Order of the Solar Temple

The Order of the Solar Temple (French: ordre du Temple solaire, OTS), or simply the Solar Temple, was an esoteric new religious movement and secret society, often described as a cult, notorious for the mass deaths of many of its members in several incidents throughout the 1990s. The OTS claimed to be based upon the ideals of the Knights Templar and incorporated a mix of Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, and New Age ideas. It was founded by Luc Jouret and Joseph Di Mambro in 1984, in Geneva, Switzerland.

Order of the Solar Temple

Ordre du Temple solaire
The variety of the Templar Cross used by the OTS
Abbreviation	OTS
Predecessor	Fraternité de la pyramide (1975–1978) Fondation Golden Way (1978–1984) Ordre international chevaleresque de Tradition solaire (1983–1984)
Formation	1984
Dissolved	1997
Type	Neo-Templarism Rosicrucianism New Age
Headquarters	Saconnex d'Arve (1984–1993)
Region	Switzerland  France  Quebec
Membership	300–400 (core members)
Founder	Joseph Di Mambro
Grand Master	Luc Jouret (1984–1991) Robert Falardeau (1991–1994)
Key people	Michel Tabachnik

Di Mambro was a French jeweler, esotericist, and serial fraudster, while Jouret was a Belgian homeopath who lectured on alternative medicine and related spirituality. After meeting at one of these lectures they became close, and the OTS was formed out of a union between groups they were involved in. Di Mambro had founded several past esoteric groups, and had previous affiliation with a number of other organizations. The group was active throughout several French-speaking countries, as well as Australia.

Following increasing legal and media scandal, including investigations over arms trafficking and money laundering in multiple countries, as well as conflict within the group, the founders began to prepare for what they described as "transit" to the star Sirius. In 1994, they first ordered the murder of a family of ex-members in Quebec, before orchestrating mass suicide and mass murder on two communes in Switzerland. In the following years, there were two other mass suicides of former OTS members in France and Quebec; in total, 77 people died in the course of these events, the classification of which as either mass suicide or mass murder is disputed. The OTS was a major factor in the toughening of the fight against cults in France.

Background

Further information: Knights Templar

The OTS was one of numerous Neo-Templar organizations active in France and Switzerland in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These organizations followed a tradition of claiming unbroken descent from a lineage of grand masters that claimed to go back to the original medieval Knights Templar; the original Knights Templar had been dissolved by Pope Clement V following accusations of witchcraft and heresy at the beginning of the fourteenth century. The theory of the Templar's continued existence has been criticized by scholars of Templar history, and was described by French historian Régine Pernoud as "totally insane".^[1][2] In 1310, 54 Templar knights were burned alive at the stake, and four years later the grand master and a local leader were as well.^[3]

In 1968, French esotericist and author Jacques Breyer and the former grandmaster of the Ancient Mystical Order Rosae Crucis (French: Antiquus Mysticusque Ordo Rosae Crucis, AMORC) Raymond Bernard, established the Renovated Order of the Temple (French: Ordre rénové du Temple, ORT), viewed by some as a predecessor to the OTS.^[1][3][4] Breyer had previously initiated a resurgence of Templar groups in France in 1952.^[3] ORT's main headquarters were located in Auty, where its grandmaster, Julien Origas, a former member of the Gestapo, was stationed. Origas led members of the far-right to join ORT.^[5]

History

Main articles: Joseph Di Mambro and Luc Jouret

Joseph Di Mambro was a French jeweler with an interest in esotericism. After scamming a business partner in the late 1960s, Di Mambro fled France, before returning to Pont-Saint-Esprit in 1972, believing that his past actions had been forgotten, and acted as a psychologist. Soon after, he was sentenced to six months in prison for writing bad checks, breaching patient trust, and for impersonating a psychiatrist.^[6][7][8] In the 1950s, Di Mambro began practicing spiritualism and frequented a successor group to the Service d'Action Civique (SAC), founded by French politician Charles Pasqua. In the late 1960s, he became a member and lodge leader of the AMORC organization in Nîmes, France.^[9]

Luc Jouret began a formal study of homeopathy and qualified as a homeopathic practitioner in France. He travelled widely studying various forms of alternative and spiritual healing.^[10] At the beginning of the 1980s he settled in Annemasse, France, not far from the Swiss border, and began to practice homeopathy there. He continued to lecture widely on holistic health and the paranormal and invited those who responded to him into Amenta Club (later renamed the Atlanta Club).^[11]

Di Mambro founded in 1973 the Centre for the Preparation of the New Age (French: Centre de Préparation à l'Age Nouveau, CPAN) in Collonges-sous-Salève.^[9][12] In 1975, a Geneva-based community known as the Brotherhood of the Pyramid (French: Fraternité de la pyramide), or alternatively La Pyramide, founded by Di Mambro, began meeting regularly in a house in the Geneva countryside, for community, discussion and mutual support on topics such as diet and spirituality.^[5][13][14] In June 1977, Di Mambro met orchestral conductor Michel Tabachnik, who, having an interest in esotericism, attended and became a member.^[5][15] Di Mambro suggested he take over the community and structure it. The following year, the two men created the Golden Way Foundation.^[16][17]

