The weekly show where I answer viewer questions from the comments section of my Q&A videos or sent to me by email at AskChrisShelton@gmail.com. This week, the questions I take up are:
(1) What are your thoughts on Australia’s census showing Scientology has lost a third of its members in that country over the last decade? Is it faster than you expected? Is there anything David Miscavige can do to slow or even reverse this declining membership trend?
(2) If Marty Rathbun’s new anti-anti-Scientology videos are meant for those who are still in Scientology, then those Scientology folks are finding out about what Lawrence Wright has written, what Leah Remini is saying, etc. Isn’t this dangerous (either by exposing members to info that harms their efforts working up the Bridge OR by exposing them to info that might make them question their membership in Scientology)?
(3) I have a friend who is an avid Scientologist and who recently went Clear. It got me thinking about how people really feel or ‘expect’ they should feel after going Clear. Does their relationship with others change much or do they feel they should be able to ‘read’ others’ tone levels, have the ability to fix flawed relationships, or that life in general is completely different from the moment they attest? It’s hard for me to believe that the euphoria they feel initially really lasts, and if that’s the case, do they feel a sense of let-down, or do they just ignore it and shrug it off, explaining it away to something else?
Also, somewhere in my delving into Scientology a few years back, I remember reading in one of LRH’s books about it being ideal that both parents are Clear before having children, because of it setting them up in the right environment from the moment they are born, and I wondered if you’d heard anything about this or if it is a ‘thing’ that Scientologists couples think about and take seriously enough that they hold off having kids until both are Clear?
(4) In George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, Winston Smith worried that he might talk in his sleep, and the ever-present monitoring devices would pick up whatever he says, which would result in him being sent to the dreaded Room 101. If a Scientologist talked in their sleep – saying things like “No, sir. Go to hell, sir.” or “Kiss my grits, COB.” – would their Scientologist spouse or bunkmate feel compelled to write a knowledge report on them? Or would a good Scientologist feel the need to confess dreams regarding the Church or its upper management? As ridiculous as this all sounds, has it happened? Or, if you don’t know of any examples, does it sound feasible? Thanks and keep up the good fight.
(5) Are human beings naturally sentient, or only because human bodies are inhabited by thetans? If the latter, how come thetans can’t inhabit other Earth animals? Or can they?
(6) Where does David Miscavige live ? Just curious if he has a billion dollar mansion.
(7) Stacey Young once confirmed that $400,000 was spent by the CoS trying to find the two Japanese submarines Hubbard claimed to have sunk off the coast of Oregon in World War 2. Have they ever tried to substantiate Hubbard’s claim that there is a Space Station in Northern Corsica with its ready to fly mothership?
(8) I’d be interested in seeing a video on the EPF. Any chance one’s in the works?
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Have you heard……Greta Van Susteren is getting her own show on The New Scientology Television Channel – one she can’t get fired from!
1) I think on Q1, even the lower level pseudo-therapy and “life improvement” classes on the various tidbits of Hubbard “wisdom” are very highly debatable point by point, and a major mistaken step for even open-minded newbies, who if they are not strong willed enough, will some of them succumb to the next step in Scientology’s “bait and switch” and thus really, if there IS value in any of Hubbard’s ideas, those ideas need issue by issue debating. And if the “lower level” quack pseudo-therapy is valuable, again, it needs detailed dissection and debate and peer reviewing, and standalone unconnected to Scientology’s whole administrative swamp rules that disallow such point by point and therapy by therapy process dissection and public perusing. And even with all that, the tiny “workable” bits of Scientology are like “raisins in a load of turds” as the most harsh critics used to say. And the Scientology settings, either official of the splinter Scientology groups, tend to open the innocent newbies to a whole lot of bogus bad other stuff of Hubbard’s.
2) I’d answer that YES, in my Sea Org career, reading our “Freedom Mags” and when I was in the top echelon called Author Services Inc, where the LRH orders to ASI were that one of ASI’s job was the international image of LRH, we received the negative and positive news press internationally, weekly, in what was then called “OSA passarounds” which were the xerox copies of all the negative and positive news against Scientology and the famous critics of the 1990s, which is how I learned of people who I knew were ousted from ASI, ousted from the Sea Org, who were making media against Scientology. It did to my mind exactly what Poly Math asked you in Q2. In my office in ASI, in 193-95, when I was reading of the ex ASI staff Vaughn Young and Stacy Young and reading of Jesse Prince, of Dennis Erhlich and even of Arnie Lerma, I had way extensive reading material straight from media that did directly add up to my disaffection and eventual becoming a critic in 2004 when I eventually moved myself out. But the years of reading the straight dope on Scientology from ex members, Vicki Aznaran, David Mayo’s stuff, Julie Mayo’s stuff, Kima Douglas’ stuff, the Andre Taboyoyan stuff, Dennis Erlich’s stuff in particular, since the Freedom Mag even included enough info so I could see where Dennis lived, LOL, and that become part of my escape scenario I toyed with hundreds of evenings before falling to sleep in my RPFer bunk at the Happy Valley Int RPF even. So definitively yes, there will be FUTURE defectors who will be spurred by all this media exposure and the videos that point to the “enemies” and the “enemies” media/TV/books. It is human nature to take a peek at that forbidden, and it is just one of the flaws of the Hubbard institutionalized smearing campaigna tactics, this is an unrealized additional mistake on L. Ron Hubbard’s already larger bigger mistakes of the Scientology outfit. Hubbard has strewn the movement with so many mistakes the members and ex members take years to realize how thoroughly bad from top to bottom Hubbard’s system is. This smearing, naming the “enemies” just causes future defectors, I will admit it contributed to my quitting path out.
Chuck Beatty
http://www.freewebs.com/chuckbeatty77/index.htm
Hi Chris
I have noticed that, if searching on Youtube the word “Scientology” your videos don’t show up!
I suggest that you google how to get your videos up in Top on search lists to get more views.
I guess that you know about the Tag’s Box when editing your videos? It is important that you fill out so many tags as you can in that box. The most important search items are those in the Videos Caption – And here you just have “Critical Q&A #115” On youtube #115 is considered a HashTag # like on Twitter. So if i search for #115 on youtube i will see your video in the result. But who search on #115? HashTags, like #Scientology, you can also use in the Videos Description field like on this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulpGNNXyuaM – This video will show up if you search on those Tags in the Description. Now this particular Video is only an example on using Hashtags as it has no views, because people don’t do a lot of searching on Scientology anyway and it’s made by “Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints” – Boring! But what is interesting is that people do search on “Where is Shelly” about 20% of Tony’s Google search hit comes from this search.
–Dice
As regards Mr. Rathbun I wonder just how close it came for DM to get called into court. I suspect that since DM is mainly concerned with himself that he panicked. Could he have done something off-policy to get Rathbun to end the court case and start trashing all his friends. Maybe DM gave him an offer he couldn’t refuse? I hope this mystery comes to light someday.
Thanks for another interesting and informative video.
This is the saddest thing I’ve ever seen – I know this was not easy for you to make.
Stories like Alexander’s and Kyle Brennan’s should never stop being told – it’s important for the world to know the truth about this evil cult.
I watched my boy grow up into a happy, wonderful young man and my heart breaks for mothers like Karen and Victoria who can never know that joy.
Thank you Chris ….you were a good friend to Alex and you still are.