Up: Martin Poulter > Scientology Criticism > UK Media Archive
Discipline:
Orders must be obeyed. This is spelt out in contracts in which recruits promise to "fully and without reservation subscribe to the discipline, mores and conditions" of the group.
The penalties for stepping out of line can be severe.
Punished: One official was suspended from her post at Saint Hill when she returned from her honeymoon last year.
The woman was put on MEST work, [editor's note: Matter, Energy, Space, Time] the name for physical labour. One of her crimes was spending too much time preparing for her own wedding to a fellow Scientologist.
This was deemed to have interfered with production, in other words her job in the cult hierarchy.
She was later allowed back to her post but she turned up late and was put on another gruelling work schedule from 8.30am to 11.30pm.
And she was warned any violations would result in her duties being extended to 4am, a total of 19-and-a-half-hours. One of her new tasks was to clean the sewer system.
Mr Mansell said: "It's a fact of life that if your sewers need cleaning somebody has to clean them.
"This is a big property and there are a lot of storm drains."
Punished: The official in charge of the newly-wed was also suspended and sentenced to a spell of physical labour.
She fled to her parents home and a delegation from Saint Hill was dispatched to recover her. The woman did eventually come back but her behaviour was viewed as "suppressive".
A report on her conduct ruled she: "Violated security of the base by going out to see her parents and telling them what was going on with her in regards to the Sea Organisation. They are not SO members and thus should not know what is going on in the Sea Org."
Mr Mansell said: "You have a certain advantage over me because I don't have the report in front of me."
But he stressed: "I tell my parents what I am doing here all the time."
The penalties:
Some of the penaities for Staff "who are not actively contributing" were listed in an executive directive issued in California in 1986.
Under this system they could lose the right to sleep in a bed - pig berthing - take a regular allowance and take part in social events or even eat proper meals. . . "the most the staff member would get is plain rice and beans."
That was the fate of one U.S. recruit in 1990, even though this spartan diet made him physically ill. A fellow cult member wrote to the Ethics Mission, the body responsible for discipline, to try to get the order lifted. The reply: "Get him to make money and he will be out of rice and beans. Simple, Eh?" It was signed Love EM.
Mr Mansell said: It's such a rare occurrence it's hard for me to respond to. The last time I had rice and beans was years ago."
Asked about pig berthing, he replied: "It's just a nickname. I honestly don't know when it's ever happened. I've been in Scientology for 15 years. I'm sure it has."
Rehabilitation Project Force:
The RPF has been described as the Scientology equivalent of being in prison.
People here have to wear black overalls and do hard labour. One woman was sent there on July 23 last year for crimes which included being discourteous to colleagues and turning up for work late.
She was also accused of stealing food from the canteen. A report on her conduct ruled: "It is hoped she will take this opportunity to redeem herself on the RPF."
The plight of another woman was highlighted in a High Court judgment in the Eighties. The document reveals how she had to do 12-hours physical work a day, shifting bricks and emptying bins, even though she had a chronic back condition.
She was not allowed to talk to anyone, except to receive orders, and her time with her children was limited to 30 minutes a day. Among her crimes: disagreeing with an order.
Mr Mansell said: "How many people are in the RPF in England at the moment? Maybe six out of 8 million Scientologists around the world. How many people are in jail?"
Robert Vaughn Young, who spent 20 years handling public relations for Hubbard, now sees things differently.
In an article published last year, he compared the cult to George Orwell's 1984. "Just substitute 'Sea Organisation' for 'Party' and the chilling parallel may be evident."