte, et que ça n'a pas vraiment aidé les étudiants depuis des décennies."

La lettre d'Heilig a déclenché une série d'évènements, et, en février 2005, le ministère californien d'éducation recommandait à toutes les écoles publiques de rejeter Narconon comme non-scientifique, affirmation soutenue le mois suivant par l'association médicale californienne. Dans un mail, Heilig faisait observer que "rien ne lui avait fait changer d'avis quant à Narconon et son absence de scientificité." "Nous n'avons aucune raison ni preuve de modifier notre opinion: l'usage du terme 'scientifique' pour Narconon est inacceptable pour les médecins et experts en toxicomanie. Il ajoutait que le programme de Downtown Medical n'en était pas la copie exacte, mais qu'il est basé sur les mêmes "principes." Amidon répondit que DM et Narconon étaient tout à fait indépendants et qu'il ne pouvait parler pour l'autre organisation. Au contraire, Root fit une apparition dans un documentaire intégralement produit et payé par la scientologie pour attaquer la BBC. Il y vante les bénéfices de Narconon.

Les liens entre DM et Narconon et d'autres associations ayant des liens avec la scientologie sont tout à fait évidents. Trois des membres du conseil de DM font part de leur expérience avec Narconon dans leurs biographies, tandis que les autres signalent leurs liens soit avec ABLE, soit avec FASE. Narconon est quasiment gérée par ABLE. Touretzky indique que ce groupe a été créé pour servir de tampon entre les organisations "pour le bien-public" et la scientologie, qui le gèrait en direct. Robert Vaughn Young, (+ 2003) ancien patron des relations publiques de la scientologie devenu croisé anti-scientologie, avait dévoilé que FASE est une façade de la sciento.

Downtown Medical paie des sommes à FASE et à ABLE pour leur aide quant au programme de purification. La dernière déclaration d'impôts de Downtown Medical, indique que FASE a reçu 215,166 dollars de 2004 à 2005 pour l'aide fournie au projet détoxication, selon un contrat spécifiant que le paiement dépend du budget total du programme. D'après la déclaration, ABLE reçoit de son côté 5% de chaque contribution reçue "en échange des services de management et du support pour [obtenir] le financement"

Amidon proteste, expliquant que toute somme significative payée à ABLE ou FASE fait partie des affaires. "Le projet exige du travail externe pour mieux accomplir ses buts. Ce travail inclut des campagnes de levées de fonds, soumettre des propositions de financement, établir des guides de surveillance, et d'autres soutiens administratifs. Ces services sont effectués au dehors pour une portion de ce qu'il nous auraient coûté", écrit Amidon.

Bien qu'il fasse affaire à New-York, Downtown Medical est officiellement déclaré sous le titre International Academy of Detoxification Specialists [Académie Internationale de Spécialistes en Désintoxication], officiellement enregistrée à Los Angelès. Selon l'information fournie à l'office des association sans but lucratif, GuideStar, la mission annoncée par le groupe consisterait à mener et soutenir les recherches portant sur la méthode hubbardienne de détox, "afin de résoudre les effets de contamination chimique environementale, ou sur les lieux de travail, et suite à l'abus de drogues." [NDT: la scientologie entend par' drogues' non seulement les produits illicites, mais aussi presque tous les médicaments, aspirine etc. inclus]. Son adresse est presque la même que celle de FASE, qui occupe une série de bureaux voisins du même immeuble sur le Wilshire Boulevard à Los Angeles.

Bien que les documents de cette affaire aient été ensuite amendés pour ôter les références à Hubbard, fondateur de la scientologie, les documents originels déclaraient explicitement que la mission du groupe consistait à "promouvoir les oeuvres de L. Ron Hubbard".

