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

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There was a sign against a fence in the Russian labor camps, which, paraphrased, declared something like 'We will force you into happiness'. Scientology had/still have their own labor camps, managed by the Rehabilitation Project Force(RPF). At the outset, I was enthusiastic and determined to get the truth out to counteract what I believed were lies about Hubbard perpetuated by those who sought to take him down. Ultimately, however, the task of writing a church-authorized biography of L. Ron Hubbard was a fool's errand. There were too many things that could not be ignored or explained in the man's life. If everything that was a lie, embellishment, or embarrassment was omitted, the biography would be so full of holes that even scientologists wouldn't buy it. Furthermore, if we published a book that full of lies, we opened ourselves up to being dissected by reviewers and critics...So instead of publishing a biography that risked opening scientology up to criticism, we followed the example of the LRH Life Exhibition and published issues of Ron magazine that covered carefully selected stories about Hubbard's life, such as 'Master Mariner' and 'The Humanitarian.' Each included convenient facts but left huge gaps." (p. 136-37) As the saying goes: 'Silence is violence', right, when you choose to remain silent while there's suffering and ignorance? Mike chose to speak up and share his experiences. So did a multitude of others. One such a book is My Billion Year Contract by Nancy Many(2009). The rest is available on Youtube. It is always so sad to read about other people's negative experiences with religion. The truth is that there are terrible people with terrible power in this world, and religion can give some of these people the platform they crave to wreak as much havoc as possible on the lives of others. Mike Rinder's experience with scientology (I would call it a cult before I call it an actual religion) was terribly abusive, manipulative, and terror inducing, and reading his story made me so appreciative of the life I have led so far. I have freedom. Mike did not. Just reading about how he started sleeping 8 hours a night for the first time, and how he was able to visit a park and be able to take time to enjoy it for the first time after leaving scientology, was illuminating. I wish Mike Rinder and all other victims of abuse in scientology peace and comfort.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ROzm...), IRS, Actual Malice on Wright's behalf, ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OOw9...)) Our most basic instinct to belong and to be accepted is our biggest weakness in the end. Our desire to connect convinces us that we will improve or enlighten ourselves. Or at least receive support and acceptance. There's nostalgia and remorse in Mike Rinder's case. And heartbreak. I’ve witnessed him do this time and again (in the A&E series and on the podcast), and I… ugh… I just love him for it.and victories, the prosecution of hundreds of Freedom of Information act lawsuits to uncover what the government was hiding about unlawful operations and discriminatory treatment against Scientology, the lawful investigation of IRS abuses, and least of all the nearly two years of You could never predict whether you would be in or out with Misavige. I think this was deliberate. It was a tactic famously used by Stalin - keep your subordinates divided, fearful, confused, and off-balance. No cabal to overthrow the king can form if no one at court is certain of their position. One minute I was digging ditches and the next I was heading up external affairs for all of scientology." (p. 147) One of the punishments for those who messed up in the RPF [Rehabilitation Project Force] was assignment to the RPF's RPF. You slept and ate separately from and were not allowed to even talk to the other RPFers." (p. 106) [You know things are bad when there are punishments within punishments]

I watched and then read Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief and saw "Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath." That might be the problem with this book. Most of the things in it are covered by those already. Mike Ridner's early life in scientology was interesting and mostly new, but most of this was handled in the series and in the previous book. 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. Germany to this day have issues with Scientology, according to Mike. There are other countries as well, I just cannot remember right now.One of the highest-ranking defectors from Scientology exposes the secret inner workings of the powerful organization in this remarkable memoir. Now I was the emperor of my own kingdom. It was intoxicating. It gave me a sense of invincibility." Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading Mike Rinder's memoir. A primary source of information and experiences. Watching a few Youtube videos of dissenters, it is clear that there is a impressive cloud of smoke, hiding perhaps a massive fire. I was originally going to give this book 3 stars. It was a good book, but did not really provide me with any new details. But then I saw this book: As to the 1989 Supreme Court decision, Rinder betrays even more ignorance, feigned or otherwise. 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. Instead, it ruled that in the single case in front of the court there was an insufficiency of evidence to reverse the IRS's deduction denial. It explicitly remanded the case for further proceedings and invited the petitioner to attempt to fill the gaps in that evidence insufficiency. If Rinder had lifted a finger of support to the effort to attain tax exemption he would have known and stated that in fact, upon remand a number of federal courts ruled in Scientologists' favor and were upheld by United States Appellate Court decisions across the country. Some courts ruled for the IRS too; establishing a classic split in the Circuits leading to an inevitable second appointment with the Supreme Court (just as the original Supreme Court decision contemplated).

