This week, it’s answers about whether Tom Cruise is quitting Scientology, what kinds of things have never been released from within Scientology, the Sea Org mindset and a lot more. Enjoy!
(1) I saw a headline, “Tom Quits Scientology.” I wondered if you have any insight into this. There doesn’t seem to be a lot out there on the internet. Also, considering what you said in the recent Mormon Stories podcast, I wondered how bad of a loss that would be to the church, and what they might do. Do you think they would declare him?
(2) Is there any information in the Scientology library of writings, lectures, etc. that has not been leaked by ex-members yet? What type of information might be contained in such unleaked information?
(3) After listening to many of your videos and those of other ex-Scientologists as well as reading a stack of articles on the subject, I’ve come up with a definition of Scientology which I’d like your thoughts about:
Scientology is a belief system based on the assumption that Science had reached a certain level of development in the 1960s which made it possible to develop not just a physical technology but also a kind of mental technology through which one could affect the mind and personality of a person by ridding him of his subconscious self, the so-called Reactive Mind. The basis of this road to personal transformation is called auditing and consists of multiple questions techniques, monitored by an auditor through the medium of an electric resistor called an E-Metre (Scientology’s equivalent of Mormon Underwear). When, after some years of putting these methods into practise, they were seen not to have any lasting effect on the clients, rather than revise the system, Hubbard began to look for supernatural reasons for the failure, lighting upon the idea of Body Thetans who are corrupting the human psyche and which, through further auditing, might be eliminated, leading to the desired super-human powers of the mind. In order to provide some sort of cosmology for how these body thetans came about, Hubbard came up with a bit of science fiction that, quite likely, he knew himself to be just that, namely the whole Xenu narrative, which really explains nothing nor has anything to do with anything even in Scientology.
We have, thus, a two-tiered system, the first based on an illusory epistemology which failed to produce results, propped up by a further time and money-consuming series of futile activities based on no logical foundation at all, which have the sole purpose of keeping the money coming in.
(4) Your conversation with John Dehlin the other day brought up CST – the Church of Spiritual Technology – which jogged my memory about a silly question I had. Maybe Dylan Gill would know this – but when Miscavige declared the Golden Age of Tech and vanquished all of those misplaced, suppressive semi-colons, did the poor folks at CST have to scrap all of those stainless steel plates they’d engraved with LRH’s complete works and start over?
(5) I understand that Sea Org members are clearing the planet by helping with auditing etc but I don’t understand why Sea Org members never wonder who is doing the other work such as making less crime in countries or helping underprivileged children to read or all the work Miscavige claims Scientology is achieving each year? Didn’t you ever wonder why you never met anyone in the Sea Org that said, “Yeh I just got back from somewhere where I taught all the kids to read and the literacy rate is now 89 PERCENT”. Also, the Sea Org members that are sent to disaster zones to have a few pics taken and then leave or more baffling is the person who arranges the trip and takes the phony pics not to see that something is wrong.
(6) It seems like many of the former Sea Org guests you’ve had on the show have spent time on the RPF. Is it ‘normal’ for Sea Org members to have been on the RPF? Did you know many members that hadn’t spent time there?
(7) Have any Scientologists, while imagining their past lives during auditing, ever claimed that they knew or met L. Ron Hubbard or David Miscavige? What would be the auditor’s reaction? Would they be believed? Would they get in trouble?
(8) So Chris, you and Melissa are about to sit down and enjoy a movie; what are your favorite go to snacks?
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I disagree with a lot you said, but this in particular:
“auditing and consists of multiple questions techniques, monitored by an auditor through the medium of an electric resistor called an E-Metre (Scientology’s …)”
Auditor is defined as one who listens and computes. Ever have the feeling nobody really hears you?
As and Electrical Engineer, I know that the Tone Arm is set to match the PCs’ resistance so that the small EPPs of the nerves can be read. I traveled to many medical labs that tested drugs by looking at EPPs (End Plate Potentials) at the end of a nerve with a special oscilloscope with a method similar to that used in an Emeter.
Have I been living in a cave? I haven’t seen ANY interviews or stories about TC in forever. Never thought he was the greatest actor, but I would think that as he ages, he is less relevant in action movies. Where is he? Why hasn’t he been on TV pushing his stuff (if he is still doing it)?