RPF Newsletter #11

A Christmas greeting from the RPF.

Have you ever wondered what it is like celebrating Christmas in the RPF? Well, it is not something that you would think could exist in the US today, especially not in a "church." It's a total denial of anything associated with Christmas. You are robbed of all of your time and you aren't allowed to have anything to do with Christmas at all!

In all the years I spent on the RPF, Christmas was always suppressed and made nothing of, because there is NOTHING to enjoy. Every year we all talked about it in a way of "well, next Christmas we will not be here etc.", and tried to forget about it, just hoping that it would soon be over. Then next Christmas comes and you are still here!! Year after year, old pleasurable memories fade away and one becomes lost to any of the traditional things that Christmas usually brings. The joy of giving a present, writing Christmas cards to your friends and loved ones, shopping, seeing a movie, eating some good treats, cookies, cheese, nuts, eggnog etc. is denied. The dream is always pushed, "graduate so you can enjoy Christmas"; meanwhile you are lower than a rat. If you have any relatives or a spouse left who still care about you and know where you are, they could drop off a bag of goodies for you, which only accentuates your loneliness, and creates worse feelings for those who never get anything anymore. The RPF I/C has to read and approve every letter. Many times his lines are so overloaded with extra traffic that he spends many hours a day just reading all the mail, before he can allow it in or out. He's supposed to make sure there is no "entheta" or any influences that would disturb Scientology's image. This went to such an extreme one Christmas that many letters were STOPPED because "they were too long" and then he questioned the group about "how is it possible to write such long letters on your RPF schedule?" I saw many letters sitting in the RPF Ethics Office that were rejected and even if they were mailed out, it often created real upsets among family and friends as they could not understand why these letters were dated weeks or months earlier! A couple of years ago, the RPF I/C PAC, Chris Meyers, spoke to the 200 or so RPFers and made it clear that he did not have time to spend all day reading mail and checking out presents and disabused the group of spending any time at all writing letters or bothering to try to send anything to friends and family. Denial and disapproval of anything to do with Christmas by this scrooge made us all even more miserable knowing our families and especially children would not understand!

So what DID we get? 10 MINUTES EXTRA TO EAT OUR "CHRISTMAS DINNER!" This "extra" time is spent opening presents that friends and family sent in that made it past security. In a cheesy way the presents are piled up by the leftover crew dining room Christmas tree and officially handed out in front of everyone. If your family didn't send anything, you sat and looked at everybody else opening theirs. If you had a friend in the RPF or a good twin you might be able to get a small treat, which was all you could hope for. After the "extra 10 minutes" it was back to the normal routines of a full schedule of cleaning, hard work and study from 7.00 am to 11.00 pm. Not a minute extra to do anything that is expected of one's social behavior towards family and friends. The constant indoctrination by the RPF I/C is "what better way is there to spend Christmas than in session getting sec checked so you can graduate faster?" If you wanted to call your family, you first had to have it pre-approved by the RPF I/C in writing, which sometimes took days to get. Writing Christmas cards is only approved to your closest family and on your own time, if you can manage to pay for them yourself with your $5/week. Not to mention the hurdle of actually finding a way to purchase them, since you are not allowed off base. Just to manage to get the stamps was a challenge itself, and if you missed the one organized purchase run, you lost the chance and your cards didn't go out! If you were extremely lucky you managed to find some other RPFer who was willing to sell some left over stamps. You have 20 minutes for lunch and 20 minutes for dinner, so after having to stand in a 200 man food line for your slop, you essentially have only 10 minutes to EAT. That is the extent of your "free time."

While the rest of the staff are having parties and splurging on extra food and treats, the RPF get nothing of it and instead have to clean up the mess after staff meals and the traditional "Bosun's party" and "Beer and cheese party". The crew pigs out on all the Christmas treats and many get drunk and just leave behind a mess for the RPF to clean up. The only thought running through your head is "one day I will be out of here and enjoy some of this, maybe!"

