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Critical Q&A #392

For our final episode of 2022, I’m giving you all a rundown on Scientology’s religious rituals, the rules around auditing of children, what are weaponized empaths and a lot more. Enjoy!

(1) People have been asking about funeral rites in Scientology recently. Is there a method of body disposal (funeral, with or without embalming, cremation, etc.) Scientology prefers? Conversely, is there a method it prohibits or rejects? I have a hard time imagining that Scientology, with its understanding of the body as merely a temporary vessel for an eternal thetan, would care, but I’d rather know than guess…

(2) Have you talked about baby auditing yet? I was just reading about it at the Mace-Kingsley Scientology school website where Hubbard says: “You process a one-day-old baby; start the session! Doesn’t matter that the kid can’t answer you. That has no bearing on it at all. Start the session. Audit the child in a proper auditing room. Use communication bridges when you change the process. Bridge out of the session and end the session smoothly when the process is flat.” What does this mean? How common is it for Scientologists to have their babies audited?

(3) I’m listening to your recent interview of an ex-Scientologist from London, which prompted me to ask how come you only hear people speaking out about Scientology publicly mainly from the United States? I don’t believe other countries have such a united front about exposing Scientology in the way that happens here in the US.

(4) You spoke recently about one particular aspect of your cultic experience in Scientology: how getting along meant trying to please other people who you somehow thought of as authority figures. Saving the world meant making everyone happy, bringing joy and bliss to the world. A grand sacrifice to give one’s life meaning and purpose. As Hubbard himself said, a being is only as valuable as he can serve others (which in itself is a mindtrap of slavery). And also thinking of yourself as a 2nd class citizen, a feeling of inadequacy that Scientology very much served to reinforce. Is what you are referring to weaponised empathy? In other words, did you fall into the role of ‘weaponised empath’? And a broader question: in Scientology and other destructive cults, would you say most people are weaponised empaths? Have there been any studies on the proportions of different types of people that are in destructive cults?

(5) When it comes to conspiratorial thinking, one of the things that constantly pops up is anti-Semitic tropes. I’ve looked into 9/11 conspiracies and the ‘international banking’ conspiracy, and the finger always tends to point at the Jewish community (look at Kanye West’s recent outbursts, for example).  With Scientology engaging in conspiratorial thinking, do they also engage in anti-Semitism? I know the Nation of Islam is intertwined with Scientology, and that group also engages in anti-Semitisc conspiratorial thinking.

(6) What’s your new dog’s favourite food/toy?

(7) Would it bother Scientology if a person took a painfully long time to complete a course that cost a flat fee, while quickly finishing courses that are charged hourly?

(8) I have always heard it posited that Hubbard did “research,” such as old photos of him with rudimentary electronics attached to tomato plants, etc. His debunked claims of being a physicist, ad nauseum, adds to this mystique of having done actual research. Being a scientist myself, I am wondering has there ever been published research by Hubbard, or any attempt to prove he did any?  I ask this because it seems to me his research claims have always been glossed over.  I can show you my research work, did Hubbard ever publish his?  If not, how does Scientology treat this blatant gap in truth?

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