The author was inspired by books such as Educated by Tara Westover, and influenced by Russell Miller's unauthorized biography of Hubbard, Bare-faced Messiah(2012). 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. There are even more religious mantras based on the writings of Madame Blavatsky, who was a Russian mystic and author, a co-founder of the Theosophical Society in 1875. She gained an international following as the leading theoretician of Theosophy. Her theories were plagiarized big time and even taken over and adjusted by Eugenics. At what point, if ever, did she influence Hubbard in establishing his non-Christian Church? There are rumors to the effect though. Please allow me one more gush before I quit, okay? Just knowing Mike Rinder exists: that someone brought up in Scientology, which is hellbent on beating the human warmth out of people, can come out the other side twice as tender and emotionally adept as the average person … From billion year contracts, to mysteriously missing people, to surveillance cameras, to Xenu the alien leader and his hydrogen bombs, Scientology is even more wild, and it’s leaders (past and present) even more unhinged than you ever thought possible.Few people understand Scientology like Mike Rinder does. In A Billion Years, he tells the gripping, harrowing account of growing up in Scientology, serving founder L. Ron Hubbard, and rising to the top of its ranks. Mike has found purpose in his pain and his book offers not only a cautionary tale but also an inspiring story of resilience.” creation I'll break down one critical section of the book, covering events I am intimately familiar with. In this section, Rinder attempts to fill a gigantic hole in the official anti-Scientology narrative. It might be the wildest fiction he has ever attempted on the subject. The hole in question was created by my widely-disseminated recitation of the facts leading up to Scientology's tax exemption recognition. I have described before the fraud perpetuated by Rinder, and promoted by Larry Wright and Alex Gibney, on that subject. You can find the numerous references on my YouTube channel (e.g., IRS, Fraudulent Deceptions ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usd4Y...), IRS, Wright fact inventions and joining sides Penned with clarity, style, and immense vulnerability, this engaging memoir absolutely deserves a place at the top of the list of Scientology survival stories.

As for the content of the book itself, this was a massive undertaking by Mike Rinder to consolidate 42 years of Scientology plus the years of the aftermath after leaving into a single book, and do it well. I had brief feelings of disappointment in content that I know was omitted in this book, but I also understand that it would be an impossible task to include it all. His blog is an excellent source of extra information, especially the stories of other scientologists that are not really his to tell in his book anyways. Anyone who has grown up in a “prison of belief” will relate to one of his first descriptions of the experience: To me personally, this is the saddest of all. But it's a social tendency outside this organization as well. Edit to add: If you had any question as to whether the harassment, obsession, trailing of ex-members, "Fair game" type nonsense of Scientology was true, you can simply look at the number of accounts that magically appeared to give this book (and any other book about Scientology) a bad rating before it was even published. It is their life's work to protect the secrets of their cult, y'all.*

If you go into this book with zero prior knowledge about Scientology, I believe it would be difficult to truly understand the magnitude of the information and follow along with all the jargon. Rinder does provide a glossary of terms which is helpful, but I would highly recommend either watching the aftermath series that he and Leah Remini did on A&E first, or spend some time on Aaron Smith Levin's YouTube channel. The very first information I got on Scientology was reading Leah remini's Troublemaker book a few years ago and I also would recommend that as a good place to start. remini/), with plenty of citation to detail. What Billion Years made clear is that Mike is not an amnesiac after all. Instead, he is an inveterate liar. Memory loss is merely his justification for his continually making it up as he goes along. Victimhood and hero status both thoroughly rely David] Miscavige was the best man at Tom and Nicole's wedding on December 24, 1990, in Telluride, Colorado, where Cruise had a home. Though I was not there, my old friend Sinar Parman, Hubbard's personal chef, was flown in to cook for the newlyweds. It was the first time I became aware that Sea Org members were used as personal staff for Cruise. It was indicative of how far Miscavige was willing to go to ally Cruise. Other Sea Org members were sent to help set up the house. This became a standard pattern with Cruise. Miscavige would dispatch Sea Org members to do various tasks to 'help Tom'." (p. 139) As much as he attempts to paint himself the adorable victim, Rinder continually betrays his barn-sized ego throughout his book. Never, in my thirty plus years in and around Scientology have I encountered a person so admittedly in it to satisfy his own vanity. Fortunately, his editors have