The latest in my ongoing series where I answer questions left for me in the comments section of my Q&A videos or sent to me by email at AskChrisShelton@gmail.com. This week the questions I take up are:
(1) I had good friends in the Sea Org. After I left, it was impossible to have any contact with them anymore. Many of them would be getting on in age now so my question is what do they do with Sea Org members who become an assisted care problem, or for some reason is too old to be of use? I know they off-load them, but surely they don’t just kick them to the street, as that would be bad PR. What public assistance would these guys be able to get after a life of almost no wages nor Social Security? What happens to them?
(2) I became fascinated with Scientology about 8 years ago. My brother took a few courses in Orange County in the early 80’s when he was about 20 years old and still living with my parents. Twenty years later, my brother and I grew up, married, had families, etc. Our dad was sick so I had his mail forwarded to my house. Next thing I knew, on a regular basis, mail, flyers, full color
magazines and pamphlets began flooding my mail box, all addressed to my brother. I knew enough to not contact the Church of Scientology because I’d heard horror stories from friends.
I moved to a new home in 2007. My home phone number is not listed but one day, my landline rang and the caller ID said Church of Scientology. I usually ignore calls, but answered this one. The person asked for my brother. I yelled at the guy that he was creepy for calling me since my brother and I haven’t lived in the same house since we were kids. I told him that my number was registered with donotcall.org and that I wasn’t interested in his cult. He laughed wryly, I hung up.
Here’s my question: WTF? How did they manage to get my phone number and why would they even bother? Do they get any people to return this way? What a colossal waste of time and resources. Pretty horrible PR, right?
(3) Okay, so, if Scientology shuts down tomorrow, just goes bankrupt and ruined and completely gone, are you worried that someone would leak PC folders? Would there be legal boundaries or protections to prevent such leaking?
(4) Chris, why can’t members see that “COB” isn’t trying to bring new people into the Church? Do they truly not see that the buildings are getting bigger, but not anything beyond that is being done? They have to realize that there is no real push to expand Church of Scientology. Also, does Dork on Cults go by COB to be more like LRH?
(5) Why is it that most in Scientology feel like they have all the answers to life, more so than the rest of us? Thank you.
(6) Thank you so much for the highly important effort you put into your channel! I love watching your videos. My question is this: I’ve heard a lot about the poor conditions and harsh treatment experienced by Sea Org members, for example in Flag or Int or Saint Hill etc. I’ve read about the limits on having a cell phone, a car, watching TV, keeping a passport and so on; but what about Sea Org members who occupy certain positions in local orgs? I’ve met some of them and they have cell phones, Facebook pages and some use cars. Does that mean that these Sea Org members have it better then those at higher orgs? Are they treated less harshly? Are they too sleep and food deprived and have heaps of pressure?
(7) Over the course of your career in the Sea Org, how much of your typical week or month involved indoctrination activities as opposed to working on projects? In other words, how frequent were group meetings, video screenings, or other activities designed to solidify your loyalty to the cause, the group identity, LRH or Miscavige? Was the volume of indoctrination fairly constant over the years or were there periods of greater intensity?
(8) Chris, what do you think of one who enters Scientology now to get the benefit of the lower end of the Bridge (and bail before it gets kooky and expensive)? Thanks!
(9) Hi Chris. When I listen to your videos you create the impression of being a person that is extremely well educated, with a useful knowledge of many subjects. You don’t sound at all like a robot that has been sheltered from reality for years in the fantasy world of LRH’s nonsense. In a recent video you quoted H. L. Mencken. I’d be surprised if anyone else in the Scientology world has even heard of the man.You also recommended The Demon Haunted World. I can’t imagine anyone actively in the Sea Org discovering that such a book exists, much less reading it. Your videos are succinct and clear. There is no hint of Scientology jargon. How did you acquire such an abundant vocabulary and learn to use it so well? What was your education and experience before joining Scientology? Have you simply voraciously consumed scientific and skeptical material since leaving Scientology, or did you have a scientific background that was always in the “background” even when you were in Scientology? I’m curious about this because you sound so level headed today that is seems impossible that you (the only “you” that I’ve encountered) could have stuck around in Scientology for more than about 2 days before saying, “This is a load of crap, and I am out of here!“
What is obvious to me
– is that something needs to be done to get information and general assistance to the people inside of Scientology. It appears to me that the only effective way to do this is would be through thoughtful legislation.
Let’s start a column here, get some group participation going. It could be the “IT SHOULD BE A LAW” page, where we chip in our two cents by filling in the blank. I’ve got one contribution in already where I said that it should be a law that no cult member be denied full access to the internet.
