Analysis Of Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology

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Recommended: Religious conflicts today among the society

Logan Fjelstad
REL 371
Professor Scott E. Yakimow
Jan 20 2014
Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape
For my report I chose to read Beyond Belief. This is the story of Jenna Miscavige Hill, she is the niece of the founder and leader of the Church of Scientology David Miscavige. She was raised in this very controversial religion but in 2005 decided to leave. I chose this book because this very controversial religion is in the news quite a bit. The news we hear is usually about celebrities and celebrities leaving the church. I have always been interested in controversy and thought this would be a very interesting read from a different point of view then what the media shows us.
One of the first things that really caught my eye was when she was talking about the Sea Org and her billion year contract. When she was just six years old she was sent to a place called the Ranch. It was here at the Ranch where they trained for the Sea Organization also known as the Sea Org. The Sea Org is the highest order within the ranks of the Church of Scientology. She writes that she and other children there were expected to dedicate themselves fully to the church’s mission, and only saw their parents for a few hours each weekend. At age 7, she says she was forced to sign a contract pledging to serve Sea Org “for the next billion years”(Miscavige Hill 2013). Jenna says she was told by the recruiter at the Ranch, “We come back lifetime after lifetime” According to scientology after you die you come back and begin a new life in another body. “You are signing a billion-year contract.” Even at 7 years old, Jenna again says, she sensed something wrong. “Before I signed, images from The Little Mermaid flashed in ...

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...tricts individual freedoms” (Miscavige Hill 2013).
After reading this book about her Jenna’s journey through out the Church of Scientology and Jenna’s struggles I am amazed something like this is allowed to go on. To me this does not sound like a religion or a church, to me it truly is a cult. People bribing people to stay in. Child manual labor, blackmailing having to sign a contract at the age of 4 to state that you will be here forever. This truly makes me sick and I wonder how we can let this go one. It was a very powerful book about Jenna’s journey. This church gets so much attention because of the famous people that are a part of this so called church. Like I stated above to me this is not a church it is a cult.

Jenna Miscavige Hill, Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape, (William Morrow, 2013).

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