Jenna Miscavige Hill - Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape

I bought Beyond Belief last week because I've been curious about Scientology for a while now, but hadn't gotten around to reading much about it. I was not disappointed, as Miscavige Hill does an excellent job of outlining what life is like for a child who grows up within the "religion."

I was struck by the sheer amount of brainwashing and other cult behaviour that Miscavige Hill described, including the seeming ease with which her parents essentially abandoned her at a young age in the belief that they were serving the "greater good." The brainwashing brought to mind a number of parallels, including the disturbing similarities to the Hitler Youth in forcing children to spy and report on one another. In addition, the complete lack of access to information critical of Scientology (and Miscavige Hill's comment that she grew up thinking that everyone admired L. Ron Hubbard) made me think of the strict controls on outside information in North Korea and the cult of personality developed about its leaders.

What disturbed me the most was the amount of control that Scientology has over the lives of its Sea Org members, especially the children. If the conditions of life at the Ranch described by Miscavige Hill are accurate (including huge amounts of manual labour) then that definitely crosses the line into child abuse. As well, the ability of the church to force members to do manual labour for punishment and restrain them if they try to leave their sessions seems incredibly dubious legally. Finally, it seemed to me that much of the "training" that the young members of the Sea Org were doing was nothing more than servant work for the higher ups, who are the ones collecting large amounts of money and who have the freedom of movement denied to those who are lower down.

Beyond Belief was an incredibly interesting book, and I would highly recommend it. It definitely pushed me further into thinking that Scientology is a dangerous cult (as it is classified in much of Europe) rather than just a ridiculous pseudo-religion.