Last March, we visited former Scientology spokesman
Mike Rinder at his home in
Florida. The result of our visit was a series of videos that we posted at the
Village Voice website in April. However, since leaving the Voice our
YouTube account was shut down. Thankfully, with help from a loyal reader, we managed to retrieve those videos and have posted them to YouTube once again. So we've decided to republish the entire story along with the videos.
And our timing is good, because
Chris Owen just published a lengthy and detailed
Wikipedia entry about "
The Hole," Scientology's concentration camp for top executives, and that's the subject of many of these video segments. We're glad to get this interview with Rinder back on the 'net...
[Originally published April 4,
2012] For years, Mike Rinder was the Church of Scientology's chief spokesman and executive director of the
Office of Special Affairs, its intelligence wing. In
2007, his defection was among the most surprising in an exodus of high-ranking officials from the church. Since then, he's given several interviews, but none as complete as the videotaped discussions we had with him last month in his Florida home. In this first segment, he describes the conditions in "The Hole," Scientology's notorious concentration camp for fallen executives at its
California headquarters. In other segments, Rinder also talks about the confessions forced out of prisoners, the constant indoctrination of church members, and much, much, more...