RebaFan asked this question on 4/24/2000:
I read here that the Church has "forced labor reeducation camps." I refuse to believe it! I can barely believe that Hubbard was a Satanists, though I see that is true judging by the internet articles I've read--- but forced labor camps?! That's just too much to ask me to believe!
desertphile gave this response on 4/24/2000:
One may call it "re-education" or as John Atack, Stephen Kent, and others call it, "re-indoctrination." See the RealMedia clip at http://www.xenutv.com/int/happy.ram
On January 7th 1974 Hubbard wrote the following words:
"The Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF) is hereby brought into being."
The inmates are classified as:
1. Criminally minded people who are in the Sea Org working against the rest of the group.
2. Those who are not able to do the jobs they are assigned and or who demonstrate opposition to the overall group intentions and purposes.
3. people who are actively carrying out counter intentions to the overall group goal as evidenced by the lack of self generated contribution and demonstrated willingness to comply to directives, orders, programs and issued policy- basically
4. People who are not getting the "correct" result after applying the product of and who are assigned exact results and do not achieve these.
5. People who are deemed insane, out of character and this is evidenced by behavior patterns deem crazy or nuts by the group.
"As a two-time 'graduate' of the RPF, I have a very good understanding of what the purpose of the RPF is. It's to break a person's spirit and turn the person into an unquestioning, obedient Sea Org member who will do whatever told without question. LRH repeatedly said he didn't believe in punishment, but the RPF is proof that he didn't really mean it. " -- Monica Pignotti
"On Flag, the typical schedule was that we got up at 5AM each morning and went until 10PM each night. This is a total of 17 hours. Subtract 5 hours 'study time' (mainly e-metered confessionals) and half an hour for each of three meals. That's 17 hours waking time minus 6 and a half hours (meals and study), less half an hour for personal hygiene = at least 10 hours of work per day. The work consisted mainly of cleaning toilets and bathrooms and cleaning corridors for the womens' teams and doing garbage detail and scrubbing decks for the mens' teams. If the areas cleaned failed to pass white glove inspection, punishment was to run laps. Any questionining of the fairness of the punishment resulted in further orders to run more laps. There were times when this schedule was over-ridden and we were ordered to work 30 hours straight, at a stretch, as Stephen Kent truthfully reports. On the RPF's RPF people do not get any 'study' time and are allowed only 5 hours of sleep per night, and with the exception of brief meal breaks have to work the dirtiest jobs the rest of the time." -- Monica Pignotti
http://wwww.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/Library/Shelf/pignotti
How long was someone's duration of stay in RPF typically?
"It can vary from about 3 months if the person gets through quickly to 1-3 years for some people. From what I've seen, it depends on how compliant and passive the person is. The more compliant they are, the quicker they will get out." -- Monica Pignotti
The average rating for this answer is 4.1.
RebaFan rated this answer a 5.
This is blowing my mind. Forgive me if I do not believe you--- I have no reason to take your word on this, nor any one else I cannot face and evaluate (body language etc.). The URL you provided will be studied and I'll see what I will see.
Your answer disturbes me very much. It looks to detailed and authoritative to be a hoax, and the person you quote certainly appears to know what she (he?) is talking about. If so, this is very frightening stuff!
Forcing people to work without sleep for long periods of time is the -classic- method of brain washing. The Vietcong did that; so did Japan with their prisoners. I'm horrified that Scientology would do such a thing to their members! Why hasn't the law enforcement agencies in the USA done something about this? Because of "religious freedom" or something? A crime is a crime no matter who does it.