Full transcript of this episode:

Hello and welcome to the Sensibly Speaking Podcast. This is Chris Shelton, the Critical Thinker at Large coming at you for show #91 and this one we’re calling When the Left Isn’t in the Right. Of course, this podcast is available through iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play as well as here on YouTube with video, although this week you’re just going to be seeing my happy mug talking at you for a while.

I’ve been correctly accused of having left-wing tendencies, although I am definitely more of a centrist at this point and am someone who is willing to consider most any idea if it helps move this ball of civilization down the road for another day. I’m not about identity politics but most important of all, I’m against extremism in almost any form – left, right or center.

So this week, my friend Nick helped me with some historical research so we could present a long-term look at progressive or liberal thinking and point out some things wrong with it. As with so many things us human beings dream up, sometimes our best of intentions can lead to some of our most horrific blunders and even tragedies and I think it’s a good thing for any of us who think we are engaged in crusades to save the world to stop what we’re doing and maybe look around and make sure we know what we’re talking about. Yes, some of the more infamous people in history did just want to watch the world burn, but there were far more people whose hearts were in the right place, who had what they thought were honestly the best of intentions but whose beliefs and actions led them down roads to atrocity. And just because we have the benefit of knowing what they did and why they did it is no guarantee that we won’t do the exact same thing because we think that we’re so much brighter and smarter and wiser than our forefathers. So let’s take a ride in the Wayback Machine, dialing it back to 1707. Our journey begins with the union of England and Scotland in what was called the Treaty of Union and created what we still call Great Britain.

Not everyone was pleased with the union at the time, but in hindsight, one thing is certain: the 1700s were significantly more peaceful than the 1600s, which saw, among other major violent events, a civil war culminating in the beheading of King Charles I in 1649. That’s one way to enact political change, but maybe there are more reasonable roads. In Scotland, the 1700s and early 1800s were to be a period of rapid progress in technology, science, arts, and social thought, so later historians called this period the Scottish Enlightenment.

A major figure of the Scottish Enlightenment was Adam Smith, a professor at the University of Edinburgh. In his day, economics wasn’t yet recognized as a standalone discipline, so no one thought of him as an economist but instead he was a professor of moral philosophy. He was first made famous in 1759 with the publication of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, followed in that oh-so-famous year of 1776 with his most famous work, or infamous depending on how you look at it, entitled The Wealth of Nations. This was his magnum opus and is thought of today as the first modern work of economics, earning Smith the title “the father of economics.” Now what’s interesting is that the moral insights into human nature in these two books are very different, yet, in the end, not incompatible.

In The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Smith explicitly stated his belief that people are natural altruists. He wrote:

How selfish soever man may be supposed, there are evidently some principles in his nature, which interest him in the fortunes of others, and render their happiness necessary to him, though he derives nothing from it, except the pleasure of seeing it.

Almost two decades later, in The Wealth of Nations, he put forward a somewhat different take:

Every individual endeavors to employ his capital so that its produce may be of the great...

This week I discuss thanatology (the study of death and dying) with Cole Imperi. Our conversation veers between dealing with the loss of loved ones, the grieving process and how this relates to losing one’s religion, faith or belief and leaving groups or activities.

Cole’s website is here.

Cole’s TED talk is here.

Here are some books Cole recommends for folks who are navigating religious questions. She says, “I think rather than solely focusing on the religion side of things, it can help to work on personal development at the same time. Sometimes the ‘knots’ or bumps people encounter on the religious end of things are actually happening because of a character trait within ourselves, so we need to sort that out in order to gain clarity about a belief/religious issue.”

• Insight by Dr. Tasha Eurich (This book focuses on self-awareness which, when we are reeling from a religious shift, we sometimes need to check in with.)

• Jewish Views on the Afterlife by Dr. Simcha Paull Raphael (For anyone curious about Judaism’s perspective, or anyone who appreciates exploring ‘what ifs’)

• Rising Strong by Brene Brown (This books is great for anyone wanting to work on or explore resilience and failure.)

• Handbook of Thanatology (Publication of the Association for Death Education and Counseling)

• Codependent No More by Melody Beattie (This would be a book I just recommend as a blanket to everyone.)

This week I discuss the topic of Scientology watching with podcaster Christopher Crimy from the Come Get Sum podcast. He has interviewed a number of former Scientologists and become an advocate against disconnection and Scientology abuses. We talk about how he got involved in this, what causes someone who was never a part of Scientology to become so fascinated with it and why these watchers and never-ins are so important in the fight against it.

Christopher Crimy’s website is here and he can be found on Twitter here.

 

Music by Pale Blue.

In this week’s podcast, and by popular demand, Jeffrey Augustine and I finally got together to talk current events in Scientology, including much of what has been reported on here on Tony Ortega’s blog recently, as well as how the contracts that Scientology makes its members sign actually work and what people are signing away when they join Scientology. I think anyone interested in the subject will find this interesting and informative. Enjoy!

