A Billion Years: My Escape from a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology

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This was the man who wrote millions of words and delivered thousands of lectures explaining everything from how to wash windows to how to cure yourself of cancer. Michael John Rinder is an Australian-American former senior executive of the Church of Scientology International (CSI) and the Sea Organization based in the United States.

L. Ron Hubbard said: A civilization without insanity, without criminals and without war, where able can prosper and honest beings can have rights, and where is free to rise to greater heights are the aims of Scientology.

Somehow Scientology has always been an interesting topic, mostly because of what you hear about it through modern media, where it's talked about in relevance to actors and celebrities who are involved in this. In the four years since most of that material has been publicly available, no one from ASC has attempted to refute a single word of it. So I was thinking, if it is so good, why do they not just allow people to leave in peace if they choose to, and save themselves a lot of bad press for trying to force people back into the fold?

The truth was that the Victoria inquiry in Australia had been a catalyst for renewed scrutiny by the US and UK governments, as well as by the media, in the mid-’60s. Had Rinder even read the decision - let alone participated in litigating any corner of IRS matters - he would have known and stated that the court did not definitively decide the merits of whether Scientology donations could ever be deemed tax exempt. Her anecdotes are humorous, heartfelt, and supremely captivating, recounted with the passion of a true survivor and the acerbic wit of a weathered, street-wise New Yorker.

Mike Rinder’s parents began taking him to their local Scientology centre when he was five years old. Another book, Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright(2013), remained a thorn in Scientology's side for many years.