Golden Way

In 1978 Di Mambro founded the Golden Way Foundation (French: Fondation Golden Way).^[5] Based in a villa in Saconnex-d'Arve, Switzerland, the foundation aimed to discuss issues of pollution, the environment and social ties. It aimed to develop knowledge about the evolution of future quality of life, such as healthy living, organic farming and alternative healthcare techniques.^[14] Through conferences (with guests such as Iannis Xenakis, Alexis Weissenberg, Nikita Magaloff, Hubert Reeves and Michel Jonasz), research and television interviews, the foundation opened up to public and political life.^[18]

In the early 1980s, Joseph Di Mambro and Michel Tabachnik, both interested in philosophy, esotericism and spirituality, decided to bring a mystical and religious vision to the foundation. A room called the "Sanctuary" was set aside for meditation and rituals designed to "connect with the world of the invisible". Members wore white capes with symbols such as the Rose cross and the Templar cross.^[18] Michel Tabachnik held several conferences on esotericism. Di Mambro also set up the Amenta society to spread the ideas of the Golden Way Foundation and to recruit new members.^[9] Joseph Di Mambro was perceived by Foundation members as a medium, a "walk-in" being (a being who takes on the body of another).^[18]

In 1981, Camille Pilet, the treasurer of the OTS,^[19] suffered a heart attack and met Belgian homeopath Luc Jouret. In the wake of Camille Pilet's health situation, Jouret began to take an interest in alternative medicine and therapies such as macrobiotics and iridology, and developed an interest in esotericism.^[9] He subsequently gave a number of lectures in which he defended the existence of a link between a spiritual approach and homeopathy. Having noticed Luc Jouret's good elocution and communication skills, Di Mambro decided to meet him, and was charmed. He invited Jouret to join the Golden Way, where he quickly rose in the ranks.^[18][5]

The same year, Origas was invited by Di Mambro to visit the Golden Way commune; Origas, impressed with Jouret, invited him into ORT.^[5] In 1983, after the death of Julien Origas, leader of ORT, Di Mambro urged Jouret to take over the order, and he became its new grand master the same year, before he was expelled by Origas's daughter,^[4][5] over a dispute involving leadership and funds.^[4] Jouret then formed and lead a schismatic group of 30 ORT members, giving rise to the International Chivalric Order of the Solar Tradition (French: ordre international chevaleresque de Tradition solaire, OICTS) in Geneva.^[4] This group opened branches in Martinique and Quebec.^[1][4] The same year, Michel Tabachnik was made president of the Golden Way Foundation.^[5]

In June 1981, Di Mambro, then 57, began an affair with then 21-year-old Dominique Bellaton. He later claimed to receive a revelation from the "masters" that Bellaton would produce a "cosmic child" through theogamy.^[5][a] In 1982, Di Mambro announced that a "great mission" awaited the foundation. He also announced that a "child-king" was to be born into the community.^[18] Di Mambro soon had the idea that Bellaton, a young drug-addicted woman who had been hunted by pimps who joined the order at her parents' request, was the surrogate mother of the "cosmic child". A ceremony in the order's crypt, organized with special effects, helped to confirm to the members the supernatural powers of theogamy, when in fact Dominique was Di Mambro's mistress and had been pregnant for several weeks.^[20] In January 1986 Di Mambro legally recognized the child as his biologically at the French Consulate in Quebec.^[21] Their child, initially named Anne Bellaton, was born on March 22, 1982.^[5]

The child was viewed as "the Christ of the new generation",^[5] but was born female, something attributed by Di Mambro to human imperfection (believing the child's mother being human had led to an imperfect Christ).^[21] Di Mambro claimed the child was an Avatar, a male soul trapped in a female body. She was then given the female title Emmanuelle, but was referred to with male pronouns.^[21] The same year, Jouret founded Club Amenta (later renamed Atlanta).^[22]

Activities

 

One of the symbols of the OTS.

In 1984, the Golden Way Foundation and the International Chivalric Order of the Solar Tradition merged to form the Order of the Solar Temple (French: ordre du Temple solaire, OTS), combining various principles of the previous structures and bringing together several members from French-speaking countries. Luc Jouret was the lecturer and recruiter, and became the Grand Master, although the organization's true head and master of finance was Di Mambro.^[23] From that year on, the group's most active locations were in French-speaking Europe and Quebec; from Quebec, the group intended to spread its influence to the United States, and began a translation project to make OTS ideas available to English speakers. This was mostly unsuccessful, as the OTS never had more than a few American members.^[24] The Solar Temple was also based in Spain, especially in the Canary Islands. In 1984, Luc Jouret lectured on the island of Tenerife.^[25][26]

In 1985, Di Mambro decided to set up a survival center in Canada in the event of nuclear war. An estate, named Sacré-Coeur, was purchased in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade, Quebec, to create an organic farm.^[27] The organization set up several subsidiaries, both official and hidden, to finance these real estate purchases. More often than not, Di Mambro made a profit by reselling its stakes in the various real estate projects to sect members:^[28] Di Mambro, Jouret, Dominique Bellaton and Camille Pilet bought four semi-detached chalets on Chemin Belisle in Morin-Heights, Quebec and, with members' money, several other houses for OTS activities (including a farm in Cheiry, Canton of Fribourg) managed by member Albert Giacobino.

