The weekly show where I take up and answer questions people have left for me in the comments of my Q&A videos. The questions I take up this week are:
(1) Could you elaborate on touch assists? I do not hear it mentioned often but to my understanding it is actually one of the more unbelievable bits of hogwash the church tries to sell you on.
(2) Hi Chris thanks for all the information you have presented so far. I was curious about some of the OT material and found that LRH handwritten material hard to read (very poor handwriting). My question: For the lower level up to Clear, does he have a lot of handwritten material for the courses? If so how does anyone understand that horrid handwriting?
(3) It’s maybe not fair of me to say the following, since I’ve never been in a cult and have a background in science rather than anything like religion, but what I see a lot as I watch online videos goes something like this: High level Scientologist acts like an evil piece of trash. Then he blows. Starts criticizing Scientology. He seems to feel no remorse for what he did, no need to apologize, and all the critics seem to place the blame entirely on Scientology the Cult. Isn’t there a place for taking personal responsibility here?
It seems like Miscavige and the dead LRH are blamed, but everyone else is just a cult victim. It’s like blaming all of WWII on Hitler, and none on the people who carried out the evil. I understand that there’s pressure not to leave the church, but with no guns stopping people, it’s hard for me as an outsider to have that much sympathy for people who have clearly done evil. And if people
truly have so little capacity to act and think for themselves — to even log onto a library computer in the corner to see what the opposition is saying about them — what does that say about us as a species, our potential, our future? Are you an optimist about the species?
(4) I’m in the middle of Jenna Miscavige’s memoir and I keep coming back to this central question: what is the deal with the E-Meter? Many times I’ve heard people describe their sec-checks and say that their answers were only secondary to what the needle was saying. I understand that most, if not all, Scientologists fully believe in the E-meter’s accuracy but in your experience how accurate is it really? Are you able to trick it? Did there ever come a time when you were being audited and the E-meter was objectively giving a false reading? If that does happen how does the church explain it? Bad auditor? Faulty tech?
(5) I just now finished watching the HBO documentary Going Clear (I had read the book about a month ago) and I cried for all the individuals who have fled yet talked of the shame of being so taken with the cult. The sadness of those who can’t communicate with those who remained in the cult just broke my heart. My question to you is did you as well experience that shame and hurt? You seem so together and confident now and I’m so pleased that you weren’t “ruined” as a person because of your experience with the cult. You’ve turned a bad thing into something positive that teaches others. Do you still have moments of “pain” caused by the cult?
(6) Great channel, I’ve recently become a never-in, self-declared SP. I’m a bit of an entheta junkie. Do you know if there are any movie plans in the works? I’d love to see Blown for Good written and directed by Paul Haggis, starring Jason Beghe as David Miscavige. If Tom Cruise blows in time maybe he could be cast as Marc Headley. Also, I’m really curious to know your take on Tommy Davis? Did he blow or route out? My guess is that he routed out and will never risk being declared an SP and being disconnected from his parents and in-laws.
(7) Chris, when I was in Scientology, I knew that the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF) was a program that “bad” Sea Org members were sent to, but I always assumed it was something that lasted a few weeks to a few months. I didn’t find out until years after I left Scientology that people spent years on the RPF! I’ve known some Scientologists who said there were parts of the RPF that they felt they really benefited from. Sometimes, people actually do their whole Bridge up to OT V, other times, they do the False Purpose Rundown. One ex-Scientologist told me that the RPF was like BDSM without a safety word, in that while you are dominated and degraded and forced to be submissive, there were potentially good things you get out of it. In the BDSM community, some people are willing to pay $150 an hour to be dominated and degraded, and it’s all for fun; but on the RPF, you really are a slave and degraded, there is no safety word for when things get too intense and you need to stop, it can get too heavy, and it can be hard to get out of. Was there any part of the RPF you enjoyed or you felt you benefited from? And do you agree with the BDSM analogy?
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Hi Chris
Love how you are taking the time to share with us your experience in the C0S.
As a “never in,” Scientology does not appear to me to be very warm and fuzzy; cold and prickly more like.
