Prompt #7 – A book about a cult

I find Scientology weirdly fascinating and loved aleah Remini’s autobiography Troublemaker and her documentary series Scientology and the Aftermath. A Billion Years is her co-host, Mike Rinder’s account of his time as a Scientology executive.

What it’s about?

One of the highest-ranking defectors from Scientology exposes the secret inner workings of the powerful organization in this remarkable memoir.

Mike Rinder’s parents began taking him to their local Scientology center when he was five years old. After high school, he signed a billion-year contract and was admitted into Scientology’s elite inner circle, the Sea Organization. Brought to founder L. Ron Hubbard’s yacht and promised training in Hubbard’s most advanced techniques, Mike was instead put to work swabbing the decks.

Still, Rinder bought into the doctrine that his personal comfort was secondary to the higher purpose of Hubbard’s world-saving mission, swiftly rising through the ranks. In the 1980s, Rinder became Scientology’s international spokesperson and the head of its powerful Office of Special Affairs. He helped negotiate Scientology’s pivotal tax exemption from the IRS and engaged with the organization’s prominent celebrity members, including Tom Cruise, Lisa Marie Presley, and John Travolta.

Yet Rinder couldn’t shake a nagging feeling that something was amiss—Hubbard’s promises remained unfulfilled at his death, and his successor, David Miscavige, was a ruthless and vindictive man who did not hesitate to confine many top Scientologists, Mike among them, to a makeshift prison known as the Hole.

In 2007, at the age of fifty-two, Rinder finally escaped Scientology. Overnight, he became one of the organization’s biggest public enemies. He was followed, hacked, spied on, and tracked. But he refused to be intimidated and today helps people break free of Scientology.

In A Billion Years, the dark, dystopian truth about Scientology is revealed as never before. Rinder offers insights into the religion that only someone of his former high rank could provide and tells a harrowing but fulfilling story of personal resilience.

What I think:

I finished reading this book Sunday morning and found out that evening that Mike Rinder had passed away which made finishing his story all the more powerful.

If you have seen Leah Remini’s documentary series, Scientology and the Aftermath, then you will know Mike Rinder and his story. He has talked about it extensively in interviews and on his own podcast.

Having been raised in Scientology, he joins the SeaOrg and signs a contract committing him to Scientology for life and all the lives to come according to their beliefs. He is dedicated and works hard rising to the very top of the organisation where he is both an enforcer and a victim. After a particularly brutal and prolonged punishment he takes the opportunity to run from the organisation.

He is 52. He has no formal education and has never held down a job. With the help of other former scientologists he builds a happy and fulfilling life and dedicated himself to uncovering the truths of the organisation he was a part of and providing support for other people who leave.

It is a remarkable and interesting story. Rinder is able to explore what kept him in the cult for so long and the impact that it still has on his life after he leaves.

He is subject to the ‘fair game’ strategies where anything possible is attempted to discredit him once he leaves. He is stalked, threatened, a Scientology plant moves into the house near his family and tries to befriend them and his trash is stolen.

Overall this is a fascinating exploration of the inside working of a large and complex organisation, the different strategies implemented to control it’s members and the challenges of starting life again.