This week, it’s answers about cult hopping, my thoughts on finding spirituality after a cult experience, how one might approach someone they suspected was being trafficked and a lot more. Enjoy!

(1) Justice Clarence Thomas is a member of the U.S. Supreme Court. His wife Virginia, aka Ginni, as we are now finding out, has been a QAnon enthusiast for a while. Before that, she was active in the Tea Party. It is also a matter of public record that back in the 1980s, as a young congressional aide, she has been victimized by Lifespring, a cult masquerading as a for-profit “human potential organization” and later spoke out against its abusive practices. 

With this in mind, what are your thoughts on cult hopping and cult hoppers? More specifically, do you think there are personality types more susceptible to recruitment by cults? There is research out there suggesting that cults often take advantage of major life events (loss of a loved one, long-distance relocation on a short notice, etc.), but the phenomenon of cult-hopping seems to suggest that some people may be wired in a way that makes them easy targets for cults, life events or not. What do you think? 

(2) How would one go about separating any remaining sense of spirituality from tainted cult beliefs? For instance if you were in a cult that used meditation and it feels tainted but you’d still like to meditate occasionally and not have it be mentally/emotionally connected to the former cult? Or for former cult members who still retain some religious beliefs after leaving. How can one separate these things, untangle everything and ‘reclaim’ the spirituality that the cult manipulated and abused?

(3) What do you think is the best way to  intereact with people you suspect of being trafficked by a destructive cult?  (Here I am thinking more along the lines of the situation Jen Kiaba was in as a Moonie, where the police are not going to be involved to question a kid selling knicknacks for her “church.”)
(4) When you were involved with Scientology, what kind of limits on technology did they have? Was it that you couldn’t have social media so you couldn’t see the truth or was there full access? Would you be punished for looking at the truth? Could somebody in Scientology be punished for looking at your channel and being educated more?
(5) When Scientologists say that someone has “pulled it in,” that sounds awfully like the Law of Attraction. Is this the Scientology version of the Law of Attraction?

This week it’s answers about implant stations on Venus, a very complete rundown on core Scientology philosophy (believe me, you won’t get this deep level of explanation anywhere else), Hubbard’s “borrowing” from earlier sources and a lot more. Enjoy!

(1) At what point, if ever, do Scientologists hear Hubbard talking about implant stations on Venus and Mars? I have never been clear as to when Scientologists hear the lectures in which Hubbard describes almost being hit by a freight train on Venus, which for some reason strikes me as even more ridiculous than the Xenu story.

(2) Against my better judgment, I listened to a couple of LRH Phoenix lectures. Besides the fact that none of it made sense at all, he brought up several terms that you may have covered, but still aren’t clear to me. He talked about “persistence” and “particles” and “moving through space” as well as “isness” and “not-isness” or “alter-isness” and how people change who they are to fit into persistence and isness. Can you give us a brief primer on those terms?

(3) Much has been made over the years of the enormous amount of plagiarism that Hubbard borrowed from other sources whilst inventing both Dianetics and Scientology.. Can you speak to the extent of his plagiarism and from what I gather it was rampant but I would appreciate your take on this matter as I’m sure all Scientologists firmly believe that the entire concept was 100% developed by Hubbard himself.

(4) Always enjoy the Critical Clips segments, and learning about your first hand experience with the “Church.”  One observation I find interesting is your astute recognition of how complicated LRH was as a real person. For example, he was a prolific writer, etc., but also a con man, charlatan, and megalomaniac. You recognize the impact (for better or worse) that he had on others. My question: If LRH came back in the flesh and you had five minutes to spend with him, how would you spend it? If there was no possibility of repercussions, what would you say to him? Would you compliment him on his ability to create a religion out of nothing, ask him about OT 09 and above, criticize him for all the abuses, etc.,, something in between? Is there ANYTHING he could say to you that would make you return to the cult?  No more disconnection, no more regging, no more COB?

This week we went live to answer questions. I apologize for not switching the screen over so you could see the comments/questions as we were going, but we covered some great topics this week around psychology, CCHR, Scientology, some recent interview work I’ve done and a whole lot more. Enjoy!

