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

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They even have 'The Hole' for the upper echelons of management, which was first exposed by Debbie Cook in court (available on Youtube). His aim was to offer Christians a better deal, but there's not really any signs anywhere in his teachings of a God or Jesus(Christianity). If you read this book and think "It can't possibly be true" -- just look at the one-star reviews obviously posted by Scientologists who haven't read the book. Mike Rinder has written the definitive book on the great threat of Scientology in the twenty-first century. The fig tree is there, too, when war breaks out, when the capital is reduced to ashes and rubble, when the teenagers vanish.

With a narrative assist from Stanton, the result is a consistently titillating and often moving story of human struggle as well as an insider glimpse into the days when Times Square was considered the Big Apple’s gloriously unpolished underbelly. PIs to infiltrate IRS meetings" (he cites not a single one because he cannot), use of "front groups" (names not a single one - there was no IRS-related groups that Scientology was not overtly associated with), and "smear campaigns against individual revenue agents" (citing no particulars because I suppose he is just too lazy to create them). The most difficult part of his story in my opinion is his obvious pain and regret when it comes to his children. I knew all of this prior to reading the book but hearing the new-to-me details of how he spent close to no time with his children, sometimes going months or even years without even seeing them, was shocking.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. A much-used word, karma is loosely understood as a system of checks and balances in our lives, of good actions and bad deeds, of good thoughts and bad intentions.

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. After he helped strong-arm the organization’s tax-exempt status with the IRS, Rinder ran interference, neutralized investigations, and obfuscated Scientology’s vast, corrupt hierarchy, which left him overwhelmed and feeling like a “virtual prisoner.I was in fact in charge of organizing the substantial data compilation evolutions required after each IRS meeting. Penned with clarity, style, and immense vulnerability, this engaging memoir absolutely deserves a place at the top of the list of Scientology survival stories. It will both lift your spirits and anger you (leaning more towards the latter), and will leave you wondering how this organisation continues to get away with their abuses unchecked.

While not inherently religious, both were “attracted by the promise of eradicating unwanted emotions and insecurities, having better relationships, raising successful children, and maybe even saving the world.

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. It was the humiliation of being sent to do the lowest grunt duties in front of all the Freewinds crew. The CST federal court ruling he cites occurred almost a year after the IRS negotiations and audits had begun.

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.

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.