Critical Q&A

The weekly show where I answer questions from viewers left for me in 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) I believe there was a bit of a misunderstanding in Episode 83 where you answered Jon Stewart’s question about the decorated forms and your answer related solely to certificates. Please see the attached where, in this instance, a routing form has been decorated with highlighter pens etc. These pop up quite often on Thursday Funnies pages etc. I also would like to know where this originated. Any ideas?

(2) Everyone is intrigued by the story of Michele (Shelly) Miscavige, the “vanished” wife of Scientology leader David Miscavige, who is supposedly at an isolated mountain retreat. Do you think she remains wherever she is of her own free will, or is she imprisoned, either physically, or mentally? Is “COB” still married or did he divorce her, as some reports speculate? Is the LAPD officer who talked with her a Scientologist himself? (as per Tony O’s writings) or did she have someone else present while she was being questioned? I’d really like to know this.

(3) I’m interested in the teaching methods used and where these originated from. I can imagine the ashtray exercise, although at first glance it might appear a bit odd, it could actually be quite effective at getting someone to improve their ability to focus. There’s allegedly an exercise where a couple stare at each other (without blinking if possible) for hours – someone in a Mark Bunker interview claims this is not entirely dissimilar to a hypnosis exercise. One of the more sensationalist YouTube sites suggested similarities between some of LRH’s original exercises and CIA counter-interrogation training methods in the 1940s. I cannot verify any of this, it may all be untrue. However, (the pre-Co$) Dianetics movement in the early 1950s was enormously popular for a very brief period. I wonder if anyone has looked at where LRH got his teaching exercises from. He must have been doing something right – he did drew people in like a magnet. It ain’t easy to create a new religion which outlives its creator by thirty years and which causes people to devote their lives entirely to its propagation. I wonder what worked, why it worked and who originally created these exercises.

(4) Have you been able to study Power and Power Plus? These confidential auditing actions are not done by every Scientologist and I have not heard anyone talk about them. However, I am very interested in them because it was receiving Power/Power Plus that started me on the journey of realizing that there is something seriously wrong with Scientology. I was recently told that a few months ago, Power was re-vamped AGAIN because SPs on the line had been removed AGAIN. I’ve been assured that delivery has now been fully restored to Standard Tech… AGAIN.

(5) HighCoordinator
Do you have a favorite type of logical fallacy to spot?

(6) Are there any interesting traditions in the Sea Org?

(7) How long can the CoS keep explaining away the lack of superpowers by saying that they are just around the corner? How long will it take for people to snap out of it and realize they are being defrauded? As a “never in” I’m amazed it has gone on for as long as it has. Your thoughts Chris.

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