This week, it’s answers about loyalty and being disowned by Scientologists, my take on critical thinking done by right-wing commentators, my take on the current scene in the Ukraine and a lot more. Enjoy!

(1) When Mike Rinder told the story of his defection from Scientology, he said that as soon as his wife found out she immediately wrote hate mail about him. How can not only a married couple but a mother and a father turn so quickly and possess the ability to write extreme vitriolic hate mail against her husband? Agreed we don’t know the state of their marriage at that time but not only did his wife do this but so did his son and daughter join in, with vitriolic hate mail disowning him in such a way that I found it to be shocking. How does this happen so quickly. Can you please shed some light on this situation?

(2) I was wondering what you make of some right wing personalities and political commenters that use logical arguments to make their point. The two that immediately come to mind are Ben Shapiro and Steven Crowder. I find that I watch a lot of their videos online and while I don’t always agree with what they say (I often disagree), I find they can also have a very logical style of looking at things which I find it hard to disagree with. 

Also, especially with Steven Crowder, he often puts himself directly in the line of fire with his “Change my mind” debates. While you don’t have to agree with his stance and they’re always on very controversial or hot button subjects, I’ve always found that he’s behaved professionally and calmly in these situations and seems to only present facts and logic. I think these are excellent as I feel it’s important to explain your side of an argument which in any other form, would just devolve into shouting or anger.

I find that these two get vilified in public and very often it’s because of their right leaning stance on things. That being said, both sides are as guilty as the other of refusing to listen to the arguments, because it doesn’t fit with what they want to hear. 

(3) Regarding the current situation with Vladimir Putin and Russia, I am seeing some very familiar and very frightening patterns here.  We are seeing flimsy or blatantly false reasons for military action. We are seeing a desire for territorial expansion or at least an expansion of a zone of influence, so to speak. We are seeing blame placed on and a blatant disregard for people of different ethnic backgrounds. We are also seeing praise, admiration or indifference to Putin from politicians here and in other countries not under the Russian sphere of influence. Are we in the beginning stages of something that we saw eighty plus years ago? Something that a lot of people vowed to never let happen again?

(4) I have a habit of viewing authoritarians as being middle to elderly age, I have this notion that authoritarians tend to skew old. Is the assumption wrong that as people age they become more authoritarian?

(5) (and other critics) have shown that David Miscavige is constantly micro-managing Scientology. Why does he go to the effort (at least publicly) to try and show that he is separate from the day-to-day running of the church and just “safeguarding the technology”? Do you think it makes a difference if in the minds of public Scientologists when they find out how heavily he has been involved in “updating” LRH materials or running the church contrary to LRH policy? (despite the fact that LRH “policy” is so unwieldy and contradictory).

Do the majority of Scientologists believe that international management and the Watchdog committee are actually working properly and doing their jobs? I’m sure that most public Scientologists don’t really care about the details of how it all works, but how important to them is it that those parts of the organisation actually exists? Most of us don’t care about the ins-and-outs of how the government works, but (at least in democratic countries) we know why it’s there and how it should (in theory) work to protect the rights of ordinary citizens. I’m sure that Scientology is set up more like a communist regime, where Miscavige can take all the credit but pass the blame for failure and hardships onto a faceless bureaucracy.
I understand that the separation of Miscavige from day-to-day management may also be for an external audience, much like how Hubbard went into hiding to avoid liability for criminal acts and lawsuits. However, is this more of a secondary concern for how the church is currently run?

(6) When you are trying to exorcise the body thetans in the upper OT levels, how do you know that they want to leave? What happened to them when they leave? Can they find a new body or do they just find someone or something else to get stuck to? All you could do is kind of shoo them away, they can’t be destroyed correct?

This week, it’s a critique of Hubbard’s Code of Honor, the Shen Yun dance troupe, some commentary on the E-meter and a lot more. Enjoy!

