Escaping Scientology: An Insider's True Story: My Journey with

Escaping Scientology: An Insider's True Story: My Journey with the Cult of Celebrity Spirituality, Greed & Power

Artists Peter and Karen Schless were seduced by Scientology's celebrity spirituality, and detoured from Hollywood careers to join its extremist group, the Sea Org. Within leader David Miscavige's inner sanctum, they built their mental prison as they melded into its radicalized lifestyle where danger, captivity and abuse were normalized. After three escapes, Karen chose between two unbearable options. Escaping Scientology Part I sweeps you into the lives of two young adults filled with hope and love as designer Karen and her award-winning musician-composer husband Peter overcome obstacles to succeed in the music and fashion industries together. Scientology re-focuses their goals toward the importance of clearing the planet and recruiting celebrities to build Scientology's social capital. Karen portrays the basic beliefs of Scientology that led to her radicalization into the Sea Org at the Celebrity Centre, a fortress where artists aspire to achieve greatness while attaining spiritual freedom through L. Ron Hubbardâ€™s teachings. Karen shows how celebrities are lured into Scientology and develop a co-dependent relationship from which few break out. Part II reveals Karen as a flawed and complex woman when she and Peter move to the secretive International Management headquarters, where they join 800 fanatical Sea Org members that made billion-year commitments to make this a Scientology world without war, criminality, or insanity. Karen finds the dystopian outpost and its global operations to be proof that Time magazineâ€™s 1991 article â€œThe Thriving Cult of Greed and Powerâ€ captures the essence of Scientologyâ€™s mindset, that she describes as â€œwar is everything and everything is war.â€ She is no passive victim as she attempts to stay in the driverâ€™s seat and keep their marriage intact while fighting the pressures of the Int base culture that attempt to break them apart. Scientology goes under â€œCruise Controlâ€ as Miscavige becomes obsessed with his biggest trophy, Tom Cruise, and stiffens his control and abusive punishment methods on the Int base staff. Karen rebels against regulations and spends time in Scientologyâ€™s prison camp. After two attempts to escape the Int base, she is trailed by security guards and coerced into returning. Failing to escape, she questions the evidence of her own senses, and makes a mind-twisting re-commitment to become the best version of a Sea Org member she can be. Karen carves out a world she can live within as she is promoted into the highest echelons of management, appointed by the Chairman of the Board RTC to Int Management Public Relations Officer and later to take charge of the image of Sea Org staff internationally from the Int Finance Office. While working on special projects under David and Shelley Miscavige, she travels to Scientology bases around the world where she sees human rights violations set in place by Hubbardâ€™s policies. She concludes that Scientology is a for-profit business that builds billions of dollars of assets on the backs of Sea Org slave labor, while hiding behind the banner of the First Amendment, claiming benefits and protection as a non-profit religion. The epilogue of Part III portrays the mind-wrenching process of physical escape, and psychological anguish as Karen plies herself out of Scientologyâ€™s grip and endures its cruel disconnection policy. She re-acclimates herself to life on the outside while, brick by brick, she disassembles the walls of the mental prison she had built, and survives with the help of her accomplice and the love and support of her family. Karen Schless Pressleyâ€™s narrative memoir shows that Scientology's plan, authored by L. Ron Hubbard and David Miscavige, is filled with flaws: While the leaders impose their will on thousands of members who follow blindly and spend exorbitant amounts of money or dedicate their lives to achieve spiritual freedom, they grossly underestimate the power of free will in those brave enough to escape and speak out.
Country USA
Brand Pressley & Associates
Manufacturer Pressley & Associates
Binding Paperback
ItemPartNumber RKC2011021988
UnitCount 1
EANs 9780999088128
ReleaseDate 0000-00-00

Country	USA
Brand	Pressley & Associates
Manufacturer	Pressley & Associates
Binding	Paperback
ItemPartNumber	RKC2011021988
UnitCount	1
EANs	9780999088128
ReleaseDate	0000-00-00

Escaping Scientology: An Insider's True Story: My Journey with the Cult of Celebrity Spirituality, Greed & Power

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