Di Mambro had asked Tabachnik to draw up a series of writings to inspire him to rise in ranks within the order, called the Archées.^[15] Many of the Order's concepts and principles were inspired by these writings, third degree initiatory texts.^[29][30] Written between 1984 and 1989, they were made up of 21 articles, each ranging from 15 to 20 pages.^[30] They were considered difficult to understand even by members of the OTS.^[30]

OTS members participated in ceremonies, where members wore Crusader-type robes and were to hold in awe a sword, which Di Mambro said was an authentic Templar artifact, given to him a thousand years ago in a previous life.^[31] Ritual ceremonies were allegedly staged by a member by the name of Tony Dutoit.^[32] In the words of the 2001 judgment for Michel Tabachnik, the places of worship were "the scene of apparitions and manifestations perceived as supernatural during ritual ceremonies. Numerous witnesses have reported seeing [...] materialized objects or figures". One former follower claimed to have witnessed "the appearance of the Masters, the Holy Grail, the sword Excalibur, the Twelve Apostles and even Christ".^[33] In reality the supposedly supernatural apparitions, accompanied by deafening cosmic music and holograms, were the acts of Di Mambro's wife Jocelyne Di Mambro perched on a stool.^[34]

According to the literature of the OTS, the central authority was the Synarchy of the Temple, whose membership was secret. Its top 33 members were known as the Elder Brothers of the Rosy Cross (an alternative name for the Rosicrucians), and were headquartered in Zürich, Switzerland. The Council of the Order formed Lodges that were run by a Regional Commander and three Elders. Progression in the Order was by levels and grades, with three grades per level—the levels being The Brothers of Parvis, The Knights of the Alliance and the Brothers of the Ancient Times, in ascending order. There were many organizations associated with the OTS, including the International Archedia Sciences and Tradition, Archedia Clubs, Menta Clubs, Agata Clubs and Atlanta Clubs, all of which offered the teachings of Luc Jouret both to the general public and privately to OTS members. The Lodges had altars, rituals and costumes. Members were initiated at each stage of advancement in ceremonies which included expensive purchases, jewellery, costumes, regalia, and the payment of initiation fees.^[35] Members of the OTS paid a monthly membership fee and lived communally.^[1]

The organization drew its theology from various sources, but was described by the Quebec coroner investigating the case as being inspired by occultism, due to its belief in pseudoscientific practices, and practices unrecognized by other religions, which required special initiation.^[28] The group's stated aims, according to Jouret, were to:^[36][37]

• Reestablish knowledge of authority and power
• Affirm the primacy of the spiritual over the temporal
• Make man aware of his dignity
• Help humanity through its passage
• Participate in the assumption of the Earth
• Help unify the Churches
• The key objective being the "return of Christ in solar glory"

OTS members believed themselves to be reincarnated versions of the original Templars who had been burned at the stake with grandmaster Jacques de Molay,^[1] and even further, members of a class of people who had been reborn since ancient times, whose purpose in the world was to fulfill a "cosmic mission".^[38] The group was influenced by Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, and New Age philosophy.^[1] Sociologist Françoise Champion [fr] described the OTS as having a "cobbled-together Templar filiation".^[39] It claimed to be based upon the ideals of the Knights Templar.^[40][41] Many members of the OTS were wealthy and socially successful, in contrast to many other cults.^[42]

First disagreements

At its peak, the OTS had 300-400 core members.^[19] The group reached its membership height in January 1989, with 442 members: 187 in France, 90 in Switzerland, 86 in Canada, 53 in Martinique, 16 in the US, and 10 in Spain, from which they gained more than $36000 in monthly revenue overall.^[24] Most members of the OTS had little contact with the leadership, and little or no idea of their violent plans.^[43] Some financially successful members individually donated amounts ranging from the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars to the group, to finance the "life centers"; however, some of the money was instead used to fund the leader's own travel expenses, and cost of living expenses for OTS members who did not have other support. The group began to have financial problems.^[24]

In the 1990s, Luc Jouret, having given up his profession as a homeopath to devote himself fully to the OTS, began lecturing on personal development at various companies, universities and banks, mainly in Quebec but also in Switzerland, France and Belgium. Di Mambro, who had a dim view of these lectures as "disseminating the ideas and principles of the OTS to the public", began sabotaging Jouret's lectures, who eventually abandoned his activities and became totally dependent on Di Mambro.^[44] Jouret was removed from his position as Grand Master, which was handed over to Robert Falardeau. Back in Europe, Di Mambro, Camille Pilet and Alexandre Borgeaud bought land in Salvan (Valais) and built three chalets (Luc Jouret lived in Di Mambro's chalet).^[44] The group had a commune in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade.^[45] The cult was also active in Australia, where at least 93 million dollars were in the group's accounts.^[46]

The OTS had largely escaped negative public attention from the anti-cult movement in the 1980s, other than two lines published in a French anti-cult booklet about Jouret in 1984. He and the group were left out of later 80s editions. On 10 September 1991, the president of Martinique's branch of the Association for the Defense of Families and Individuals (the leading French anti-cult group), asked various Canadian associations for information on the group in a letter, following several Martinicans leaving the island to join them.^[47] In 1992, after an invitation from a French cult-watching organization, a former OTS member visited Martinique, where she denounced the group. Her statements were picked up on by the local media.^[47][48] The next year the group encountered further trouble, when the group's locations in Quebec were raided and two members were arrested on grounds of possession of illegal weapons. Jouret had asked the men to buy three semiautomatic guns with silencers, illegal in Canada, resulting in the three being arrested.^[49][13] Jouret and the other two men were given only light sentences after the crime (one year of unsupervised probation and a 1000 dollar fine paid intended to be paid to the Red Cross), but in the aftermath the media took interest in the group. The Canadian press began to report, using information gained from police wiretaps, conversations between members of the OTS, which they described as a "doomsday cult".^[48][50]

