John Travolta says son was autistic: Vaccines, religious freedom and celebrity privacy

Tuesday, October 06, 2009 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: John Travolta, health news, Natural News

(NaturalNews) John Travolta, who is testifying in a case involving a $25 million extortion attempt against him, revealed this week that his son who died this year from a seizure was autistic. Sixteen-year-old Jett suffered from severe seizures every 5 to 10 days, Travolta testified, and then slept 12 hours to recover after each episode.

It's not uncommon for autistic children to suffer from severe seizures. This is an important clue about the causes of autism, as seizures reflect a serious neurological complication. It brings to mind possible neurological toxins that children are being exposed to these days, including thimerosal and squalene found in vaccines.

A new U.S. government study just released this week says that autism rates in U.S. children have risen 200% over the last six years. This is an alarming increase in a disease that many ill-informed doctors and scientists still brush off as being genetic in origin. But genes can't explain such a rapid increase in the number of children being diagnosed with the disease. Clearly, some other factor is at work, and many parents suspect vaccines are one of the primary contributing factors.

Naturally, there is a lot of chatter on the 'net right now about John Travolta's son and the vaccine issue.

Respect Travolta's privacy

Not every parent with an autistic child chooses to go public with that fact. Travolta himself is being criticized by some in the autism community for not going public sooner with the autism diagnosis of his son, but in my view, this is unfair criticism. People who have never been famous have no idea about the pressures that come with notoriety. Aside from having your privacy routinely violated by tabloid photographers and gold-digging "friends," as a famous person you're also a ripe target for extortion attempts by criminally-minded people, which is precisely what John Travolta is having to deal with right now.

Travolta had no special moral obligation to declare the autistic diagnosis of his son, and those who berate him for choosing to protect the privacy of his family are acting out of extreme insensitivity (if not outright cruelty). Just because Travolta's son suffered from a particular diagnosis doesn't mean he's obligated to be a spokesperson for that disease. Besides, John Travolta probably realizes what many parents of autistic children are already figuring out: That certain segments of the autism "support" community have been co-opted by Big Pharma in an attempt to divert blame away from vaccines.

Overall, the autism support community is very well informed about the links between vaccines and autism, but they are increasingly pressured by powerful pharmaceutical interests to dissociate the two and create doubt or confusion in the minds of those who might suspect any link between vaccines and autism.

As a member of Scientology, Travolta is well aware of the dangers of pharmaceutical intervention. Scientology is ardently outspoken against psychiatric drugs and the dangers of drugging children with mind-altering chemicals. It is not known to NaturalNews whether Travolta's son actually received vaccine injections in years past, but it seems likely that he did, considering that he was 16 years old and many of the evidence linking vaccines to autism did not surface until only the past few years.

It could be that, like many parents, Travolta allowed his son to be vaccinated at a young age, and then swore off all vaccinations years later as he became aware of the true dangers of vaccines (but this is just conjecture). I have no doubt, however, that if Travolta had the opportunity to do it all over again, he would have kept his son as far away as possible from modern medicine's chemical interventions. This is increasingly true with a growing number of parents, by the way, not just John Travolta or followers of Scientology.

Scientology and religious freedom

In anticipation of the comments that will likely be posted about this story and John Travolta in particular, I want to warn potential posters that expressions of religious intolerance will be deleted. John Travolta is entitled to his particular religious philosophy just as you or I. Believing in religious freedom requires that you accept the freedoms of others to embrace whatever religious practices they choose, including Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism or even Atheism.

I personally am not a member of Scientology, but I have read parts of the texts of almost every major world religion (translated into English, of course), including some of the works of L. Ron Hubbard, who was by any account a brilliant and highly prolific writer. My own interests span many religions. I was raised in the Christian tradition, I have Buddhist prayer flags mounted above the porch to my house, and I recently played a key role in the baptism of an Ecuadorian child at a local Catholic church (that was a fascinating experience that I hope to share with you at some point). I make a real effort to honor the religious beliefs of all those who follow a religious practice, even if their beliefs differ from my own.

And people need to realize that every major religion has some bizarre practice of some sort, including Christianity. What's the deal with slicing off the skin from a baby's penis, anyway? (Circumcision...) "Hey, here's a beautiful new baby boy, formed in the image of God... let's cut the skin off his penis!" Bizarre...

By the way, see this interesting web page from the National Organization to Halt the Abuse and Routine Mutilation of Males, called: "Circumcision and the Christian Parent" http://www.noharmm.org/christianparent.htm

Aside from the topic of religion, John Travolta deserves some peace for the simple fact that he is a caring father who lost his son. For that reason alone, we would all do well to respect his wish for some family privacy, respect his good intentions in protecting his son from dangerous medical interventions, and grant Travolta the courtesy to tell his own story in his own time, if he so chooses. Perhaps he will wish to tell it through NaturalNews one day, as he probably knows we are the only well-established media outlet that won't try to distort his story for tabloid effect.

Why celebrities are constantly targeted by tabloids

What these tabloids do to celebrities is criminal, in my opinion. They exploit their personal tragedies and exaggerate the facts simply to sell more papers, regardless of whose reputation gets ravaged in the process. Tabloid publishing is a dirty, sick business because their mostly-fictional reports force celebrities to relive their tragedies over and over again, always stacked with outright lies and disinformation. Even defending yourself against a tabloid accusation is impossible, as acknowledging the story itself only brings more attention to precisely the false information you don't want to highlight.

And as a celebrity, no matter what actions you take or decisions you make, they're always second-guessed in a distorted and destructive way. It's impossible to be a celebrity and not be targeted by the tabloids, because controversy sells papers... even if it's all been invented.

This doesn't even get into the issue of extortion of celebrities by their closest employees. I've often said this about Michael Jackson, too: The guy was a victim of greed and deception, and he was constantly betrayed by those he thought he could trust (the very people who worked closest to him). John Travolta experienced much the same thing with the $25 million extortion threat he's dealing with right now.

What every celebrity learns sooner or later is that when a sufficiently large amount of money is at stake, virtually no human being can be trusted. Your best employee, best friend or even a close family member can turn on you in an instant when the right amount of money presents itself. David Letterman learned this recently, too, with the $2 million extortion threat from an ABC Producer who was previously held in high regard by virtually everyone.

Although I'm getting way off topic here, this is worth mentioning: Being a celebrity is more difficult than you might imagine. It makes you bitter about human beings, because you come to learn that you can't trust people. There's no longer anything resembling true friendship with new people you meet, because you can never be sure whether someone enjoys your company for who you are, or they simply want to use you for your reputation, money or influence.

The only person who has true friends is someone who has nothing to give them other than himself.

In any case, let us hope that some good will come out of this family tragedy. Perhaps John Travolta's notoriety will bring new attention to the autism / vaccine issue and encourage more parents to start asking the important questions about the safety of vaccines.

Autism rates in 2009 are 1000% higher than in 1990, as you'll see in a related article about autism posted here on NaturalNews. Clearly, something is causing this, and vaccines need to be looked at in much greater detail.

Because whether you're a celebrity or just a hard-working mom or dad, your children have been put in danger by the pharmaceutical industry. It's up to YOU to protect them.