Crime, Conspiracy, Cults and Murder - Ep. 28| The Cosmic Child DEATH CULT

Episode Date: December 29, 2024

In today's episode, we explore the chilling story of the Order of the Solar Temple, a secretive cult blending mysticism and apocalyptic prophecy. Led by Luc Jouret and Joseph Di Mambro, the group’s dark rituals and manipulation led to tragic mass murder-suicides. Unbuckle your seatbelts and let's uncover one of modern history’s most haunting cult cases... Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode sponsored by Forkful. Most meal delivery services promise healthy food, but look closer, and you'll often find cheap industrial seed oils hiding in the ingredients. Forkful does things differently. Forkful delivers chef-prepared meals made with premium ingredients you'd expect at a great restaurant, from center-cut filet mignon to wild-caught lobster mac and cheese. And every meal is 100% seed oil-free. Instead of canola or soybean oil, Forkful chefs cook with extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, and grass-fed butter, because better fats make better food. Meals arrive fresh, never frozen, with clear nutrition and ingredient transparency, so you always know exactly what you're eating. Restaurant quality meals, real ingredients, no seed oils.

Discover Forkful today at Forkful Meals.com. You train, you track, you're track, you. eat right. But if you're over 40, you've felt it. The results don't match the effort anymore. That's not willpower, it's biology. Hormones drop, metabolism slows, your body stops responding the way it used to. Maximus is the online clinic that reverses your decline with prescription performance medicines, GLP-1s, testosterone, and peptides that reduce belly fat, restore energy, and boost recovery. Over 50,000 high performers have already broken through their plateaus. If you're ready to turn your hard work into measurable results, go to

maximus tribe.com. That's maximus tribe.com. 74 dead. Three countries. One cult. The order of the solar temple left a trail of destruction that still baffles experts today. Founded by Joseph de Mambro, a jewelerer, a former jewelerer, and Luke Jure, a homeophobic, not homeophobic. That's not what I'm meant to say. A homeopathic doctor. This wasn't your typical doomsday cult though. They targeted the elite, lawyers, doctors, politicians. The people you would least expect to fall for such extreme beliefs, ignoring Scientology, of course. We'll talk about that at some point on this channel, I'm sure.

So how did these intelligent individuals end up participating in a mass transit to Syria? Today we will be breaking down the rise and fall of the order of the Solar Temple, exposing the manipulation tactics that turned ordinary people into devoted cultists and what horrors became of them. Gride, conspiracy, serial killers, cults, and murder. All things that I love to consume, and I know you do too, you sweet little button-nosed baby boy. And also you're an intellectual, sweet, beautiful-minded freak. But today we are talking about just that. The Order of the Solar Temple, very disturbing cult.

I feel like not as many people know about this one. There are frickin' magic, magic, ethereal kids in this cult, okay? It's gonna get weird as frick. So without further ado, let's unbuckle our seatpouts, go Mach 5 down the highway, slam on the brakes, and jump through this windshield into this crazy cult together. And of course, we're gonna start out with who the heck is running this shit? And that is the Dula and the doctor, Joseph de Mombro.

It's a very scary news. named for me. I mean, I know what he did, so maybe that's why it's scary. But anyway, Joseph de Mambre wasn't always a cult leader. They never are. Born in 1924 in Ponce Esprit, in France, I will say a lot of things wrong. Forgive me. He started out as a regular joke, fixing watches and selling jewelry. But this guy had a taste for the weird. In 1956, he joined Amork, or A-M-O-R-C. The ancient and mystical order of the Roseae Crucus or cruchies. There's a couple ways to say it. Sounds like a lot of fun to me, to be honest. Sounds like something I would join when I'm like 14 instead of Dungeons and Dragons. It was

the ancient and mystical order of the Rosey Croutis. Sounds badass. Anyway, this group was found on the belief of spiritual development, including mysticism, alchemy, and more. This is sounding more and more awesome as I go, but I promise you it's not. However, this was only just a beginning of de Mambro's journey into the world of the strange. Meanwhile, across the globe, Lou Zurey was born in 1947 in Belgian Congo. And this dude became a doctor graduating in 1974. But regular medicine for him was not enough. He got into homeopathy, homeopathy, which is basically just expensive water if you ask most

scientists. We don't need to get into it. But people loved it. And Zoray became a big shot speaker on alternative medicine and New Age crap in French-speaking Europe. Jurey really was quite convinced that he had a mission to fulfill, that he was like a kind of representative of the Templar Order into the profane world. But anyway, here's where things get interesting.

