Two principal factors make it possible to advance the idea of a potential expansion of the sectarian phenomenon: the sects have indeed today powerful financial means powerful, put at the service of their active proselytism; especially, they meet significant needs, although expressed in a diffuse way.
a) The response to significant needs
It would be false to present the development of the sectarian phenomenon as being reduced exclusively to handling fragile personalities by coercive groups by the application of tested psychological techniques.
Such an explanation would be singularly reducing of an extremely complex phenomenon. The Commission could note that the sectarian phenomenon was on the contrary [indissociablement?] related to the existence of a request, needs which do not find an other means of being satisfied.
A doctor heard by the Commission, not very suspect of kindness with regard to the sectarian phenomenon, thus insisted on the complexity of dialectical between supply and demand in this field: "you meet the best and the worst in the sects (...). Sometimes, by means of the sects, of some people find a sense of belonging to a warm and friendly group, others find again a direction for their lives, others still are structured. Among my patients, some entered sects. I would not want for them to come out of there for anything in the world, because the sect is used by them temporarily as a tutor. Of course, that does not legitimize the whole of the phenomenon, but that is to say that there are very positive aspects. If that is not understood, the success of the sects will not be better understood. Our contemporaries are not imbeciles. If they are drawn by hundreds of thousands to these movements, it is because they have reasons and especially that they find answers there (...)"
The emergence of new spiritual needs results from the conjunction of a certain number of known factors, which will be recalled here only for memory.
It is certain that the dispute of the productivism, the collapse of the political ideologies, the questionings of science, the materialism, the continuous decline of the "traditional" religions strongly called into question the model on which the Western societies had developed since the 19th century.
This shock of the traditional beliefs and the great principles of social organization caused a number of disappointments, frustrations, attempts at redefinition. The uncertainty of the future consequently contributed to the multiplication of the groups proposing a total explanation of the Man, new religiosities.
This return of the religious or, more precisely, of the spiritual, paradoxically did not profit with the traditional Churches - and more particularly in France with the Catholic Church, always confronted with a continuous fall of the religious practice and vocations.
It was obviously not the role of the Commission to stick to a thorough study of this phenomenon. No one however, even within the Catholic Church, seeks to deny the shift between waitings of faithful or old faithful and the speech held by the Church sometimes, even if this one tries to release its responsibility by showing the contemporary mentality, which aims to "immediate satisfaction and material comfort, sets up 'absolute freedom' libertŽ in absolu', without reference to the Truth and different values than those 'of the individual, medium and group.' The new forms of religiosity, the development of the sects reveal the gaps of 'practical atheism' which develops everywhere in Europe." (conclusions of the East-West Synod, 1991)
From the whole of these evolutions there has resulted a certain spiritual spontaneousness: the belief is lived today in a relatively libertarian way, in any case out of the traditional institutions.
It is on this compost favorable to the blossoming of new religious movements that the economic crisis and the upheaval of the family structures intervened.
The Vivien Report already noted "aspirations to more family happiness or to more emotional abundance and completeness than preexistent at the entry into a sect and that in spite of the appearance of harmonious family relations." The entry into a sect often represents a sedentary response to the expression of emotional or user-friendly needs which are not satisfied within the family or work framework.
Lastly, the individualism of the years 1980 caused a current preaching of personal transformation, the improvement of the capacities of each one. It is rare that this topic is not exploited by sectarian associations. One of the persons heard thus told the Commission, "it is true that if one mobilizes oneself, one increases one's capacities. The light functional disorders - small evils of belly, of head or rheumatisms - disappear for little that one has a strong motivation. The sects thus obtain results. It is true that one increases his capacities, it is true that if one mobilizes oneself around anything, even the worship of beet, one can become better, more extremely, more effective and more dynamic (...). We all are tempted to develop our potential. Who among us would not be? (...). the people are drawn to the sects because they do not find any more in the world that we built the reference marks to them, the means of mobilization, he credibility of the apparatuses. Of course, we are heavily responsible. One does not catch flies with vinegar. People need ideals. One enters a sect above all by ideal. One should not be mistaken. The sects handle a set language which one does not dare even any more to practise elsewhere!."
One will deliver finally the testimony of a former follower of a sect, particularly revealing of the reasons which can push individuals to be approved by such structures: "First of all, I believe that there is this evil of the century, this evil of living which is increasingly present. The family unit is often burst, the father in particular is often missing or, on the contrary, too present, by his violence for example. Through a sect, one seeks a family, a father on loan, an authority, a model which was missing to us. Day at the following day, one finds oneself with two hundreds, three hundred friends, who will receive you, who will accomodate you. You are covered. You will be heard. You feel in confidence.
The people who enter the sects are often idealists, people whoseek perfection, not always, but partly.