On trouve une déclaration similaire dans les bulletins HCO, Hubbard allant ici jusqu'à conseiller à quiconque délivrant le procédé de faire signer un abandon de droits rappelant que le programme n'est pas un traitement médical [NDT: voir à ce sujet la section des contrats de la honte que propose la scientologie à ses associés et à ses clients] . On lit que le programme serait de nature purement spirituelle. Lorsqu'on leur a demandé aujourdéhui pourquoi un médecin devrait admettre une valeur médicale au programme lorsque le créateur lui-même a dit qu'il n'en existe pas, Root a ainsi répondu : "Je peux en parler du fait de ma position de spécialiste certifié en médecine du travail. Le problème de la charge physique est énorme pour ceux de mon domaine, c'est l'un des principaux challenges du XXe siècle. Les bénéfices qu'on retire des éléments du programme, exercice, sauna, vitamines, minéraux sont bien compris de ceux qui délivrent les soins. Près de trois décades d'expériences cliniques ont démontré que le programme apporte une libération pour ceux qu'affectent la chimie, qu'il est sûr et n'est pas vulnérant. "

Dans ses HCOBs, Hubbard sort de cette voie quand il lie le Purif à la spiritualité, en expliquant que les toxines empèchent les humains de devenir de bons scientologues du fait de stimulation nocive. Hubbard écrit aussi que le processus de purification devrait être suivi d'audition, autre procédé censé dégager les souvenirs de cette vie ou de vies passées, une étape tout à fait capitale pour devenir scientologue. Amidon écrit que le programme est tout à fait laïque et qu'aucune audition n'a lieu à Downtown Medical.

Ca n'a pas surpris David Touretzky d'apprendre que les supporters de DM tentent de tenir ces deux positions en même temps. "C'est classique en scientologie: Ils tentent à chaque fois de concilier des opposés. Leurs textes sont truffés de jargon "scientifique", puis ils se tournent et disent "Ah, mais on ne peut pas nous reprocher de pratiquer la médecine, c'est tout à fait spirituel."

Les médecins qui ne sont pas associés à Medical Downtown ont été particulièrtement durs dans leurs commentaires. L'un d'eux a répondu "Au mieux, c'est de la poudre de perlin-pimpin, de l'arnaque." Un autre a dit qu'il s'agissait probablement d'une "belle collection de non-sens." Un troisième, qui a demandé à rester anonyme a dit qu'il était prèt à accepter le programme comme légitimement médical si... une recherche correcte était menée et que ses résultats aillent dans le bon sens. Mais à ce jour, il n'y a aucune recherche effectuée et le purif ne marche pas.

"C'est bien gentil de se traiter au sauna, a dit le médecin, mais je ne crois pas que quoi que ce soit de scientifique vienne supporter ces dires."

Lorsqu'on a informé Vallone du montant alloué par le gouvernement à Dowtown Medical, Vallone a réagi: "C'est une disgrâce." Il a écrit à John Carmichaël, président de la branche new-yorkais e de l'église, en lui déclarant qu'il était géné par le "passé troublant" de la scientologie, ajoutant qu'il croyait que si l'église voulait continuer, elle n'avait qu'à financer Downtown Medical, que ce n'était pas aux contribuables de le faire. Qu'basence de science signifiait aussi absence de finances du gouvernement, et qu'il espérait que ses collègues le suivent. Aucun élu responsable ne peut apporter son soutien à cette chose", dit Vallone: "Nous n'avons pas à conférer une légitimité à une secte."

Those rescue workers I spoke with back up Woodworth’s statements. No patient who participated in the detoxification program offered by Downtown Medical said they were confronted with Scientology, or its beliefs, at any time. In 2003, Downtown Medical, a clinic promoting a program designed to remove impurities from the body through a regimen of sweat and vitamins, opened for business. The project, which focuses solely on those rescue workers who served at Ground Zero after 9/11, is based on the writings of Church of Scientology founder, L. Ron Hubbard, and project leaders publicly acknowledge that Hubbard’s book, Clear Body, Clear Mind, acts as the de facto handbook for the program. Though many past supporters of the program such as the City of New York’s largest firefighters’ union, the Uniformed Firefighters Association, backed off once they learned of Downtown Medical’s ties to Scientology, others have been more than willing to openly show their support, starting with former Manhattan City Council Member Margarita Lopez.

During her 2005 run for Manhattan borough president, it was revealed that Lopez helped steer $630,000 in city funding to Downtown Medical. Following that, she received over $100,000 in campaign contributions from Scientology associates and the scorn of Mayor Bloomberg. The mayor openly chastised Lopez, who appears in a promotional video touting the program, for her connection to Downtown Medical. Since then, other elected officials have been happy to stand up for the benefits of the detoxification program, despite Bloomberg’s continued objections. Council Member Hiram Monserrate of Queens announced his support for the program in April, declaring that he had gone through the detox regimen himself. Monserrate even introduced a bill to declare April 19 “L. Ron Hubbard Day” in advance of a Manhattan fundraiser for the program hosted by Scientologist, actor and Downtown Medical co-founder Tom Cruise, which raised $1.3 million. Another Queens City Council Member, Joseph Addabbo, attended the fundraiser and said the critics of Downtown Medical were out of line. This program helps rescue workers, Addabbo said, and that should be the top priority.

