Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape
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-two, Jenna made a daring break, risking everything she had ever known and loved to leave Scientology once and for all. Now, for the first time, 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 first-hand knowledge of the religion, its obscure practices, and its mysterious leader—David Miscavige. From her forced separation with her parents as a small child, to being brainwashed in the name of the greater good; from her lack of personal freedoms to the church’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. Addressing the rumors and misconceptions surrounding Scientology in startling detail, she also describes a childhood of isolation and neglect—a childhood which, 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’s finally able to see the church for what it is: an unforgiving place where stifling conformity and potent psychological control rule with an iron fist. 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 that one woman went to, in order to break free.