Jenna Miscavige Hill | |
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Born | Concord, New Hampshire, United States | February 1, 1984
Nationality | American |
Notable works | Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape ISBN 9780062248473 |
Spouse | Dallas Hill |
Relatives | David Miscavige (uncle) Ron Miscavige Jr. (father) Ron Miscavige Sr. (grandfather) |
Website | |
Jenna Miscavige Hill (born February 1, 1984) is an American former Scientologist. After leaving the Church of Scientology in 2005, she has become an outspoken critic of the organization. She had been a third-generation Scientologist, the granddaughter of Ron Miscavige Sr. (who also left the church in 2012), the daughter of Elizabeth "Bitty" Miscavige and Ron Miscavige Jr. [1] (who left in 2000) and the niece of current [update] Scientology leader David Miscavige. [2] [3] Her book Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape, recounting her experience growing up and living within the Scientology movement, was published by HarperCollins in 2013. She now runs a website which she co-founded with other ex-Scientologists which provides support and discussion for people either in the church or who have left. [4]
Jenna was born in Concord, New Hampshire on February 1, 1984. [5] : 7 Her mother was Elizabeth "Bitty" Blythe, [5] : 10 and her father was Ronald "Ronnie" Miscavige, Jr [5] : 8 the older brother of David Miscavige. [1] She has two brothers, Sterling and Justin. [6]
Her parents joined Scientology's Sea Org just before Jenna turned two years old. [5] : 1 From then on she spent most of her childhood apart from her parents and says she was only allowed to see them once a week. [7]
At age eight she signed her own billion-year contract with the Sea Org, effectively agreeing to follow their rules for life. [8] [9] One requirement of the Sea Org was that families be separated and that "children over the age of six would be raised communally at locations close to Sea Org bases"; [10] at age six she was moved to the Cadet Org (Sea Org for children [11] ) school called "The Ranch". At the Ranch, Hill states that in addition to rote learning of the works of L. Ron Hubbard [9] she was expected to do heavy manual labor for 25 hours a week. [12] [13] She described her experience from ages five to twelve thus: "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." [14]
After leaving the Ranch in 1997, she began training in the CMO, where Hill claims she was given repeated "security checks", investigations looking for confessions of misdemeanors (known as withholds) from past and present lives. [9] After several months, she was told that her parents had left the Sea Org and requested that she be allowed to leave too. Hill claims she was considered a potential risk to Scientology's public profile as David Miscavige's niece, and the confessions were taken to use against her later if she spoke out publicly. [9] [1]
Hill was 16 when her father and mother left Scientology in 2000. Hill states that due to the Scientology-ordered practice of disconnection with relatives and friends who do not support Scientology or are hostile to it, letters from her parents were intercepted and she was not allowed to answer a telephone for a year. [15] [16]
Hill met her husband, Dallas Hill, also a Scientologist, in 2001. They married soon afterwards, and later had two children. [17] In 2004, they were sent to Australia on a church mission where they were finally able to access TV and internet and became aware of criticisms of Scientology. [18] One such website was Operation Clambake, dedicated to publishing critical articles and exposés of the Church of Scientology. [19] Shortly afterwards, the couple decided to leave the church. Jenna claims this was made difficult by the Scientology organization, which threatened Dallas with disconnection from his own family still within the church. [9] [18] [17] She further claims they were pressured to sign agreements which would entitle the church to claim $10,000 each time she spoke out publicly against the church, which she refused. [7] In 2005, they finally left the church.
In 2008, Hill first spoke publicly against the Church of Scientology's practice of disconnection in an open letter to Karin Pouw, the official Scientology spokesperson, in which she details how ex-members are prevented from communicating with family still in the church. The open letter was in response to Pouw's statement refuting allegations about disconnection made in the book Tom Cruise: An Unauthorized Biography . [15] In the letter Hill wrote:
[Disconnection] is a widespread practice and if you dare deny it I have a list of all of [their] names together—these people's families are crying every day because they can't speak to their children who did nothing but leave the Church of their own free will. If I am in fact wrong and you want to prove me as such, then allow me and my family to be in contact with our family members that are still part of the Church such as my Grandpa, Ron Miscavige, and his wife, Becky. Allow the same of my friends. ... Why don't you take the high road for once and put that time towards repairing the families you have destroyed, starting with the family of David Miscavige himself – hell, if Scientology can’t keep his family together – then why on earth should anyone believe the Church helps bring families together! [6]
Hill, along with Kendra Wiseman and Astra Woodcraft (both also raised in Scientology), founded exscientologykids.com in 2008—a website designed to provide a forum and information for people who have either left the church or those still within Scientology who are looking for information. [20]
She has been interviewed about her experiences within Scientology by a number of media outlets, including ABC's Nightline in April 2008, [21] [22] and Piers Morgan Tonight in February 2013 discussing details of the church.
