Cults in France

N° 2468

NATIONAL ASSEMBLY

CONSTITUTION OF OCTOBER 4, 1958

TENTH LEGISLATURE

Recorded with the Presidency of the National Assembly on December 22, 1995.

REPORT

MADE

President

Humans right and public freedoms.

INTRODUCTION

88 members of the Branch Davidian cult died either by suicide or at the end of confrontation with the police in Waco, Texas on April 19, 1993; 53 members of the Solar Temple cult died, committed suicide, or were assassinated in Switzerland and in Canada on October 4, 1994; 11 died and 5,000 were wounded in the attack with gas perpetrated in the subway of Tokyo by the Aoum sect on March 5, 1995: without returning on older facts - but everyone still remembers the collective suicide of the 923 members of the People's Temple in Guyana in 1978 - here, in less than three years, the assessment of the most serious criminal intrigues of which certain cults were guilty. When such things happen, the media hastens to investigate the cult phenomenon, the opinion is moved - rightly - then the attention falls down until the following spectacular episode which will be the subject of the same processing. But, during this time, a certain number of cults insidiously continue to achieve their daily misdeeds in the quasi-general indifference.

The report written by Alain Vivien at the request of the Prime Minister and published in 1985 under the title "Cults in France: Expression of Moral Freedom or Factors of Manipulation", which presented a picture of the cult phenomenon and analyzed the principal aspects of them before formulating a certain number of proposals, had the great merit to constitute the first thorough and objective study on the dangers of cults and to alert the public authorities and the opinion on a reality the strength of which was hitherto badly known. That being, here we are now more than ten years since this document was published, and are forced to note that the measures that it recommended for the most part, in spite of their interest and simplicity, remain as a dead letter, sects continue to thrive and exploit, for their more large profit, the distress in which the evolution of our society plunges many of our contemporaries, ready to allow themselves to be deceived by the apparent spirituality of a speech of which they have the illusion that it can bring the response to their waitings.

It was thus legitimate that the national representation is concerned to measure a phenomenon whose evolution, since the report of Mr. Alain Vivien, is known little about, to appreciate the dangers which it poses to individuals and society, and to give a report on the measures necessary to fight it. Therefore the national Assembly has it, by adopting unanimously on last 29 June the motion for a resolution presented by Mr. Jacques Guyard and the members of the socialist group, created a board of inquiry "charged to study the phenomenon of cults and to propose, if it is necessary, the adaptation of the texts in force."

Constituted on last 11 July, the Commission decided, during the meeting that it held on July 18 to organize the course of its work, to place under the mode of the secrecy the whole of hearings to which it would proceed in order to allow the greatest freedom of speech to the people of which it would request testimony. Pursuant to the commitment entered into with the witnesses, this report will thus not comprise in appendix the report of hearings which nourished the reflexions of the Commission, nor even the list of the people that it heard. In the same spirit, is not mentioned in the report the origin of the remarks of which it quotes.

Twenty hearings were carried out under these conditions, for a total duration of twenty-one hours. They have enabled the Commission to gather knowledge of information, people's experiences and analysis, people of various titles, a thorough knowledge of the cult phenomenon, some in administrative capacities, some doctors, some lawyers, some men of the Church [priests?], some representatives of association of assistance for victims of a cult, and, of course, some former followers of cult movements and some leaders of cult associations. The Commission, in addition, requested the input of various administrations to try as well as possible to refine the knowledge of the field of its study. One must note that the requests were answered with unequal eagerness and zeal. If the Ministry of Social Affairs, that of the Foreign Affairs, the Prefecture of Police of Paris and, especially, the Ministry of the Interior (Central Dept. of General Information), helped the Commission very effectively in its search and its reflexions, the Ministry of Economy and Finances (General Dept. of Taxes), and the Ministry of Justice (Dept. of Criminal Affairs and the Graces[?]) indeed transmitted only very tardily information they have.

Such as it is presented in this report, the result of the whole of the work undertaken by the Commission will disappoint those which would have expected to find there revelations or new anecdotes. It did not have the means, and, moreover, it was not its mission, to devote itself to search or call into question something which fell within the competence of the services of the police and, if necessary, of justice. While being based on the work of a very great interest carried out by the central Management of the general Information, on the search and the analyses carried out by specialists in various disciplines, finally, on oral or written testimonies of people having lived themselves within a cult or whose close relations knew or know this experiment, it tried to apprehend a moving, complex and often disguised reality as well as possible pretences.

As it will be seen, the Commission was at the first confronted with the difficulty in defining the term of "cults" to delimit its field of study. Nevertheless, it chose not to be deterred by what is actually only one false obstacle, and to follow with perseverance an empirical step that some could judge insufficiently ambitious but whose modesty hides a preoccupation of realism and an effectiveness. So it is that without a systematic spirit [? esprit de systme], without a fixed mental image of any kind, and taking great care not to proceed with some amalgam abusive nor to fall into paranoia, without showing of other-worldliness or, at least, naivety, that the Commission tried to appreciate contours of a phenomenon which, although difficult to understand, seems to develop, before noting that it reveals itself in diversified forms and is often characterized by dangerous practices, and, finally, to release the means of a response adapted to this danger.

The Commission first of all sought to appreciate the current extent of the cult phenomenon and, in the light of some of its characteristics as well as its recent evolution, to release the its probable tendencies of development. In spite of the difficulties which it met to define the phenomenon being the subject of its study and to measure it, it appeared to the Commission that it conceals potentialities of expansion which must justify an increased vigilance on behalf of the public authorities.

A.- A DIFFICULT PHENOMENON TO DEFINE

First, the approach to the phenomenon of cults, like every other, assumes that this concept is clearly defined.

However, all the studies, all the works devoted to associations known as cults recognize the difficulty of such a step, that the Commission measured throughout its work: indeed, the concept of cult, particularly difficult to define in the current language, is completely unknown from the French law.

Obviously, this situation could only make the Commission's task more difficult. Having been confronted with this difficulty from the very start of its search, the Commission did not want to let itself lock up in the alternative to which it leads logically: either to try to give a legal definition to the concept of cult intended to be used as a basis following its work, with the risk to run up against the principle of the freedom of conscience, or to consider that it could not validly continue to work because of impossibility of proceeding to such a definition. It has, with modesty but also in a preoccupation with an effectiveness, follow-up an empirical step, by noting the existence of organizations various commonly called cults and while seeking to specify contours of what can be included under this name to establish from them the characteristics which can justify that one is interested in it, even that one is worried some.

1.- The impossible legal definition

The legal absence of definition of cults in law results from the French conception of the notion of secularity.

The origin of this conception is to be sought in article 10 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the citizen who lays out that "no one should be bothered for his opinions, even religious, provided that their demonstration does not disturb the law and order instituted by the law ". The writers of the Declaration thus clearly posed the principle of the neutrality of the State, of its discretion with regard to religious opinions.

This attitude must be supplemented by a more positive approach, which entrusts to the State the responsibility to ensure each one the free exercise of the religion of his choice; Article 2 of the Constitution of October 4, 1958 specifies thus that France, [la•que?] Republic, "ensures the equality in front of the law of the citizens without reference of origin, race or religion" and it "respects all beliefs." This recent constitutional dedication[?] had been outlined by the preamble to the Constitution of 1946 which, whatever the debates relating to its legal consequences, recalled the attachment of the French people to the declaration of 1789 and with the "fundamental principles recognized by the laws of the Republic."

The legal status of the worships which result from such a conception of secularity is contained entirely in the first two articles of the law of December 9, 1905 relating to the separation of the Church and the State, which lay out that "the Republic ensures the freedom of conscience ] guarantees the free exercise of worships " (Article 1) and that it "does not recognize, does not pay, nor does not subsidize any worship." (Article 2).

The principle of neutrality of the State thus means that the religious beliefs are not a public fact subject to the restrictions related to the respect of the law and order, that the religious fact concerns the only individuals, of the only private sphere of the citizens.

Thus is explained that the State, faithful to its "indifference" displayed with regard to religions, never gave a legal definition of those. If the doctrines admit that they are characterized by the meeting of subjective elements (faith, belief) and of objective elements (the rite, community), a definition of a religion cannot be noted in the substantive law.

This one is restricted to regulate the life of the legal structures as well as social practices which constitute the support of the religions (associations, [cultuelles?] or not, religious congregations); it does not make any legal distinction between the various worships, does not carry out any discrimination, positive or negative, between them.

One conceives legal impossibility consequently to define the criteria allowing to define the social forms which can take the exercise of a religious belief, [a fortiori?] to distinguish a Church from a sect.

The board of inquiry was thus confronted from the very start of its activity with the paradox to have to work on a juridically non-existent sector. Its position was all the more delicate since, impossible to define in right, the concept is also difficult to handle in the current language.

2.- The imprecision and diversity of the definitions resulting from the current language

The concept of cult, even in the current language, is not unequivocal; various levels of analysis are not undoubtedly enough to testify to the diversity - and the richness - of the concept.

a) Etymological approach

An etymological study shows that the term "cult" [the actual French word is "secte." I have been using "cult" because that's the sense in which it's used in the report. Wherever "cult" appears in this translation, "secte" is the original French. To my knowledge, there is no separate word for "cult."] appeared around the 13th - 14th centuries and that it can be connected to two Latin roots: one connecting it to the verb to follow, the other with the verb to cross.

This hesitation on the semantic origin still today impregnates all of the dictionaries.

Significant is the definition provided by the LittrŽ dictionary, for which a cult is "the whole of the people who make profession of same doctrines " or "which follows a marked opinion of heresy or error."

The Robert dictionary distinguishes between those people "who have the same doctrines within a religion" and those who "profess the same doctrines."

In all the cases, the two supposed origins of the concept induce, simultaneously or alternatively, the two ideas of common belief and/or rupture compared to a former belief.

It is on this concept of rupture that the dictionary of the religions (PUF, 1984) insists, defining a cult as "In the original sense, a group who dispute the doctrines and structures of the Church, generally involving dissidence. In a wider sense, any minority religious movement."

B) Sociological approach

Sociology defines a cult as a group in opposition to that of Church. Thus Max Weber proceeded to specify these two concepts one compared to the other; for him the Church is an institution of health [salut?] which privileges the extension of its influence, whereas a cult is a contractual group which stresses the intensity of the life of its members.

Ernst Troeltsh continued the work of Weber and stressed that the Church is ready, to extend its audience, to adapt to society, to pass compromises with the States. A cult, on the other hand, is located in withdrawal compared to global society and tends to refuse any link with it, and even any dialogue. It adopts an identical attitude with regard to the other religions, so that in this sense ecumenism could be used as a criterion to distinguish Church and cult.

c) Approach based on the danger of the cults

The term "cultish" appeared during wars of religion and impresses of a strong pejorative connotation. It is applied to the member of a cult characterized by his intolerance, blind adhesion, and narrow-mindedness.

The modern language was strongly marked by this pejorative connotation: nowadays, the term "cult" makes reference to minority religious or pseudo-religious movements of recent appearance, secessionists or not.

The debate regarding "dangerous cults" or "cultish drifts" still accentuated the pejorative aspect of the concept.

Several people heard by the Commission developed in front of it approaches of the definition of cults based on the danger of the movements. One of them thus formalized the result of this step, while giving as a definition of cults:

" Groups aiming by operations of psychological destabilization at obtaining from their followers an unconditional allegiance, a reduction in the critical spirit, a rupture with the references commonly allowed (ethics, scientists, civic, educational), and involving dangers to the personal freedoms, health, education, the democratic institutions.

These groups use philosophical, religious or therapeutic masks to dissimulate objectives to be able to influence and exploit their followers. "

From such a point of view, the stress is laid moreover on the insidious character of the cultish drift, because it is difficult to trace a border between "legitimate " operation and the danger zone, i.e. between:

- free association and the coercive group,

- conviction and a certainty which is impossible to circumvent,

- engagement and fanaticism,

- the prestige of the head and the worship of the guru,

- voluntary decisions and completely induced choices,

- search of alternatives (cultural, morals, ideological) and rupture with the values of society,

- loyal group membership and unconditional allegiance,

- skillful persuasion and programmed manipulation,

- the mobilizing language and the nŽolanguage (the "set language"), [literally "langue de bois," language of the woods, meaning perhaps language that hides things?]

- l'esprit de corps and the fusionnel [melted together without any individuality] group.

One measures at which point it is, under these conditions, difficult to reason in an objective way, to be located between vulgarizing and the diabolisation, blindness and the abusive tolerance on the one hand, generalized suspicion on the other hand: it is however this way which chose the Commission.

d) The concept retained by the Commission

The Commission indeed noted that if the difficulty of defining the concept of cult were underlined by all the people that it heard, the reality concerned seems unanimously encircled, except naturally by the followers and leaders of the cults which deny this character with their grouping (while being able to recognize it with others) and prefer to evoke the terms of "Churches" or of "religious minorities."

The Commission does not claim to succeed in it with what all those which work on the question of cults, often for many years, did not arrive, i.e. giving an "objective" definition of cults, likely to be accepted by all. Work of the Commission is thus based on a certain number of ethical choices which it does not seek to dissimulate.

Among the indices making it possible to suppose the possible reality of suspicions resulting in describing as cult a movement being presented in the form of a religion, it retained, endorsing the criteria used by the General Information in the analyses of cult phenomenon to which proceeds this service and which was communicated to the Commission:

- mental destabilization;

- exorbitant character of the financial requirements;

- isolation from society

- danger to physical health

- embrigadement [bringing into the "troops"] of the children;

- the more or less antisocial speech;

- disorders with the law and order;

- importance of the legal contentions;

- the possible diversion of the traditional economic circuits;

- attempts at infiltration of the public authorities.

Your Commission insists on the fact that, the definition of cults proving with many regards difficult, it carried out its work while taking care not to endorse the definitions of cults suggested by its interlocutors, by nature engaged, with a title or another in the promotion of the new religions or the fight against their excesses - realities or supposed --.

It was conscious that neither the innovation, neither the small number of followers, nor even the eccentricity could be retained as criteria making it possible to describe a religious movement as a cult; the greatest contemporary religions were often, at their beginnings, sects with a small number of followers; many established and socially allowed rites today could in the beginning cause reserves or oppositions.

The field of the Commission's study has thus been voluntarily restricted to a certain number of association joining together, generally around a spiritual head, some people sharing the same belief in a being or a certain number of transcendental ideas, itself located or not in rupture "traditional" religion" (Christian, Moslem, Hindu, Buddhist) which have been excluded from this study, and on which have, at one time or another, weigh the suspicion of an activity contrary with public law and order or with personal individual freedoms.

The difficulty in defining the concept of cult, which will however be used in the continuation of this report, led the Commission to retain a beam of indices, of which each one could lend to long discussions. It thus preferred, with the risk of [froisser?] many susceptibilities or to carry out an analysis partial to reality, to retain the common direction that the public opinion allots to the concept.

With defect[?], the Commission could not, noting the difficulties encountered at the time of the attempt at definition of the phenomenon, allow that to stop its work. Such an attitude would undoubtedly have diverted, and, moreover, would have prevented the Commission from analyzing the real problems arising from the development of a certain number of associations.

Difficult as it is to define, the phenomenon of cults cannot in addition - but also of this fact - be measured with precision.