At least one elected official had no idea he was considered a supporter of the program until he was contacted for this story. On the front page of Downtown Medical’s website appears a quote from Michael Balboni, a former Republican state senator from Long Island and current deputy secretary for Public Security to Governor Eliot Spitzer, which states that the results of the detoxification program are “the ultimate victory over the effects the terrorists hoped to achieve.” A Google search for the quote finds it only on Downtown Medical’s website and a search in the much more thorough Lexis-Nexis newspaper archive does not turn up the quote at all. Balboni does not know how it got there and does not even remember saying it, not just as an endorsement of Downtown Medical but in any context. “I have no idea where they got that quote from,” said Balboni when asked about it, noting that he met with a few supporters of the program a few years ago to discuss the potential opening of a similar clinic in his district. Balboni said that if participants in the program felt better upon its completion, then that was good for them. That said, he is not a supporter and will ask Downtown Medical to remove his remark from its website. “It’s certainly not an endorsement of the program.”

Woodworth supplied a number of letters of endorsement, from elected officials and union leaders alike, offering their support for the program. One letter, written in 2004, is from Senator Chuck Schumer, though Schumer’s office has indicated that the senator no longer supports the program. But the only endorsement Woodworth or anyone associated with Downtown Medical cares about is the approval of its patients, and those patients I spoke with were adamant that the program cured their ills.

“I came into it very skeptical,” said Steve Mona, a retired NYPD lieutenant who worked at Ground Zero from September 11 clear through December 2001. Mona said that he was prepared to leave the program immediately if he was confronted with Scientology or pressured to convert. That never happened. “Twenty-six days later, I was a different person—not just physically but mentally. No bullshit.” Mona says that today he sleeps better, he is losing weight and he has an overall better feeling about life in general. And Scientology has nothing to do with it. “The bottom line is, I know about as much about Scientology now as I did when I started the program.” And Downtown Medical’s Scientology connections don’t mean a thing to Mona. “I wouldn’t care if these guys are Satan worshippers, as long as part of the deal wasn’t worshipping Satan. They made me well.”

The toxins and particle matter released into the air on 9/11 have become a major cause for elected officials in New York, most notably Senator Hillary Clinton, who have charged that the Bush administration and the Environmental Protection Agency did not do enough to keep rescue workers safe in the weeks and months following 9/11 and have not done enough since to deal with their health issues stemming from their work at Ground Zero. For officials like Lopez, Monserrate and Addabbo, Downtown Medical is just what rescue workers like Mona need. But the program is not without its detractors.

Since the detoxification program was first launched, the bulk of its criticism has been linked to top supporter and fundraiser actor Tom Cruise, who has exhibited some bizarre behavior since he began to openly preach the benefits of Scientology several years ago. From jumping up and down on Oprah’s couch to the constant rumors that he has virtually enslaved his wife, actress Katie Holmes, into the Church of Scientology, every move Cruise has made in recent years has been tied to Scientology and dubbed “wacky” by the media at large. Therefore, Cruise’s pet detoxification program must also be wacky.

Hubbard’s detoxification program, which Scientologists refer to as the “purification rundown,” requires an individual to ingest a vitamin cocktail and cooking oil, run on a treadmill and sweat heavily in a sauna with temperatures ranging from 140 to 180 degrees Fahrenheit for about a month. If Downtown Medical is to be believed, that combination is a miracle cure for many ailments. “Patients have had black paste coming out of their pores in the sauna,” states Woodworth on the site. “Their sweat has stained towels purple, blue, orange, yellow and black. They have reported bowel movements that are blue, or green, or that have smelled like smoke—despite the fact that they had not been at a fire scene for months.” A picture of a program participant holding a purple stained towel in his hands appears in a slideshow on their website, and program administrators say they have other similar photos available. Shards of glass have leaked from the pores of detox participants, according to the website. And accounts of the program’s benefits, written by rescue workers who served at Ground Zero, cover the site.

