Scientology spokesman clarifies some of church’s beliefs

Scientology spokesman clarifies some of church’s beliefs

By Ansley Roan

BELIEFNET

After the death of Jett Travolta, the 16-year-old son of John Travolta and Kelly Preston, a Church of Scientology spokesman, Tommy Davis, talked about Scientology’s beliefs on autism, medical care, and death.

 

Tommy Davis clarifie quelques croyances de la ScientologieDavis spoke only for the church, not for the family. Some answers have been edited for length and clarity.

Q. There have been rumors that Jett Travolta was autistic. There are also reports that the Church of Scientology doesn’t believe that autism exists or allow for treatment of that condition. Could you clarify?

A. We’ve never stated that (we don’t) recognize autism. It’s medicine. The church deals with the spirit. If people have a medical problem or a physical ailment, they go to a doctor. It’s church policy that they do so.

Q. Just to clarify: the church doesn’t have any prohibition against prescription drugs or medical treatment?

A. None whatsoever. Scientologists avail themselves of conventional medical treatment for medical conditions. They see doctors. They use prescription drugs prescribed by doctors.

Q. But that would not apply to a psychiatric condition, if a person is found to have some sort of mental illness?

A. That’s right. That’s a psychiatric condition, not a medical condition. They’re two different things. Medical conditions are scientific; they’re based on biological tests and so forth. Psychiatric conditions are subjective. Psychiatrists say that.

Q. So, the church would not approve of a member seeing a doctor or taking medication for a psychiatric condition?

A. Scientologists are opposed to mind-altering psychiatric drugs. They’re dangerous. They’re labeled as such by the Food and Drug Administration. Their side effects are known.

Q. What does Scientology believe happens when a person dies?

A. We believe that you yourself are an immortal spiritual being that has lived before and will live again. As such, you’ve lived many lifetimes and, potentially, you have many lifetimes ahead of you. So the spirit, which is you, is immortal. You are not your body. When somebody dies, he or she departs the body. But, the person, the personality, the life force, and everything that makes the person what he is, that’s intact. That is not lost.

Q. Would the person be reborn eventually into a different body?

A. The person would inhabit another body. There are other connotations to the concept of being reborn. It can get mixed up — rebirth, reincarnation, these kinds of things. These are different. You’re an immortal spiritual being; you’re not your body, and you live lifetime after lifetime. You’ve lived before, and you’ll live again.

Q. Is there a goal as you go through these different lives? Are you trying to correct past situations?

A. Not in a karmic sense. Look at it pragmatically. If you’re an immortal spiritual being, and you know that the world is a world that you’re coming back to again in the next lifetime, that would be reason alone to do everything you can to make a better world.

Q. Because Jett Travolta was so young, is there any distinction with what happens to young people after death?

A. No, because the being is ageless, immortal, and not bound by time.

Q. Jett Travolta was cremated. Is that preferable in Scientology?

A. There’s no dogma on that subject.Cremation is quite common in Scientology, but I know Scientologists who have been buried.