Referrals to the Interministerial Mission for Vigilance and the Fight against Sectarian Abuses (Miviludes) reached a new record in 2021, reaching the number of 4,020, an increase of 33.6% compared to 2020, indicates Miviludes in his new report. A “upturn in activity” linked in particular to the health crisis.
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A large part of the referrals concern forms of alternative medicine or promises of well-being and spirituality, which attract people who are wary of conventional medicine. Miviludes considers that it is “undeniable” that the Covid-19 has “destabilized many people losing their bearings” and that the reports she has received are the “reflecting a real social crisis tinged with isolation, questions, anger and fears”.
Covid-19 has led to a “upturn in activity” of the health center of Miviludes. 1,011 referrals were made to it. They target therapeutic drifts, unconventional care practices, such as naturopathy, new Germanic medicine, ventousotherapy, mindful meditation, the effectiveness of which has never been proven, or even fasting and raw food.
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Thus, Thierry Casasnovas, raw YouTuber and conspirator with more than 80 million views, was the subject of 54 referrals alone. Like antivax Jean-Jacques Crèvecoeur, he is suspected of having a mental hold on his followers, enlisting their children, pushing them to break with their environment and having financial demands. “exorbitant”. Like them, Miviludes notes that pseudo-healers are more and more numerous.
Among the 1,515 files entrusted to the Security unit and the 670 others entrusted to the economic and financial unit, many are those who are also interested in health and well-being. Miviludes warns about the excesses of neo-shamanism, mindfulness meditation but also about the commodification of well-being and self-worship through coaching and personal development. “Sectarian groups have been able to fuel fears and exploit promises of a better world, eternal, or at least happy, life and self-transformation”highlights the report about personal development that promises to achieve “best version of yourself”. All the stages of mental influence are there: the phase of seduction, deconstruction through an initiatory process, reconstruction and consolidation.
Miviludes also warns against the excesses of “sacred feminine”, “presented as a feminist movement” but who in reality “essentializes women by reducing them to genitals or reproductive faculties”. Under cover of“empowerment”the “sacred feminine” explains, for example, that if a woman has painful periods, it is because she is not “in accordance with her deep nature as a woman”. In detail, 744 referrals concern health in general, 148 conspiracy and antivax, 173 personal development, including coaching, 159 spiritualities, shamanism and psycho-spiritualities, 116 meditation and yoga and 35 nicknames -science.
But the Interministerial Mission considers that the “context of loss of social landmarks caused by the health crisis” has also had consequences in the intensification of religious or spiritual proselytism, which has replaced door-to-door communication with effective communication on social networks. Thus 293 referrals concern Christian movements, 99 Jehovah’s Witnesses, 33 the Church of Scientology, 31 anthroposophy, 27 ecology and eco-villages, 26 Buddhist movements, and a few dozen Hindu and Muslim movements. and Jews.
It also received 86 referrals denouncing multi-level sales networks, which mainly target young men aged 16 to 25, promising them to become a “trader” and make easy money, 87 target professional training . Several reports also concern masculinism, virilism and anti-feminist movements, which notably organize “masculinity courses” with a “particularly strong and violent ideological corpus”conducive to establishing a mental hold on the participants.
Of the 4,020 referrals received by Miviludes in 2021, 20 gave rise to reports to the courts, under article 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, which requires any constituted authority to notify the public prosecutor. if he becomes aware of a violation. 391 files were sent to the competent services, such as the Regional Health Agencies or the Directorate General for Competition. Of the 396 situations concerning minors, five were forwarded to departmental councils.
Against sectarian aberrations, a single watchword: raise awareness, report and protect. This fight is as much mine as it is yours. With us there is @Miviludes : https://t.co/EZgdBxrkb6.@franceinfo ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/hVLN624jg9
—Sonia Backes (@SoniaBackes) October 1, 2022