wildchic
Posts : 753 Join date : 2010-05-29
| Subject: Rabbi Shmuley Boteach on Dr. Drew Wed Oct 19, 2011 3:24 am | |
| TRANSCRIPTS/Aired October 11, 2011 SMITH: You know, it`s amazing to hear about his medical history. Rabbi Shmuley, talk to us about Michael Jackson. I know you talked to him for hours and hours. Did he ever talk to you about some of the ailments that he suffered? RABBI SHMULEY BOTEACH, SPIRITUAL ADVISOR TO MICHAEL JACKSON: Not really. What we`re really seeing in this trial and that what we dare not forget is that the medical examiners have said that Michael was actually in good health, and yet, he dies of this drug overdose of propofol. How do you square the two? It`s simple. Michael`s ailments were primarily psychological ailments.
He had a broken heart. You`re speaking about a man who had no childhood. He was famous from the age of about five. He just wanted to be like every other child, but he was forced to perform. Then, he had a dream that he consecrated his fame towards children, and he would prioritize the needs of kids.
But, allegations of abuse, which I never believed, about kids made that impossible. So, he turns to more and more medication to treat this broken heart. And what you`re really seeing is that Michael is a physician here. I mean, it`s an axiom of faith almost that the wealthy and the famous get the best doctors.
Michael had the equivalent of the Monty Python medical circus. I mean, these doctors were just a bunch of jokes who do whatever he asks. He is prescribing the medication, and they`re giving it to him. Why? Because he`s in pain. He`s suffering. And not one of them said, Michael, you need -- these are maladies of the soul.
You are suffering, man. You need to talk to someone. That`s what he and I used to do. But you see, the concert promoters and the doctor which hired by the concert promoters, they wanted Michael to make money. They didn`t care about his problems. They didn`t care about how much he was suffering. He was a cash cow. There was a whole industry that was Michael Jackson. And I feel that we`re missing that essential point in this trial. Michael was a healthy man, and he was taking a mountain of drugs because he was lonely, depressed. He felt abandoned, and he was suffering. SMITH: Rabbi Shmuley, you bring up a great point, and you know, the M.E. actually said today, he was healthier than the average 50-year-old man, but you know, you talk about and you bring up a great point, because I think you`re hitting on something the defense will get into. This idea that these doctors were here enabling Michael Jackson, right? Giving him these drugs, maybe he didn`t need them, but they kept him going. Now, here`s part of the problem with that, though. The defense is expected to say, well, Michael Jackson is the patient here. He could have said stop. He could have backed off. What do you think about that, because I think that`s what they`re planning on pushing forward to try to show. Hey, there`s doctor responsibility and there`s patient responsibility. BOTEACH: When I knew Michael, I did not see any kind of ailment. I know people are going to find this difficult to believe, but Michael was quite normal. I mean, he had some of the eccentricities that are associated with genius. Steve Jobs was an eccentric. But I related to him as just another person. But he was depressed.
He was lethargic. He had no energy. He needed motivation. And he turned to these concerts because of a mountain of debt. And he really should have been told, listen, get rid of Neverland. Get rid of all of the expenses and heal yourself. And, I`m amazed that there wasn`t one person in his vicinity who said that.
You know, I`m not here to judge Jermaine Jackson. He lost his brother, God bless him. But to say Michael was an addict, I mean, God help us. All I`m seeing is people who are in denial. We`re not addressing the core issue. These were spiritual maladies. These were sufferings of the soul. And, when we recorded these 30 hours of conversations, Michael was honest about it.
You know, the reaction was in the book of Michael Jackson tapes, even his fans were upset that the book was published because they didn`t want Michael talking about how lonely he was. My God. Michael says that he used to walk around Encino, California as the most famous human being on the planet begging people just to talk to him.
That was the level of isolation and loneliness. All he had was his kids. He`s a devoted father. And that`s why we hear in the testimony today, his kids saying, what are we going to do now without our dad. There was such an intense relationship between them. SMITH: It absolutely was. Rabbi Shmuley, thank you. You`re absolutely right. And Flo Anthony, did you sense this kind of depression in Michael Jackson? [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] | |
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