num_pages: 336
description: One of the highest-ranking defectors from Scientology exposes the secret inner workings of the powerful organization in this remarkable memoir.Mike Rinders 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 Scientologys elite inner circle the Sea Organization. Brought to founder L. Ron Hubbards yacht and promised training in Hubbards 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 Hubbards world-saving mission swiftly rising through the ranks. In the 1980s Rinder became Scientologys international spokesperson and the head of its powerful Office of Special Affairs. He helped negotiate Scientologys pivotal tax exemption from the IRS and engaged with the organizations prominent celebrity members including Tom Cruise Lisa Marie Presley and John Travolta.Yet Rinder couldnt shake a nagging feeling that something was amissHubbards 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 organizations 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.
language: English
title: A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology
publisher: Gallery Books