Woodworth’s concern is the truth about the project, beyond Cruise’s involvement and the negative perception of the Church of Scientology that the media has mostly focused on. But an examination of the records and discussions with experts findsa program lacking full scientific testing, that has been booted out of other cities, that uses potentially dangerous amounts of vitamins and that Hubbard himself admitted was not medicine, among other concerns. Multiple experts in the field of toxicology from across the country were contacted for this story. Eleven replied, though some asked to remain anonymous for fear of reprisal. Of those 11, not one would vouch for the program’s effectiveness or would recommend it to patients, often calling it “dangerous” or “quackery.”

The casework that would appear to support detoxification as legitimate medicine appears in multiple places—including Clear Body, Clear Mind—on Downtown Medical’s website; on the website of Downtown Medical’s parent group, the International Academy of Detoxification Specialists; and in a third volume written by Hubbard called “The Purification Rundown Series,” published as part of The Technical Bulletins of Dianetics and Scientology, a collection of letters known to Scientologists as Hubbard Communications Office Bulletins, or HCOBs.

Clear Body, Clear Mind is vague. Though the book does offer vitamin recipes and is a suitable overall primer to Hubbard’s detoxification program, it is filled with anonymous anecdotal evidence about the apparent positive results of the purification rundown. The foreward to the book is written by Dr. David Root and James Barnes, both members of Downtown Medical’s advisory board, and in it they recount a handful of case studies that purport to show the effectiveness of detoxification. They highlight the cases of soldiers returning from the first Iraq war treated for Gulf War Syndrome, Vietnam veterans exposed to the chemical “Agent Orange” and Kazakhstan citizens exposed to radiation from the Chernobyl disaster. Similar statements are made by Hubbard in the HCOBs. All patients show incredible signs of improvement, of course.

When reviewed, the studies that recount this great success do not meet the basic standards for scientific research that a high school student would be forced to follow in freshman biology. Sample sizes are extremely small, and research is conducted by parties with a vested interest in the program’s success. The same is true for the research specifically dedicated to the work of Downtown Medical. One study linked to the program’s website is authored by seven individuals, four of whom are directly associated with Downtown Medical, either through its advisory board or as an employee. That study indicates improvements in seven men who participated in the purification rundown, but notes that the sample size is too limited to make a real judgment of its effectiveness. As for the bias of the authors, in a written response Root declared that it is perfectly reasonable for anyone interested in a particular area of study to research that area, and that independence is provided through publication in “peer-reviewed” medical journals. Several doctors consulted for this story said that no credible, peer-reviewed medical journal has ever published a truly peer-reviewed study of the purification rundown.

Other studies of larger groups of detox participants rely on subjective symptoms to make the case that the purification rundown works. A July 2004 outcome summary posted on Downtown Medical’s website lists improvements in 286 patients, noting that thyroid function had improved and cholesterol levels had dropped in many participants. However, it points to numerous other indicators of program success that would be more difficult to measure—such as improvement in the areas of joint pain, fatigue, impaired memory, irritability and eye irritation. Fatigue can be cured by going to bed earlier, and irritability can simply mean having a stressful day at work. The outcome summary even counts a decrease in alcohol consumption as a benefit of the program, even though that could mean going down from six to five beers a night or just deciding to stop drinking on your own, something alcoholics do everyday with meetings, minus vitamins and a schvitz.

Another study, authored by Root and two others associated with the project and attached to Downtown Medical’s 2005 tax return, mentions improvements in other subjective symptoms as a sign of the program’s benefit. According to that study, which examined 484 program participants, 100 percent of patients reported improvement in both “subjective symptoms” and “perception of health.” It also found that participants in the purification rundown “found considerable reduction in days of work missed on the start of the detoxification program, as well as reduced concerns about forced retirement.” It even claims that detoxification has the potential to raise your IQ level by almost four points, a modest number considering the official Church of Scientology website boasts that the purification rundown can raise one’s IQ by up to 15 points. A decrease in subjective symptoms is a perfectly legitimate way to measure program success, according to Dr. Phyllis Gelb, a physician with Downtown Medical. “Many program participants—who have not slept for years, who are depressed, fearful, lethargic and unstable—have generally undergone multiple tests and been told there is ‘nothing wrong.’ Given that the means do not exist to identify a cause of their suffering, there [sic] subjective statements may be the only measure of success,” wrote Gelb in a written response.

