Scientology Task Force of The Hamburg Interior Authority - Publications

Publications

The task force published a number of reports, some in English, including "Brainwashing in Scientology's Rehabilitation Project Force" by Prof. Stephen A. Kent.

The report examines the confinement programs and camps which the task force states that Scientology operates as 'rehabilitative facilities for deviant members of its elite Sea Organization.' According to the report, these programs, known collectively as the Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF), put coerced participants through regimes of harsh physical punishment, forced self-confessions, social isolation, hard labor, and intense doctrinal study, all as part of leadership-designed efforts to regain members’ ideological commitment. The report continued by asserting that the confinement the participants experience, combined with forms of physical maltreatment, intensive ideological study, and forced confessions, are considered by social scientists a "brainwashing" program.

The task force posted comments on the city's website, in English, containing its assessment of the European Court of Human Rights decision against Russia's attempt to not register Scientology as a religious organization.

In the opinion of the Task Force, "The ECHR itself did not consider whether the Scientology organisation as such meets the characteristics of a religion (or religious community) within the meaning of article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights in terms of its structure and beliefs ... without positively according the Scientology organization as a whole the status of a religious community." The task force then went on to conclude that the Russian authorities are "perfectly entitled to refuse such registration once again for other, sound reasons".