YouSaid · the spoken record

Aaron Smith-Levin

lines on the record: 177
first: 2023-02-25
most recent: 2023-02-25
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“And the way L. Ron Harbard and Scientology defines survival is very much intertwined with how they define ethics. Anything to be ethical is pro-survival, to be unethical is counter-survival. But we were talking about just the concept of the dynamics. Like, what does survival refer? Thatans collectively involved in here is the idea that if Thetan cannot die, there's no such thing as killing a Thane. If Than can only survive. And so anyway, this concept of the dynamics is one of the most fundamental and important concepts in Scientology. But because I mentioned that it also gets tied up with ethics. And this probably speaks to what you were just talking about: you can have the ideas and the concepts, and you can have how do they go wrong.”
2023-02-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #361 – Aaron Smith-Levin: Scientology · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The only thing I'm really mocking is that this discovery that life is trying to survive is greater than the discovery of fire. Okay. I mean, it gets a little silly, but that's fine We can agree that the fact that life is trying to survive has meaning and is meaningful and can be valuable. And it's true. I mean, life is trying to survive.”
2023-02-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #361 – Aaron Smith-Levin: Scientology · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But here's the thing, Lex. Here's the thing it is consistent with prior efforts or studies. It's just that L. Ron Hubbard said this was a watershed breakthrough that was being discovered for the first time. That's kind of what I'm mocking, really.”
2023-02-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #361 – Aaron Smith-Levin: Scientology · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So it would be all of that because survival is the dominant force across all the dynamics. That, I mean, L. Ron Hubbard, it was either Dianetics or Science of Survival. He says he discovered the principle upon which all life exists, and that is all life no matter what it is trying to do. Are you ready, Lex? It's trying to survive.”
2023-02-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #361 – Aaron Smith-Levin: Scientology · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“While going through that process with the IRS for the second time, by the way, Scientology actually had tax exemption in the early days, and the IRS pulled it, and then they got it back in 1993. While going through that process again, the IRS actually took issue with the fact that Scientology was claiming you could be a Scientologist and a member of another religion. The IRS actually said, pump the brakes there. You're going to say that we're going to say you're not a religion. They actually put in writing to the IRS no, no, no, no, no, that's not what we meant. That's not what we meant. We meant in the beginning, you can be both. But eventually, you just have to be a Scientologist.”
2023-02-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #361 – Aaron Smith-Levin: Scientology · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The fact that Scientology does this little dance of pretending to believe in a God, I mean, it's even like a PR line. Scientology representatives will tell you, you can be a Christian and be a Scientologist. Well, let me tell you what. Christians don't believe in past lives and lives on other galaxies and planets and universes. And Scientology knows that. Scientology knows you can't be a Christian and be a Scientologist, but they will say that. It's just an example of sort of the fundamental baked-in dishonesty”
2023-02-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #361 – Aaron Smith-Levin: Scientology · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right. I mean, even as I've described Scientology so far, none of what I've said is something I even subject to ridicule. This is pretty common sense stuff, actually. I mean, if you believe in spirituality or spirits at all, there's nothing I've described so far that's crazy. Know believing in past lives isn't particularly unique or special.”
2023-02-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #361 – Aaron Smith-Levin: Scientology · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The only way you could reconcile a Supreme Being is if you say a single supreme being created all theta. Like the spiritual Big Bang. But that's not what most people think when they talk about God. They're talking about a creator of...”
2023-02-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #361 – Aaron Smith-Levin: Scientology · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“To the point where you have your own understandings or realizations about the nature of the eighth dynamic, we don't tell you what you have to believe about that. And technically speaking, that is true. Technically speaking, that is true. No point in Scientology where they sit you down and say you're not required to revoke your belief in a supreme being. It's just that everything in Scientology is inconsistent with a belief in the Supreme Being. You can still find Scientologists who through cognitive dissonance will tell you they believe in a Supreme Being. Mostly they're lying to you.”