(1) Could you talk a bit about Hubbard’s Code of Honor? Is it emphasized much in Scientology? On the surface, the Code of Honor appears to be a well-crafted set of attractive principles.  But, when you think them through, the Code of Honor seems to direct followers to fearlessly abuse others who get in the way of “a just cause” (i.e., Scientology.)  Anyone who feels trapped and hurt in this process is, in essence, weak, because they aren’t living up to idealized version of an individual who isn’t damaged by abuse and is always in control of their destinies.

(2) I was bored enough to listen to Ron Hubbard’s congressses. I can tell by his tone of voice when he is telling one of his many tall tales. I listened to a tale he tells about lending someone deemed a criminal a pair of boots before he moved across the other side of the country. Low and behold this man turned up at his new address to return the boots prompting Ron to ask how he got here. The man had stolen a car to travel all that way allt o return Ron’s boots. The audience chucked at this criminals stupidity at committing a  bigger crime in an attempt to be honest by returning Rons boots thus making him stupid as well as criminal. It was such an obviously tale and had me thinking do scientologist actually believe these tales or do you think deep down he is lying. Just like the OT3 story its so obvious not just even by the silly stories. It’s a give away by his tone of voice also.

(3) Once a year I see an overwhelming amount of advertising for something called the Shen Yun dance troupe. Billboards, newspaper ads, TV, I cant click on Youtube without getting ads to go see the Shen Yun Chinese dance show. I’m not into dance so I’ve never been to it. But I always assumed it must be a huge ticket seller to justify the overwhelming amount of advertising they buy every year. I sort of thought maybe it was something being paid for by the Chinese government. But oh did I have that backwards. This year their ads proclaimed “how beautiful China was BEFORE communism” 

I googled “shen yun”  and of course the first few hits were Shen Yuns official website.  But the next few websites after that were allegedly 3rd party sites simply commenting on Shen Yun were clearly made by Shen Yun itself. They had videos with the same voice over actor, the same music and graphics etc. Just like Scientology did after HBO played ” Prison Of Belief” (websites and videos that at first glance you might mistake for being official HBO productions.) Then deep down the list was web info that Shen Yun was really a recruitment tool for the Chinese religious group ‘Falun Gong” and that if you go to a show, its clearly a recruitment event not a dance show.

Have you heard anything about Falun Gong and do you think it qualifies as a cult.? I doesnt seem like a violent cult, but it does sound like a high control group.

(4) Can you describe how expenses are handled in the Sea Org? Do Sea Orgers travel with “corporate” Scientology credit cards?  Who issues those cards?  Which bank, and which processing network? (AMEX, Visa, Mastercard?). How do Sea Org missionaries travel?  Must they stay at the cheapest possible hotels? Must they bunk in the same hotel rooms? I assume they always travel economy class, but do higher ranks get to ride up front?  What is per diem allowance? How are expense audits handled?  With an e-meter? I’ve always wondered about this aspect of Sea Org policies, hoping you can shed some light.

(5) I’m fairly familiar with the way the meter itself works, however one concept which I don’t understand is a floating needle, I can understand how miniscule beads of sweat could affect the reading or unconscious flinching to certain lines of question could cause inflections to the needle. However I was just wondering what was happening physically/physiologically with the person to cause a floating needle? I’ve heard Jon Atack mention it was easy to make the needle float but I’m not sure how this works either, I asked it on stream and a member of your audience replied you could cause the needle to float by thinking happy thoughts but just wondering if that’s true and how that translates to the e-meter?

(6) I was listening to an old broadcast talking about Aldous Huxley and there was an interesting part about Brave New World that seemed to speak to CoS and other cults. It talked about the purpose of babies (in a caste system). From www.mvorganizing.org/: The delta babies, especially lower caste, needed to be conditioned to hate books and roses so that they do not get diverted by love or knowledge, as they grow up. They were conditioned to hate flowers, to decode their love of nature and to hate books to avoid wasting time. Interested in your thoughts about how this kind of control exists in CoS and other high control groups. Do you think LRH followed Huxley?

