This week, it’s a critique of Hubbard’s Code of Honor, the Shen Yun dance troupe, some commentary on the E-meter and a lot more. Enjoy!
(1) Could you talk a bit about Hubbard’s Code of Honor? Is it emphasized much in Scientology? On the surface, the Code of Honor appears to be a well-crafted set of attractive principles. But, when you think them through, the Code of Honor seems to direct followers to fearlessly abuse others who get in the way of “a just cause” (i.e., Scientology.) Anyone who feels trapped and hurt in this process is, in essence, weak, because they aren’t living up to idealized version of an individual who isn’t damaged by abuse and is always in control of their destinies.
(2) I was bored enough to listen to Ron Hubbard’s congressses. I can tell by his tone of voice when he is telling one of his many tall tales. I listened to a tale he tells about lending someone deemed a criminal a pair of boots before he moved across the other side of the country. Low and behold this man turned up at his new address to return the boots prompting Ron to ask how he got here. The man had stolen a car to travel all that way allt o return Ron’s boots. The audience chucked at this criminals stupidity at committing a bigger crime in an attempt to be honest by returning Rons boots thus making him stupid as well as criminal. It was such an obviously tale and had me thinking do scientologist actually believe these tales or do you think deep down he is lying. Just like the OT3 story its so obvious not just even by the silly stories. It’s a give away by his tone of voice also.
(3) Once a year I see an overwhelming amount of advertising for something called the Shen Yun dance troupe. Billboards, newspaper ads, TV, I cant click on Youtube without getting ads to go see the Shen Yun Chinese dance show. I’m not into dance so I’ve never been to it. But I always assumed it must be a huge ticket seller to justify the overwhelming amount of advertising they buy every year. I sort of thought maybe it was something being paid for by the Chinese government. But oh did I have that backwards. This year their ads proclaimed “how beautiful China was BEFORE communism”
I googled “shen yun” and of course the first few hits were Shen Yuns official website. But the next few websites after that were allegedly 3rd party sites simply commenting on Shen Yun were clearly made by Shen Yun itself. They had videos with the same voice over actor, the same music and graphics etc. Just like Scientology did after HBO played ” Prison Of Belief” (websites and videos that at first glance you might mistake for being official HBO productions.) Then deep down the list was web info that Shen Yun was really a recruitment tool for the Chinese religious group ‘Falun Gong” and that if you go to a show, its clearly a recruitment event not a dance show.
Have you heard anything about Falun Gong and do you think it qualifies as a cult.? I doesnt seem like a violent cult, but it does sound like a high control group.
(4) Can you describe how expenses are handled in the Sea Org? Do Sea Orgers travel with “corporate” Scientology credit cards? Who issues those cards? Which bank, and which processing network? (AMEX, Visa, Mastercard?). How do Sea Org missionaries travel? Must they stay at the cheapest possible hotels? Must they bunk in the same hotel rooms? I assume they always travel economy class, but do higher ranks get to ride up front? What is per diem allowance? How are expense audits handled? With an e-meter? I’ve always wondered about this aspect of Sea Org policies, hoping you can shed some light.
(5) I’m fairly familiar with the way the meter itself works, however one concept which I don’t understand is a floating needle, I can understand how miniscule beads of sweat could affect the reading or unconscious flinching to certain lines of question could cause inflections to the needle. However I was just wondering what was happening physically/physiologically with the person to cause a floating needle? I’ve heard Jon Atack mention it was easy to make the needle float but I’m not sure how this works either, I asked it on stream and a member of your audience replied you could cause the needle to float by thinking happy thoughts but just wondering if that’s true and how that translates to the e-meter?
(6) I was listening to an old broadcast talking about Aldous Huxley and there was an interesting part about Brave New World that seemed to speak to CoS and other cults. It talked about the purpose of babies (in a caste system). From www.mvorganizing.org/: The delta babies, especially lower caste, needed to be conditioned to hate books and roses so that they do not get diverted by love or knowledge, as they grow up. They were conditioned to hate flowers, to decode their love of nature and to hate books to avoid wasting time. Interested in your thoughts about how this kind of control exists in CoS and other high control groups. Do you think LRH followed Huxley?
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