2023-02-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #361 – Aaron Smith-Levin: Scientology · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Correct. Scientology has this concept of the dynamics, Al Ron Hubbard breaks life into a different dynamics and the dynamic meaning a thrust towards survival. So he would say, you know, the first dynamic is you yourself. Second dynamic is your family. Third dynamic is any other group that you're a part of other than your family. Fourth dynamic is all humankind. The fifth dynamic is plant and animal life, all non-human life. The sixth dynamic is the physical world. Seventh dynamic is sort of like spirituality, collectively thetans, us as thetans. And the eighth dynamic, L. Ron Hubbard says, Scientology doesn't deal with the eighth. But we recognize that people have this idea of a supreme being. And so Scientology says you can call the eighth dynamic the supreme being dynamic, but we call it infinity. Just the allness of everything without having to define it. And then they sort of do a little dance and they're like, Scientology, the purpose of Scientology is to get.”
2023-02-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #361 – Aaron Smith-Levin: Scientology · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Litter, we are in a simulation right now of some Fate, so like physics doesn't have to make sense when we're talking about it this way. Like, technically, you're a thetan, I'm a thetan, we're here, but this could also all just be another Thetans game.”
2023-02-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #361 – Aaron Smith-Levin: Scientology · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So that when I say godlike, I really just mean Thanos, like unlimited. Scientologists don't believe in a God. So when I say God like, I just mean the most powerful entity, the creator, the prime mover unmoved, except we are all that. You know, a thetan in definition in Scientology, a thetan has no position in space or time. A thetan does not actually exist in the physical universe. It might choose to locate itself in the physical universe, right? And then forget that it made that decision and then sort of get caught and trapped in the physical universe. But that once the thing... Powers, everything you see here in the physical universe is just a theta in playing a game.”
2023-02-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #361 – Aaron Smith-Levin: Scientology · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So now I run growing up in Scientology, the YouTube channel, but what I primarily do is I help run an organization that helps people who are escaping from Scientology. I'm the vice president of the Aftermath Foundation. And we created the foundation after the television show Leah Remini, Scientology in the Aftermath. And there was such an outpouring of support from non scientologists all over the world. What can we do to help people leave Scientology? That we decided to create a foundation. And it's been incredibly successful. We've helped people escape from all regions and echelons of Scientology. We've accomplished what we've accomplished is far beyond what we actually envisioned would be possible. It's been a huge success.”
2023-02-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #361 – Aaron Smith-Levin: Scientology · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So I was four years old when my mom got introduced to Scientology, and she got in really fast, really quick. So, but I was 12 years old when I was taken out of school and started officially full-time working for Scientology. Okay, so in various capacities, I worked for them from the ages of 12 to the age of 26. Okay, so and then I was 34 when I officially parted ways with Scientology, which was really more them officially parting ways with me, but we can get into all that later. That's just kind of how Scientology does it.”
2023-02-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #361 – Aaron Smith-Levin: Scientology · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not even a matter of training, it's that there's an entire upper half of Scientology's bridge is simply confidential. I mean, and I never even did those levels when I was in Scientology. I didn't learn what Scientologists actually believe on those upper levels until after I got out of Scientology and I was freaking born and raised in it.”
2023-02-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #361 – Aaron Smith-Levin: Scientology · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Anyone over there, if they've done their homework, knows you're going to be as fair as anyone in the world's going to be. And yet there's simply things they're not allowed to talk about and they're not even allowed to say I'm not allowed to talk about it.”
2023-02-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #361 – Aaron Smith-Levin: Scientology · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They paint themselves into a corner of not being able to send a representative out into the world to speak honestly about it because you're literally not allowed to. So when faced, you know, if you're just sitting down with an entertainment journalist, a representative might be able to fudge their way through an interview. But sitting down for a long form format interview with someone who is going to ask them about Zenu and the body Thaetans and Leah Remini and Lisa McPherson, that's a no-go zone. So I'm representing why it will never happen. But shit, I would tune in for that interview. I hope you do get some way.”
2023-02-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #361 – Aaron Smith-Levin: Scientology · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I'll just say it's interesting to note you would never get a representative of the Church of Scientology to sit down and have a conversation with you and even be as fair and accurate about Scientology as I'm going to be, which is noteworthy.”