Personally, the family bursting, the idealistic desire pushed me.
The guru said to us: "The world goes bad." It is enough to watch television for an hour of information to be convinced some. There are wars, diseases, problems everywhere. The world goes bad. What can one do on a purely individual basis to test which it is better? This is what the guru proposed to us.
Did we want to improve the situation of the ground, planet, others? 'Start with yourself, start with you to transform and you will transform the world.' I believed in it. I changed to transform the world."
It is thus conceived that the vision of the world proposed by the sects allures a growing number of individuals in all the layers of the French population.
The assumption of a preexistent given profile at the entry into a sect and thus predisposing there, today is largely beaten in breach. Many studies showed that the psychological profile of the followers of the new religious groups is in a normal zone, even if the existence of a depressive episode seems a factor favorable to attraction to a sectarian group. As raised it the Vivien report, "even if one cannot conclude on the existence or not from a sectarian profile of customers, it seems that acute difficulties or sufferings, however, constitute a favorable compost."
It should in addition be announced that the topic of the individual improvement attracted towards the sects customers which were until recently inaccessible for them: that of the students (seeking to increase their performances for the success with an examination...), intellectual elites, and in particular scientists.
Many interlocutors of the Commission tried to explain this phenomenon by the difficulty for certain scientists of supporting the idea of doubt, and, consequently, by their attraction to movements proposing total explanations. In addition, the intellectuals for the majority are convinced of their capacity to resist the suggestive techniques of the sects: "Who more than an intellectual is certain not to be manipulated? The man in the street will be wary, but the intellectual will say: "I am not manipulable." The vulnerability of the elites precisely lies in their certainty that they will not be easy to manipulate."
It results from the preceding developments that it is particularly difficult - not to say impossible - to define a profile of the followers of the sects which is different from that of the general population.
Some tendencies can nevertheless be released:
- the followers come mainly from the middle class and easy of the society, much more rarely of the modest classes, which is partly explained by the wish of the sects to meet a "solvent" public;
- if the age of the followers is extremely variable, two groups seem to dominate: that of the young adults (25 - 35 years), in the Oriental, gnostic, or New Age sects, that of the people of 50 - 60 years in the groups of prayer or cure;
- adhesion with the sect often represents a response to social conflicts or family with which the future follower is confronted.
In the same spirit, it should be noted that the Church of Scientology specified to the Commission that "its followers belong to all the social categories. They are mainly socially integrated and mature people since their average age is 35 years."
B) Increasingly Sophisticated Recruitment Techniques
The recruitment techniques of of sects are largely known today. They are not based in any manner on a coercive process, unlike certain methods that are employed when the follower is better integrated within the sectarian structure, and which lead to practices of "collecting of express consent," as it hereafter will be seen. The characteristics of the methods of recruitment used by the sects explains the paradoxical situation of the new member of a sect who is a willing victim.
The recruitment techniques of the sects are pressed on a very great diversity of topics and instruments; the psychological steps of the future followers is better known today.
The topics of propaganda used by the sects are extremely varied. One will mention, in addition to the religious topics:
The instruments of propaganda used by sects are extremely varied: canvassing in the street or in residence, diffusion of newspapers, publicity by way of display or press, conferences, cycles of formation.
Whatever the topics and instruments used by the sects, the psychological steps of the future follower seems better known today.
As Dr. Jean-Marie Abgrall (author of The Captive Brain) indicates, "the recruitment of a follower passes by three phases, from which adhesion will be obtained gradually, at the same time as appears a form of intellectual and emotional dependence. In turn, the new follower will be allured, persuaded then fascinated by the sect and his member recruiters."
The first phase of recruitment is obviously that of seduction. It aims at proposing a tempting alternative to the difficulties of everyday life. It is rare that the future followers present themselves spontaneously to a sectarian structure: the first contacts generally take place on the initiative of the sect recruiting agents, themselves measured by the effectiveness of their proselytism.
The principle of seduction wants that the first contact is intended to support the process of identification between the recruiter and recruited. This identification rests on a certain number of criteria making it possible for the potential follower to perceive a similarity between himself and its interlocutor. This feeling can be obtained by resemblances of attitude, the systematic approval of the cogency of the questions expressed by the future follower. The success of this phase of seduction is of course largely conditional on the type of audience in which the recruiting will take place, and thus that of place of meeting, which is in general given according to their density of frequentation. Dr. Abgrall specifies thus that "door-to-door sales" (typical of Jehovah's Witnesses) will use canvassers in family (father, mother, child, or supposed such), the family recruiting being often illusory and made up without real family links. The "young framework dynamic" of the Scientologists will be more appropriate for canvassing in university cities, health clubs, or outdoor cafes (...). Who cannot recognize the young Mormon evangelists, with the close-cropped cut hair, the eternal navy blue blazer and the discrete club tie? How not to note the character good smart good but a little obsolete kind of the Jehovah's Witnesses?