Two major problems, aside from the bias of the authors and the reliance on subjectivity, exist in each detoxification study, the first being the utter lack of any control group to balance the testing. In that high school science class, one might have put together a  project examining the effects of cigarette smoke on the growth of a fern. One fern would face a barrage of nicotine while another would sit far away from the smoke for the same period of time, and growth would be measured at the conclusion. For a more adult example you might look at drug companies, which test the effectiveness of every drug by giving one group of subjects what amounts to a sugar pill. Not a single available study of the purification rundown includes such a control group, and no groups are ever present in the work published by Downtown Medical.

Woodworth admits that he has no control study. He has a study prepared, written and ready to go but he does not have the funding required to move it forward.  Root, on the other hand, says there is no need for such a study. He and his researchers know the purification rundown works, and therefore there is no need to force the placebo on anyone. Scientific methods need not be followed. “As regards controls, it is not possible to give one group a sugar pill and ask another group to exercise, sauna and take vitamins without making it obvious that the ‘control’ group is not receiving the same therapy. It has been most practical to use participants as their own control—i.e., to monitor their condition over a period of time prior to program start,” wrote Root.

But time is a major reason a control group would be needed to study the detoxification program’s effectiveness, since over time the body will naturally detoxify itself without the help of a vitamin cocktail and a sauna session. Human beings naturally release chemicals from their bodies all the time through an ancient process known as going to the toilet. If you took an antibiotic today, it would naturally work its way out of your body. That’s why drugs are usually prescribed for a number of days, in order to keep the levels of that drug high enough to be effective. The same would be true of radiation. If you are exposed to radiation today, the amount of radiation in your body 30 days from now would be lower.

That’s not the byproduct of the Hubbard method, that’s just the way things work. Proponents of the purification method argue that toxins can stay in the body forever unless you take your vitamin shake and sit in the heat, but such claims cannot be taken seriously without measuring the time such toxins take to leave the body unassisted. Just drinking a lot of water can clean out your system all by itself. It is also worth noting that different chemicals take different amounts of time to leave the body naturally, yet Downtown Medical’s research tends to treat toxins as an interchangeable soup. The study attached to the tax return does not even bother to mention before and after levels of toxins whatsoever.

“It’s a total myth,” said Stephen M. Pittel, Ph.D., a forensic psychologist and a toxicology expert based in California. With more than 30 years of experience in the study of toxicology and substance abuse research, Pittel said he sees no merit in the purification rundown at all. Detoxification takes place naturally, said Pittel, and all doctors can and should do is either treat the symptoms of detoxification through medication or gradually wean individuals away from the toxins. “It takes place all by itself. You don’t have to do anything for the body to detoxify itself. There’s nothing that does anything to hasten the detoxification process.” Pittel noted that the Hubbard method is largely based on the notion that toxins can be stored indefinitely in human fat tissue and that the purification rundown can force those toxins out of the body, a statement Pittel said is false. The only thing that can force toxins out of fat tissue is very strenuous exercise, and even then the  reduction would be miniscule, said Pittel. “A sauna’s just not going to do it.”

In the absence of a control group, serious studies have been conducted on the main element in the program’s vitamin cocktail, and they find it has the potential to destroy your body and possibly even kill you. The “wonder drug” in Hubbard’s detoxification method is not a drug at all. Instead, Hubbard relies on a concoction of vitamins dominated by niacin, which he states in Clear Body, Clear Mind can have “startling” and “beneficial” effects. In the book, Hubbard recommends that individuals who start the purification rundown can begin at 100 mg of niacin and work their way towards higher levels. Hubbard advises that at the final stage of detoxification, program participants should be given up to 5,000 mg of niacin.

Taking niacin in such high amounts can be, to put it lightly, extremely hazardous to one’s health, according to Dr. Manoj K. Mittal, a fellow in Emergency Medicine at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. In a case study that appeared in April’s edition of the Annals of Emergency Medicine, Mittal reported on two adults and two adolescents who suffered serious side effects from taking large amounts of niacin as a vitamin supplement. Both adult patients suffered skin irritation, while both adolescents had potentially fatal reactions to niacin—including liver toxicity and hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) as well as nausea, vomiting and dizziness. One of the teens even experienced heart palpitations. All four patients recovered after treatment.

