Rehabilitation Project Force
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Rehabilitation Project Force or RPF the name for a group of re-education camps where Sea Org members are sent when they are severely downstat (i.e. when they are deemed failures). It consists of hours of hard manual labor, long study sessions of Hubbard's works and interrogation sessions, in which the inmate's past is examined, especially withholds and overts. The conditions are degrading and include little sleep and bad food.
RPF members are forbidden to talk to people outside of the RPF unless spoken to and are looked down upon by other Scientologists.
When are people assigned to the RPF
According to Jesse Prince, a former high ranking Scientologist, assignment to the RPF was also used as a threat following less than optimal performance or in case of disobedience.[1]
When are people allowed to leave the RPF
When they have "graduated" along with their twin. When they have seen "the error of their ways" so to speak. They have to make "amends". There have been reports of people staying at the RPF anywhere between 2 weeks up to 15 years. According to one study by Dr. Stephen Kent[2]: "Some evidence indicates that RPF inmates in the mid-1970s could complete the program in several months, but later accounts indicate that people frequently took over a year, and served RPF sentences more than once during their Scientology careers."
Conditions in the RPF
Persons in the RPF have to run everywhere and are not allowed to walk. They have to wear a black armband and can not speak unless spoken to. To meet with your spouse or partner is considered a privilege. They are fed leftovers, get little sleep and are required to undergo confessional sessions. The surroundings are often miserable and unhygienic. There are no holidays or family visits and any communication to or from others is censored by a Senior Ethics Officer.[3]
Interrogation/Confession sessions at the RPF
These consist of security checks.
Security measures at the RPF
Some people have reported either to have been held against their will themselves or having witnessed such action. According to the study that was mentioned previously: "Forcible confinement ... specifically occurred in nine RPF accounts and two RPF's RPF accounts."[2] It has also been reported that security personell accompanied inmates when they walked around the place. Former member Astrid von Rönn described an RPF in the US as more harsh than the one in Copenhagen, so there appear to be differences in the security applied. However, the basic conditions as laid down in the policies by Hubbard should, theoretically, be the same in each of them. Dr. Kent's study also states: "Virtually all of the accounts, however, illustrate how the RPF attempted to control the bodies of its inmates through a variety of physical demands, abuses, and work obligations while at the same time it attempted to control their minds through extensive auditing, coursework, confessions, and success stories."[2]
Using RPF inmates as work force
This was a stated goal of the RPF back in the 90'ies. The following is a direct quote from Scientology.org as it was in 1996: "Along with study and auditing, members of the RPF work eight hours per day as a team on tasks which improve the facilities of the Church by which they are employed and improve teamwork and coordination among the participants"[4]
Reportedly, RPF inmates were also used as a workforce to prepare a field of flowers for the marriage of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman.
The twin concept
The concept of "twins" in the RPF works such that each RPF member is assigned to a twin and either both of them or neither of them can graduate. They also audit each other[5].
What is the RPF's RPF
The RPF's RPF is a program for RPFers that fail at the RPF. It was established on April 24, 1974 by a flag order. They aren't allowed to talk to people in the RPF, except for the person in charge of the RPF.[2]
The EPF and its relation to the RPF
The EPF is the "Estates Project Force", a place where people are trained upon their entrance into the Sea Org. Manual labour and huge amount of study time is involved there as well.
The DPF and its relation to the RPF
The DPF is the "Deck's Project Force" and according to John Duignan it carries out physical work assigned by the HCO (Hubbard Communication Office see Ethics). According to a report by Brigitta Dagnell (mentioned by Dr. Kent[2]) the DPF still had harsh working conditions in 1982.
Scientific studies of the RPF
In 1997 Dr. Stephen Kent presented a study which he had created on the RPF. It is called "Brainwashing in Scientology's Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF)" He described the RPF as follows: "Established in January, 1974, the RPF is a program of hard physical labour, forced confessions, and intense ideological study."[2] There have been other studies as well, which have been accused of being apologetic towards the RPF. In reply to a statement by Scientology's human rights director[6] Dr. Kent mentioned[7] studies by the following authors as examples: J. Gordon Melton, Juha Pentikainen, Jugen F. K. Redhardt and Michael York.
Known locations of current or former RPFs
Los Angeles; Copenhagen; Int Base in Hemet, California; and The Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater, Florida.