Though Jouret had encouraged some members of the OTS to learn to shoot, at the time, members of the cult-watching group Info-Secte believed the group to be of a survivalist nature, and that they intended to use the weapons to defend themselves after an apocalypse; a representative of Info-Secte publicly expressed his confusion as to why they would need silencers for this purpose. Even tabloid newspapers that covered the OTS, which ran lurid stories about the organization, did not indicate they believed them capable of violence. In March of 1993, some members of the group tried to convince the press that the OTS was harmless and mostly dedicated to moral improvement and gardening, and denied allegations of being a cult.^[48]

The OTS viewed itself as increasingly persecuted, though according to Jean-François Mayer, there was little actual opposition to the group, with Canadian Public Security Minister Claude Ryan explicitly stating the government would not surveil cult members in the wake of reports on the group, and denying information claiming the group had planned to commit terrorist attacks in Canada.^[51] The leadership believed the increasing legal and media attention to be both a conspiracy against the OTS and a sign of the Kali Yuga, and the group's ideas became increasingly focused on environmental destruction and ecological collapse.^[13][50]

Beginning in the late 80s, several members began to doubt Di Mambro.^[52] In 1990, Di Mambro's son Elie discovered that the apparations that appeared during OTS ceremonies were faked, operated by Antonio Dutoit, who confirmed this, before leaving the group. Elie, who also realized that the "masters" his father presented did not exist, then revealed this to other members.^[52][53] Some members explained the falsification away as necessary to keep "weaker souls" in the group, but numerous other members, whose faith in the group had been previously damaged by the silencer scandal, left the group and demanded a reimbursement of money they had donated.^[53][54] Joseph Di Mambro promised to return the sums requested, but several OTS members resigned in quick succession in 1990, leaving only the core group of OTS members.^[52]

Di Mambro, faced with increasing criticism from members, decided to modify his teachings and preach a transit to another planet. In the spring of 1994, he summoned all OTS members and followers, and explained that the Temple's mission was coming to an end and that OTS leaders would disappear on the star Sirius. The remaining members would have to continue their work.^{[citation needed]} The leaders began to monitor members who said they wanted to leave the OTS. Some were spied on, others had their phones tapped. Many members, including Di Mambro's own son and many high-ranking members, left.^[13]

Di Mambro also began having issues with Emmanuelle; though she had been raised from birth to be a messiah figure, by the age of 12 she had become uncooperative, rejecting her role in the group and taking an interest in typical teenage pop culture. He additionally believed her to be under threat from the Antichrist,^[53] who he believed was born to Antonio and Nicky Dutoit in summer 1994. Di Mambro had previously forbidden Nicky from giving birth, but after she left the group, they had a son, who they named Christopher Emmanuel. Di Mambro, deeply offended by the name similitarity, the disobeying of his instructions, and that he had not been consulted in the naming of the infant, ordered the family be murdered later in 1994.^[53][55]

In a tape likely dating to spring 1994, Jouret and Di Mambro discussed the Waco siege, saying that they had "beaten us to the punch", with Di Mambro saying "what we’ll do will be even more spectacular".^[56] Members of the group claimed a mass suicide had occurred in Sydney on 6 January 1994. According to the New South Wales Police, this did not occur.^[57][58]

Given the scale of the issues facing the group, the decision was taken to "transit" to Sirius. To prepare for the transit, Joseph Di Mambro entrusted special missions to his most devoted close members. Several stages were organized:^[59]

• the elimination of traitors;
• the execution of members who agreed with the principle of transit, but not necessarily by physical death;
• the execution of members who agreed with the principle of transit and accept physical death.

The OTS termed the acts a "transit", which they described as "in no way a suicide in the human sense of the term".^[60] In their belief, they would "transit" by the star Sirius. During the last meeting of the order, On 24 September 1994, the group was renamed as the Alliance Rose Croix (ARC), announced by Tabachnik. The group claimed the renaming was in order to reach "the irreversible stage of the return to the Father" and the "Vth Reign", which would lead to the abolition of hierarchies.^[30]

Mass murders and suicides

Morin-Heights, Cheiry & Salvan

On 30 September 1994, Dominique Bellaton lured the couple Antonio and Nicky Dutoit, along with their 2-month-old baby Christopher-Emmanuel, to Di Mambro's chalet at 199 Chemin Belisle in Morin-Heights. He ordered the infant to be eliminated by two knights of the sect, Jerry Genoud and Joël Egger, to prevent his reappearance. Di Mambro believed that the Antichrist was born into the order to prevent him from succeeding in his spiritual aim.^[55][61] The baby was stabbed through the heart with a wooden stake, and the parents, ex-members, were then murdered.^[62] Bellaton and Egger left for Switzerland at 10:10 p.m. on September 30,^[33] while Genoud and his wife Colette cleaned up, set fire to the chalet and killed themselves.^[63]

On the night of October 4 to 5, 1994, two fires broke out in Switzerland: one at around 11:55 p.m. at the "La Rochette" farm in Cheiry, and another in three chalets at "Le Fond du Ban" in Salvan. When the fire department arrived, they found 23 people dead in Cheiry and 25 in Salvan. The victims were, in most cases, "dressed in a white, black or gold ritual cloak, depending on the degree of initiation reached".^[64] In Switzerland, many of the victims were found in a secret underground chapel lined with mirrors^[65] and other items of Templar symbolism.^{[citation needed]} Jouret was among the dead in Salvan. Many bodies were burned beyond recognition, and Jouret and Di Mambro's bodies had to be identified via dental records.^[66] Di Mambro, in addition to his wife and child, were also among the dead.^[67]