After Christmas, the real fun begins for the RPF. If you have ever attended any of the Scientology New Years events, you have seen the pompous, huge, rich looking, elaborate and enormous designs of the stage and the backdrops. How do you think these elaborate, heavy and intricate columns with gold paint, shadows and detailing are made? You guessed it! THE RPF!! THOUSANDS of man hours!! The goal that Golden Era Productions has is that "each year it has to be more and more impressive and better looking". It's easy to sit at a computer and dream it all up, but someone on the ground has to put it all together! About 4-6 weeks before New Years, mid November, the work is started to make these huge columns of Styrofoam and resin. The many pieces are constructed and built separately and finally come together as a huge puzzle which is later transported in big trucks to the Shrine auditorium in Los Angeles. By the way, they are so huge and are such an investment that most of the structure is used from year to year and stored in the basement of the Shrine. Each year the big pieces are pulled out of storage and back to the base to be fixed up and redesigned. Scientology is paying tens of thousands of dollars just to store these big pieces of PR fluff there every year. To host an event it costs something like $150,000 - $200,000 and if you want to start earlier on the set ups using the Union's work time, it's about $50,000 a day. So the solution has been that the RPF is used for the prep work and everything is prepared in advance, to minimize the union costs. Usually, the day of the event EVERYTHING is set up in a blitz fashion with the entire RPF starting early in the am. Could it be that the RPF is kept full of people to keep the costs down and pull off the big events? Without the thousands of man hours on the ground making that stage - there simply would not be any event! The number of staff at GOLD is declining and it would be an impossible task to have the org staff in PAC do this kind of work on an all-hands basis in addition to their normal posts. Who would be there to "get the stats up" and make sure the public is confirmed to come to the event?

One thing that is always discussed and frowned upon when the final set ups are done at the Shrine is the "team work" with the Union. In order to be able to do the set ups the Union must be there to organize and orchestrate the work. The huge thousand pound stage props are pulled up in the ceiling with cranes and machines and they don't want a bunch of RPFers running around, being at risk to get hurt. What aggravates the working conditions every time is that the RPF is not allowed to continue work while the Union guys are taking their breaks. They do take coffee breaks and lunch breaks like human people, and while they are getting their nourishment to continue the hard work, THE RPF IS WAITING! We have to "look busy" while they are eating. We don't get any food, but are put on cleanup jobs and "chicken pick" the parking lot and other such activities. I wonder what the Union guys really think about having 150 RPFers hanging around and waiting for them to finish their lunch! The Union workers are always impressed with the speed and the hard work the RPF is performing, but little do they know about the real reason why we put up with the working conditions!

The Shrine has been the New Years event place for Scientology of many years in a row and the place is booked and reserved at the beginning of each year. The execs at Int handling the reservations are practically running a monopoly on the New Years week end. It would be a real "disaster" if the Shrine couldn't be booked as no other hall in the LA area can hold as many people as they hope will show up, except the LA football stadium, although no 10,000 people ever actually show up for this event! All the chairs must be full and give the illusion of "expansion" when the cameras from GOLD sweep over the audience. If it was a bigger hall and had empty seats it would "look bad". That is one of the reasons for the call-in frenzy, to make sure all seats are full. The Shrine seats about 5,000 - 6,000 with the balcony, and did you know that ALL the staff from PAC and from the HGB are there in the audience to fill it in? That is about 2,000 heads counted that are staff! They are supposed to be there, nicely dressed up out of uniform and if more public did come in unexpectedly, the staff would have to give up their seats and go outside to the set up "overflow spaces". So the crew is basically kept around to fill in the gaps if not enough public shows up. The real live event is usually scheduled a couple of days before the 31st, as few public want to show up on the real New Years Eve and the difference in time is used by GOLD to reproduce the events on DVD's and send them out express to every org for their own events. This year New Years Eve falls on a Friday, so we'll see how this is planned out!