In 1982, these two weirdos met when Jurey joined de Mambro's Golden Way Foundation. And it was like a match made in cult heaven, if there is such a thing. And they both basically just had a hard-on for cult and esoteric teachings, and they hit it off immediately. And DeMambrough, now pushing 60 at this point, had been running in Golden Way Foundation in Geneva, attracting all sorts of people who thought crystals could cure cancer and that aliens built the pyramids and whatnot, which I'm not opposed to that theorem, gonna be honest. Not the crystals thing, but the aliens thing, it just can't. I don't know how you explain it otherwise.

It was the perfect combo, though, the behind-the-scenes mastermind and the charming frontman. And these two didn't waste any time. In 1984, they officially founded the Order of the Solar Temple, which to be fair is a badass name, and their logo is kinda tight. I'm not gonna lie. The first thing I said when I saw it, I was like, it's pretty sweet.

I'm not gonna lie. But they're pieces of shit, so that's the only thing I'm gonna give them. And they would kick off the Order of the Solar Temple with a ceremony in Geneva, where they swore allegiance to a once and future supreme secret master of the temple, And D'Amombrough took on the role of the puppet master, pulling the strings from behind the curtain, like Wizard of Oz. And Jurey, with his smooth-talking ways, became the face of the organization. So D'Ambrough was behind the curtain, and Juree was the frontman, if you will.

So Juree was out there giving lectures, recruiting members, and spreading their philosophy. And, oh boy, did people eat it the fuck? Juree was especially successful in Quebec, where he managed to rope in executives and managers, from Hydro-Cabec. And I can't, I don't understand why all these cults that I talk about, they're all connected to Quebec. What the hell's going on up there?

Get it together, Quebec. I know it's not all of you, Quebecwa, but my lord. But anyway, high-level professionals were falling for his spell. And the order of the Solar Temple was growing and pulling in members from various esoteric groups, including Jurey's own Amenta and Arcadia clubs. So there you have it.

A former jewelerer and a homeopathic Dr. Silsel's wrong, both with a taste for the bizarre joining forces to create what would become one of the most notorious cults of the 20th century. But this was just the beginning, unfortunately, and the order of the Solar Temple was about to take its followers on a wild ride to say the least. And trust me, it does not end well. So let's get into the cosmic child and nightly dreams. Yes, you heard what I said. So you might think a cult mixing knights Templar lore with UFO beliefs would be too ridiculous to gain followers, but the order of the solar temple's teachings were about to get even weirder and deadlier.

So how did they convince educated professionals that a toddler was the cosmic messiah? Let that sink in. Cosmic Messiah. But the OTS belief system was a bizarre cocktail of neo-Templar ideas and New Age concepts. On the surface, they preached love, light, and spiritual elevation. but behind closed doors, it was all apocalypse and transit to other planets, as most cults are. I mean, it's always like the front-facing looks all good and everything like we just talked about the FLDS or, you know, children of God and everything. If people come to visit, looks fine from the outside, kind of.

But in reality, it's just shit. But DeMombrough claimed that OTS was preparing for new age, ushered in by cosmic children, special beings with superpowers. Little like Incredibles children. Fucking running around, cosmic powers and whatnot being in size and everything. And his daughter, Emmanuel, born in 1982, was the star of this cosmic show. Naturally, of course, it had to be his daughter. And he told members she was the cosmic child and the embodiment of the cosmic Christ. They're like mixing the Bible with Star Wars and putting it together.

So how did he explain her conception? This is awesome and crazy. It's crazy. Not through normal means, of course. Could not be through normal intercourse and whatnot. According to DeMondro, Emmanuel was conceived through cosmic intercourse. Everything's got to be cosmic with this guy.

With a ghost-like master. So I don't know if it was a woman or man or just a ghost. I'm not sure. But the Knights Templar Obsession ran deep in the OTS. And it's literally just the plot from Star Wars, which also copies a story of Jesus. So it's just plagiarism all around and it's real so it's not fun, you know? If it's fiction, if it was fiction it'd be fun, but it's not.

So they claimed direct lineage from the medieval Templars saying secret masters sent them esoteric messages. And these weren't your average weekend LARPers. As you know, if you don't know what LARPERS is, it's right here on screen right here. Or you can show them a video of them. These people took this stuff extremely seriously and their rituals were elaborate affairs invoking a whole hierarchy of ascended masters. He would say to us, do you realize that we are the only people on the planet to be seeing these things?

That throughout history, there have been great souls, great saints, and they have never had a sign. And we have flashes, signs. We have the blood of Christ. And these ceremonies were designed to convince members that they had special roles in the coming of the new age. And it was all part of a plan to keep. people hooked into the OTS's unique mission, which was that they were reincarnated saints.

