[....snip...]
William S. Burroughs (author of _Naked Lunch_, _Nova
Express_, _The
Ticket that Exploded_, etc.) took Scientology's Clearing
Course at
Saint Hill Manor in 1968 and was initially very enthusiastic about
it.
Burroughs even wrote a series of articles praising and
promoting
Scientology from "Mayfair" magazine during 1968 or 1969.
By
1970, though, Burroughs was thoroughly disillusioned. Here's
an excerpt
from "Burroughs on Scientology", from the Los Angeles
Free Press, March 6,
1970. (This article was reprinted in the
small-press book _Ali's
Smile/Naked Scientology_, Expanded Media
Editions, Bonn, Germany, 1985, ISBN
#3-88030-011-9.)
[....snip...]
The E-Meter is
also a biofeedback device, and since it passes a
small voltage through the
brain and the repetitive commands of
auditing direct attention to certain
brain areas, it is a form of
electric brain stimulation. This may account
for the valid pictures
and films that do sometimes occur in
auditing.
[....snip...]
Washington Post article from March 28,
2000
By Esther M. Bauer
Special to The Washington Post
Tuesday,
March 28, 2000; Page Z08
Every few minutes a generator that has been
implanted in Claude Jones's
chest emits a signal that researchers hope will
make him feel better. The
device, about the size of a pocket watch, sends an
electrical impulse to
stimulate the vagus nerve in his neck. That nerve
tweaks the limbic system,
which is the mood and emotional center of the
brain. The gentle current
lasts a few seconds and is sent every five minutes,
24 hours a day. Jones
hopes the device will eventually help him enjoy being
alive. He has not had
that feeling in more than two
years.
Researchers are testing vagus nerve stimulation on Jones and
several other
patients whose depression has not responded to other
treatments. It's
estimated that 1 million people in the United States suffer
from
intractable depression; 15 percent of them will eventually commit
suicide.
Jones's depression has persisted despite treatment with many
kinds of
medication, counseling and electroshock therapy. For the past two
years he
has
had weekly sessions with a psychiatrist and has been
hospitalized four
times, once after a suicide attempt. He now takes eight
pills a day: six for
depression and two to help him sleep. A series of 10
weekly electroshock
treatments only made him forgetful--which has kept him
from getting back to
his job as a lineman for a utility
company.
"Not being able to concentrate isn't too good when you work
with live
electricity all day," says Jones, 49, whose hands tremble
uncontrollably as
a
side effect of his medications. He has been receiving
disability payments
for the last six months and lives in his parents' summer
cottage 70 miles
southeast of Dallas. He mostly sits on the porch, his mother
reports.
Although the nerve stimulation treatment is fairly exotic,
the implantation
is uncomplicated, a 90-minute surgery. On Feb. 4, a
neurosurgeon at Zale
Lipshy University Hospital in Dallas implanted the
pacemaker-like device
midway between Jones's collarbone and his nipple, then
tunneled under his
skin to attach the generator via small wires to electrodes
the surgeon had
wrapped around his vagus nerve. When stimulated by the
electrical impulses,
the nerve alters functioning of the components of the
limbic system that
affect mood.
By the second week after the
surgery, Jones began experiencing what his
doctors had warned would be a
"feeling of fullness" in his throat when the
electrical impulse came. Jones
says, "Every time I feel that thing go off,
it gives me
hope."
Actually, Jones is feeling the side effects of the
stimulation, not the
electrical impulse itself, which is undetectable. If he
tries to speak while
the impulse is being administered, he is momentarily
hoarse. In addition to
stimulating the vagus nerve, the impulse momentarily
alters the opening of
his larynx and consequently the pitch of his
voice.
The research is based at the University of Texas Southwestern
Medical
Center in Dallas, which with three other medical centers completed a
pilot
study
of vagus nerve stimulation that was published in the February
issue of the
journal Biological Psychiatry. In that study 30 patients were
scored
before and after the implant on a roster of depression symptoms that
they
were feeling: sadness, low energy, sleeplessness, feelings of guilt,
lack of
appetite, inability to concentrate or make decisions, suicidal
thoughts
and feelings of worthlessness, helplessness and hopelessness. Twelve
of the
30 patients receiving implants saw their scores decline by at least
50
percent, says A. John Rush, a psychiatrist at Southwestern Medical
Center.
A six-month follow-up shows continuing improvement. Now 17
patients show a
halving of symptoms. "People with depression of this
magnitude are in an
extremely disabled state . . . barely functioning," says
Rush. A
comparative clinical trial scheduled for later this year is to
consist of a
randomized, double-blind study of about 200 patients at 15
hospitals. Mark
George, professor of psychology, radiology and neurology at
the Medical
University of South Carolina in Charleston, has high hopes. "The
fact that
we're seeing sustained improvement among people this ill shows
something
important is going on," he says.
Which is not to say
that anybody yet understands precisely what is going
on. The mood-enhancing
effect of vagus nerve stimulation was discovered
accidentally after the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved it
in 1997 for treatment of
epilepsy. Patients began noticing that in addition
to decreasing their
seizures it also seemed to zap them into a good mood.
"We stumbled onto this
and it has the chance of saving lots of lives . . .
and to help us to
fundamentally understand what's going on in the brain
with depression," says
George.
Should the surgery win FDA approval for treatment of severe
depression,
surgical and long-term follow-up care would cost about $15,000,
according to
Houston-based Cyberonics Inc., manufacturer of the stimulation
device.
Not all patients improve. The device was removed from one
patient because
it overenergized him, making him manic and irritable. After
the implant was
withdrawn, his depression came roaring back, says
George.
Of the study's other 12 patients who have not felt a large
reduction in
their symptoms, several have improved somewhat and continue to
receive the
treatments while those who have noticed no change are keeping the
device
implanted in the event that further study suggests that a different
dosing
schedule might help them. (The impulse can be adjusted by the
researchers
using a remote control linked to the generator.)
This
research opens new possibilities, says George, and not just for those
fitted
with the implants. "If we can understand the road maps of the brain
as the
result of this work," he says, "we can find a way to fix it without
a little
tickle 24 hours a day. This technology may be a bridge to a cure
that can
eventually be done without surgery."
Six weeks after his implant
surgery, Claude Jones's hands have stopped
shaking, and he's so improved that
he's planning to go back to work in
April.
"I don't feel exactly happy all
the time, but I don't feel down either; I
guess you could say I feel normal,
and for me that's something new," he
said.
Esther M. Bauer is a
reporter in Dallas.