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Revision as of 20:32, 23 January 2006 by Antaeus Feldspar (talk | contribs) (wikilink sources)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Template:ScientologySeries The Rehabilitation Project Force, or RPF, is a system of work camps set up by the Church of Scientology Sea Organization, intended to rehabilitate members who have not lived up to expectations or have violated certain policies. In this program, members do physical labor tasks around Sea Org bases that do not involve people communication skills. There have been some reports of overwork and mistreatment at RPF facilities.
The RPF was originally intended to last no more than a couple of months, where the assignee would learn Scientology auditing, if he or she already was not an auditor by the "read it, drill it, do it" method. RPF members would then co-audit each other to better themselves and make each other more ethical and productive. If married, the assignee could visit with their spouse and children once a week.
However, after David Miscavige began rewriting the policies of L. Ron Hubbard on the RPF, the program now can take many years. Members now must be approved by Miscavige's Religious Technology Center before they can co-audit, which can be arbitrarily refused. Weekly visits with spouses and children are now forbidden and members cannot originate verbal communication or visual contact with Sea Org members who are not in the RPF. There are reports of Sea Org members actually being advised by Sea Org ethics personnel to divorce their RPF'd spouses.
Critics of Scientology, including former Scientologists, frequently compare the RPF with the gulag system of Soviet Russia or the re-education camps of the People's Republic of China. One former Scientologist even titled her narrative of the RPF "'The Church of Scientology' or The Guru's Gulags: Story of an Escape" Supporters of Scientology claim that no physical force is used to keep RPF members in the camps, and that RPF members always have the option of leaving their religion entirely, and that this makes the comparison inaccurate.
See also
External links
- "SEA ORGANIZATION FLAG ORDER 3434RB" as posted to USENET in 1994
- "Brainwashing in Scientology's Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF)", a paper by Dr. Stephen A. Kent
- "The Church of Scientology’s Rehabilitation Project Force" by the Center for Studies on New Religions