2023-02-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #361 – Aaron Smith-Levin: Scientology · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I totally agree. In fact, it's one of the Thrusts I have on my channel is wanting to talk about Scientology in a way that would actually resonate with current Scientologists. Not just resonate with former Scientologists. I want people who are still in to be able to hear how I talk about it and go, wow, he's being really fair and really accurate. He's not just a hater. You know what I mean”
2023-02-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #361 – Aaron Smith-Levin: Scientology · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The model is you have the physical universe. And then above that, you have the theta universe. So we use the word thetan earlier. In Scientology, they'll use the word Theta's just basically thetan power. Thetan's collectively. So Hubbard would say you have the theta universe, which is senior to the physical universe, and creates the physical universe. And remember, I said native godlike potentials. So we're not talking about the God who created the earth. We're just like Scientologists don't believe in a God, but we'll get into that later. We're talking about just creating universes. Like, just think like matrix. Like just when I say creating a universe, essentially just creating different thetan simulations.”
2023-02-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #361 – Aaron Smith-Levin: Scientology · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, yeah, no, that's what Dianetics in the early days was all about just auditing. Auditing is the process of the one-on-one counseling. Recall a moment of pain and unconsciousness run through the angram over and over and over again. Find something earlier to move. That is Dianetics auditing. One of the main things that changed with Scientology is that birth or prenatal angrams were no longer their earliest angrams on the chain. The idea is you have to get the earliest engram on the chain for the later ones to blow, which is a race. But all of a sudden now with the addition of an immortal spiritual being into the equation, well, now the earliest incident could be trillions of years ago in other galaxies and universes.”
2023-02-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #361 – Aaron Smith-Levin: Scientology · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It is similar. It's probably what Hubbard took it from. In the early days of Dianetics, before he decided psychiatry was evil. He actually credited Sigmund Freud with some of the shoulders he was standing on in writing Dianetics.”
2023-02-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #361 – Aaron Smith-Levin: Scientology · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Similar, earlier similar, early, similar, early, similar. Okay, so that gives you a pretty good understanding of how Lron Hubbard thought of the mind because that carries on has applicability later on in Scientology.”
2023-02-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #361 – Aaron Smith-Levin: Scientology · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, and the idea is we've now, as human beings, evolve to a state where it no longer serves us beneficially, it only serves us negatively. This was Hubbard's theory, and he says you can get rid of these ngrams by basically recalling them and going over them again and again using Dianetics auditing therapy. And if you get back to the moment of birth and erase the earliest engram, all the other subsequent engrams on the chain would vanish.”
2023-02-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #361 – Aaron Smith-Levin: Scientology · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The reactive mind is essentially a stimulus response mechanism created through evolution millions of years ago to protect the individual from things that would harm them. In other words, things that would bring about pain and unconsciousness. So you have these recordings of things that hurt you, create a pain and unconsciousness. And in present time, these things will react upon you in a way to cause you to avoid similar things reacting upon you in a subconscious unconscious way.”
2023-02-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #361 – Aaron Smith-Levin: Scientology · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's always recording in moments of pain and unconsciousness, and that these are called, L Ron Hubbard called them engrams. Now, when L. Ron Hubbard first wrote Dianetics in 1950, this was before Scientology came along a couple years later, right? So in 1950, when he wrote Dianetics, it wasn't a spiritual endeavor. It was supposed to be a mental health, a science of mental health. Of that time, the earliest engram you could have was the incident of birth being born was an engram. And technically, in Dianetics, he said you could have prenatal engrams, like when you're still in the womb. But there was no concept of past lives as of 1950 version of Dianetics, right? And so the idea there was that.”
2023-02-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #361 – Aaron Smith-Levin: Scientology · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That would be correct. So, what can make it challenging to adequately end completely describe Scientology in the beginning is what Scientologists believe actually changes as they progress further into or further up in Scientology. So the explanation is I've given it is pretty consistent with what you would get at the lowest levels, right? You're a thetan. I'm a thetan. Everyone's a thetan and we have a reactive mind. L. Run Hubbard would say the reactive mind is a collection of these recordings, mental recordings of any moments of pain and unconsciousness you've ever had in your life. It's like the subconscious mind.”
2023-02-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #361 – Aaron Smith-Levin: Scientology · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source