I’m Back!

I’m back. I’d make excuses but I’m not going to. I lived some life and now I’m back. I’ll do a post on the poll results, explaining what a hard stop is and have that for you tomorrow. I’ll also update you on the poll results for the latest poll and do another one tomorrow. Be sure to vote if you haven’t yet.

In the meantime, everyone is talking about Riley Keough’s book. She wrote it based on tapes and conversations with her mother, Lisa Marie Presley. I’m going to jump on the bandwagon and add my two cents.

The first two chapters of the book are basically transcripts of recordings Lisa made. They discuss her early childhood. They show that even her early childhood was not all innocence and light. And they show she loved her daddy.

The second chapter where her daddy dies was crushing. Lisa’s father died while she was home. She saw him before they declared him dead. She was nine years old. He was 42. The recordings she mad about her death are heartbreaking. I had to stop reading to process that chapter.

But, then there is a giant elephant in the middle of the room that Riley just pretends does not exist. In the story Riley tells of her mother’s life, it is chaotic, tragic, multifaceted. And she touches on Scientology a wee bit. Lisa was dumped in Scientology by Priscilla at age 10. Priscilla wanted them to fix her!

I met Priscilla in 1976. Even then, she was interested in Scientology. She had paid for the Saint Hill Special Briefing Course in 1976. That course was a high level course. And expensive. You didn’t just walk in the door and say “oh this looks nice.” You were a hard core Scientologist if you paid for that course.

By the time Elvis died, Priscilla was already immersed in Scientology and Lisa was dumped in one Scientology school after the other. The book doesn’t say she was schooled in Scientology schools. But she was. And she was on OT VII by that time she quit the second highest level you can go on OT.

When the book talks about Lisa’s first husband playing on a cruise ship in the Caribbean, it omits a key detail. He played on the Freewinds. This is Scientology’s elite ultra-exclusive ship where people go for mega special training.

When they live in Clearwater or Bellaire, it’s because that’s where they had to be to get more Scientology. Different courses are offered in different places. But, you would not be aware of that if you were not a Scientologist.

Lisa made a dramatic exit from Scientology in 2014. Riley claims she blew up her whole life out from an upset. She alleges that some of her employees had misused her credit cards. That was nowhere near what Lisa said or did.

And so it continues. Only Riley’s father gets talked about in the book. Lisa’s other husbands barely get a few paragraphs. The nasty custody battle with Michael Lockwood is entirely ignored. Lisa died before she got a chance to testify against Danny Masterson. She was going to testify for one of the victims in the civil trial. That wasn’t mentioned.

I could go on, but basically, the book started out promising. However, it was not a book of Lisa’s life. It was a daughter’s story of time with her mother. Those are two different books.

I wish Lisa could have told her truth. Maybe Riley or Priscilla will leave Scientology in time for the truth of Lisa’s life to come out. I hope for Riley’s mental health she does leave. Scientology will not heal the trauma she has lived already. Her feisty mother would cheer her on.