The weekly show where I answer viewer questions based on what they wrote in the comment section of my Q&A videos or sent to me by email at AskChrisShelton@gmail.com. This week the questions I answer are:
(1) The other day I watched Aaron Smith-Levin’s latest assessment of the number of members the CoS has today being less than 35,000. He broadly estimated some 10,000 – 12,000 staff, including Sea Org members and about 25,000 public Scientologists.
That is a ratio of 1 staff member to 2.5 “clients” or paying customers! That is absurd. What are all those people doing? They may be busy around the clock, but what is each one, in fact, producing? Movies, spying, cleaning, cooking etc, etc – it all seems like making work for each other and being involved in things that don’t actually bring in money or provide services. Thousands of auditors, for whom? How many persons does the average auditor service, or better, what is the maximum number he or she can handle?
Then there is the acquisition of expensive real estate. I saw the CoS acquired Kyalami Castle in Johannesburg, a huge, crazily opulent millionaire’s dream dominating the Lone Hill skyline close to where I used to work. How can they ever hope to make such a thing pay? Surely the local Scientologists cannot be expected to finance something like that. There simply aren’t enough of them with money. It will probably stand empty most of the time.
Similarly, in Basel where I now live, there is an Ideal Org, an office block costing many millions which stands empty most of the time and where nobody seems to be doing anything.
Purchasing buildings like this may prove they are wealthy and growing, but they cost a whole lot of money, servicing bonds, maintaining and so on. Eventually all of this is surely going to deplete the funds of the Church, as tying up such a lot of money in investments on which there is no return must finally lead to insolvency?
Can you explain this kind of financing, how it is organised and what the eventual outcome is expected to be, vs. what it is likely to be?
(2) Many people have wondered whether or not Miscavige is a true believer in Scientology. I know he hasn’t been audited since the 1990s. However, if he weren’t a true believer, why would he spend tens of millions of dollars on preserving Hubbard’s works in secret vaults?
(3) I’ve been watching and listening to you for a long time now and it’s always struck me at how well adjusted you seem to be. You had to start all over and lost everything you really ever knew. How? I’m asking because I lost my job of 22 years about a year and a half ago and I’m not adjusting well at all. Things haven’t been the same since. I try to remain “normal” and I’m going on with life but feel like I’m not nearly as resilient as I once was. I guess I’m just a little desperate thinking you’ll have some magical nugget of insight that you haven’t already laid out for us. Do you think it’s something you learned or had “beaten “ into you in your years in Scientology? Is there any extract that can be taken and used to actually help people? I’ve read a lot of self help books and things but I find you amazing for the facts mentioned above. I need to regain or develop some resiliency.
(4) I have a child with a mental health disability. Were you ever aware of Scientology preying on families or parents/guardians who were not yet ready to face the fact that their child had a problem, i.e. there was a new “normal”? I know in the early stages of our family’s journey, we could have been very open to arguments that denied a need for therapy or medication or anything like that. We, as our child’s parents, had our own expectations that had nothing to do with her actual needs.
Our child got help at our local Children’s Hospital and has had the benefit of 3 years of therapy and medicine and engaged parents at this point. And our new “normal” still is not what most people would consider “normal.” She’ll need these tools for the rest of her life. That’s just the truth.
My then-spouse and I were at our weakest on diagnosis. We would have done anything under the Google God to avoid accepting our new — our our child’s new — reality. Does Scientology target folks like us?
(5) Who besides Miscavige speaks at major events these days now that all the other high level executives are either in the Hole or have blown? What faces do active Scientologist see on stage these days? Would anyone from a decade ago still be showing up besides Miscavige and the LRH Biographer?
(6) The videos produced by Scientology Media Productions and Golden Era almost look like Michael Bay films, with their epic bloom lighting, color grading, slow motion and tracking shots. Are the people who make these videos actual media professionals or are they all just randomly assigned to that post and told to “make it go right”? Are there any civilians that work there and get paid or are they all “volunteers” skilled in cinematography? What kind of training or “hatting” do they get, or are they just thrown into the fire and expected to figure it out?
(7) I presume Google’s analytics show you where you viewers are. Do you see visits from within Scientology organizations? There’s no way OSA is not monitoring all of your videos.
(8) If Scientologists believe in reincarnation essentially, then where are all the “second life” OT8’s who can recall their past life when they completed the bridge?