When John Travolta tried to heal Marlon Brando with the power of Scientology: “What the fuck is going on?”
Can you think of a more “Hollywood” image than John Travolta attempting to heal Marlon Brando with the power of Scientology while a cadre of guests at a dinner party thrown by Barbra Streisand watch on? What if I told you that the group of onlookers included Josh Brolin and his father, James? And what if I told you that the bizarre scene charmed Brolin and helped him appreciate man’s kindness, completely separate from the controversial church Travolta is a card-carrying member of?
Brolin spoke of the strange dinner party in his memoir From Under the Truck, although he didn’t set it in a definitive timeframe. However, given that Brolin’s father married Streisand in 1998 and Brando died in 2004, it stands to reason that it took place in that period. Brolin was 30 when his father – the star of movies such as The Amityville Horror and Westworld – walked down the aisle with music icon Streisand, and was experiencing a rough patch in his own acting career that had kicked off with so much promise thanks to The Goonies.
Perhaps Brolin was in the right frame of mind to experience Travolta laying hands on Brando on that night. Maybe he was in such a low place that he needed to see the goodness in people, even if it came from an unusual source. On the other hand, perhaps the scene was simply so surreal that it couldn’t help but have an effect on him. Either way, when Travolta offered to “heal” Brando’s injured leg, Brolin initially thought the whole situation was weird.
“It should have been a joke,” Brolin told Variety, but that dismissive attitude didn’t last long. He continued, “But it turned out to be this amazing collective experience that I got to witness from afar. At the time, I was like, ‘What the fuck is going on?’ Now I look back on it and go, ‘That was such a sweet moment.'”
Brolin was quick to point out that Travolta’s healing trick, which may or may not have been successful, didn’t make him believe in Scientology. If anything, he felt that quasi-religion was almost beside the point when he was looking at one person simply trying to help another. He mused, “Scientology has nothing to do with it. I got to see somebody take care of somebody else in this thoughtful way. It’s funny how your perspective can change.”
What exactly was Travolta trying to do to Brando, though? Well, some cursory research into the practices of L Ron Hubbard’s movement reveals he was likely trying a “touch assist”. This involves using one finger to “unlock the standing waves that are small electronic ridges of nervous energy that is not flowing as it should” in the person’s body. Why only one finger, we hear you ask? Well, according to Scientology’s Volunteer Minister’s Handbook, “If you used two fingers, the person could be confused about which he was supposed to look at or feel.”
In Hubbard’s view, the nerves in a human body store pain, so the touch assist can help relieve that pain by getting the signals flowing in the right direction again. Conventional medical science, however, believes nerves transmit pain signals across the nervous system, not store them. So, there’s that.
Naturally, plenty of Scientology believers have reported that the touch assist can be very effective in curing what ails them. Rose Stevenson from the University of New Mexico’s campus newspaper, Daily Lobo, isn’t so sure, though. When a team of Scientology Volunteer Ministers set up a tent to heal students in 2006, she was curious if one touch assister could help her with a pinched nerve.
Stevenson concluded, “I was out of time, so I told him I felt something release. These people are really nice, but I don’t think they know what they’re doing.”
