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

by Mike Rinder

Overview

One of the highest-ranking defectors from Scientology exposes the secret inner workings of the powerful organization in this remarkable memoir that is “not only a cautionary tale but also an inspiring story of resilience” (Leah Remini, New York Times bestselling author).

Mike Rinder’s 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 Scientology’s elite inner circle, the Sea Organization. Brought to founder L. Ron Hubbard’s yacht and promised training in Hubbard’s most advanced techniques, Rinder 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 Hubbard’s world-saving mission, swiftly rising through the ranks. In the 1980s, Rinder became Scientology’s international spokesperson and the head of its powerful Office of Special Affairs. He helped negotiate Scientology’s pivotal tax exemption from the IRS and engaged with the organization’s prominent celebrity members, including Tom Cruise, Lisa Marie Presley, and John Travolta.

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.

In 2007, at the age of fifty-two, Rinder finally escaped Scientology. Overnight, he became one of the organization’s 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.

“An intensely personal, cathartic memoir of blind allegiance, betrayal, and liberation” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), A Billion Years reveals the dark, dystopian truth about Scientology as never before.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781982185787
Publisher:	Gallery Books
Publication date:	09/27/2022
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	89,136
File size:	4 MB

About the Author

Mike Rinder was raised as a Scientologist from early childhood. He went on to serve as Scientology’s international spokesperson and as the head of its Office of Special Affairs and was a member of the Board of Directors of Church of Scientology International from its creation in 1983 until he left in 2007. Since renouncing Scientology, Rinder has become a prominent whistleblower against its abuses. He appeared in the HBO documentary Going Clear and cohosted all three seasons of the Emmy Award–winning show Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath on A&E. He and Remini currently cohost the podcast Scientology: Fair Game.

Table of Contents

Author's Note xi

A Letter to My Children xiii

Prologue 1

Chapter 1 The Beginning 5

Chapter 2 Joining the Sea Org 17

Chapter 3 The Apollo Years 31

Chapter 4 We Come Ashore 48

Chapter 5 Commodores Messenger 69

Chapter 6 The GO Takeover 85

Chapter 7 The Office of Special Affairs 102

Chapter 8 The Struggle for Power 113

Chapter 9 PR for a Dead Man 128

Chapter 10 The War Is Over 144

Chapter 11 Lisa McPherson Changes Everything 161

Chapter 12 Return to California 183

Chapter 13 The Hole 203

Chapter 14 You Make Your Own Tomorrow 230

Chapter 15 Fair Game 250

Chapter 16 Life as a Whistleblower 264

Chapter 17 The Aftermath 277

Epilogue 289

Acknowledgments 293

Glossary of Scientology Terminology 295

Recommended Further Reading 305

Index 307

Editorial Reviews

[Rinder’s] voice is crisp, urgent, and vividly impassioned, whether assessing his years as a compliant member, his breathless escape, or his promise to continue exposing Scientology as a ‘unique and vengeful monster.’ An intensely personal, cathartic memoir of blind allegiance, betrayal, and liberation.”
—Kirkus, starred review

“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.”
—Leah Remini, New York Times bestselling author of Troublemaker

“A candid and deeply felt memoir of a life lost to false belief—and courageously regained.”
—Lawrence Wright, New York Times bestselling author of Going Clear

“A Billion Years is an extraordinarily powerful book. It is an essential account from the inside, and while it’s a devastating exposé of the abuses of the church, the tone is measured and deeply humanistic. Rinder lets us feel what it’s like to fall into a state of blind faith, and how hard it is to break free and see the truth for what it is. Nothing could be more relevant to our current moment.”
—Alex Gibney, Oscar-winning director of Taxi to the Dark Side and Going Clear

“Mike Rinder has written the definitive book on the great threat of Scientology in the twenty-first century. It’s a flamethrower of a read, burning up the organization’s wicked nonsense so all that is left is like so much ash in the ashtray. Read it.”
—John Sweeney, investigative journalist and presenter of BBC Panorama’s Scientology and Me and The Secrets of Scientology

From the Publisher

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.”

New York Times bestselling author Leah Remini

★ 2022-09-22
A former high-ranking executive chronicles his defection from Scientology.

In this riveting, meticulously detailed memoir, Rinder describes his life as a Scientologist, from when his family “preordained” him as a child in Australia through his departure in 2007, at age 52. His parents first heard of L. Ron Hubbard from a neighbor in 1959. 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.” They were soon immersed in the odd healing rituals and the concept of a superior “thetan” spirit responsible for everything. At 18, instead of attending college, Rinder signed a billion-year “Sea Org” contract and boarded a ship, where he worked as a deckhand in filthy conditions without pay. Later, during his “slow voyage of self-delusion,” he fared somewhat better, receiving surveyor assignments in Portugal and eventually becoming Scientology’s international spokesman and head of its Office of Special Affairs. At the same time, the organization was drawing intense scrutiny from the IRS. Rinder’s children were raised from infancy not by he and his wife but by the Sea Org. The author’s revelations are both fascinating and shocking: sadistic punishments, zany life-improvement courses, and countless outrageous stories about Scientology’s “darker forces.” 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.” The narrative takes on the flavor of a suspense thriller after Rinder’s escape, which resulted in his ex-communication, harassment, and numerous dangerous threats by volatile Scientology executives like David Miscavige. While Rinder admits his recollection may be blurry due to the “dull fog of exhaustion,” the voice is crisp, urgent, and vividly impassioned, whether assessing his years as a compliant member, his breathless escape, or his promise to continue exposing Scientology as a “unique and vengeful monster.”

An intensely personal, cathartic memoir of blind allegiance, betrayal, and liberation.

Kirkus Reviews