Speaking of Cults

This week I welcome back Aaron Smith-Levin to give us an update on what is what with Scientology in Clearwater, including a fresh and different perspective on what life there is really like with Scientology as a neighbor and some detailed talk about the Clearwater city council and how it can and should best deal with the “Scientology problem.” Enjoy! The post Sensibly Speaking Podcast #283: Clearw...

This week I welcome licensed therapist and cult recovery counselor Rachel Bernstein back to the channel to discuss the unique problems and techniques of talking to people in extremist belief sets such as those of QAnon. This reckless and all-consuming conspiracy has created radicalized extremists, making this much more than “just another cult.” It’s time we all had some information about how to de...

Last week we featured Alanda Carter to discuss her experiences with multilevel marketing scams (MLMs) but this week is a real tour de force as we go into the birds-eye view of what MLMs really are about, how long they have been around and how they have amassed such vast security and safety from regulation and the law. I welcome Robert Fitzpatrick, author of Ponzinomics: The Untold Story of Multile...

This week I welcome Alanda Carter,  @The Recovering Hunbot  for a discussion about multilevel marketing and the coercive, cult-like tactics that are employed at every level to promote, recruit, retain and financially devastate their “members.” Alanda has personal experience to share about this and has been a staunch anti-MLM crusader who has helped educate me on the subject. Enjoy! The post Sensib...

This week I welcome back Jeff Hawkins for one of the most fun and certainly interesting conversations I’ve had in a long while about Scientology, David Miscavige and the marketing and expansion of Scientology (or lack thereof). This is a wide-ranging discussion and we tie in some current events as well, which may help give some insight into why this last week was so mad. Enjoy! Jeff’s email: jeffe...

This week we do our traditional year-end review of what happened in 2020, mainly in but also of course outside of the world of Scientology. There were some good and some bad, some ups and some downs, but certainly no shortage of things to talk about. Enjoy! The post Sensibly Speaking Podcast #278: The 2020 Year in Review – In and Out of Scientology appeared first on The Sensibly Speaking Podcast .

This week I welcome Matan Schecter, a second-generation former Messianic Jew. As we clarify in this episode, that term is a misnomer of the highest order and Matan had to face a great deal of struggle to find his own voice and acknowledgement of his own identity. We talk about what the Messianic Movement is all about and how Matan had to undergo multiple attempts to “adjust” his gender identity be...

This week I welcome back Jon Atack to discuss the problem of dealing with cults and how can we ever hope to solve this immense task, or should we even be trying? In this far-ranging conversation we cover answers to this and a lot more. Enjoy! The post Sensibly Speaking Podcast #276: The Problem of Authoritarianism ft. Jon Atack appeared first on The Sensibly Speaking Podcast .

This week I welcome back my friend and DC lawyer Ciprian Ivanof to discuss Scientology lawsuits, both recent and old, and what lawyers for Valerie Hanie may have gotten wrong in their latest fight against the Church of Scientology. We recorded this last week and it was just yesterday that news came down that Haney’s appeal to the Supreme Court was rejected. That decision doesn’t change the opinion...

This week I welcome local Denver author Dylan Aames to discuss his book Lies Your Psychologist Told You, a critical take on some of the taller tales that have been accepted as literal or practical truth when perhaps they should not be, including in the very textbooks of psychology. We have some lively and interesting discussion in this one. Enjoy! The post Sensibly Speaking Podcast #274 – Lies You...

This week we are doing a bit more of a raw interview than usual as I discuss the Scientology experience with former member Shane Rybacki, a second gen member from Detroit and Orange County who had quite a few wild experiences growing up in and around Scientology including a brief stint on the EPF and working for the Office of Special Affairs in Orange County. Now he’s ready to start talking about...

This week I welcome Stacie and Jeff Mallinson to discuss how they have been pushing back from within the religious community against “religious wolves,” people in religious settings who engage in destructive cult behavior and abusive religious indoctrination of children. We found quite a bit of common ground and I hope you enjoy this talk as much as I did. Mallinson website Alfie Cohen – psycholog...

