The Truth vs. Scientology Whitewash

More About Riley Keough’s Book

Lisa Marie Presley had a double whammy bad start in life. She was in the house when her father died. She was 9. She was not a fan of her mother. From all reports, and my personal observations of their dynamic, Priscilla did not have a clue how to mother her.

This meant Lisa was raised by Scientology. This is not a good statement. Riley whitewashes the majority of Lisa’s childhood in Scientology to the point where it is unrecognizable. In chapter 3, Riley rhapsodizes about Lisa’s time in a Scientology boarding school in Ojai.

Just today there was a new story about of the school discussed in Chapter 3 that Lisa was dumped in. This is told by a father whose son was parked there. It’s a harrowing read, but it’s true. Here is a small excerpt from it.

The so-called education that he got at the Castile Canyon School truly sucked. He was semi-literate. He struggled with the simplest arithmetic. He knew nothing of history or civics or literature or science. I tried my best to help him learn enough to get a GED, which he eventually did. Then we got him enrolled in a community college, where he was tested and put in classes that brought him up to the level of a high school graduate. He was then able to transfer to a university where, after much persistence, he earned a bachelor’s degree.
After all was said and done, that was a happy outcome. But I don’t think he has ever fully recovered from his awful upbringing in that cult. He had known nothing else until he finally left.
Happy Valley has a certain high-desert beauty about it. It is quiet. It is surrounded by mountains. The air is clear and the sky is very blue. Sage brush with its varying coloration covers much of the hillsides. Prickly pear cactus dot the area, with gorgeous red and yellow flowers that blossom in the spring, and bearing tasty fruit (once the spines are carefully removed). Oak trees of a certain type line the creek beds, where fresh water flows during rainy spells. Some earlier tenants had planted many century plants — these are a kind of giant agave, typically 6 to10 feet across and just about as tall. After something like 20 or 30 years they spectacularly put out a giant flower stalk that reaches up to 30 feet in height (which several of them did while I was there).
Sadly, all that beauty was an unlikely setting for all the horrors that went on there while Happy Valley was in the possession of the cult of Scientology. Castile Canyon School was a nice-sounding front for far more nefarious goings-on.

Scientology education is geared towards teaching you to follow orders. Scientologists in general have a disdain for the real world. They consider themselves above it.

Chapter 3 of Riley’s book makes it look like Lisa was a bad child. It does not mention she was forced to do mostly manual labor instead of attend school. The reality of Lisa’s life was so much grittier than her daughter says. It’s a shame she didn’t get a chance to tell us about it.