On the morning of October 5, Di Mambro instructed Patrick Vuarnet, Jean Vuarnet's son, a member of the group, to send 300 items of mail to the media, other followers and a number of political and public figures, including Charles Pasqua.^[66] There were four letters written by the heads of the OTS, Le testament. These letters were sent out to 60 scholars (one of whom was Jean-François Mayer),^[68] journalists, and government officials, and contained messages of the order's beliefs.^[69][70][33] These letters gave the group's stated reasons for mass suicide; dying to "transit" to Sirius, where the members would assume "solar bodies".^[68] The four letters were titled "To All Those Who Can Still Understand the Voice of Wisdom … We Address This Last Message", "The Rose+Croix", "Transit to the Future", and finally "To Lovers of Justice".^[71] They were postmarked from "D.Part" and "Tran Sit Corp", mailed from "33 Golden Strasse, 8011 ZURICH".^[72][42][b]

In Cheiry, twenty victims died from one or more bullets to the head, two suffocated with plastic bags around their heads, and another probably in the same way on October 3. Twenty-two people had flunitrazepam in their blood, and one had theobromine. The building, closed from the inside, was then set on fire the following day by an automatic ignition system.^[73][74] The bodies were dressed in the order's ceremonial robes and were in a circle, feet together, heads outward, most with plastic bags tied over their heads; they had each been shot in the head.^[18] All the dead were divided into three categories. The inner circle members who were close to Jouret and Di Mambro, called the "Awakened", ingested poison. An additional 30, "Immortals", were shot or smothered; 8 others, declared as "traitors", were murdered.^[62][75]

The plastic bags may have been a symbol of the ecological disaster that would befall the human race after the OTS members moved on to Sirius; it is also possible that these bags were used as part of the OTS rituals, and that members would have voluntarily worn them without being placed under duress. There was also evidence that many of the victims in Switzerland were drugged before they were shot. Other victims were found in three ski chalets; several dead children were lying together.^[18] The tragedy was discovered when officers rushed to the sites to fight the fires that had been ignited by remote-control devices. Farewell letters left by the believers stated that they believed they were leaving to escape the "hypocrisies and oppression of this world."^[18] At least five of the dead were children.^[76]

In Salvan, it transpired that the victims had been injected (or had injected themselves) with a curare, opioid and benzodiazepine-based poison. The cottages were then locked from the inside and set on fire using an automatic ignition system. Bodies were found in only two of the three cottages.^[77] A mayor, a journalist, a civil servant, and a sales manager were found among the dead in Switzerland. Records seized by the Quebec police showed that some members had personally donated over C$1 million to Di Mambro. All the suicides/murders and attempts occurred around the dates of the equinoxes and solstices in relation to the beliefs of the group.^[78]

Swiss investigation

The leadership of the OTS cared deeply about the group's legacy, and spent a large amount of time preemptively creating a "legend" through both the manifestos they mailed to various media and scholarly sources, and by destroying all evidence that would have conflicted with their own story. This plan was disrupted, as some of the ignition devices had failed. This failure left behind a large number of the Temple's written documents, some of which were found on the group's surviving computers, as well as audio and video cassettes, able to be looked through by investigators.^[79] Several months after the deaths, two journalists from France 2 visited the ruins of the Salvan chalet and found, in the kitchen garbage can, audio cassettes in excellent condition, recording telephone conversations between followers who had been spied on by Di Mambro.^[80] Extracts from the tapes were broadcast and deemed to be in line with the order's beliefs and theses.^[81]

During the search of Joseph Di Mambro's apartment, a note (in French) was found which read:^[82][9]

Following the tragic Cheiry Transit, we wish to make it clear, on behalf of the Rosy Cross, that we deplore and totally disassociate ourselves from the barbaric, incompetent and aberrant behavior of Doctor Luc Jouret. Taking the decision to act on his own authority, against all our rules, he has transgressed our code of honor and is the cause of a veritable carnage that should have been a Transit carried out in Honor, Peace and Light. His departure does not correspond to the Ethics we represent and defend to posterity.^[c]

Thanks to the documents found, the police were able to understand the workings of the community and recognize some of its members, including Michel Tabachnik (in concert in Denmark at the time of the massacres).^[44] He was questioned for three days by the investigating judge André Piller, and was cleared of having been the perpetrator of the massacre. Other former OTS members were also questioned, such as Thierry Huguenin, who testified that he had been called to Salvan on October 4 on the promise that money owed to him would be returned that day. However, sensing danger, he left the scene. He went on to explain that he believed the plan was to assassinate him and the others in order to reach the number of 54 victims, in connection with the 54 knights of the Order of the Temple executed at the stake on March 18 during the reign of Philip IV of France.^[33][d] After the event, some other members declared their continued support for the group's ideas, and even regretted not having been chosen for the "transit".^[83]

Vercors

On the night of December 15 to 16, 1995, sixteen people - thirteen adults and three children aged 2, 4 and 6 - were immolated in a star-formation^[84] at a place called "Le Trou de l'Enfer", in an isolated clearing on the Vercors Massif, near Saint-Pierre-de-Chérennes (Isère) in France.^[83][85] On 23 December 1995, the 16 bodies were discovered by a gamekeeper.^[86][87]

