The weekly show where I answer view questions left in the comments section of my Q&A videos or sent to me by email at AskChrisShelton@gmail.com. This week the questions I answer are:
(1) My father and his brothers were very familiar with Scientology; even though they didn’t belong to the org they studied it for years. My father passed away last week. Because of my work, it was impossible for me to attend the funeral and the cremation. I spoke with his brothers by telephone and they accused me of being ungrateful, having abandoned my father and let him die. They asked me questions (what’s your game? what’s your reality? what’s your ethic?) that I didn’t understand but I know they belong to the cult’s jargon. Besides the pain for the loss, at the same time I have to face a family that accuses me of indolence and from what I see they have undertaken a sort of revenge against me. My question is, how to defend myself from a family indoctrinated by Scientology?
(2) Hi Chris, I have just finished reading Counterfeit Dreams, Blown For Good and Beyond Belief for the umpteenth time each. They are gripping stories. In BFG, Marc Headley tells of the time David Miscavige attacked him, and he started to retaliate but the group around DM swarmed about him and forced him outside to cool off. Is there anybody else who has stood up to DM? It is hard to imagine there is not even one person man enough to do this. Is DM so buff that he is like a small version of Arnold Swartzeneger? Is everybody actually physically afraid of him? I can only guess everyone is afraid of being offloaded; but why can’t an off-loadee stand firm and deny him that power?
(3) For 30 years I have gotten weekly or sometimes twice weekly mail from the Church of Scientology. I had tried one time decades ago to get off their mailing list and it only made them increase their mail madness. WHAT is a safe, sane, EFFECTIVE and FINAL way to get off their mailing list? Is it even possible?
(4) I do have another question for you about Scientology and modern medicine. After reading your books’s section on the Purification Rundown and watching the video about it, I’ve gotten a little confused. I guess I’m just trying to better understand the medical beliefs of Scientology. I know that you have said that Scientologists are allowed to use modern medicine, but you have also talked about the Purification Rundown and Scientology assists being preferred, and that some members are personally anti-vaxxers. So I got a little confused about where Scientology draws the line. At what point do they consider a medical procedure or a medication something bad that has to be avoided, instead of helpful medicine?
(5) What is this gadget on the Freewinds in the OT 8 course room? It looks like a companion to the E-meter. Do you know what it is and what it does? (from this video)
(6) Hi, Chris, love your videos; keep up the good work. Here’s a simple question regarding your “Deconstructing Scientology” series. Have any of the the so-called “scholars” who contributed to the book “Scientology” ever challenged you or made any attempt at rebuttal? In the normal course of academic or general intellectual discourse, when a theory is attacked or challenged, its author will offer a vigorous rebuttal (you can see this process in the letters section of most serious magazines, for example). If the “scholars” whom you’ve taken to task in this series haven’t bothered to respond to you, then that tells us that they’re all merely shilling for Scientology as you said they were.
(7) I see the Millennium Falcon on your desktop. I noticed that Mark Bunker had a Tardis phone cover. Do you watch Doctor Who?
(8) In the video for ‘We Stand Tall’ David Miscavige is wearing a rather “unique” shirt. Does his shirt have any Scientology meaning or was it just bad 90’s fashion?
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Chris, you should make an index of your answers. Someone on Tony’s blog asked if anyone died in the Sea Org. I know that you discussed this at some point. With an index, someone could find that this was discussed at such and such time on such and such episode.
@ Jim – maybe not what you want, but you can search this whole site on google like this:
“site:mncriticalthinking.com died in the seaorg”
Funny, I’ve been meaning to message you about this. As far as I can tell I’m off all the Scientology mailing lists I was on. For about 3 or 4 months I returned every piece of mail I received with the following handwritten on the face:
It’s ok to doubt. Scientology is shrinking. All the orgs are empty.
For more information look at mncriticalthinking.com tonyortega.org forum.exscn.net ocmb.xenu.net mikerindersblog.org
The first to drop me was the local org. For a while I still got promo from Nashville, where my info was originally collected, and the usual Flag, AOLA, IAS, etc. Most recently, I’d say in the last couple of months, those have also stopped. My husband still gets the promo from the large orgs, which is how I know there are pieces I’m no longer receiving. He appears to be off the local mailing list, though.