B.- A DIFFICULT PHENOMENON TO MEASURE

Any attempt at total measurement of the cult phenomenon encounters a certain number of obstacles, which must be briefly described.

The inaccuracy surrounding the definition of the concept is of course the first of them: how to measure a phenomenon of which there is not a definition accepted by all?

Secondly, it is difficult to quantify the activity of multiple associations revolving around such and such a movement, to distinguish, for example, the regular listener of conferences organized by an association close to a cult, with a follower of the latter.

Thirdly, the choice of criterion being used to measure the phenomenon is so random: Does one have to obtain the number of followers or that of the sympathizers, to suppose that one or the other of these two concepts can receive a satisfactory definition? Taking into account the family or social impact of the phenomenon, does one have to include the entourage of people directly concerned to correctly appreciate the number of "victims"?

Moreover, the cults themselves are not always able to quantify with relative precision the number of their members. Various indices even make it possible to affirm that some of them artificially inflate in order to accredit the idea of an audience which they do not have in reality, whereas others voluntarily minimize it with an aim of not drawing the attention of the public authorities.

The real audience of different cults cannot, finally, be measured only by the yardstick of numerical criteria: the international establishment of the sect, its financial capacities, its possible strategy of infiltration contribute for much to its audience, its capacity of interference, its danger.

These methodological reserves posed, it is, however, necessary to try to better encircle, on the quantitative level, the cult phenomenon.

Two types of evaluation were communicated to the Commission: one results from the observations of the Central Management of General Information; the other, more indirect, of the studies of a certain number of experts.

1.- The evaluation by General Information

The cult phenomenon has been an object, since a score of years, of a regular follow-up by General Information. However, the topicality of the phenomenon and the limited means of the DCRG [Direction Centrale des Renseignements General = General Information] do not authorize the frequent execution of work of synthesis.

Two assessments have been drawn up to date, one within the framework of the development of the report of Mr. Alain Vivien "Cults in France,", in 1982, the other at the request of the Board of Inquiry.

The very complete and fine analysis which was given to General Information retains a definition of a cult based on the supposed danger of the various movements, itself deduced from the existence of one or more indices among the following: mental destabilization, exorbitant financial requirements, rupture with the environment of origin, attacks to the physical integrity, enlisting of the children, antisocial speech, disturbances with the law and order, legal contentions, diversions of the economic circuits, infiltration of the public authorities. On these bases, were listed, within the framework of each metropolitan department, associations filling at least one of these ten criteria.

Additionally, for each movement, the following are distinguished: "the organization mother" of the various "subsidiary companies" which revolve around it, that those are "official" (local antennas bearing the name of the cult), or "masked" (various associations, even civil or commercial companies).

The various "organization-mothers" have, moreover, is the subject of a quantitative evaluation allowing to distribute them between those which count less than 50 followers, between 50 and 500 followers, 500 and 2,000 followers, more than 2,000 followers. It is to be announced that only the movement of the Jehovah's Witnesses exceeds in France the 10,000 faithful ones (their number is estimated at 130,000).

For the most part, esoteric movements or those attached to anthroposophie [humanism?], although sometimes predisposing individuals weakened with a "cultish advance," were not mentioned, because of their objective harmlessness. In the same way, the immense majority of the groups claiming exclusively to be New Age, multiples and with the often confidential audience, were excluded from this study as being still at the "cultish fringes."

Aggregation, at the national level, of the results obtained by department makes it possible to initially draw a certain number of charts, the first showing the number of cults, the second showing the number of their followers, the last showing the dynamics of the movement.

The number of movements listed by the DCRG and answering one of the criteria of danger indicated above amounts today to 172 for the "organization-mothers." The inclusion of the "subsidiary companies" in the study makes it possible to note the existence, in France, of a veritable "cult nebula" numbering more than 800 satellites.

A study of the geographical distribution of the sects shows that the phenomenon is not uniformly distributed over French territory.

The organizations mothers concentrate essentially on four large areas (Chart No. 1):

- the first includes l'Ile-de-France and its departments bordering to extend to la Manche and part of Brittany;

- the second irradiates around the estuary of the Gironde to touch the North of Aquitaine and the South of the Poitou-Charentes area;

- the third draws a radius to extend itself to the near total of the area Provence-Alpes-C™te d'Azur;

- the fourth finally is circumscribed at two Lorraine departments, the Moselle and Meurthe and the Moselle.

Conversely, the areas Centre, Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Maine et Loire, Franche-ComtŽ seem relatively saved.

The inclusion of the "subsidiary companies" in the cartographic representation does not modify the representation of the cult phenomenon, even if it increases the impression of diffusion on the whole of the national territory (Chart No. 2).

This impression is still increased if one associates with this last cartographic representation the influence represented by the Jehovah's Witnesses, whose places of worship ("Kingdom Halls") are numerous in a certain number of departments little touched by the remainder of the cult phenomenon, in particular le Calvados, le Finistre, les PyrŽnŽes Atlantiques, le Doubs (Chart No. 3).

If it is difficult to carry out a precise figuring, it is more difficult to distinguish the true follower from the occasional disciple or of the simple sympathizer. General Information estimates at 160,000 the number of at least occasional followers, and at 100,000 the number of sympathizers.

It is however necessary to refine these results while making the point that 80% of the movements gather less than 500 followers, nearly 60 sects number even less than 50 followers. One thus notes a concentration of the cult phenomenon in forty movements, which one will see, in addition, that it is those which generally answer a great number of criteria of danger.

The following lists present, classified alphabetically and in sections by number of followers, those movements which can, using the yardstick of the defined criteria, be described as cultish.

- Cult Movements of Less than 50 Followers: [I left the names in French, with translations in brackets when needed. - Translator]

Alliance Rose Croix / Association Recherches Culturelles [Rose Cross Alliance/Cultural Search Association] [Rosicrucians -editor]
AMPARA
Association Culturelle ALPHA
Association de soutien à l'oeuvre de Sundari - L'Ecole de l'essentialisme [Association of support with work of Sundari - TheSchool of Essentialisme Association]
Association Le Droit de survie [The Right of Survival Association]
Association spirituelle d'Haidyakhan
Centre d'applications psychiques "Raphaël" [Center of Psychic Applications "Raphael"]
Centre d'épanouissement et aide François de Sales [Center of Blooming? and Aid Franois of Sales]
Centre de développement humain [Center of Human Development]
Centre de thérapie Dalmatie [Center of Dalmatie Therapy]
Clé de l'univers [Key of the Universe]
Club prélude à l'Age d'or [Prelude to the Golden Age Club]
Communauté de la Thébaide [Community of ThŽbaide]
Communauté Les boucheries [The Butcheries Community]
Cosmicia
Cosmos - Intuition - Ailes
Dakpo Shampa Kadgyu
Ecole de la préparation de l'évacuation extra terrestre [School for Preparation for Extraterrestrial Evacuation]
Eglise Khristique de la Jérusalem Nouvelle ordre de Raolf, d'Arnold et d'Osmond [Church Khristique of the New Jerusalem order of Raolf, of Arnold and of Osmond]
Eglise philosophique Luciférienne [Philosophic Church of Lucifer]
El - Etre son corps [El - Be its Body]
Emissaries of the divine light
Enseignement et thérapie de recherches évolutives [Teaching and therapy of evolutionary search]
Etre-Exister-Energétique [Be-Exist-Energetics]
Fondation Saint-germain
Grande loge souveraine internationale magique et theurgique de rite égyptien - Cagliostro [Grand Lodge Sovereign International Magic and Theurgique[?] of Egyptian Rite - Cagliostro]
Ermitage du Christ de la paix [Hermitage of Christ of Peace]
Imagine
Insight seminars - Innergy
Institut de psychanimie
Institut de recherches psychanalytiques [Institute of Psychoanalytic Research]
Institut Frank Natale
Kofuku no kagaku (institut pour la recherche du bonheur de l'homme) [Institute for Research of Happiness of Man]
L'arbre au milieu [The tree in the Environment]
La nouvelle ère [The New Era]
Le suicide des rives [The suicide of the banks (as in river banks)]
Landmark education international - Le forum
Le club des surhommes [The Club of the About-men]
Le village du verseau [The Village of Aquarius]
Les amis de la confrérie Saint-Andréas [The Friends of the Saint-AndrŽas Brotherhood]
Les amis de Marie - Les pauvres de Marie [The Friends of Mary -- The Poor Ones of Mary]
Les croisés de la nouvelle Babylone [The Cross Ones of the New Babylon]
Les jardins de la vie [The Gardens of Life]
Loisirs et santé - Le corps miroir [Leisures and Health -- The Body Mirror]
Lumière dorée [Guilded Light]
MAEV
Méthode Sylva de contrôle mental [Silva Mind Control]
Ordonnance des scribes scientifiques et des mystères initiatiques [Order of Scientific Scribes and Initiatory Mysteries]
Ordre des chevaliers de France et de la Trinité Sainte [Order of the Knights of France and of the Holy Trinity]
Ordre du temple universel [Order of the Universal Temple]
Red concept limited
Révélation de la 7ème heure [Revelation of the 7th Hour]
Sanctuary
Savoir changer maintenant [Savior to Change Now]
Shinji Shumeikai France
Spiritual Emergence Network France - Respiration holotropique [Holotropic Breathing]
Viveka

- Cult Movements with from 50 to 500 followers:

Amis de la croix glorieuse de Dozule
Arche de Marie
ASPIRAL
Association de défense des libertés d'expression dans l'institution française (ADLEIF)
Association de méditation en France
Association Nouvelle Acropole France (ANAF)
Association pour l'unification du christianisme mondial
Association pour la promotion des arts industrieux (APPAI)
Association pour la recherche et l'étude de la survivance (APRES)
Association Vo Vi de France - Amis de la Science du non être de France
ATHANOR
AZAZEL INSTITUTE INC
Centre d'Etudes Gnostiques
Centre d'information OSHO
Centre de documentation et d'information et de contact pour la prévention du cancer
Centre de méditation Mahatayana
Centre du cygne Djivana Prana - Source de vie
Centre du Paraclet
Centre international de parapsychologie et de recherche scientifique du Nouvel Age
Cercle initiatique de la licorne Wicca occidentale
Comètes oxygènes - Le moulin du soleil
Communauté pour la propagation de la vie universelle
Communion de satonnay
Eckankar France
Eija
Energie et création - Energie et créativité
Energy world
Espace culturel Etre maintenant (ECEM)
Etude tradition et recherche en énergétique (E.T.R.E.)
Faculté de parapsychologie
Famille de Nazareth
Fédération française pour la conscience de Krishna
Fédération internationale pour le développement de l'alimentation instinctive (FIDALI)
Fondation Elan vital
Harmonie holistique
Humana France - TVIND
Iesu no mitama kyokai (Eglise du Saint Esprit de Jésus)
Institut de recherche physique et conscience
Institut de Saint-Preux
Institut des sciences holistiques de l'Ouest
Institut théologique de Nimes
L'Eglise à Paris
La famille (ex-enfant de Dieu)
La science du mental
La voie de la lumière (unité de recherches pour l'évolution de la lumière)
La voie internationale
Le grand logis
Lectorium rosicrucianum (Rose-Croix d'or)
Lumière du Maat
Maha Shakti Mandir
Mandala 33
Mission Swmi Atmananda Atma Bodha Satsanga
Mission Timothée
Mouvement humaniste
Office culturel de Cluny - Fédération nationale d'animation globale
Ogyen Kunzang Choling
Ordo Templi Orientis
Ordre apostolique - Therapeutic healing environment
Ordre du Graal ardent
Ordre du lys et de l'aigle
Ordre monastique d'Avallon
Ordre rénové du Temple (ORT)
Oxyon 777 (ex-Harmonia)
Paravidya sagesse suprême
Partage international communication
Philosophe de la nature
Reine de la paix - Ordre du coeur immaculé de Marie et de Saint Louis de Montfort
Reiyukai
Saint Bani
Saman
Seimeikyo Europe
Siderella
Sister mouvement rasta
Société holosophique de France
Star's edge international - Méthode Avatar
Sukyo Mahikari - Lumière de vérité
Tradition Famille Propriété
Trans-mutations
Venture
Vital Harmony SA

- Cult Movements with 500 to 2,000 followers:

Alliance universelle
ANTHROPOS - Association pour la recherche sur le développement holistique de l'homme
Association Subud de France - Susila Dharma France
Association Sri Chinmoy de Paris
Culte Antoiniste
Domaine d'Ephèse
Eglise évangélique de Pentecôte de Besançon [Evangelical Pentacostal Church]
Eglise universelle de Dieu [Universal Church of God]
Eglises du Christ international en France [International Churches of Christ in France]
Fraternité blanche universelle
Fraternité Notre Dame
Invitation à la vie intense
L'oeil s'ouvre
La maison de Jean
La parole de foi - Evangélisation mondiale
Mouvement du Graal en France
Ontologie méthodique culture et tradition
Paris Dharma Sah - Lotus Sangha of European social buddhism
Société internationale de trilogie analytique -sarl-
Union des associations centres et groupes Sri Sathya Sai
Université spirituelle internationale des Brahma Kumaris
Vie chrétienne en France - Centre de vie chrétienne
Viswa Nirmala Dharma - Sahaja Yoga

- Cult Movements with 2,000 to 10,000 followers:

Association Lucien J. Engelmajet
CEDIPAC SA (ex-GEPM)
Chevaliers du Lotus d'or [Knights of the Lotus of Gold]
Communauté des petits frères et des petites soeurs du Sacré-coeur [Community of the little brothers and little sisters of Sacred Heart]
Eglise de scientologie de Paris [Church of Scientology of Paris]
Eglise néo-apostolique de France
Eglise universelle du royaume de Dieu
Energie humaine et universelle France - HUE France
Institut de science vedique maharishi Paris - C.P.M. - Club pour méditants ( " Méditation transcendentale " )
Mouvement Raëlien français
Shri Ram Chandra Mission France
Soka Gakkai internationale France

Lastly, the number of Jehovah's Witnesses can be estimated at 130,000.

One could a priori think of appreciating the dynamics of the cult phenomenon by comparing the two assessments drawn up with thirteen years of interval by General Information ().

A certain number of reasons, however, prohibit us from being able to draw significant conclusions from such a comparison. Indeed:

- the investigation of 1995, unlike that carried out in 1982, does not incorporate the results of the investigation (in progress) in the DOM-TOM;

- the least sensitizing of the investigators to the specificity of the cult phenomenon had not been able, in 1982, to make it possible to include in the study the "masked subsidiary companies";

- the qualification of certain movements considered as cultish in 1982 (Christian dissidents, anthroposophie [humanism?], esoteric groups) was re-examined in 1995. Conversely, new movements were qualified as cultish in 1995 whereas they did not seem such in 1982 (Lucien J. Engelmajer Association, said "the Patriarch"). the question remains hanging in addition for groupings recently appeared, which were not retained in 1995 (Grouping, Herbalife).

Only of main tendencies can thus be released, which can be synthesized in the table hereafter:

Most significant seems to be the multiplication of the "subsidiary companies" of the cult movements, much more today than those detected in 1982, even if a precise enumeration had not then been carried out. Like it was already known as, the phenomenon of the "hidden satellites" was embryonic at the time and, in a general way, the cultts definitely were more disseminated than today. As an example, one will mention that, according to DCRG'S, nearly 60 subsidiary companies are attached to the Church of Scientology.

