Blog: Critical Q&A 172 - 2018-08-12
Critical Q&A #172 August 12, 2018,
The weekly show where I answer viewer questions left for me in the comments section of my Q&A shows or sent to me by email at AskChrisShelton@gmail.com. This week, the questions I answer are:
(1) Do you have any thoughts on the CNN documentary Holy Hell about the Buddha Field cult? I saw so many parallels to Scientology.
(2) There is something that puzzles me leading on from one of your last videos about life on the Freewinds and how it came about that people handed their passports in to the organisation. I have heard a number of stories of ex-Scientologists who felt they were trapped within the organisation because their superiors had possession of their passports. I ask myself why this should have been such an issue for them? If I am in any foreign country and my passport is lost, stolen or appropriated by someone, all I have to do is get hold of or go to my nearest consulate and report the issue, then apply for a new passport. Democratic countries generally go a long way towards supporting their citizens with such things. There is something about the ex-Scientologists concerned that seems to me pretty naive and ill-informed about their own rights as citizens and being able to stand up for these. I ask myself whether this mind-set, this innocent overlooking of what makes me a citizen and a person of independence might not be part of what makes someone susceptible to the machinations of such a cult?