Jenna Miscavige Hill, 28, is the daughter of Scientology leader David Miscavige’s older brother Ron
She left the church in 2005 and set up a support group for other Scientology deserters
Ms Miscavige Hill: ‘My experience in growing up in Scientology is that it is both mentally and at times physically abusive’
Book will reveal ‘strange and disturbing’ details about growing up in the church and will provide a firsthand account of Scientology’s ‘upper ranks’, say publishers
By MATT BLAKE MAIL ONLINE
Memoirs: Jenna Miscavige Hill, 28, daughter of David’s older brother Ron, has been a frequent critic of the Church of Scientology since publicly breaking with it in 2005
A niece of controversial Scientology leader David Miscavige is planning a tell-all memoir about her life in the church and how she escaped its clutches.
Jenna Miscavige Hill, 28, daughter of David’s older brother Ron, has been a frequent critic of the Church of Scientology since publicly breaking with it in 2005.
In ‘Beyond Belief: My Secret Life inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape’, she will reveal ‘strange and disturbing’ details about growing up in the church and will provide a firsthand account of Scientology’s ‘upper ranks’, its publishers William Morrow say.
In 2000, when she was 16 years old, Ms Miscavige’s parents left Scientology, disillusioned with its practices.
In the five years that followed, she has claimed that – because of the church’s policy of ‘disconnection’ with relatives and friends who do not support the cult – all letters between them were intercepted and she was not allowed to answer the telephone for over a year.
‘If you flunked your uniform inspection, sometimes if you were late . . . you would be dumped with a five-gallon bucket of ice water,’ she told investigative journalist Philip Recchia in 2008.
‘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. This is from the age of 5 until I was 12.’
‘My experience in growing up in Scientology is that it is both mentally and at times physically abusive,’ she said in a statement released through the Ex-Scientology Kids website.
‘I was allowed to see my parents only once a week at best – sometimes not for years.
NOTE BY THE EDITOR: I once asked an author of a book on ‘Sects’ why he did not include a chapter on Scientology. His answer: Scientology is a business not a religion.
Categories: Americas, United States
Lost a beloved member of family to Scientology in 1980 when it was worth about usd3 bn. The person doesnt come back. Its like a death without a funeral. Requires counselling and family unity and commitment to attempt recovery.