Critical Q&A

This is the audio version of Chris Shelton's weekly Critical Question and Answer show on his YouTube channel. In this show, Chris answers questions posed by viewers in the comments section of his Q&A videos or sent by email to AskChrisShelton@gmail.com. Questions cover a wide range of topics but tend to focus on Scientology and critical thinking, as well as Chris' personal experiences with and in the Church of Scientology.

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Critical Q&A #56


The weekly show where I answer your questions based on what is left for me in the comments section of my Q&A videos or sent to me by email at AskChrisShelton@gmail.com.

Link to the Tony Ortega article here

This week, the questions I answer are:

(1) Please enlighten us on the subject of commissions in Scientology. Does Scientology really pay out cash commissions like Amway or Avon or Nuskin? Who gets how much for what? Is this official with receipts, etc. or is it “under the table”?

(2) If you had never heard of Hubbard and Scientology growing up, how would your life have been different? I like to imagine, given your curiosity, penchant for critical thinking and philosophical inclinations, that you’d have made a good student at university. With your natural charm and ease with people and your desire to be helpful and make things better for others, I wonder if you’d have been attracted to fields such as medicine or psychology. Or maybe you like the idea of teaching?

(3) I watched your mom’s interview and I think she and I would have been friends had we met when I became a Scientology student in the early 1970’s. So much of her viewpoint on the missions, tech and ethics is very real. I just wanted to know what your opinion is on spiritual abilities which are said to be obtained from auditing and training? That is why I stuck with Scientology for so long. The frustration caused by organization is mostly why I haven’t done any services since about 2001 or so.
AND
During a picket protest at a Church of Scientology, some Scientologists came out to block us. Once I had established that they were OTs (I asked them and they told me) I asked them if they had real OT powers. Of course they said they did. So I consulted with the other picketers and asked them if they were willing to call off the picket for that day if one of these OTs could demonstrate clear OT powers in the form of levitating a penny off the palm of my hand using thought alone…. Do you know, they actually tried! Can you imagine it? Adults thinking they could perhaps lift a penny with their thoughts. Chris, are Scientologists really that delusional?

(4) With all the shouting of people I hear about inside Scientology, how is this reconciled with the idea of treating people with ARC? It’s as if what I call “entry level tech” – what is taught to new members and described on Scientology.org is understood to be fluff for public. But ALL of LRH’s writing is supposed to be gospel, right?

(5) I have always wondered what makes people act in ways that are sometimes very opposed to what their education and sensibility would dictate when they are under a powerful emotion or belief. I think that most Scientologists are generous people that want to help others and change the world for the better, so when you said that you heard from current members a reasoning such “I don’t care if David Miscavige beats people because I have gains from Scientology”, wouldn’t this ring some kind of bell in their brains? Doesn’t these conflicting ideas – being generous and altruistic and being selfish – makes some kind of short circuit that gets people started to at least want to investigate more or to do some introspection about the purpose of what they are doing?

(6) Have you walked by your local org recently to see if any people are there?

(7) Has Scientology began the process of selling off empty orgs as a means of economic survival?

(8) Who are the billionaires still financing and keeping alive this crazy organization? Why do they do that? Are these people totally brainwashed or under some sort of wicked threat and so unable to stop feeding the monster?

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 May 8, 2016  32m