Controversy
Critics of Scientology, including former Scientologists, have compared the RPF with the gulag system of the Soviet Union. Leaving the Sea Org, even from the RPF, results in what Scientology calls "freeloader debt" or a "freeloader's bill": retroactive billing for any auditing received or any Scientology training received while in the Sea Org, which can run into tens of thousands of dollars. This "freeloader debt" is however not legally binding and no one actually needs to pay anything. However, many former Scientologists have reported that they felt trapped by the "freeloader debt" policy.
In his book, The Complex, John Duignan provides an account of the RPF as living in a rat-infested basement, engaging in degrading jobs years at a stretch, and not being allowed to visit one's spouse or children.
Douglas E. Cowan and David G. Bromley state that various scholars and observers have come to radically different conclusions about the RPF and whether it is "voluntary or coercive, therapeutic or punitive".
Read more about this topic: Rehabilitation Project Force
Famous quotes containing the word controversy:
“And therefore, as when there is a controversy in an account, the parties must by their own accord, set up for right Reason, the Reason of some Arbitrator, or Judge, to whose sentence, they will both stand, or their controversy must either come to blows, or be undecided, for want of a right Reason constituted by Nature; so is it also in all debates of what kind soever.”
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