This week it’s answers about David Miscavige having children, liberals vs conservatives in the Sea Org, an update on my view on forgiveness and a lot more. Enjoy!

(1) Giving consideration to the fact that he is now over the age of 60 years old & better yet, I’d only assume isn’t in a marriage that has been going well too – I think it’s safe to say that Mr. DM is going to die without having any children to be the father of whatsoever (I believe, in contrast, from other sibilings – whom you’ve likely heard already, have in fact become parents of some the late Ron Miscavige’s grandchildren).  Now, of course, I’m aware that progeny isn’t an encouraged idea for members in Scientology (Or, the Sea Org, to be precise) – while at the same time, I’d also figure that an attitude of concern for future generations or even a sense of altruism are things Mr. DM may likely be completely devoid of.

Now, it’s one thing for someone like Mike Rinder to have been among the select few to have been close with Mr. DM; yet, had also been a recipient of his hostility & abuse.  So, I hope you do not mind if I ask you Chris if you could take a guess when it comes to Mr. DM.  How do you think he feels about the fact that a man such as himself will remain without having fathered any children of his own – as I truly wonder, how he’d actually respond if he was asked about that in a sincere conversation by Tom Cruise?

(2) Hi Chris! What would you say the mix was in the SeaOrg among Liberals and Conservatives, or, were politics even discussed at all? Furthermore, what’s your thoughts on the fact that Liberals and Conservatives can share the same religion? They seem to have moral disagreements on many issues (Environment, LGBT, immigration, etc…) yet somehow can come to an agreement on divine doctrine? How is that possible?

(3) I’m working my way through your back catalog of Q&A’s .  You mentioned in #88 in an answer to a question that there were only a couple of people that you had not been  able to forgive since leaving the organization.  It’s been a while since that Q&A, have you now forgiven those people?  Did working your way through your Master’s program help?  

(4) How does dating and romance work in the Sea Org? Does Sea Org dating mostly consist of sharing meals together at the base’s cafeteria?

Do people mostly date co-workers within their specific unit, or is that discouraged because you’d be together 24/7?

From how you’ve described life in the Sea Org, it seems like days off are rare, and there’s barely enough time to sleep, so it seems like meals would be the only time people would get to spend with their partners, before marriage. On top of that, members barely get paid, so if they’re lucky, they might get to buy fast food and go to the movies every few months.

Also, when new people join, do they tend to get aggressively courted if they’re young and/or attractive? I’d imagine that ol’ Ron didn’t have a very modern workplace sexual harassment policy in place!

(5) Do you think the disintegration of traditional, established religions on the one hand, and the collapse of political ideologies such as Marxism — which had at their core hyper-rational beliefs — on the other hand, could be a factor in promoting cults like Scientology? What I want to say is that religion fills a void in people’s life, and the only (reasonably mainstream) non-religious doctrine that could fill that void proved just as tainted as established religions, leaving people stranded. If true, this would go a long way toward explaining the resurgence of all sorts of pseudo-spiritual movements, and the incredible success of self-help and spiritual gurus. 

(6) Have you ever looked at stss.nl? This is a website run by an independent Scientologist which has many of Hubbard’s materials that one would normally have to pay for, including lectures and PDFs. There is even a 7 or 8 GB file with all old and new policy and technical volumes. What’s your opinion on the site?

This week it’s answers about Sea Org sleep schedules, changes to Scientology texts, why OT 3 is where it’s at and what it accomplished and a lot more. Enjoy!

(1) The Sea Org being paramilitary, people are expected to be out of bed at a certain time in the morning. It would seem “the morning people” have an easier time adapting to the daily routine in the Sea Org. At the same time, all-nighters are common, and that plays in favor of “the night owls”. What category were you before you joined? Did the Sea Org life change how your biological clock works? What happened to your daily routine when you got out? 

