Anthracite Series: how can a sect go this far and be responsible for a collective suicide?

in collaboration with

Johanna Rozenblum (clinical psychologist)

1994, the collective suicide of a sect, the Ecrins sect, freezes a small village in the Alps in horror. 30 years later, the murder of a woman, murdered according to the rituals of the strange community, reignites the fire and relaunches the investigation into possible survivors. This, in short, is the pitch for the Anthracite series, which is currently creating an event on Netflix, and whose ingredients work: murders, esotericism, sect and disturbing personalities… Everything comes together to capture the viewer’s attention. Except that the story, if it is invented, echoes a very real news item and a collective suicide.

A story inspired by the collective suicide of the Order of the Solar Temple

Indeed, in December 1995, 16 people were found dead, burned in a forest in the Vercors, all victims of a sect. “We started from a small adolescent trauma which was the massacre of the Solar Temple which took place a few kilometers from where I lived“, admitted Fanny Robert, the creator of the series.

As in Anthracite, the cult was led by two manipulative gurus who exerted psychological control over their followers while making them believe they were capable of performing miracles. According to their beliefs repeated day after day, suicide allowed their soul to travel to another planet, what they called “transit”.

Lies which may seem crazy today, but which led to several collective suicides in 1994, 1995 and 1997, in Switzerland, Canada and France, resulting in a total of 74 people dying. This was not a first since other tragedies have shocked the chronicle, and History, including a collective suicide of more than 900 people (including 300 children) in South America, 45 years ago.

A hold that promises to elevate the soul…until death

But how can a guru, whether a man (or a woman), succeed in leading dozens of people to commit suicide at his will? How do they come to this end without blinking? Johanna Rozenblum reminds us how control can gradually lock followers into an untenable situation. “Little by little the sectarian driftby repeating, by promising answers, hinders the free will and critical spirit of the participants for the benefit of a guru who in fact has the sole mission of valorizing, maintaining, developing day after day his all-powerful domination over a band”. A mission that involves a lot of violence, such as sexual violence, psychological submission, and sometimes suicide.

But here again, the end is not mentioned as a crime but as a passage: “LThe gurus push for this by making people think that these are sacrificial suicides which will allow one to rise to a sacred life. There is something very mystical, esotericism diverted for the benefit of a pack leader whose only vocation is to elevate himself, to improve his posture. And the more followers he has, the more he will be strengthened in this belief. The less opposition he encounters, the less criticism of his words, the stronger he will feel.” Which can also play on its influence.

Beware of these personalities who seem to unite behind a common, esoteric cause and who proclaim themselves as a guide, or a guru.