The authorship of these files on cults has his or her own motivations for providing them a

    [Fredric Rice, The Skeptic Tank:  The authorship of these files on
    cults has his or her own motivations for providing them and will
    contain his or her own bias.  What I find typical is that
    individuals and organizations which report on cults are usually
    themselves a competition cult yet like to think of themselves as
    "a religion, not a cult."  In actual fact, _ALL_ religions are
    cults by the primary, secondary, and terciary usage definition of
    the term.  Some of the information you find here is inaccurate and
    contains urban legend -- take what you find with a grain of salt.
    If you wish to acquire a copy of the Law Enforcement Guide on
    Occult Crime, contact myself at frice@stbbs.com or at The Skeptic
    Tank (818) 335-9601 and I'll forward the address and information
    you need.]

Order of the Solar Temple

Among the members of the Solar Temple who were found dead in
Switzerland last October was a mayor, a journalist, a civil servant
and a sales manager. Computer records seized by Canadian police in
Montreal showed that some members had personally donated over $1
million to the cult's leader Joseph Di Mambro. But the respectability
of these followers' public lives was in massive contrast to the
bizarre small cult they had joined.

The cult believed that Di Mambro had in a previous life been a member
of the Knight's Temple (during the Crusades, naturally) and that he
would lead them, throughdeath, to the planet of Sirius. During
ceremonies, they wore Crusade-type robes and held in awe a sword
Di Mambro said had been given to him 1,000 years ago. He claimed 
that his daughter Emanuelle was 'the cosmic child' and had been
conceived without sex. When a couple in the cult called their own
son Emmanuel, Di Mambro declared it the Antichrist and ordered the
family's murder. This was carried out ceremonially, shortly before
the whole cult decamped from Canada to Switzerland. (The boy's
mother, Nicky Dutoit, was from East Sussex.)

Later investigation revealed that 69-year-old Di Mambro had moved
to Canada following tax problems in his native France. He had
convictions there for practisingpsychology without a licence and
for bouncing cheques. He had also founded a school near the Swiss
boarder called the Centre For The Preparation For The New Age,
the proceeds of which had enabled him to buy a 15-room mansion
in the Haute Savoie.

It has been rumoured that Di Mambro in fact disguised his own death
at one of the two Swiss mass suicides, both of which were destroyed
by fire. In all, 53 members of the cult died.

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