The show where I answer your questions about Scientology and anything else you want to ask about. This week, the questions I take up are:
(1) Do you think L. Ron Hubbard made staff contracts 2-1/2 or 5 year contracts to trap members or suppress them and unknowingly stop them from doing and getting up The Bridge?
(2) Are you familiar with Amway/network-marketing-type companies and, if so, do you think that their tactics are similar to those used in cults?
(3) If the Sea Org members generally don’t get anywhere up The Bridge, how do they feel about the fairness of that? Do they have the attitude that, “Oh well, it sucks not to be rich enough to buy the superhuman powers, but at least I’m working 24/7 to provide the structure to help others buy theirs?” This all particularly confuses me since you say in the next Q&A that participation in Scientology is a pretty narcissistic activity.
(4) In one of your videos, you said “You can’t have a knowingness.” Was that intentional use of Hubbard-speak? If not, then why is it difficult for ex-Homo Novis to extricate themselves from Hubbard’s lingo? Why do mind-control phrases such as “you pulled it in” seem so natural and appealing despite being such obvious nonsense?
(5) Do you know whatever happened to Steven Fishman? Could you talk about his case? I find it quite fascinating. Thanks.
Tony Ortega article I mentioned in this answer
(6) I have an important question: do you have any idea how chromatically disturbing is your squared grey shirts above your green tee shirt?
(7) Hello Mr. Shelton! I was wondering, what key piece or pieces of data do you think would be most damning to a typical Scientologist’s mental resolve and cause them to doubt? I understand that your disillusionment with Scientology took months to build up, but what fact, had you heard it in the depth of your brainwashing, would have shaken your faith the greatest?
(8) Many ex-Scientologists – Jason Beghe, Paul Haggis, yourself, to name a few – start out by acknowledging that they gained from the Communications Course they took. Which Communication Course did you take specifically? Many thanks.
(9) Have you ever thought that there are striking parallels between the Church of Scientology and the Jehovah’s Witnesses? Both were founded by money grubbing conmen (LRH and Judge Rutherford), practice disconnection/disfellowshipping, and are obviously highly authoritarian.
(10) Chris, thank you for your incredible videos and shedding a light on this cult/religion. My question is this: I’ve seen on Karen’s channel a video about the disarray, the decaying state of Big Blue, broken restrooms, no fire alarms, broken elevators, broken lights and working in and around with asbestos. Is this a violation of city codes and work environment in the City of Los Angeles? Could the city come in and close Big Blue until the building is updated to specifications? Has anyone attempted to do so or is this against the First Amendment rights?
(11) Hi Chris, thanks for all you’re doing. A niche question, but I’ve been wondering: since you mentioned you never made it to the OT levels while you were in the Sea Org, and since we all know their contents are secret, what did you imagine would be in them and they’d teach you if you got there?
(12) When you are going to the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF) like, the minute they say come with us, do you know where you are going and why? Also when you get there, I mean my first instinct would be to run no matter what I did. Do you really believe you deserve it? I cant remember, were you in the RPF ? What for and for how long?
(13) What is your take on the “Antichrist” version of OT 8? If it was real it seems like it was changed by Scientology quickly. Or is it fake like Scientology has said? I was curious if you had any definitive knowledge on this topic.
(14) In your opinion, to what extent did LRH believe his own con? Did he start a “religion” for the sole purpose of getting rich and wielding undue power over the minds of others? Over time, do you think that being constantly surrounded by people who essentially deified him, he fell under his own spell? I get the sense that the struggle in his mind between awareness of the true nature of Scientology and his desire to believe in his own greatness may have been the primary catalyst in his going completely insane in his later years. I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts. It seems pretty clear that David Miscavige is fully aware that he is selling a lie and does not regard Scientology’s texts, practices, or beliefs as sacred. Yet, in his youth he was said to have been so devoted a believer that he became protege of LRH. Do you suppose his personal experiences and interactions with the man behind the curtain were the cause of his loss of faith in Scientology and his (somewhat) covert hostility toward its followers? Please keep up the amazing work!
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Hey Chris– Is that the Reliant I spy over your right shoulder?
I should have known…. 😉
Why, yes it is!
You are man of discerning taste, my friend.
“…those who play at being angels end up as animals.” Blaise Pascal.
