"An Offer from Scientology"
by Pierre Collignon, unofficial translation by Jens Tingleff Jyllands-Posten (Copenhagen, Denmark) January 14, 2001 Scientology members who step outside the movement's internal laws are offered "rehabilitation." The offer implies several years of isolation, hard work, strict control and a loss of the most basic rights to freedom. Previously you could see them running in groups through the streets of Copenhagen wearing black boiler suits and heavy American military boots. This was cancelled, as it caused too much attention. Now they merely "walk quickly" and are wearing marine blue uniforms. Scientology is normally not very happy to discuss these busy people. They are members of Scientology who have gone astray and who need to be brought on an even keel again. They come to Copenhagen from all of Europe to be "rehabilitated" by going through a cleanup programme devised by the founder of Scientology, L Ron Hubbard, in the early 1970s. The programme is called "The Rehabilitation Project Force" - normally called the "RPF" - but if you look in the books of Scientology, you can't find a description of it. The leadership of Scientology doesn't find that regular members need to know about the RPF, maybe because they would easily be frightened if they heard about the many prohibitions and restrictions that are integral to it. According to critics of Scientology the programme is plain and simple "brainwashing." The ministry of the interior in the German regional government of Hamburg even warn German citizens against letting themselves be tempted to go to the Danish capital where Scientology has its European headquarters. In Copenhagen you risk punishment and indoctrination under inhuman conditions, according to the Germans. "Scientology dare not start the RPF on German soil, because the authorities are keeping an eye on them, but it is happening in Denmark with no restrictions," says Ursula Caberta, leader of the regional government's so-called "Scientology task force." Ursula Caberta has recently published an enquiry which describes the Scientology RPF programme as "brainwashing." The enquiry is done by the Canadian professor of Sociology, Stephen Kent, based on statements by 20 former members of Scientology who have passed through the RPF in Copenhagen or in the movement's centres in the USA or England. Armed Guards The ex-members all relate how they were held against their wills while in the RPF. A few, who were in the Scientology camp in the Nevada [sic: California] desert, even talk of armed guards and barbed wires. The defectors relate being starved and forced to carry out hard physical labour. In addition to that, they were required to study Scientology scriptures and go through hour-long interrogations where they should confess their sins against the movement. The RPF thereby worked as brutal disciplinary treatment. When the members were exhausted and mentally worn out, they abandoned any resistance against the leadership of Scientology. This is how professor Stephen Kent describes the treatment, but his investigation has been harshly criticized by colleagues in the USA and in Europe. The greatest weakness is that Stephen Kent doesn't include the experiences of current members of Scientology. He considers that their testimony is worthless because they dare not make critical statements about the RPF - for fear of being punished with yet another turn in the controversial programme. But statements from former members should also be taken with a grain of salt, underlines another professor of Sociology from Canada, Lorne Dawson. "These people are under strong pressure to justify why they have been members of a cult. They want to divert blame from themselves, and therefore the theory of brainwashing is perfect. It gives them a 'valid' excuse for having been in," Lorne Dawson writes in a scientific article. Critics call Scientology a cult or simply a money-machine, but the movement is currently applying for official recognition as a community of faith in Denmark and in several other countries. According to Scientology, you can only understand the RPF in a religious context. Then, you can compare the restrictions of liberty in the RPF with the conditions that monks in other religions take on. "If you take holy orders, you renounce everything worldly. Some monks may not even talk to each other. They shut themselves off from the world around them to dedicate themselves to worship. That's actually tougher than the RPF ... the RPF is not a concentration camp where you're shot if you try to escape. The RPF is a way of achieving a higher spiritual level," says Anette Refstrup, head of PR for Scientology in Denmark. Ordinary members of Scientology, who use their spare time (and spare money) to take Scientology courses, never get anywhere near the RPF. The programme is reserved for members of the "Sea Organisation" where people give their lives to serve Scientology. There are officially approximately 6000 members of the Sea Organisation. They can be recognised by their dark blue maritime uniforms. They live in Scientology missions, work for a symbolic payment and must obey a vast number of rules in their daily lives. If they repeatedly break the rules, they can go to the RPF. A typical reason can be that a member has been unfaithful to his wife, that he has misused some of the Scientology scriptures or simply that he hasn't produced enough in his position. Scientology emphasises that the RPF is an offer. "If you repeatedly mess up, you get the chance to try the RPF ... The first thing you have to do is to sign that that you're doing it voluntarily and that you can leave at any time. You couldn't possibly make it through the RPF if you didn't want to," says Gaetane Asselin, spokesperson for Scientology in Europe. Some of the sinners, however, consider the offer of the RPF as a "Sicilian Offer," that is, an offer they can't refuse. The alternative is to be thrown out of the Sea Organisation, and that's frightening if you've spent years in