All this has been the subject of deliberated choices, proceeding from a precise study of the image to transmit to others."
The feeling of identification is also obtained by the choice of the tools used for the initial contact: if the famous "personality test" of Church of Scientology can suggest that every passer-by appears somewhat [dŽsoeuvrŽ?], the organization of a cycle of conference on ancient civilization will lend itself more to the concerns of some students and history faculty than to that of a pupil of economics, while others will be more drawn by an initiation with technique of communication or of improvement of effectiveness... One will recall finally that the principle of seduction had been thoroughly used in its ultimate logic by David Mo•se, founder of the sect Children of God, who had clearly preached "pche par le flirt" [literally "fishing by the flirt"] or "missionary solicicitation" to recruit new followers, and whose movement was dissolved in 1978 for prostitution.
In any event, the recruiter must have a good capacity to perceive the framework of reference of his listener, his emotional components.
The second phase of recruitment, once the supposed links of sympathy are established, consists in persuading the future follower of the credibility of the speech. Lionel Bellanger (Persuasion, PUF, 1985) defines the "4 C's" of healthy persuasive communication: for a message to be persuasive while recognizing the supposed free will of the possible future convert, it is appropriate that this message is credible (it is necessary that it can be based on evidence), coherent (intrinsic absence of contradiction), consistent (continuity of the matter) and congruent (suitability between the delivered message and the expectations of the listener). The objective of the recruiter, in the field of proselytism, consists in making its listener gradually pass from the real world to that of beliefs, without triggering the phenomenon of final rejection. This progressive passage is obtained by fabrication (dressing-up of reality), simulation (credibilization of an erroneous message), dissimulation, calumny, ambiguity, all are techniques which make it possible to adapt to the expectations of the listener, to pass from persuasion to mystification. These techniques are not in themselves reprehensible; in any case, they form the basis for the actions of marketing of any kind and are not punishable by law. One of the personalities heard by the Commission thus presented the defense which could be called upon by the sects: "Everything is manipulation, one can't make anything of that. Business, politics, the process of love, democratic discussion, publicity, television, all aim at manipulatining the people. In any event, one should not panic: everyone in the world manipulates everyone in the world."
It will be seen that the danger of the speech of persuasion used by the sects does not hold as well with the techniques used, as with the consequences of the adhesion to which they lead.
The last component of the step leading to adhesion is the fascination, generally obtained at the time of the meeting with the centerpiece of the sectarian dynamics (positive results with a test, assistance to a rite, meets guru, etc...), which will introduce the magic character into the relation between the future follower and the sect, will cause the irruption [bursting violently into] the symbolic universe of the sect and will lead to the will of engagement.
This quick overview of the dominant features of the techniques of recruitment used by sects shows the very particular character of the steps, which aim at obtaining the express assent of the future follower, and shows that the techniques implemented are not techniques of coercion but of persuasion: the follower is formally agreeing.
Several interlocutors of the Commission highlighted this paradox: the originality of the sectarian groups lies in the fact that, in particular during the process leading to adhesion, the victim is an actor [actor in the literal sense of one who acts, one who does, is not a passive victim]. A certain parallelism can be established with the stages of drug addicts: "We have controversies with the parents of drug addicts. Those think - in a certain way rightly - that without the horrible dealer their child would be an angel. They forget the nine tenths of the way which the unhappy child traversed, person in charge or not, but of his own will, to go into the arms of the aforesaid dealer. One should not exclude the voluntary share from the follower, who is not an imbecile that one would manipulate - it is you and me --, but (...) who went deliberately." Accordingly, the recruiters of the sects could be introduced as "dealers of transcendence." In this respect, an image used by a person heard by the Commission appears particularly ready to render the conscious character of the step of the future follower comprehensible: "the sects are not a net which falls down on people, but a bow net in which they go."
c) A Financial Power
It is undeniable that a certain number of sects have particularly significant financial means.
Lafayette Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology, had proclaimed besides, not without cynicism, in his speech at Newark: "If one wants to really become a millionaire, the best means consists in founding one's own religion."
This fact is obviously recognized by the majority of the leaders of the sects heard by the Commission, even if they were very evasive concerning the exact budgets of their associations. An appreciation of those thus remains largely the concern of those which are opposed to the sects, and thus incurs the risk of being considerably overestimated. That being, if the sect estimates that the information which circulates is not in conformity with reality, the burden of proof is on them to make a clearer presentation of their financial means, which is very far from being the case. They have little reason to complain - which they however do not fail to do - about the lack of objectivity in the judgements related to their financial base.
The collective work of the Roger Ikor Center "The Sects, State Emergency" comprises much information making it possible to become aware of the true financial empire of which certain associations consist.
