Sensibly Speaking Podcast

[@DreamingCatStudio]

Wow fascinating story. Thank you Kat for sharing your experiences. Your descriptions of bonding with some of them and caring, are so real, and shows great mental and emotional strength in your ability to hold that dichotomy. To me, those feelings are at the core of cult recruitment. Glad you survived intact!

[@Chrisdl901]

Kat, you are a total inspiration to every person involved with this dangerous cult. Well done on sharing your story- it was really interesting and you are so warm and caring and so incredibly intellectual and interesting. Great job to you both - fantastic interview!!! Thank you! ❤💙

[@MichaelYoder1961]

Interesting perspective on being a "newbie" and looking at CoS with a more critical lens. Great interview!

[@MrCouchIncident]

I have watched this three nights in a row. There is such a great story here. The compassion Kat displayed in this video gives me hope. What an amazing story.

[@Hauntolo-G]

This is Kat. Thank you so much for saying that. I was worried about the perception so it's incredibly nice to hear that you were heartened by this story. I hope to expand on it in the future if possible but either way, thank you for the kind reaction.

[@zappa-happy]

Yr interviewing skills are absolutely Brilliant Chris! Yr amazing! And the work Yr doing is Essential & so important. ThankU so much! Sending luv n support from UK! ❤️❤️🧡💚💜☮️☀️☀️

[@whomever5327]

tho i never have had any experience with scientology and thankfully so, i have endured various of people and groups that have similar traits comparable to what was explained about the machine of scientology. The information shared helps me put things in perspective on what i went through and how to process it accurately and see it for what it is rather than the deception and abuses plastered with their twisted concept of their self entitlement and self justifications on their treatment towards me and how it played a major part in making my thinking and behaviors worse rather than better for self improvement. Setting healthy and solid boundaries , distancing self from toxic people , and knowing your limits is a great place to start.

[@almacosta7083]

I really appreciate your time, and your effort to help us, understand how much this “Scientology” (religion ) “cult”, can destroy people, significantly from helping to make this world a better life. Thanks again.

[@juliefabio]

Really enjoyed this one! Very recent experiences show us that this crap hasn't changed one bit.

[@Piotr.Wysocki]

A really good episode to let us old-timers know what's it like at a class V org nowadays. I just wish you would have talked a bit less about politics and a bit more about how to staff members operate now, what are their stated life-goals, how do they react to the fact that there's pretty much nobody new to recruit. Do they all think that this "great scientology expansion" is happening somewhere else (just not in Austin), or do they kind of suspect that its not happening as much as Dave claims? I'd like to hear more here, would you ever consider doing a Q&A session with Kat, where viewers would send their questions via email as we do for your critical Q&A?

[@ChrisSheltonMsc]

Hmmmm....

[@amyph]

Yes, this

[@jayerscios]

1:45:02 In my days of not being around much, somehow I ended up going into AOLA chapel for a free dinner and talk, I guess. It turned out to be a small group for fundraising purposes. When the cheapy spaghetti dinner was over, the first guy starts by saying he was donating like $5K and asked for others to match his donation. I was sitting alone in the back of the room watching and this thought just popped into my head, "This guy is a shill!" Like he was set up to start the task of getting the flow going. The sea org member in charge of the event then came over to me and asked me something and I said I had to leave. I'd never been to an event like this before and it was quite enlightening.

[@chuckbeattyo]

A big complaint I've had, all the years being out of Scientology, is the outside media and almost everyone, being so tame to even fail to just say that Scientology's "auditing" is really just pseudo-therapy. And the upper Scientology pseudo-therapy is exorcism. All your videos are just endlessly appreciated for all the details and insights you give Chris!

[@chuckbeattyo]

Key words to cut through Scientology's jargon: pseudo-therapy exorcism quackery Xenu "body-thetans" OT 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 "lower levels" "case" "OT case"

[@JulieWineReason]

I'm watching Leah Remini's series, "Scientology and its Aftermath," and all I can think about is you, how amazing you are by getting free of this cult, and all of the good work you're doing now. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

[@alexisdigital]

This was better than a spy movie. I love Kat!

[@tooannoying]

Really enjoyed this informative discussion on Scientology.

[@kayvanepps8297]

Great conversation - Kat, thank you for sharing your very interesting Scientology journey . It's funny, I had thought several times about doing just what Kat did because I'm so fascinated with Scientology and its bizarre belief system. There is no org in my city anymore so it's not something I could actually do but the thought was there. It would have been an interesting educational experiment, but I would not have expected the bonding that Kat experienced - that was a bit surprising. So much to learn from listening to an experience like this.

[@CassandraCarter]

The discussion around 59:00 is pretty interesting to me because I worked my way through the Basics books without ever setting foot in a Church of Scientology, and by the time I got to History of Man, I was like... "Wait, what members didn't know about the alien shit until OT3?" And then I figured out that Scientology and college have a lot in common: No one does the required at-home reading. :P

[@clearjr1]

I am surprised I listened to the total interview. She provided interesting insights and she seemed so genuine. I am sorry she got involved with this organization. But every experience good and bad can be a learning one.

[@seanmcmullen4274]

kat is great. This was a really enjoyable episode

[@juanitamartins]

Sara must really have needed/want some real human contact. That's so sad.