The investigation conducted by the Grenoble Gendarmerie Nationale Research Section, which entrusted technical expertise to the Institut de recherche criminelle de la gendarmerie nationale (IRCGN), indicated that 14 people, including three children, took sedative pills, put plastic bags on their heads and lay in a circle, feet in the middle of the circle. Then Jean-Pierre Lardanchet and André Friedli shot each member in the head one by one with two .22 caliber rifles.^[88] After that, they put firewood on the bodies, poured gasoline and set it on fire. Then they both shot themselves in the head with two .357 Magnum revolvers and jumped into the fire.^[89][90] Two women who were mothers of children had broken skulls.^[90] The Grenoble Public Prosecutor opened an investigation into murder and criminal conspiracy, with the possibility of external complicity.^{[citation needed]}

Investigators concluded that of the sixteen dead, at least four had not died willingly.^[91] One of the dead was Olympian Edith Bonlieu, who had competed in the women's downhill at the 1956 Winter Olympics.^[92]

Saint-Casimir

On March 22, 1997, an old farmhouse in Saint-Casimir, Quebec abruptly caught fire.^[93][94] After a call from a neighbor, firefighters soon arrived, and after the fires diminished an hour later they were able to enter the home.^[94] At 7:35 p.m., they discovered four of the burnt bodies – two couples – found in the master bedroom on the second floor, arranged in a crucifix formation.^[91][94][70] Red rose petals were scattered throughout the room, and while searching the house police found a sword engraved with a woman's name ("Pauline Riou") and medieval-style clothing. Once the smoke cleared, another woman's body was found on the first floor at 8:05. After officers arrived, three teenagers, the children of one of the couples, came out of the shed in the garden, and were found by the chief fire officer who believed them to be possibly drugged. The teenagers were taken to be medically examined, and were found to have traces of benzodiazepine in their blood.^[70]

The fire had been set deliberately; three propane tanks had been detached from the detonation mechanism and were unaltered by the fire. In the debris, metal grills were discovered containing cloth drenched in flammable substances. The timers used in the detonation mechanism resembled those used for the fire set at Morin Heights.^[70] The attempt to burn the house down initially failed due to mechanical error.^[91] The teenagers had successfully convinced their parents that they wanted to live, and were then allowed to leave.^[91][95] As explained in a note that was found, the members had taken their own lives believing that their deaths would let them "transit" to another planet to continue living.^[91]

Aftermath

In 1995, the OTS was listed as a cult in the report of the Parliamentary Commission on Cults in France.^[96] The group's actions were a major factor in the toughening of the fight against cults in France.^[97] In the wake of the deaths, fear of cults took hold of the French and Swiss populations.^[83] The acts of the Solar Temple prompted European governments to begin to monitor new and nontraditional religious movements, and also influenced the American anti-cult movement.^[98]

In the aftermath, many anti-cult activists compared Jouret — viewed then as the charismatic leader of the OTS — to David Koresh, though Di Mambro was later described as the group's main leader, with Jouret its recruiter.^[68]

There were initially debates over whether it was mass suicide or mass murder.^[76][99] The investigation finally concluded that Di Mambro and Luc Jouret had orchestrated mass suicide. The investigators ordered the destruction of the site "so as not to shock believers or attract the curious", a decision that was controversial.^[64]

Legal proceedings

On December 23, 1995, during the journal de 13 heures program on the French channel TF1, journalist Gilles Bouleau mentioned that the sect had survived and united behind Michel Tabachnik, thus indirectly declaring that Tabachnik was the mastermind behind the Vercors massacre. Later, Arnaud Bédat acquired photos claimed to directly implicate Tabachnik in the OTS's actions.^[100][101] This information was picked up by the media, leading Tabachnik to give a public denial. It was revealed that in September 1994, Tabachnik gave two lectures in Avignon at Di Mambro's request. These lectures were preparatory sessions for the massacres that were to take place in October of the same year. It was later said that Tabachnik had indeed taken part in these conferences, but without knowing the outcome of the massacres, and that it had been a set-up by Di Mambro.^{[citation needed]} Tabachnik later sued Bouleau, unsuccessfully, for defamation.^[100][102]

At the time of the investigation, due to the death of the two leaders in Salvan in 1994, Tabachnik was the only defendant in the case. The examining magistrate considered that Tabachnik, through his writings and his conferences, could have incited followers to commit suicide. He was therefore charged with participation in a criminal conspiracy to commit a crime.^[83] In his defense, Tabachnik published Bouc émissaire. Dans le piège du Temple Solaire, with a preface by Pierre Boulez.^[103] Claude Giron, a member of the group and a pharmacist, was indicted for criminal conspiracy in February 1997, as he was suspected of supplying the drugs used in the killings to the group. The case against him was dismissed in July of that year.^[104][105] On 17 November 1998, investigating judge Luc Fontaine presented the conclusions of his inquiry into the second Vercors massacre.^[106]

