Mark Fisher
New Member
This is my first post on Ex Scientology Message Board.
This Christmas season, I was reminded of an earlier Christmas that I spent years ago.
1982 was the year to be exact and I had been sent to the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF) in LA at the Complex about a month or so earlier.
The RPF is the Sea Org prison camp in Scientology for Sea Org members who “mess up on the job” or who “ are disaffected” meaning not in agreement with what management or a senior executive is doing.
“Disaffection”. That was my crime.
I had been assigned as a jury member on a Committee of Evidence for RTC. The biggest Committee of Evidence of all time in Sea Org history. The justice action against David Mayo (Senior Case Supervisor International), Kerry Gleeson (Executive Director International) and about a dozen other senior executives and technical people in senior management positions for Scientology.
These people were being railroaded at the hands of David Miscavige based on false reports and information sent up to LRH by DM. Based on those reports, these Senior Executives were considered enemies of Scientology and they were to receive a Committee of Evidence and then they would be offloaded from the Sea Org and many of them declared Suppressive Persons.
However I did not agree with the evidence being presented against some of these executives and disagreed with what was happening to them. I couldn’t keep these disagreements hidden, and they came up in my Scientology processing sessions.
Because of these disagreements, I was considered “disaffected” and therefore removed from the jury and from my position and sent off the Int Base to the RPF in LA to be “rehabilitated”.
The RPF as many of you know is basically a “re-education camp” for Sea Org members. RPFers are subjected to tough discipline and do manual labor most of the day, while also getting re-educated in Scientology technology and made to come clean on any crimes or transgressions against LRH or Scientology.
RPFers cannot speak unless spoken to, have to run everywhere they go, sleep in the worst berthing spaces, eat the left over food after the regular crew have finished eating and must wear black clothing to designate their status.
In effect, you are in prison. There are security watches at night so that you don’t try to leave. The RPF program in 1982/1983 usually took about 5 to 6 months to complete and graduate so that the Sea Org member could be a regular crew member again to work in a regular position in Scientology. Over the years however, that time has been extended to YEARS based on arbitraries put into affect by David Miscavige.
However, whether you are in for a short time or long time, being imprisoned has a negative affect on someone that can last a lifetime.
Christmas 1982, I was in the RPF along with close to 100 others. Due to the actions of one person – the Commanding Officer of the Western US, we were able to enjoy Christmas Day as a regular person again.
All RPFers were allowed to spend Christmas Day with their children and families in the LA area. Anyone without a family could go off and enjoy the Christmas holiday together with other single RPFers.
I remember it like it was almost yesterday. We all got changed out of our old black t-shirts and pants and got dressed in normal everyday clothes. A group of us went to Hollywood Boulevard and saw the movie “Tootsie” with Dustin Hoffman and then went over to an Italian Restaurant on Vermont Avenue and had dinner together before returning to the Complex.
We felt like free men and women again! It gave us hope, a powerful thing.
The next day, we were back to our restrictions and RPF rules and, when DM and International Management people found out about the RPFers having time off for Christmas, the Commanding Officer Western US was soon assigned to the RPF to join us.
Years later, the movie Shawshank Redemption was released. To this day, it is one of my all time favorite movies and the scene below reminds me of that Christmas back in 1982 and still brings tears to my eyes when I watch it.
We were free men and women for a few hours again! Hope is a powerful thing!
It would take a few years more before I took the final step and left Sea Org for good and thank goodness I got away when I could. To all those OSA lurkers, there is still hope out there for you! You can get away if you try!
This movie scene really touches my heart. Click on the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4oPFXWXaDE
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
Mark Fisher
This Christmas season, I was reminded of an earlier Christmas that I spent years ago.
1982 was the year to be exact and I had been sent to the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF) in LA at the Complex about a month or so earlier.
The RPF is the Sea Org prison camp in Scientology for Sea Org members who “mess up on the job” or who “ are disaffected” meaning not in agreement with what management or a senior executive is doing.
“Disaffection”. That was my crime.
I had been assigned as a jury member on a Committee of Evidence for RTC. The biggest Committee of Evidence of all time in Sea Org history. The justice action against David Mayo (Senior Case Supervisor International), Kerry Gleeson (Executive Director International) and about a dozen other senior executives and technical people in senior management positions for Scientology.
These people were being railroaded at the hands of David Miscavige based on false reports and information sent up to LRH by DM. Based on those reports, these Senior Executives were considered enemies of Scientology and they were to receive a Committee of Evidence and then they would be offloaded from the Sea Org and many of them declared Suppressive Persons.
However I did not agree with the evidence being presented against some of these executives and disagreed with what was happening to them. I couldn’t keep these disagreements hidden, and they came up in my Scientology processing sessions.
Because of these disagreements, I was considered “disaffected” and therefore removed from the jury and from my position and sent off the Int Base to the RPF in LA to be “rehabilitated”.
The RPF as many of you know is basically a “re-education camp” for Sea Org members. RPFers are subjected to tough discipline and do manual labor most of the day, while also getting re-educated in Scientology technology and made to come clean on any crimes or transgressions against LRH or Scientology.
RPFers cannot speak unless spoken to, have to run everywhere they go, sleep in the worst berthing spaces, eat the left over food after the regular crew have finished eating and must wear black clothing to designate their status.
In effect, you are in prison. There are security watches at night so that you don’t try to leave. The RPF program in 1982/1983 usually took about 5 to 6 months to complete and graduate so that the Sea Org member could be a regular crew member again to work in a regular position in Scientology. Over the years however, that time has been extended to YEARS based on arbitraries put into affect by David Miscavige.
However, whether you are in for a short time or long time, being imprisoned has a negative affect on someone that can last a lifetime.
Christmas 1982, I was in the RPF along with close to 100 others. Due to the actions of one person – the Commanding Officer of the Western US, we were able to enjoy Christmas Day as a regular person again.
All RPFers were allowed to spend Christmas Day with their children and families in the LA area. Anyone without a family could go off and enjoy the Christmas holiday together with other single RPFers.
I remember it like it was almost yesterday. We all got changed out of our old black t-shirts and pants and got dressed in normal everyday clothes. A group of us went to Hollywood Boulevard and saw the movie “Tootsie” with Dustin Hoffman and then went over to an Italian Restaurant on Vermont Avenue and had dinner together before returning to the Complex.
We felt like free men and women again! It gave us hope, a powerful thing.
The next day, we were back to our restrictions and RPF rules and, when DM and International Management people found out about the RPFers having time off for Christmas, the Commanding Officer Western US was soon assigned to the RPF to join us.
Years later, the movie Shawshank Redemption was released. To this day, it is one of my all time favorite movies and the scene below reminds me of that Christmas back in 1982 and still brings tears to my eyes when I watch it.
We were free men and women for a few hours again! Hope is a powerful thing!
It would take a few years more before I took the final step and left Sea Org for good and thank goodness I got away when I could. To all those OSA lurkers, there is still hope out there for you! You can get away if you try!
This movie scene really touches my heart. Click on the link below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4oPFXWXaDE
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
Mark Fisher