And you would go through this ritual where you would be given a cross. You would be sworn in as a member. And you would also swear not to reveal any of the going on's inside this group, because everything was kept extremely secretive. But here's where it gets really dark. While they talked about love and enlightenment in public, the private teachings were very doom and gloom. They pushed ideas about persecution and the impending apocalypse, creating a sense of urgency among members. And we see this with every cults that I've talked about, and pretty much every cult in general,

whether it's Jim Jones or the Order of the Solar Temple or Children of God, like all these cults always need a fear-mongering aspect to keep people with them. So they push the same rhetoric. And the contrast between the OTS's public face and its inner teachings was stark. On one hand, you had Luzurei giving lectures about alternative medicine and spiritual growth, and on the other hand, you had Joseph de Mambro spinning tales about cosmic children at the end of the world, which sounds cooler. Kitting, I'm kidding. But this mix of knights, Templar mythology, New Age concepts, and apocalyptic beliefs created a

a potent brew of cult stew. So the OTS managed to create a belief system that was both attractive and terrifying. And this combination would prove deadly, effective in controlling its members. But beliefs alone don't explain what was to come. The order of the Solar Temple was about to take a very dark turn and its members were along for the ride,

whether they knew it or not. And the stage was set for tragedy. With D'Ambrot and Jerez holding all the strings and trust me, you don't wanna miss what happens next. So picture this. It's 1989 and Joseph de Mambro is living large, first-class travel, multiple luxury homes, and a growing bank account fueled by devoted followers. It's a lot like some other religions I know. They just love to use the church's money. But here's the kicker. The order of the Solar Temple hit its peak membership of 442 across six countries and the seeds of its destruction were already taking root. So how did it all unravel so quickly? Well, let's break it down.

had spread its tentacles across Europe and North America. We're talking 90 members in Switzerland, 187 in France, 43 in Martinique, and 10 in Spain, 86 in Canada, mostly in Quebec, of course, and 16 in good old USA. But not too shabby for a cult that believed in cosmic children and night Templar ghosts, right? But how did they keep all these people in line? Well, de Mambro and Jurei weren't idiots. They set up these three-tiered systems.

And at the bottom, you had the Amante Club, and this was just like entry-level stuff, where they would spew their philosophies and try to find the spiritual elite. And only a select few would move up to the next level, and if you were lucky, or unlucky, depending on how you look at it, you'd get bumped up to the Arcadia level. And this is where things got more, let's say, advanced. They would prep you for the ultimate initiation into the OTS. But the real prize, the International Knighthood Organization. I, again, they got cool names. Like, I kind of get why people went into this, because they're like, I get to be a knight?

What? And there's cosmic children and fucking wizards and shit? Sounds awesome. And this was the top tier, the VIP, and special publications, fancy initiations, the whole nine yards. Now, while all the spiritual mumbo-jumbo was going on, DeMondra was living it up.

And former members kind of spilled, the beans saying he was using the group's funds to support his opulent lifestyle. And where was all the money coming from? The members, of course. DeMambrot and Jurei were encouraging their followers to make significant financial contributions to the group. And they even had plans to build health centers in Europe and Canada. Guess who's footing the bill for that?

And in Quebec, Jurei was on a role. His motivational speaking gigs were attracting executives and managers like flies to honey. I would have become involved with just about anything to stay with Dr. Jure. And I felt that if I was able to get closer to him, or at least to stay within the group, that at some point I would probably gain more knowledge. I would probably have access to revelations to wonderful things. And even maybe at one point to be in contact with either entities or extraterrestrials. And these weren't your average Joe Schmo's.

These are high-level professionals falling for this stuff. So it's like, I really would have loved to be in that time and listen to Jurey speaking and like, see if I, if I'd fall for it. Because I'm kind of, I'm an idiot. So maybe I'm like, so dumb that I wouldn't fall for it. But here's the thing about building your empire on a foundation of bullshit. It is bound to crumble eventually. And as the money rolled in and the memberships swelled, cracks were starting to form in the cult. People were beginning to ask questions.

Where was all the cash going? Why did DeMobro need such a fancy house? sorry, fancy houses. And wasn't this supposed to be about spiritual enlightenment, not material wealth? So the OTS had built a complex web of manipulation using its tiered structure to keep members always striving for the next level of enlightenment. It flatters your ego to be part of a group that designs itself as an elite that are the chosen ones. How can you not feel good about it? I actually believed that I was superior to most other people on this planet, that I had been chosen. And I would start considering other people as being less than what I was.