By the way, did you know about the "ultimate plan for all the events"? Right next to the Clearwater Super Power building a huge auditorium is planned to be built. It's about 1/4th the size of the SP building and is supposed to go diagonally, South-East, at the block between Franklin Street and Court Street. This huge planned auditorium is the solution for all international events. It's supposed to be "state of the art" standard and in between the yearly scheduled events, it's planned to rent it out to the City of Clearwater for music concerts or similar engagements, to help cover the building expenses. Will we ever see the start of this project? One of the many obstacles that had to be overcome, in order to be allowed to build the SP building was the city requirements for public parking. In some way the block east of the SP building, between S. Garden Ave. and East Ave. South would have to have been secured, where an enormous parking structure is supposed to be constructed. Where else would the "thousands" of parishioners and event-attendees be able to park? The SP building was only approved to be built on the stipulation that enough parking spaces were provided. So MORE DONATIONS ARE NEEDED FOR MORE CONCRETE! And more RPFers to do the work!

Another major operation that you see in Hollywood is the "Winter Wonderland". This set up usually starts the first or second week in December and is run by the LRH PR Office in CMO PAC. There is a huge 48 foot trailer stored away somewhere that contains all the decorations. The set up is next to the staff quarters by the old Hollywood Inn. If you have walked by it looks quite impressive, with the thousands of twinkle lights and the hundreds of Christmas trees built up on ramps, with spotlights everywhere. There is "Santa's house" where children can have their picture taken for a "minor $5.00 fee" with music playing in the background, performances by kids from CC Int and all kinds of wonderful things children dream of, including real snow brought down from the mountains sometimes. Have you ever thought of how MUCH WORK it is to set that place up and WHO IS DOING IT? Yes, you guessed it again! The RPF! Hundreds of long and cold man hours, by RPF teams working every day to put up the huge backdrops with the many logs and poles 60 feet up in the air, a massive wood construction to hold it all up. The regular staff sometimes comes to help out, but it's a fact that it would never be done without the RPF. Is this another reason to keep the slave labor camps going? When Christmas is over, the RPF is there again to do all the work of tearing it all down and packing it all up. I wonder what Santa would think about that? The plan was that the parking lot where the WW set up is would be part of the new "Testing Center". However, the building is not done yet. It has to be earthquake safe all the way up, and that old building from the 1920's was rolling and about to come down in the last big quake. The "temporary" testing center is still there; on the other side of Hollywood Boulevard a couple of blocks down and the RPF is not required to work on that project anymore. Running out of funds? I guess Winter Wonderland will still go on with RPF labor and if the testing center is ever completed with the planned expansion, WW is history or will be relocated to somewhere else.

That's Christmas in the RPF, but how does it look from the top of the Org Board? Having been at and seen the spectrum from the top of Int management to the bottom of the local orgs, it's quite a shocking difference! The public has no idea of the difference and they probably believe that Christmas is celebrated and enjoyed by all. The Int Execs are definitely getting more than their share of the goodies. It's usually in form of big overfull baskets of goodies and treats that cost hundreds of dollars. "Baskets" are a "big thing" and every entity like CMO PAC or any other CMO or RTC unit around the world show their "respect and gratitude" towards DM in form of "baskets" and incredibly expensive luxury items. Money collections are done by staff in each org and each staff member is more or less obliged to pay and donate for the purchase of some fancy gifts to DM. If one does not donate, it's looked down on in scorn, as if you don't approve of him! He gets hundreds of luxury items every year and sometimes it's even paid by the org financial planning to cover it! DM isn't able to enjoy all those goodies himself, so the Int staff around him gets their share too, especially RTC and CMO. Baskets and presents are flooding in from all over the world. Expensive, special and artistically designed and embossed greeting cards are paid for by "donations", in the competition to impress DM and Int Management. The flashy, fake specially designed Christmas cards from DM, the Int exec strata, Author Services and RTC are also sent out every year at ridiculous expense. This is especially offensive when you consider what LRH says about Jesus on the OT levels, and also when you know they were paid for by deluded adherents struggling to pay for the bridge to nowhere!