Which brings me to the fact that there is so much in my life which fills my heart and nurtures my soul. My family and friends are obviously a huge part of this. I also have my sweet, but lion-hearted, little Dachsie whose name is Lily.
We gain from your vids that you have a wonderful group of loving friends and family, but I’m dying to know if you have a dog, or other pet, to hang out and snuggle with.
Looking forward to all of the projects you have in the works. Thanks again for putting this all out there for us to better understand the inner workings of the Cult of Scientology.
Peace, Love, and Joy,
Linda
Thank you Chris it’s always a pleasure to hear you talk about your experiences and your take on things related to Scientology or to philosophy or life or anything else. You really act as a mind opener, encouraging people to look further and wider.
It is distressing to me that the PAC RPF turned into a gulag instead of the original intent that Kenneth Urquhart prescribed. I am one of the original PAC RPF members who spent our time on the Excalibur, a Sea Org vessel. I am also the first PAC RPF member to have been put in the RPF’s RPF. We had a positive RPF as corroborated by Dick Coanda ( a college professor as well as a fellow RPF member), and by Don Crom ( an Excalibur crew member and an ex Navy machinist mate). Looking back now, some forty years later, I do not think I would have changed a thing with regard to my time on the RPF. I really attribute my use of looking up words, as learned on the Student Hat, for my admission to MENSA thirty one years ago. But I am glad that I left Scientology before it really went down the rabbit hole. Thanks Chris for what are doing.
You mentioned touch assists in this video.
I have a touch assist story, that I have never figured out.
I was at Flag getting some Class Xll auditing.
So, I got sick during this and required a touch assist.
(I was hoping to get the usual student auditor for such a simple action, since the CLXll was costing $1,000 per hour. But nope, using the policy against “frequent change of auditors”, I got an assist from some random guy who was not my auditor but still got charged a thousand per hour, lol.)
That said, well this guy is about ten minutes into the T.A. and it was the usual; ineffective, boring and introverting.
However, just as I was really settling in he leaned down to my ear and screamed as loudly as he could. Practically ruptured my ear drum and left my ears ringing.
Well, you can imagine the shock, not to mention the momentary horror of realizing I am really just in my hotel room alone with some guy I have never seen before. Definitely snapped me out of my trance!
When I screamed and jumped up asking what was going on, he just glared and continued the commands.
Of course I immediately originated that I thought I felt a bit better:/ He then ended the session.
Just weird and creepy. I never knew who he was or what had happened. But the atmosphere at Flag was so messed up and dangerous feeling I wasn’t even willing to write a report, lest he be punished.
That is one of the weirdest things I’ve ever heard. Just bizarre.
Yeah, I know. Who do you even tell a story like that to? LOL.
It’s definitely easier now that I’m out:)
LOL, weird story that one. Where do you tell this story? You just did and you can again! But that’s about the end of the line save for coffee table conversation.
Beg to differ about Touch Assists (TAs). One of the first things i ever got and learned in ’66 was TA, and even tho I’ve been out since 1980, I occasionally still use a TA, especially on someone who doesn’t know anything about what I’m doing and on my pets when they have ills or treatment. Since leaving the CofS, I’ve dabbled in other “healing” practices using various approaches to physical and “mental” energy and this one is easier and quicker. I use a very simple version and have helped people get rid of headaches and heal from injury, fevers and flues faster. When my vertebra was crunched in a car wreck someone gave me TAs in the hospital and they helped de-stress me, and what’s not to love about that? It’s simply focusing where you don’t want to focus because it hurts, and things addressed tend to be understood better and therefore possibly be resolved, no?
I think so, yes. Mental conditioning, focus, attitude, etc., obviously adds a component to injury. Addressing that component, well, addresses that component. We have objective injury and disease and then additionally, we have our individual experience of that injury. It seems that we can address our individual abstraction of that experience, at least I seem to be able to.
Chris, it is great that you keep doing the Q&As – very helpful for non-scientologists and I am sure for you too.