Such side effects are given little mention in Hubbard’s writings, and in fact appear to be misrepresented as good things. In Clear Body, Clear Mind, Hubbard writes that the skin irritation, a result of niacin toxicity, is the result of radiation or old sunburns being expelled, or “run out” of the body through the detoxification process. Other symptoms of niacin overdose are written off as the reoccurrences of previous injuries or sicknesses “running out” of the body. Side effects, such as nausea, are blamed on a salt imbalance or a lack of commitment to the program. Gout, another side effect of niacin toxicity, is blamed on drinking rancid cooking oil provided by the program, and those who have the symptoms of gout are advised to “consult a qualified medical practitioner.”

The recommended daily dosage of niacin according to Mittal is just about 15 mg, a number significantly lower than that recommended by Hubbard. Mittal, who was not asked to evaluate the purification rundown for this story, began to look into the problem of niacin overdose after examining a patient who ingested niacin hoping to capitalize on the vitamin’s ever-growing urban legend appeal as an effective masking agent for an employer’s drug test. A Google search for “niacin” and “pass urine drug test” yielded 84,600 results, according to Mittal’s research. While programs like Downtown Medical promote niacin as a way to clean the body, the conventional wisdom is that niacin works to only hide those impurities and, according to Mittal, is not even effective at that task.

“Because niacin is known to affect metabolic processes, there is a completely unfounded notion that it can rapidly clear the body of drugs such as cannabis and cocaine. However, not only is niacin ineffective for this purpose, it is also dangerous when taken in large amounts,” said Mittal, who came across at least one case where a niacin abuser required a liver transplant after high doses of the vitamin destroyed the organ.

Downtown Medical advisory board member and attorney Robert Amidon, in a written response to questions, said that there have been no adverse side effects in his program from niacin overdose since his vitamin regimen calls for immediate-release rather than sustained-release niacin. The latter has been associated with the more severe consequences of niacin overdose such as liver failure. However, doctors and other research indicate that immediate-release niacin, like that used in the purification rundown, can also be harmful to the liver and that the other side effects are no happy byproducts of detoxification.

“If you give people this much niacin, science has shown that those are the symptoms of niacin toxicity,” said Saeed A. Jortani, Ph.D., the director of the forensic toxicology laboratory at the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine of the University of Louisville. Jortani added that the purification rundown is “dangerous,” and that no amount of faith could transform those side effects into a positive. He also pointed out that other vitamins used in the program, such as Vitamin A and calcium, can also be toxic when misused over the long haul. “Your body doesn’t see religion when it comes to an overdose.”

The link between niacin and drug use goes beyond just tricking your employer to think you are clean. In Clear Body, Clear Mind, Hubbard devotes numerous passages to the purification rundown’s ability to clean the body of drug-related toxins, and the detoxification plan has been used for decades by Narconon, a drug rehabilitation program with strong ties to Scientology, one that many critics of the Church see as nothing more than a way for Scientology to recruit weakened drug addicts into their faith. “Narconon is Scientology,” said David S. Touretzky, a free-speech activist, research professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, and a longtime critic of the Church of Scientology. “Narconon’s practices are exactly Scientology practices.”

Touretzky’s criticism of the Church of Scientology has placed him squarely on the Church’s enemies list. He maintains a website, Stop Narconon, that documents media mentions of the drug treatment program. Narconon is supported by numerous prominent Scientologists. Last week, John Travolta and his wife, fellow Scientologist and actress Kelly Preston, held a fundraiser for Narconon’s affiliate in Hawaii. Actress and Scientologist Kirstie Alley is a public spokesperson for the program, and Cruise has also stated his support in the past.

Criticism of Touretzky has even invaded the world of the New York Press. In late April, several items were posted to our blog regarding Downtown Medical and the Cruise fundraiser, including one defense of the program. Touretzky sent us a response which was posted in full. Two days later, the New York Press website was hacked, and an anonymous person placed a pro-Downtown Medical, anti-Touretzky item on the site. After a short time, the item was removed.

After Woodworth found the Touretzky item on the New York Press blog, he accused the newspaper of “doing his bidding” and demanded that we consider criticisms posted about Touretzky at Religious Freedom Watch, a website that is almost universally regarded as a Scientology front group designed to attack the Church’s critics. Woodworth specifically pointed to items on the website that note Touretzky hosts bomb-making instructions on his own website and accusing him of being a racist. “If you quote this guy as an expert, I want you to put in exactly who this guy is,” said Woodworth.