The increase in the number of cult movements is undeniable. Typology study (cf. infra) shows that this increase is due to some extent to strength of the current "New Age," which saw the number of its structures increasing considerably, even if those gather only one low number of followers.

The progression of the number of followers and sympathizers is considerable since it is 60% for the former and 100% for the latter.

Even if it cannot be measured with a scientific exactitude, cult dynamics is thus significant, whatever the criterion selected to appreciate it.

This appreciation is corroborated by more indirect observations, more indirect of the experts who have studied the cult phenomenon.

2.- Evaluation by Different Experts

Two great associations have today as an aim the fight against the cult phenomenon.

The oldest is the National Union of Associations for the Defense of the Family and the Individuals (UNADFI), which gathers twenty local associations, whose first was founded in 1974.

Seven years later the Center for Resources, Education, and Action Against Mental Manipulation (CCMM) was formed on the initiative of Roger Ikor, following the death of his very young son, a victim of a cult.

It is to be announced that other experts have a recognized competence on the cult phenomenon: doctors, academics, men of the church, journalists, they belong to the most various horizons.

The table hereafter recapitulates the estimates provided on the number of followers of certain cults by certain a shade of works published between 1977 and 1987. It shows clearly that in the space of these ten years, the supposed number of the followers of each one of them increased considerably, except the Mission of Divine Light.

UNADFI in addition communicated to the Commission an estimate, for 1995, of the number of followers of principal cults established in France. This partial census reveals, for only about thirty cults quoted, which does not include Jehovah's Witnesses, a number of followers higher than 120,000. This estimate thus seems appreciably higher than that of General Information, which estimates at 160,000 the number of followers of the some 172 groupings that they recognize as cults.

The same variation is perceptible for the number of cultish structures, generally evaluated between 200 and 300 (one of the interlocutors of the Commission has even advanced the figure of 1,000).

The following statement, made before the Commission, correctly translated the estimated importance of the cult phenomenon at the same time as the difficulty of apprehending it.

"In quantity, it is very difficult to quantify the cult fact. The maximalists see cults everywhere and consider that there are hundreds of thousands of French who are touched. I believe that it is necessary to be more reasonable. There are undoubtedly a little aberrant forms of religiosity which are not therefore cults, the behavior of whose followers is not even particularly remarkable, nor even condemnable. I would say that there must be in France, at the present time, between 200 and 300 cults which have an importance and an extremely varied audience, that these environments are completely unstable, at the same time because some, like all the humanitarian organizations, develop whereas some others die, that they are influenced by foreigners, which means that some passage of foreign population foreign carries itself out and that at the same time some French expatriates to some other site where the cult is established. All these associations must concern, directly or indirectly, approximately a half-million French. When I say "directly," I'm thinking of course of the followers themselves, those which entered a cult and those which came out of there, with rigor those which are on the point there to enter, but also all the home and social environment of the followers of cults which naturally undergoes the repercussions of the practices and the cultish behaviors of the followers.

FOLLOWERS OF CULTS (1) IN THE YEARS 1970 - 1980: ESTIMATES

An indirect measurement of cult activity can be provided by the analysis of the phone calls received by the Parisian center of the ADFI which, in 1994, was seen questioning on the activities of 1,150 associations or movements. If this measurement is connected more with one survey than with a precise analysis, it makes it possible however to appreciate the proselytism of the various movements, like, probably, their relative audience in Paris area.

Consultations received by telephone
in the buildings of the ADFI (Parisian center) and relating to certain groups

NR : non répertorié. Source : ADFI Paris

In addition, the various experts heard by the Commission, in general, confirmed that during recent years, the cult movement has, in terms of structures as well as in number of followers, developed considerably, even if they do not have precise statistical data on this tendency.

Beyond the difficulties of measurement, it does not appear contestable that the cult phenomenon is in France quite real today, and that it seems in progression.

In addition, the characteristics of its evolution allows us to predict potentialities of expansion which worry your commission.

[TRANSLATOR'S NOTE: From this point in the report forward, I am translating "secte" as "sect" rather than "cult." I began by using "cult" because of the negative connotations the word "secte" seems to have in French and also because they used the word to describe groups Americans would call cults: the Branch Davidians, Solar Temple, Jonestown, etc. In this part of the report, they discuss sects from a historical perspective. The term "secte" is very broad, and can also refer to the beginnings of Christianity itself, which while considered a sect by American standards, would not be considered a cult. It seemed better to use the English word most similar to the French term.]

C.- A PHENOMENON WITH EXPANSION POTENTIAL

The sectarian phenomenon has been known for a few decades of significant evolutions which influence the currently noted tendencies; a consideration in perspective appreciation additionally shows the tendency to a potential expansion.

1.- Main current tendencies

It is obviously not possible to proceed within the framework of this report, of which it is moreover not the object, to a historical study of the sectarian phenomenon, in which the specialists underline permanence in time and the universality.

Tite Live in his work "The Sects [Nuns?] in Greece and in Rome" was devoted already to a detailed account of the business of the Orgies, followers of the worship of Bacchus.

Under the Roman empire, the first Christian communities were persecuted as well because of their refusal of the oath to the Emperor as because of the charges of sorcery (night meetings) or anthropophagy (rite of the communion) whose they were the object. The lawsuits in sorcery of which were victims in the Middle Ages until the beginning of the Reform, nearly 100,000 people in Europe testify to persistence to the sectarian phenomenon. The Christian religions are not the only source of examples: thus the Islam whose current esoteric is represented by the Sufism it gave rise to the sect of Hashishins, which fought Holy Land Templiers.

The recent evolution of the sectarian phenomenon makes it possible however respectively to release a certain number of main tendencies relating to the nature of the sects, their organization, the topics developed by them, the way in which they are perceived finally.

a) The nature of the sects

A study of the sects currently established in France shows that those settled in two vague but quite distinct groups.

The first emerged at the beginning of the 20th century, which saw religious movements born for the majority in Anglo-Saxon countries [enraciner? coming from the same race? descendents?] from the French society. Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Pentecostals, Adventists, Baptists: all these movements resulting from the protesting world joined their dispute of the official doctrines of the Church to that already expressed by groups resulting from catholic mobility (Antoinistes, followers of the Christ of Montfavet).

The second wave breaks at the end of the years 1960, always coming from the United States, but marked by a greater oriental print on the one hand, esoteric or gnostic on the other hand. It is relevant to note inn particular the International Association of Krishna Consciousness (founded in 1966), Association for the Unification of World Christianity (AUCM, or Moon sect) and Soka Gakka•.

In accordance with the second current, one will cite the groups related to Rosicrucian brotherhood, the Church of Scientology or the anthroposophie [humanism?]. Other sects proposing of the total alternatives founded on ecology (Ecoovie), the belief in extraterrestrial (Movement ra‘lien), the techniques of meditation (Meditation transcendantale), even fraternity (New Acropolis) also make fast great strides.

These oriental and esoteric movements should not however make us forget the permanence, even the rise to power, of movements resulting from the Judeo-Christian trunk, which they are millenarists (Jehovah's Witnesses, nebula of the movements of the New Age) or [guŽrisseurs?] (Invitation with the Intense Life, IVI).

This evolution, traced rapidly, makes it possible to release a certain number of characteristics:

- increasing proliferation of these movements, relatively recent origin. No classification nor description can be regarded as final or satisfactory, so much of multiple movements mix the kinds or the influences previously definite: if the general information counts with a relative precision the movements being able to be qualified "sects", any enumeration on the matter incurs the reproach to be incomplete, because of its restrictive nature;

- the increasing part which plays in this movement the entirely new organizations of denominational origin proposing a total explanation of the world, to the detriment of the organizations being presented in the form of a secession, a schism of a Church previously established;

- evolution in the nature of the touched public. The Protestant movements of the first wave recruited their followers in relatively underpriviledged mediums, at the adult people, generally of the female sex. The organizations being developed after 1968 were characterized by the youth and the co-education of their public, resulting in general from the middle class.

Beyond these elements relating to the nature of the sects, one in general notes other common points which, without applying to the whole of the sects quoted above, are nevertheless characteristic of an evolution of their structures and topics developed by them: it is thus the way in which are perceived the sects which is deeply modified.

B) The structure of the sects

The majority of the sects, continuing in an evolution started long ago, are organized on a pyramidal model guaranteeing the exercise of the capacity to the profit of a person (the guru) and/or of a restricted elite.

Like all the pyramidal structures, they rest on a cut between the basic followers and the leaders, moderated by the existence of intermediate levels, of which the number is reduced as one progresses towards the node.

It is established between these various levels of the complex links of dependence, organizing the distribution of the roles, the knowledge, the capacity. Such a system guarantees the existence of effective filters restricting the access paths to the guru or the elite, protected from the base by their insulation and the symbolic system to be able to them.

Reciprocally, the followers are rewarded for their fidelity by a progression within the sect, materialized by obtaining ranks and diplomas, even by more material benefit. The passage at a higher level is often the occasion of an initiatory ceremony.

Still it is advisable to stress that, in many movements, there coexist several types of pyramidal structures relating to the [cultuelle?] organization of teaching, of the administrative and financial services: this proliferation of the structures still rigidifies the described organization.

c) Topics Developed by the Sects

With the difference of the topics developed by the schismatic organizations of established Churches, which concentrate on a certain number of criticisms and alternative proposals of a religious nature, the speech held by new the sects makes a broad place with the individual improvement, preferred with the collective action or layman.

It is in this spirit that are generally promoted the topics of the personal example, of proselytism. For this reason is often preached, in various forms, a certain asceticism being characterized by the abstention from a certain number of practices (consumption of tobacco and alcohol), the promotion of new food or sexual practices, even the reduction of the time of the sleep.

To the extreme, such an asceticism can lead to the rupture with the former relations, with work for the partial or exclusive benefit of the sect, even with the conjugal life. Such an attitude of return on oneself or a restricted group is in contradiction with any external engagement with the sect.

It is conceived that the considerable evolution of nature, the structures, the topics developed by the sects modifies considerably the way in which they are perceived.

d) The Perception of the Sectarian Phenomenon

Whereas until the beginning of the years 1970, the warnings against the sects were before all the fact of the Churches, which were located in a resolutely theological and pastoral logic, overflows of certain organizations, the real or supposed confrontations with law and order or the personal freedoms contributed to a brutal modification in the way in which they are perceived.

This phenomenon resulted in the constitution of associations of defense (Center Roger Ikor, UNADFI in France) and the development of a relatively significant legal dispute. The gravity of the criminal intrigues of certain sects (attacks, collective suicides, assassinations) has rightly moved the media and the public opinion.

Source: J.P. MORIN - Futuribles - November 1994 - Table supplemented for events after 1994.

If it is advisable not to over-estimate the risks that occur in France of such overflows, an increased vigilance is essential.

And if the media's focus on extremely alarming trends should not result in covering all sects with the same reproach, it does not have either, while putting in "value" of the extreme minority groups, to result in underestimating the risks which the broader movements pose to their followers, a danger much more considerable although - and at the same time, because - it is much less obvious.

This remark is all the more significant since one can today count a certain number of indices which makes one think - and fear - that the sectarian phenomenon has considerable potentialities of development.

2.- Factors of Potential Expansion

Two principal factors make it possible to advance the idea of a potential expansion of the sectarian phenomenon: the sects have indeed today powerful financial means powerful, put at the service of their active proselytism; especially, they meet significant needs, although expressed in a diffuse way.

a) The response to significant needs

It would be false to present the development of the sectarian phenomenon as being reduced exclusively to handling fragile personalities by coercive groups by the application of tested psychological techniques.

Such an explanation would be singularly reducing of an extremely complex phenomenon. The Commission could note that the sectarian phenomenon was on the contrary [indissociablement?] related to the existence of a request, needs which do not find an other means of being satisfied.

A doctor heard by the Commission, not very suspect of kindness with regard to the sectarian phenomenon, thus insisted on the complexity of dialectical between supply and demand in this field: "you meet the best and the worst in the sects (...). Sometimes, by means of the sects, of some people find a sense of belonging to a warm and friendly group, others find again a direction for their lives, others still are structured. Among my patients, some entered sects. I would not want for them to come out of there for anything in the world, because the sect is used by them temporarily as a tutor. Of course, that does not legitimize the whole of the phenomenon, but that is to say that there are very positive aspects. If that is not understood, the success of the sects will not be better understood. Our contemporaries are not imbeciles. If they are drawn by hundreds of thousands to these movements, it is because they have reasons and especially that they find answers there (...)"

The emergence of new spiritual needs results from the conjunction of a certain number of known factors, which will be recalled here only for memory.

It is certain that the dispute of the productivism, the collapse of the political ideologies, the questionings of science, the materialism, the continuous decline of the "traditional" religions strongly called into question the model on which the Western societies had developed since the 19th century.

This shock of the traditional beliefs and the great principles of social organization caused a number of disappointments, frustrations, attempts at redefinition. The uncertainty of the future consequently contributed to the multiplication of the groups proposing a total explanation of the Man, new religiosities.

This return of the religious or, more precisely, of the spiritual, paradoxically did not profit with the traditional Churches - and more particularly in France with the Catholic Church, always confronted with a continuous fall of the religious practice and vocations.

It was obviously not the role of the Commission to stick to a thorough study of this phenomenon. No one however, even within the Catholic Church, seeks to deny the shift between waitings of faithful or old faithful and the speech held by the Church sometimes, even if this one tries to release its responsibility by showing the contemporary mentality, which aims to "immediate satisfaction and material comfort, sets up 'absolute freedom' libertŽ in absolu', without reference to the Truth and different values than those 'of the individual, medium and group.' The new forms of religiosity, the development of the sects reveal the gaps of 'practical atheism' which develops everywhere in Europe." (conclusions of the East-West Synod, 1991)

From the whole of these evolutions there has resulted a certain spiritual spontaneousness: the belief is lived today in a relatively libertarian way, in any case out of the traditional institutions.

It is on this compost favorable to the blossoming of new religious movements that the economic crisis and the upheaval of the family structures intervened.

The Vivien Report already noted "aspirations to more family happiness or to more emotional abundance and completeness than preexistent at the entry into a sect and that in spite of the appearance of harmonious family relations." The entry into a sect often represents a sedentary response to the expression of emotional or user-friendly needs which are not satisfied within the family or work framework.

Lastly, the individualism of the years 1980 caused a current preaching of personal transformation, the improvement of the capacities of each one. It is rare that this topic is not exploited by sectarian associations. One of the persons heard thus told the Commission, "it is true that if one mobilizes oneself, one increases one's capacities. The light functional disorders - small evils of belly, of head or rheumatisms - disappear for little that one has a strong motivation. The sects thus obtain results. It is true that one increases his capacities, it is true that if one mobilizes oneself around anything, even the worship of beet, one can become better, more extremely, more effective and more dynamic (...). We all are tempted to develop our potential. Who among us would not be? (...). the people are drawn to the sects because they do not find any more in the world that we built the reference marks to them, the means of mobilization, he credibility of the apparatuses. Of course, we are heavily responsible. One does not catch flies with vinegar. People need ideals. One enters a sect above all by ideal. One should not be mistaken. The sects handle a set language which one does not dare even any more to practise elsewhere!."

