Raised by Thetans in a Galactic Gulag | Aaron Smith-Levin | EP 413

Hello everyone. I'm pleased to announce my new tour for 2024, beginning in early February and running through June. Tammy and I, an assortment of special guests, are going to visit 51 cities in the US. You can find out more information about this on my website, jordanbpeterson.com, as well as accessing all relevant ticketing information.

I'm going to use the tour to walk through some of the ideas I've been working on in my forthcoming book, out November 2024, "We Who Wrestle With God." I'm looking forward to this; I'm thrilled to be able to do it again, and I'll be pleased to see all of you again soon. Bye-bye!

That type of family destruction is what I personally find most objectionable about Scientology. Whether it's coercing women to get abortions to keep serving Scientology instead of starting families, I challenge anyone to name one other "quote unquote" religious organization that weekly buses its clergy members to the abortion clinic. I don't think you'll be able to find one.

Hello everyone. Today I'm talking to Aaron Smith-Levan, and he has a YouTube channel called "Growing Up in Scientology," where he discusses, as you might guess, growing up in Scientology. He left the organization after a number of decades, and we talk a fair bit about why he did that, why he came to the realization that this was a sterile route.

But more importantly, the conversation allowed us to delve into a problem that we all face, which is the fundamental problem of distinguishing truth from falsehood, especially organized falsehood. The difficulty that we face in determining what organizations, which are clearly necessary, can be trusted and what metaphysics are reliable. How do you distinguish bitter fruit from sweet fruit in that regard or separate wheat from chaff?

So our discussion is very interesting in that regard and enabled us to take those abstract considerations and to nail them down to something very specific: you know the events of Aaron's own life and the particular cult-like nature of Scientology, which is one cult among many.

So, welcome aboard for the trip. I've been writing a fair bit in this new book I'm finishing up; it's called "We Who Wrestle With God," and it'll be the subject of my next tour. I've been writing a lot about the manner in which we come to distinguish truth from falsehood in general in our lives, in the scientific enterprise, and then, let's say, in matters of faith.

You know, now the scientist types would say, "Well, all faith is delusional," but I'm afraid we can't move forward without faith, so that's not a helpful objection. But it does raise us— the fact that that is an objection at all indicates the existence of a very serious underlying problem, which is, well, how do we distinguish truth from falsehood, especially in relationship to religious claims which, in some sense by definition, are amendable to scientific analysis or proof?

One answer is we just throw out the entire religious domain, but that’s actually not even technically possible. So, I thought it'd be interesting to talk to you today about Scientology specifically because I think that it's not unreasonable whatsoever to regard it as an outright cult.

That will enable us to use a very specific example to delve into a more general problem, which is how do you separate wheat from chaff or bitter fruit from good fruit in the pursuit of the truth, or even what is the truth? It’s always better to ground an abstract analysis in something concrete and real, and so talking to you about your experiences and what you've learned should enable us to get a long ways in this discussion.

Then we can more broadly flesh it out into the issue of, you know, truth versus falsehood in issues of faith. So, let's start right at the beginning. Why don't we just—why don't you tell everybody a little bit about yourself personally, about where you come from, about your background, your employment? Let everybody get to know you a bit, and then we'll turn to the Scientology issue more specifically.

I'll do my best. How about I start from present time?