Bomb-making instructions do appear on Touretzky’s website, along with an explanation that he has hosted them as a protest of the arrest and conviction of Sherman Austin, the owner and operator of anarchist website RaisetheFist.com, who was arrested for publishing the information on that site several years ago. Touretzky explains that he now hosts the information to “facilitate public scrutiny of the law under which Austin was charged” and to shine a light on First Amendment issues raised by the case. The professor even points to other resources on bomb-making, available through Amazon.com, Wikipedia or even CNN’s website, that have not led to the arrest of their creators as a contrast to the Austin case.

As for the racism charge, the information hosted at Religious Freedom Watch could not be found at any other credible source. A Google search found only reposts of the information, and a Lexis-Nexis search found even less. Therefore, the racism charge was deemed useless and unfounded. “It’s the same thing since the beginning of the cult,” said Touretzky. “They attack their enemies relentlessly in the hope that people will shut up and go away. But in the age of the Internet, it doesn’t work so well.”

Between tax filings and Lopez’s sizeable grant, Downtown Medical has received more than $900,000 in taxpayer funding since it opened in 2003. These numbers are disgusting, according to Queens City Council Member Peter Vallone Jr., who has been a vocal critic of Scientology and Downtown Medical since April. Vallone has openly called Scientology a cult, and feels that government funding should never be used to fund Downtown Medical. “It’s an obscenely rich cult, and it could easily fund the program itself,” said Vallone, who added that government funding helps Downtown Medical and Scientology achieve false legitimacy.

While the New York version of the purification rundown gets some government funding, Narconon, which uses virtually the same detoxification procedure as Downtown Medical, couldn’t give their program away in California. Narconon had offered drug counseling and rehabilitation programs to California’s public schools free of charge since at least 1991, and had eventually presented the program to 39 school districts across the state. In 2004, when criticism of both Narconon and its connections to Scientology began to intensify, the San Francisco school district turned to an independent party, the San Francisco Medical Society, to evaluate the merits of Narconon. Those merits could not be found.

In a September 2004 letter to school district officials Steve Heilig, director of health and education for the San Francisco Medical Society, confirmed what critics had been alleging for years: Narconon is not science. In his letter, Heilig wrote that he and five others who evaluated the Narconon curriculum found it “often exemplifies the outdated, non-evidence-based and sometimes factually inaccurate approach, which has not served students well for decades.”

Heilig’s letter set in motion a chain of events, and by February 2005 California’s education department recommended that all public schools reject Narconon as unscientific, a claim that was unanimously backed the next month by the California Medical Association. In an email, Heilig noted that nothing has changed his mind about Narconon and its lack of scientific merit. “We have seen no evidence or reason to change our opinion that Narconon uses ‘science’ not accepted by any reputable medical and drug experts,” wrote Heilig, who noted that Downtown Medical’s program is not a carbon copy of Narconon, but is “founded on similar ‘principles.’” Amidon wrote that Narconon and Downtown Medical are totally independent of one another and that he is in no position to speak for another organization. In contrast, Root appears in a brand new, Scientology-funded and produced documentary designed to attack the BBC. In it, he espouses the benefits of Narconon.

The connections between Downtown Medical and Narconon, as well as other organizations with strong ties to the Church of Scientology, are fairly apparent. Three of the organization’s advisory board members list their experience with Narconon in their biographies, while other board members list their associations with either the Association for Better Living and Education (ABLE) or the Foundation for Advancements in Science and Education (FASE). Narconon is managed under the watchful eye of ABLE, which Touretzky states was founded to create a buffer between the Church of Scientology and its “public benefit” organizations, which had been run directly by the Church of Scientology in previous years. FASE was outed as a Scientology front group by Robert Vaughn Young, a former Church spokesperson turned anti-Scientology crusader, prior to his death in 2003.

Both FASE and ABLE are paid by Downtown Medical for their support of the purification program. According to Downtown Medical’s most recent tax return, GASE received $215,166 from the program from 2004 through 2005 for its help in founding the detox project, as part of an agreement that specifies a payment to FASE based on the overall budget of the program. ABLE has a more direct payment plan with Downtown Medical. According to the tax filing, Downtown Medical pays the Association 5 percent of every contribution it receives “in exchange for certain management, program and funding support.”