One will deliver finally the testimony of a former follower of a sect, particularly revealing of the reasons which can push individuals to be approved by such structures: "First of all, I believe that there is this evil of the century, this evil of living which is increasingly present. The family unit is often burst, the father in particular is often missing or, on the contrary, too present, by his violence for example. Through a sect, one seeks a family, a father on loan, an authority, a model which was missing to us. Day at the following day, one finds oneself with two hundreds, three hundred friends, who will receive you, who will accomodate you. You are covered. You will be heard. You feel in confidence.

The people who enter the sects are often idealists, people whoseek perfection, not always, but partly.

Personally, the family bursting, the idealistic desire pushed me.

The guru said to us: "The world goes bad." It is enough to watch television for an hour of information to be convinced some. There are wars, diseases, problems everywhere. The world goes bad. What can one do on a purely individual basis to test which it is better? This is what the guru proposed to us.

Did we want to improve the situation of the ground, planet, others? 'Start with yourself, start with you to transform and you will transform the world.' I believed in it. I changed to transform the world."

It is thus conceived that the vision of the world proposed by the sects allures a growing number of individuals in all the layers of the French population.

The assumption of a preexistent given profile at the entry into a sect and thus predisposing there, today is largely beaten in breach. Many studies showed that the psychological profile of the followers of the new religious groups is in a normal zone, even if the existence of a depressive episode seems a factor favorable to attraction to a sectarian group. As raised it the Vivien report, "even if one cannot conclude on the existence or not from a sectarian profile of customers, it seems that acute difficulties or sufferings, however, constitute a favorable compost."

It should in addition be announced that the topic of the individual improvement attracted towards the sects customers which were until recently inaccessible for them: that of the students (seeking to increase their performances for the success with an examination...), intellectual elites, and in particular scientists.

Many interlocutors of the Commission tried to explain this phenomenon by the difficulty for certain scientists of supporting the idea of doubt, and, consequently, by their attraction to movements proposing total explanations. In addition, the intellectuals for the majority are convinced of their capacity to resist the suggestive techniques of the sects: "Who more than an intellectual is certain not to be manipulated? The man in the street will be wary, but the intellectual will say: "I am not manipulable." The vulnerability of the elites precisely lies in their certainty that they will not be easy to manipulate."

It results from the preceding developments that it is particularly difficult - not to say impossible - to define a profile of the followers of the sects which is different from that of the general population.

Some tendencies can nevertheless be released:

- the followers come mainly from the middle class and easy of the society, much more rarely of the modest classes, which is partly explained by the wish of the sects to meet a "solvent" public;

- if the age of the followers is extremely variable, two groups seem to dominate: that of the young adults (25 - 35 years), in the Oriental, gnostic, or New Age sects, that of the people of 50 - 60 years in the groups of prayer or cure;

- adhesion with the sect often represents a response to social conflicts or family with which the future follower is confronted.

In the same spirit, it should be noted that the Church of Scientology specified to the Commission that "its followers belong to all the social categories. They are mainly socially integrated and mature people since their average age is 35 years."

B) Increasingly Sophisticated Recruitment Techniques

The recruitment techniques of of sects are largely known today. They are not based in any manner on a coercive process, unlike certain methods that are employed when the follower is better integrated within the sectarian structure, and which lead to practices of "collecting of express consent," as it hereafter will be seen. The characteristics of the methods of recruitment used by the sects explains the paradoxical situation of the new member of a sect who is a willing victim.

The recruitment techniques of the sects are pressed on a very great diversity of topics and instruments; the psychological steps of the future followers is better known today.

The topics of propaganda used by the sects are extremely varied. One will mention, in addition to the religious topics:

The instruments of propaganda used by sects are extremely varied: canvassing in the street or in residence, diffusion of newspapers, publicity by way of display or press, conferences, cycles of formation.

Whatever the topics and instruments used by the sects, the psychological steps of the future follower seems better known today.

As Dr. Jean-Marie Abgrall (author of The Captive Brain) indicates, "the recruitment of a follower passes by three phases, from which adhesion will be obtained gradually, at the same time as appears a form of intellectual and emotional dependence. In turn, the new follower will be allured, persuaded then fascinated by the sect and his member recruiters."

The first phase of recruitment is obviously that of seduction. It aims at proposing a tempting alternative to the difficulties of everyday life. It is rare that the future followers present themselves spontaneously to a sectarian structure: the first contacts generally take place on the initiative of the sect recruiting agents, themselves measured by the effectiveness of their proselytism.

The principle of seduction wants that the first contact is intended to support the process of identification between the recruiter and recruited. This identification rests on a certain number of criteria making it possible for the potential follower to perceive a similarity between himself and its interlocutor. This feeling can be obtained by resemblances of attitude, the systematic approval of the cogency of the questions expressed by the future follower. The success of this phase of seduction is of course largely conditional on the type of audience in which the recruiting will take place, and thus that of place of meeting, which is in general given according to their density of frequentation. Dr. Abgrall specifies thus that "door-to-door sales" (typical of Jehovah's Witnesses) will use canvassers in family (father, mother, child, or supposed such), the family recruiting being often illusory and made up without real family links. The "young framework dynamic" of the Scientologists will be more appropriate for canvassing in university cities, health clubs, or outdoor cafes (...). Who cannot recognize the young Mormon evangelists, with the close-cropped cut hair, the eternal navy blue blazer and the discrete club tie? How not to note the character good smart good but a little obsolete kind of the Jehovah's Witnesses?

All this has been the subject of deliberated choices, proceeding from a precise study of the image to transmit to others."

The feeling of identification is also obtained by the choice of the tools used for the initial contact: if the famous "personality test" of Church of Scientology can suggest that every passer-by appears somewhat [dŽsoeuvrŽ?], the organization of a cycle of conference on ancient civilization will lend itself more to the concerns of some students and history faculty than to that of a pupil of economics, while others will be more drawn by an initiation with technique of communication or of improvement of effectiveness... One will recall finally that the principle of seduction had been thoroughly used in its ultimate logic by David Mo•se, founder of the sect Children of God, who had clearly preached "pche par le flirt" [literally "fishing by the flirt"] or "missionary solicicitation" to recruit new followers, and whose movement was dissolved in 1978 for prostitution.

In any event, the recruiter must have a good capacity to perceive the framework of reference of his listener, his emotional components.

The second phase of recruitment, once the supposed links of sympathy are established, consists in persuading the future follower of the credibility of the speech. Lionel Bellanger (Persuasion, PUF, 1985) defines the "4 C's" of healthy persuasive communication: for a message to be persuasive while recognizing the supposed free will of the possible future convert, it is appropriate that this message is credible (it is necessary that it can be based on evidence), coherent (intrinsic absence of contradiction), consistent (continuity of the matter) and congruent (suitability between the delivered message and the expectations of the listener). The objective of the recruiter, in the field of proselytism, consists in making its listener gradually pass from the real world to that of beliefs, without triggering the phenomenon of final rejection. This progressive passage is obtained by fabrication (dressing-up of reality), simulation (credibilization of an erroneous message), dissimulation, calumny, ambiguity, all are techniques which make it possible to adapt to the expectations of the listener, to pass from persuasion to mystification. These techniques are not in themselves reprehensible; in any case, they form the basis for the actions of marketing of any kind and are not punishable by law. One of the personalities heard by the Commission thus presented the defense which could be called upon by the sects: "Everything is manipulation, one can't make anything of that. Business, politics, the process of love, democratic discussion, publicity, television, all aim at manipulatining the people. In any event, one should not panic: everyone in the world manipulates everyone in the world."

It will be seen that the danger of the speech of persuasion used by the sects does not hold as well with the techniques used, as with the consequences of the adhesion to which they lead.

The last component of the step leading to adhesion is the fascination, generally obtained at the time of the meeting with the centerpiece of the sectarian dynamics (positive results with a test, assistance to a rite, meets guru, etc...), which will introduce the magic character into the relation between the future follower and the sect, will cause the irruption [bursting violently into] the symbolic universe of the sect and will lead to the will of engagement.

This quick overview of the dominant features of the techniques of recruitment used by sects shows the very particular character of the steps, which aim at obtaining the express assent of the future follower, and shows that the techniques implemented are not techniques of coercion but of persuasion: the follower is formally agreeing.

Several interlocutors of the Commission highlighted this paradox: the originality of the sectarian groups lies in the fact that, in particular during the process leading to adhesion, the victim is an actor [actor in the literal sense of one who acts, one who does, is not a passive victim]. A certain parallelism can be established with the stages of drug addicts: "We have controversies with the parents of drug addicts. Those think - in a certain way rightly - that without the horrible dealer their child would be an angel. They forget the nine tenths of the way which the unhappy child traversed, person in charge or not, but of his own will, to go into the arms of the aforesaid dealer. One should not exclude the voluntary share from the follower, who is not an imbecile that one would manipulate - it is you and me --, but (...) who went deliberately." Accordingly, the recruiters of the sects could be introduced as "dealers of transcendence." In this respect, an image used by a person heard by the Commission appears particularly ready to render the conscious character of the step of the future follower comprehensible: "the sects are not a net which falls down on people, but a bow net in which they go."

c) A Financial Power

It is undeniable that a certain number of sects have particularly significant financial means.

Lafayette Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology, had proclaimed besides, not without cynicism, in his speech at Newark: "If one wants to really become a millionaire, the best means consists in founding one's own religion."

This fact is obviously recognized by the majority of the leaders of the sects heard by the Commission, even if they were very evasive concerning the exact budgets of their associations. An appreciation of those thus remains largely the concern of those which are opposed to the sects, and thus incurs the risk of being considerably overestimated. That being, if the sect estimates that the information which circulates is not in conformity with reality, the burden of proof is on them to make a clearer presentation of their financial means, which is very far from being the case. They have little reason to complain - which they however do not fail to do - about the lack of objectivity in the judgements related to their financial base.

The collective work of the Roger Ikor Center "The Sects, State Emergency" comprises much information making it possible to become aware of the true financial empire of which certain associations consist.

The cases of the Moon sect or Scientology are too known to be pointed out here.

CCMM notes, concerning Transcendental Meditation, that the right to initiation is attached to the quarter of the monthly wages, that the price of a course of Sidhi amounts to 40,000 F [$6,564.00].

The same source advances, for the Ra‘lien Movement, a contribution of 3% of the annual net income for admission to the French movement, of 7% for adhesion with the international movement, and of 10% for membership to the world government [geniocrat?].

The financial power of Soka Gakka• results, according to the same source, from the recent real estate investments of the sect (domaine des Forges ˆ Trets, ch‰teau des Roches ˆ Bivres) [(field of the Forging Mills at Trets, castle of the Rocks with Beavers)].

The importance of the sums concerned explains the strategy of many associations, which choose to be established in countries equipped with a "tolerant" tax legislation: thus it goes from there to the United States (where the first amendment with the Constitution is interpreted in an extremely liberal direction), many States of South America or former communist European countries.

The leaders of the sects heard by the Commission in general did not deny this financial power, going so far as, not without humor or cynicism, to affirm that their associations do not represent religions preaching poverty as a virtue.

They in general put forward:

- that their resources come from voluntary contributions versed by the faithful ones to compensate for certain services (religious or not), from the sale of publications, and financial gifts emanating from private individuals;

- that their accounts are approved by certified public accountant firms whose reputation is solid;

- that they are in compliance with the tax authorities, having generally accepted the rectifications imposed by the administration.

Certain leaders even go so far as to recognize the particular links linking them with companies. In the written contribution deposited before the Commission by the Church of Scientology of Paris, one can thus read: "Moreover, like any citizen, certain scientologists work in the business world and for this reason direct private companies. It sometimes happens that they support the Church by financial gifts but this is not in any way an obligation. It is with the discretion of the person.

Lastly, there is a structure called WISE, the purpose of which is to gather companies having decided to employ the management technology of Mr. Hubbard and to create a business world where greater ethics reign."

As for the former followers, of which the Commission heard a certain number, it arises in their testimonies:

- that the amount of the contributions largely exceeds the rendered services... and the means of the followers, who are often brought to pour a great part of their incomes into the sects, to be even involved in debt in proportions that are difficult to imagine;

- that the voluntary character of these contributions can often be prone to guarantee, so great is the state of dependence of the givers with regard to the sect that it leads them to question themselves about the permanence of their free will;

- that the way of life of the leaders allows one to presume sometimes that the well understood interests of these seems to come before the officially declared religious goals of their association.

Such a situation does not leave by worrying: indeed, associations assign significant means to proselytism and in addition set up legal structures enabling them to increase the means of which they could profit.

Indeed, it was based upon a strict interpretation of the religious character of the associations which constitute the diverse religious movements and philosophies that the Council of State until now refused from some of them the benefit of the possibility of receiving gifts and legacy.

The decree Association Fraternity of the Servants of the New World (EC, 21/01/1983) thus confirms the legality of a decree of the Prime Minister, rejecting the administrative recourse of the association against a prefectoral decree which refused the authorization to accept a legacy because "to admit even that the association (...) has also as an aim the exercise of a worship, is to condone its creation of editions and its diffusion of doctrinal publications: since (...) it does not have such an object exclusively, that consequently it is unfounded to sustain that the attacked decree wrongly confirmed the prefectoral decision refusing the authorization to receive a legacy."

In a case of the same kind (Cultuelle [? worship in French = culte. My guess is that cultuelle means worshipful or religious. I will use this, but it is just a guess.] Association of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Paris, EC, 29/10/1990), the Council of State, without proposing the existence of a commercial activity as in the former case, confirms the rejection of the request of association: "Considering that under article 2 of its statutes... the purpose of the Religious Association of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Paris is in particular to "to promote the spiritual, educational, social, and cultural life of the Armenian community," that the applicant association cannot, consequently, be viewed as having for an exclusive goal the exercise of worship..."

It is for all of these reasons that a certain number of associations chose to distinguish several poles within their activities, while separating in particular from their exclusively religious activities, carried on within religious associations, their commercial activities (publishing, bookshop) carried out within limited liability companies.

Such a change, moreover perfectly legal, cannot however miss worrying, the majority of associations clearly displaying (and one cannot, from only a legal point of view, reproach their viewpoint) their will to assign to the expansion of their movement a big part of their financial means: all the leaders of the sects heard by the Commission affirmed the vocation of their association to develop and spread their beliefs by proselytism.

The importance from the means available to a certain number of sectarian associations, to which the documents given to the Members of the Commission testify in particular of the luxury of their activities, incontestably comes to reinforce the capacity of attraction of the sects and to augment the effectiveness of the recruitment techniques used.

II.- A MULTIFORM PHENOMENON WITH COMPLEX EFFECTS

A.- A DIVERSIFIED PHENOMENON

It is particularly difficult to draw a complete picture of the sectarian phenomenon in France, because of the extreme diversity of the movements which make it up.

The report of Mr. Alain Vivien divided, in 1982, the 116 sects listed into three categories: Eastern [or Oriental], syncretic and esoteric, racist and fascist.

General Information recently adopted a step which makes it possible to refine the analysis considerably. We will explain the method adopted by the DCRG and the principal results of its study, such as they were communicated at the request of your commission.

1.- Method adopted by General Information

The step followed by General Information consists in attaching each movement studied to a "family" of thought or practice. Thirteen qualifiers were retained to carry out the classification, that it is appropriate, for the clarity of the analysis, to briefly specify.

- Analysis of the criteria of doctrinal qualification of the sects

Gathered under this qualifier were the organizations claiming nŽo-spiritualistic current referring to the absolute as "energy-consciousness" and implementing various techniques to connect the follower with this absolute.

