What is the difference and similarities between Scientology (CCHR), MindFreedom Int., and NAMI?

Question

I am wondering if they all three don't have some similarities and differences, can any one tell me what they are?

Please give sources on the information for the answer that you submit, and answer must include similarities and differences and telling why you think what you say is true might be good, give examples.

Feel free if you know of another big organization that are like these three to say what you want to about them, but they must include similarities and differences with these three.

Feel free if you know of another big organization that are like these three to say what you want to about them, but they must include similarities and differences with these three.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=ArNcPRHuxoN6rXvTZxhRra8jzKIX?qid=20060729104257AAesYWB

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AuWSU7orGpo0p5XsLCiyMagjzKIX?qid=20061020085252AARobWS

http://www.mindfreedom.org/

http://www.mindfreedom.intenex.net/shield/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MindFreedom_International

http://www.mindfreedom.org/know/psych-drug-corp/eli-lilly-secrets/

http://www.nami.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Alliance_for_the_Mentally_Ill

They are all 3 big organizations remember this. They all have an organizational structure. All three believe in some kind of treatment. They all say that they are working for human rights. Two of them seem to be brainwashing methods, one of them says it is working for freedom. Two of them have the appearance of working for the states. One of them says it is a church or a religion.. Two of them say that they are consumer organizations and one of them doesn't. Two of them have a specific purpose for who and what their members can or must be and one of them doesn't.

Answer 1

I know more about Mindfreedom and Nami than I do about Scientology, but here is what I DO know about all three-(and other organiztions, as well):
The similarities are that all have members who care deeply about the well being of people who are labeled with and/or consider themselves to have mental/emotional/sociological problems that affect their lives.
The differences between Mindfreedom -(and many other c/s/x organizations)- and NAMI is that members of Nami believe in the medical model, and also in coercion to achieve the goals of well-bing, as they define it. While Mindfreedom members accept that many people may feel a need for psych drugs, they deny the medical model of a brain disorder causing the labeled condition, and have shown there is no scientific proof for such a model.
Another major difference is that NAMI is composed mostly of family members, whereas Mindfreedom is composed mostly of the labeled persons, themselves.
The little I know of Scientology is that the members totally dispute any need for psychological or psychiatric intervention or aid from outside the person themselves. In this, they differ from Mindfreedom members, who do not claim there is never any need for psychological help, only that, in it's present form -(and too often in it's past forms)-such "help" has been destructive. A similarity between Mindfreedom and Scientology is that both believe in the legal, human, Constitutional, civil rights of people, whether psychiatrically labeled or not.
Also, I think not every member of CCHR is a person who has been labled; but I do not know whether this is true. ?
So, in short, while all these groups are concerned about the well being of people who experience psychological struggles, they do not agree about what is needed for such well being, what is harmful to it, and how it can be brought about.
Unfortunately, NAMI has, so far, been more successful at forwarding it's beliefs into public acceptance than have the other two groups. Or other groups. This may be changing.

Answer 2

CCHR and MindFreedom are both opposed to psychiatric treatment and actively campaign against psychiatry, it's practice and it's practitioners. According to MindFreedom's FAQ: "MindFreedom International has zero links with or funding from any religious organization. MFI has zero links with or funding from the Church of Scientology, or its group Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR)." So... they supposedly aren't linked in any way but have the same basic goal in mind.

NAMI, on the other hand, is the National Alliance on Mental Illness. I'd guess that they're diametrically opposed to the ideals of CCHR and MindFreedom. Unlike Scientology (CCHR), they recognize the existence of mental illness, the need to treat it and provide psychotropic drugs when needed (unless the other two groups who oppose these).

Basically, the first two are anti-psychiatry while the third is pro.

