This week it’s answers about who Scientology is really trying to reach, how YouTube monetizing works, a rundown on the RPF program and a lot more. Enjoy!
(1) I curiously went onto the Scientology website tonight and they were advertising the 8 dynamics. It seemed more like an advertisement for a Hollywood-esque lifestyle marketing company with perfect beautiful families in lovely suburbania. How much does Scientology market itself as an upscale posh lifestyle choice over a religion?
(2) I know you have been having an issue with YouTube de-monitizing some of your videos. Does it help you if we watch the entire commercial or just click the “skip ad” button.? I’m sure many people would happily watch the commercial if they knew it would help you. I’m not sure how that works for YouTube.
(3) In one of your recent videos, I think it was one with the ex-Mormon guy, you mentioned that around 75% of people on the RPF end up leaving. My question is: How do they leave? Do they blow, or do they simply go up to someone in authority and say: ‘I’ve had enough, I want to leave’.
I’m curious about how simple this process is. What effort does Scientology put in to stop people from leaving? Legally, they can’t stop you from leaving but I’m sure they will use all kinds of threats to get you to stay. If you leave the RPF, are you out of the Sea Org/Scientology for good? Are you automatically declared and disconnected?
Finally, how do you physically leave? As I understand it, the RPF is in the middle of nowhere. Does RPF management give you a lift back into town? Can you call someone to come and get you? Or are you left up to your own devices?
(4) I was raised Catholic and still go to church. Of course the problems of the church weigh on me, but I still have determined to stick with a lot of the belief system. But I call myself a cafeteria Catholic, I pick and choose. I had a catering company and had a great client. An older Monsignor in Baltimore who had family money and was quite profane and fun. He had a monthly card game at his house and I cooked for the Cardinal of Baltimore, this Monsignor, a couple of bishops and other muckety mucks. I was friendly with the Monsignor and was able to talk with him on a human level.
HIS belief was that a major cause of the church scandals was the CHANGE in Divinity school in the 60’s and 70’s. Training priests ALWAYS walked alone, with their thoughts and their prayer. In the 60’s the priests started walking together. My Monsignor says that when people get together a “feeling out” process starts to emerge and BAD thoughts start to get shared. A confederacy of sorts. He said it wasn’t the ONLY cause, but it didn’t do anything good. Of course many young Catholics “hid” in the church and since priests couldn’t get married, it gave cover to gay priests in {at that time} an acceptable way. I’ve also seen marriages break up when guys/gals in my neighborhood start walking together for exercise. Mike Pence is a nut but he might be right in a narrow way: when people start talking, lots of stuff CAN happen, some of it bad.
I know that Scientology is a snitching culture but did these “confederacies” exist. Two Sea Org members walking around bitching about this and that? And how about your situation? Did you have a buddy that you trusted to tell your concerns about? And a guess about how many folks have left the Sea Org because they found out that their gripes are “shared”?
(5) In the later 90’s and early 2000’s, when I was working as a sales clerk at the late, great Hollywood Book City bookstore on Hollywood Blvd, I actually recall seeing you dashing about the neighborhood. I also observed many a Sea Org member (who at the time we referred to as “pod people”) in their cheap blue costumes, often clustered by the Hubbard Life Exhibition building a few streets down, appearing sullen and withdrawn while quietly chain-smoking. It struck me then, as now – and you’ve touched on this before – as to what a physically ill-kept and generally unhealthy lot the Sea Org is, given their lack of proper health care, poor diets, sleep deprivation and overall impoverished lifestyle.
To that point, I’m curious as to how end-of-life care is considered within the Sea Org. Is it reasonable to assume that they suffer shorter than average lifespans? Is there any data on CoS death rates? And how do they speak of aging? Is it ever openly discussed? Do they all expect to – as they claim Hubbard had – “voluntarily discard the body?” I can’t begin to imagine what Sea Org funerals are like. Do they even have conventional funerals? Or just conduct “Hip Hhip Hurrah!” parties à la LRH’s thoroughly bizarre “death briefing” of 1986?
(6) Charles Manson was a Scientologist? BUT HE USED IT ON HIS WOMAN?? And that is how HE BRAINWASHED? Is that true?
(7) There are 8 OT levels and 8 dynamics in scientology. Does OT 1 have anything to do with the first dynamic, OT 5 having do to with the 5th dynamic, and OT 8 having to do with the 8th dynamic respectivity? Also when a Scientologist completes OT 8, can David Miscavige take away their OT 8 status and force him or her to start at OT 1 again?
(8) Do you think we will ever hear Katie Holmes tell her story?