But to save you the trouble, it is a really weak response. Here it is in full:
"While I was flattered that such a distinguished representative of the medical establishment would take my work so seriously, I must respond to some of the statements in the article. First, I would ask Dr. Relman please to strike the word "anecdote" from his medical vocabulary. It is offensive and trivializes important information. If he wants to call the case reports I have published "uncontrolled clinical observations," I will not object. Scientific method starts with raw observation, proceeds to hypothesis and then to experiment. I have spent much of my professional life observing phenomena outside the world of conventional medicine that most physicians know little about: the effects of medicinal plants, the therapeutic systems of other cultures, healing responses in patients. Based on these observations I have presented a number of hypotheses that challenge the dominant medical paradigm. Until very recently the research community has not responded to those challenges. That is, the people with funding, facilities and the inclination to conduct experimental research have not shown interest in studying botanical medicine, alternative medicine or healing. At last, in response to the huge market demand for better, safer, more natural treatments, this is starting to change.
The University of Arizona has just received a $5 million NIH center award to study alternative approaches to pediatric disorders. I am co-prinicipal investigator on that grant along with Dr. Fayez Ghishan, the chairman of our pediatrics department. This collaboration is a model of the integrative medicine I espouse and teach. Among other things, we will look at the efficacy of cranial therapy (a technique practiced by some osteopathic physicians) for treating recurrent ear infections in children, a treatment that I have observed to be safe and remarkably effective.
If I had dismissed the successes I saw with it as "anecdotes," we would not be in a position to take the next step and gather the data that Dr. Relman wants to see. It is important to note that paradigm shifts, in medicine as in other fields, are not quiet affairs. They occasion much screaming and kicking. Dr. Relman would like to believe that the popularity of alternative medicine is a fad. In my view it is a fad the way the Renaissance was a fad, and I welcome the coming of the new era -- kicking, screaming and all.
Dr. Andrew Weil
Also, here is a published review of tonight's Scientology piece on A & E:
Published Monday, December 14, 1998, in the San Jose Mercury News
Shallowness mars A&E's investigation> By Manuel Mendoza> Dallas Morning News
INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS:
INSIDE SCIENTOLOGY
6 and 10 p.m. tonight, A&E
CALL the Cult Awareness Network, and the phone will be answered by a Scientologist.
"Talk about body snatchers," says former Church of Scientology spokesman Robert Vaughn Young.
The two church critics are among a gaggle interviewed in A&E's "Inside Scientology," a sometimes chilling look at the history, methods and latest mutations of the almost half-century-old religion.
While giving church representatives their say, "Inside Scientology" tilts toward a sensationalistic view of the organization's often creepy confrontations with governments, the media and former members who've taken to the Internet to post the inside dirt.
No surprise. Though produced by Jonathan Stack, whose excellent prison documentary "The Farm" won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and aired on A&E in September, the writer/director is Heidi E. Ewing, who hasprofiled Margaux Hemingway, Michael Landon and Gianni Versace for "The E! True Hollywood Story."
"Inside Scientology" is a similar clip job: old information presented in a fast-paced, energetic style, but with little analysis or verification of the claims made, pro and con.
Still, the documentary is full of interesting tidbits, and viewers with some imagination will be able to read between the lines.
One spine-tingling example: Scientology's takeover of the Cult Awareness Network, a "deprogramming" group that went bankrupt under a flood of lawsuits by the cults it targeted.
In court, a Scientologist bought the group's name, phone number and furnishings and soon set up shop, according to former Cult Awareness Network director Pricilla Coates. What happened then? "Inside Scientology" never says.
Known for its celebrity adherents -- John Travolta, Tom Cruise and Kirstie Alley are members -- Scientology reflects '90s corporate and celebrity culture: Fighting off government interference and media scrutiny, it promises to transform its followers into winners -- for a hefty fee.
Travolta, a 23-year member, is extensively interviewed in the documentary, but he's never asked to answer allegations that the church has harassed and threatened its opponents.
That's left to a number of impeccably groomed spokesmen, who in their expensively tailored suits and perfectly trimmed hair look like Wall Street businessmen.
Founded in the '50s by L. (for Lafayette) Ron Hubbard, a Nebraska-born pulp-fiction writer who reportedly told a friend the only way to make real money was to start a religion, Scientology was based on Hubbard's best seller "Dianetics."
In the age of postwar conformity, Hubbard told members they could be more. His solution was a series of self-improvement courses that led to "auditing," a kind of confession of past sins, and then to a state of "clear" that supposedly lifted Scientologists to higher achievements.
After losing its tax exemption in 1967, the Church of Scientology started fighting back in projects with such names as "Snow White" and "Fair Game." Besides lawsuits, this included following reporters, putting out false information on those who publicly attacked the church and making threats, according to "Inside Scientology."
But Scientology has found ways to change with the times. Today, the church runs literacy and anti-drug programs that may or may not be fronts for recruiting new members. And in 1993, it won back its tax-exempt status.
"Inside Scientology" does little to sort out these issues. Instead, it raises many issues, including whether the church has worldwide domination as a goal.
As musician/member Isaac Hayes says: "We want a clear planet."