The Order of the Solar Temple, or simply The Solar Temple, was an esoteric new religious movement and secret society, often described as a cult, that claimed to be based upon the ideals of the Knights Templar. The OTS was founded by Luc Jouret and Joseph Di Mambro in 1984, in Saconnex d'Arve, Switzerland.
Jean Senebier was a Genevan Calvinist pastor and naturalist. He was chief librarian of the Republic of Geneva. A pioneer in the field of photosynthesis research, he provided extensive evidence that plants consume carbon dioxide and produced oxygen. He also showed a link between the amount of carbon dioxide available and the amount of oxygen produced and determined that photosynthesis took place at the parenchyma, the green fleshy part of the leaf.
Numa Droz was a Swiss politician and member of the Swiss Federal Council (1875–1892). Born in La Chaux-de-Fonds, he was elected to cantonal government of Neuchâtel in 1871 and to the Swiss Council of States in 1872.
Luc Georges Marc Jean Jouret was a Belgian cult leader and homeopath. Jouret founded the Order of the Solar Temple (OTS) with Joseph Di Mambro in 1984. He committed suicide in the Swiss village of Salvan on 5 October 1994 as part of a mass suicide. In total, the group would claim 74 lives.
Michel Tabachnik is a Swiss conductor and composer with an international career. A promoter of contemporary music, he has premiered a dozen works by Iannis Xenakis, among others. He is also the author of essays on music and novels. In 1995, he was implicated in the case of the cult the Order of the Solar Temple, from which he was acquitted by the courts.
The Recollects were a French reform branch of the Friars Minor, a Franciscan order. Denoted by their gray habits and pointed hoods, the Recollects took vows of poverty and devoted their lives to prayer, penance, and spiritual reflection. Today, they are best known for their presence as missionaries in various parts of the world, most notably in early Canada.
Denys Louis de Rougemont, known as Denis de Rougemont, was a Swiss writer and cultural theorist who wrote in French. One of the non-conformists of the 1930s, he addressed the perils of totalitarianism from a Christian point of view. After the Second World War, he promoted European federalism.
Joseph Léonce "Jo" Di Mambro was a French cult leader and convicted conman who founded and lead the Order of the Solar Temple with Luc Jouret. Di Mambro had been associated with a variety of esoteric groups before founding OTS. After the cult began to face increasing public and legal pressures, he died in a mass suicide with other cult members in October 1994. While Jouret was considered by the public to be the figurehead of the group, Di Mambro was the true head of the organization.
Crime in Switzerland is combated mainly by cantonal police. The Federal Office of Police investigates organised crime, money laundering and terrorism.
The Pierres du Niton are two glacial erratics in Lake Geneva, Switzerland, in Geneva harbor. On the left bank of the lake near Quai Gustave-Ador, they are remnants from the last ice age, left by the Rhone glacier. Because of their role in Swiss cartography, the rocks have been declared a "Geotope", a national site of geological heritage.
The Cultural Office of Cluny, often named OCC is a Catholic-related association registered as a voluntary association, created in France by Olivier Fenoy in 1963. It is a group of cultural animation composed of a theater company whose activities include art, cultural travels, and photography among other things. Although primarily located in France, the OCC has several centers in Québec and Chile. The group was widely referred to as a cult in the media, particularly after the publication of the first parliamentary report in which it was mentioned.
Danièle Hervieu-Léger is a French sociologist specialized in the sociology of religion.
Gérard Dagon was a French evangelical pastor, teacher, author, publisher and long-time Christian countercultist.
Jean Varenne was a French Indologist and a prominent figure of the Nouvelle Droite. He taught Sanskrit at the Aix-Marseille University, then at Jean Moulin University Lyon 3, where he was eventually nominated professor emeritus. Varenne has also been a visiting professor at the University of Chicago, and at other universities in India, Cambodia and Mexico.
André Paul is a noted French scholar, educator and writer in the fields of theology, biblical studies and ancient Judaism. Paul's early research explored the relationship between the Dead Sea Scrolls and Karaite Judaism.
John Scheid is a French historian. A specialist of ancient Rome, he has been a professor at the Collège de France since 2001.
Christopher Gérard is a Belgian novelist, publisher and literary critic. He is known as a promoter of modern Paganism, drawing much inspiration from Hinduism, and published the journal Antaios from 1992 to 2001. He has written novels and non-fiction books where paganism and the city of Brussels are recurring elements.
Stéphane François is a French political scientist who specializes on radical right-wing movements. He also studies conspiracy theories, political ecology and countercultures.
François Bœspflug is a French historian of Christianity and Christian art, in particular of the Middle Ages. He specialises in the iconography of the Bible moralisée.
François Turrettini was a Swiss Sinologist and publisher, active in the City of Geneva in the late 19th century. The descendant of an elite family involved in politics since the Italian theologist François Turrettini's refuge to the city republic in the 17th century. François Turrettini, the sinologist, founded the publishing firm "L'Atsumegusa" in Geneva that, for the first time in Europe, printed East Asian texts in Chinese characters, starting in 1871. His research and publishing projects relied on the assistance of Tschin Ta-Ni, a Chinese typesetter, who was the first Chinese person to obtain citizenship in the City and Republic of Geneva.