Cult leaders need to be regulated. We have Scientology to thank for making this obvious. Any cult leader needs to be held accountable to any statement presented as “fact” to his followers, for instance. Any measure a cult leader takes to limit or compromise the civil rights of a practitioner should be made information freely available to all practitioners, regardless of what they may have signed, and cult leaders that do not do so are to be held accountable. Violations of civil rights should have attached, as part of the maximum penalty, incarceration, and the fact of incarceration is not to be witheld from anyone in the congregation, either.
The freedom to express yourself spiritually in this country is a good thing.
But now protection of church has given Scientology an unfair advantage, unfair because it proclaims to be one thing and actually turns out to be quite another.
Scientology denies liberty and the fundamental freedom to express opinion whenever that opinion is critical of the church. It, the “church”, also employs very powerful tools of mind control through such blatantly obvious, simple practices such as peer-pressure and punishments all-too-often brutal, including but certainly not limited to sleep-deprivation and denial of basic needs. Then there is humiliation and disconnection, and THANK GOD the whole list is finally being made publically known.
Not so much known inside the formidable, quite secretive, fortified by intimidation, walls of this particular cult.
That stuff works.
Something does need to be done about it.
Let’s make some laws, shall we? At least the Germans got it right. They banned these people.
(I do hope I’m right about that)
If the Germans can do it, seems to me we have to challenge our politicians the same way.
Please allow me to restate:
Scientology needs special legislation. Despite their claims, they cannot have total control over their congregation, such as dening them information, or passing off lies about themselves as truth.
It should be a law.
Scientology is a singularity, It may be the most powerful means of mind-control on the planet. It appears to me that means we need to be putting together laws here that are, indeed, directly aimed at keeping this specific organization in line, the basic civil rights of those deep inside restored. If that means providing every Scientolgist with a free crash-couse in Critical Thinking, so be it.
Believe me, there is more than one Sea Org sailor out there right now experiencing some pretty serious doubts and finding himself quite unable to express them. Just ask Jenna Miscavige.
Hi Chris,
This is Tom Weeks, former CLO WUS Sea Org member. We met at the Tony Ortega event at the Secular Hub. I had a question related to you having been in Sea Org management. When I was there, I remember that the orgs being managed weren’t doing so well. Being in West US management, I had access to all the stats of all the orgs in the Western United States. Stats were somewhat level and often the CLO was on beans on and rice because not enough money was being made. We even had one of our pizza parties canceled because Flag Bureaux thought were were pathetic downstats. Yet when it was time for events, the stats for CLO were touted as skyrocketing and a few select stats which happened be be going up were flashed on the big screen for everyone to see. I was bothered by this discrepancy. I know were were in at a different time and your time was preoccupied with the Ideal Org and IAS reg cycle phenomena, but did you notice anything like this? If so, how did you rationalize it?
Wikipedia states:
Germany does not recognize Scientology as a religion. It regards it to be an abusive profit-oriented organization. There are 4000 active members in that country today, although the “church” claims the number to be much higher.
It should be a law,
that if you are a cult you are registered with the US Goverment.
And if you have the grand priveledge of tax-exempt status, well,
you must be transparent with all of your activites, between you and the government, AND between you and all practicing Scientologists. No Scientologist may ever be punished for asking for information about management, its leader or any matter involving cult activities, and/or including the management of them.
The names of executives convicted of Federal crimes shall be promently posted in every church and church-owned property, henceforth and forthwith.
Signed,
We the People
Ew-ew! Yeah, that’s a good one. OK. I’m done.
Hi Chris,
Thank you for all this great info. Having been in Scientology since 1971 and finally leaving the one thing that really still bothers me is the info on LRH. I am truly having a difficult time wrapping my witts around the fact that he was full of it. Having listened to all the lectures and reading all the books it’s hard to imagine. He always came across as being so sincere and some of the data even made sense. You stated that Scientology was created with intended malice, well, I have a hard time with that. I’m not saying it isn’t true because I worked with some nasty staff members who would hit whenever they could. And I know that that shit starts from above. I would really like it if you could refer me to any data that I could look into regarding the above.
Albert Andrade Ex-Scientologist after 40 years, Ex-Staff for almost 25years.
Check out Jon Atack’s book A Piece of Blue Sky as well as Lawrence Wright’s Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief and most important of all, Bare Faced Messiah by Russel Miller. The facts about Hubbard’s life, the terrible ways that he treated his wives and children, the fact that making Scientology a religion was a con from the beginning and how he ordered the ruination and destruction of those who opposed him all paint a pretty grim picture. I know it’s hard to believe but the public face of someone and what they do behind the scenes can be quite different indeed.