I spent many hours with Steve, describing my 20-year experiences within the cult’s fanatical, militant and secretive inner circle, an organization run on paramilitary lines that uses both physical and tortuous mental restraint to control its people.

We were discussing the University of Warwick, England lecturer Gordon Melton’s ‘expertise’ - read whitewash, published circa 2001/2002 - on an aspect of the Sea Organization. They run their own prison, or "re-education" camps, which are, in theory, not that different from the Cambodian Khmer Rouge system described graphically in David Putnam’s 1982 film The Killing Fields.

The Scientology version is described as the RPF - Rehabilitation Project Force - and one can be assigned to this at the whim of a certain cadre, Hubbard’s personal staff, or by an internal kangaroo court called a Committee of Evidence.

I don’t know if you ever read Melton’s piece, but if you did, you will see that it reads like the RPF is a happy 'boy-scouts camping' adventure with a dose of Trappist meditative theory thrown in for good measure. I happened to be around when this whole Melton scam was being put together; I know all the prisoners he interviewed; I know them very well and I know the real conditions they lived under.

The two weeks or so running up to Melton's '"free access" interview with the RPF, a select number were moved to another location, while the most "upstat" were all treated like kings, fed, briefed, drilled, given little or no work details and loads of sleep (sleep is normally rationed in this operation, deprivation thereof is part of the program to break the spirit of the prisoner). Gordon certainly got a very good impression of the set up; unfortunately his critical thinking faculties had been somewhat subverted, possibly by the various enticements on offer by a few people in the Office of Special Affairs - Scientology’s equivalent of the old KGB - and the L. Ron Hubbard Personal Public Relations office.

In discussing my experiences with Steve, memories were stirred up and, of course, one in particular came to mind: a rather horrific account of a girl I knew quite well.

Three years in the Sea Organization, she was brought up in the cult from childhood; a very intelligent young woman, highly conversant with Hubbard’s counseling techniques, and working as a public relations officer for a front line operation. She had, like any healthy young woman or man, slept with a person she was deeply attracted to. But, in the sexually repressive cult, this carried a rather severe penalty.

Just 12 months or so after the Melton whitewash, Alice was assigned to the demeaning status of RPF-er. Her fiancé was sent to the RPF in another continent. Alice had some trouble with this and she decided to leave. Unfortunately, one is not allowed to simply leave Scientology. One must ‘route out’ a process of extensive and intrusive vetting, "confessions" – read interrogation – and sign of a number of non-disclosure bonds, all while under house arrest or other kinds of physical restraint.

Because of her desire to leave the only organization capable of salvaging the people of Earth, Alice was assigned to an even harsher regime called the RPF's RPF, this being an even grimmer version of the program she was already on. Twelve months later, and being subjected to a course of intensive interrogations, re-indoctrination, sleep deprivation, filthy, heavy and demeaning work details and snubbed by former comrades on a daily basis, she was still there. She saw little hope of an end to the process, no way to escape the regime, and in a black fit of despair, decided to kill herself.

One afternoon, I had just driven back the Crowborough camp; I saw an ambulance and people in a tizzy and running around. I was told by a white-faced college that Alice had ran out of the RPF indoctrination room, gone to the workshop, found a tin of paint thinner, swallowed it then climbed up on top of the gym roof, a fifteen-foot high structure surrounded by concrete. She jumped.

Alice lived. She is crippled for life and her lower intestine is ruined - she had to have colostomy. Psychologically, she is destroyed. She was a very attractive energetic twenty-year-old at the time.
Office of Special Affairs instructed all concerned to say that she had fallen down the steps so that there would be no health and safety inquiry, I don't know how they explained the paint thinner to the medics.

It all ended well; Alice was sent home, an invalid for life - in Scientology and Sea Organization speak, she is a Degraded Being - one who is not worthy of humanity and respect - is she not? - to be cared for by her mom, an Operating Thetan level V ‘upstatistic’ Italian Scientologist. And she is certainly not saying anything to sully the lily white image of the Sea Org. It would impact on HER eternity.

There was no follow up by the authorities and Gordon Melton's rosy description of the RPF is still used internationally, both in published Church PR booklets and on Internet sites to show just what a wonderful organization the Church of Scientology is.

Tom Cruise’s YouTube wild-eyed fanatical rant is not a weird misrepresentation of the Scientologist; it is, in fact, the ideal strived for by the Scientologist, and particularly the Sea Org Member. This is a person who would consider my lovely Alice a block to Scientology's ultimate goal of a ‘Clear Earth’ – meaning an Earth utterly controlled by The Church of Scientology. They would dispense with her without pity, ‘for the greater good’ of mankind.

*****

If you enjoyed this story, you may also be interested in Running Away From Jehovah's Witnesses [1] or I Escaped Scientology [2].