Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape
Jenna Miscavige Hill (with Lisa Pulitzer), 2013
HarperCollins
404 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780062248473
Summary
Jenna Miscavige Hill was raised to obey. As the niece of the Church of Scientology's leader David Miscavige, she grew up at the center of this highly controversial and powerful organization. But at twenty-one, Jenna made a daring break, risking everything she had ever known and loved to leave Scientology once and for all. Now she speaks out about her life, the Church, and her dramatic escape, going deep inside a religion that, for decades, has been the subject of fierce debate and speculation worldwide.
Piercing the veil of secrecy that has long shrouded the world of Scientology, this insider reveals unprecedented firsthand knowledge of the religion, its obscure rituals, and its mysterious leader—David Miscavige. From her prolonged separation from her parents as a small child to being indoctrinated to serve the greater good of the Church, from her lack of personal freedoms to the organization's emphasis on celebrity recruitment, Jenna goes behind the scenes of Scientology's oppressive and alienating culture, detailing an environment rooted in control in which the most devoted followers often face the harshest punishments when they fall out of line. Addressing some of the Church's most notorious practices in startling detail, she also describes a childhood of isolation and neglect—a childhood that, painful as it was, prepared her for a tough life in the Church's most devoted order, the Sea Org.
Despite this hardship, it is only when her family approaches dissolution and her world begins to unravel that she is finally able to see the patterns of stifling conformity and psychological control that have ruled her life. Faced with a heartbreaking choice, she mounts a courageous escape, but not before being put through the ultimate test of family, faith, and love. At once captivating and disturbing, Beyond Belief is an eye-opening exploration of the limits of religion and the lengths to which one woman went to break free. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Jenna Miscavige Hill (born 1984) is a former Scientologist who, after leaving the Church of Scientology in 2005, has become an outspoken critic of the organization. She is the daughter of Ron Miscavige, Jr. and the niece of current church leader David Miscavige.
Hill, with Kendra Wiseman and Astra Woodcraft (both also raised in Scientology), founded the website exscientologykids.com. She has been interviewed about her experiences within Scientology by a number of media outlets, including ABC's Nightline in April 2008, and on Piers Morgan Tonight in February 2013 discussing details of the church.
In 2000, when Hill was 16, her father and mother left Scientology. Hill states that due to the Scientology-ordered practice of disconnection with relatives and friends who don't support Scientology or are hostile to it, letters from her parents were intercepted and she was not allowed to answer a telephone for a year.
She described her experience from ages five to 12 as thus: "We were also required to write down all transgressions...similar to a sin in the Catholic religion. After writing them all down, we would receive a meter check on the electropsychometer to make sure we weren't hiding anything, and you would have to keep writing until you came up clean." (From Wikipedia.)
Lisa Pulitzer is a former correspondent for the New York Times and coauthor of more than a dozen nonfiction titles, including New York Times bestsellers Stolen Innocence, Imperfect Justice, and Mob Daughter. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
An ex-member of Scientology's inner elite bolts—understandably, [if one is to] trust this undistinguished but still valuable memoir. If Charles Dickens had been a sci-fi author, he might have dreamed up something like Scientology and its weird workhouses.... [M]y life was Scientology," [Hill] writes. That life included absolute obedience to dictates that seem crafted to strip away any autonomy from the individual, if any individuality at all.... Hill scarcely saw her mother unless on "special Scientology/Sea Org occasions.... Hill's emotional turmoil is wrenchingly authentic, but [it] does not save the book.... Despite the uneven prose, readers with an interest in the psychology of religion, among other subjects, will find this rare insider's account to be of value—less so than Lawrence Wright's Going Clear (2013), but of value all the same
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
We'll add specific questions if and when they're made available by the publisher. In the meantime, consider the following approaches:
1. What surprised you most about this book? Has the book altered, in any way, your prior understanding of Scientology...or has it confirmed your existing views?
2. Talk about the reasons Jenna's parents left Scientology—and the outfall from their decision.
3. How do you define Scientology? Is it a legitimate religion? Is it a movement? Is the desire to punish transgressions or to control thinking different to or similar from other religions?
4. Is Scientology dangerous?
(Talking points by LitLovers. Feel free to use them, online of off, with attribution. If you have more detailed questions please let us know. We'll add them...and give you credit. Thanks.)