Esil's Reviews > Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape

I listened to the audio of Beyond Belief. I could have been listening to some kind of scary fiction, but I was hearing the author's story of her life growing up in the church of Scientology. I didn't know much about Scientology before starting other than it seems to attract a bunch of celebrities and it is based on the sci-fi thoughts of L. Ron Hubbard. Jenna Miscavige Hill is the niece of the leader who succeeded Hubbard. Her parents moved onto one of the church's bases when she was two years old. And she spent the next 18 years or so of her life living in a crazy world in which she was separated from her parents for years at a time, performed countless hours of child labour, was deprived of a true education and instead subjected to endless mindless sessions of what can only be described as brain washing, was severely punished for any attempts to rebel, and ultimately made her way out of the church to become an outspoken supporter of other former church members. The world she describes is indeed "beyond belief", but Jenna clearly has a strength of character that has allowed her to emerge with a strong sense of self and purpose, and to that extent at least the book is very positive. Don't read this book if you are looking for a shocking or scandalous narrative that reveals the secrets of various celebrities or church members. Rather, Hill's narrative is a slow methodical description of her life in the church and her escape. She describes what happened from her perspective as it was happening, without inserting information she now knows about what was really going on -- this comes more toward the end of the narrative. To me, this is what made it so powerful -- such an unconsciounable way to raise a child is described in a simple deadpan fashion -- slowly Jenna comes to realize that the world she understands as normal is small, insular and abusive, and that she doesn't have to be part of that world. The audio version was particularly good because the narrator's voice uses just the right tone to convey this world as seen through a child's eyes, then as a teenager and finally as a young adult.