Despite his handling of Minton and many other matters for the church, Rinder repeatedly found that his loyalty was rewarded with increasingly harrowing punishments from Miscavige, who was always looking for ways to prove that he was top dog. This led to the creation of “The Hole” at Scientology’s secretive Int Base in early 2004, as an increasingly paranoid Miscavige created a bizarre office-as-prison for his top lieutenants, including longtime colleagues who had been among his best friends. Rinder himself ended up in The Hole, and so he can personally describe its depravations. and victories, the prosecution of hundreds of Freedom of Information act lawsuits to uncover what the government was hiding about unlawful operations and discriminatory treatment against Scientology, the lawful investigation of IRS abuses, and least of all the nearly two years of But is it all true? You wonder why people would want to remain in scientology with everything that's told. For some people it clearly worked. Kirstie Alley (RIP) did stay until she 'left her body to move on' and always said Scientology safed her life. But the price seems extremely high. I watched and then read Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief and saw "Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath." That might be the problem with this book. Most of the things in it are covered by those already. Mike Ridner's early life in scientology was interesting and mostly new, but most of this was handled in the series and in the previous book. In fairness to Scientology, there are a gazillion books written by deserters/runagates/apostates of many religions, political believes, or ideologies. Mike Rinder is just one of many. He is telling his story. It's sad, but positive. An encouraging, albeit in-depth experience for the reader.

One of the punishments for those who messed up in the RPF [Rehabilitation Project Force] was assignment to the RPF's RPF. You slept and ate separately from and were not allowed to even talk to the other RPFers." (p. 106) [You know things are bad when there are punishments within punishments] Maybe we can get #ReleaseTheRinderTapes trending in Europe and Australia! And all pester Audible daily/weekly etc till they sort it out. It’s almost as if they have Scientologists behind the scenes putting spanners in the works!

I hate bullies. That's not alleged, that is fact. I'm giving this book five stars because, again, I hate bullies! I harbour hopes that the bubble in which [Taryn and Benjamin] live may eventually be burst,” he says. “And that by dismantling the organisation around them they may wake up or see something that they haven’t been able to see when they are in such a controlled environment.” I understand there is a problem with the audiobook in the UK and Australia. I do not understand the problem, as it had been all set to launch with the book itself and then it turns out there is some issue with distribution rights that is too complicated for me to understand. I have asked the appropriate people to see if they can step in and sort it out… For the time being, you will have to do things the old fashioned way and read the book. You start as a swamper,” Rinder says, “and you ultimately work your way up through Midshipman, Ensign, Lieutenant, all the way up to Captain,” which the de facto leader of Scientology, David Miscavige, now holds.

Overall I found this to be an amazing audiobook experience full of compelling stories, insightful facts about Scientology, and honest reflections by Mr. Rinder. Very eye-opening and highly recommended! " — GeraldT1, 1/10/2023 As much as we found this to be an enormously satisfying book with a lot of great new information, we know that there will be some readers who see it differently. While Rinder goes into rich detail about the way he and Christie were harassed and surveilled in the years after Rinder first began talking to the media in 2009, former targets of the Office of Special Affairs under Rinder may be left wondering whether there might have been a similar amount of detail in his book about their operations from OSA’s former director. We remember interviewing Rinder a few years later, and we can personally attest that at that time (March 2012), he was still somewhat protective of Hubbard and the subject of Scientology itself. In that interview, for example, he didn’t hesitate telling us his “OT” level and that he was still doing Scientology, but outside the church. Later, at his blog, Rinder obviously went through a period of rethinking Hubbard and the subject of Scientology (which, tellingly, he now insists on not capitalizing). Now, we learn that it was reading Miller’s Bare-Faced Messiah , the first, and still the best, full biography of Hubbard, that finally convinced Rinder that the founder was always selling deceptive nonsense. I am sorry to do this to you again, but CBS Mornings has delayed the airing of their interview with me. I don’t know when it will air, but will try to keep you informed as best I can. Seems they are worried about scientology saber-rattling their paper swords. Sigh. In A Billion Years, the dark, dystopian truth about Scientology is revealed as never before. Rinder offers insights into the religion that only someone of his former high rank could provide and tells a harrowing but fulfilling story of personal resilience.

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One of the basic principles of Scientology is that when something goes wrong in someone’s life, it is their fault, and they are doing Scientology wrong. But, “not only are you doing Scientology wrong, you have done something bad that has caused that to happen to you,” Rinder remarks.