On February 8, 2013, while appearing on radio's Opie & Anthony Show , she stated that she first learned about the story of Xenu from watching the South Park episode "Trapped in the Closet". [23]
External video | |
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Jenna Miscavige Hill talking about her book (2013) |
In 2013, Hill published her book Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape under the William Morrow imprint of HarperCollins. [24] Jointly written with Lisa Pulitzer, a former correspondent for The New York Times , the book recounts her experience of Scientology in detail.
Hill told James Naughtie, host of BBC Today programme, about her book and her life in Scientology's most secretive inner core, the Sea Org. [25]
Writer Catherine Wessinger called Miscavige Hill's writing an "informative, and critical, portrait of the Church of Scientology." [26]
Jenna and Dallas Hill have two children. [17] In an August 28, 2023 interview, Jenna said she was getting a divorce. [27]
Jenna has rebuilt her relationship with her parents, Bitty and Ron Miscavige Jr, who left the church in 2000, [15] and her grandparents Becky and Ron Miscavige Sr. who left in 2012. In 2016 Ron Sr. wrote his own memoir, Ruthless: Scientology, My Son David Miscavige, and Me ; he passed away in 2021. [28] Jenna's two half-brothers, Justin "Miscavige" Tompkins and Sterling Tompkins (who are twins), have both left the church. [26] [29]
Disconnection is the severance of all ties between a Scientologist and a friend, colleague, or family member deemed to be antagonistic towards Scientology. The practice of disconnection is a form of shunning. Among Scientologists, disconnection is viewed as an important method of removing obstacles to one's spiritual growth. In some circumstances, disconnection has ended marriages and separated children from their parents.
Since its inception in 1954, the Church of Scientology has been involved in a number of controversies, including its stance on psychiatry, Scientology's legitimacy as a religion, the Church's aggressive attitude in dealing with its perceived enemies and critics, allegations of mistreatment of members, and predatory financial practices; for example, the high cost of religious training:191 and perceived exploitative practices. When mainstream media outlets have reported alleged abuses, representatives of the church have tended to deny such allegations.
The Sea Organization is a core group of Church of Scientology staff members who have signed a billion-year pledge of service to Scientology. All Scientology management organizations are controlled exclusively by members of the Sea Org. David Miscavige, the de facto leader of Scientology, is the highest-ranking Sea Org officer, holding the rank of captain.
MV Freewinds is a former cruise ship operated by International Shipping Partners and owned by San Donato Properties, a company affiliated with the Church of Scientology. She was built in 1968 by Wärtsilä Turku Shipyard in Turku, Finland, for Wallenius Lines as MS Bohème for service with Commodore Cruise Line. She was the first cruise ship built in Finland. Her ownership passed to a Church of Scientology-controlled company in 1985.
Leah Marie Remini is an American actress. She starred as Carrie Heffernan on the CBS sitcom The King of Queens (1998–2007) and as Vanessa Celluci in the CBS sitcom Kevin Can Wait (2017–2018), both alongside Kevin James.
Lisa Pulitzer is an American author and journalist. Pulitzer is a former correspondent for The New York Times newspaper. She is the author/ghostwriter of more than fifteen non-fiction books. In addition to her own books, Pulitzer has written a number of memoirs including several about young women who have escaped fundamentalist religion including Jenna Miscavige Hill, the former Scientologist, Lauren Drain, the ex-member of Westboro Baptist Church, and Elissa Wall, who wrote about her experiences after leaving the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Pulitzer left journalism in 1998 while pregnant with her first child to concentrate on writing books and has had numerous publications on The New York Times Best Seller list.
David Miscavige is the second and current leader of the Church of Scientology. His official title within the organization is Chairman of the Board of the Religious Technology Center (RTC), a corporation that controls the trademarks and copyrights of Dianetics and Scientology. He is also referred to within the Scientology organization as "DM", "C.O.B." or "Captain of the Sea Org".
