After 45 years in the church, Mike Rinder became disillusioned and walked out. He talks about daily life in the organisation, being disciplined in ‘the Hole’, and his hopes of reconnecting with his children
gave him birthday presents – a fancy watch and a set of Bose headphones. He earned promotion after promotion within the Sea Organization, a sort of executive order, was flown around the world and 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. But after more than 45 years in the notoriously secretive church – which he now regards as “a mind prison” – he broke out.
Rinder, who grew up in Adelaide, Australia, with his brother and sister, was five years old when a neighbour introduced his parents to Scientology. During his high school years, the family relocated to England for months at a time so they could study at Hubbard’s Sussex base. Rinder says he plotted his escape for only three days before leaving. But it must have taken more than a few days to undo decades of belief. After all, he was sufficiently immersed to be convinced of an origin story that involves Xenu, the head of the Galactic Confederacy, shipping humans to Earth, sticking them in volcanoes and dropping bombs on them.
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.
Whistleblowing activities account for about 60% of Rinder’s working life now . Rinder has contributed to countless documentaries about Scientology, including Leah Remini’s Scientology and the Aftermath. He co-presents a podcast with her, too. He has a When he was 17 or 18, Rinder joined the Sea Org, the prestigious order within Scientology whose members fill the church’s management roles. He signed the organisation’s standard “billion-year contract”, designed to encompass all of his futures . His ex-wife Cathy signed the same. In time, so did their children, Taryn and Benjamin.
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