The New Age doctrines, popularized by a great number of authors, rest on the idea that the world is about to enter a new era, that of Aquarius, corresponding to a new spiritual awakening and marked by profound changes. They are thus based on a millenarism for the year 2000 (the millenium is the thousand years reign awaited before the day of the Last Judgement)./P>

The holders of these doctrines often aim to define the destined new world religion, according to them, to replace the Christian religions of the Era of the Fish which supplanted the mosaic religions (Era of the Ram) and Babylonian religions (that of the Bull).

As the dictionary of religions indicates, these doctrines are based on a certain number of convictions, among which are "reincarnation and the law of karma. The spiritual achievement as the objective of individual existence, and awakening with a planetary consciousness as the objective of collective existence, the divine nature of the interior consciousness, and the role of the body as a place of cosmic integration, an anthropology making place with the subtle, etheric, astral body; and a cosmology making place with the angels and the spirits, belief in a cosmic Christ animating the universe as a subtle energy, and in the existence of Christic embodiments, such as Jesus, coming periodically to guide humanity towards its spiritual destiny."

They in general propose an organization different from the economic circuits, mode of production, world trade, human reports.

The Humana France movement (schools TVIND) thus has as doctrines humanitarian aid (primarily devoted to the victims of famine, war, disease, catastrophes), assistance with promotion of projects in the Third World and studies aiming at contributing to research on the causes of poverty and suffering.

The Humanistic Movement, founded in 1969 by Argentinian Mario Rodriguez Cobos, known as Silo, is based on the ideology of silo•sm, having for itself the goal of eradicating violence and personal suffering by means of personal development and social transformation. This movement is centered on solidarity, non-violence activity, non-discrimination, fight against the monopolies, co-operatives, and self-management.

Gathered under these two qualifiers are movements which, while referring to the Christian tradition (Protestant in a case, Catholic in the other) are joined together around people (pastors, former priests) who develop a guru attitude. In the case of the "pseudo-catholic" groups, their doctrines are generally so far away from the theology of the Church that they are excluded from its communion.

Among the most active evangelic groups , one can in particular list the Universal Alliance, the Evangelic Church of Pentecost of Besancon, the Family (ex Children of God) and, of course, the Moon sect.

The Moon sect (Association for the Unification of World Christianity) professes the failure of Jesus, his poor death and without having been able to create a perfect family. It is allocated to the reverend Moon to create this family, in accordance with the wish even of Jesus Christ, who appeared to him in 1936. For the achievement of this objective, the reverend must in particular acquire an economic power which enables him to overcome Satan. This organization is very representative of the pure evangelic movements.

Among the most active pseudo-Catholic movements, one will mention Invitation to the Intense Life (cf will infra), and Family Propriety Traditions [TFP], related to the association "Future of the Culture."

The objective of TFP is to restore Christian civilization (campaigns of Future of the Culture against the Blue message service, distribution of condoms, campaigns of TFP against [les fils? the threads? possibly movies?] I greet you Marie, or the Temptation of Christ) but also to fight against land reform in Brazil (the founder of TFP is Brazilian Plinio Correa de Oliveira), against socialism and to restore monarchy.

They all predict a forthcoming world cataclysm (such as those already announced by the Jehovah's Witnesses with four repetitions for 1874, 1914, 1925 and 1975), while referring either to the Apocalypse of Saint John [Revelation], or with Hinduist doctrines of cycles.

Whereas from the Christian point of view, the pagan ones are the members of the people who have not been reached by Christian preaching or who have refused it, the concept of nŽo-paganism returns, with that of men referring to other gods than that of the Bible.

The "neo-pagan" movements generally refer to Celtic or Scandinavian mythologies, even to animism.

One will quote, for France, three movements professing such doctrines: the Monastic Order of Avallon, the Suicide of Banks [as in river banks] and Key of the Universe.

These movements have as a common point the return to a worship of the "Adversary" of Biblical tradition, Satan, in a plentiful demonology.

Arising from this current are the following movements: Azazel Institute, the Initiatory Circle of the Western Unicorn, the Luciferian Philosophical Church, and the Crosses of the New Babylon.

One can define "curing" theories as those professing a mode of cure not recognized by current medical science.

The degree of danger of these theories varies according to how much they supplement or replace more scientific techniques and the degree to which they involve or do not involve interactions with active substances prescribed by doctors.

The curing movements are extremely varied.

One of oldest is the Antoinist religion, founded by Louis Antoine at the end of the last century. The concept of disease is denied, just as is that of death (belief in the reincarnation): it is intelligence which creates suffering, it is only faith in and of itself which removes it, and not the intervention of health professionals.

The movement HUE France (French branch of the Institute for Human and Universal Energy Reseach, Inc. - IHUERI) is connected with the more New Age or Eastern trends. The therapy suggested consists of "injecting universal energy into the organism of the patient (...) by freeing the channels of energy," thanks to an action consisting of keeping chakras open. All pathologies are covered by the techniques of the IHUERI.

More recent and of Catholic appearance, the group Invitation to Intense Life (IVI) was founded in 1977 by Yvonne Trubert. The doctrines, founded on the assertion of the beneficial character of certain "harmonizations" and "vibrations", borrow from multiple theories, including medical ones.

It should be noted that the curing movements recruit, in considerable proportions, from among health, medical or paramedical professionals, which one of the interlocutors of the Commission explained in the following way: "Today, many [m- (I assume "m" is an abbreviation for a doctor or nurse or some sort of health professional)] it is not me which will give an opinion - it is traditional. They thus seek new ways in the [ms (another abbreviation for a medical title? or perhaps an abbreviation for medical science?)] that one sees flowering: [mn (abbreviation for medical title?)] particular [m (abbreviation for medical title?)] yes [‚æ (abbreviation for medical title?)] I have found are in the train of newcomers thus has the guarantee of his [confrante?], I was going to say on a scientific level. It enters so the sect, it [y dle?]. All the gurus of which I have knowledge!"

One gathers under this referring qualifier an extreme diversity of movements, while canting them, with the religions and doctrines of Eastern metaphysics, such as Buddhism, Hinduism and Taoism.

One can include in this trend the Association Sri Chinmoy of Paris, the Center of Mahatayma Meditation, the French Federation for Krishna Consciousness, Maha Shakti Maudir, the Snimi Atmananda Afma Bodha Satsanga Mission , Shi RAM Chandra Mission, and, of course, Soka Gakka•.

Soka Gakka• claims to teach (in spite of the schism of 1990 with Nichiren Sh™shž) the doctrines of Nichiren, a Buddhist monk of the 13th century who professed a nationalist and intolerant version of Buddhism. The access to peace and happiness is guaranteed to the faithful one who respects a certain number of practices, among which are the gonkyo recitation of certain chapters of Sžtra of the Lotus, the da•moku recitation of the crowned formula of worship, the devotion with the mandala, roller where was registered this invocation. Soka Gakka• poses as a universal religion, which will unify Buddhism and society.

By occultism one indicates the belief in the existence and the effectiveness of practices (the Robert dictionary evokes in particular alchemy, astrology, cartomancy, chiromancy, divination, magic, necromancy, dowsing, telepathy) which are recognized neither by religions, nor by science, and require a particular initiation.

Whereas esotericism postulates the existence of a paramount tradition of Man which would not have been revealed to him and which can be known only by teaching, occultism is the search for initiatory magic capacities. There are nevertheless innumerable links between the two trends which authorize some discussion of the esotero-occultism trend.

For those, Man is formed of three principles (the physical one, the astral one, and the divine one) whose balance was broken, and that it is advisable to restore by initiation, which makes it possible to restore a link between the visible one and the invisible one, what one perceives and what escapes the senses.

Relevant to this trend of most varied practices are: the methodical ontology movement Culture and Tradition, Association New Acropolis France (ANAF), the Rosicrucian brotherhood [la Rose-Croix d'Or, literally the Rose-Cross of Gold], and the Order of Scientific Scribes and of Initiatory Mysteries.

Also relevant is the Solar Temple Command, founded in 1984 by Luc Jouret and whose activities tragically ended on October 5, 1994 (massacres of Morin Heights and Freiburg, in Canada and in Switzerland).

The "Psychoanalytical" Movements

Difficult to define, the "psychoanalytical" movement develops various parapsychologic techniques applied to cure various unconscious traumas.

The Faculty of Parapsychology, the Family of Nazareth (founded on the teaching of existential psychology, confusing the roles of psychotherapist and spiritual Master) are representatives of this movement, of which the Church of Scientology is, however, the dominant element.

A publication of the association, published at the time of the fortieth anniversary of the movement, presents the doctrines of Scientology thusly:

" Scientology includes a whole of knowledge which comes from certain fundamental truths. Among the first of these truths are the following ones:

Man is a spiritual and immortal being.

His experience goes well beyond the duration of one life.

His capacities are unlimited even if they are not carried out in the present.

Moreover, Scientology considers that man is basically good and that his spiritual safety depends on himself and of its similar as well as achievement of his brotherhood with the universe. Thus, Scientology is a religious philosophy in the profoundest sense of the term, because it is concerned with complete rehabilitation of the innate spiritual identity of man - his aptitudes, his state of consciousness and the certainty of his own immortality. Moreover, since the religion is interested in the spirit compared to itself, with the universe and the other forms of life, and is primarily the belief in spiritual beings, Scientology follows a religious tradition which goes as least as far back in time as humanity. And yet, what Scientology represents is altogether new. Its religious technology is new, its ecclesiastical organization is new, and its significance for the man of 20th century is entirely new (...).

The first means of applying the fundamental truths of Scientology to the rehabilitation of the human spirit is called hearing. It is the central practice of Scientology and it is managed by an auditor, of Latin audire, "that which listens". (...).

The auditors of Scientology are aided individually to achieve this goal by their being made to examine their existence by means of a series of stages carefully conceived by Ron Hubbard. While following this gradual process, these people can improve their capacity to face things so that they are and with their environment - while withdrawing one by one the layers of experience which oppress them so heavily.

Audition is thus not a thing to which a person submits. One can benefit only by means of active participation and good communication.

The use of the electropsychometer, or electrometer, by auditors is specific to the religion of Scientology and a one of a kind revolution in the field of spiritual development. The auditors use the electrometer to help locate the zones of distress or spiritual suffering which exist below the current level of consciousness of the person. When these painful zones are highlighted, the person can then examine them without the subjective influences which accompany the practices of spiritual consultants of the other religions.

Ron Hubbard developed the electrometer by knowing that the spirit retains mental images, true recordings of last experiences. These images contain energy and mass. When a person looks at one of these mental images or thinks of something, the electrometer records with precision the changes which this mental mass and this energy undergo (...)

Dianetics has announced the discovery of a part hitherto unknown and harmful to the mind, a part which contains many recordings of experiences of pain and unconsciousness, in the form of mental images. Those are below a person's level of consciousness and their unit composes what is called the reactive mind - the source of all fears, emotions, pain and undesirable psychosomatic diseases . Step by step, audition acts on the reactive mind until its contents are revealed and its harmful effects on the individual are removed. When that has occurred one reaches a new state of being which is called in Scientology a state of Clear. The fundamental personality of a person, his artistic aptitudes, his personal force and iss individual character, kindness, honesty which are inherent for him are restored.

Clear is a new state for the man, but the Bridge leads him to summits of even higher spiritual freedom . Beyond the state of Clear appear the levels of Operating Thetan (OT). The thetan is to be spiritually immortal, the individual himself, not his body neither his mind, nor anything of other. It is not a question of what he has, but of what he is, a state of things which appears clearly on these higher levels.

The state of Clear aims to eliminate that which does not belong inherently to the spiritual being himself. The goal of Operating Thetan is to overcome the sufferings of existence and to find the certainty and aptitudes of his first spiritual state of being. At this level, he knows that he is well separated from material things such as the physical form and physical universe (...)

Another fundamental practice of the religion of Scientology is the formation or drive [there may be technical Scientology terms for these two words; I could not find them] - the study of the principles of Scientology. The religion of Scientology offers many courses of drive because a person can, as has been said, can put the truths discovered in Scientology to use himself of the to improve the conditions of each field of life. That said, the most significant courses of drive are those which make it possible to become an auditor. This is because the first principle for all the courses is that Scientology is an applied religious philosophy, and all drive depends on application.

The path used by the scientologist who receives audition and studies the writings of Scientology is called the Bridge. This gives body to an old concept - a way imagined for a long time which connects the existing abyss between the current state of man and the much higher levels of consciousness. The Bridge is composed of gradual stages so that the acquired benefits are progressive, foreseeable and apparent (...)

Here is thus the essence of Scientology: The Bridge, audition and drive; and those take place each day of the year in all the churches of Scientology in the whole world. The mission of Scientology is neither more nor less than the rehabilitation of the human spirit. And four decades after the founding of the Church, it is this aptitude to achieve this goal which goes back to the night of times which makes that more and more men and women of all environments and cultures turn to Scientology."

The UFO [Outerspace, Extraterrestrial] Movements

UFO-ology is a belief in a plurality of inhabited worlds and in the reality of visitors from space; in other words, it postulates the existence of extraterrestrials.

The best known association of this trend is without question the Ra‘lien movement.

The Ra‘lien movement was founded in 1975 by Claude Vorilhon. He would have been contacted in 1973 by the president of the council of Eternal ones so that he spreads, as a prophet, the new atheistic religion. This religion is based on the belief of the existence of Elohim, inhabitants of a planet located nine billion kilometers away and scientific creators of all forms of life on earth. Those would have revealed to him the true significance of the events reported in the Bible (the whale of Jonah was an atomic submarine, the tower of Babel a space rocket) and inspired its message, based on the questioning of the democratic system to the profit of the "geniocraty," the hierarchy of human races and the promotion of eugenic values . "Sensual meditation," which makes it possible to reach a cosmic orgasm, constitutes one of the practices preached by Ra‘liens, always in search of a place - and resources - favourable for the construction of an embassy where Elohim will come to make official contact with man.

Syncretic movements

Gathered under the term "syncretic" is a heterogeneous whole of movements presenting a synthesis between various religions, including primitives, even between the Eastern and Western traditions.

This trend includes extremely varied movements, such as the domain of Ephse, Seimeikyo Europe, and the Association of Meditation in France.

The two associations which gather the greatest number of followers are undoubtedly the Knights of the Gold Lotus and the Universal White Fraternity.

Founded by Omraam Mikha‘l A•vanhov in 1947, the latter is presented in the form of an initiatory school proposing a syncretic esotericism, based on the worship of the Sun, the laws of karma, and "spiritual galvanoplasty."

The Association of the Knights of the Gold Lotus was founded by Gilbert Bourdin in 1967. Its principal doctrine is aumism, which professes that the first word of God at the beginning of the creation of the universe was "Aum." As a result, the Knights devote themselves to a practice consisting in transmitting the sound "om" a million times or to recite the mantra "Om Ah Hum" supposed to neutralize the vibrations of occult forces. The purpose of this new universal and syncretic mystique able to link East and West is to save the earth and the cosmos from self-destruction so that the Golden age and its new society will be installed.

Gilbert Bourdin, alias the Christ-king of the New Alliance, alias Hamsah Manarah, alias Melchizedek, in 1990 proclaimed himself "multi-planetary Messiah," after a long succession of engagements against a multitude of enemies. The holy city of Mandarom is installed in Castellane.

