Parliament adopted at the beginning of the week a new offense targeting “gurus 2.0”: the offense of “provoking abandonment or withholding of care”. A journalist from “Figaro” infiltrated several sects and wrote a book about them. franceinfo met him.
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“The France of the gurus: diary of an infiltrator”this is the book published by the newspaper journalist Le Figaro Etienne Jacob. In recent months, he has infiltrated several sects including those called “well-being” and was able to note the rise of sectarian excesses in the field of health in particular.
In a recording filmed in May 2023, we can notably hear Etienne Jacob singing around the great leader of raw eating, Irène Grosjean, with other patients captivated during an internship in Névache, in the Hautes-Alpes. Popularized by videos which have millions of views on the internet, Irène Grosjean is a promise and a business. The promise of curing the worst illnesses by purging yourself and eating only raw food. A Business by purchasing its products and participating in its courses.
“To be able to participate in an Irène Grosjean course we will pay practically a minimum wage, including travel, reports Etienne Jacob, so we have people who are already won over by his speech”he assures. “What struck me the most was to see that we have people full of hope who have chronic illnesses, cancerous nodules, and who come hoping to be able to cure it by eating raw, by purging and possibly treating yourself with plants”he adds.
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Put to danger
For several weeks, Etienne actually went to the end of logic. He purged himself, lost weight and absorbed the arguments of Irène Grosjean and her lieutenants who reject traditional medicine, drugs and other vaccines. “On the courses I went to, I realized that people had already lost a lot of weight in the space of a week. For them it’s normal: we’ll gain weight back later, they say to themselves “says Etienne.
“We come out of it deficient, we come out with a fear of food, we sometimes come out sick because castor oil purges are still violent for the body, you empty yourself completely.”
Etienne Jacob, journalistat franceinfo
“For me there is a real public health danger”, denounces the journalist. During his internship, the journalist even stepped out of his role and intervened to help a patient who was completely losing her strength. French and Belgian families accuse the Irène Grosjean movement of having indirectly caused the death of their loved ones through “abstention or abandonment of care”.
What the victims have in common: a state of psychological weakness, fear of treatment and progressive isolation, explains Pascale Duval, spokesperson for the UNADFI association, which fights against sects. “When a person has just heard that they have a serious illness, they may be attracted by someone who tells them ‘I have a solution that is completely painless for which you will not have any side effect and what’s more, I promise you recovery,” she says.
“What is consent when you’re under the influence? That’s the real question.”
Pascale Duval, spokesperson for the UNADFI associationat franceinfo
Since 2016 and until the Covid crisis, reports of sectarian abuses to state services have doubled with more than 4,000 reports, of which 600 concerned raw foodism.
Figures which completely underestimate the resurgence in recent years of “New Age” sects, estimate family defense associations.