Who are the people affected by the phenomenon of sectarian aberrations in the broad sense?
Tipping can happen to absolutely anyone. In fact, it is enough to have a problem to solve, but also a desire. For example, people who followed Pierre Maltais in Ecoovie [NDLR : un gourou dont il a raconté le parcours funeste dans un livre], initially, had one desire: they were campaigning for a better world. The cause could just as well be illness, health… Conspiracy theorists and antivax are in the same mechanics: they are people who question themselves and who finally find a bad answer that suits them. People persuade themselves that they are being told nonsense in order to end up believing those who tell them the biggest nonsense. It’s always the same process: you join a group that becomes united, with more or less common values, a leader who speaks the good word, and no one dares to deviate, everyone is obliged to believe in order not to not be judged by others.
What is the situation in the Dordogne?
We have about ten files that mobilize us every year. But since the start of the Covid-19 crisis, we have seen new demands. We are alarmed by the excesses around health, with lots of groups, structures that are being set up and surfing on it, pseudo-therapists.
Can you give an example?
Today, we have what is no longer an association, but a real company, at the national level, and which was launched from the Dordogne. It’s Science Of Eden, one of whose leaders was a physiotherapist in Périgord Vert. She carries the word of a Russian, Grigori Grabovoï. He became known after the Beslan school massacre in 2004: he promised the mothers of the victims to resuscitate their children. Since then, he has gained followers all over the world. In France, Science Of Eden has perhaps a hundred people at its service.
How does this business work?
These people are selling a device, the PRKU1, which costs around 10,000 euros. He’s supposed to be resurrected! They organize meetings to present it, there have already been some in Périgueux. The entrance costs 100 euros. In sectarian matters, the first contacts are always very kind and benevolent. If they have you in hand, they sell you the device. Otherwise, or if you can’t afford it, they can make you buy things that are cheaper: seminars, videos, series of magic numbers. Such series will cure you of stomach, pancreas, etc. ! I know that there are people in the Dordogne who have bought this device… But without a complaint, without illicit behavior, it is difficult to act.
Do you have other reasons for concern?
Any enlistment is cause for concern. We are working, following a report, on Templars who say they want to fight for Christianity. There is also an evangelical group where women were allegedly sexually abused. I received one of them, she does not want to file a complaint. There is also a whole network of associations that gravitate in the Périgord noir, around well-being in the broad sense, and where we find the same people. Some are both victims and recruiters.
What signals should alarm a relative, a friend? How to react ?
You have to worry about seeing a loved one cut ties, leave for seminars or retreats. We must not fight his belief, since he believes in it, but do everything to maintain the dialogue. He will perhaps have a click and when the time comes, turn back to the one who has not abandoned him, has not judged him.
(1) Judged in 2020 in Périgueux, the man responded to acts of abuse of weakness on several clients of his center of “well-being activities for body and mind”. He was sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment with a suspended probation, an obligation to care and a ban on exercising any activity as a therapist for five years. He had escaped a trial at the assizes, a dismissal for the rapes and sexual assaults having been pronounced.
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