Thetans
Please tell us more about the thetan. I understand that early on scientologists are taught that each one of us is a thetan with billions of years of life, going from one body to another, having a memory (engrams) of everything traumatic that happened (did I get it right?). Since scientologists know nothing about what’s in the OT levels for a long time, they believe that they are dealing with this one thetan in their body. What is the goal of all the courses they take before the OT levels – to unburden the thetan from engrams and make him operate the body in a more capable way? It is not to expel him,right? What happens when the body dies – how does the thetan move to another body and when? Any grace period? Since all adults have a thetan in them (or do they?), does that mean that a thetan has to move to a newborn? Is there a fight between thetans over a baby’s body? And if I had achieved the state of clear, is my thetan going to a new body in a state of clear, thus that next person is spared all of the problems of a pre-clear? Is this the way to “clear” the planet? If I am a thetan, it should not a big deal for me if the body I occupy seizes to exist -I will move to another body, maybe a better one. So why the emphasis on making this body less sick or with better vision? Can a thetan simply leave the body on his own volition or does the body have to die for him to leave? Does he have a sex or can he move from male to female bodies? When I listen to people “recalling” past lives, they are always the same sex. Anyhow, you get the gyst -trying to get the skinny on thetans according to the cult (did they think it through?). And my question does not cover OT levels body thetans.
“The ultimate authority must always rest with the individual’s own reason and critical analysis.” – Dalai Lama
An individual could be completely certain, yet completely wrong. That’s why we have the scientific method.
Great post. We surely do confuse certainty with correctness.
Hi Chris,
I check your website daily. You explain things so eloquently and to the point and I watched your videos multiple times because they are just so damn interesting.
Now questions:
Sea Org and the billion year contract. Did anybody ever claim to have fulfilled the contract having lived all the previous and future lives?
Steven Fishman in his interview (and what a crazy interview that is), said that when body dies, thetan can go back or forth in time and because Steven could not be guaranteed to be reborn in well off and good scientologist family, he refused to commit suicide, as instructed by the church. Does anybody “remember” future times, or is it mostly past ?
Did anyone remember being a Scientologist in the previous life, going through all OT levels and not needing any more OT training? If there is anyone like that, do they have special status in the church ?
One more: why is there a ban on discussing auditing sessions or any thoughts or feelings about Scientology between scientologists? Is there official rule about that and what is the official reasoning behind it ?
Thank you and keep up the good work.
No, there are no Clears or OT’s, the ilk of which you ask. The fact that there are not may be the most salient and extant damning evidence of the total fraud of Scientology claims. ~ “other” Chris
I think Hubbard deduced, correctly, that talking between themselves on the subject of auditing would lead to crtical questions that he would then not be able to answere (serve to support the con) In other words, this was just another example of how he suppressed critical thinking and so keep everyone trapped. Once inside, one finds himself surrounded by fellow supporters enthusiastically believing, blind to their own blindness, and at the same time rejecting everyone outside the walls as inferior. Pretty tidy scenario for LRH, the originator and the one and only guy getting wealthier every day there.
“Keep everyone on-source.” Hubbard would say. And this would comply with the rigid and ruthless policy described in the infamous document entitled “Keeping Scientology Working”.
Another thing, on why what went on in auditing was and is kept so tightly secret:
Doing so maintains the allure. It keeps you in, and you do stay in, being kept acutely curious about what comes next…
Pay the painfully hefty price for LEVEL ZERO auditing, and the more expensive LEVEL ONE auditing is kept tightly secret along with, of course, everything above that. In other words, the entire “Bridge” is a closely guarded secret until you have paid your cash, and then you are given only a trickle of good old-fashioned therapy, each tiny step of the way. What a beautiful con, beautiful because what IS remains so well-concealed, even from the most-valueable practitioners themselves. And so the Bridge and what happens on it all remains invisible.
But I can’t fail to mention, also, that what you do say in auditing certainly will be used against you if the cult deems it necessary to use force to keep you in line. That is quite right, that blackmail is not beyond the range of unscrewbulous activities of this very well organized mob calling itself a church. So, yeah, don’t you dare talk about what went on auditing, my friend, or you will be sent straight to Ethics where you will then have to contemplate your misdeeds in total isolation, nobody to talk to, save for your Scientology case supervisor (a very well-trained Scientologist taught to make you believe that the problem is always YOU).