But, as we know, the higher you climb, the harder you fall. And, oh boy, was the order of the solar temple about to take a hell of a tumble. His own flesh and blood was about to pull back the curtain on Daddy's Little Magic Show. And let me tell you, what Ailey D'Ambrough discovered in the early 19th, May David Copperfield look like a birthday party magician. So Ailey, Joseph de Mambro's son, stumbled upon a shocking truth. Those spiritual visions members were experiencing were completely fake. They were as real as a $3 bill.

And it turns out, dear old dad was using special effects and holograms to fake the whole thing. And this wasn't just some minor fib. We're talking about the foundation of the entire cult being built on smoke and mirrors, like literally. So when Ailey spilled the beans, about 15 members decided that they were gonna get the hell out of dodge. However, some folks were so deep in the Kool-Aid, if you will, that they refused to believe any of it. So they stuck around, probably thinking Ailey was just jealous of his dad's sweet hologram setup, I don't know. But the special effects weren't the only thing raising eyebrows. Members started noticing that while they were pinching pennies for the cause,

de Mambro was living it up like a rock star. And in 1994, two members got fed up. and wrote a letter calling out DeMambrose shenanigans. And they weren't pulling any punches, saying his fraudulent actions had, quote-unquote, destroyed the fraternity built by the members. Ooh, burn. But DeMobro wasn't about to take this criticism lying down. He went full dictator mode, demanding absolute obedience from the remaining members.

And anyone who dared question his divine wisdom got the stink eye to say the least. So the once cozy cult started feeling more like a pressure cook. at this point. And as the walls closed in, Domambra's paranoia went into overdrive, and he started seeing enemies everywhere. So the guy who once claimed to chat with the cosmic master was now jumping at shadows, and the order of the solar temple was transforming from a wacky new age group into something much, much darker. And that whole transit idea

was about to take a whole new sinister meeting. But even as things got weird, a lot of the members just clung to their beliefs. And maybe they thought that if they believed hard, enough, those holograms would turn real. Just your typical Tuesday in cult land. Imagine being so insecure in your leadership that you see the Antichrist in a newborn. Yeah. And did I mention this supposed embodiment of evil was named Christopher Emmanuel? So in 1994, Tony and Nikki DuTois, members of the Order of the Solar Temple welcomed their son, Christopher Emmanuel, into the world. D'Amombrough thought he was the Antichrist, because this innocent baby's arrival would start a chain reaction that would start to expose how far off the deep end Joseph D'Mobro had gone.

See, D'Amonbrough had a thing about the name Emmanuel. He'd already claimed this for his own daughter, Emmanuel, born in 1982. And he'd been parading her around a some sort of cosmic child, if you remember, and the living embodiment of the cosmic Christ, as you do. Just a classic mom with a new baby. You know? So when the detois had the audacity to name their kid the same name, which is an extremely popular name, Emmanuel. DeMondro lost his fucking shit. But here's where it gets really messed up.

DeMondro, the guy seeing evil babies everywhere, was dealing with his own embarrassing health issues. The early 1990s were not kind to him to say the least because he had to now start wearing adult diapers. Talk about a fall from grace for a so-called spiritual leader. He's an asshole, so I'm going to make fun of him. So let's talk about these cosmic children the OTS were just obsessed with. DeMobro had convinced his followers that these special kids were destined to play a big role in the coming new age.

And his daughter, Emmanuel, was supposed to be the star of the cosmic show, the star of the play. But now, here comes little Christopher Emmanuel coming to steal her thunder. And deMombrose reaction? He straight up declared this innocent baby, the Antichrist. A grown man in diapers called a newborn baby, the embodiment of his. evil. What a piece of shit. But his health was failing and his authority was being questioned, and now he felt challenged by a baby's name. So this guy was just losing his shit. And it was a perfect storm of crazy. The detois probably had no idea what they were walking into when they

named their son Emmanuel, or Emmanuel, however you want to say it. They were just regular members of the OTS, not trying to start any cosmic drama. But in DeMondro's warped mind, they committed an unforgivable sin, or a sin that he completely made up. more like it. And this moment would mark a turning point for the OTS. And de Mambro's declaration about Christopher Emmanuel ramped up the apocalyptic rhetoric within the group. And the us versus them mentality went into overdrive, with DeMondro positioning himself and his loyal followers against a world he saw as increasingly hostile. So the fate of the Dutois family hung in the balance in spoiler alert, it didn't end well at all. So while D'Ambrough was busy labeling,