The term fair game is used to describe policies and practices carried out by the Church of Scientology towards people and groups it perceives as its enemies. Founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, established the policy in the 1950s, in response to criticism both from within and outside his organization. Individuals or groups who are "fair game" are judged to be a threat to the Church and, according to the policy, can be punished and harassed using any and all means possible. In 1968, Hubbard officially canceled use of the term "fair game" because of negative public relations it caused, although the Church's aggressive response to criticism continued.
The Church of Scientology is a group of interconnected corporate entities and other organizations devoted to the practice, administration and dissemination of Scientology, which is variously defined as a cult, a business, or a new religious movement. The movement has been the subject of a number of controversies, and the Church of Scientology has been described by government inquiries, international parliamentary bodies, scholars, law lords, and numerous superior court judgements as both a dangerous cult and a manipulative profit-making business. In 1979, several executives of the organization were convicted and imprisoned for multiple offenses by a U.S. Federal Court. The Church of Scientology itself was convicted of fraud by a French court in 2009, a decision upheld by the supreme Court of Cassation in 2013. The German government classifies Scientology as an unconstitutional sect. In France, it has been classified as a dangerous cult. In some countries, it has attained legal recognition as a religion.
Heber Carl Jentzsch is an American Scientologist who served as the president of the Church of Scientology International from 1982 to around 2010. Jentzsch is listed as missing, and the Church of Scientology International will not disclose any other information regarding him.
Michael John Rinder is an Australian-American former senior executive of the Church of Scientology International (CSI) and the Sea Organization based in the United States. From 1982 to 2007, Rinder served on the board of directors of CSI and also held the post of executive director of its Office of Special Affairs, overseeing the corporate, legal and public relations matters of Scientology at the international level.
Karin Pouw is a French-born American official within the Church of Scientology International. Since 1993, she has held the position of Director of Public Affairs in the Office of Special Affairs (OSA) and serves as one of Scientology's international spokespersons.
The intersection of Scientology and abortion has a controversial history which began with Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's discussion of abortion in his 1950 book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. Hubbard wrote in Dianetics that abortion and attempts at abortion could cause trauma to the fetus and to the mother in both spiritual and physical ways. Scientologists came to believe that attempted abortions could cause traumatic experiences felt by the fetus, which would later be remembered as memories referred to in Scientology as "engrams". In the Scientology technique called Auditing, Scientologists are frequently queried regarding their sexual feelings and behaviors. These questions about Scientologists' sexual behavior are often posed to members during "security checks", a specific form of auditing sessions where individuals are required to document their divergence from the organization's ethics. One of the questions asked in these security checks is, "Have you ever been involved in an abortion?".
Blown for Good: Behind the Iron Curtain of Scientology is a memoir written by Marc Headley, a former Scientologist and Sea Org member, about his life and experiences in the Church of Scientology. It was self-published in the United States on November 5, 2009.
Exscientologykids.com is a website launched in 2008 by Kendra Wiseman, Astra Woodcraft and Jenna Miscavige Hill. It is dedicated to publishing affidavits of former child members of the Church of Scientology.
Miscavige is the surname of the following people:
Michele Diane "Shelly" Miscavige is a member of the Church of Scientology's Sea Org who married Scientology leader David Miscavige. She was last seen in public in August of 2007. Since her disappearance, she has been the subject of speculation and inquiries regarding her whereabouts and wellbeing. In 2012, attorneys who said they represented her responded by saying she was merely living a private life devoted to the Church of Scientology. In August 2013, actress Leah Remini, a former Scientologist and critic of the organization, filed a missing person report regarding Miscavige with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) which was closed within hours by the LAPD as "unfounded".
Ruthless: Scientology, My Son David Miscavige, and Me is a book by Ron Miscavige and Dan Koon published in 2016 in the United States and United Kingdom. It presents the personal account of Ron Miscavige's almost five decades in the Church of Scientology, the rise of his son David Miscavige to the church's top leadership role, his decision to leave the church, his escape in 2012, and the aftermath.
The Cadet Org is a subdivision of the Church of Scientology for the children of members of the Sea Org (SO), an internal Scientology grouping of the organization's most dedicated members. It operated for about thirty years between the early 1970s and the early 2000s in a number of locations in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia. Some of its facilities reportedly housed as many as 400 children who were aged between a few months and sixteen years old.
This is a bibliography of books critical of Scientology and the Church of Scientology, sorted by alphabetical order of titles.