Answer 3

South Africa's apartheid involved White rule over the black, Indian, and mixed race populations. [Indians had immigrated to SA to work.] All these populations were part of South Africa. In Israel, the Israelis conquered West Bank and Gaza Strip in a defensive war, and maintained control of them in an effort to prevent more attacks on Israel. These lands were never considered as part of Israel. Israel itself had and has, citizens of every ethnicity and religion, including a large minority of Arab (Palestinian) Muslims. These citizens all have equality under the law. West Bank and Gaza are not part of Israel, and their people are not Israeli citizens. BTW all Jews have been expelled from Gaza. The Black "nations" in South Africa were never offered independence. Israel has long encouraged the formation of an independent Palestinian state from West Bank and Gaza. But they ask that the state recognize Israel as a state too. So far, Palestinian leaders have not been willing to say that Israel is a state. Most Palestinian leaders maintain that all of Israel should belong to "Palestine," whenever Palestine shall be founded. Israel cannot agree to this. Blacks had lived in South Africa since time immemorial, while Whites had immigrated there in the last few centuries. Jews had lived in Palestine from time immemorial, before it was ever called Palestine. Arabs had lived there for many centuries too. Islam wasn't founded until the 600s AD, so Islam is a late-comer to the region, relatively speaking. Christians had lived there since 30 AD, more or less. Christianity is not a race, of course; but then neither is Judaism. And technically, neither is Arabism, it's an ethnicity.

Answer 4

Chances are the others are breakaway groups or simply front orginizations.

Why not read about it for yourself?

You can download 3 free Scientology ebooks here:

http://usminc.org/scientology.html

Answer 5

The similarities are:
1. They are all science fiction.
2. They all attract people with low self esteem that need an artificial boost.
3. They all keep their money trail very very private.

Answer 6

For once- I agree totally with the first two answers. These outfits are hogwash dressed as religions, taking advantage, power and money from needy insecure people.

Answer 7

Rumpel---'s answer was the right one!

Answer 8

THIS IS SCIENTOLOGY

1. What is true for you is what you yourself observe to be true.

2. Man is his spirit not his mind or his body.

3. The spirit creates his own mind. Please, do not confuse the mind with the brain that is a physical thing. The mind is composed of mental image pictures as explained in Dianetics. These pictures serve the spirit to give him knowledge and experience. These pictures are composed of energy. The energy in the picture can affect the spirit. You can feel better by remembering something that you like or angry by remembering something else. These emotions are actually energy waves emanated by the picture. You can actually feel pain by remembering a pain memory. Sometimes these pictures are accompanied by ideas or considerations. Lets suppose that you father beat you mom up in front of you. Your father was the dominating figure so you might conclude that you have to act like your father in some situations. This is what we call on Scientology an aberration (a conclusion that is imposed to you by a mental picture). This picture is what we call a engram (a pain memory that affects your judgment and free will).

4. You can discharge the energy in these pictures through communication. This is Dianetics Auditing and is the oldest of hundreds of Scientology techniques used to improve the individual.

5. The Spirit creates his own emotions. Are you happy? Are you sad? Are you depress? Maybe you think that something external of you is creating your emotions. Maybe you believe that you are sad because you had a bad day or maybe you believe that you are happy because you had a great day. And this might be true. But who made the decision that you had a good or bad day? You did. You decided if life was good or bad, and adjusted your emotions to respond to your own consideration. You created your own emotion.
Some people are born with everything they want and are still unhappy. And others are born into humble means and are happy. What's the difference? The only real difference is each person's ideas and considerations.
Scientology uses hundreds of processes in order to help a person get a better understanding and a better outlook in life by using his own observations.

6. Scientology Ethics. Ethical people take full responsibility for their actions. Un-ethical people blame others for their actions. "Wrong doings" diminish and deteriorate the freedom of the spirit because the need to justify the "wrong doing". So the spirit is enslaved into repeating the "wrong doing" in order to justify the original "wrong doing". The road to freedom lies within taking full responsibility for your personal condition and actions, past, present and future. Scientology provides the tools to help the person able to be fully responsible over his life thus rehabilitating his ability to be good and self determined.
Also Scientologist base their conduct on a non-denominational code of conduct. http://twth.org/eb/?id=16664j

7. Scientology and God. Scientology acknowledges the supreme being and promotes the individual search for closeness to God trough religion.

