The weekly show where I answer viewer questions left for me in the comments section of my Q&A videos or sent to me by email at AskChrisShelton@gmail.com. This week, the questions I answer are:
(1) What’s the process by which a Sea Org member is condemned to the RPF? In other words, what is the Sea Org’s equivalent of trial, conviction, and sentencing? In a related vein, what has to happen in order for a person on the RPF to be deemed ready to “graduate”?
(2) I have started listening to a fun podcast by Dax Shepard called ArmChair Expert. He just did an episode (#20) with Erika Christenson (current Scientologist) because they did the show Parenthood together. Dax sees himself as an open-minded intellectual with a talent to argue all sides of an issue. I am dying to get your take on this particular podcast with Erika because she speaks of her Scientology views and I would love your take on the angle she uses and Dax’s handling of the topic.
(3) Chris, our mutual love of tacos inspired this medical question: If a Clear vacations in Mexico, drinks the water, then spends the next week in the bathroom, how does the Church respond? To be serious, are all routine medical problems – the common cold, food poisoning, migraines, Montezuma’s Revenge – “treated” as spiritual transgressions? If a chef at a resort in Baja doesn’t wash his hands properly, are you spending the next few months on the e-meter, handing over thousands of dollars to find the true cause of your stomach bug? Thanks, and keep up the good work.
(4) Dianetics initially gained popularity as a self help movement and the “lost leader” courses that are still offered on problem solving and self improvement, to entice potential new members, continue to receive positive comments from those who have participated in them (excepting the widely discredited personality test). I share the opinion of others that the “religion” road that it went down was LRH’s spectacularly successful attempt to monetize his ideas. Do you think that, should the organisation have just acted as a problem solving institution and stuck to offering these “entry level” courses, that it could have survived and thrived? If yes, as a one time insider, how do you think that they could have done this?
(5) Do you know the whereabouts of your ex-wife? I’m guessing she is still in?
(6) Since Scientologists believe in reincarnation (or whatever term they use for rebirth), I wonder what would happen if the church, or a trusted member of the church (acting as a private business), were to offer members the opportunity to hand over their assets before they die (and give them a secret password to remember) so that after they die, and they are reborn, they can come back and retrieve their assets from their previous life. Would this be an interesting way, accidentally, to test the beliefs of Scientologists (i.e. do they trust the church enough to hand over all their money before they die, “knowing” they will get it back in a future life)? Thanks
(7) Being from the UK and recently seeing in the news that Scientology have just opened two new orgs in Ireland and Birmingham, as well as the Saint Hill, I’m aware they don’t have tax exempt status here in the UK. That being the case, does that make them open to being investigated and prosecuted by the law here for the many crimes that go on in the Sea Org? Or at least called out for obviously being a money making scam rather than a religion?