Jenna Miscavige Hill

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 would leave the church in 2012), the daughter of Elizabeth "Bitty" Miscavige and Ron Miscavige Jr.

Her memoir Beyond Belief recounts her life within the Scientology movement, and was published by HarperCollins in 2013. She now runs a website which she co-founded with other ex-Scientologists to provide support and foster discussion for people either in or having left the church.

Early life Jenna was born in Concord, New Hampshire, on February 1, 1984. Her mother was Elizabeth "Bitty" Blythe, and her father was Ronald "Ronnie" Miscavige, Jr the older brother of David Miscavige. She has two brothers, Sterling and Justin.

Life in the Sea Org At age eight she signed her own billion-year contract with the Sea Org, effectively agreeing to follow their rules for life. 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"; at age six she was moved to the Cadet Org (Sea Org for children ) school called "the Ranch". At the Ranch, Hill states that in addition to rote learning of the works of L. Ron Hubbard 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."

After leaving the Ranch in 1997, she began training in the Commodore's Messenger Organization, where Hill says she was given repeated "security checks", investigations looking for confessions of misdemeanors (known as withholds) from past and present lives.

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.

Leaving the church Hill met her husband, Dallas Hill, also a Scientologist, in 2001. They married soon afterwards, and later had two children. 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. One such website was Operation Clambake, dedicated to publishing critical articles and exposés of the Church of Scientology. Shortly afterwards, the couple decided to leave the church. Hill says this was made difficult by the Scientology organization, which threatened her husband with disconnection from his own family still within the church.

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.

She has been interviewed about her experiences within Scientology by a number of media outlets, including ABC's Nightline in April 2008, 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".

Memoir

In 2013, Hill published her memoir Beyond Belief: My Secret Life Inside Scientology and My Harrowing Escape, under the William Morrow imprint of HarperCollins. 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. Writer Catherine Wessinger called Hill's writing an "informative, and critical, portrait of the Church of Scientology."

Personal life Jenna and Dallas Hill have two children.

Hill rebuilt her relationship with her parents, Bitty and Ron Miscavige Jr, who left the church in 2000, Jenna's two half-brothers, Justin "Miscavige" Tompkins and Sterling Tompkins (who are twins), have both left the church.

Family tree