Amidon disputes the notion that any significant amount of money is paid by Downtown Medical to either ABLE or FASE, writing off the payments as the cost of doing business. “The Project has outsourced work from time to time as a more efficient means of accomplishing its goals. This work has included fundraising campaigns, writing grant proposals, or establishing outcome monitoring guidelines, and other administrative support services. These services were outsourced, at a fraction of what they would otherwise cost,” wrote Amidon.

Downtown Medical, though doing business in NYC, is officially registered as the International Academy of Detoxification Specialists, based in Los Angeles. According to information supplied to the non-profit clearinghouse, GuideStar, the group’s mission is to conduct and support research into Hubbard’s detoxification method “to address the effects of environmental chemical contamination, occupational exposures and drug abuse.” Its address is almost identical to that of FASE, which occupies an adjoining suite in the same Wilshire Boulevard office building.

Though its corporation papers were later amended to remove references to the Scientology founder, when FASE was founded in California in 1981 its paperwork explicitly stated that the group’s mission was to “promote the works of L. Ron Hubbard.”

The Church of Scientology can be hostile when you publish their text. In 1995, the Church sued the Washington Post and two of its reporters after they published excerpts of the Church’s “operating thetan” manuals. Despite the potential threat of lawsuits, a direct quote from Clear Body, Clear Mind is probably the best way to sum up exactly why the purification rundown should not be considered medicine. “The Purification program cannot be construed as a recommendation of medical treatment or medication. It is not professed to be physical or medical treatment nor is any such claim made. There are no medical recommendations or claims for the Purification program or for any of the vitamin or mineral regimens described in this book.” That quote appears on the book’s copyright page. The book that serves as the bible of the Hubbard method, the book that Downtown Medical is basing medical treatments on, admits right upfront that the purification rundown is not medicine, nor should anyone think it is.

A similar statement is written in the HCOB, and there Hubbard even advises that anyone administering the detoxification have the patient sign a waiver noting that the program is not a medical treatment. In their forward to Clear Body, Clear Mind, Root and Barnes write that Hubbard never intended for the purification rundown to have any medical use. The process was purely a spiritual one. When asked today why any doctor would see medical value in the program when even its creator did not, Root responds thusly: “I can speak to this from my position as a board certified occupational medicine specialist. The problem of body burden is enormous for those in my field—one of the major medical challenges to emerge in the 20th century. The benefits of the elements of the program—exercise, sauna bathing, vitamin and mineral supplements—are well understood by caregivers. Nearly three decades of clinical experience have shown that the program brings relief to those affected by chemicals and is non-invasive and safe.”

In the HCOBs Hubbard goes out of his way to link the purification rundown to spirituality, stating that toxins are preventing humans from becoming good Scientologists through negative stimulation. Hubbard also writes that the purification rundown should be followed by auditing, a process that purports to unearth memories in an individual from this life and past lives and is a major step in becoming a Scientologist. Amidon wrote that the program is entirely secular and that auditing does not take place at Downtown Medical.

Touretzky said he is not surprised that supporters of the purification rundown would try to hold both positions on the medical value of the program. “This is classic Scientology: They try to have everything both ways. And so they fill their writings with ‘Scientific’ sounding jargon, and then turn around and say, ‘They can’t touch us for practicing medicine, this is truly spiritual,’” he said.

People who do have medical degrees, people not associated with Downtown Medical, were extremely harsh in their comments. One physician called the purification rundown “at best ‘snake oil’ quackery.” Another said it’s likely “a load of nonsense.” However, one physician, who asked to remain anonymous, said that he would be willing to accept the program as legitimate medicine if valid research was conducted and the resulting data supported the project. But today that data does not exist, and the purification rundown does not work.

“It’s nice to have sauna treatments,” said the doctor, “but I don’t believe any science exists to support this”

“That’s a disgrace,” said Vallone when informed of the total amount of government funding that Downtown Medical has taken in over the years. This week, Vallone sent a letter to John Carmichael, president of New York’s branch of the Church, declaring that he has concerns about Scientology’s “troubling history” and adding that the Church should fund Downtown Medical if it so believes in the project, not the taxpayers. That lack of science should also mean a lack of government funding, he said, and he’s hopeful his colleagues will come around. “No responsible elected official would ever back this,” said Vallone. “We should not be conferring legitimacy on a cult.”