Purification Rundown

Question answered by honorarykid in Scientology

Michael_Crichton asked this question on 9/2/2000:

How exactly is the Purification Rundown supposed to work? Has there been any scientific validation for it? If it has, in fact, been "Scietifically proven to work", then why has it been reported that those undergoing it have to sign a waiver first?

honorarykid gave this response on 9/4/2000:

The Purification Rundown is nothing more than a ritualistic placebo. But it's a dangerous, quackery-filled one.

The regimen of the PR (or "Purif" as it's known to Scientologists) consists of taking toxic doses of the B vitamin Niacin (5 grams/day, the toxic dose is > 1 gram/day) while fasting, exercising and sitting in the sauna for many hours at a time.

The scam of the PR comes when Scientology falsely claims that the reddish skin flush that most people notice when they injest a lot of Niacin, is really the release of the body's lifetime of stored radiation, which has been sitting in fat cells. Hubbard made up this little bit of ludicrous BS to explain the very common Niacin flush. Hubbard made up a lot of whoppers that he tried to pass off as science. He also said radiation was water soluable, and goofy stuff like that.

At any rate, an individual's PR program can go on for weeks, posing a severe risk of liver damage, dehydration, and the exhausting the "patient." Diabetics have gone blind from doing the PR, a few people have suffered horrible deaths and others have had serious illnesses from doing it.

Here's another interesting tidbit about the PR. Several years ago, it was reported that pop singer Michael Jackson was undergoing the Purification Rundown when he collapsed and nearly died in New York City (this would have been in 1996, if I recall correctly).

It was advertised and well-known within Scientology circles that Scientology was trying to recruit Jackson following the lurid spectacle of the civil lawsuit brought against him by the parents of a young boy, who had alleged that Jackson was a homosexual pedaphile.

Scientology apparently offered Jackson a quid-pro-quo arranged marriage to Lisa Marie Presley, gaining access and credibility in the effort to recruit his many prepubescent fans. And in exchange, Jackson would receive an improved reputation as a married, adult heterosexual.

In this deal, Jackson apparently agreed to try becoming a Scientologist. So Lisa Marie divorced her husband and married him, and Jackson started on the "Purif," the first step toward becoming a Scientologist for many people. Then he collapsed and almost died.

After Jackson pulled through, he apparently told Scientology that he would not be joining Scientology after all. His arranged marriage to Presley ended within days.

So in this answer, you get a two-for-one deal; the explanation not only of the Purification Rundown, but also of the true nature of the bizarre and surreal marriage between Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley, and the role that the Purification Rundown played in ending that marriage.

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