Add Jenna Elfman's name to the long
list of vocal celebrity Scientology
supporters. In an interview that appears in
the next issue of Mirabella, the hot, Golden
Globe-winning star of "Dharma and
Greg" defends the controversial religion,
whose members include John Travolta,
Tom Cruise and Kirstie Alley. In it, says a
source who has seen the article, she
discusses smoking pot and doing dancing
gigs (she was on tour with ZZ Top as a
"She's Got Legs" girl) before she was introduced to
Scientology by her husband, Bodhi, an actor and writer.
Now, when she's down, she goes to the E-meter, a device used by Scientologists for "auditing" someone's mental state - but which some critics say is merely a lie detector. "You know how your head feels heavy when you're having a problem?" she tells the magazine. "It's actually mass that you can weigh. It's compressed mental energy. And the E-meter sees changes in that."
"'Psychiatrists believe man is an animal, which means there's no soul, which I think is a lie.' The statement suggests acceptance of Scientology's virulent antipsychiatry stance, and a lack of experience with therapy, a fact she readily cops to. She favors a Scientology process involving a machine called an E-meter. The subject holds two canlike objects hooked up to the E-meter. 'You know how your head feels heavy when you're having a problem?' Elfman says. 'It's actually mass that you can weigh. It's compressed mental energy. And the E-meter sees changes in that.' A counselor asks questions about what might be bothering you, Elfman explains, and if your response jolts the needle on the E-meter, you know you've found the root of your problem. 'The counselor helps you pinpoint exactly, so there's no maybe-it's-this, maybe-it's-that. There's lightning-fast progress, because you're handling only the charged areas. You don't dilly-dally. What you can do in literally about a half hour will take people a year or two to do in therapy.'"