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

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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.

Nevertheless, the read taught me a couple of things about Rinder which helps to put him into accurate perspective. That is useful in the process of letting go. And so I thank Mike for his effort. The aristocracy of Scientology’ … Tom Cruise gave Rinder birthday presents. Photograph: Paul White/AP Of course, when in New York, there are people I need to see. Dinner with Tony Ortega is a tradition. He continues to fight the good fight and has been around for longer than anyone else in exposing scientology abuses. The Underground Bunker is the wikipedia of scientology — the greatest source of information on the subject available anywhere. Plus, we always compare notes about the trials and tribulations of raising our kids…

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Maybe we can get #ReleaseTheRinderTapes trending in Europe and Australia! And all pester Audible daily/weekly etc till they sort it out. It’s almost as if they have Scientologists behind the scenes putting spanners in the works! 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. Mike Rinder started attending a local Church of Scientology International (CSI) center with his parents at age of five. By the time he was fresh out of high school, he signed Sea Org’s billion-year contract.

Remarkably, even after that, Rinder continued in his faith, identifying as a Scientologist while he worked as a car salesman, his first job on the outside. It was really only that he wanted Miscavige to leave. There’s something so unique about Mike Rinder: an empathy that doesn’t just “feel” for people, but that deftly pinpoints the source of another’s pain and swiftly responds with a skillful word or deed to kiss the hurt, and make it better. We’ve had so much fun over that time, live-blogging court cases, for example, in California, Texas, Florida, and New York. Those days are always milestones. But we’re especially fortunate to have such a great commenting community. It’s what keeps us going.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 … 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

More importantly though, Mike deserves his story to be heard as his story--not only as an example of David Miscavige's criminal abuses or of Hubbard's sociopathic con game. In the past, Mike has served as an interpreter of sorts, the events of his life discussed mainly when they will further the audience's understanding of the Scientology organization. Here he is finally able to speak as a protagonist. Like it would be for so many other former Scientologists, Rinder would now have his lifelong loyalty to the idea that Scientology was based on the betterment of mankind pitted against the reality that this bullying, ruthless organization was now spending vast resources to destroy him. Mike's narration is superb – engaging and captivating. His voice conveys both emotion and clarity with great precision, allowing listeners to truly feel what he went through during this difficult chapter in his life. Each chapter paints a vivid picture of his experiences as he recounts every detail with accuracy – from the psychological pressures put on him by the organisation to the impact being inside had on his relationships with family, friends, and even himself. The anecdotes interspersed throughout make for a powerful listen that will stay with you long after you've finished listening. You start as a swamper,” Rinder says, “and you ultimately work your way up through Midshipman, Ensign, Lieutenant, all the way up to Captain,” which the de facto leader of Scientology, David Miscavige, now holds. As far as memoirs go, I think this is a critical one to read, not only because it's well done, but because cults and thought control is a widely misunderstood topic and I think it's extremely important to understand how it works. Educated people make poor victims if you know what I mean. Reading this will help you understand not only Scientology specifically but also the mindset of any person with a cult and how it works.But how well can a one-sided conversation with children really go? The church of Scientology sees the book as “a self-aggrandizing ‘memoir’” and “a compendium of gross exaggerations and provable lies”. It accuses Rinder of family betrayal and callous treatment of his ex-wife and children. Isn’t Rinder’s main aim really to bring down Miscavige and Scientology, which he insistently refers to with a lower case “s”, in a sort of grammatical emasculation? Mike is a former senior executive of the Church of Scientology International (CSI) who has become a prominent whistleblower against abuses in scientology and other organizations.