Additions, June 1, 1998  

by Miguel Martinez

On June 1, 1998, I received a further non-reply from Introvigne. 

1) The address of CESNUR - Via Juvarra 20, Turin - is not my home address. My home would hardly be able to house 11,000 books. My personal letterhead as Managing Director of CESNUR uses CESNUR logo and indicates my private address. 
 

I do not know exactly what that is supposed to reply to. Judging from the constant and unsolicited mention of how many books CESNUR has (every document by the organization claims a growing number of them), book collecting seems to be the main activity of the organization. Introvigne's home must be quite small - a friend of mine who lives in a small house has a private collection on cults and owns about 10,000 books, plus tens of thousands of newspaper clippings and about 400 legal case documents. He does not however put this information on his calling card.

2) We do not really care. In fact, I think that the attacks by the anti-cult movements have contributed to the success of our initiatives. As Martinez should know, this year one of the results of the campaigns against CESNUR and me personally has been an increased interest in the media for our activities, and I receive more requests for interviews from mainline newspapers and TV networks than I am able to satisfy. 


Now that's a scholarly reply. The problem is that Introvigne attacked me and I replied, and this has very little indeed to do with "attacks" by the "anti-cult movement". It is certainly true that Introvigne is invited to speak on TV, but I have never heard that anybody invited him because he was controversial, as was the case with the poor Satanist Marco Dimitri. Introvigne is invited because he has an undoubted flair for putting himself across as an undisputed authority.

3) Interestingly, and due to the controversies, last Saturday I have been invited to lecture on brainwashing to the post-graduate course in psychiatry at the Department of Psychiatry, Turin University - I do not quote this as a special achievement, I only thank the controversists for this kind of results. Sales of my books and CESNUR publications in general are also increasing, not to mention the free publicity you give to our Web site. 


I wonder if Introvigne is seriously saying that my alt.religion.scientology item moved the University of Turin to give shelter to him? And I go on calling myself just an interpreter! Or is it that the University was looking for an undisputed expert on Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira's thinking?

More seriously, one wonders on what basis a patent lawyer can feel authorized to discuss such a delicate matter as "brainwashing" in a professional environment. Or has he become a "psychologist" as well as a "sociologist"?

When I was in New Acropolis, I used to teach a subject called "psychology" too. Maybe Introvigne and I are colleagues.

Dr. Miguel Martinez

July 14, 1998

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