Reddit reviews Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape
We found 5 Reddit comments about Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Jenna Miscavige wrote her memoirs of growing up in scientology. She is the neice of one of the rulers in the church. I read the book; it's good.
https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Belief-Secret-Scientology-Harrowing-ebook/dp/B008XOJ7C2
Watch the documentary "Going Clear." It's on HBO or I'm sure you can rent it on Amazon or Google Play. It's riveting. The backstory on the guy who founded this religion is ... there are just no words to describe the guy. And they treat him like a god. Leah's book makes a nice companion piece to the documentary since it tells how a regular person became involved with the church. You also get a glimpse at how the connections within the church allowed her to succeed in Hollywood (and may be hurting her now that she's out).
If you still want more to read, I suggest Jenna Miscavige's book "Beyond Belief." She is the niece of the man who became the leader of the church after the founder died. You'd think that would give her some kind of elite status in the "church." It's shocking to read how just the opposite seemed to be true. She was treated horribly, like someone in a human trafficking ring minus the forced sex.
Some have been indoctrinated from a very young age. I highly recommend Jenna Miscavige-Hill's book for insight into how the CoS manages to control and suppress its members.
Mark "Marty" Rathbun (righthand man) and Jenna Miscavige (leader's niece) have both written books. Miscavige's was recently a NY Times Bestseller, and isn't bad at all. It's really kind of a sad book. I haven't read Rathbun's book.
[What is wrong with Scientology - Rathbun] (http://www.amazon.com/What-Wrong-With-Scientology-ebook/dp/B008EMF628)
[Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape - Miscavige] (http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Belief-Scientology-Harrowing-ebook/dp/B008XOJ7C2/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1368198556&sr=1-1&keywords=miscavige)
Marty provided a lot of info for [this Tampa Bay Times Time Scientology series] (http://www.tampabay.com/specials/2009/reports/project/).
You should do some research.
The Church of Scientology is a dangerous cult.
Check out scientology-lies.com or xenu.net or whatstheharm.net
In addition:
> Operation Snow White was the Church of Scientology's name for a conspiracy during the 1970s to purge unfavorable records about Scientology and its founder L. Ron Hubbard. This project included a series of infiltrations and thefts from 136 government agencies, foreign embassies and consulates, as well as private organizations critical of Scientology, carried out by Church members, in more than 30 countries...
> Under this program, Scientology operatives committed infiltration, wiretapping, and theft of documents in government offices, most notably those of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Eleven highly-placed Church executives, including Mary Sue Hubbard (wife of founder L. Ron Hubbard and second-in-command of the organization), pleaded guilty or were convicted in federal court of obstructing justice, burglary of government offices, and theft of documents and government property.
The church (allegedly) locked people up, held them against their will, and abused them.
2a) http://au.news.yahoo.com/today-tonight/lifestyle/article/-/12905379/australias-child-labour-camp/
>Working 35 hours a week when he was eight-years-old, by the time he was fourteen, the work changed to kitchen duty.A military muster every morning required marching and saluting to the cause of saving mankind from the intergalactic ravages, described by the Church’s science fiction founder L Ron Hubbard.The kids wore all black uniforms, and were always required to run, never walk.So-called home schooling was provided in fits and starts, taking a back seat to hard labour and brainwashing.“As soon as you turn fifteen, anyone, you're straight out of school. It doesn't matter what grade you're in, what level of maths, what level of anything, you're straight out," Shane said.The mess hall served food priced at 30 cents per meal, mostly beans and rice. The adults ate first.“They would all come in and eat whatever they wanted, and then we went after them to take what's there - sometimes there wouldn't be much, so you'd get little bits of food, and it wasn't really sufficient,” Shane said.Those who dared question the brutality of this place were dealt with swiftly and severely.“They used to live under our squash courts - it's a mud, dirt floor,” Shane recalled.“We put people in there and they live in there, when they're on the RPF they'd sleep down there, and they'd study down there.”Why would you put people in a dank, mouldy, sinking foundation underneath a squash court? According to Shane it’s “because you're a bad person, you have to be segregated from everyone.
From scientology's website:
>A Scientologist can have trouble making spiritual progress in his auditing or training if he is connected to someone who is suppressive or who is antagonistic to Scientology or its tenets. All spiritual advancement gained from Scientology may well be lost because one is continually invalidated by an antagonistic person who wants nothing more than to do harm to the person. In order to resolve this situation, one either “handles” the other person’s antagonism with true data about Scientology and the Church or, as a last resort, when all attempts to handle have failed, one “disconnects” from or stops communicating with the person.
Accounts of ex-scientologists:
http://www.exposescientology.com/scientologydisconnection.com/index.html
>Sea Org members make a lifetime commitment to Scientology by signing a billion-year contract that is officially described as a symbolic pledge. In exchange, members are given free room and board, and a small weekly allowance. Sea Org members agree to strict codes of discipline, such as disavowing premarital sex, working long hours (on average at least 100 hours per week or more)
>Sea Org members may marry one another, but are not permitted to marry outside the organization; extra-marital sex is also prohibited. According to Melton, couples with children must leave the Sea Org and return to other staff positions within the church until the child is six years old; thereafter the children are raised communally and allowed to visit their parents in the Sea Org at weekends. Children of members have themselves joined the Sea Org when they came of age
It's not just a few bad apples, a lot of people have similar stories. Some examples: http://exscientologykids.com/ , http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Belief-Scientology-Harrowing-ebook/dp/B008XOJ7C2/ref=zg_bs_12773_1 , http://www.amazon.com/Going-Clear-Scientology-Hollywood-ebook/dp/B00A9ET54E/ref=zg_bs_12773_2 and the three websites I linked at the beginning.