The Int execs really "work hard" just before Christmas. They must do all they can to flood the orgs with telexes and orders and quotas that have to be met so the stats don't crash over the holidays. Once all the traffic is sent out, there is not much more that can be done from the top, so they take off for a few days, expecting the rest of the world "to get the stats up and make money". Arrangements are usually made for groups of Int Executives to go off skiing, go to the movie theatres, even go to Disneyland or Disneyworld to spend time with their spouse and family or just relax with a good book. The times I was included in these activities I felt really guilty, I knew from years of working in orgs and in the SO how the luxury condos and food and entertainment were paid for. I had a really hard time enjoying myself knowing that staff was NOT having much fun, and knowing I had trained, regged and recruited many Scientologists to disconnect from their families, max out their credit cards, mortgage their homes and go into deep debt they couldn't afford, and here we were blowing their money to celebrate a holiday we didn't even believe in. I wonder if DM feels guilty when he is gambling as a high roller in the casinos with his Hollywood shills. The only time I ever got an LOA (Leave of Absence) to visit family was through Int, most SO don't ever get one. Another thing that always bothered me was that there were 600 to 800 staff at INT who produce exactly nothing in actual products, but get the best food and accommodations and luxuries. They live at the top secret Int base in Hemet, and make up plans and evaluations and programs and targets, and sometimes send out missions, all to pound, pressure and threaten lower orgs to MAKE MORE MONEY! When I was lower org staff, I used to harbor suppressive thoughts about how I would like to see some of those idiots run a class V org! Come to think of it, one of the worst punishments for SO (next to the RPF) IS to be sent to a class IV or V org. Reference the 1986 FO on Children in the Sea Org.

Meanwhile, at the lower levels and in the local orgs where the "real work" has to be done (like actually delivering training and auditing and getting bodies in the shop for regging, etc.), the staff gets to enjoy some small parties and a longer Christmas dinner break and sometimes some time off. Usually a 1/2 day is given to go shopping and the crew takes turns so not everyone leaves at the same time. Only for the "upstats", of course, this is a real trick when the public is busy with the holidays. The motto is always "get the stats up for LRH for Christmas". You are not going to be down stat or in lower conditions for Christmas are you? Well, if you are, you will not get any time off etc.

You are not planning on spending any time with your parents of relatives for Christmas are you? Any request for time off for such activities is considered to be "off purpose" and one is considered to be PTS and sent to ethics! Almost nobody gets approval to get time off for Christmas, and if a staff member insists, he has to get an approved CSW (Completed Staff Work). You have to have a solution worked out as to who is going to replace you when you are gone. And if it doesn't look like the stats will be up, it won't get approved. Additionally you need to get a sec check to show that you are not planning on blowing, or that you are not PTS and that there are no other reasons why you would like to have a leave of absence. The chances of finding an auditor who can complete this sec check for you is practically nil, so 99% just give up at the thought and spend year after year away from their families, to be more and more alienated from their relatives and are then considered to be "kept hostage" and secluded in a cult. THAT'S why you don't see staff members off with their own families. Everybody would like to, but are afraid to speak up and be a target for instigating an ethics investigation for being "off purpose" and a "threat" to the "stats and the expansion". The thinking is that, if the majority of staff would be given time off for their families, there would be nobody around to run the orgs and get the stats up. Who wants to spend their Christmas on course or getting auditing anyway?? The public are off having Christmas! So the staff are desperately working to "get their stats up", which is the reason multiple phone calls are pressured and ordered, to get the public to come in so they can be beaten over their heads to pay for more services and make more student points or get in session for the hours "to get the stats up for Christmas"!

I will spare you the details of the personal threats from executives to juniors when things aren't pulled off as expected! These are the usual routines that pull any holiday feelings down. Once Christmas day is over, the real craziness and threats kick in! What happens right after Christmas? The New Years event! Management is operating on statistics and the only talk of the town is "event confirms". There's incredible pressure and demand behind getting "the confirms" for the event done, and there are "all-hands" activities in every org to call in the public for this event. The total control mechanism is really dramatized over this, and it gets so bad that staff are often calling public on Christmas Day for the "New Years Event Confirmation". When some public get their 4th or 5th call to "be confirmed" they are usually quite pissed off! The biggest flaps happen if the "confirms" are down. Then those heads are counted over and over in a "stat scrape" to make sure that there are more than last year. This is an important index of "expansion".

