'Kony 2012' Creator Tells Oprah Winfrey About 'Out of Body' Experience, Homosexual Speculation
Jason Russell, director of "Kony 2012," a documentary that went viral urging people to take action against Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony, recently appeared on "Oprah's Next Chapter" where he discussed having a very public outer body experience along with rumors of being a homosexual.
Russell, 34-year-old co-founder of the Invisible Children organization that created the "Kony 2012" documentary and campaign, made headlines when he was detained last March for allegedly masturbating in public. While Russell recently appeared on media proprietor and host Oprah Winfrey's show to deny this claim, he did admit to having a psychological breakdown and an outer body experience.
Reports claimed that Russell was vandalizing cars and running around his San Diego, Calif., neighborhood naked. The filmmaker described the experience to Winfrey.
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"There were rumors of masturbation, but no one who was there ever said that that was happening," he said on Winfrey's show Sunday. "I'm naked so it's not a far extension of imagination that that would be happening but, no, I don't remember any of that, and no one we knew there said that I was. I don't remember anything except like a half-second. I don't."
While a video of Russell's naked antics made its way online, the activist and charity worker was taken to a mental health clinic after the episode that he called an "out of body experience." He revealed that the doctors said he underwent a psychotic breakdown.
"I was so confused," Russell admitted to Winfrey. "I thought people were trying to kill me."
However, after some time to reflect, Russell said he believes that he was suffering from stress and pressure after founding his Invisible Children organization in 2003 which was inspired by his travels to Uganda where he witnessed the struggles of children who were trying to avoid being kidnapped by Kony's militia in their villages.
Russell told Winfrey that nine years of hard work may have resulted in him developing a Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
"It depends on who you talk to. I think it's a nervous breakdown...I think that every doctor agreed that PTSD was a part of the actual breakdown," he revealed. "It was 9 years compounding."
After the media caught wind of Russell since his documentary debuted, some people began to question whether the filmmaker was a homosexual. Winfrey was not afraid to ask Russell about his preference, but the activist denied the speculation about his homosexuality.
"I grew up in theater, my parents started a large children's theater organization, so I am animated, I am ... theatrical," the married singer and father of two told Winfrey. "That's me by nature. So when you take me, times it by ten ... ."
Still, Russell wants to people to know that despite the criticism and his traumatic experiences, he is doing well.
"I am doing really well. I feel like I'm on top of the world because you don't go through something this traumatic, dramatic and not learn a lot from it and not grow closer to your wife, your family and the people who are in your tribe," he said on "Oprah's Next Chapter." "You can't really get more broken than being naked on the street ranting to yourself."
