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

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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 Germany to this day have issues with Scientology, according to Mike. There are other countries as well, I just cannot remember right now. 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. 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.

Incredible. I listened to the audiobook and Mike did such a good job with the narration here. I've listened to quite a few books where the authors did their own narration, and it's not always great. It's really an ideal way to do an audiobook though if you've got the skill for it. Mike has a unique perspective on Scientology. He not only grew up in the “church” but rose to its highest ranks, working directly with self-appointed leader David Miscavige, Tom Cruise, and in his early years as a teen, founder L Ron Hubbard himself. The first obstacle was that the Supreme Court had ruled Scientology donations were not tax-deductible. The second was a Federal Court ruling on Church of Spiritual Technology's (CST) tax exemption application. The latter was so critical that he quotes an entire paragraph from the 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.Spears’ vulnerability shines through as she describes her painful journey from vulnerable girl to empowered woman. 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. If (like me) you've watched Scientology and the Aftermath and Going Clear, listened to the first season of the Fair Game podcast, and further researched the organization, you might be wondering if this book offers anything you haven't already learned about Mike Rinder's life. Well, it does. Many events were familiar to me, but new details emerge as well.

Both horns of his impossible dilemma are invented. The CST federal court ruling he cites occurred almost a year after the IRS negotiations and audits had begun. Had Rinder actually participated in either the litigation or the negotiations he would have known that the IRS was certain that the lower court judge's opinion was so biased and baseless that the pending appeal would certainly be won by Scientology. In the year since the record review had begun the IRS already conceded that their basis for denying CST exemption was discredited. They were almost embarrassed by the CST federal court ruling when it came out; realizing they could not support the findings with facts. For that reason, the CST decision was more of a problem for the IRS than for the Church.Helloooo?! ... wasn't that the aim of people such as Stalin, Karl Marx, most religions, and, oh dear, most politicians... well...basically... all -isms and whatnot? And look where they all ended up. Millions of people dead in horrific wars and revolutions and most of these game-changing rebels murdered or dead themselves. In L. Ron Hubbard's case, he did not die. He just left his body one day and aimed to return some day to continue his noble work. Apparently 21 years. But wait a minute: how many religions do indeed believe in reincarnation? Or an after-life? Mmm. But is it all true? You wonder why people would want to remain in scientology with everything that's told. For some people it clearly worked. Kirstie Alley (RIP) did stay until she 'left her body to move on' and always said Scientology safed her life. But the price seems extremely high. 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. 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. Not Rinder, not Gibney, not Wright, not Ortega. None of them. Their response instead is clear in Rinder's book: if you cannot prove history, and you wish it were different, then just recreate it. Rinder, for the first time in 15 years since leaving Scientology, suddenly claims to have played an integral role in attaining Scientology's tax exemption.

Rinder's book makes it clear that he thinks it is better than good to be the king. I imagine it must be simply "thrilling" and "intoxicating" being at the "pinnacle of achievement," "front and center in the crowd" (sandwiched between Toby McGuire and Alec Baldwin no less). It sounds as if he has even developed a sense of "invincibility." The victim is really a hero? Or is the hero a victim? I listened to many testimonials and experiences of people on Youtube, who were mentioned in the book. Too many people 'escaped'. Too many folks lost their families and friends in 'disconnection'. I don't know where I heard about this book by Mike Rinder. It might have been a podcast about secret societies, or a magazine about it, but I immediately wanted to read it. Eventually I discovered it as an audio book and put it on top of my list. 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. Having an ex scientology member who used to be in a higher rank talk about his experience seemed extremely interesting, and man, I wasn't wrong. Mike Rinder opens up a book full of stories that are so mindblowing that some of them are even very hard to believe. Yet, having read and seen stuff in the past, I also couldn't not believe his story.

Quote from the book: There's no time limit, stop whenever you want. You can change or stay the same, there are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. And I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life you're proud of. If you find that you're not, I hope you have the courage to start all over again. ~SOMETIMES ATTRIBUTED TO F. SCOTT FITSGERALD. I didn't actually consider the dirty work itself to be degrading...It was the humiliation of being sent to do the lowest grunt duties in front of all the Freewinds crew." 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. This was the pinnacle of achievement in the Sea Org-I had been selected to become one of the elite. I was thrilled. Since the day I arrived...I had been envious of peers who had been in the CMO and so it was as if I were finally being invited to sit at the cool kids' table." negotiations and historically in-depth IRS audits that culminated in tax exemption. Even with my detailed descriptions over the past several years publicly available, Rinder's new fiction betrays a remarkable degree of ignorance about Scientology's history vis a vis the IRS.