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REPORT MADE IN THE NAME OF THE BOARD OF INQUIRY INTO CULTS (VIVIEN REPORT) |
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INTRODUCTION
88 members of the Branch Davidian cult died either by suicide or at the end of confrontation with the police in Waco, Texas on April 19, 1993; 53 members of the Solar Temple cult died, committed suicide, or were assassinated in Switzerland and in Canada on October 4, 1994; 11 died and 5,000 were wounded in the attack with gas perpetrated in the subway of Tokyo by the Aoum sect on March 5, 1995: without returning on older facts - but everyone still remembers the collective suicide of the 923 members of the People's Temple in Guyana in 1978 - here, in less than three years, the assessment of the most serious criminal intrigues of which certain cults were guilty. When such things happen, the media hastens to investigate the cult phenomenon, the opinion is moved - rightly - then the attention falls down until the following spectacular episode which will be the subject of the same processing. But, during this time, a certain number of cults insidiously continue to achieve their daily misdeeds in the quasi-general indifference. The report written by Alain Vivien at the request of the Prime Minister and published in 1985 under the title "Cults in France: Expression of Moral Freedom or Factors of Manipulation", which presented a picture of the cult phenomenon and analyzed the principal aspects of them before formulating a certain number of proposals, had the great merit to constitute the first thorough and objective study on the dangers of cults and to alert the public authorities and the opinion on a reality the strength of which was hitherto badly known. That being, here we are now more than ten years since this document was published, and are forced to note that the measures that it recommended for the most part, in spite of their interest and simplicity, remain as a dead letter, sects continue to thrive and exploit, for their more large profit, the distress in which the evolution of our society plunges many of our contemporaries, ready to allow themselves to be deceived by the apparent spirituality of a speech of which they have the illusion that it can bring the response to their waitings. It was thus legitimate that the national representation is concerned to measure a phenomenon whose evolution, since the report of Mr. Alain Vivien, is known little about, to appreciate the dangers which it poses to individuals and society, and to give a report on the measures necessary to fight it. Therefore the national Assembly has it, by adopting unanimously on last 29 June the motion for a resolution presented by Mr. Jacques Guyard and the members of the socialist group, created a board of inquiry "charged to study the phenomenon of cults and to propose, if it is necessary, the adaptation of the texts in force." Constituted on last 11 July, the Commission decided, during the meeting that it held on July 18 to organize the course of its work, to place under the mode of the secrecy the whole of hearings to which it would proceed in order to allow the greatest freedom of speech to the people of which it would request testimony. Pursuant to the commitment entered into with the witnesses, this report will thus not comprise in appendix the report of hearings which nourished the reflexions of the Commission, nor even the list of the people that it heard. In the same spirit, is not mentioned in the report the origin of the remarks of which it quotes. Twenty hearings were carried out under these conditions, for a total duration of twenty-one hours. They have enabled the Commission to gather knowledge of information, people's experiences and analysis, people of various titles, a thorough knowledge of the cult phenomenon, some in administrative capacities, some doctors, some lawyers, some men of the Church [priests?], some representatives of association of assistance for victims of a cult, and, of course, some former followers of cult movements and some leaders of cult associations. The Commission, in addition, requested the input of various administrations to try as well as possible to refine the knowledge of the field of its study. One must note that the requests were answered with unequal eagerness and zeal. If the Ministry of Social Affairs, that of the Foreign Affairs, the Prefecture of Police of Paris and, especially, the Ministry of the Interior (Central Dept. of General Information), helped the Commission very effectively in its search and its reflexions, the Ministry of Economy and Finances (General Dept. of Taxes), and the Ministry of Justice (Dept. of Criminal Affairs and the Graces[?]) indeed transmitted only very tardily information they have. Such as it is presented in this report, the result of the whole of the work undertaken by the Commission will disappoint those which would have expected to find there revelations or new anecdotes. It did not have the means, and, moreover, it was not its mission, to devote itself to search or call into question something which fell within the competence of the services of the police and, if necessary, of justice. While being based on the work of a very great interest carried out by the central Management of the general Information, on the search and the analyses carried out by specialists in various disciplines, finally, on oral or written testimonies of people having lived themselves within a cult or whose close relations knew or know this experiment, it tried to apprehend a moving, complex and often disguised reality as well as possible pretences. As it will be seen, the Commission was at the first confronted with the difficulty in defining the term of "cults" to delimit its field of study. Nevertheless, it chose not to be deterred by what is actually only one false obstacle, and to follow with perseverance an empirical step that some could judge insufficiently ambitious but whose modesty hides a preoccupation of realism and an effectiveness. So it is that without a systematic spirit [? esprit de syst¸me], without a fixed mental image of any kind, and taking great care not to proceed with some amalgam abusive nor to fall into paranoia, without showing of other-worldliness or, at least, naivety, that the Commission tried to appreciate contours of a phenomenon which, although difficult to understand, seems to develop, before noting that it reveals itself in diversified forms and is often characterized by dangerous practices, and, finally, to release the means of a response adapted to this danger.
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