The demand for confirms and the constant demand for reports back on what the current numbers are is the only important thing going on in CMO meetings up until the event. If CMO doesn't effectively handle it, the RTC reps step in to do an investigation and find out "WHO" is stopping the expansion lines. It is thought of that any lack of expansion or lack of production has some Suppressive Person or PTS behind it. If the event confirms or attendance is down - heads are rolling! Did you notice that the long term Event I/C PAC left the Sea Org about 1 year ago? Forgot his name right now, but he used to be married to the Captain of AOLA. He used to run the RPF on doing the massive event set-ups, and one day he was gone! He never came to the RPF, but I think he was smart to get the hell out of there. I'm sure he got a big dose of degradation and invalidation on his post and finally he couldn't put up with it anymore.

See anything wrong with this picture? If you feel like it, send a report to RTC and let DM know what you think. http://www.rtc.org/en_US/matters/intro.html

Sooner or later the real truth will come out and there will be no staff left to make those "confirms" and no RPF there on the ground to put on those fake, glorified, glamorous Miscavige events!

The greed at the top of the org board will catch up with them. The painful truth is filtering down the echelons to every org. All staff planet wide will realize they have wasted a large portion of their lifetimes working for a criminal scam cult ripping people off of their life savings and years of lost time, bankruptcies, ruined lives and broken families. All criminals leave clues behind and DM is no exception. No matter how hard he tries to blame others and cover his own ass, too many people have been victimized and ripped off by him. We will all be standing in line to testify against him and his cronies. I suggest it is time for those still loyal to the cult to do some soul searching and get out before you are the next "WHO" that gets declared SP or RPFed or sent to jail by these "grinches".

Merry Christmas,

"The RPF "Insider"

<p><hr><p> From: chuckbeatty77@aol.com
Subject: Re: RPF Newsletter #11: Christmas on the RPF
Date: 23 Dec 2004 01:21:14 -0800
Message-ID: <1103793674.388600.215070@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>
In-Reply-To: <41ca4f1b$1@news2.lightlink.com> Complaints-To: groups-abuse@google.com Injection-Info: f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com; posting-host=152.163.100.196; posting-account=9Sqh7w0AAAAXrDvpYRrLV9ryVyIAS4ZF

Dave Touretzky wrote: > RPF Newsletter #11
>
> A Christmas greeting from the RPF.
>
<snip>

Thankyou very much for posting this Dave. I often day-dreamed that one day when I got off the RPF that I'd order about 75 pizzas for the PAC RPF and have them delivered to the complex address, for the RPF, and time the pizza delivery so the pizzas arrived for the RPFers on the evening when the rest of the Sea Org base is gone off to the Shrine for the New Years event.

That evening when the PAC Base is almost completely empty, when I was on the PAC RPF, the RPFers themselves were allowed to cook their own meals, and since when I was in the PAC RPF, Emilio Bertinato and Mateo Galbiati, who are both excellent Italian cooks, and the many other excellent RPF member cooks, they put together quite a meal for us.

But whatever night that is, can be figured out from the night of the event, it is that same night. That is the night the RPFers will have free reign normally of the kitchen to make their own meal.

Anyways, I am not rich, but I am sure if 75-100 pizzas from Dominos showed up at the Security reception area of the complex (Horseshoe entrance) addressed to the PAC RPF, I am sure they'd let them have them. They are not that mean-spirited that they'd reject the pizzas, and the RPFers will be the only people there using the dining facilities around 7pm, but the timing needs to be down to the minute, just get the pizzas there early enough. They have metal rolling carts to keep them hot.

Maybe with a politically correct Happy New Years note to the RPFers from an anonymous well wisher. I'm sure they'd love the thought. Best, Chuck Beatty

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