Music by Pale Blue

Former Sea Org member Nora Crest and I discuss the Rehabilitation Project Force, a sort of Maoist re-education camp within Scientology’s Sea Organization which both she and I did. We go over what it is, how it’s run and some of the more “fun” details from our experiences on it.

Music by Pale Blue.

Aaron Smith-Levin and I discuss some recent events in Clearwater, Florida and the Church of Scientology, including where we think things may be going there into the future.

Music by Pale Blue.

Destructive cults, the media, politicians and governments use loaded language to influence thought and behavior. In this episode I discuss what this is all about, how it’s done and give specific examples from my experience with Scientology.

Show notes:

Group language or loaded language is one of the primary but far from the only cult control mechanism.

There’s also:

– installed phobias and fears

– confession and guilt

– deception

– suppression of thinking for oneself

– sacred science: The beliefs and regulations of the group are framed as perfect, absolute and non-negotiable. The dogma of the group is presented as scientifically correct or otherwise unquestionable. Rules and processes are therefore to be followed without question, and any transgression is a sin and hence requires atonement or other forms of punishment, as does consideration of any alternative viewpoints.

– and many others

What is loaded language?

Done by inventing new words or re-purposing existing ones.

– Helps foster special feelings of secret knowledge and sacred science

– Helps create us vs them mentality

– Helps group members feel closer and that they understand each other better (elitism)

– Special words/labels become a substitute for understanding and critical thinking

In his book “Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of Brainwashing in China,” Robert Lifton wrote: “The language of the totalist environment is characterized by the thought-terminating cliché. The most far-reaching and complex of human problems are compressed into brief, highly selective, definitive-sounding phrases, easily memorized and easily expressed. They become the start and finish of any ideological analysis.”

Aaron Smith-Levin made a video about Scientology’s special language and the thinking behind it which anyone can check out and I, of course, have worked to define many of the terms in Scn on my channel.

Relationship between language and thought

Inextricable relationship – we often think in words as well as express our thoughts through words to others and understand the world around us through language.

Not everything that goes on in our internalized world is expressed in words or even can be expressed in words, such as recalling moments in the past, experiencing intense feelings or imagining new concepts.

However, thought can and often is shaped by the words/language we use and hear

The old ( 1920’s) Sapir Whorf hypothesis states the following (taken from wikipedia) “The principle of linguistic relativity holds that the structure of a language affects the ways in which its speakers conceptualize their world, i.e. their world view, or otherwise influences their cognitive processes. Popularly known as the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, or Whorfianism, the principle is often defined as having two versions: (i) the strong version that language determines thought and that linguistic categories limit and determine cognitive categories and (ii) the weak version that linguistic categories and usage influence thought and certain kinds of non-linguistic behaviour.”

Removing words in an effort to remove the very idea of a thing, such as Florida governor Rick Scott forbidding anyone in his state government to use the terms “climate change” or “global warming” or “sustainability” while sea level rise alone thratens 30 percent of his state’s beaches over the next 85 years.

Altering the definitions of words to gain agreement, loyalty, etc.

Orwellian Newspeak is a penultimate example of how language is used to control thought.

“The Oldspeak word ‘free’ existed in Newspeak, but could only be used in terms of something not present,

Undue influence. Coercive persuasion. High control groups. What is this all about? How does it work and how do we see these things in the real world? Jon Atack has started the Open Minds Foundation with the idea of studying manipulation from all angles. In this episode we talk to him about this, how it relates to Scientology and so much more and where he wants OMF to go in to the future.

Music by Pale Blue.

This week I’m joined by Jon Stewart, a former member of Alcoholics Anonymous and someone with a great deal of experience discussing the pros and cons of the program, how it runs and how it shares certain characteristics with destructive cults and yet…is it destructive itself? We talk about this in detail in this episode.

Jon Stewart’s blog essay “Leaving AA Staying Sober”: https://jonsleeper.wordpress.com/

Recovering From Recovery: https://www.recoveringfromrecovery.com/

AA Agnostica (Atheist AA): http://aaagnostica.org/

AA Beyond Belief (Atheist AA): http://www.aabeyondbelief.com/

Andy Thomson, “Why We Believe in God(s)”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1iMmvu9eMrg&t=2s

Dan Dennett, “Can Churches Survive the New Transparency?”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=409sOZInjiw&t=16s

Robert Dudley, “The Drunken Monkey Thesis”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87FOhjLK4yc

The Sinclair Method (TSM): https://www.the-sinclair-method.com/

Claudia Christian’s TSM documentary “One Little Pill”:  

This week I interview David Fitzgerald, author of the books Nailed and Jesus: Mything in Action, about the historicity of Jesus Christ and whether or not he really lived. Evidence seems to indicate the question is not really as easily answered as many have believed. We talk about the top myths connected with this subject and how each are debunked.

Links to David Fitzgerald’s books:

Nailed

Jesus: Mything in Action

Music by Pale Blue.