This week I welcome back Dr. Jonas Kaplan to discuss the possibilities of neuralink or the melding of our brains with electronics, potentially launching us into a whole new sphere of existence in a digital world or using digital tools to assist every aspect of our thinking and our life. Sound like a transhumanist’s wet dream? Well, maybe we can temper all that with some reality. Enjoy! The post Se...

This week I welcome Tim Ward, co-author of Pro-Truth, to discuss a grassroots social movement towards objective truth in politics, media and social forums. We discuss what this book and movement are designed to do, why this is more than necessary at this point in American culture and we even get pretty deep into the psychology driving so much of the divisiveness these days. I hope you’ll give this...

This week I welcome back Ciprian Ivanof, an attorney practicing in Washington DC, who helps me breakdown and understand some of the legal hurdles and difficulties that former Scientologists and other ex-cult trauma survivors experience in trying to bring their former abusers to justice. This is an incredibly frustrating topic for many and I tried this week to share some of your frustrations and se...

This week I welcome Janice Selbie, a Canadian counsellor who specializes in religious trauma. We discuss a number of points about recovering from religious trauma, including Janice’s own story as a deeply devout believer and her journey out of religion and current views on the matter. Enjoy! Janice Selbie: @Wise_Counsellor Website: https://Divorcing-religion.com The post Sensibly Speaking Podcast...

This week I welcome Mike Fallek, a journalist/documentarian who has been investigating the online or what he refers to as “hashtag” cult of MGTOW (“Men Going Their Own Way”), a men’s rights group that exists pretty much exclusively on the internet. We talk in detail about this, the cultic elements of it and even how to reach people in these kinds of groups. Enjoy! Mike Fallek My earlier podcast on...

Two weeks ago I posted a podcast with Kat, a woman who had “infiltrated” the Church of Scientology of Austin and ended up having a bit more of a personal journey than she thought she would. We covered a lot of ground in her story but we wanted to give you an opportunity to ask her about the experience and what happened. We did a live stream this morning and got some great questions and feedback fr...

This week I welcome back Dr. Jeff Wasel to discuss the detailed and necessary backstory to what could conceivably be thought of as one of the most heinous acts of the US government. We take a stab at explaining this in a different light, while understanding that this is a sensitive topic and we make no efforts to “apologize” for anyone or any group then or now. We are merely reflecting in this pod...

This week I welcome Kat, a woman who purposefully became involved with Scientology in Austin three years ago but came away with a story vastly different from the one she thought she would tell. This is not a victim story and yet we see from this exactly how Scientology negatively influences almost everything it comes into contact with. This story is a good one. Enjoy! The post Sensibly Speaking Po...

This week I welcome PhD candidate Deborah Powney from the UK, a 14-year veteran of the alcohol marketing business who is now studying psychology and domestic violence. She has a lot to say about how the marketing industry works for real and we get down and dirty on what they are doing and exactly how. This has been a topic that I have wanted to start exposing directly on my channel for some time,...

This week I welcome back Dr. Jonas Kaplan, a cognitive neuroscientist in Los Angeles who has been helping us to deconstruct and understand the supercomputer in all of our heads: our brain. This week, we tackle the subject of memory and it’s a very interesting ride, especially when we make comparisons to what L. Ron Hubbard had to say about memory in Dianetics. Dr. Kaplan was quite amused and I thi...

This week I welcome authors Dr. Myke Merrill and Michael Wilson, who have written Why Do People Act That Way (And What Can I Do About It?). Both Dr. Merrill and Mr. Wilson are men of faith and feel they have found a system of ideas and techniques which can benefit people based on emotions, motivations, perceptions and behavior. We go into this a bit in the show and discuss some basic ideas of wher...

This week I welcome author A.P. Sylvia to the show to discuss his book Vampires of Lore: Traits and Modern Misconceptions. He has traced the origin of almost all common myths and ideas about vampires back through history and we talk in this episode about quite a few of them and share our love for the genre. This is a very unusual podcast for my channel but one I really enjoyed doing and I think if...

This week I welcome back Dr. David Kyle Johnson from Kings College to discuss practical critical thinking in the real world, including how we apply key ideas to debunk or help evaluate medical or science claims we are told all the time. We dive into some of the pseudoscientific ideas surrounding the current craze around masks to highlight some of these critical thinking principles. Enjoy! Article...