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Friendly Atheist Podcast

Ep. 90 - Chris Shelton, Former Scientologist

Friendly Atheist Podcast

Friendly Atheist Podcast

Religion & Spirituality, News Commentary, Politics, News

4.61.4K Ratings

🗓️ 17 January 2016

⏱️ 33 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Chris Shelton spent 27 years in the Church of Scientology, where he attained those high levels you only hear about in HBO documentaries. But he got out about three years ago and is now a vocal critic of the Church. He just published a book called Scientology: A to Xenu: An Insider's Guide to What Scientology is All About. We spoke with Chris about what tipped him off to the Church's deceptions, what he was taught about Xenu, and what he believes would be the single biggest blow to the Church's existence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

I'm Hemminta Metta and I'm Jessica Limke and you're listening to the

0:08.6

podcast for Friendly Atheist.com you can now listen to all of our episodes and see show notes at friendly atheist

0:16.0

podcast.com.

0:18.0

By the way, we now have a merchandise shop on the website.

0:21.1

So if you want your podcast swag and you know you do, go to our website and

0:24.8

click on the store tab.

0:29.6

Chris Shelton spent 27 years in the Church of Scientology.

0:32.6

He attained those high levels that you only hear about in HBO documentaries,

0:36.7

but he got out about three years ago and is now a vocal critic of the church.

0:40.9

He just published a book called Scientology A to Zeno.

0:44.0

Chris, thanks for joining us and congratulations on having a book with an excellent

0:47.8

pun in the title and pro-pun at all times. So let's...

0:51.8

Well, thank you very much. So let's start at the beginning. How did you get involved in the Church of Scientology? Were you born into it? Did you come in on your own?

0:58.0

I was pretty much born into it in that my parents got involved. I was

1:03.0

when I was very young, like four years old.

1:05.0

And so I was around it my entire life pretty much,

1:09.4

but I didn't formally start doing classes

1:12.0

and become a member until I was 15 years old.

1:15.8

Would you say you got in by any kind of choice or do you think you were really very much

1:21.1

indoctrinated?

1:22.1

Well I was much indoctrinated. Well, I was definitely indoctrinated from a young age on the principles of Scientology.

1:27.6

I mean, I just grew up with them.

...

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