Show notes
Through his YouTube channel Growing Up in Scientology, Aaron Smith-Levin has become one of the best-known critics of the cult. His mother joined when he was four and he left school at 12 to study. He was a Sea Org member for a decade before he withdrew and began to speak out. A fascinating interview. Jon demolishes fundamental Hubbard teachings about the eight dynamics and the ARC triangle.
Aaron's channel
Liability formula – when a Scientologist is in any sort of “ethical” trouble (“crimes” can range from adultery to self-pleasure to getting the “wrong” reading on an e-meter), they have to do the “Liability Formula,” one step of which is to “deliver an effective blow to the enemies of Scientology”, meaning they are encouraged to harass any critics in any way they can, regardless of local laws or simple decency.
Tec/Sec ASHO: Technical Secretary - this is the person in charge of all counseling at the Org.
ASHO, or American Saint Hill Organization, is the "Saint Hill-sized" Org in Los Angeles.
RPF = Rehabilitation Project Force:: Members of the Sea Org, Scientology’s fervent core group, have signed a billion-year loyalty contract, are paid next to nothing, live in crowded berthing, work a six ½ -day week and are fed on a poor diet. How can it be made worse to punish them? By being assigned to the Rehabilitation Project Force, where they are stripped of their rank, forced to sleep in “pigs’ berthing”, assigned to the meanest of manual labor, fed on the table scraps of the “regular” Sea Org, made to wear black, not allowed to speak unless spoken to, and made to run rather than walk everywhere. In addition, they are subjected to hours of auditing to find out the “crimes” that they must have committed to have been such a “degraded being.”
TR8 - Training Routine eight involves understanding how to place "Intention" in any object, or, in the case of the routine, an ashtray. To see Jon, Chris Shelton, Christian Szurko, and Steven Hassan break down these TRs, see here.
Purification Rundown, aka "Purif" - the sauna and megavitamin-ingestion treatment used by Scientologists to "cleanse" themselves of toxins. Based on outdated pseudoscience and not at all healthy.
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