Order of the Solar Temple

Order of the Solar Temple

Ordre du Temple solaire
The variety of the Templar Cross used by the OTS
Abbreviation	OTS
Formation	1984
Dissolved	1997
Type	Neo-Templarism Rosicrucianism New Age
Region	Switzerland  France  Quebec  Martinique
Membership	300–400 (core members)
Founder	Joseph Di Mambro
Grand Master	Luc Jouret
Key people	Michel Tabachnik

The Order of the Solar Temple (French: Ordre du Temple solaire, OTS), or simply the Solar Temple, was a religious group, often described as a cult, notorious for the mass deaths of many of its members in several mass murders and suicides throughout the 1990s. The OTS was a neo-Templar movement, claiming to be a continuation of the Knights Templar, and incorporated a mix of Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, and New Age ideas. It was led by Joseph Di Mambro, with Luc Jouret as a spokesman and second in command. It was founded in 1984, in Geneva, Switzerland.

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

Following increasing legal and media scandal, including investigations over arms trafficking and pressure from an ex-member, as well as conflict within the group, the founders began to prepare for what they described as "transit" to the star Sirius. In 1994, Di Mambro first ordered the murder of a family of ex-members in Quebec, before orchestrating mass suicide and mass murder on two communes in Switzerland. In the following years, there were two other mass suicides of former OTS members in France in 1995 and in Quebec in 1997. In total, 74 people died in the course of these events; it is not known how many of the specific deaths were murder and how many were suicides.

The OTS was a major factor that led to the strengthening of the anti-cult movement in Europe, particularly in Francophone Europe. Due to the death of nearly all high ranking members of the organization, there was no one to convict, except a lone member, composer Michel Tabachnik; he was tried in France, but was acquitted twice in two separate trials, found to be innocent on all counts. In the aftermath many conspiracy theories revolving around the events resulted.

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

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

Joseph Di Mambro was a French jeweler with an interest in esotericism. After scamming a business partner in the late 1960s, Di Mambro fled France, before returning to Pont-Saint-Esprit in 1972, believing that his past actions had been forgotten, and acted as a psychologist. Soon after, he was sentenced to six months in prison for writing bad checks, breaching patient trust, and for impersonating a psychiatrist.^[6][7] In the late 1960s, he became a member and lodge leader of the AMORC organization in Nîmes, France.^[8] Di Mambro founded in 1973 the Centre for the Preparation of the New Age (French: Centre de Préparation à l'Age Nouveau, CPAN) in Collonges-sous-Salève.^[8][9] Luc Jouret was a Belgian homeopath. He travelled widely studying various forms of alternative and spiritual healing.^[10] At the beginning of the 1980s he settled in Annemasse, France, not far from the Swiss border, and began to practice homeopathy there.^[11]

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

In 1978, Di Mambro founded the Golden Way Foundation (French: Fondation Golden Way).^[5] Based in a villa in Saconnex-d'Arve, Switzerland, the foundation aimed to discuss issues of pollution, the environment and social ties. It aimed to develop knowledge about the evolution of future quality of life, such as healthy living, organic farming and alternative healthcare techniques.^[17] Through conferences (with guests such as Iannis Xenakis, Alexis Weissenberg, Nikita Magaloff, Hubert Reeves and Michel Jonasz), research and television interviews, the foundation opened up to public and political life.^[18]

In the early 1980s, Joseph Di Mambro and Michel Tabachnik, both interested in philosophy, esotericism and spirituality, decided to bring a mystical and religious vision to the foundation. A room called the "Sanctuary" was set aside for meditation and rituals designed to "connect with the world of the invisible". Members wore white capes with symbols such as the Rose cross and the Templar cross.^[19] Michel Tabachnik held several conferences on esotericism. Di Mambro also set up the Amenta society to spread the ideas of the Golden Way Foundation and to recruit new members.^[8] Di Mambro was perceived by Foundation members as a medium and as a "walk-in" being (a being who takes on the body of another with their consent).^[20] Jouret gave a number of lectures in which he defended the existence of a link between a spiritual approach and homeopathy. Having noticed Luc Jouret's good elocution and communication skills, Di Mambro decided to meet him, and was charmed. He invited Jouret to join the Golden Way, where he quickly rose in the ranks.^[5] In 1981, Camille Pilet, later the treasurer of the OTS, suffered a heart attack and met Jouret. Following this he took an interest in the alternative medicines promoted by Jouret, and joined the group.^[8][21] The same year, Origas was invited by Di Mambro to visit the Golden Way commune; Origas, impressed with Jouret, invited him into ORT.^[5]

In June 1981, Di Mambro, then 57, began an affair with then 21-year-old Dominique Bellaton. He later claimed to receive a revelation from the "masters" that Bellaton would produce a "cosmic child" through theogamy.^[5][a] About that time, Jouret founded the Amenta Club (later renamed simply Amenta, then Atlanta).^[11] In 1982, Di Mambro announced that a "great mission" awaited the foundation. He also announced that a "child-king" was to be born into the community.^[22] Di Mambro had actually impregnated Dominique Bellaton, a former manicurist, who was well known in Geneva and had previously had several affairs with businessmen.^[23][24] Di Mambro claimed that this child's conception was created from the power of his mind and Immaculate Conception.^[23][25]

Their child, initially named Anne Bellaton, was born on 22 March 1982.^[5][23] The child was viewed as "the Christ of the new generation",^[5] but was born female, something attributed by Di Mambro to human imperfection (believing the child's mother being human had led to an imperfect Christ).^[26] Di Mambro claimed the child was an Avatar, a male soul trapped in a female body. She was then renamed Emmanuelle (the male version, Emmanuel, being Jesus's messianic name), but was referred to with male pronouns.^[26][23] In January 1986 Di Mambro legally recognized the child as his biologically at the French Consulate in Quebec.^[26] He required Emmanuelle to wear gloves and a helmet to protect her purity as the "cosmic child", who he considered the "messiah-avatar" of the planet's new age.^[27]

In 1983, after the death of Julien Origas, leader of ORT, Di Mambro urged Jouret to take over the order, and he became its new grand master the same year.^[5] Within the year Origas's daughter forced him out of the group over a dispute involving leadership and funds, resulting in a schism with half of ORT going with Jouret.^[4][28] Jouret then formed and lead a schismatic group of 30 ORT members, which opened branches in Martinique and Quebec.^[1][21] The same year, Michel Tabachnik was made president of the Golden Way Foundation.^[5]

The precise definition or classification as to what kind of movement the Solar Temple was by academics is inconsistent; scholars have labeled it variously as an esoteric new religious movement, a neo-Templar group, a Rosicrucian organization, a doomsday or suicide cult, a new magical movement, a magical-esoteric religion, or a secret society, among others.^[29] Stephen A. Kent and Melodie Campbell classified the group as a UFO religion.^[30] According to Henrik Bogdan, what the OTS is classified as depends on "how these labels are defined and what aspects of the OTS are emphasized."^[29]

Shannon Clusel and Susan J. Palmer described the OTS as a neo-Templar movement, with influence from the philosophies of Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, and the New Age.^[1] Bogdan emphasized their status as a masonic initiatory society.^[29] Massimo Introvigne has classified them as one of many neo-Templar movements; organizations that claim, through adherence to a set of myths about the secret survival of the Knights Templar, to actually be a continuation of that movement. Such groups were often affiliated with masonic rites and freemasonry.^[2]

The organization was described by the Quebec coroner investigating the case as incorporating a variety of traditions, but as primarily inspired by occultism, due to its belief in pseudoscientific practices, and practices unrecognized by other religions, which required special initiation.^[31] Palmer viewed the Solar Temple as fitting within anthropologist Mary Douglas's conception of a "strong group, weak grid" society (with a strong sense of social cohesion, or group, and a weak clarity of group meanings system, or grid), due to the immense pressure it placed on individual members in combination with its "vague and confusing classification system". These societies, according to Douglas, often exhibit a dualistic cosmology, in which the group does not view justice as winning over evil forces.^[32]

The group used many names during its existence, sometimes multiple at once. Following the deaths, "Solar Temple" has been used as the overall common term.^[33] Many aspects of the group's organizational structure were in flux, as is the case in many NRMs.^[34] The "Order of the Solar Temple" formally was only a part of the larger organization; many members of the "core" of the organization were never actual members of the "OTS" proper.^[35] The most public face of the organization was the Amenta Club (later Atlanta), which had Luc Jouret lecture on New Age-related issues, including ecology, homeopathy, and naturopathy; from the Amenta Club recruitment was done to the more secretive Archedia Clubs, which involved the ritual elements.^[34] The third, and apparently most secretive layer, was the International Order of Chivalry Solar Tradition, or the Order of the Solar Temple.^[34]

The OTS had a strict hierarchy with three degrees, in the structure of an initiatory Masonic society: the Frères du Parvis, Chevaliers de l’Alliance, and Frères des Temps Anciens (the Brothers of the Court, Knights of the Alliance, and Brothers of the Former Times).^[34] The three levels of membership corresponded to the three degrees of initiation: initiates, awakened souls, and immortals.^[36] For each degree, a rite of initiation was undergone by the member; specifics of each ceremony varied, but in one ritual ("The Dubbing of a Knight") the officiants were mentioned as: Priest, Deacon, Ritual Master, Matre, Chaplain, Sentinel, Master of Ceremonies, Guardian, and Escorts. The precise relation of these hierarchies to the organization at large is unclear, with the degrees possibly constituting an even more selective group, which some sources call the Synarchy of the Temple.^[34] Outside of this framework was the fourth organization, the Golden Way Foundation (previously La Pyramide), which was the parent structure of both the Archedia and Amenta clubs.^[34] Members of the OTS paid a monthly membership fee and lived communally.^[1]

As an esoteric movement, teachings of the OTS were only elaborated upon to those advanced enough in the organization. Members progressed through several related movements – the Amenta Club, then the Archedia Club, then to the OICST.^[37] Most of the dead were the high ranking members, with those left surviving being the lower ranking who had less access to the ideas of the group; this has caused difficulties in investigating their beliefs by scholars.^[37] Many members of the OTS were wealthy and socially successful, in contrast to many other cults; members were often middle-aged professionals who were highly cultured.^[38][4] This drew from its approach, elitist and interested in aesthetics, with a religious view that was non-fundamentalist.^[4] Its members were almost exclusively cultural Catholics, to whom it offered a type of religious mysticism and ritual that had been minimized by the Catholic Church in the previous decades.^[39][4]

The more odd beliefs of the OTS (e.g. reincarnation, or the Brotherhood) were hidden behind hermeneutics. The Order did not have one coherent method of syncretizing its system of eclectic beliefs.^[4] In a way similar to ancient gnostic systems of thought, the OTS did not have a "normative theology", instead utilizing allegory and symbolism in an interpretive manner to clarify their own beliefs in the context of existing practices.^[4] Though it contained tenets of gnosticism, its approach to this was experimental, and its members also partook in a variety of occult subjects, with occultists of varying systems of beliefs being invited to do workshops for the OTS.^[4]

In OTS theology, the star Sirius was a focal point, as the "Blue Star" that had appeared roughly 26,000 years ago.^[37] Following the appearance of the star, the universe's history could be divided into several "ages", viewing the present moment as being one in which the world was moving from the Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius; this belief in the astrological ages was shared with several other New Age and occult groups.^[36] In the OTS's view, the arrival of the Age of Aquarius would result in the apocalypse, with the Earth being consumed by fire.^[36] The OTS then aimed to create a group of souls dedicated to surviving this apocalypse.^[36] The "Cosmic Child" Emmanuelle was the subject of worship by group members; though her specific role in the group is unclear it was unique in the group.^[40] She underwent a special baptism of water from the Jordan River and Jerusalem-sourced chrismal oil.^[40]

The OTS believed Sirius to be the home of the "Ascended Masters" (also called the Great White Brotherhood).^[37] The OTS conceived of the Ascended Masters as having arrived on earth, where they inhabited Agartha (an underground spiritual realm popular in esoteric thought).^[37][41] Their belief in the Ascended Masters was shared by the Theosophical Society.^[42] The Masters were, in the OTS's conception, effectively souls with the ability to manifest in physical form; both the Masters and human beings were perceived as souls who were merely temporarily occupying their bodies, and at the time of death would move on to another.^[37] The OTS believed that advanced or elite members could, at will, "de-corporealize", in accordance with their degree of initiation into the OTS.^[43][36]

Chryssides cited esotericist Alice Bailey's influence on the OTS, writing that it is "hard to overestimate". In particular, the preoccupation with the star Sirius and her emphasis on the theosophical concept of the Ascended Masters gave a momentum to the contemporary revival of Rosicrucianism; Di Mambro also utilized her Great Invocation to begin Temple ceremonies. Jacques Breyer, and the New Age movement generally, would also draw heavily from Bailey's ideas. Bailey also introduced the "reappearance of the Christ" concept, where Jesus had been a medium for the "Christ", who, towards the end of the 20th century, as long as a certain set of conditions were fulfilled, would reappear to herald a new age, which would coincide with the drawing of the Masters close to humanity.^[44]

Some commentators have suggested influences from Eastern religions; Emmanuelle was referred to as an avatar, though this term was not used in any philosophical sense, and Jouret believed the world to be in the kali yuga, as in Hinduism. Jouret's usage of the term was not in line with Hindu usage, being a much shorter period (6,000 instead of 432,000 years), more similar to Western astrological ideas. These and related concepts are widespread within New Age and Theosophical movements, and any further inspiration is contested.^[45] According to Chyrissides, Di Mambro's contrasting of Emmanuelle as the avatar with the antichrist showed that he still thought in a quasi-Christian manner.^[45]

Both the Masters and human beings were believed to be capable of reincarnation, a key aspect of OTS theology.^[37] OTS members believed themselves to be reincarnated versions of the original Templars who had been burned at the stake with grandmaster Jacques de Molay,^[1] and even further, members of a class of people who had been reborn since ancient times, whose purpose in the world was to fulfill a "cosmic mission".^[46] Di Mambro personally claimed he was a reincarnation of, among others, an Egyptian pharaoh, one of the 12 Disciples, Longinus (the Roman soldier who pierced Jesus's side during the crucifixion)^[b] and an Ascended Master, Manatanus. Jouret claimed he was a reincarnation of Bernard of Clairvaux, founder of the original Knights Templar.^[36] Di Mambro often revealed these past lives to members, in the process giving them new spiritual identities. In doing this, according to Susan J. Palmer, both drama and the illusion of spiritual progress were applied to the member's time in the group.^[47]

In order to achieve the community of souls that would survive the apocalypse, the OTS invoked sex magic, in which sexual activities are performed in order to acquire spiritual gain.^[36] One important OTS practice was "cosmic coupling" or "cosmic marriage".^[36][27] Following Di Mambro's reveal of a member's past lives, either Di Mambro or Jouret — though Jouret himself was forced by Di Mambro to separate from his wife due to "cosmic incompatibility"^[48] — forced apart married couples and put them with other members.^[27][47] A ceremony was performed bonding the "discarnate archetypal forms" of the paired members.^[36] Di Mambro himself was bonded with Bellaton in a ceremony (viewed as the reincarnation of Hatshepsut).^[36]

Di Mambro claimed he did this as the will of the "Cosmic Masters".^[27] The goal of these cosmic couples was to birth seven or nine elite "cosmic children", one of whom was his daughter Emmanuelle (another included Tabachnik's son). According to Di Mambro, these seven children would form "the conscience of the new humanity" and were raised to fulfill this role.^[49][25] At the time of the mass suicides, there were only five cosmic children.^[25] In splitting up a couple, Di Mambro explained to them that their "karmic cycle" had been fulfilled; they were reassigned to a new partner, whereupon they were sent off on a mission together.^[50]

These pairings often had large age gaps: Dominique Bellaton (in her 30s) was paired with Patrick Vuarnet who was 14 years younger, Gerry Genoud was a decade younger than his cosmic wife, Thierry Huguenin's marriage was broken apart and his wife (in her 30s) was matched with Di Mambro's 14 year old son.^[50] Another cosmic couple had a 30-year age gap.^[47] Bruno Klaus, upon leaving his wife at Di Mambro's order, declared: "The Masters have decided. I am going to live with another woman".^[27] While marriage was idealized in the OTS, the leaders encouraged defamilialization through this practice.^[47] Ex-members often complained they were forced into these cosmic unions, though other ex-members said the OTS did not intrude in their personal or family lives.^[47]

The OTS was said to believe that souls had no gender,^[47][40] however Chryssides notes this is difficult to reconcile with the "cosmic marriage" doctrine, as well as the explicitly gendered nature of the Ascended Masters who were always consistent in gender throughout their incarnations.^[40] One former OTS member expressed the idea that the "inner self" was sexless, with there being no difference between the souls of the sexes.^[47] The "Cosmic Child" was always referred to as a he, despite being a girl.^[40]

Ritual was an important aspect of the OTS's beliefs, described as its "core activity" by scholar Hendrik Bogdan.^[34] According to George D. Chryssides, what the OTS offered was a "mystical mood" that was available to all, not just those who were "spiritually gifted"; in a way similar to traditional Catholicism, through ritual the core messages of the group could be made available to those who were not well versed in the systems of thought used to understand it.^[40]

One of these rituals was where ranking members could witness the Masters manifest in the underground chambers of the group, in what were actually holographic shows by Antonio Dutoit.^[37] Underground sanctuaries were built by the group, hidden behind false walls and only accessible through secret passageways: to enter them, a member would have to take a ritual number of 22 steps.^[41] In one ceremony attended by cult researcher Jean-François Mayer in the summer of 1987, in order to commemorate the summer solstice, the Templars held a bonfire in the French countryside. Following their lighting of the fire, there were instructions and the members turned around the fire only clockwise. Mayer said during the event that it was ritual, whereupon a member corrected him and said it was not merely ritual but "something much more".^[40]

The "transit" terminology is derived from AMORC, which uses "transit" as a term meaning death, among other vocabulary the OTS borrowed from the organization.^[35] The concept had first been brought up by Di Mambro in 1990 or 1991. It was to mean a voluntary departure of the members to another dimension in space, or an act of consent to bring the "germ of life" to another planet.^[51][52] He told the members that they would be summoned on short notice, and would need to be ready as this could occur any day.^[52] They conceptualized the transit as a ritual involving magic fire, where they would undergo a spiritual voyage to the star Sirius.^[26] According to Di Mambro, he did not know yet how they would transit, though he metaphorically evoked the idea of being picked up by a flying saucer or passing across a mirror.^[52] OTS members were familiar with similar ideas prior: in 1987, Jouret had for sale at one of his lectures a comic strip (Voyage Intemporel by Sergio Macedo) that tells of a group of UFO believers who are picked up before a great cataclysm.^[53] Following the gun scandal, Jouret began speaking of the transit concept as well.^[51]

Palmer argued that the transit could have been viewed as a solution for many of the problems the OTS faced. It prevented the "loss of charisma" that Di Mambro would have to deal with given his old age and illness, as well as his suffering personal relationships with others.^[43] The problems of succession that the group faced, with conflict between Jouret and Di Mambro and Jouret's leadership problems in Canada, would also be solved. One interpretation was that it may have been a funeral intended for a Pharaoh (as Di Mambro was interested in Egyptian mythology), intended to bring Di Mambro's "retinue" with him into the afterlife and keep his power.^[43]

According to the later testimony of members, they did not interpret it as mass suicide, with one stating that they believed the transit was instead the idea of being saved from disaster.^[52] Members otherwise interpreted it innocuously or as an ephemeral concept, such as one interpretation of the transit being that the group would simply move to another geographical location or leave Geneva. According to Mayer, the transit concept was perhaps not a break with the OTS's earlier survivalist ideas, but instead a continuation, a survival in other dimensions where this one was irreversibly doomed.^[52]

In 1984, Jouret and Di Mambro formed the International Chivalric Order of the Solar Tradition (French: ordre international chevaleresque de Tradition solaire, OICTS) in Geneva, which would later become the Order of the Solar Temple.^[4][28] Jouret, a compelling speaker, was the "front man" for this organization, though Di Mambro was the actual leader.^[28][54] From then on, the group's most active locations were in French-speaking Europe and Quebec; from Quebec, the group intended to spread its influence to the United States, and began a translation project to make OTS ideas available to English speakers. This was mostly unsuccessful, as the OTS never had more than a few American members.^[55]

In 1985, Di Mambro decided to set up a survival center in Canada in the event of nuclear war. An estate, named Sacred Heart (French: Sacré-Coeur) was purchased in Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade, Quebec, to create an organic farm.^[56] The organization set up several subsidiaries, both official and hidden, to finance these real estate purchases; Di Mambro made a profit by reselling his stakes in these purchases to members.^[31] Di Mambro, Jouret, Dominique Bellaton and Camille Pilet bought four semi-detached chalets on Chemin Belisle in Morin-Heights, Quebec and, with members' money, several other houses for OTS activities (including a farm in Cheiry, Canton of Fribourg) managed by member Albert Giacobino.

Di Mambro had asked Tabachnik to draw up a series of writings to inspire him to rise in ranks within the order, called the Archées.^[57] Many of the Order's concepts and principles were inspired by these writings, third degree initiatory texts.^[58] Written between 1984 and 1989, they were made up of 21 articles, each ranging from 15 to 20 pages.^[58] They were considered difficult to understand even by members of the OTS.^[58]

At its peak, the OTS had 300–400 core members.^[21] The group reached its membership height in January 1989, with 442 members: 187 in Metropolitan France, 90 in Switzerland, 86 in Canada, 53 in Martinique, 16 in the US, and 10 in Spain, from which they gained more than $36,000 in monthly revenue overall.^[55] Most members of the OTS had little contact with the leadership, and little or no idea of their violent plans.^[59] Some financially successful members individually donated amounts ranging from the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars to the group, to finance the "life centers"; however, some of the money was instead used to fund the leader's own travel expenses, and cost of living expenses for OTS members who did not have other support. The group began to have financial problems.^[55]

Beginning in the late 1980s, several members began to doubt Di Mambro.^[60] In 1990, Di Mambro's son Elie discovered that the apparitions that appeared during OTS ceremonies were faked, operated by Tony Dutoit, who confirmed this, before leaving the group. Elie, who also realized that the "masters" his father presented did not exist, then revealed this to other members.^[60][61] Some members explained the falsification away as necessary to keep "weaker souls" in the group, but numerous other members, whose faith in the group had been previously damaged by the silencer scandal, left the group and demanded a reimbursement of money they had donated.^[61] Joseph Di Mambro promised to return the sums requested, but several OTS members resigned in quick succession in 1990, leaving only the core group of OTS members.^[60] The leaders began to monitor members who said they wanted to leave the OTS. Some were spied on, others had their phones tapped. Many members, including Di Mambro's own son and many high-ranking members, left.^[12]

In the 1990s, Luc Jouret, having given up his profession as a homeopath to devote himself fully to the OTS, began lecturing on personal development at various companies, universities and banks, mainly in Quebec but also in Switzerland, France and Belgium. Di Mambro, who had a dim view of these lectures as "disseminating the ideas and principles of the OTS to the public", began sabotaging Jouret's lectures, who eventually abandoned his activities and became totally dependent on Di Mambro.^[62] The members of the Sacred Heart commune disliked Jouret, accusing him of a lack of financial transparency and sexual exploitation of women. He was viewed as a dictator by the Quebec members of the group, and was also not present often as he constantly traveled. There was a resulting power struggle between the Quebec and Swiss templars.^[63] As a result Jouret slowly become less prominent in the leadership role of the Solar Temple and quit its executive committee in January 1993.^[64]

The OTS had largely escaped negative public attention from the anti-cult movement in the 1980s, other than two lines published in a French anti-cult booklet about Jouret in 1984. He and the group were left out of later 1980s editions.^[65] In 1991, a former member, Rose-Marie Klaus, contacted a Montreal cult-watching organization, Info-Secte, and following that the group produced a letter warning other organizations in Canada about the group.^[66]

Klaus's husband had left her for a "cosmic marriage" to another woman, and she wanted money she had given to the organization returned; she sued the group, and attempted to get negative press coverage on the OTS.^[66] While her husband Bruno Klaus (later dead in the 1997 transit) had been getting increasingly involved in the OTS, Rose-Marie was growing less involved, but continued to live with him near the group's compound. One day, Bruno arrived home, and told her that the OTS masters had decided that he was to be with another woman; Rose-Marie, upset by this, asked Jouret to mediate between them. His solution to this issue followed the OTS practice of "cosmic coupling", which ignored "earthy marriage"; he set up Rose-Marie with another man, André Friedli, later one of the killers in the 1995 transit.^[67][68] Rose-Marie was not satisfied with this and it only briefly lasted. She stated that "I saw later that this man went with other women, the women had other men. It was very mixed up."^[68]

For several years after this, she repeatedly tried to get Bruno back, having a "foot inside, but always one outside" the OTS community, but eventually gave up, and began contacting anti-cult groups.^[69] On 10 September 1991, the president of Martinique's branch of the Association for the Defense of Families and Individuals (the leading French anti-cult group), asked various Canadian associations for information on the group in a letter, following several Martinicans leaving the island to join them.^[65] In 1992, after an invitation from a French cult-watching organization, Klaus visited Martinique, where she denounced the group. Her statements were picked up on by the local media.^[65][70][66]

The next year the group encountered further trouble. The police of Canada, which was then investigating Q-37 (a mysterious group that threatened to assassinate Canadian public officials, which was eventually determined to have never existed), believed the OTS may have been involved.^[66] Soon after, the group's locations in Quebec were raided and two members were arrested on grounds of possession of illegal weapons. Jouret had asked the men to buy three semi-automatic guns with silencers, illegal in Canada, resulting in the three being arrested.^[71][12] Jouret and the other two men were given only light sentences after the crime (one year of unsupervised probation and a $1000 fine intended to be paid to the Red Cross), but in the aftermath the media took interest in the group. The Canadian press began to report, using information gained from police wiretaps, conversations between members of the OTS, which they described as a "doomsday cult".^[70][72]

Though Jouret had encouraged some members of the OTS to learn to shoot, at the time, members of Info-Secte believed the group to be of a survivalist nature, and that they intended to use the weapons to defend themselves after an apocalypse; a representative of Info-Secte publicly expressed his confusion as to why they needed silencers for this purpose. Even tabloid newspapers that covered the OTS, which ran lurid stories about the organization, did not indicate they believed them capable of violence. In March 1993, some members of the group tried to convince the press that the OTS was harmless and mostly dedicated to moral improvement and gardening, and denied allegations of being a cult.^[70]

Folowing the arrests, other countries and agencies began investigating as well. Two days after the men were arrested, the Sûreté du Québec announced an inquiry into the financial aspects of the group, with the Australian police launching a parallel investigation later in the year. A bulletin from Interpol alleged that Di Mambro and Odile Dancet had been involved in two banking transactions in Australia, each worth $93 million. In 1994, the French authorities delayed the reissue of Jocelyne Di Mambro (Di Mambro's wife)'s passport due to an investigation.^[73] At the same time, former member of the OTS, Thierry Huguenin, was calling Di Mambro and demanding his money back, threatening to file a criminal complaint if he did not; in February 1994 a photocopied letter was mailed to about 100 members, revealing financial misuse, the reveal of which made both Di Mambro and Jouret furious.^[74] In March, the Canadian RCMP were helping the Australian Federal Police in an investigation over possible money laundering by the OTS, and the Swiss authorities also received Australian bulletins.^[73] Later on, there was no evidence found of money anywhere close to that amount, or money laundering, but this lead to conspiracies.^[75]

The OTS viewed itself as increasingly persecuted, though according to Jean-François Mayer, there was little actual opposition to the group, with Canadian Public Security Minister Claude Ryan explicitly stating the government would not surveil cult members in the wake of reports on the group, and denying information claiming the group had planned to commit terrorist attacks in Canada.^[76] The leadership believed the increasing legal and media attention to be both a conspiracy against the OTS and a sign of the Kali Yuga, and the group's ideas became increasingly focused on environmental destruction and ecological collapse.^[12][72]

Compounding the difficulties, Di Mambro also began having issues with Emmanuelle. Though she had been raised from birth to be a messiah figure, by the age of 12 she had become uncooperative, rejecting her role in the group and taking an interest in typical teenage pop culture. He believed her to be under threat from the Antichrist, who, he believed, was born to Tony and Nicky Dutoit in summer 1994. Di Mambro had previously forbidden Nicky from giving birth, but after she left the group, they had a son, whom they named Christopher Emmanuel. Di Mambro, deeply offended by the name similarity, the disobeying of his instructions, and that he had not been consulted in the naming of the infant, ordered the family be murdered later in 1994.^[61]

Given the scale of the issues facing the group leaders, it was decided they would "transit" to Sirius.^[77] The OTS termed the acts a "transit", which they described as "in no way a suicide in the human sense of the term".^[38] In their view, traitors would be simply murdered, while "weaker" members would be "helped" to transit, and the remaining members considered strong enough would kill themselves. Members believed that, upon death, they would acquire "solar bodies" in a faraway location in space (typically given as the star Sirius, but alternatively Jupiter or Venus).^[58][78][54] The group's leaders wrote four letters expressing these views, known as The Testament, which contained messages of the order's beliefs.^[79][54] Patrick Vuarnet was instructed by Di Mambro to mail the Testament letters to several people.^[80][81]

These letters divided the dead into three groups.^[82]

• "Traitors", who were to be murdered
• "Immortals", who had been "helped" in death (killed) by other members
• "Awakened", who had committed voluntary suicide

On 30 September 1994, the Dutoits were lured to Di Mambro's chalet in Morin-Heights by Dominique Bellaton.^[83][84] Two members, Joël Egger and Jerry Genoud killed the family, repeatedly stabbing them, including the three month old child.^[85][86] As ordered by Di Mambro, these murders were carried out in a ritualistic fashion.^[87] Bellaton and Egger left for Switzerland the same day, while the Genouds spent the next four days cleaning up the scene and preparing for death.^[88][89] On 4 October they set incendiary timers to go off and burn the house down, dying as a result.^[90]

During the night from 2 to 3 October 1994, 23 died in Cheiry.^[87][91] 20 of the dead had been shot with one gun;^[92] 21 of them had died from gunshot wounds, previously drugged with sleeping pills, with another two dying of suffocation from plastic bags.^[93][94] The ones who had killed the others in Cheiry were Egger and Jouret, though it is possible they were not the only ones.^[91][95] In Salvan, the victims had been injected with poison; according to the investigative report, it is likely that the fatal injections at Salvan were done by Line Lheureux, with Annie Egger doing the same to the children.^[96][97] On the morning of 5 October, the Testament letters were mailed out.^[80] There were 15 Awakened, 30 Immortals, and 8 Traitors.^[98]

On 4 October 1994, the bodies of the Genouds were found in the burned out chalet; the next day the bodies of the Dutoits were found in the building's cellar.^[84] On 5 October, Swiss examining magistrate André Piller was called by the police to respond to a fire at Cheiry, arriving half an hour later, where the bodies were discovered.^[92] Soon after this they heard news the fire in Granges-sur-Salvan, of the three villas; when the fires there died down, they found the bodies in Salvan.^[92] These two fires were connected when Egger's car, who lived in the Cheiry house, was found parked outside the Salvan commune, and the next day, the Canadian police realized that there was likely a connection between the Morin-Heights fire and the Swiss ones as the properties were owned by the same men.^[99]

The leadership of the OTS cared deeply about the group's legacy, and spent a large amount of time preemptively creating a "legend" through both the manifestos they mailed to various media and scholarly sources, and by destroying all evidence that would have conflicted with their own story. This plan was disrupted, as some of the ignition devices had failed. This failure left behind a large number of the Temple's written documents, some of which were found on the group's surviving computers, as well as audio and video cassettes, able to be looked through by investigators.^[100] Several months after the deaths, two journalists from France 2 visited the ruins of the Salvan chalet and found, in the kitchen garbage can, audio cassettes in excellent condition, recording telephone conversations between followers who had been spied on by Di Mambro.^[101] Extracts from the tapes were broadcast and deemed to be in line with the order's beliefs and theses.^[102]

According to Thierry Huguenin, Jouret and Di Mambro had planned for there to be exactly 54 victims, in connection with 54 Templars who had been burned at the stake in the fourteenth century. This was to allow an immediate magic contact with these departed Templars.^[24] However, Huguenin escaped from the scene last minute, having sensed danger, which left the death toll at only 53.^[103] After the event, some other members declared their continued support for the group's ideas, and even regretted not having been chosen for the "transit".^[104] A Swiss magistrate concluded that of the fifty two deaths, only fifteen were suicides.^[78]

On the morning of 16 December 1995, 14 people, including three children, were immolated in a circular star-formation in an isolated clearing on the Vercors massif, near Saint-Pierre-de-Chérennes in France. Two other bodies were found near them.^[105][106] The investigation conducted by the Grenoble Gendarmerie hypothesized that the 14 people, including three children, took sedative pills; then Jean-Pierre Lardanchet and André Friedli shot each member in the head one by one with two .22 caliber rifles. After that, they poured gasoline on the bodies and set them on fire, before they both shot themselves in the head with two .357 Magnum revolvers.^[107] The bodies of the two perpetrators were found alongside the burned ones.^[105][106] On 23 December 1995, the 16 bodies were discovered after a missing persons investigation by the gendarmerie, after having been lead to the bodies by a hunter.^[108]

The plot had been orchestrated by Christiane Bonet, a devoted former member of the OTS who said she could commune with Jouret and Di Mambro from the afterlife.^[109] Some of those who died left behind notes where they discussed that they would "see another world".^[78] Investigators concluded that of the 16 dead, at least four had not died willingly.^[110]

On 22 March 1997, five members of the Solar Temple died in a mass suicide in Saint-Casimir, Quebec, burning their house down with them inside.^[111] The dead included two couples: Chantal and Didier Quèze, as well as Pauline Riou and Bruno Klaus (Rose-Marie Klaus's ex-husband), and one of their parents.^[112] Responding officers found three teenage survivors at the scene, the children of the Quèzes, who were found to be drugged.^[79] Following the first failed attempt to initiate the transit (that included them against their will), the children had negotiated their right to live with their parents, who eventually agreed that they did not have to die. Following this, the adults continually failed to burn the house down, becoming increasingly sick, until eventually the teenagers burned the house down at their parents' request.^[113]

The children were ultimately not charged with any crime, as the fact that they had been drugged and the influence the cult could have had on them was viewed as mitigating their responsibility.^[114][115] The adults had mailed a transit letter to several Canadian news outlets, in which they explained that they had taken their own lives believing that their deaths would let them "transit" to another planet to continue living.^[110][116]

In the wake of the deaths, fear of cults took hold of the French and Swiss populations.^[117][118] The group immediately became well known.^[118] The victims of the OTS were noted as not conforming to the usual idea of a cultist, vulnerable and easy to influence, but were instead respected members of society in powerful positions, some of whom were very rich, a surprise to many.^[118] The group's actions were a major factor in the toughening of the fight against cults in France, resulting in a general rise in opposition against purported "cults".^[118] Following the deaths, on 29 June 1995 the French National Assembly voted, unanimously, to appoint the Guyard Commission to study the phenomenon of cults.^[119] Appointed as president of this commission was Jacques Guyard [fr], while it was chaired by Alain Gest, listing 173 cults.^[120]

In the following years, the French media accused other cults/sects of being like the Solar Temple, plotting their own mass suicides; included among them the Unification Church and Scientology, as well as Aumistes and Raëlians.^[118] The Raëlians were particularly affected by this, constantly accused of plotting mass suicide. Leader Raël responded to the affair by saying: "If those idiots in the Solar Temple decided to kill themselves, that is not our problem" and "why do the journalists always call me for comment when there's a collective suicide? I don’t want to die! I want to be around to piss them off for a long time!"^[121] The Raëlians put out a press release stating that suicide was against their belief system.^[121] The Aumistes were also affected, being told by the police that there was a rumor they would commit mass suicide "like the Solar Temple".^[122] In January 1998, a group called the Atman Foundation was suspected of plotting ritual suicide in the Teide National Park in the Canary Islands; police of the island had announced they had prevented another OTS suicide, which made headlines around the world. It was later clarified that they were unrelated groups. Later investigations of that group failed to turn up proof of the ritual suicide allegation, and the leader was acquitted of all charges.^[123][124]

In the trial and media coverage of Néo-Phare, a small French cult, the group was frequently compared to the Solar Temple. Le Figaro declared it the "new OTS", and journalists compared the leader Arnaud Mussy to Jouret and Di Mambro.^[125] Psychologist and cult expert Jean-Marie Abgrall said during the trial of that group that they were like the Solar Temple, as both groups recorded their meetings and practiced swinging.^[126] A former member discussed with the news a comparison between Néo-Phare's doctrine and the Solar Temple's concept of going to Sirius, and in one instance, TF1 producers (who wanted the exclusive rights to make a documentary about the case) wanted them to look like the Solar Temple, surprised at their lack of belief similarities, and when they found out they did not have many, they left.^[126] Susan Palmer argued the trial of Mussy may have been an attempt by the French justice system to compensate for the innocent verdict in the Tabachnik trial.^[125] The OTS suicides had shocked the French public,^[127] and due to the failure of the justice system to convict the only person who ever went on trial in the case, there was no "satisfying" conclusion, deeply frustrating the French authorities.^[125]

After the deaths, Swiss cantonal authorities founded the Centre intercantonal d'information sur les croyances, an organization meant to provide information on cults.^[128] The acts of the Solar Temple prompted European governments to begin to monitor new and nontraditional religious movements, and also influenced the American anti-cult movement.^[129] In the aftermath, many anti-cult activists compared Jouret — viewed then as the charismatic leader of the OTS — to David Koresh, though Di Mambro was later described as the group's main leader, with Jouret its recruiter.^[54]

On 23 December 1995, during the journal de 13 heures program on the French channel TF1, journalist Gilles Bouleau claimed that the group had survived and united behind Michel Tabachnik, indirectly declaring that Tabachnik was the mastermind behind the Vercors massacre.^[130] Tabachnik was investigated following the incident; Fontaine placed him under examination on 12 June 1996 for conspiracy.^[131] At the time of the investigation, due to the death of the two leaders in Salvan in 1994, Tabachnik was the only defendant in the case. The examining magistrate considered that Tabachnik, through his writings and his conferences, could have incited followers to commit suicide. He was therefore charged with participation in a criminal conspiracy.^[132]

On 13 April 2001, at the Grenoble Museum-Library, which had been transformed for the occasion, the court trial of Michel Tabachnik for "criminal conspiracy" began. The plaintiffs' side split into two camps; one camp, led by Alain Vuarnet, felt that the trial should not focus on Tabachnik's responsibility but on the investigation itself, which they felt had not been thorough. Another, led by the anti-cult group UNADFI, believed that Tabachnik and his writings were the cause of the mass suicides, and that cults must be eradicated.^[133][134] On 25 June 2001, the court acquitted Tabachnik, on the basis that there had been no conclusive proof found of any involvement, and his writings accused of influencing the members into death were deemed unlikely to have influenced them.^[134] The public prosecutor appealed the criminal court's decision, and Tabachnik was tried again in a second trial beginning 24 October 2006.^[135] The appeals court upheld the lower court's ruling, and he was acquitted a second time in December 2006.^[136][134]

Due in part due to the difficulty of explaining many aspects of the OTS, conspiracy theories were common.^[37] One former member claimed that the evidence of murder had been fabricated by the Sûreté du Québec,^[137] and another claimed that the murders were actually a CIA operation to cover up a deal Jimmy Carter had supposedly made with a group of aliens living in an underground laboratory in Nevada.^[37][137] In 1996, a documentary was in production that claimed that Jouret was actually still alive.^[137] As described by Susan J. Palmer, "false or unverifiable trails have been laid: secondhand testimonies are traded by journalists, ghost-written apostate memoirs are in progress and conspiracy theories abound."^[137] Initial media and anti-cult movement responses focused largely on the idea that the victims had been brainwashed, but when the relative affluence of the members was realized, they were considered to not fit the typical conception of a brainwashing victim (i.e. young, poor).^[138]

Narratives then shifted to a conspiratorial one, in which the OTS was not actually a cult but a front for something else entirely, involving organized crime, money laundering, and the secret services of several countries.^[138] The alleged 93 million number was found to be inaccurate, and there was no evidence ever found of money laundering, but this narrative fueled conspiracies and much press speculation.^[75] In one version of the theory, commentators alleged connections between the OTS and various political scandals, citing alleged links between Jouret and members of Gladio.^[139] Many books have been written by journalists promoting these theories, but no significant evidence of them has ever surfaced, and it has been disregarded as a hypothesis by the investigations in Canada and Switzerland.^[138] Academics who dismissed these theories were accused by the proponents of being part of the conspiracy.^[138]

Following the events, there were several rumors linking the OTS to famous people and events. According to Mayer, none of these claims were substantiated by the investigation, and he called the rumors "far-fetched".^[140] In one example of this, David Cohen, in his 2004 book Diana: Death of a Goddess, attempted to link the OTS to both Princess of Monaco Grace Kelly and then-Prince Charles.^[140] This theory was also promoted in a documentary from the English Channel 4, created by Cohen and David Carr-Brown. The source for this was a man who identified himself as Georges Leroux or "Monsieur Guy", refusing to reveal his true identity; Leroux claimed to have been a former member of the OTS and Di Mambro's personal driver. He claimed that Kelly had been initiated, along with several other other famous people, into the OTS in 1982, and that prior to her death she had donated about 15 million Swiss francs to the group.^[141][142] According to Leroux, Kelly's death, deemed an accident, was actually a plot by Di Mambro, and the massacres were actually a plot by the Italian mafia.^[141]

In 1998, Swiss journalist Arnaud Bédat tracked Leroux down and interviewed him. According to Bédat, Leroux provided no proof of any of his assertions; having found out his real identity, Guy Mouyrin, he noted that he had lied about multiple elements of his history and also had multiple prior criminal convictions for fraud, theft, blackmail, and document forgery.^[142][141] He was known by those around him as someone who made up stories, and was then wanted by the Swiss police for over 100 instances of fraud and robbery.^[141] Introvigne described him as a "professional con artist".^[142] Bédat also said that none of the former members of the OTS could recall having ever met him, and the story was contradictory to what was known about the OTS, as it had not even existed when the initiation of Kelly had supposedly taken place (being founded about two years later).^[141] Kelly's name is also not mentioned in the relatively complete lists of OTS members that were left behind.^[142] When questioned about this by Bédat, Cohen admitted that he did not thoroughly check Leroux's background, and did not know his real identity (or that he was wanted by Swiss police).^[141] This claim likely stems from the fact that one of the people in a organization indirectly related to the OTS was a childhood friend of Rainier III, Prince of Monaco.^[142][141]

Several books have been published about the case. Several former members of the OTS wrote memoirs, including Tabachnik and Thierry Huguenin. Many journalists authored books on the OTS, including Arnaud Bédat, Gilles Bouleau and Bernard Nicolas, who authored Les Chevaliers de la mort. It has also been the subject of works from academics, including The Order of the Solar Temple: The Temple of Death and Les Mythes du Temple Solaire.^[1]

Sources

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