8. Scientology vs Psychiatry. Psychiatry believes that self awareness, feelings, love and faith is merely cellular activity. Basically they think that you are your brain and you are not in charge of your behavior but your cells are.This is a totally materialistic point of view that denies the spirit and God. Psychiatrist is a pseudo science because it is based in principles that are false. Psychiatry have never proven that any "mental illnesses" (like they call it) has any connection with a physical illness. Any Neurologist will tell you there are no medical test to identify a "mental illness". All Psychiatrists base their diagnosis on opinion and opinion alone.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3895596783332855545&q=Psychiatry+is+fraude&hl=enhttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8443414209115892468&q=scientology&hl=en
http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?p=cchr&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&b=1&oid=12085d1e6c58d04e&rurl=video.yahoo.com&vdone=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fvideo%3Fp%3Dcchr%26toggle%3D1%26cop%3Dmss%26ei%3DUTF-8
Happiness, exhilaration, depression and psychosis are states of mind, not diseases. All what you have to do to stop being depress is change your state of mind. How you do that? By changing your ideas and considerations. Scientology provides the tools to achieve a better state of mind in accordance with your own point of view.
Also Psychiatrist excuse the most horrendous crimes as mental illnesses. This is actually creates a sense of irresponsibility in society because it tells people that they are not responsible for their actions. Second they promote that drugs are the answer for your problems. This message promotes the use of drugs to find release from life and creates the current drug addiction problem in society. Drugs will only give you temporary false release but will never solve the source of your problems.And actually drugs will keep you away from finding a true spiritual release.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4437051883726295326&q=psychiatry&hl=en
Note: Scientology doesn't have anything against Psychology or Neurology. Also the mere awareness that you are a spiritual being and not a body makes you better person.

9. Scientology is a force for good in society. Scientologist fights Psychiatric abuses, http://www.cchr.org/ dangerous and harmful drugs, criminality, http://www.criminon.org and drug addiction. http://www.narconon.org Also Scientology fought and won against the FDA and the IRS. And Scientologist initiated the social reform group "Youth for Human Rights" http://www.youthforhumanrights.org and the movement "Say no to drugs and yes to life". http://www.notodrugs-yestolife.org
Scientologist are some of the more intelligent, able and successful people in this planet. Including Jenna Elfman, Kelly Preston, John Travolta, Priscilla Presley, Sofia Milos and Leah Remini. Even Danny Masterson from the that's That '70s Show is a Scientologist.

10. Scientology is the only church that doesn't ask for donations from their parishioners during their Sunday Services. All chapel services are 100% free (marriages, naming ceremonies, ect). Scientology earns it's money by delivering courses and auditing. Courses and auditing are optional. You do not need to take courses and auditing to be in Scientology. All you need to do to be a Scientologist is to read the books and apply Scientology to your life (like I do). But if you want auditing there are many alternative and economical ways to achieve this.
a. You can do volunteer work in your local church and get your services for free.
b. You can study to be an auditor and perform all your auditing with a fellow student. This way you can also provide free services to your friends and family. This is actually the preferred way to become clear because you learn how to help others. Scientology isn't about you going clear but taking responsibility across all your dynamics (self, family, group, humanity, life, ect).

11. Scientology and aliens. The story of Xenu is just a fable like the story of "Jonah in the Whale" in the bible. Fables are not intended to be taken seriously. The story of Xenu doesn't have any significance on Scientology beliefs.

12. Anti-Scientology propaganda is just that, propaganda. If you wanna know about this propaganda see my blog: http://www.myspace.com/129727315

References
http://www.neuereligion.de/ENG/index.html
http://www.bonafidescientology.org/
http://www.chaplaincare.navy.mil/Scientology.htm
http://www.religioustolerance.org/scientol.htm
http://www.scientology.org/
http://www.beliefnet.com/sem/scientology-religion.asp?source=YAHSCT&campaign=096&medium=PPC&nopop=1&WT.mc_id=YAHSCT&WT.srch=1