the isolated and closed world of the organisation. The RPF programme takes an average of one to two years to go through, but some times it drags on. Jyllands-Posten knows of a Swedish Scientologist who recently was thrown out of the Sea Organisation after five years on the RPF in Copenhagen. He didn't make it. Cleaner than babies Scientology informs that the demands are to carry out eight hours of physical hard labour every day - most frequently renovation and maintenance of the movement's buildings. Additionally, five hours should be spent every day studying Scientology scripture and receiving spiritual guidance and therapy. Throughout the entire programme, it is essential that the individual confesses his sins, so that he can cleanse himself. "It's a wonderful programme. People are cleaner than babies when they leave the RPF," says the movement's spokesperson Gaetane Asselin. People must live accordingly to tight restrictions while they're on the RPF. Scientology has given Jyllands-Posten access to the most recent set of rules, which are normally shrouded in great secrecy, and it's tough reading. The rules mean that RPFers are kept in isolation from both the world around them and from the rest of Scientology. People on the RPF may not even approach other people. They are not allowed to move outside Scientology buildings without supervision, they cannot watch television, and they must sleep, eat and wash in separate RPF divisions. According to critics, the set of rules leads to a psychological breakdown which makes it possible to excerpt a massive influence - "brainwashing." Scientology, on the other hand, counters that the strict rules are there to help the individual to concentrate. The rules have recently been tightened with a clause forbidding any connection with family. Previously, Scientologists on the RPF could be allowed to meet their spouse or children once a week. "It was more disturbing for people to be allowed to meet a couple of hours per week, because they would miss each other even more. It's better to do without and finish the RPF faster," says Gaetane Asselin. The physical control is also seen as a benefit. "When people from the RPF can't walk the street, there's no straying from the path. You don't just pop in and have a cup of coffee. You go directly where you're supposed to go, and so you don't have a guilty conscience afterwards. It gives peace of mind that the framework is very narrow," says Anette Refstrup, PR chief in Denmark. Some of the restrictions seem curious. For example, there is a requirement that people on the RPF must run rather than walk. "That is to show the right spirit - the pride that you have set out to do the RPF as quickly as possible," says Anette Refstrup. Extreme social control Danish experts in religion agree with Scientology that it's normal for certain religious organisations to build up extreme social controls. "There are no religious movements who look mildly on members who break the rules, but we have an easier time accepting it if it happens in India or in some other foreign culture. When, for example, a Buddhist monk isolates himself and spends all day in an exhausting meditation position, we think that he's a noble monk. If the same thing happens in our own culture, we speak of breach of human rights," says researcher into religions Dorthe Refslund Christensen, who has written several books about Scientology. The religious researcher Mikael Rothstein is convinced that Scientology is a religion - but that should not determine how we look at the RPF, he emphasises. "Even if you consider Scientology a corporation, you have to realise that it has a corporate culture which you either like or dislike. There are people who suspend themselves from meathooks as part of their self-realisation. Others want to be whipped as part of their sex-lives. That which is oppressive and humiliating to one, brings bliss to another. There are different cultures and environments, which we must accept," he says. Mikael Rothstein also states that we must be critical. "It's important to carry out a dialogue with an organisation like Scientology to ensure that people aren't mistreated. You have to talk to people who are going through the RPF to find out why they do it. It could be a expression of a deep religious involvement, but it could also be because of pressure. If some of them feel affronted it could be because there have been violations - and then society must step in," says Mikael Rothstein from the University of Copenhagen. It is, however, extremely difficult to prove that you have been forcibly mistreated. In the early 1980s, several hundred Scientologists passed through the "rehabilitation-mill" in Copenhagen, and some of them went to the police to complain about the treatment. This was the case of Birgitta Harrington who, in 1984, explained that Scientology had starved her, had mentally tortured her and forced her to do absurd but exhausting physical tasks. Once, she was made to clean a long corridor with a toothbrush. On another occasion, she had to "wash paper," i.e. stand outdoors during the winter and throw old pieces of paper in vats of ice-cold water. When the pieces of paper were soaked through, she took them out, pressed them and rolled them into little balls so that they were smaller. That was what Birgitta Harrington explained in questioning to the Copenhagen police, but the police had to stop the investigation. The Swedish woman couldn't prove that she had been forced to do any of it, since she hadn't been physically locked up. "It's true that I didn't have a shackle around my ankles, but I was locked up mentally. At the time, I still believed in Scientology and I feared that the worst was to be thrown out of the movement," says Birgitta Harrington. The American federal police, the FBI, has also investigated accusations of "slavery" and "illegal forced labour" in Scientology. The investigations were cancelled in 1983 because of a lack of evidence.

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