The weekly show where I answer viewer questions left for me in the comments sections of my Q&A videos or sent to me by email to AskChrisShelton@gmail.com. This week, the questions I answer are:
(1) I’m writing to you because of what I have heard about the treatment that non-heterosexual members of Scientology receive. Debbie Cook had to endure twelve hours of standing in a garbage can with cards around her neck with the words “Lesbo”, “Homo”, etc written on them as well as being dunked with buckets of ice water. Actually, the cult seem to love to throw buckets of ice water on many members, not only the non-heterosexual ones but on children too as Jenna Miscavige described. Then there is the screaming, trying to make them admit that they are not “normal.” They should realise that if they are heterosexuals, it is because they were born that way, it is not a choice. How can John Travolta as a bisexual still be accepted and still be in the cult? Many former cult members have different and various allegations about this, but how can it be?
(2) I know the Co$ hates psychiatry, so if someone had to take narcotics for chronic pain, and an antidepressant that they’ve taken for years, would they actually have that person just stop taking them? Because we all know that they don’t know what they are talking about, but that would be extremely dangerous!
(3) I was wondering how strongly the silent birth concept and practice is taken within Scientology. Would a woman married to a celebrity such as Tom Cruise be more or less likely to be subjected to this edict? It seems very grim, even to someone who hasn’t yet had children. In fact, it sounds utterly horrific.
(4) I have a moral/ethical dilemma I hope you can help me think through. As a long time Scientology watcher and critic, I feel it’s my duty to speak out against the church and draw attention to its misdeeds, but I’m wavering in the extent to which I abstain from supporting public Scientologists’ work. It’s easy to boycott the megastar who’s personally profited from Sea Org slave labor, or the has-been sitcom actress who shrilly accuses critics of raping babies. However, I find myself making excuses for the second generation musician who keeps his membership fairly quiet, the character actor in the fun Marvel film, or the older star from a 70s sitcom and cult classic films. Am I complicit in making Scientology “look good” by buying an album or watching a movie with a famous Scientologist in it? Is it enough to make up for that consumption by supporting ex-Scientologists and sharing what I know with others? Am I overthinking this?
(5) I was surprised to hear you say that you believe that Hubbard was sincere and not a deliberate fraud. Do you have any opinion on the various claims that he told his colleagues at Astounding that he planned to make a religion to make money, or that he and Robert Heinlein made a bet about it, or that some of the other writers helped him brainstorm Dianetics, not knowing that he was really going to try to sell it as a serious idea?
(6) I once worked for Cancer Research UK and was shown a reference in the org at St Hill from a lecture Hubbard gave where he said that cancer is a severe aberration of the second dynamic, that it came from body cells multiplying uncontrollably and the solution was to mock up babies and throw them away. That’s as much as I could remember. A couple of years later, a very close friend was diagnosed with cancer on Dec 17th and died Feb 5th. He was a Scientologist as I was at the time and I asked about this reference and it was denied by everyone I asked. I even had the CO take me to the Qual Library. We never found it. Have you ever heard of it? It’s driving me crazy as it was basically said I was lying and there was no such thing but I couldn’t make that up. Interested to know if you know of this because of the absurdity of the cancer cure and my sanity.
(7) In your opinion, what % of “active” Scientologists stay in the religion primarily because of the disconnection program? Whether it is a family member, friend, or business partner/employer, it appears that the threat of severing these relationships is a major reason people stay in despite the nonsense that Scientology excels in.
(8) I was reading up on L. Ron today, and stumbled across something interesting. In L. Ron’s 1940 novel Typewriter in the Sky, the protagonist has the name Mike de Wolf. I was curious, and maybe you knew if this is where the Hubbard family took the name from, or if DeWolf was in another way relevant to the Hubbard family (an old family name perhaps?)
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How can John Travolta as a bisexual still be accepted and still be in the cult?
Well his a “man”