For a still finer analysis, General Information, if necessary, supplemented the "dominant type" with an "associated type," retained along with the criteria already explained.

- The concept of "dominant" and "associated" types

This analysis led, for example, to distinguishing within the New Age "movement," the sects which can only be included as part of this movement only some this from those whose doctrines borrow some elements from the "curing," "syncretic," and "Eastern" trends.

In the same way, one can, within the apocalyptic movements, distinguish the "evangelic" movements from the more "Eastern" movements.

While the doctrines of Jehovah's Witnesses are too well known for it to be necessary to point out them out here, the Universal Church of the Good is another sect of the "apocalyptiic/evangelic" type. Founded by the American Herbert W. Armstrong (1892-1896), it developed in Europe in 1950's. Its doctrines are based on "Anglo- Israelism," according to which the true Israelites, descendants of the ten tribes of Israel, are the Anglo- Saxons and Europeans of the West. The restoration of the Anglo-Israeli Church forces to recognize in the Queen of England the legitimate heiress of King David. The Queen will nevertheless have to yield her throne to Christ at the time of his earthly return.

The International Spiritual University of Brahma Kumaris is more representative of the Eastern trend within apocalyptic sects. Founded by Brahma Baba Lekk Raj, the University announces the imminence of nuclear holocaust and the supervening of the future world. While waiting for this event, man's inner peace results from a certain number of practices, the highest of which is Rajah-Yoga.

It is specified that on the assumption - very frequent - where a sect cannot be attached to a single running of thought, General Information tended to regard as the dominant type the one to which the strongest degreee of danger is attached, empirically and implicitly. Thus, the "apocalyptic," "curing," "psychoanalytical," and "Satanic" criteria are generally placed before the nine other possible types which could be detected for the sect considered; a sect whose name spontaneously evokes Eastern movement (Sri Sathya Sai for example) will be thus classified as concerning the "curing" trend insofar as certain elements of its discourse are obviously miracle-workers.

2.- Results of the investigation

The analysis carried out on these bases by General Information and communicated to your commission makes it possible on the one hand to carry out a distribution of sects between the trends of thought, and on the other hand to release the broad outline of the evolution of the sectarian movement.

The distribution of the sects by dominant type revealed the dominating weight of the "New Age" trend. Among the sects retained in the General Information study (173 total), 49 are listed as "New Age," 19 as "Eastern," 18 as "Curing," 16 as "Occult," 15 as "Apocalyptic," and 13 as "Evangelical." The categories of "Pseudo-Catholic," "Psychoanalytical" and "Syncretic" each include 9 movements. Lastly, the "UFO" (5 movements), "Alternative" (4 movements), "Satanic" (4 movements) and "Neo-pagan" (3 movements) trends are definitely a minority.

Of the 173 movements studied , 69 are attached to a single trend of thought. A study of the distribution of the "associated types" of the 104 other sects shows the prevalence of the "curing" criterion (quoted 46 times) and of the "New Age" criterion (20 cases). The other associated types are only evoked less than 10 times.

One always notes, if one reasons in terms of a number of structures, a very great diversity within the sectarian movement: the application of the two criteria "dominant type" and "associated type" led to count 56 categories of sects... None of these categories includes more than five movements, with six notable exceptions:

- the "New Age/Curing" movement includes twenty movements, of which the number of followers is however weak (except for Hue-France).

- the pure "New Age" movement includes seventeen movements with a relatively small audience (less than 500 followers);

- the pure "Eastern" movement includes nine structures, of which some gather a high number of followers (Sri Chinmoy, Shri RAM Chandra, Soka Gakkai);

- the pure "Evangelical" movement joins together eight movements of limited audience;

- the "Curing/New Age" movement gathers six structures of limited audience;

- the "Evangelical/Curing" movement, although not numerous in terms of numbers of groups (5 groups) has a strong audience since it includes Universal Alliance, the Evangelical Church of Pentecost of Besancon, the Neo- apostolic Church, the Word of Faith and Christian Life in France.

A study restricted to only the sects for which the number of followers is relatively significant (greater than 500) is led however to relativize the impression of the strong prevalence of sects of the "New Age" or "Curing" type.

Typology of the sects for which the number of followers is higher than 500.

It is noted that the "Eastern," "Evangelical," and "Apocalyptic" trends include 7, 6 and 5 movements respectively, whereas the "New Age" trend includes only 3 of them.

In addition, if the "Curing" trend joins together only five sects, this criterion is quoted 15 times in accordance with the associated type.

The work carried out by General Information provides, in addition to this picture of the sectarian phenomenon, elements making it possible to follow its evolution over an average period.

It is possible to release the following few main tendencies in the evolution of the sectarian phenomenon.

- perhaps the "New Age" seems responsible for the retreat of "Alternate" and prepares the development of "Apocalyptic".

"New Age," a "hold-all" spiritual and philosophical trend imported from the United States in the mid-1980's, is number one in the sectarian competition at the approach of the third millenium. Actually, new groups or networks devoted to the "Age of Aquarius" are created almost each day whereas, at the same time, the significant and already old sects (FBU, New Acropolis...) try "to refresh" their doctrines by incorporation of "New Age" topics.

True nebula, made up as much by simple organizers of training courses in the search of customers as by true gurus controlling a structure, "New Age" is dangerous because it can predispose its followers to take more perilous routes of "apocalyptic" type, for example.

The approach of the year 2000 could, indeed, correspond to a considerable multiplication of the "apocalyptic" groups or millenarists in part from the badly understood message (because it is basically optimistic) of the "New-Agers." Moreover, large battalions of disappointed followers from the ranks of evangelical (Jehovah's Witnesses, Adventists...) or syncretic movements could nourish this movement.

The "New Age" movement in any case made the dominant exclusive "alternative" movement regress in notable proportions, which movement had been strongly anchored in the sectarian landscape since the 1970's (communities of "return to the land," with a tribal character such as Ecoovie...).

- the "Eastern" sects are renewed.

The current "Eastern" sects are the hard core and the heirs of religious sects dominant in the 1970's and 1980's. These, such as Krishna, the Transcendantal Meditation, and Soka Gakka•, were generally only maintained, whereas new co-religionists of importance appeared (HUE, Japanese sects...).

Eastern spirituality has always fascinated, even if today it is in competition with "New Age" groups and if it incorporates more and more particularly dangerous "curing" precepts.

- the dominant "curing" component invades the majority of sectarian trends, following the "New Age" example.

With the "New Age" component, the pseudo-therapies of divine or "natural" origin now work the sectarian landscape to a large extent . Confined until recent years to the Eastern religious sphere (Mahikari, HUE...) or Christian (IVI, evangelical groups...), today the dominant "curing" component is also grafted onto the majority of other large sectarian trends (occultist, syncretic, psychoanalytical).... when it is not sufficient of itself as a single object for a sect (International Federation for the Development of Instinctive Feeding).

Imposing itself to diverse degrees, from a simple prayer to complete "therapeutic" processes, this dominant component also presents dangers varying according to whether or not it claims to bring a solution to the most serious diseases, and whether it imposes the abandonment of official medicine.

- The vast "occult" seems little threatened by its stable "neo-pagan" and "Satanic" neighbors. .

Besides the many esoteric movements esoteric not taken into account (Rosicrucians AMORC, Martinists...), multiple structures of a neo-temple, initiatory etc. kind perpetuate an "occultist" trend which is today often crossbred with contributions from "New Age" or "curing" trends.

The margin of these brotherhoods, which are often interested principally in the financial assistance of their members, from time immemorial revolved around the neo- pagan ("Druids"..) or Satanic groups (WICCA...) whose folk aspect should not make one forget the elitist, aggressive, and frequently racist ideology of these groups.

All of these "magic" trends appear to have moved little on the sectarian chess-board. But the extreme secrecy of some of these groups does not make it possible to detect them systematically, and the Satanic groups inspire by fears which should not be taken lightly, because, following the example of their "co-religionists" in the United States and Scandinavian countries, the French LucifŽriens are likely to forsake their current folk activities for criminal actions: profanation of cemeteries, drug traffic, crimes of blood...

- The "evangelical," "pseudo-Catholic," and "syncretic" trends resist more or less well.

As with the case of the Eastern trend, which has exotic assets to keep its rank on the sectarian scene, these dominant religious movements test more and more the need to develop, on a purely additional and remunerative basis, a teaching (and services) centered on divine cure.

The "little churches." led by false bishops, are also maintained by means of a caricatural use of Roman or Eastern catholic ritual. On their side, the dominant evangelical movements, often animated by authentic pastors having rocked [I'm not sure if "rocking" is good or bad in French. My guess is that it means "failed," as when a boat hits the rocks.] in the role of guru, always benefit from the freedoms offered by the official Protestant structures to thrive with their edge. The syncretic groups, as for them, resist with difficulty the "New Age" vagueness. .

- A passion for "modern" sects claiming to have psychoanalytical basis is undeniable.

Without question, in the sectarian dynamics of recent years, the "psychoanalytical" trend occupies third place on a podium already occupied by the "New Age" and "curing" movements. The difficulty in precisely describing encircling this trend explains why the quantitative information relating to it only extremely imperfectly translates its influence.

With spearheads like Scientology, this trend today seems to be one of the privileged substitutes for traditional religious doctrines. One has only to observe the proliferation of dispensaries proposing training courses and seminars of "personal development"... financed sometimes within the framework of vocational training.

There are certainly more "customers" than faithful "followers," but the cases of sectarian drift multiply. The damage caused to the victims is particularly serious (ruin, insanity, suicide...) because, in this type of sect, the techniques of mental manipulation are extremely sophisticated.

- the "UFO" trend remains restrained but thrives.

Taken along by the Ra‘lien Movement and Siderella, the "soucoupists[?]" make little school [literal translation. idiomatic expression?]. Their manpower progresses less than the charges for services suggested by the persons in charge. Here still, the picturesque discourse often hides more disquieting concepts such as the "geniocraty" (or "government of the elites") at Ra‘liens.

B.- OFTEN DANGEROUS PRACTICES

The dangers which the sects present, otherwise called sectarian "drifts," deserve our utmost attention. Indeed, it is these dangers which justify the detailed attention that must carry them to the pubic capacities and, we point out, the creation of our board of inquiry.

It is thus advisable to analyze them in detail.

But before we proceed, it is necessary to clear up a possible misunderstanding: not all spiritual movements other than the traditional religions, movements which are commonly called sects, are dangerous, such as, for example, Baptists, Quakers, and Mormons. Their role can, sometimes, even be regarded as very positive: "You meet the best and the worst in sects (...). Sometimes, by means of the sects, some people find a sense of belonging to a warm friendly group, others find again a direction for their lives, others still are structured. Among my patients, some entered sects. I would not want for them to come out of there for anything in the world, because the sect is used by them temporarily as a tutor."

Thus the commission carefully guarded against making an amalgam between all the existing spiritual groups. It considered that it was to be confined to examine the harmful effects caused by only the dangerous sects. And this, for better trying to release the means of combatting them.

These negative effects were denounced many times, both by the press or by the public authorities themselves. The report of Alain Vivien of 1983, the opinion of the advisory national Commission of Human Rights of December 10, 1993 and the answers of the Government to parliamentary questions testify some, such as, on the international scene, the reports of Mr. Richard Cottrell, the European Parliament, in 1984, or of Sir John Hunt of the Council of Europe, in 1991. Moreover, the Commission noted, during its work, that nobody contradicted the existence of it.

To analyze the danger that run in a certain number of sects, the Commission itself is based mainly on two sources of information, which guarantee greater objectivity, namely judicial court orders and data collected by General Information. It also used, to a lesser extent and with required prudence, direct testimony of former followers.

The followed step reveals that if the court orders testify to many illegalities made by the sects or some their members, they only give a very incomplete account of their multiple dangers.

1.- Many and varied illegalities

From all of the court decisions to which the Commission had access, in particular those provided by the Management of Criminal Affairs and the graces of the Ministry for Justice, it arises that many sects are, during the ten last years, guilty of illegalities. These concern six principal fields:

( It acts, initially, of offences relating to physical attacks on the human person: ill treatments, aggravated assault, sequestration, not assistancing someone in danger, and illegal practice of medicine.

Thus, the County Court of Versailles established, in a decision of February the 8, and 9, 1995 (No 234) that Mr. and Mrs. Mihaes, the leaders of the sect "the Citadel." made themselves guilty, inter alia, of violence on a fifteen year old minor, removal and sequestration. The report of the facts by the court is eloquent:

[This quotation includes legal language which I'm not sure how to translate. I want to be especially careful not to tamper with legal language, so I have used literal translations, even though it may not be a "smooth" translation in English. - translator]
"Waited that Mr. Solomon, who had belonged to this group {Citadel] as from 1974, had left it in 1990, joined a few times later with his wife, whereas their two major children Karen and Pascal as their minor daughter Dana Solomon had remained in the movement;

"That Mr. Solomon and his wife had managed to take again with difficulties their daughter Dana on August 25, 1991, who was then at the ch‰teau of Courcillon (72), in custody of the Mihaes couple;

"That Dana Solomon was to explain that in this community the children were usually separated from their parents and that they underwent various ill treatments which were inflicted upon them, in particular by Mrs. Mihaes, Mrs. Esther Antoine and Mr. Axel Schmidt;

"That she had herself on several occasions been struck, sequestered, forced to fast, and had usually been deprived of sufficient food;

"Await that it be established that, under cover of application of Biblical precepts, the child had been constrained with fasting, with public confession, had been subject to some punishment which, in addition to the blow, can itself exert that Dana Soloman had been in insulation [insulated in the sense of being separated from the outside] as well as having been a victim, retained against her will in the house of the property guard of VŽsinet, without heating during the winter months and given only one extremely frugal meal, but which can also itself exert that Claire Solomon was a victim in the form of a displacement of residence, "in punishment," in the residence of the Bahjejian couple and separated from her brothers and sister.

"Awaited that with regard to more precisely the defendants, it is established that Mrs. Delia Mihaes, who always disputed the charges carried against her, made the facts which are reproached to her in the case, by delivering, very often, with acts of violence with regard to the StŽphane children, Jonathan, CŽline and Claire Antoine, Dana Solomon as well as with regard to her twin sons Octavius and Flavius;

"That it seriously compromised the health and the education of these children in their being made to undergo the deprivations and the [brimades?] previously exposed;

"That it is in addition established that she was made an accomplice to the sequestration exerted on the person of Dana Solomon (..

The County Court of Dijon, in addition, was brought, in a judgement of January 9, 1987 (No 118-87), to condemn the director-assistant of the Narconon center of Grangey- on-Ource for nonassistance to someone in danger. This center, created by the Church of Scientology, proposes detoxification by applying the methods of Ron Hubbard, namely the procedure of "purification," based mainly on several hours of sauna per day, "auditions," and a significant absorption of vitamins. In this case, the victim had been in long-term treatment for epilepsy and had addressed this organization because she wished "to be released from drugs." The center A, without preliminary medical examination, placed her in a "weaning" room. However, the medical experts showed that her death was due to "an epileptic seizure due to the absence of sufficient treatment at its beginning and of emergency treatment during the seizure." The judgement does not leave any doubt about the responsibility of the center:

"That if Jocelyne Dorfmann had made the decision to reduce her consumption of medication, then to stop it with the risk of compromising her health, the defendants had not at any time prevented it of the need for a medical examination of admission, which would have probably made it possible to contra-indicate the cure of weaning; that it is inconceivable that the victim could be accepted without this examination and serious treatment in spite of her declarations as to her health and her epilepsy, whereas the defendants admitted knowing that in the event of serious illness, medical treatment was not to suffer from interruption;

"That if at the time the first crisis occurred, the defendants could mistake its exact nature, the repetition of the crises and their increasing intensity were to evoke to them an origin distinct from a state of lack which, according to medical experts, cannot be confused with an epileptic state;

"That they did not consider it useful to directly ask the victim, while she was still conscious, if these demonstrations could correspond to the epileptic fits to which she had referred or to call upon the nearest doctor (...)"