(2) I was wondering how much we know about the changes made to Scientology texts in 2007 that accompanied David Miscavige’s event “The Golden Age of Knowledge for Eternity: The Basics”. Which books were affected, and what was the nature of the changes? My guess is that the updates were fairly minor, and the main impetus for re-issuing these books was a cash grab. Were there significant doctrinal changes? Were there embarrassing passages that were scrubbed? Were there other motives? Do we know who made the edits? Do we know what Scientology did with the recalled books? I’d love to know more about this interesting moment in Scientology history. One of my show’s listeners sent me to the site ScientologyAudit.com, which in turn led me to TrueLRH.com. There was some interesting info there, but none of the comparisons seemed too dramatic, and I wasn’t really sure of the author’s perspective. I thought you might have a clearer [ahem] understanding of the overall picture.

(3) Why did LRH design Scientology in such a way that you don’t figure out about OT3 until you’re so far in? Did he add and tack these beliefs on later? And why do they seem so out of place with the rest of Scientology? Did he create them when he was going nuts and did he actually believe it?

(4) How would a Scientology org react if a post-op transgender person came in and wanted to become a Scientologist? Would she be allowed to progress up the Bridge to Total Freedom? Would she be allowed to join the Sea Org?

Would the Church of Scientology try to make a transgender peron de-transition, even if they’ve already had MtF or FtM surgery, which is irreversible?

Also, I know the Church of Scientology publicly claims to welcome gay people, and then privately they have to stick with Hubbard’s early 1900s views on sexuality, which harshly condemn homosexuality. I know they tell gay people that their sexual orientation is a perversion that needs to be fixed through $200/hour Scientology auditing sessions. With that in mind, if a trans woman dated a cis-man, would Scientology consider her to be straight, thereby agreeing that she is a woman? Or would they reject her gender identity and say that she needs to date women, even though this would be a lesbian relationship, which the church considers to be low on the tone scale?

I am not sure if L. Ron Hubbard ever wrote anything about whether being transgender is acceptable, but I am sure that he would oppose it based on his other views.

(5) I was on the Scientology subreddit recently and somebody made a post about Ron’s Org in Switzerland. I was most amused to then discover that the group has officially declared Xenu an SP! However, how do independent Scientologists reconcile publicly declaring Xenu like this with the idea that anyone who finds out about OT III too early will die? Surely by putting that declare in the public domain, by their own logic they run the risk of killing thousands of people who have now read about OT III ahead of time!

(6) Are you familiar with a character named Xemnu in Marvel Comics created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby? He first appeared in an issue of Journey into Mystery, a Marvel issue from 1960. He’s basically a giant hairy alien who was banished from his home planet and sent to the prison planet earth. Do you think it’s likely at all that Hubbard took this Marvel character and adapted him into his 0T3 material. I had heard another story about Hubbard being influenced by Star Wars to some degree and wondered if there was any legitimacy to that?

Today we did a live show and I answered a bunch of mostly Scientology-related questions and got to brag a little about my Masters thesis, which is being completed today. Yay! Enjoy the show – we had fun. 

This week it’s answers about why Tom Cruise believes in Scientology, Jim Bakker as a human predator, why people can get away with believing stupid things and a lot more. Enjoy!

(1) Jim Bakker had a massively successful Christian ministry in 1988 called the PTL Network. He raised over 158 million dollars along with his wife and was able to build a full scale theme park called Heritage USA. Perhaps this is a simple question, but why would he, as a supposedly pious person, have an affair with church secretary Jessica Hahn and throw it all away? Do you think he simply gave in to temptation or was he a narcissist who thought he could get away with anything?

(2) I hear more and more about QAnon and cults and it just baffles me. The latest was a Telltale video about the QAnoner who died after contracting Covid I know you’ve talked about this kind of thinking before, but it boggles my mind how people can fall into such fantastical thinking without question. Or maybe we’re living just like Alice in that old story “Through the Looking Glass.” When we watch movies or read novels, we employ a thing called “the willing suspension of disbelief”. We choose to allow ourselves to believe that what we’re seeing or reading is true at that moment. Thing is, most people, when the movie ends, leave feeling entertained (unless it’s Battlefield Earth), but they don’t continue to think it was real. It seems, in the case of cult followers and QAnon, that they’ve suspended disbelief as a way of living. I’d be interested in your thoughts about this.

