Editing Scientology ethics and justice (section)

== Sea Org ethics ==

[[Sea Org]] staff are the highest in the [[Scientology officials#Hierarchy of staff|hierarchy of staff members]] of Scientology. They observe all the ethics policies of Scientology, but additionally have their own set of rules and punishments that are not for regular Scientologists who are not on staff.

{{anchor|MAA}}

=== Master-at-Arms (MAA) ===
An MAA is the Sea Org equivalent to the [[#Ethics officer|ethics officer]].

=== Fitness Board ===
The procedure to determine if a new Sea Org recruit is judged to be fit for remaining in the Sea Org, or to have one removed if deemed unfit, is called a Fitness Board.{{r|headley|page=353}}

=== Blow ===

Leaving the Sea Org without authorization is called a ''blow''. It usually results in someone being declared a [[#SP|suppressive person]].{{r|rinder|page=295}} The term is also used for anyone leaving a staff position in a non-Sea Org organization, or a public person leaving Scientology.{{r|headley|page=345}} A '''blow drill''' is used at [[Gold Base]]: when someone escapes the compound or is missing, staff are deployed to nearby bus stations and hotels, airline flight records are searched, and the person is hunted down and recovered. Those recovered were placed on heavy labor duty and undergo intense interrogation.{{r|headley|page=345}}{{r|reitman|page=324}}

{{anchor|RPF}}

=== Rehabilitation Project Force (RPF) ===
{{Main|Rehabilitation Project Force}}
The [[Rehabilitation Project Force|RPF]] is a long-term [[labor camp]] for Sea Org members who are supposedly troublemakers or failures. Though billed as a method of redemption or rehabilitation, assignment to the RPF has often been used as a punishment and individuals have been kept on the RPF for years. RPFers are segregated from other Sea Org members, undergo [[#sec check|security checks]], and perform manual labor for most of every day. They may not speak to others.{{r|rinder|page=302–303}}{{r|headley|page=364}}

=== Deck Project Force ===
A punishment level less severe than assignment to the [[#RPF|RPF]] is assignment to the Deck Project Force. Similar to a new Sea Org recruit's experience on the [[Estates Project Force]] (a sort of boot camp), the member performs manual labor for most of the day. It is also called "being on the decks" or "assigned to the decks".{{r|hubbard-admindict|p=133}}

=== The Hole ===
{{Main|The Hole (Scientology)}}
[[The Hole (Scientology)|The Hole]] is the name of a de facto prison building at [[Gold Base]]; an office building of two adjacent double-wide trailers that was turned into a prison by [[David Miscavige]]. All but one exterior door was barred shut, windows were fixed to limit opening them only two inches, and a 24-hour guard was posted at the remaining door. Initially, 40 personnel were placed inside until they "confessed their crimes" to Miscavige's satisfaction. The 'prisoners' slept on the floor, were fed cold leftovers or rice and beans, had limited access to washing facilities, and were subjected to daily confession sessions and [[public humiliation]]. At one point, the number of prisoners reached 140. Along with [[sleep deprivation]] and starvation, there was also [[Assault|physical brutality]], and [[Torture|physical]] and [[Psychological torture|mental torture]]. Though some people managed to escape the building, their escape from the surrounding premises would be thwarted by guards, cameras, motion sensors, and [[razor wire]]. Many 'residents' remained in the Hole for years.<ref name="concentration">{{cite news |url=http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/08/scientology_concentration_camp_the_hole.php |title=Scientology's Concentration Camp for Its Executives: The Prisoners, Past and Present |last=Ortega |first=Tony |author-link=Tony Ortega |date=August 2, 2012 |publisher=[[The Village Voice]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150407055834/http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/08/scientology_concentration_camp_the_hole.php |archive-date=April 7, 2015}}</ref>{{r|rinder|pages=208–217}}