[@gaillegregoire4002]

This was a great podcast , I really enjoyed it.

[@runawaysheri]

Really enjoyed this one, where can I watch her stand up comedy?

[@HamishDownie]

That was fascinating

[@TheHomelessDreamer]

Making fun of a deadly and insidious cult, be it satire, or other form of comedy, is a difficult proposition. Ernst Lubitsch filmed To Be or Not To Be in 1941, for an early 1942 release. My grandmother and uncle were still alive at the time, and the Wannsee Conference took place only a month before the movie was released. We'll all laugh at Scientology later, aside from cruel ridicule, which I welcome, after they are gone.

[@chuckbeattyo]

1:58:45. "...I think they have humanity , but I think they are just trained to ignore it....." bingo.

[@bascal133]

It’s reassuring to know there are other adults Who haven’t had a sexual experience before ☺️

[@Hauntolo-G]

I hadn't had many, and they just expect me to lie about the few I was lucky to have! Dastardly group ;)

[@davidmanning8984]

THE BEST

[@CeceKruchkoSmith]

Thank you Chris and Kat. My dissconnected daughter #3 is in Austin raising my 2 grandchildren I cant visit so it was fun to hear the org is dying while cannibalizing themselves. Tim was Tim Edwards? Kat - what are you studing now?

[@seamusinmusic]

Glad to see more scientology content. I understand that you have more that you want to do. It just doesn't interest me. This is what I am fond of.

[@michellegayden5174]

Good morning Chris

[@braunchad1]

Excellent episode.

[@petrairene]

Honestly, these experiences while auditing sound less like trance and more like a psychiatric phenomenon that's called derealisation and depersonalisation. I can fairly easily get into a trance state dancing to certain types of repetitive music and can tell you, that's different.

[@ChrisSheltonMsc]

No, it's not that different but thanks for the comment.

[@CeceKruchkoSmith]

Yes, I agree. Music doesn't give me the disassociation that comes with 'trance' (which I believe to become like an addiction). Music is more 'being in the flow' and a different leval of harmony and resonance.

[@chuckbeattyo]

27:33. nice phrase..... "...thought fortress...."

[@sabi2121]

Hello

[@celest13u60]

Good interview just try and be a bit more descriptive on your Thumbnail because had to search by round about dates and click TSSP experiences. Was random I saw the Q&A and there wasn't even a link. Just saying Put infiltrated Scientology and that's a clicker

[@rjw8316]

I wish that you would stop calling this cult organization a Church. Using this word along with the name Scientology gives the organization the same status as legitimate Churches. Perhaps you could just use the title organization or better yet use cult. Just my observation....thanks and keep up the great work.

[@boomnaboom]

I really think that Mr Shelton is the worst person to do an interview with, bc hei s really only interested in hearing himself and talking himself.

[@jasonsmith5226]

Denver isnt the only liberal place in Colorado Chris, & Colorado as a whole isn't even purple anymore, it's basically light blue. When I was growing up here (3rd generation native both sides),Colorado was probably light red even. But Boulder, has always been super deep blue. It was actually nicknamed "the people's republic of Boulder," back in 80s. You still hear that occasionally, but nowhere near as much now, but only because the rest of the state has changed on the whole. There are other liberal bastions like Aspen, Telluride, ect. I get your point about Denver vs rural areas. But with a governor as far left as Polis, you can't consider Colorado purple anymore. Democrats run our state. I lean right on a lot on most things, except social issues, where I'm basically moderate & middle of the road, but think Polis has actually done a good job, especially during COVID. Compare the job he has done to other far left governors like Cuomo, Whitmore,& Newsome-I'd take him any day over those Authoritarian hypocrites. I actually have been very pleasantly surprised how he's seemed to be much more reasonable,& less partisan, than I expected. But his political positions are pretty far left, especially compared to Hickenlooper, our last governor-also a Democrat, but much more middle of the road ideologically. But my main point is, Boulder has been a far left place for decades,& it's a good sized place, not just some tiny city. What you said about Denver,& the rural areas is true, but you forgot Boulder, which I consider much more leftist than Denver. I think you are more likely to find "reasonable, classical liberals" in Denver-but the more extremist,Authoritarian, "woke" radicals in Boulder. At least percentage wise. The Boulder mayor is usually a far left extremist, while the Denver mayor is always a Democrat-but more middle of the road liberal-not leftist cult members, as you find in Boulder, my opinion. Just look at current mayor Michael Hancock, an African American-who rightly outright rejected calls to "defund the police,"& such nonsense. Just wanted to mention, Boulder is much more left wing, than Denver. As for the video,unbelievable story. I can't imagine knowing the truth, but basically going under cover for that long, paying good money to do the courses,& have to subject yourself to that crap, to pretend to be a Scientologist...pretty amazing stuff,& fascinating story.

[@ChrisSheltonMsc]

I guess it didn't come up or I didn't get it across, but I definitely know Boulder is not a podunk place and that it is far more liberal than Denver. Sorry if that didn't come across in our conversation here or I said something to indicate otherwise.

[@jasonsmith5226]

@@ChrisSheltonMsc no big deal,I just wanted to mention it.