Those with the best oration in fast and testimony meeting were on their way to bigger and better things-lots of handshakes and pats on the back were the first rewards. The way to parental and community praise was to fall in line and assert how much we knew that Joseph Smith was true prophet of god. Those would all be washed away in one simple immersion in the baptismal font. We were baptized at age 8 after a perfunctory scan of our childhood misdeeds. Everyone mostly did what was expected of them in a go-along to get-along sort of way. In the religion of my youth, Smith's mormonism, we were taught basic concepts and indoctrinated into a system that appeared dominant in the local culture. After baptism at age 8, it has recently been re-emphasized by LDS officials that free agency is forfeit. Ahem, mormons, stay on the Covenant Path. (There was a recent dustup at the Golden Globes wondering if Miscavige's wife, Aunt Shelley was being held hostage or buried out in the California desert somewhere.) In the book, Jenna Miscavige details how she signed a contract to join Sea Org and serve Scientology for a billion years-at age 7. Jenna was born into an elite family-her uncle, David Miscavige positioned himself to take over the reins from Hubbard at his death (dropping his body) and he currently leads Scientology, albeit at some secret base.

I've been reading a book, 'Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape' (2013) by Jenna Miscavige Hill about her childhood in Scientology and comparing it to my experience being born into Brighamite mormonism.

Beyond belief miscavige