Several cases of the illegal exercise of medicine, moreover, were observed these last years. One will evoke, for example, the rather significant case of Mr. Main, head of a religious community called "The Good Pasteur[? Pastor?]," who, claiming the title of bishop (he had been ordained as such by ecclesiastics who no longer obeyed Rome after the Council of Vatican II), claimed to cure or relieve his "faithful" by words, prayers, laying on of hands, the use of a pendulum, and practices of exorcism and dŽsenvožtement[?]. The conclusions of the County Court of PŽrigueux, in its decision of June 22, 1994 (No 894), are made without comments: Mr. Main was recognized guilty of illegal exercise of medicine by the County Court of PŽrigueux in a judgement of June 22, 1994.

Thus, for example, the Court of Appeal of Rennes had it, in a decision of 13 February 1993 (Epoux Durand), judged that Mr. and Mrs. Durand, member of the Sahaja Yoga sect, have "seriously compromised by lack of necessary direction the health and security of the child Yoann" and tomb have, so under the blow of article 357.1 of the penal code, by sending the six and a half year old child to India in a school of Dharamsala directed by the followers of this sect. The reasons for the decision deserve to be quoted:

" (...) considering (...) that on the faith of a simple prospectus given at a simple general orientation (...), Domenica and Josette Durand (...) in April 1990 made the decision to send (...) their child Yoann, without accompanying the child on the voyage, to a school of which the content of teaching, in English and Hindi, was not really known to them (...), that they did not offer to the child some guarantee on the exit of this teaching, on conditions and life awaiting the child, of which the file reveals that they were notably in a very hard climatic plan (...) without assuring themselves before the child's departure of whether a medical infrastructure and sanitary arrangements await the child, without even informing themselves as to the nearest doctors specializing in the risks that the child would incur in an area of the world in which serious epidemic diseases essentially unknown in Europe strike, without measuring the risk for a child six and and a half years old of a feeling of abandonment, even of rejection whereas the child knew the birth close relation of another child in the hearth and that this other child maintained particularly privileged relations with its maternal grandparent, the spouse HŽline;

" (...) that the report drawn up by three experts who examined the child on July 5, 1991 noted significant psychic degradations related to brutal and prolonged separation described exactly by the court, while later examinations revealed a clear improvement in a child returned within his family framework and continuing a normal schooling;"

Sometimes, the facts are not also obviously reprehensible. The judge then abstains from condemning the parents/followers directly, but refuses to them the exercise of parental authority or custody. It is in this direction, for example, that ruled the County Court of Avignon on May 25, 1992 (decision No 673/92):

"It certainly does not rest with the Court to come to a conclusion about the benefits or misdeeds of the sect (...) of Jehovah's Witnesses but only, according to "the interest of the minors," (...) to indicate the relative with whom the children have their usual residence and to rule on the exercise of the parental authority.

"After having enumerated part of the impressive list of the interdicts that the followers of this sect - to which Madam does not dispute to have adhered - must respect, Mrs Audoyer notices rightly in the report of social investigation which it deposited that they are likely to block a future for children such as Debora and Flora.

"The education of the children should not indeed consist of one endoctrination based on a particularly cataclysmic vision of the world in which only followers of the sect would be preserved, but on the contrary in an awakening of the spirit, an opening to all the fields of knowledge and all the disciplines, as well as with the relations with others without discrimination of race, religion or ideas.

"In the current state, in order to preserve the present as well as the future of these two children (...), it appears necessary to fix their usual residence with their father who will exert the parental authority (...) "

The sects are, moreover, made guilty many times of slandering, libellous denunciation and violation of the deprived life in the course of recent years.

The Particular Case of the Church of Scientology.

Thus, the County Court of Paris has it, in a judgement of 13 October 1993 (Mr. Abgrall C / Mrs. Lefvre), condemned for slandering Mrs. Lefvre, director of the publication "Ethics and Freedom," one of the reviews of the Church of Scientology.

Indeed, a article in this publication, titled "A Militia of Thought" and dedicated to the Association of Family and Individual Defense [AFDI], made statements concerning the removal and sequestration by members of this association, and in particular of an internment in a psychiatric hospital in 1991 of a Scientologue from Marseilles, carried out with the complicity of J.M. Abgrall, psychiatrist, whereas these allegations have by no means been proved.

In the same way, the Court of Appeal of Douai has, in its decision of 18 March 1982 (No 302), recognized the Hubbard Center of Dianetics guilty of "public slandering, comparable with an insult," to have written the following in reference to the ADFI:

"... It appears vital to me for the freedom of religion and the freedom of thought to denounce and stop the intrigues of this fascist group which draws on all that moves which is new or different..."

One can also evoke the case of a libellous denunciation confirmed by the Supreme Court of Appeal in a [arrt stop?] of April 28, 1987 (A.J.), similar to that of a violation of deprived life by the association "Ethics and Freedom," in a decision returned last 15 March by the County Court of Paris (No 9)

Several jurisdictional decisions also testify to a rather frequent practice of tax evasion by certain associations.

The Supreme Court of Appeal, for example, confirmed in a stop of June 25, 1990 (Blanchard Henri and others) the stop of the Court of Appeal of Paris of January 26, 1988, condemning the President of the Association for the Unification of World Christianity (AUCM), which is the French branch of the Moon sect, for tax evasion. This stop shows in particular that this organization has, under cover of an association with religious goals, carried out significant undeclared benefits:

" (...) Wait that Henri Blanchard has been returned in front of the correctional court for having fraudulently withdrawn the AUCM, of which he is the president, to the establishment and to the payment of corporation tax, and to have knowingly omitted to pass or to make pass in the in the documents holding place of day book [I assume this the French term for an accounting journal, probably what is called a "general ledger" in English] and book of inventory whole or part of writing;

"Wait until (...) the judge stated that the AUCM has only the appearance of an association and that it exerts, by the setting on sale of a newspaper, an activity from which it gets some benefit of which a significant part, not carried in receipt, has been used, via figureheads, for some movable acquisitions or immovable acquisitions ["immovable" is similar to the English "real estate"] occult [this word does not make sense to me in this context, but it is there], of which, for some, the assignment cannot be specified; (...)."

Also convicted of tax evasion, among others, were the International Association for Krishna Consciousness (AICK) (cf in particular the stop of October 19, 1989 of the Court of Appeal of Bourges, No 461/89) and the Church of Scientology (cf in particular the stop of February 3, 1995 of the Court of Appeal of Paris, No 7). There too, these organizations had carried out substantial commercial profits by means of associations which were supposedly not involved with this goal.

In addition, the stop of February 3, 1995 of the Court of Appeals of Paris established that the Church of Scientology presented a liability of about 41 million francs [6,842,900 US Dollars] and put in legal rectification. Moreover, the Commercial Court of Paris pronounced, November 30, 1995, the setting in bankruptcy of the Church of Scientology of Paris, for the unpaid amounts with the tax authorities and the URSSAF of an amount of 48 million francs [8,011,200 US Dollars].

One also notes several cases of swindle, fraud, and breach of trust.

The County Court of Draguignan has thus, in a decision of 20 March 1995 (No 882/95), condemned two people (Mr. Galiano and Mrs. Pison) for swindle, being respectively presented in the form of reincarnation of Christ and the Virgin. And this, for the following reasons:

"As a result thus of all of these element put to examination, by some setting in scene in some public meeting places, have persuaded credulous people of the existence of a supernatural capacity which will allow them to hope for a good live or a cure, very in use the alibi of science, namely the profession of psychoanalist for one and of dentist for the other. While trying to be made give or by perceiving sums, they made the offence of swindle."

The Supreme Court of Appeal of Cassation[?] has, in addition, judged, in a stop of 15 November 1995 (A. Pouteau), that the Wide limited liability company, of which Alain Pouteau was the manager and of which investigation showed that it was "under the obedience of the Church of Scientology," "exploited a center of formation with trade of sale and spread some advertisements in the press and circulars about the maires[majors?mayors] in which the center engaged itself to procure candidates, at the end of their formation, a place with a serious company," was made guilty of fraud, because it "was not able to guarantee employment for its trainees."

The famous affair of the sect of FrŽchou illustrates, in addition, perfectly the case of breach of trust made by the leaders of sects to the detriment of their followers. In fact, they were prevailed unduly of the title of priest, which had enabled them to extort a significant amount of gifts from their faithful followers (cf in particular the stop of May 10, 1991 of the Court of Appeal of Agen, No 215/91).

Lastly, jurisprudence gives a report of multiple violations of the labor law or that of social security.

"The denunciation of merciless exploitation of follower by the leaders, contempt for social laws, duration of work, lack of remuneration, nor of Social Security (...) find their confirmation in the fact that Ecoovie does not pour with the debate without employment contract, without payroll salary, without declaration of Social Security or with tax department concerning the follower that it employs, itself limiting to plead that those be voluntary." It is thus, for example, which the County Court of Paris described, in its stop of July 10, 1985 (No 263), the way in which the Ecoovie sect conceived the application of the rules of the labor and social security laws.

Many judgments were thus marked on very diverse points against the sects during recent years, on the basis of undeniable material fact.

However, the Commission was brought to note that this approach only incompletely accounts for the dangers of certain sectarian movements.

2.- A harmfulness which largely exceeds the field of illegalities noted by the courts

Obviously not all of the reprehensible acts performed by sects are the subject of a judgment. Far from it. Such a judgment requires, indeed, the meeting of several conditions which it is often difficult to obtain:

- it is necessary, first of all, that the person having suffered an injury is conscious of it. However, for the followers, the rule which is imposed upon them by their guru is inevitably good. It is necessary thus that the follower gets sufficient distance with respect to the sect, generally while about having left it, to reach this awakening;

it is appropriate then that the interested party decides to file a complaint. However, this step is far from being systematic: many prefer "definitively to turn the page" on a traumatic period of their history; others readily entrust to associations of defense but do not dare to institute proceedings for lack of confidence or fear of reprisals;

- the proof of the offense as well as the responsibility for its instigation is, of the opinion of the majority of the people heard by the Commission, difficult to bring, this would be because of "the originality" of the sectarian offences, where the victims are sometimes, by their momentary assent, proper actors;

- it is also necessary that the facts correspond to an incrimination envisaged and sanctioned by the law, which is not obvious in the cases of mental manipulation for example;

- remains finally, if a judgment intervened, to make it apply, which encounters great difficulties sometimes, because of the multiplicity of the means that certain movements can deploy: dilatory procedures, pressures of all kinds, auto-dissolution or, quite simply, escape abroad.

The information provided to the Commission by General Information as well as testimony which it received led it to think that the dangers which certain sectarian movements present to individuals and society are, actually, at the same time more numerous, more widespread and more grave than only a reading of court orders would suggest.

The enumeration below gathers, in ten categories, the dangers which the sectarian phenomenon presents for individuals on the one hand, for society on the other hand, such as the Commission could apprehend them through the whole of its work.

a) The dangers to the individual

Mental destabilization is the first of them.

One understands this expression to mean, to destabilize someone in order to subject him to one's influence by persuasion, manipulation, and all other material means.

According to General Information, the 172 coercive sectarian movements that they listed would resort to practices being able to be thus qualified.

The mental destabilization can take very diverse forms, and, in particular, very insidious forms, as the personality test and "auditions" proposed by the Church of Scientology illustrate. Here is how a former follower of this association described to the Commission the experience of the test:

" This test, which is comprised of approximately 200 questions about traits with money, the family, with work, etc, has, in my view, a true psychological base but then gives way to an analysis - on the computer, today, which gives it a serious aspect which is very imposing - which tends to emphasize defects more than anything - which is altogether simple --.

" Defects are thus amplified while good qualities are rather underestimated, which makes it possible to decide that there are things to do and that the Dianetic Center has proposed those things to you.

" (...) And from there, people are tempted to go further. " .

Consequently, the process of mental destabilization is already started. It reaches an additional stage when the interested party indeed goes "further" and agrees to devote himself to Dianetic "auditions":

" I did five or six hours of audition. In these auditions known as Dianetics (...), one makes you close your eyes - a little like a psychiatrist - and one revives to you the difficult moments. Personally, I spoke about my first love as a teenager - I did the same thing as one would do in front of a psychiatrist --, which involved an emotional increase at home which disturbed me a little.

" There, the evil was indeed done because I wanted to go further (...). " .

The interested party "indeed went further," which led him to a state of alienation and extreme dependence.

This practice, one sees, is very insidious, because it is void of a scientific base and is exerted with the agreement of the victim, in a progressive way and within a perfectly legal framework.

Certain processes are, on the other hand, definitely more brutal. It acts, for example, to weaken the individual by imposing a very rigorous discipline on him, or to reduce his critical spirit by demanding repetitive acts or prayers in order to obtain his complete obedience. The testimony collected regarding a typical day for a follower of the International Association of Krishna Consciousness, with, in particular, its eleven working hours and its six hours of devotion per day, attest to this.

These processes can sometimes even lead the followers to an advanced state of pathological weakness.

One also notes, although more rarely, the recourse to sophrologic[?inducing mental sleepiness?] techniques, going as far as deep hypnosis or prescribing drugs, permitting a sect to attain, to use again the expression of Colonel Morin, a true "psychic rape" of the follower.

These forms of mental destabilization can have serious consequences on the psyche of those to which they were applied, such as depression, [envožtement?], schizophrenic behavior or a deep state of dependence.

Certain sects, moreover, have exorbitant financial requirements.with regard to their followers.

According to General Information, this would today be the case for 76 sects.

It is in particular thus for the Church of Scientology. This one would, indeed, charge more than 70,000 francs [$11,725 US Dollars] for certain courses. Several testimonies collected by the Commission show that this would have led many followers to a serious debt position.

One can also quote Association for the Unification of World Christianity which would have required between 7,000 [$1,173 US Dollars] and 14,000 francs [$2345 US Dollars] of each of the 72,000 people married collectively by the Reverend Moon of Seoul last August.

Financial exploitation would also be the case with, in particular, the Alliance of the Rose Cross, the New Acropolis, the Knights of the Gold Lotus, the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God, the Grand Logis, and the French Ra‘lien Movement.

The rupture of the follower with his environment of origin is frequently noted. This is obvious with sects which practice the community life, but those are not most numerous. It is more insidious but quite as real within the framework of sects whose followers continue, seemingly, to carry out a normal family and social life, but whose engagement gradually leads them to cease any true relation between the external world and the movement of which they are members. And it is precisely that goal that the leaders of sects want to attain, in giving the follower incentive to devote his time as much as possible to the sect, with its rites and its beliefs: to put an end to any contact with the people who would be likely to insinuate doubt into the spirit of the follower, to awake his critical direction and, finally, to divert him from the sect.