The cases of the Moon sect or Scientology are too known to be pointed out here.
CCMM notes, concerning Transcendental Meditation, that the right to initiation is attached to the quarter of the monthly wages, that the price of a course of Sidhi amounts to 40,000 F [$6,564.00].
The same source advances, for the Ra‘lien Movement, a contribution of 3% of the annual net income for admission to the French movement, of 7% for adhesion with the international movement, and of 10% for membership to the world government [geniocrat?].
The financial power of Soka Gakka• results, according to the same source, from the recent real estate investments of the sect (domaine des Forges ˆ Trets, ch‰teau des Roches ˆ Bivres) [(field of the Forging Mills at Trets, castle of the Rocks with Beavers)].
The importance of the sums concerned explains the strategy of many associations, which choose to be established in countries equipped with a "tolerant" tax legislation: thus it goes from there to the United States (where the first amendment with the Constitution is interpreted in an extremely liberal direction), many States of South America or former communist European countries.
The leaders of the sects heard by the Commission in general did not deny this financial power, going so far as, not without humor or cynicism, to affirm that their associations do not represent religions preaching poverty as a virtue.
They in general put forward:
- that their resources come from voluntary contributions versed by the faithful ones to compensate for certain services (religious or not), from the sale of publications, and financial gifts emanating from private individuals;
- that their accounts are approved by certified public accountant firms whose reputation is solid;
- that they are in compliance with the tax authorities, having generally accepted the rectifications imposed by the administration.
Certain leaders even go so far as to recognize the particular links linking them with companies. In the written contribution deposited before the Commission by the Church of Scientology of Paris, one can thus read: "Moreover, like any citizen, certain scientologists work in the business world and for this reason direct private companies. It sometimes happens that they support the Church by financial gifts but this is not in any way an obligation. It is with the discretion of the person.
Lastly, there is a structure called WISE, the purpose of which is to gather companies having decided to employ the management technology of Mr. Hubbard and to create a business world where greater ethics reign."
As for the former followers, of which the Commission heard a certain number, it arises in their testimonies:
- that the amount of the contributions largely exceeds the rendered services... and the means of the followers, who are often brought to pour a great part of their incomes into the sects, to be even involved in debt in proportions that are difficult to imagine;
- that the voluntary character of these contributions can often be prone to guarantee, so great is the state of dependence of the givers with regard to the sect that it leads them to question themselves about the permanence of their free will;
- that the way of life of the leaders allows one to presume sometimes that the well understood interests of these seems to come before the officially declared religious goals of their association.
Such a situation does not leave by worrying: indeed, associations assign significant means to proselytism and in addition set up legal structures enabling them to increase the means of which they could profit.
Indeed, it was based upon a strict interpretation of the religious character of the associations which constitute the diverse religious movements and philosophies that the Council of State until now refused from some of them the benefit of the possibility of receiving gifts and legacy.
The decree Association Fraternity of the Servants of the New World (EC, 21/01/1983) thus confirms the legality of a decree of the Prime Minister, rejecting the administrative recourse of the association against a prefectoral decree which refused the authorization to accept a legacy because "to admit even that the association (...) has also as an aim the exercise of a worship, is to condone its creation of editions and its diffusion of doctrinal publications: since (...) it does not have such an object exclusively, that consequently it is unfounded to sustain that the attacked decree wrongly confirmed the prefectoral decision refusing the authorization to receive a legacy."
In a case of the same kind (Cultuelle [? worship in French = culte. My guess is that cultuelle means worshipful or religious. I will use this, but it is just a guess.] Association of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Paris, EC, 29/10/1990), the Council of State, without proposing the existence of a commercial activity as in the former case, confirms the rejection of the request of association: "Considering that under article 2 of its statutes... the purpose of the Religious Association of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Paris is in particular to "to promote the spiritual, educational, social, and cultural life of the Armenian community," that the applicant association cannot, consequently, be viewed as having for an exclusive goal the exercise of worship..."
It is for all of these reasons that a certain number of associations chose to distinguish several poles within their activities, while separating in particular from their exclusively religious activities, carried on within religious associations, their commercial activities (publishing, bookshop) carried out within limited liability companies.
Such a change, moreover perfectly legal, cannot however miss worrying, the majority of associations clearly displaying (and one cannot, from only a legal point of view, reproach their viewpoint) their will to assign to the expansion of their movement a big part of their financial means: all the leaders of the sects heard by the Commission affirmed the vocation of their association to develop and spread their beliefs by proselytism.
The importance from the means available to a certain number of sectarian associations, to which the documents given to the Members of the Commission testify in particular of the luxury of their activities, incontestably comes to reinforce the capacity of attraction of the sects and to augment the effectiveness of the recruitment techniques used.
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