(3) How do you approach spirituality, if at all, after leaving a cult? Most people are drawn to religions or cults to find answers about life, our purpose in the world, inner peace, the afterlife, etc. What are your thoughts on these topics post-Scientology? Do you find it hard to believe in anything now for fear of being duped again?

(4) I was thinking recently and I was wondering where you think Tom Cruise’s seeming devotion to Scientology comes from. Personally, I wonder if it has more to do with his friendship with David Miscavaige than any actual belief in Scientology. So, let’s say Miscavaige passes away in 25 years or so. Is the now-older Tom Cruise likely to still be a public Scientologist, or would he just quietly slip away? And would the death of Miscavaige cause Cruise to rethink whether he wants to be involved in Scientology at all?

(5) Why is the city council in Clearwater against Aaron Smith-Levin winning a seat?

(6) I would like to know why, and how we could possibly benifit by opening our southern border.? All politics aside who is going to make money off this travesty? Its a good way to ruin our country. Thanks and keep up the good work.

This week, it’s answers about what to do about potentially dangerous cults, a very personal dive into the Scientology mindset, pets in the Sea Org and a lot more. Enjoy!

(1) A few weeks ago, I asked you a question about a fringe QAnon group that had congregated in Dallas in early November to await the revelation (or is it resurrection?) of JFK Jr. Several target dates “prophesied” by the group leader, Michael Brian Protzman, aka Negative48, came and went with no JFK in sight (Junior or otherwise). The group, however, reportedly maintains cohesion (which is not unusual for high-indoctrination groups; they often persist past multiple prophetic failures). Some members joined the group together with their spouses and minor children, others left their families to join. If that was all, we’d have another regrettable waste of time. In late December, however, there were press reports about members discussing suicide as a way to some nebulous “next stage”, as well as about members ingesting toxic chemicals. This has some truly troubling points of similarity with Heaven’s Gate. Do you think we may be heading for a loss-of-life situation?

More broadly, do we have any conceivable ways of defusing this type of situation rather than just letting it devolve? What would be the best response by civil authorities, law enforcement, and the mental health profession? (I’d ask how likely we are to see such a response, but I think you and I are equally pessimistic about this…)

(2) I was listening to Leah and Mike’s show yesterday and they told a story of when Tom Cruise was in the Gold base somebody addressed him as Tom and he was immediately demoted, sent to do hard manual labor and eventually sent to the RPF. Then I realized you too were also sent to the RPF. Did you think the entire time you were there that this was good for you and you deserved this awful situation as it would make you a better Scientologist? If being sent to the RPF doesn’t give you second thoughts about your decisions in joining Scientology, I don’t know what would.

(3) Did anyone around you ever keep a pet in the Sea Org, even if it was smuggled in? I’m assuming they are against policy, but if the Base Captain wanted to have one, would it be allowed?

(4) If you were able to interview Juliette Lewis or Laura Prepon, what questions would you ask them? What do you think their responses would be?

(5) In Critical Q&A #342, you talk about the original and the revised versions of OT 8. My question is whether you have heard about this interpretation betore, whether you know/believe/guess it to be widespread among independent scientologists, and whether you find it likely to be wispered about within scientology itself. The interpretation is this:   “The religious conspiracy Hubbard was fighting against is very real, and the original OT8 is the true OT8: The revised OT8 is simply a cover-up, signifying that David Miscavige is a Suppressive Person and that the Church of Scientology has fallen so badly that it is now a part of the religious conspiracy which Hubbard was fighting against. Thus it is the duty of every true scientologist and follower of Hubbard to fight against the Church of Scientology.”   I’m asking because the revision of OT8 seems like the perfect platform for a theological shism, just like the ones that in the past torn the Christian churches apart.

(6) How will Scientology survive — since the SeaOrg has a “policy” against having children because the work of a Sea Org member is too important to also be burdened with the demands of child care?  Is this a weak link in the church’s ultimate downfall since their most devoted members are not encouraged to reproduce?