According to information collected by your commission, 57 spiritual movements would present this danger, in particular the Universal Alliance, the Church of Scientology, Jehovah's Witnesses, IVI, the Family, and the Humanistic Movement.

One will limit oneself, to illustrate this, to point out testimony communicated by an ex-follower of Jehovah's Witnesses:

" (...) If I decide today to write, it is to break the twenty years of silence maintained with lasting mental anguish because of a sect, which is (...) the sect of Jehovah's Witnesses. I lived the hell.

"People live in an autarchy, do not take part of anything in the economic, cultural or other life of a country. They are a danger because quite simply they destroy you; you draw aside from your family, your friends, from society even. You are isolated from all, there is one common indoctrination for all the disciples and [gare? parks? congregations?] if you try to be yourself. It is prohibited."

The practices of certain sects undermine the physical integrity of the followers. According to information obtained by your commission, 82 sects would pose such a danger to their members.

It can be a question of ill treatment, aggravated assault, sequestrations, non-assistance to someone in danger, or illegal practice of medicine, but also of sexual aggression.

Several complaints were thus filed against the guru of Mandarom, Gilbert Bourdin, for rapes, attempts at rapes and sexual aggression. The interested party besides was put in examination and was placed under legal control last June.

It is well-known that within the sect the Children of God (today dissolved) prostitution and incest were usually practised. Here is, for example, how the daughter of David Berg, the founder of the movement, describes her father's attitude toward her in "Shukan Bushun" of July 30, 1992:

" My father pressed me for the first time to have a sexual relation with him, when I was eight years old, in Texas. I resisted, nevertheless, I was violated. This was so abrupt that I was completely upset by it and unable to speak about it with anyone.

" (...) Unfortunately, when my father was seized by sexual desire, it could not be controlled, even if the object of his desire was his own daughter.

" (...) One day, my father gathered the members of the royal family together and announced: "Incest is a good thing. Thus Adam and Eve had many descendants " (...)"

Another follower shares information regarding the practice of "flirty fishing" consisting of prostituting children "with the given intention of gaining more followers and to acquire support."

Auto-dissolved in 1978, this sect would have been recreated under another name ("the Family"), under which indeed today exists a sectarian association.

Each one finally keeps in memory the large scale dramas among which were the collective suicides of Guyana in 1979, which made 923 victims, or of Waco in 1993, which killed 88 people.

In addition to "the Citadel" of which the actions have already been evoked, come sects practice embrigadement of children in a more or less insidious form, Jehovah's Witnesses, the Association for the Unification of World Christianity, the Community of ThŽba•de, the Church of Scientology of Paris, the Kristique Church of New Jerusalem, the French Federation for Krishna Consciousness, the Family, and the Grand Logis.

Beyond these negative effects on selected individuals, the sects can also appear particularly harmful to the community as a whole.

B) Dangers to the community

To begin with, certain sects have a clearly antisocial message.

This is not astonishing besides: the movements which recommend practices contrary to the law and common morals must justify them well; they thus explain often to their followers why these laws and these morals are bad and that only the principles of the sect deserve to be followed.

46 organizations have an antisocial message according to General Information, among which are the Knights of the Gold Lotus, the French Federation for Krishna Consciousness, the Family, the Suicide of Banks [as in river banks], the Ra‘lien Movement, and the Order of Immaculate Heart of Marie and of Saint Louis of Montfort.

Several organizations provoke, in addition, disturbances to the law and order.

According to indications provided to your commission by the Ministry for the Interior, this would be the case of 26 sects, among whom are Jehovah's Witnesses, the New Acropolis, the Church of Scientology, the French Federation for Krishna Consciousness, the Suicide of Banks, and the French Ra‘lien Movement.

Testimony collected concerning the New Acropolis, comparing the sect to a neofascist movement, is rather eloquent. Here is an extract:

" (..) But, unfortunately, with the New Acropolis, as the years pass, the ideas [trŽpassent?]. that is to say that re- enter a school of philosophy with an honest facade, you find yourself very quickly in a sect with political aims, with extreme right wing character and of neofascist type, and if you don't react quickly, you risk finding yourself in a paramilitary style uniform (blue-marine for women, black for men, and chestnut for officers), the arm-band on your arm, the standard in hand, singing war songs in military rhythm, then lowering your head, knee to the ground, saluting the arms surveying a raptor on a sun!!!

" (...) It is moreover one of the declared enemies of democracy, good only for cowards and the weak, so say the leaders of the New Acropolis. Moreover, they are hostile to any form of opposition, and are likely to become very dangerous. For them, the end justifies the means (...) " .

Certain sects are usually in legal contentions, as the affairs mentioned above testify.

However, it is advisable to specify that the difficult reports with justice that certain sects maintain can take two faces: the proceedings of which they are the object because of the punishable or prejudicial character of their acts; the actions which they bring themselves with regard to the people who have, according to them, tarnished their image.

L'Eglise de Scientologie est, par exemple, très coutumière du fait. En général, les tribunaux déboutent les mouvements. In this respect, the Commission had the occasion to note that the majority of the people heard who publicly expressed themselves regarding the negative effects of certain sectarian movements were sued by those [sects] for slandering. The Church of Scientology is, for example, very much accustomed to doing this. In general, the courts dismiss the actions.

This is the case for the Association for Research on the Holistic Development of Man, Association New Acropolis France, Athanor, the Resource Center for Information and Contact for the Prevention of Cancer, the Key to the Universe, the Church of Scientology, the French Ra‘lien Movement, and Soka Gakkai International France.

One saw, in fact, how certain sects could have recourse to clandestine work or various forms of fraud or swindling.

As for your commission, it does not consider itself authorized to make statements in this report of allegations brought to its attention during its work but of which it did not have any means of checking the cogency. Some considered this naive and to judge it moved vis-a-vis with the subtle enterprises of groups which can very skilfully implement the means enabling them to arrive at their ends. It of it is not nothing. Simply, the Commission judges its duty to be careful and to refuse to bring back allegations whose consequences could be of a certain gravity, without being able to bring the least proof of it. Even so, it did not fail to be alarmed by certain elements which were communicated to it. So it draws the attention of the administrative persons in charge to the need, without falling into paranoia, to be proof of greatest vigilance, in order to avoid, at least, as subsidies or contracts are allotted to sects and organizations within their sphere, by ignorance of their exact nature.

Multiple, various, complex, the sectarian phenomenon presents undeniable dangers to the individual as well as to society. And this, the more so as they can take the most insidious forms. No social or professional category escapes from it and if the young people appear more touched, one finds people of all ages in the sects.

An essential question arises then today: have these dangers tended to increase for ten years?

One can hardly give a precise answer to this question, because it is, in the current state of affairs, impossible to measure with exactitude their evolution in the ensemble of movements. However, the opinions collected by the Commission on behalf of several observers leads us to believe that if the practices of sects are not more dangerous today than yesterday, many more people are victims.

Under these conditions, it appears particularly significant to know, on the one hand, if the existing legal devices are sufficient to face there and, on the other hand, what the public authorities can do to better fight against these drifts.

[NOTE: The language in these sections is legalistic and technical, difficult for me to translate. I have left much of it as literal as possible, even though the reading isn't as smooth. I'd rather the English syntax be a little awkward rather than making the French document say something that was not intended. -translator]

III.- NEED FOR A RESPONSE ADAPTED TO THE DANGER OF THE CULTS

If one seeks to analyze the causes of difficulty which the public authorities test to stop sectarian drifts, it appears that this situation can hold with three causes: that is to say the existing means of right would not make it possible to thwart them; that is to say the current legal device is adapted overall but incomplete and thus allows only partially to face there; maybe, finally, it is sufficient, but is not applied in a completely satisfactory way.

The study of legal devices leads your commission to so think that it is overall adapted to the problems arising from the sects and does not require an overall reform.

One notes nevertheless, as one saw above, that it was often difficult to prosecute organizations which had criminal behavior.

The response to these problems thus passes with a very pragmatic attitude, based above all on strong prevention, a better application of the law, and improvement of some points in the existing legal device.

A.- A BALANCED OVERALL DEVICE, WHICH DOES NOT JUSTIFY A LEGAL REVOLUTION

Any spiritual movement, insofar as it expresses religious convictions or, at the very least, beliefs, is protected by the principle of freedom of conscience.

This freedom, which is defined as the capacity to act in accordance with the indications of one's conscience, in particular in religious matters, is, one will recall, guaranteed by Article 10 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of Citizens of 1789, the 5th subparagraph of the preamble of the Constitution of 1946, as well as by Article 2 of the Constitution of 1958.

This freedom is equally consecrated, in an even more precise way, by several International Conventions of which France is part. This is so in Article 9 of the European Convention to Protect Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, ratified by France in 1973, and in Article 18 of the international pact relating to civil and political laws of 1966, which went into effect in France in 1981.

Any spiritual movement enjoys, in addition, the right to meet, guaranteed by the law of June 30, 1881, as well as the right of association, envisaged by Article 2 of the law of July 1, 1901 relating to the contract of association.

These three freedoms can however be exerted only within certain limits.

Respect for law and order comes first, i.e., in the broad sense, peace, security, health and public morality. Thus, Article 3 of the law of July 1, 1901 mentioned above lays out that "any association founded for a cause or for a sight to an illicit purpose, contrary to the laws and contrary to good morals, or for which the purpose would be to attack the integrity of the national territory and the republican form of Government, is null and not an avenue [avenue in this context could also mean 'not seen,' as in not recognized]. Thus, in a stop of 14 May 1982 (International Association for Krishna Consciousness), the Council of State has estimated that the only restrictions likely to be made as to the exercise of the Krishna's worship could be drawn with respect to public peace and with respect to the need to guarantee regulations in matters of hygiene and safety in establishments which receive the public.

Respect for the freedom and rights of others comes second, because, as Article 4 of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789 affirms: "freedom consists in doing all that does not harm others." Thus, for example, it arises of answer brought by the Minister of the Interior to two questions written of Mr. Alain Vivien, that pursues an action of criminal character, an infraction of the law No 78-17 of 6 January 1978 relative to data processing, to files, and to freedoms, the sect which, by the means of inquiries or surveys regarding the use of tranquilizers, sent questionnaires to its adherents and non-adherents containing requests for information concerning identity, residence, profession, and the telephone number of the person questioned and of personalities known in the following spheres: world politics, media, arts, law, and finance (Rep. quest. Žcrites min. int. n. 8465 et 8467 : JOAN ] 10 avril 1989, p. 1691)

Lastly comes respect for the principle of [la•citŽ? secularity?], on which rests the separation of Church and State decided by the law of December 9, 1905, as on the neutrality of the State with respect to worship. Article 9 of this law lays out, indeed, points out, that "the Republic does not recognize, does not pay, and does not subsidize any worship."

Based on a balance between, on the one hand, freedom of conscience, of meeting, and of association and, on the other hand, respect for law and order, the rights and freedoms of others and the secularity of the Republic, the regimen of worship thus allows, while ensuring the expression of all the beliefs, to face the sectarian dangers.

1.- Regulations which, while guaranteeing freedom of religion, make it possible to repress the abuses of sectarian movements

If the spiritual movements have the legal means to exist and develop, the law envisages a significant arsenal making it possible to sanction the abuses which could be made under the cover of exercise of religious freedom.

a) The spiritual movements have several legal frameworks for expressing themselves

Non-declared associations can, according to article 4 of the law of July 1, 1901, collect contributions. They can also create funds intended for expenditures of the association, open a postal checking account, and sign contracts of employment.

They are not made the object of any specific administrative control.

The fact of not being declared prevents them, on the other hand, from enjoying the legal capacity. It follows that they can acquire neither to have a real inheritance, nor be party to legal proceedings.

It is very difficult to know how many sectarian movements choose this statute, which does not suppose any form of publicity, but they are probably very few.

To benefit from this statute, it is enough, pursuant to article 5 of this law, to:

- make a statement with the prefecture of the department or with the sub-prefecture of the district where the association has its registered social office, mention "the title and the object of the association, the seat of its establishment, and the name, profession, residence, and nationality of the person who, with an unspecified title, is charged with its administration or its direction";

- to join two examples of the statutes;

- to make the association public within one month by an insertion to the "Official Journal" of an extract containing the date of the declaration, the title and the object of association, as well as the indication of its registered office.

Equipped with legal capacity, these associations can, in addition to exerting the rights recognized to non-declared associations, in particular:

- to acquire, have and manage the contributions of their members, the room intended for their administration, and the meeting of their members and the buildings strictly necessary to the achievement of the goal which they propose;

- to possess corporate and incorporate [meubles - literally, pieces of furniture or movables. I suspect this is a legal term for movable furniture and equipment as opposed to real estate and fixtures. -translator], as well as being titular of a right to the lease relating to a residential building;

- to receive manual gifts, liberalities of the public utility companies, as well as public subsidies of the State, areas, departments, parishes and publicly-owned establishments;

- to withdraw remuneration of rendered services;

- be party to legal proceedings.

On the other hand, they can be subjected to tax control (article 1999 of the general code of the taxes) and to that of the factory inspectorate (article 143.5 of the fair labor standards act), possibilities which one can consider it regrettable that they are not more used.

In addition, they cannot - except for those which are recognized of public utility [or public service] and for those for which the purposes are exclusively assistance, benevolence, scientific or medical search - receive donations or legacies.

Very easy to obtain, the statute of declared association offers many rights while imposing few constraints. Also, the majority of the sects adopt it.

This mode is defined by the law of 9 December 1905 relating to the separation of Church and State.

The creation of "cultuelle associations" is subjected, in addition to the conditions planned for declared associations, to some other particular obligations. Thus must they have as their sole purpose the exercise of a worship to be made up of at least seven people in the parishes of less than 1,000 inhabitants, of fifteen people in the parishes from 1,000 to 20,000 inhabitants and 25 major people in the parishes of more than 20,000 inhabitants.

They benefit from all the rights granted to declared associations, except that of receiving grants from the State, from departments, and from parishes, because of the principle of separation between Churches and the State.

Moreover, they can receive, in addition to the product of the searches and collections for the expenses of the worship and the remunerations for the ceremonies and religious services, testamentary liberalities and [entre vifs? - between sharp?] (article 19, subparagraph 4 of the law of December 9, 1905). However, this possibility is subjected to an authorization granted by prefectoral decree when the value of liberality is lower or equal to 5 million francs [$835,000 US Dollars] and decree in Council of State when it exceeds this amount.

In addition, pursuant to articles 200 and 238 (a) of the general code of the taxes, their benefactors can deduct from income tax or corporation tax, within a certain limit, a percentage of liberalities which are granted.

It is advisable finally to observe that, in accordance with article 24 of law of 9 December 1905, the building assigned to exercise of worship is exempt from land tax pertaining to State, to department, and to commune, and that the minister of religion can be affiliated, pursuant to article L.721.1 of error correcting the Social Security code, with a special mode of social security.

Lastly, these associations are the objects of financial control by the Administration of Recording and by the General Inspection of Finances.

Few sects were seen recognizing this statute until now.

Some declare themselves "cultuelle associations," by including this expression in their name. This is the case, for example, of the "Cultuelle Association of the Witnesses of JŽhovah" and the sect of Man