In the run-up to the criminal court trial against Michel Tabachnik, the families of the victims, all of whom believed it to be a mass suicide, filed a civil action. Having consulted the experts' files, the civil party identified a number of inconsistencies in the investigation, such as the fact that the organic environment around the bodies of the immolated victims was completely intact and showed no trace of fire. The civil party then asked for counter-expertise and questioned the theory of collective suicide.^[83] According to Alain Vuarnet, son and brother of two of the victims, who had been conducting a parallel private investigation since 1995,^[107] the "collective suicides" of members of the Order of the Solar Temple in December 1995 in the Vercors region have still not been fully explained. He complained about the lack of cooperation from the justice system, which has always refused to investigate the possibility of murder. According to the expert, Professor Gilbert Lavoué, commissioned by Mr. Vuarnet, phosphorus was found at the scene, indicating the use of a flamethrower, which would imply that there had been no suicide, but a staged event.^[108] Vuarnet stated, "My father and I remain convinced that it wasn't with a few damp branches that these sixteen bodies were charred to such an extent".^[107] The results of the expert analyses revealed "an excess of phosphorus of between 21% and 40%".^[109]

Tabachnik's trial

 

Grenoble's former museum-library, specially fitted out for the trial between April 13 and June 25, 2001.

On 13 April 2001, at the Grenoble Museum-Library, which had been transformed for the occasion, the criminal court trial of Michel Tabachnik (defended by Francis Szpiner) for "criminal conspiracy" began. However, the plaintiffs' side split into two camps: one led by Alain Vuarnet, those who felt that the trial should not focus on Tabachnik's responsibility, but on the investigation itself, which they feel did not go all the way in their research; and on the other, led by the Union nationale des associations de défense des familles et de l'individu victimes de sectes (UNADFI), who believed that Tabachnik and his writings were the cause of the mass suicides, and that cults must be eradicated.^[83]

On the seventh day of the trial, several former OTS members took the stand and testified. Among the testimonies given, some were shocked, angry at the sect and the acts committed, while others remained faithful to Di Mambro and to the transit to Sirius.^[83] On the eighth day, Tabachnik was finally interviewed and told of having been manipulated and fooled by Di Mambro. On the tenth day, the prosecutor demanded 5 years' imprisonment for Tabachnik's alleged role in the conditioning of the Temple's followers.^[110] On 25 June 2001, the court acquitted Tabachnik, on the basis that there had been no significant proof uncovered "beyond hypotheses" that Tabachnik had orchestrated the killings.^[111]

The public prosecutor, still accusing him of having, through his writings, pushed followers into a mass suicide, appealed against the criminal court's decision, and Tabachnik was tried again in 2006. French prosecutors appealed against the verdict and an appellate court ordered a second trial beginning 24 October 2006.^[112][113] With this appeal, the plaintiffs, led by Alain Virante, hoped to prove that the investigation by examining magistrate Luc Fontaine had been mistaken, and that the followers had indeed been murdered. At their request, Professor Gilbert Lavoué was asked to remove any traces of phosphorus from the victims' remains, which were then dug up. The bodies were found to contain excess phosphorus. In the end, the forensic experts considered that this analysis added nothing new to the case and did not call into question Judge Fontaine's decision.^[110] The public prosecutor, considering that Tabachnik was not an active member of the order and that "his responsibility for the deaths had not been established", did not request any sentence against him. He was acquitted a second time in December 2006.^[114]

Controversies

In 1998, a group called the Atman Foundation was suspected of plotting ritual suicide in the Teide National Park. Both Spanish and German police initially linked the group to the Order of the Solar Temple,^[115][116] though it was later clarified that they were unrelated.^[117]

In addition to Alain Vuarnet, other members of the victims' families, René and Muguette Rostan and Willy and Giséla Schleimer, requested in 2001 and again in 2004 that the case be reopened to contest the theory of collective suicide.^[33] Jean-Pierre Brard also requested reopening the case in 2006.^{[citation needed]}

Some sources, including psychiatrist Jean-Marie Abgrall, supported the idea that the affair had a political mafia tie, citing possible links between Luc Jouret and members of Gladio.^[31] In 2006, the filmmaker Yves Boisset also denounced the "political mafia" trail, which he claimed the investigators had overlooked. In particular, he highlighted Di Mambro's links to Jean-Louis Fargette, a Toulon crime boss murdered in 1993. Boisset argued the OTS had been implicated in a wide variety of French political scandals and argued connections with French politicians like Charles Pasqua and the assassinated Yann Piat.^[118][119]

Boisset made a documentary film, Les Mystères sanglants de l'OTS, to set out his point of view, which aired on the network France 2 in 2006. The film is a docudrama that contains testimonies from former OTS members alongside recreations featuring actors.^[120][118] Boisset's film aimed to explore gaps in the official investigation.^[120][121] Yves Boisset also claimed that by destroying the chalet where the deaths had taken place, Judge Piller had burned evidence, and argued that Inspector Jean-Pierre Lardanchet, found dead in the Vercors, was an agent of the intelligence service and close to Pasqua.^[122] Lardanchet was presented by other sources as an agent of the Police de l'Air et des Frontières or as a "mole" infiltrated into the order.^[123]

Arnaud Palisson, a former analyst at the Direction centrale des Renseignements généraux (DCRG) in Paris, criticized this argument, saying that Boisset "was swept aside by the prodigiously fallacious arguments of provincial journalists looking for their Watergate in the Vercors".^[124] Maurice Fusier, a reporter for Radio France who wrote several books about the OTS, supported Boisset's allegations in the documentary.^[125][120] Boisset's documentary received some praise, though a reviewer writing for Le Monde argued that it did not provide sufficient proof for its assertions.^[120] Arnaud Palisson, a former analyst at the Direction centrale des Renseignements généraux (DCRG) in Paris, criticized Boisset's arguments, saying that he had been "swept aside by the prodigiously fallacious arguments of provincial journalists looking for their Watergate in the Vercors".

