The show where I answer your questions. Here are the questions from this week:
(1) Thank you so very much for your important and interesting videos! My question is: I heard that the OT courses consist of the attendee just being delivered a number of documents to read, handwritten by LRH. So for x-thousands of dollars they just sit there and read a couple of pages, that they then have to give back? Is that true? If so, couldn’t the absurdity of the situation rather be seen as a test about the status of indoctrination? Or, are the OT courses in a classroom situation, with one or more attendees and a tutor? Would you describe this? Thank you very much & viele liebe Gruesse from Germany.
(2) When you were in Scientology did you or any of your fellow members ever ask why L Ron Hubbard would drop into that strange faux Boston accent for certain words then back to his regular voice for the rest of the sentence?
- “Galactic Ruhhh- Lahhhh”
- “ColOHHSall 3D Motion Pict-chahhhhh”
- he said “galaxy” as “guh laxxx seee”
Was this part of his brain washing? Trying to make himself seem smarter and more sophisticated?
(3) There seems to be the idea on The Underground Bunker that Scientology is excessively puritanical on sex, to the point where they wonder why Jenna & Bohdi Elfman wouldn’t be sent to Ethics for talking about their sex life on YouTube. But my memory from the late 1970s was that other than Hubbard’s comments that homosexuals were 1.1 and that Sea Org members were not supposed to have sex before marriage, my impression was that Scientology tended to be sexually free. What changes to attitudes toward sexuality did you observe during the years you were involved with Scientology?
(4) How do you feel when others question you with “Who are you that we should listen to you? What makes you right? Why should we believe everything you say?” Also, how do you feel when those still in or defenders of the cult, including the celebs, say you are lying and are only doing this to make a buck?
(5) Dear Chris, when it comes to filtering information in everyday life the application of skeptical analysis is not too great a burden. However what are we to do with more complex issues which to address fairly would require years of reading and analysis in order to affirm or negate the ideas presented to you, such as Aristotelian metaphysics or Kantian ontology etc. These notions are clearly not intentionally deceptive or clearly false, however I find myself not wholly convinced despite being unable to provide adequate counterargument. Since I lack the motivation and time to work through tomes of dry and convoluted texts and commentary am I therefore being and irrational and non critical thinker, how are we to deal with these situations?
(6) How were Scientologists affected by 9/11? At that time, I had been confirmed a Catholic as an adult. Although we always seem to fill up the church, all the masses were literally packed after 9/11. Did you see any change in the amount of new members? Or did you lose people? Or did it barely affect them considering the organization deliberately cut themselves off from the rest of the country. Did they believe the “psychs” were behind it?
(7) I know that each church keeps an office for Hubbard in case he returns, and considering Hubbard’s revelation in OT VIII that he will fulfill the role of the biblical Anti-Christ, how do upper level Scientologists see their version of end times playing out? Do you think they are looking for this person who would be the Beast of Revelations? And considering the underground vaults storing (preserving) the entirety of Scientological materials, would you say they expect, or would even work to facilitate an apocalyptic event? I know this is some pretty deep shit, but I would really appreciate if you could address this aspect of their teachings that no one ever seems to mention.
(8) Did you have career goals while in the Church? If so, what was your motivation to further these goals, the Church, personal, or a combination? Thank you for your videos! I look forward to them each week.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
hey, where’d everybody go?
Hm, guess it really is getting to be old news. Damn Scientology story,
never makes you ahappy until you have paid a dear, dear price.
What if God’s only message to man was to be happy?
That would make being happy the yardstick by which to measure Ethics,
truely,
being as God’s command and all.
Which, granted, qualifies as a collossally large IF, not to mention pretentious assumtion to have anything to say about what God has to say about anything, much less a specific message to Mankind, but, for the sake of entertainment, let’s say.., make it so. We’ll just call it the Mark Marco School of Thought.
Now we’re having fun.
Yeah? ok. Stop. Just hold it right there and compare yourself to how happy you were, generally,
as…say… a standard Scientologist in the Sea Org., applying of course Scientology Ethics. Presto, we have a real, scientifically oriented experiment on our hands, and, oops, I win.
Not very professional of me, getting snooty there, ahem,..
However, by applying the process of deductive comparison, my belief-system comes out as more effective, me or you or whatever subject, so sorry, whomever, doing Scientology does every waking moment or doing the Mark Marco School (ok, what did I call it? Whatever, Of Thought, right.
What do you know, my philosophy wins, by virtue of me, being so happy I’m not the poor Scientologist,
The poorly fed guy, poorly paid and poorly kept, working till death doth do him part, starting as a child if Scientology has any thing to say about it, which they don’t. BTW, not even word one from the leader. That says a lot. Me?… on the other hand, i can’t shut up. I say my way looks like green lights all the way The David Miscavige way looking all red flags to me.
Me on the beach. Dave… -wherever he is.
Well, what do you know. What do you think? Care to opinion-ate? Don’t be shy. See? You might be able to get away with anything in here. Did I beat the old man at his game? Took me about ten minutes, too. Does it cross the line, to say a thing like that? Ha, yeah it does.
Comment up, if you feel like it, but, please.
Be happy.
Chris, your videos are an excellent resource, particularly your fine-grained accounts of life on staff and in the Sea Org. Thank you. My question is about the nature of relationships developed between devoted scientologists, including public, staff and Sea Org members. On one hand, there is a culture of confidentiality and “snitching” that, it seems, severely inhibits honest communication between people, even longtime friends or married couples. On the other hand, there are aspects of Scientology that seem like they would tend to create close bonds: the long hours, separation from the culture at large (especially in the SO), belief in an all-important shared cause and the fight against powerful enemies. Do you have any thoughts (or examples) about the ways this apparently contradictory state of affairs plays out?