=== Overboarding ===
Overboarding was a punishment started by Hubbard in the 1960s while aboard the ''[[Apollo (Scientology)|Apollo]]'' whereby a student or staff member was blindfolded, their hands and sometimes feet were tied, someone recited "We commit your sins to the depths. May you arise a better thetan!" and they were thrown over the side of the ship into the ocean, a drop of 15–40 feet depending on deck. One journalist reported an 8-year-old child being thrown overboard.{{r|atack|pp=186–7}}{{r|headley|p=123}}

{{Blockquote |text=Being hurled such a distance, blindfolded and restrained, into cold sea water, must have been terrifying. Worst of all was the fear that you would hit the side of the ship as you fell, your flesh ripped open by the barnacles. Overboarding was a very traumatic experience. |author=Jon Atack in ''Piece of Blue Sky'' from an interview with Neville Chamberlin {{r|atack|p=187}} }}

After their training on the ''Apollo'' was completed and the Scientologists returned to their local organizations, they started alternative 'overboarding' practices, including throwing people in bathtubs, hosing them down, or pushing their heads into toilet bowls.{{r|atack|p=190}}

Though the practice of overboarding from the ship ceased around 1970,{{r|atack|p=187}} [[David Miscavige]] resurrected the practice when he marched his entire staff to the swimming pool at [[Gold Base]] and made each person [[walk the plank]] ([[Springboard|diving board]]) and jump into the pool fully-clothed. After that first "overboard ceremony", Miscavige changed the venue to a "slimy pond" on the property and such punishments became a frequent practice.{{r|rinder|page=208}}

=== Running program ===

One Sea Org punishment, called the ''running program'', was turned into a fee-based service for public Scientologists called the Cause Resurgence Rundown. Allegedly devised as a therapy by Hubbard in the early 1980s and liberally doled out by [[David Miscavige]] as punishments, this program required a person to run around a fixed point such as a pole or tree for hours each day until they were exhausted, repeating this every day until they had some sort of realization. The minimum time to run each day was five hours, with many people being ordered to do ten to twelve hours of running. Participants were not allowed to talk to each other while running. Short breaks for food and short rests were permitted before being goaded to continue by a supervisor. For decades, rain or shine, summer or winter in the high desert of [[Gilman Hot Springs, California]], and sometimes in full navy-style uniform, Sea Org members have run around a palm tree on a makeshift running track. Injuries and medical issues have been common, and many have left the Sea Org after being ordered to do the program.{{r|reitman|page=138}}{{r|scobee|pages=159-162}}{{r|headley|page=189}}{{r|rinder|page=100}}<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0swGEQIGElU |title=The Running Program |first1=Mark |last1=Fisher |first2=Janis Gillham |last2=Grady |publisher=Scientology - Peeling the Onion |access-date=March 3, 2024}}</ref>

Though a common punishment for Sea Org members only at [[Gold Base]], in the early 1980s some of the {{glossary link|glossary=Glossary of Scientology|franchise}} owners were ordered onto the running program.{{r|reitman|page=138}} In 1982, [[David Mayo (Scientology)|David Mayo]], Hubbard's own auditor and the highest level auditor in the Sea Org at the time, was ordered onto the running program, after which he left the Sea Org having decided Miscavige was destroying Hubbard's work.{{r|rinder|page=100}} [[Amy Scobee]] reported that a diabetic woman was ordered to the running program; she went into [[hypoglycemic shock]] and they gave her some insulin and ordered her back to the running track, being pushed in a wheelchair.{{r|scobee|page=162}} In 2003, [[Marc Headley]] did the running program for three months as part of a pilot prior to the Church of Scientology marketing the program for its paying members.{{r|headley|page=189}}

{{Blockquote |text=This in fact became a popular form of punishment: the "Running Program" ... was a nasty, physically exhausting experience that was supposed to be another Hubbard cure for recalcitrant Sea Org members. Remarkably, this punishment has been remarketed into a program called the Cause Resurgence Rundown, based on Hubbard's claim that circling around a fixed object "aligns your energy flows" and "restores your power as a thetan." People pay $5,000 to run in circles around a pole in the center of a large room at the [[Flag Land Base]]—a testament to how scientologists will accept anything if they are told it comes from Hubbard. —[[Mike Rinder]] {{r|rinder|page=100}} }}