Footnotes

1. Referring to the concept of conceiving a child through divine intervention without sexual relations.^[5]
2. Allusions to various beliefs of the OTS. "Golden Strasse" refers to the Golden Way, 33 for the "33 Elder Brothers of the Rosicrucian Order". D. Part is a pun - "Depart". Zurich is where Di Mambro claimed to have met the "masters".^[72]
3. French: "Suite au tragique Transit de Cheiry, nous tenons à préciser, au nom de la Rose + Croix, que nous déplorons et nous nous désolidarisons totalement du comportement barbare, incompétent et aberrant du docteur Luc Jouret. Prenant la décision d’agir de sa propre Autorité, à l'encontre de toutes nos règles, il a transgressé notre code d'honneur et est la cause d'un véritable carnage qui aurait dû être un Transit effectué dans l'Honneur, la Paix et la Lumière. Ce départ ne correspond pas à l'Éthique que nous représentons et défendons face à la postérité."
4. Thierry Huguenin's claim about the date of execution of the 54 Knights Templar at the stake is inaccurate, and confuses two events: the burning at the stake of 54 knights on 12 May 1310, and the burning at the stake of grandmaster Jacques de Molay and local leader Geoffroy de Charnay on 18 March 1314.

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  • Walliss, John. "Crises of Charismatic Authority and Millenarian Violence: The Case of the Order of the Solar Temple". In Lewis (2006).
  • Labelle, Marc. "The Ordre du Temple Solaire and the Quest for the Absolute Sun". In Lewis (2006).
• Marhic, Renaud (1 December 1996). L'Ordre du temple solaire [The Order of the Solar Temple]. Enquête sur les extrémistes de l'occulte (in French). Vol. 2. Horizon Chimérique. ISBN 978-2-907202-58-9.
• Moran, Sarah (1999). The Secret World of Cults: From Ancient Druids to Heaven's Gate. Surrey: CLB. pp. 66–71. ISBN 9781841001326. Retrieved 2 March 2024 – via Archive.org.
• Reynolds, John Lawrence (2006). "Critics, Alarmists and Conspiracy Theorists: When Does Paranoia Make Sense?". Shadow People: Inside History's Most Notorious Secret Societies. Key Porter Books. pp. 271–293. ISBN 978-1-55263-877-4. Retrieved 9 March 2024 – via Archive.org.
• Richardson, James T., ed. (2004). Regulating Religion: Case Studies from Around the Globe. Critical Issues in Social Justice. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. ISBN 978-0-306-47887-1.

Journals

• Champion, Françoise (1997). "Les Mythes du Temple Solaire" [The Myths of the Solar Temple]. Archives de sciences sociales des religions (in French). 43 (98): 91–92. Retrieved 8 October 2023 – via Persée.
• Haught, James A. (1995). "And Now, the Solar Temple" (PDF). Free Inquiry. 15 (1): 31. ISSN 0272-0701. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
• Mayer, Jean-François (April 1999). ""Our Terrestrial Journey is Coming to an End": The Last Voyage of the Solar Temple". Nova Religio. 2 (2). Translated by Siegler, Elijah: 172–196. doi:10.1525/nr.1999.2.2.172. ISSN 1092-6690. JSTOR 10.1525/nr.1999.2.2.172.
• Palmer, Susan J. (October 1996). "Purity and Danger in the Solar Temple". Journal of Contemporary Religion. 11 (3): 303–318. doi:10.1080/13537909608580777. ISSN 1353-7903.

Reports

• Mayer, Jean-François (13 November 1998). Apocalyptic Millennialism in the West: The Case of the Solar Temple (PDF) (Report). Critical Incident Analysis Group at the University of Virginia. Retrieved 15 August 2023.
• Michaud, Roger C. (20 June 1996). Rapport d'investigation du Coroner [Coroner's investigation report] (PDF) (Report) (in Canadian French). Gouvernement du Québec: Bureau du Coroner. Retrieved 6 February 2023 – via infosect.freeshell.org.

Documentaries

• Lemasson, Eric; Georgeault, Eric; Ledu, Lionel; Bequet, Annie-Claude (21 March 1996). "Soleil trompeur". Envoyé spécial. Episode 244 (in French). France 2.
• Morath, Pierre; Lemasson, Eric (8 February 2023). "Les survivants de l'OTS parlent 1/4". La Fraternité. Episode 1 (in Swiss French). Radio Télévision Suisse. Retrieved 20 March 2024.
• Morath, Pierre; Lemasson, Eric (8 February 2023). "Les survivants de l'OTS parlent 2/4". La Fraternité. Episode 2 (in Swiss French). Radio Télévision Suisse. Retrieved 20 March 2024.
• Morath, Pierre; Lemasson, Eric (15 February 2023). "Les survivants de l'OTS parlent 3/4". La Fraternité. Episode 3 (in Swiss French). Radio Télévision Suisse. Retrieved 20 March 2024.
• Morath, Pierre; Lemasson, Eric (15 February 2023). "Les survivants de l'OTS parlent 4/4". La Fraternité. Episode 4 (in Swiss French). Radio Télévision Suisse. Retrieved 20 March 2024.

External links

• J. Gordon Melton, Order of the Solar Temple at the Encyclopædia Britannica