If you are Sea Org and are reading this, I commend you. You have come a long ways, took risks to get this far, to be sure. I respect and admire you on many levels. Your courage and willingness to question this self-ordained belief structure means you have granted yourself a power greater that the fortified and tested barriers of deception and intimidation this …belief-system… is now becoming famous for.
You are on the right track. Keep looking. Keep doubting, for doubt is the elixir of salvation. Fight anyone who forbids you to doubt. Fight all who tell you the problem is you and, know, freedom is at hand.
Freedom from Scientology begins by reclaiming your priviledge to harbor doubt, thus defying their self-righteous claim to deny you that very same priviledge, purposefully not telling you that they are attempting to control your thoughts first by controlling what information is available to you, and then again by constantly making you believe that the doubts you entertain are the result of your owm personal flaws. “You need to get that audited.” There is a reason you heard that over and over and over, and it stems from the same reason that you, as Sea Org, got essentially nowhere on the bridge despite whatever years you spent as a demostrated devotee… The top priorty of senior management when it comes to you is not to get you over the bridge, rather, it is to keep you in there… forever.
Everyone leaves. I heard someone say that and I believe it to be true. Even LRH, and believe me I loved him like Jesus loves the Lord, well, his body was riddled with drugs on the day he died. What? His body was riddled with drugs, the most able of the able, the originator of origin and the leader of the crusade to bring all mankind onto the doorstep of the next spiritual evolution? Yes, I do recomment hitting the doubt button right away, hitting it hard right at the top. I know it can hurt to hear, hurts as much as heart can be real, but this is no time to be nice just to avoid pain. But, Ron left and abandoned the church, violated his own doctrine and refused to tell you the truth, even before he died.
Doubt.
Yes, doubt. This is key.
I am not a Christian, but I was raised C of E and sent to Catholic school for a couple of years (as punishment!), and I therefore had the great gift of being able to reject a belif system, one shared by pretty muche veryone I knew- to say “This is where you stop and I begin, Mom and Dad. This far and no further.” It made me a stronger person? A complete person, integral.
I was an Altar Boy. They pressured me terribly ( forced, even) to continue, but I must say this– No priest or pastor EVER pressured me or criticized me for DOUBTING. I was encouraged to do so. More than one admitted to moments of doubt themselves, and as sayeth Saint Mick “Jesus Christ had his moment of doubt and fear…”
We all stand in the shadow of doubt; To do otherwise is to give one self up to fanaticism and extremism.
And this is where Scientology not only strays form the path but shoots off the road like Thelma and Louise– LRH invites people into his hot-rod, and slams and locks the door before they can read the sticker that says, “My way or the highway.”
Yes, while I wouldn’t want to deny any individual his chosen beliefs, I cannot subscribe myself to the Judeo-Christian idea of eternal damnation, nor the inherent sinner thing , right?… That is not going to fly. No, not this boy, no sir.
I am a guy who doubts.
A personal line with the creator of All? … that’s too hard to swallow, which pretty much makes The Book something other than sacred, too.
But as a guy who doubts, that first agreement after identifying myself as a guy who needs to examine beliefs if not harbor full-blown doubt, the initial question is:
who the tarnation are you (church/cult) to tell me I am, first of all, a condemned sinner? And give me a fate worse than Death if I don’t repent, cripes,
Forgive me. Don’t mean to swear, I’m just allowing myself in there, apologies.
But, according to that first rule, nobody gets to say you are what is wrong. Telling at all is kinda breaking the rules, at the very least tresspassing on my belief-system.
I am the only one who decides what or who I really am.
Thank you, Church of Scientology for making it clear. The only way to define cult is by forming the definition yourself. Thanks to you, I know places like The Catholic Church are not much different, if at all, when it comes to this rule.
Truth is not a portal. Truth surrounds the portals, all of them. All any church can ever be is but a portal, meaning a sliver of Truth, certainly not the absolute total, as that doesn’t exist. The book of Love at least has love going for it, for instance.
…
Also, according to the church of me:
I believe man is basically good.
That would be one portal that Ron got right, if only to be set up in front of some six-billion collateral mistakes. May I say one more profound thing, in my own words…
For every man, there is a true religion. I think L. Ron Hubbard is and will go down in history as an offense to every one of them. Thanks.
Amen to that.