[imagesource: Mike Miller / Flickr]

Mike Rinder was a part of the notoriously secretive church for 45 years of his life.

Rinder grew up in Adelaide, Australia, and was only five years old when a neighbour introduced his parents to Scientology.

After years of indoctrination, Rinder became so entrenched in the “aristocracy of Scientology” that Tom Cruise gave him birthday presents and he received promotion after promotion within the Sea Organisation, a sort of executive order.

He was even entrusted with taking Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley on a private tour of the Los Angeles museum devoted to Scientology’s founder, L Ron Hubbard.

Although he now regards the church as “a mind prison”, per The Guardian, Rinder says that if Hubbard were still alive today he would probably still be a part of Scientology.

He is still proud to have been a part of the “very limited number of people on this Earth” who were appointed Hubbard’s special “watch messenger” – someone who sorted his meals and sniffed his laundry.

His adoration for Hubbard aside, Rinder became disillusioned when David Miscavige, the current leader, became head of Scientology in 1987, after Hubbard’s death.

He managed to escape the church one day in 2007, with just £200 in cash, a credit card, and his passport:

As a church executive he had pursued people who tried to leave, so he knew what to expect. “I needed to get out of sight, remove the batteries from my phones, use only cash and stay on the move,” he says.

Fifteen years later, having escaped and built a new life, he wrote a book about his time inside, talking about daily life in the organisation, being disciplined in ‘the Hole’, and his hopes of reconnecting with his children:

In the book, Rinder writes that he was physically assaulted by Miscavige. Other punishments for perceived “unhandled evil intentions” or for perceived alleged failings at work ranged from cleaning a sewage retention pit to wearing a mask made from a paper plate and being taunted by a ventriloquist’s doll built in his own image. At other times, employees were made to jump fully clothed into a swimming pool and “commit our sins to the deep”, Rinder says.

I have finally written a book. Coming on 27 September. See details at @simonschuster website with links to pre-order on Amazon, B&N etc. https://t.co/TXDPf2Kedq#ABillionYears pic.twitter.com/88qLClIMYY

— Mike Rinder (@MikeRinder) July 12, 2022

The worst was apparently spending time in a building known as “the Hole” at the church’s international base near Hemet, California:

He was initially sent there to explore his subversive intentions, though at the time he didn’t have any, and then again, when as director of the Office of Special Affairs, he failed to prevent the BBC show Panorama from airing a programme on Scientology.

Here he lived under 24-hour guard, in a sort of prison camp for fallen Scientology executives, with no access to the outside world and no explanation of what crime had earned the placement. He suffered violence and he inflicted it on others. “It was part of the culture. Anyone who didn’t do it was subjected to discipline.” It was his removal from the Hole for a London mission that gave him his chance to escape.

Now Rinder has a fresh start on the outside, with a new wife, new child, and new job, although he hasn’t fully escaped Scientology.

His new job? A professional former Scientologist.

Rinder has contributed to countless documentaries about Scientology, including Leah Remini’s Scientology and the Aftermath, and co-presents a podcast with her, too.

He also runs a post-Scientology blog and remains close friends with former Scientologists. Even his second wife, Christie Collbran, is a former Scientologist.

He may have escaped Scientology but Scientology can never escape him:

“I don’t think that I will ever be able to shed this particular job. People contact me every single day asking for help.” Besides, he says, he wants to give his older two children the chance “to think for themselves”.

Rinder has written his book for an “audience of two” he says, referring to his two children, Taryn and Benjamin in their 30s and 40s, who are still stuck in the throes of the church.

His parenting experience in the church was odd, to say the least, but since having his 10-year-old son with Christie, he has experienced a new kind of fatherhood.

Not that he has ever given up thinking of Taryn and Benjamin, even though they openly disowned Rinder as their father.

[source:guardian]