Critical Q&A #224

The weekly show where I answer viewer questions. This week, the questions I answer are:

(1) Do you think all cult leader types or say people that think they are the second coming of Jesus Christ have issues with mental illness or is there something more complex happening?

(2) I have just heard of the Survival Rundown for the first time. I understand it took about a thousand hours of auditing. Could you please tell us about it, and when or why it would come into play? Thanks and keep up the good work.

(3) Do you have any more footage of you when you were part of Scientology like you have on the start of your channel? Did you see the recent video footage of Steven Mango protesting Scientology and if so, what are your thoughts? Lastly what are your thoughts on other ex-Scientologists’ way of dealing with current members as I remember you doing a video saying you shouldn’t be telling them they are in a cult as that pushes them further in. What do you recommend to do instead?

(4) How do you feel about Mark Bunker running for city council in Clearwater, Florida? Will you be giving him any shoutouts or endorsements via your podcast when his campaign officially begins?

(5) I’m about 1/3 of the way through Dianetics, and I wanted to pause and ask you a couple of questions about it.  The first thing someone who doesn’t know much about Scientology or Dianetics notices about this book is that it makes astounding promises about the benefits you’ll get from following the program: cure to all psychosomatic diseases, total memory recall, turning your brain into a super-computer, no more arthritis, myopia, asthma, etc.  All religions have their share of crazy beliefs: Christians believe in life after death, though you can’t really prove it one way or another…but Hubbard is very explicit about particular concrete results you’re going to get by following his steps, and says over and over again that these results have been scientifically proven. He makes the claim so often that it’s unintentionally funny (authentic scientific works do not tell you repeatedly “trust me! this is real science!”).  What’s more, he claims that it’s easy to get these amazing results. Anyway, my question to you is: what do Scientologists think about the promises that Hubbard makes in this book? Do they take them seriously, or not worry about them too much? Do they really believe that it’s science? Do they believe that they’re going to get superpowers once they finish this or that stage of the program? When the results don’t materialize, how do they explain that? You were a Scientologist for 27 years, if I recall: back then, how did you manage the dissonance between Hubbard’s claims and the easily observable fact that Scientologists still get sick, don’t have total recall, and so forth? 

(6) If the state of Clear means that you have achieved ’cause over life, feelings, thoughts, yadayada…’ how is it that Ron justified PTSes and Suppressives? Shouldn’t your reactive mind be free of outside influence, sort of like a Buddhist monk, letting outside influences wash over your perfectly controlled state? Instead, no one’s questioning how futile and fragile the state of Clear is; if one PTS can ruin everything, what’s the point?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS