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Inside a Terrifying Cult: The Dark Side of Extreme Sacrifice · The conspiracy

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Speaker 1: 74 dead, three countries, one cult. The order of the
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Speaker 1: solar temple left a trail of destruction that still baffles
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Speaker 1: experts today. Founded by Joseph de Mombro, a jeweler, a
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Speaker 1: former jeweler, and Luc Jouret, a homeophobic, not homeophobic, That's
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Speaker 1: not what I meant to say. A homeopathic doctor. This
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Speaker 1: wasn't your typical doomsday cult, though. They targeted the elite. Lawyers, doctors, politicians.
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Speaker 1: The people you would least expect to fall for such
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Speaker 1: extreme beliefs. Ignoring Scientology, of course. We'll talk about that
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Speaker 1: at some point on this channel, I'm sure. So how
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Speaker 1: did these intelligent individuals end up participating in a mass protest?
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Speaker 1: transit to Sirius. Today we will be breaking down the
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Speaker 1: rise and fall of the Order of the Solar Temple,
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Speaker 1: exposing the manipulation tactics that turned ordinary people into devoted
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Speaker 1: cultists and what horrors became of them. Crime, conspiracy, serial killers, cults,
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Speaker 1: and murder. All things that I love to consume and
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Speaker 1: I know you do too, you sweet little button-nosed baby boy.
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Speaker 1: And also you're an intellectual Sweet, beautiful-minded freak. But today
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Speaker 1: we are talking about just that, the Order of the
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Speaker 1: Solar Temple, very disturbing cult. I feel like not as
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Speaker 1: many people know about this one. There are frickin' magic, magic,
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Speaker 1: ethereal kids in this cult, okay? It's gonna get weird
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Speaker 1: as frick. So without further ado, let's unbuckle our seat belts,
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Speaker 1: go Mach 5 down the highway, slam on the brakes,
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Speaker 1: and jump through this windshield into this crazy cult together.
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Speaker 1: And of course, we're going to start out with who
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Speaker 1: the heck is running this shit. And that is the
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Speaker 1: jeweler and the doctor, Joseph de Mombra. It's a very
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Speaker 1: scary name for me. I mean, I know what he did,
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Speaker 1: so maybe that's why it's scary. But anyway, Joseph de
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Speaker 1: Mambro wasn't always a cult leader. They never are. Born
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Speaker 1: in 1924 in Francais Esprit in France. I will say
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Speaker 1: a lot of things wrong, forgive me. He started out
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Speaker 1: as a regular Joe, fixing watches and selling jewelry. But
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Speaker 1: this guy had a taste for the weird. In 1956,
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Speaker 1: he joined AMORC or A-M-O-R-C, the Ancient and Mystical Order
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Speaker 1: of the Rosé Krookis or Kroochies. There's a couple ways
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Speaker 1: to say it. Sounds like a lot of fun to me,
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Speaker 1: to be honest. Sounds like something I would join when
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Speaker 1: I'm like 14 instead of Dungeons and Dragons. It was
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Speaker 1: the ancient and mystical order of the Rosé Krooties. Sounds badass. Anyway,
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Speaker 1: this group was found on the belief of spiritual development,
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Speaker 1: including mysticism, alchemy, and more. This is sounding more and
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Speaker 1: more awesome as I go, but I promise you it's not. However,
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Speaker 1: this was only just the beginning of de Mambro's journey
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Speaker 1: into the world of the strange. Meanwhile, across the globe,
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Speaker 1: Lou Zure was born in 1947 in Belgian Congo. And
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Speaker 1: this dude became a doctor graduating in 1974, but regular
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Speaker 1: medicine for him was not enough. He got into homeopathy, homeopathy,
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Speaker 1: which is basically just expensive water if you ask most scientists.
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Speaker 1: We don't need to get into it, but people loved it.
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Speaker 1: And Jouret became a big shot speaker on alternative medicine
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Speaker 1: and new age crap in French speaking Europe.
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Speaker 2: Jouret really was quite convinced that he had a mission
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Speaker 2: to fulfill. that he was like a kind of representative
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Speaker 2: of the Templar order into the profane world.
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Speaker 1: But anyway, here's where things get interesting. In 1982, these
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Speaker 1: two weirdos met when Jerez joined de Mambro's Golden Way Foundation.
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Speaker 1: And it was like a match made in cult heaven,
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Speaker 1: if there is such a thing. And they both basically
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Speaker 1: just had a hard-on for cult and esoteric teachings. And
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Speaker 1: they hit it off immediately. And Amambro, now pushing 60
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Speaker 1: at this point, had been running in Golden Way Foundation
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Speaker 1: in Geneva, attracting all sorts of people who thought crystals
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Speaker 1: could cure cancer and that aliens built the pyramids and whatnot,
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Speaker 1: which I... I'm not opposed to that theory, I'm gonna
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Speaker 1: be honest. Not the crystals thing, but the aliens thing.
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Speaker 1: I just can't. I don't know how you explain it otherwise.
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Speaker 1: It was the perfect combo, though. The behind-the-scenes mastermind and
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Speaker 1: the charming frontman. And these two didn't waste any time.
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Speaker 1: In 1984, they officially founded the Order of the Solar Temple, which,
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Speaker 1: to be fair, is a badass name. And their logo
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Speaker 1: is kinda tight. I'm not gonna lie. The first thing
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Speaker 1: I said when I saw it, I was like, it's
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Speaker 1: pretty sweet. I'm not going to lie, but they're pieces
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Speaker 1: of shit. So that's, that's the only thing I'm going
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Speaker 1: to give them. And they would kick off the order
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Speaker 1: of the solar temple with a ceremony in Geneva where
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Speaker 1: they swore allegiance to a once and future supreme secret
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Speaker 1: master of the temple. And DeMombro took on the role
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Speaker 1: of the puppet master, pulling the strings from behind the curtain,
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Speaker 1: like Wizard of Oz. And Jerez, with his smooth talking ways,
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Speaker 1: became the face of the organization. So DeMombro was behind
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Speaker 1: the curtain and Jerez was the front man, if you will.
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Speaker 1: So Juret was out there giving lectures, recruiting members, and
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Speaker 1: spreading their philosophy. And oh boy, did people eat it
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Speaker 1: the f * * * up. Juret was especially successful
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Speaker 1: in Quebec, where he managed to rope in executives and
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Speaker 1: managers from Hydro-Quebec. And I can't, I don't understand why
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Speaker 1: all these cults that I talk about, they're all connected
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Speaker 1: to Quebec. What the hell's going on up there? Get
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Speaker 1: it together, Quebec! I know it's not all of you, Quebecois, but...
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Speaker 1: My lord. But anyway, high level professionals were falling for
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Speaker 1: his spell. And the order of the Solar Temple was
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Speaker 1: growing and pulling in members from various esoteric groups, including
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Speaker 1: Geret's own Amenta and Arcadia clubs. So there you have it,
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Speaker 1: a former jeweler and a homeopathic doctor, still sounds wrong,
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Speaker 1: both with a taste for the bizarre, joining forces to
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Speaker 1: create what would become one of the most notorious cults
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Speaker 1: of the 20th century. But this was just the beginning, unfortunately,
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Speaker 1: and the Order of the Solar Temple was about to
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Speaker 1: take its followers on a wild ride, to say the least.
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Speaker 1: And trust me, it does not end So let's get
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Speaker 1: into the cosmic child and nightly dreams. Yes, you heard
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Speaker 1: what I said. So you might think a cult mixing
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Speaker 1: Knights Templar lore with UFO beliefs would be too ridiculous
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Speaker 1: to gain followers, but the Order of the Solar Temples
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Speaker 1: teachings were about to get even weirder and deadlier. So
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Speaker 1: how did they convince educated professionals that a toddler was
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Speaker 1: the cosmic messiah? Let that sink in. Cosmic Messiah. But
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Speaker 1: the OTS belief system was a bizarre cocktail of Neo-Templar
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Speaker 1: ideas and New Age concepts. On the surface, they preached love, light,
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Speaker 1: and spiritual elevation, but behind closed doors, it was all
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Speaker 1: apocalypse and transit to other planets, as most cults are.
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Speaker 1: I mean, it's always like the front-facing looks all good
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Speaker 1: and everything, like we just talked about the FLDS or,
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Speaker 1: you know, Children of God and everything. If people come
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Speaker 1: to visit, looks fine from the outside, kinda, but in reality,
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Speaker 1: it's just... It's shit. But de Mambro claimed that OTS
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Speaker 1: was preparing for new age, ushered in by cosmic children,
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Speaker 1: special beings with superpowers, little like Incredibles children, fucking running around,
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Speaker 1: cosmic powers and whatnot, being size and everything. And his daughter, Emmanuelle,
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Speaker 1: born in 1982, was the star of this cosmic show. Naturally,
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Speaker 1: of course, it had to be his daughter. And he
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Speaker 1: told members she was the cosmic child and the embodiment
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Speaker 1: of the cosmic Christ. They're like mixing the Bible with
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Speaker 1: Star Wars and putting it together. So how did he
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Speaker 1: explain her conception? This is awesome and crazy. It's crazy.
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Speaker 1: Not through normal means, of course. Could not be through
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Speaker 1: normal intercourse and whatnot. According to de Mambro, Emmanuel was
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Speaker 1: conceived through cosmic intercourse. Everything's got to be cosmic with
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Speaker 1: this guy. With a ghost-like master. So I don't know
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Speaker 1: if it was a woman or a man or just
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Speaker 1: a ghost. I'm not sure. But the Knights Templar obsession
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Speaker 1: ran deep in the OTS. And it's literally just the
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Speaker 1: plot from Star Wars, which also copies the story of Jesus.
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Speaker 1: So it's just, it's just plagiarism all around and it's real.
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Speaker 1: So it's not fun. You know, if it's fiction, if
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Speaker 1: it was fiction, it'd be fun, but it's not. So
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Speaker 1: they claimed direct lineage from the medieval Templars saying secret
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Speaker 1: master's sent them esoteric messages. And these weren't your average
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Speaker 1: weekend LARPers. As you know, if you don't know what
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Speaker 1: LARPers is, it's right here, on screen right here. Or
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Speaker 1: you can show them a video of them. These people
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Speaker 1: took this stuff extremely seriously, and their rituals were elaborate
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Speaker 1: affairs invoking a whole hierarchy of ascended masters.
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Speaker 3: He would say to us, do you realize that we
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Speaker 3: are the only people on the planet to be seeing
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Speaker 3: these things? That throughout history, there have been great souls,
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Speaker 3: great saints, And they have never had a sign. And
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Speaker 3: we have flashes, signs. We have the blood of Christ.
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Speaker 1: And these ceremonies were designed to convince members that they
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Speaker 1: had special roles in the coming of the New Age.
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Speaker 1: And it was all part of a plan to keep
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Speaker 1: people hooked into the OTS's unique mission, which was that
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Speaker 1: they were reincarnated saints.
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Speaker 4: And you would go through this ritual where you would
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Speaker 4: be given a cross, you would be sworn in as
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Speaker 4: a member, And you would also swear not to reveal
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Speaker 4: any of the going-ons inside this group because everything was
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Speaker 4: kept extremely secretive.
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Speaker 1: But here's where it gets really dark. While they talked
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Speaker 1: about love and enlightenment in public, the private teachings were
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Speaker 1: very doom and gloom. They pushed ideas about persecution, and
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Speaker 1: the impending apocalypse, creating a sense of urgency among members.
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Speaker 1: And we see this with every cult that I've talked about,
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Speaker 1: and pretty much every cult in general, whether it's Jim Jones,
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Speaker 1: or the Order of the Solar Temple, or Children of God,
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Speaker 1: like all these cults always need a fear-mongering aspect to
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Speaker 1: keep people with them. So... they push the same rhetoric.
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Speaker 1: And the contrast between the OTS's public face and its
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Speaker 1: inner teachings was stark. On one hand, you had Lou
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Speaker 1: Jouret giving lectures about alternative medicine and spiritual growth, and
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Speaker 1: on the other hand, you had Joseph de Mambro spinning
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Speaker 1: tales about cosmic children at the end of the world,
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Speaker 1: which sounds Cooler. Kidding. I'm kidding. But this mix of
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Speaker 1: Knights Templar mythology, New Age concepts, and apocalyptic beliefs created
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Speaker 1: a potent brew of cult stew. So the OTS managed
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Speaker 1: to create a belief system that was both attractive and terrifying.
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Speaker 1: And this combination would prove deadly effective in controlling its members.
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Speaker 1: But beliefs alone don't explain what was to come. The
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Speaker 1: Order of the Solar Temple was about to take a
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Speaker 1: very dark turn, and its members were along for the ride,
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Speaker 1: whether they knew it or not. And the stage was
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Speaker 1: set for tragedy, with DeMombro and Jerez holding all the strings,
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Speaker 1: and trust me, you don't want to miss what happens next.
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Speaker 1: So picture this. It's 1989, and Joseph DeMombro is living large.
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Speaker 1: First-class travel, multiple luxury homes, and a growing bank account
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Speaker 1: fueled by devoted followers. It's a lot like some other... religions,
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Speaker 1: I know. They just love to use the church's money.
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Speaker 1: But here's the kicker. The Order of the Solar Temple
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Speaker 1: hit its peak membership of 442 across six countries, and
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Speaker 1: the seeds of its destruction were already taking root. So
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Speaker 1: how did it all unravel so quickly? Well, let's break
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Speaker 1: it down. The OTS had spread its tentacles across Europe
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Speaker 1: and North America. We're talking 90 members in Switzerland, 187
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Speaker 1: in France, 43 in Martinique, and 10 in Spain, 86
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Speaker 1: in Canada, mostly in Quebec, of course, and 16 in
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Speaker 1: good ol' USA. But not too shabby for a cult
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Speaker 1: that believed in cosmic children and night Templar ghosts, right?
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Speaker 1: But how did they keep all these people in line? Well,
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Speaker 1: D'Ambro and Geray weren't idiots. They set up these three
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Speaker 1: tiered systems and at the bottom you had the Amante
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Speaker 1: club and this was just like entry-level stuff where they
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Speaker 1: would spew their philosophies and try to find the spiritual
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Speaker 1: elite and only a select few would move up to
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Speaker 1: the next level and if you were lucky or Unlucky,
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Speaker 1: depending on how you look at it. You'd get bumped
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Speaker 1: up to the Arcadia level. And this is where things
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Speaker 1: got more, let's say, advanced. They would prep you for
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Speaker 1: the ultimate initiation into the OTS. But the real prize,
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Speaker 1: the International Knighthood Organization. I, again, they got cool names. Like,
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Speaker 1: I kind of get why people went into this. Because
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Speaker 1: they're like, I get to be a knight? What? And
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Speaker 1: there's cosmic children and fucking wizards and shit? Sounds awesome.
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Speaker 1: And this was the top tier, the VIP and special publications,
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Speaker 1: fancy initiations, the whole nine yards. Now, while all the
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Speaker 1: spiritual mumbo jumbo was going on, DeMombro was living it
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Speaker 1: up and former members kind of spilled the beans saying
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Speaker 1: he was using the group's funds to support his opulent lifestyle.
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Speaker 1: And where was all the money coming from? The members
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Speaker 1: of D'Amembro and Jouret were encouraging their followers to make
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Speaker 1: significant financial contributions to the group. And they even had
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Speaker 1: plans to build health centers in Europe and Canada. Guess
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Speaker 1: who's footing the bill for that? And in Quebec, Jouret
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Speaker 1: was on a roll. His motivational speaking gigs were attracting
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Speaker 1: executives and managers like flies to honey.
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Speaker 4: I would have become involved with just about anything to
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Speaker 4: stay with Dr.
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Speaker 2: Jouret.
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Speaker 4: And I felt that if I was able to get
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Speaker 4: closer to him, or at least to stay within the
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Speaker 4: group that at some point I would probably gain more knowledge.
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Speaker 4: I would probably have access to revelations, to wonderful things,
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Speaker 4: and even maybe at one point to be in contact
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Speaker 4: with either entities or extraterrestrials.
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Speaker 1: And these weren't your average Joe Schmoes. These are high-level
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Speaker 1: professionals falling for this stuff. So it's like, I really...
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Speaker 1: Would have loved to be in that time and listen
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Speaker 1: to Geray speaking and like see if I'd fall for it.
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Speaker 1: Because I'm an idiot. So maybe I'm like so dumb
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Speaker 1: that I wouldn't fall for it. But here's the thing
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Speaker 1: about building your empire on a foundation of bullshit. It
14:31
Speaker 1: is bound to crumble eventually. And as the money rolled
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Speaker 1: in and the memberships swelled, cracks were starting to form
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Speaker 1: in the cult. People were beginning to ask questions. Where
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Speaker 1: was all the cash going? Why did D'Ambro need such
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Speaker 1: a fancy house? Or sorry, fancy houses. And wasn't this
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Speaker 1: supposed to be about spiritual enlightenment, not material wealth? So
14:51
Speaker 1: the OTS had built a complex web of manipulation using
14:55
Speaker 1: its tiered structure to keep members always striving for the
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Speaker 1: next level of enlightenment.
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Speaker 4: It flatters your ego to be part of a group
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Speaker 4: that designs itself as an elite, that are the chosen ones.
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Speaker 4: How can you not feel good about it? I actually
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Speaker 4: believed that I was superior to most other people on
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Speaker 4: this planet, that I had been chosen. And I would
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Speaker 4: start considering other people as being less than what I was.
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Speaker 1: But as we know, the higher you climb, the harder
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Speaker 1: you fall. And oh boy. was the Order of the
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Speaker 1: Solar Temple about to take a hell of a tumble.
15:34
Speaker 1: His own flesh and blood was about to pull back
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Speaker 1: the curtain on Daddy's Little Magic Show. And let me
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Speaker 1: tell you, what A. Lee DiMombro discovered in the early
15:42
Speaker 1: 1990s made David Copperfield looked like a birthday party magician.
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Speaker 1: So Ailey, Joseph de Mambro's son, stumbled upon a shocking truth.
15:51
Speaker 1: Those spiritual visions members were experiencing were completely fake. They
15:57
Speaker 1: were as real as a $ 3 bill. And it turns
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Speaker 1: out dear old dad was using special effects and holograms
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Speaker 1: to fake the whole thing. And this wasn't just some
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Speaker 1: minor fib. We're talking about the foundation of the entire
16:08
Speaker 1: cult being built on smoke and mirrors, like literally. So
16:12
Speaker 1: when Ailey spilled the beans, about 15 members decided that
16:15
Speaker 1: they were gonna get the hell out of Dodge. However,
16:18
Speaker 1: some folks were so deep in the Kool-Aid, if you will,
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Speaker 1: that they refused to believe any of it. So they
16:23
Speaker 1: stuck around, probably thinking Ailey was just jealous of his
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Speaker 1: dad's sweet hologram setup, I don't know. But the special
16:29
Speaker 1: effects weren't the only thing raising eyebrows. Members started noticing
16:33
Speaker 1: that while they were pinching pennies for the Because DeMombro
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Speaker 1: was living it up like a rock star. And in 1994,
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Speaker 1: two members got fed up and wrote a letter calling
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Speaker 1: out DeMombro's shenanigans. And they weren't pulling any punches, saying
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Speaker 1: his fraudulent actions had, quote unquote, destroyed the fraternity built
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Speaker 1: by the members. Ooh. But D'Amembro wasn't about to take
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Speaker 1: this criticism lying down. He went full dictator mode, demanding
17:00
Speaker 1: absolute obedience from the remaining members. And anyone who dared
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Speaker 1: question his divine wisdom got the stink eye to say
17:07
Speaker 1: the least. So the once cozy cult started feeling More
17:10
Speaker 1: like a pressure cooker at this point. And as the
17:12
Speaker 1: walls closed in, Damombro's paranoia went into overdrive, and he
17:17
Speaker 1: started seeing enemies everywhere. So the guy who once claimed
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Speaker 1: to chat with the cosmic master was now jumping at shadows.
17:24
Speaker 1: and the Order of the Solar Temple was transforming from
17:27
Speaker 1: a wacky New Age group into something much, much darker.
17:30
Speaker 1: And that whole transit idea was about to take a
17:34
Speaker 1: whole new sinister meaning. But even as things got weird,
17:37
Speaker 1: a lot of the members just clung to their beliefs,
17:39
Speaker 1: and maybe they thought that if they believed hard enough,
17:42
Speaker 1: those holograms would turn real. Just your typical Tuesday in
17:45
Speaker 1: cult land. Imagine being so insecure in your leadership that
17:49
Speaker 1: you see the Antichrist in a newborn. Yeah. And did
17:55
Speaker 1: I mention this supposed embodiment of evil was named Christopher Emanuel?
18:01
Speaker 1: So in 1994, Tony and Nikki Dutrois, members of the
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Speaker 1: Order of the Solar Temple, welcomed their son, Christopher Emanuel,
18:09
Speaker 1: into the world. D'Ambro thought he was the Antichrist because
18:13
Speaker 1: this innocent baby's arrival would start a chain reaction that
18:17
Speaker 1: would start to expose how far off the deep end
18:19
Speaker 1: Joseph D'Ambro had gone. See, D'Ambro had a thing about
18:23
Speaker 1: the name Emmanuel. He'd already claimed this for his own daughter, Emmanuel,
18:28
Speaker 1: born in 1982. And he'd been parading her around as
18:32
Speaker 1: some sort of cosmic child, if you remember, and the
18:34
Speaker 1: living embodiment of the cosmic Christ, as you do. Just
18:38
Speaker 1: to classic mom with a new baby, you know? So
18:41
Speaker 1: when the de Toises had the audacity to name their
18:45
Speaker 1: kid the same name, which is an extremely popular name, Emmanuelle,
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Speaker 1: de Mambrou lost his fucking shit. But here's where it
18:51
Speaker 1: gets really messed up. De Mambrou, the guy seeing evil
18:55
Speaker 1: babies everywhere, was dealing with his own embarrassing health issues.
18:59
Speaker 1: The early 1990s were not kind to him to say
19:02
Speaker 1: the least because he had to now start wearing adult diapers.
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Speaker 1: Talk about a fall from grace for a so-called spiritual leader.
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Speaker 1: He's an asshole, so I'm gonna make fun of him.
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Speaker 1: So let's talk about these cosmic children the OTS were
19:13
Speaker 1: just obsessed with. DeMombro had convinced his followers that these
19:17
Speaker 1: special kids were destined to play a big role in
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Speaker 1: the coming new age, and his daughter, Emmanuelle, was supposed
19:23
Speaker 1: to be the star of the cosmic show, the star
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Speaker 1: of the play. But now, here comes little Christopher Emmanuelle,
19:29
Speaker 1: coming to steal her thunder. And to Mambro's reaction, he
19:32
Speaker 1: straight up declared this innocent baby the Antichrist. A grown man,
19:36
Speaker 1: in diapers, called a newborn baby the embodiment of evil.
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Speaker 1: What a piece of shit. But his health was failing
19:43
Speaker 1: and his authority was being questioned, and now he felt
19:46
Speaker 1: challenged by a baby's name. So this guy was just
19:49
Speaker 1: losing his shit. And it was a perfect storm of crazy.
19:52
Speaker 1: The Dutois probably had no idea what they were walking
19:55
Speaker 1: into when they named their son Emmanuel. Or Emmanuel. However
19:59
Speaker 1: you want to say it. They were just regular members
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Speaker 1: of the OTS, not trying to start any cosmic drama.
20:04
Speaker 1: But in D'Amembro's warped mind, they committed an unforgivable sin.
20:08
Speaker 1: Or a sin that he completely made up. More like it.
20:10
Speaker 1: And this moment would mark a turning point for the OTS.
20:14
Speaker 1: In D'Amembro's declaration about Christopher Emanuel ramped up the apocalyptic
20:19
Speaker 1: rhetoric within the group. And the us versus them mentality
20:23
Speaker 1: went into overdrive, with de Mambro positioning himself and his
20:27
Speaker 1: loyal followers against a world he saw as increasingly hostile.
20:31
Speaker 1: So the fate of the Dutrois family hung in the balance,
20:34
Speaker 1: and spoiler alert, it It didn't end well at all.
20:38
Speaker 1: So while D'Amembra was busy labeling babies as the Antichrist,
20:42
Speaker 1: he was also cooking up an even crazier idea. In
20:44
Speaker 1: the early 1990s, he started pushing the concept of transit
20:48
Speaker 1: to his followers. And at first, it sounded pretty harmless,
20:51
Speaker 1: just some metaphorical mumbo jumbo about changing consciousnesses. But oh boy,
20:56
Speaker 1: did it take a dark turn. DeMombro, probably feeling the
20:59
Speaker 1: heat from all the drama, started ramping up the apocalyptic rhetoric,
21:03
Speaker 1: like I said. And he convinced his followers that the
21:05
Speaker 1: world was going to shit, and that they needed to
21:08
Speaker 1: prepare for departure. But this wasn't your average doomsday prep.
21:11
Speaker 1: DeMombro told them that they were going to literally travel
21:14
Speaker 1: to another planet, Geiselong Musk. And according to the research,
21:19
Speaker 1: DeMombro described this transit as, quote-unquote, a passage across a
21:23
Speaker 1: mirror or travel in a spaceship. Huh? It sounded like
21:28
Speaker 1: a bad sci-fi movie, but people bought it nonetheless. And
21:31
Speaker 1: like I said before, these aren't just some like random
21:34
Speaker 1: lost hippies from the 60s or something. These were lawyers, doctors,
21:38
Speaker 1: and highly educated professionals that fell for this crap. And
21:42
Speaker 1: the OTS's beliefs were heavily influenced by a guy named
21:45
Speaker 1: Jacques Brer. And he had all these ideas about the
21:48
Speaker 1: end of Christianity, throwing out dates like 1999, 2147, or 2666.
21:55
Speaker 1: as the big finale. And D'Ambro, as Gerais, took this
21:58
Speaker 1: apocalyptic nonsense and mixed it with some New Age fears
22:01
Speaker 1: about the environment going to hell, and the result was
22:04
Speaker 1: a belief that the world was doomed and only the
22:06
Speaker 1: OTS members would survive. But here's where it gets even
22:09
Speaker 1: more messed up. D'Ambro's paranoia went through the roof at
22:13
Speaker 1: this point. And in his writings, he claimed, quote-unquote, all
22:17
Speaker 1: the polices in the world are focused on us and
22:20
Speaker 1: that their file was the hottest on the planet. This
22:24
Speaker 1: guy seriously thought he was the main character in some
22:27
Speaker 1: global conspiracy. And as the pressure mounted, the idea of
22:31
Speaker 1: transit started to look less like a metaphor and more
22:34
Speaker 1: like a euphemism for sluice slide. Members were told to
22:39
Speaker 1: be on 24 hour alert for a meeting to accomplish
22:42
Speaker 1: this transit. It wasn't a choice anymore, it was framed
22:46
Speaker 1: as a necessary for their survival. And external pressures like
22:49
Speaker 1: police investigations only fed into de Mambros persecution complex. He
22:54
Speaker 1: used these real world threats to reinforce the idea that
22:57
Speaker 1: they needed to escape to another world. So he was
23:00
Speaker 1: just using anything the world threw at him as a
23:02
Speaker 1: means to exit this world with his cult. So he
23:05
Speaker 1: didn't have to deal with his shit that was in
23:08
Speaker 1: his fucking diaper.
23:09
Speaker 3: I think the.
23:09
Speaker 2: People who claim that Dimambro was a conman are right.
23:14
Speaker 2: I think that the people who claim that Dimambro was
23:17
Speaker 2: convinced about his spiritual message are right too. Dimambro was
23:22
Speaker 2: just a kind of complex personality actually a kind of
23:25
Speaker 2: schizophrenic and disturbed personality. The major, the terrible consequence of
23:34
Speaker 2: it is that he is a total loss of reality.
23:38
Speaker 2: And the dream world he elaborated was shared with several
23:42
Speaker 2: people who more and more entered into his delusions.
23:47
Speaker 1: But planning a mass transit isn't exactly straightforward. And D'Ambro
23:51
Speaker 1: and Gerais were busy making preparations and they weren't subtle
23:55
Speaker 1: about it at all. In a conversation recorded by police,
23:58
Speaker 1: they even talked about making their transit more spectacular than
24:02
Speaker 1: the Waco tragedy. So they were like looking at other
24:05
Speaker 1: cults and seeing how they could one up them like
24:08
Speaker 1: psychos if they weren't enough. So a bunch of smart, educated,
24:11
Speaker 1: successful people were convinced that they were about to go
24:14
Speaker 1: on a cosmic road trip when they're really being led
24:18
Speaker 1: to their deaths. So you might think that planning a
24:20
Speaker 1: mass transit to another planet was the craziest thing the
24:23
Speaker 1: Order of the Solar Temple could do. But on March 8th, 1993,
24:28
Speaker 1: they took it to a whole level of insanity. What
24:31
Speaker 1: happened that day would set the stage for one of
24:34
Speaker 1: the most shocking cult tragedies in history. And on that
24:37
Speaker 1: fateful day in Quebec, two OTS members, Jean-Pierre Venet and
24:42
Speaker 1: Herman Delorme, decided it would be a great idea to
24:46
Speaker 1: try and buy some illegal guns. And not just any guns,
24:49
Speaker 1: mind you, but three semi-automatic weapons with silencers. Because nothing
24:54
Speaker 1: says peaceful spiritual group like silenced firearms, am I right?
24:59
Speaker 1: And the cops nabbed Vinay and DeLorme faster than you
25:03
Speaker 1: could say cosmic transit. But wait, there's more. Our boy,
25:06
Speaker 1: Luc Gerais, the charismatic front man of the cosmic shit
25:10
Speaker 1: show was also implicated in this arms deal. And he
25:13
Speaker 1: was just chilling in Europe at the time, probably sipping
25:15
Speaker 1: on really expensive water called homeopathic medicine. And now you'd
25:19
Speaker 1: think getting caught trying to buy illegal weapons would be,
25:22
Speaker 1: you know, a wake up call to these folks, but no.
25:24
Speaker 1: DeMombro took this as a sign that they were being persecuted.
25:28
Speaker 1: This whole fiasco kicked DeMombro's paranoia into overdrive even more.
25:33
Speaker 1: And the media had a field day with this story,
25:36
Speaker 1: labeling the OTS as a cult of the end of
25:39
Speaker 1: the world. I mean, they weren't wrong, but still. And
25:42
Speaker 1: then just adding fuel to the dumpster fire, this is
25:44
Speaker 1: when the Waco Siege happened, which was another cult tragedy
25:47
Speaker 1: in Texas. I'll probably do a deep dive on it
25:49
Speaker 1: at some point. So DeMombro and Geray were watching that
25:52
Speaker 1: shit show go down, and you'd think they'd be thinking, yeah,
25:54
Speaker 1: we should chill out a little bit. We should take
25:56
Speaker 1: a step back. No, no. They decided to just make
26:00
Speaker 1: it a competition. And in a conversation that was later
26:03
Speaker 1: recorded by police, Geray whined that, quote unquote, Waco beat
26:07
Speaker 1: us to the punch. They took the spotlight from their cult.
26:13
Speaker 1: What the fuck is going on? DeMombro, not to be outdone,
26:16
Speaker 1: replied that it would have been better if they had
26:19
Speaker 1: executed their plans six months earlier. He even bragged that
26:22
Speaker 1: their event would be more spectacular. The arrests, the media frenzy,
26:26
Speaker 1: and the Waco incident all combined just to create a
26:28
Speaker 1: perfect storm of paranoia and urgency within the OTS at
26:32
Speaker 1: this point. And D'Amembro and Jarret were now more determined
26:35
Speaker 1: than ever to carry out their insane plan. So in
26:38
Speaker 1: October 1994, he got his wish. The events that unfolded
26:43
Speaker 1: over those few days would redefine the meaning of transit
26:47
Speaker 1: from a journey through space to a one-way ticket to oblivion.
26:51
Speaker 1: And trust me, the destination was far from heaven. It
26:54
Speaker 1: all started on October 4th, 1994, in Morin Heights, Quebec.
26:58
Speaker 1: The police would respond to a fire and found two
27:01
Speaker 1: charred bodies. And turns out, these weren't just any victims.
27:05
Speaker 1: They were Colette Rocher and Gary Ganoud. And they'd been
27:08
Speaker 1: murdered days before the fire was set. But this was
27:11
Speaker 1: just the beginning. In the same cottage, hidden away in
27:14
Speaker 1: a closet, the cops found something even more horrifying. And
27:17
Speaker 1: those were the bodies of Tony Detois, and his wife,
27:21
Speaker 1: Susan Robinson, and their baby son, Christopher Emmanuel, the Antichrist,
27:25
Speaker 1: as DeMombro claimed. On the night of October 4th, fires
27:29
Speaker 1: broke out in Sherry and Grange-sur-Salvain. I said those wrong.
27:34
Speaker 1: It is what it is. Switzerland. And when the smoke cleared,
27:37
Speaker 1: the body count was staggering. 23 bodies in Sherry and
27:41
Speaker 1: 25 dead. And many of those people had taken sedatives
27:47
Speaker 1: before being shot or poisoned. And in Sherry, the scene
27:50
Speaker 1: was like something out of a twisted ritual. The bodies
27:53
Speaker 1: were arranged in a circle, like some messed up version
27:58
Speaker 1: of King Arthur's round table. And the cops found 65
28:01
Speaker 1: bullets in the bodies. A bit... overkill, if you ask me.
28:05
Speaker 1: Now some of these deaths were straight-up murders, but others
28:08
Speaker 1: the cops would call slewers lives. But how do you
28:11
Speaker 1: classify death when someone's been brainwashed into thinking they're going
28:15
Speaker 1: to a space vacation? It's not exactly a voluntary trip
28:19
Speaker 1: when you've been fed lies and fear for years. So
28:22
Speaker 1: when the deaths settled, the body count was 53. Five
28:26
Speaker 1: in Quebec and 48 in Switzerland. And de Mambrou and
28:29
Speaker 1: his pals didn't discriminate. They used knives and guns, poison,
28:34
Speaker 1: whatever it took to complete the transit. And during the
28:37
Speaker 1: first transit, D'Ambro and Gerais would also be among those
28:41
Speaker 1: dead bodies. And the media were reporting on this insane
28:44
Speaker 1: cult and what had happened. It's not every day a
28:46
Speaker 1: bunch of seemingly normal people, successful people, decide to check
28:50
Speaker 1: out en masse because of some guy in diapers told
28:54
Speaker 1: them to.
28:55
Speaker 3: The fires were discovered in two Swiss villages. In the
28:59
Speaker 3: village of Chiry, police found a burnt-out farmhouse. Inside lay
29:03
Speaker 3: the bodies of 23 people.
29:05
Speaker 1: The public was shocked, horrified, and probably a little bit
29:08
Speaker 1: fascinated too, as we do get fascinated with these crazy events.
29:13
Speaker 1: And the Swiss cops and judges dug into this mess
29:16
Speaker 1: for months. And their conclusion was that this wasn't just
29:18
Speaker 1: some random tragedy. It was a result of years of
29:21
Speaker 1: manipulation and some seriously messed up theology. And D'Amembro and
29:25
Speaker 1: Jarret had managed to convince intelligent people that death was
29:28
Speaker 1: just a quick pit stop on the way to Sirius.
29:31
Speaker 1: But this wasn't the end of it. Some of the
29:33
Speaker 1: survivors believed in the OTS's mission. After all this death
29:37
Speaker 1: and destruction, there were still people who thought, yeah, this
29:40
Speaker 1: seems pretty legit. The Order of the Solar Temple had
29:43
Speaker 1: one last trick up their sleeve. A PR campaign from
29:46
Speaker 1: beyond the grave. DeMombro wasn't about to let a little
29:49
Speaker 1: thing like death stop him from controlling the narrative. After
29:52
Speaker 1: the bodies were found and the fires put out, investigators
29:55
Speaker 1: discovered a treasure trove of tapes and documents left behind
29:59
Speaker 1: by the OTS. And these weren't just any old papers.
30:02
Speaker 1: They were carefully prepared statements and videos ready to be
30:05
Speaker 1: sent out to the world. And D'Amembro had planned this
30:08
Speaker 1: whole thing down to the last minute. detail, including his
30:12
Speaker 1: posthumous message. And in a letter addressed to the French
30:15
Speaker 1: minister of the interior, he straight up accused the government
30:18
Speaker 1: of trying to destroy the OTS. His exact words were,
30:22
Speaker 1: we accuse you of having attempted to deliberately destroy our
30:26
Speaker 1: order for reasons of state. So the guy was just
30:28
Speaker 1: blaming the French government for his own messed up actions.
30:32
Speaker 1: Classic cult leader. And the OTS left behind a whole
30:34
Speaker 1: bunch of documents that they called And it was basically
30:37
Speaker 1: a collection of writings justifying their actions and describing the
30:41
Speaker 1: events leading up to the transit. And they even pointed
30:44
Speaker 1: out some of the members they considered traitors, who were
30:46
Speaker 1: supposedly executed as part of the group's final act. So
30:50
Speaker 1: basically anybody that refused to be killed at the end
30:55
Speaker 1: of it, got killed anyway because That's just how cults go.
30:59
Speaker 1: So the world is watching at this point, waiting to
31:02
Speaker 1: see what the remaining OTS members might do next. And
31:05
Speaker 1: they would not be disappointed because there would come another transit.
31:09
Speaker 1: So over the next three years, the body count would
31:12
Speaker 1: continue to rise in a series of events that left
31:15
Speaker 1: investigators baffled and the public just horrified. On December 23, 1995,
31:20
Speaker 1: just over a year after the first transit, police made
31:23
Speaker 1: a grim discovery in the Vercors Mountains near Grenoble, France,
31:28
Speaker 1: where 16 more bodies, including three children, were found in
31:33
Speaker 1: a remote clearing. And this wasn't some random tragedy. It
31:36
Speaker 1: bore the hallmarks of another OTS transit. And the victims
31:40
Speaker 1: had been shot twice before their bodies were set on fire,
31:43
Speaker 1: which sounds familiar to the first transit. And the killings
31:47
Speaker 1: were orchestrated by Christian Bonnet, a Swiss psychotherapist who'd taken
31:52
Speaker 1: over the European branch of the OTS after de Mambros' death.
31:56
Speaker 1: And she wasn't working alone. So two of her accomplices
31:59
Speaker 1: were Jean-Pierre Lordanchet and Patrick who were in active duty
32:04
Speaker 1: at the French police. So investigators found that many of
32:07
Speaker 1: the victims had taken sedatives before being killed. It's like
32:11
Speaker 1: they were trying to make the death as comfortable as
32:13
Speaker 1: possible for the victims. How thoughtful. But why did these
32:16
Speaker 1: people agree to die? Well, according to witness accounts collected
32:20
Speaker 1: by the Swiss and French police, some remaining OTS members
32:24
Speaker 1: had expressed regret for not participating in the earlier transit,
32:27
Speaker 1: and they were actually jealous of the dead. And just
32:29
Speaker 1: when authorities thought they'd seen the last of the OTS,
32:32
Speaker 1: they would strike again on March 22nd, 1997, where five
32:36
Speaker 1: more bodies were discovered in St. Casimir, Quebec. And this time,
32:40
Speaker 1: the victims included four OTS followers and the parent of
32:44
Speaker 1: one of the members. And the Quebec police reported that
32:46
Speaker 1: there was no evidence of violence or poisoning in this incidence,
32:50
Speaker 1: although the victims had consumed significant doses of tranquilizers. And
32:55
Speaker 1: one victim was suffocated with a plastic bag, a method
32:58
Speaker 1: seen in the 1994 transit. And the police would find
33:01
Speaker 1: a letter explaining that their actions were intended to ensure
33:05
Speaker 1: a path to the new world. Because apparently the only
33:08
Speaker 1: way to reach the new world was through a cocktail
33:10
Speaker 1: of drugs and self-inflicted death. But in a bizarre twist,
33:13
Speaker 1: the children of one couple involved in this final incident
33:17
Speaker 1: were allowed to choose whether to participate in the slower slide.
33:20
Speaker 1: And thankfully, they chose to live. And while that was
33:23
Speaker 1: the final event of the Solar Temple, and it's supposedly
33:27
Speaker 1: gone at this point, its shadows still looms large. And
33:31
Speaker 1: the OTS tragedies didn't end with those 74 deaths. They
33:34
Speaker 1: sparked a chain reaction that's still unfolding today. So after
33:38
Speaker 1: the smoke cleared, investigators and conspiracy theorists had a field day, obviously.
33:42
Speaker 1: And some people just couldn't believe that successful professional people
33:46
Speaker 1: would be willing to off themselves on a cosmic road trip.
33:50
Speaker 1: So they came up with all sorts of wild theories.
33:52
Speaker 1: Maybe it was a government plot or the Illuminati or aliens,
33:56
Speaker 1: which all fair, to be honest. And this just lit
33:59
Speaker 1: a fire under the public and the anti-cult movement in
34:03
Speaker 1: Europe specifically, which basically just amped up investigations into cults.
34:08
Speaker 1: And suddenly every new religious group was under the microscope.
34:11
Speaker 1: France and Belgium, went full paranoia mode, and they started
34:15
Speaker 1: side-eyeing all kinds of minority religions. Even peaceful groups got
34:19
Speaker 1: accused of being potentially violent or planning mass sluice slides,
34:23
Speaker 1: like the Order of the Solar Temple. But that's pretty
34:26
Speaker 1: much it for the Order of the Solar Temple. I mean,
34:29
Speaker 1: it's a somber reminder of how far people will go
34:33
Speaker 1: in search of meaning. I mean, 74 people's lives were lost,
34:38
Speaker 1: and this Kevin's pissed about it too. I don't know
34:41
Speaker 1: if you heard him growl. I mean, it's just crazy
34:43
Speaker 1: to me how one person or two people can... create
34:46
Speaker 1: this religion and convince people to take their own lives.
34:49
Speaker 1: It's just horribly sad, but also, I mean, incredibly fascinating.
34:52
Speaker 1: I mean, we're just people and we're all flawed and
34:55
Speaker 1: we all, we all want to search for what we're
34:57
Speaker 1: here for and where we're going. But, um, this one is,
34:59
Speaker 1: is very, very, very unfortunate, but that is it for today.
35:03
Speaker 1: If you did enjoy this video or like, or learn
35:06
Speaker 1: something from this video, go ahead and give the video
35:08
Speaker 1: a like, if you have any suggestions for me, let
35:10
Speaker 1: me know down below. I always love reading the comments
35:13
Speaker 1: and I take a lot of your suggestions and make
35:15
Speaker 1: them into deep dive videos. And until then, I will
35:18
Speaker 1: see your beautiful face in the next video. Okay, bye.