History of the RPF and other Project Forces
The RPF was started in January 1974[2] aboard the Apollo, which was one of the earliest ships in use in Scientology, a predecessor to the Freewinds. Homer Schomer, a former financial aide to Hubbard who left Scientology in 1982, said people, sometimes as few as 20 or 30 and sometimes as many as 150, were assigned to a lower hold in the ship which was "cockroach and rat-infested"[8]. According to the study by Kent[2] starting in 1969 and continuing to 1972 Hubbard had established several "Project Forces", which mainly served training purposes: DPF, PPF (very short-lived), SPF (Steward's Project Force) and EPF. Apparently, in 1972 the DPF had part of the function of the RPF as Hubbard assigned a Deck-Project-Force Master at Arms, who was responsible for making "ethics real to DPF members by removing counter-intention and other-intention from the area, and by getting each DPF member to crank out products with an honest uptrending statistic". Kent: "Some time between its inception and late May, 1977, the RPF had assumed the punitive functions previously handled by the EPF and, presumably, the DPF."
Scientology's point of view on the RPF and the Kent study
According to the Church of Scientology's "Human Rights Director", the RPF is "a voluntary programme undertaken only by members of the Sea Organisation".[9] She compares the RPF to "withdrawing to a cloister for prayer and/or intensive spiritual studies." In quoting "Lorne L. Dawson, Chair of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Waterloo, Canada", she indirectly accuses Kent of failing "to meet the standards of objectivity and fairness that sociologists expect of their colleagues".
Quotes
"Life in the RPF was despicable and degrading. You lost all sense of self-esteem, freedom and human dignity. It was a world unto itself and you felt like a leper or a member of the caste "The Untouchables". You could not speak to other crew members unless you were spoken to and you had to "run" everywhere."
Affidavit of Howard "Homer" Schomer (18 March 1986)[10]
"You could never miss the RPF guys in the Complex. Dressed in black and berthed in the rat-infested, dark basements, I noticed them in my first week there. The first time I saw them I wondered, 'What the fuck?' They do the dirtiest work imaginable - cleaning blocked toilets, sewers or whatever other bodily fluids can be found. They speak to nobody, but are assigned a twin and they have to audit one another, often for up to five hours a day. Then they return to hours of the hardest physical labour imaginable. Even in the first week I could see that everybody looked down on the RPFer. They were seen as scum and about as low as a Sea Org member could go."
John Duignan, "The Complex"
"Where the unwanteds, those found wanting, seriously wanting were sent, and they were to be kept in this with no rights, no freedoms, no privileges of any kind. Pretty much the only rights they were allowed were a little bit of sleep each day, food leftovers. The harshest treatment, they were not allowed to speak to any of the crew. It was very, very, very bad that this was going on"
Affidavit by Hana Eltringham
"Shortly thereafter Susanne was sent to the RPF's RPF - the program for the most sinful among sinners. From then on Susanne was a complete outcast. She was to sleep alone in a small room on the floor, eat alone on the backstairs, and work alone all day. At meals she waited on the other RPF'ers, served them their food and cleaned up after them.
"On November 18th Susanne asked for permission to call her parents so they could come and get her. She wanted out. It was denied with the following reasons from the Ethics Officer: "This application is not filled out correctly. You do not state the reason for wanting to go to your parents."
Jyllands-Posten (Jan. 2001): "Inside RPF Denmark" by Pierre Collignon
Links/Sources
- ^ Interview with Jesse Prince
- ^ a b c d e f g h Study by Dr. Stephen Kent
- ^ John Duignan, The Complex
- ^ Archive of scientology.org from 1996
- ^ Missing in Happy Valley
- ^ http://web.uni-marburg.de/religionswissenschaft/journal/mjr/goodman.html letter by Scientology's Human Rights Director adressing Dr. Stephen Kent, Marburg Journal of Religion
- ^ http://web.uni-marburg.de/religionswissenschaft/journal/mjr/kent3.html Answer to criticism by Dr. Stephen Kent, Marburg Journal of Religion
- ^ "Scientology on Trial", Williamette Week 1985
- ^ http://web.uni-marburg.de/religionswissenschaft/journal/mjr/goodman.html letter by Scientology's "Human Rights Director" adressing Dr. Stephen Kent, Marburg Journal of Religion
- ^ Affidavit of Howard "Homer" Schomer
