The weekly show where I answer questions from 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) How do the ranks work in the Sea Org? I understand some are permanent and other’s temporary based on your job level. How does one get promoted in rank and when do you get real rank? I understand the former President of Scientology had a low Sea Org rank. Are their others who share the rank of Captain with David Miscavige?
(2) How does a Scientologist feel when the promised “super powers” fail to materialize after attesting to Clear or an official OT Level?
(3) What is your favorite thing to do now that you are free of the restrictions of the Church?
(4) My question is: What’s next for Chris Shelton? I mean what will you do in the future when all of ghosts have disappeared and you are not only one or two feet out the door, but when, as you could say, Chris has left the building? Will you be able to somehow use the 27 years of experience in some way? Are you going to be in the “post cult” game or completely change venues?
(5) Hi Chris, I’m a big fan of yours from Italy. Some years ago I was in a group that I would describe as “destructive”. It was (and still is) masked as a company that sells self-help seminaries, public speaking classes, motivation courses and the list goes on. They refer to NLP, Reiki, Law of Attraction and every kind of new-ageish nonsense. Many of those courses are designed to get you to enter the group and start what they call “collaboration”. As you go up the hierarchy, this “collaboration” becomes more and more taxing in terms of time, energy and money. They use the same techniques as destructive cults (language manipulation, uniform clothing, communal living, control over your diet, how much you sleep, love-bombing, all the package) but they use those tecniques in a “gentler” way than other cults like Scientology.
If you climb the ladder of their hierarchy they’ll eventually become more and more abusive but they’ll never reach some levels. For example, I have never heard of actual physical abuse even though I have proof of physical menacing. I think those kinds of groups could be potentially even more dangerous than standard destructive cults because they are more difficult to recognize, since they are not as abusive as the others.
My personal explanation for this is I think they rise when someone who IS NOT a sociopath tries to mimic other cult leaders in order to raise money, but he is not as deranged as other cult leaders and he understands the need to not cross certain lines.
I would like to know if you knew about those kind of groups and what do you think about them.
(6) A long time ago a friend of mine found an LP of LRH’s music, called ‘The Power of Source’ by The Apollo Stars. I remember thinking it was interesting-looking, particularly the photo on the back cover of LRH in a cap with big headphones on, but I requested my friend not to play it. He was laughing at my serious face as he slipped the vinyl back in the sleeve. In Critical Q&A #33 you explained that people would praise LRH’s pulp in near-ecstatic states. Did you find that it the same for his music?
(7) When reading about the Sea Org, I’ve come across accounts of prominent members who “blew” and subsequently returned to the Sea Org (Marty Rathbun and Tommy Davis, for example). In your experience, how common is it for Sea Org members to “blow” at some point (or more than once) during their career? Did you do that or did you have Sea Org colleagues who did so?
(8) Question about your use of spiritual existence as consciousness or awareness, do you mean something along the lines of mind-body dualism?
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Hello Chris Shelton , nice meeting you in Toronto. I will post below a question I received from a professor in sociology at the University of Alberta. I thought you might to make a video:
Question:I have a relatively important question that I am struggling to answer: does Scientology have worship services, church-like? I know, and have read, its script to marriages, and i think that one also exists for funerals. Scripts also exist for church services, and some cities seem to have them. My impression, however, is that most cities, and most Scientologists, do not have or attend Sunday services, because the focus of the organization is on individual courses.
Can you shed any light on things?
(2) How does a Scientologist feel when the promised “super powers” fail to materialize after attesting to Clear or an official OT Level?
Cognitive dissonance: the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time, performs an action that is contradictory to one or more beliefs, ideas or values, or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values.
I wouldn’t be able to be a Scientologist because of the mental stress or discomfort I would experience. The contradictions would completely drive me nuts. Let me explain.
A Clear is supposed to have an increased IQ, be free from psychosomatic diseases, improve their eyesight to 20/20, be immune from cancer, never get colds, be able to remember past lives, be able to change the world through postulates i.e. just by saying so. That seems pretty specific to me.
If I was a Clear and still needed glasses that would upset me. Same thing if got a cold. If I was supposed to be so much smarter than anybody else it would bother me to watch Jeopardy and see non-Scientologists getting answers I didn’t. If I postulated that I was going to get that girl or that job with total command intention and I didn’t, that would be a huge red flag for me. In all likelihood I would blame Scientology for not living up to its promises.
An Operating Thetan is supposed to be able to levitate objects, read minds, view remote locations, predict future events, communicate telepathically over long distances, predict future events, conduct supernatural healings, turn back time, move or affect matter from a distance, create illusions perceivable by others, handle things without having to use a body or physical means, and leave his body at will and go anywhere in the universe in an instant. Again are pretty specific promises to me.
If I made it to OT 7 and couldn’t levitate an object (a penny for example, not a Buick) I would be definitely start being suspicious. If I was able to predict who will win the Super Bowl that would definitely come in handy if you know what I mean. Same at the roulette wheel in Vegas. I could quit my day job. Being able to read people’s minds would also come in handy playing poker. If I could conduct supernatural healings I could clean up financially as well as do a fantastic service for people.
Again, these are very specific promises IMO. I would flat out ask, “Why am I not able to predict future events? Scientology said I would be able to do this when I reached OT 7. I want my money back. This is fraud!”
The above post was a bit rambling so let me break it down.
1. I reach the OT level 7.
2. Scientology claims that if I reach the OT 7 level I will be able to predict future events.
3. The Super Bowl is a future event.
4. As I now have the promised power, I bet $10,000 on the Carolina Panthers to win.
5. The New England Patriots win the Super Bowl.
6. I am out $10,000.
7. I now have specific, incontrovertible and verifiable proof that I cannot predict future events.
8. Scientology is therefore lying to me about its promised claims and is guilty of fraud.
The logic is full of holes. Not to argue, however, I certainly agree on your conclusion:
The Church of Scientology IS a fraud.
Full of holes? Please explain.
The church of scn-gy is so obviously corrupt and harmful, my questions now revolve around what to do about it.
Is there not a valid claim to shut the place down under the assertion of false advertising?
Considering the harm (in every category: financial, family, social, psychological/emotional) , why is there no consumer protection agency getting involved here?
Could this be a Homeland Security issue?
Should we be struggling to re-write laws that protect churches in this country?
How does the church get away with tax-exemption when it is so obviously profit-oriented?
The net result for the individual is a complete loss of identity, or a transferring of identity from one as “self” to “scientologist”. Why can’t that be considered a form of kidnapping? The tactics employed by the church are all so disguised, the actions to manipulate the individual so covert. How can that be legal?
Seems to me the least we could demand is transparency. This is so important, seems to me, because doing so would prevent the cognizant observer from becoming the next, new recruit.
Secondly, but no less importantly,
is what to do about the people still inside and isolated from outside information.
What to say to such a person. How do you appeal to a person who has “learned” that their leader has all the answers?
We should compile a list of things to say, based on rational thought of course,
to encourage the faithful individual to doubt and criticize the governing org that has him so firmly under control.
Before that, however, we need to be able to contact and reach that person who has taken residence inside the bubble.
Scientology has employed every imaginable resource in the effort to prevent that kind of thought and communication from taking place.
Again, it seems to me that a law needs to be established here, one that clearly reigns higher, in no uncertain terms, than the all the laws that govern the Church of Scientology. People need to be informed, and the denial of information should be a crime, written into the books in legal terms.
We have the right to question authority, to criticize and to harbor doubt whenever some one or some entity claims to have an answer.
Scientology, in order to get rich and richer, is out to deny the individual that very thing he needs the most to navigate through life in pursuit of the truth – information.