babies as the Antichrist, he was also cooking up an even crazier idea. In the early 1990s, he started pushing the concept of transit to his followers. And at first, it sounded pretty harmless, just some metaphorical mumbo-jumbo about changing consciousnesses. But oh boy, did it take a dark turn? DeMombrough, probably feeling the heat from all the drama, started ramping up the apocalyptic rhetoric, like I said. And he convinced his followers that the world was going to shit and that they needed to prepare for departure. But this wasn't your act. average doomsday prep. DeMambrough told them that they were going to literally travel to another planet. Gaisie Long Musk. And according to the research, D'Ambrough described this transit as, quote-unquote,

a passage across a mirror or travel in a spaceship. Huh? It sounded like a bad sci-fi movie, but people bought it nonetheless. And like I said, before, these aren't just some like random lost hippies from the 60s or something. These were lawyers, doctors, and highly educated professionals that fell for this crap. And the OTS's beliefs were heavily influenced by a guy named Jacques Brer. And he had all these ideas about the end of Christianity, throwing out dates like 1999, 2147, or 2-666 as the big finale.

And DeMobro and Jurei took this apocalyptic nonsense and mixed it with some new-age fears about the environment going to hell. And the result was a belief that the world was doomed and only the OTS members would survive. But here's where it gets even more messed up. D'Ambrose paranoia went through the roof at this point. And in his writings, he claimed, quote unquote, all the polices in the world are focused on us,

and that their file was the hottest on the planet. This guy seriously thought he was the main character in some global conspiracy. And as a pressure mounted, the idea of transit started to look less like a metaphor and more like a euphemism for sluerslide. Members were told to be on 24-hour alert for a meeting to accomplish this transit. It wasn't a choice anymore. It was framed as a necessary for their survival.

And external pressures like police investigations only fed into de Mambro's persecution complex. He used these real-world threats to reinforce the idea that they needed to escape to another world. So he was just using anything the world threw at him as a means to exit this world with his cult. So he didn't have to deal with his cult. his shit that was in his fucking diaper. I think the people who claim that Dimambrough was a con man, a right. I think that the people who claimed

that DiMambrough was convinced about his spiritual message, a right too. Dimambrough was just a kind of complex personality, actually a kind of schizophrenic and disturbed personality. The major, the terrible consequence of it is that he is a total loss of

reality and the dream world he elaborated was shared with several people who more and more entered into his delusions. But planning a mass transit isn't exactly straightforward. And de Bombrough and Jure were busy making preparations and they weren't subtle about it at all. In a conversation recorded by police, they even talked about making their transit more spectacular than the Waco tragedy. So they were like looking at other cults and seeing how they could one-up them, like fucking psychos if they weren't enough. So a bunch of smart, educated, successful people were convinced that they were about to go on a cosmic road trip when they're really being led to their deaths.

So you might think that planning a mass transit to another planet was the craziest thing the order of the Solar Temple could do. But on March 8, 1993, they took it to a whole level of insanity. What happened that day would set the stage for one of the most shocking cult tragedies in history. And on that fateful day in Quebec, two OTS members, Jean-Pierre Veney and Herman Delorme decided it would be a great idea to try and buy some illegal guns. And not just any guns, mind you, but three semi-automatic weapons with silencers. Because nothing says peaceful, spiritual group like silenced firearms, am I right? And the cops nabbed Veney and DeLorm faster than you could say cosmic transit. But wait, there's more.

Our boy, Luke Jurey, the charismatic frontman of the Cosmic Shit Show, was also implicated in this arms deal. And he was just chilling in Europe at the time, probably sipping on really expensive water called homeopathic medicine. And now you'd think getting caught trying to buy illegal weapons would be, you know, a wake-up call to these folks. But no. DeMambrough took this as a sign that they were being persecuted. This whole fiasco kicked DeMondro's paranoia into overdrive even more. And the media had a field day with this story, labeling the OTS as a cult of the end of the world. I mean, they weren't wrong, but still.

And then just adding fuel to the dumpster fire, this is when the Waco siege happened, which was another cult tragedy in Texas. I'll probably do a deep dive on it at some point. So DeMobro and Jurey were watching that shit show go down, and you'd think they'd be thinking, we should chill out a little bit. We should take a step back. No, no. They decided to just make it a competition.

And in a conversation that was later recorded by police, Giray whined that, quote-unquote, Waco beat us to the punch. They took the spotlight from their cold. What the fuck is going on? D'Ambrough, not to be outdone, replied that it would have been better if they had executed their plans six months earlier.

He even bragged that their event would be more spectacular. The arrests, the media frenzy, and the Waco incident all combined just to create a perfect storm of paranoia and urgency within the OTS at this point. And DeMombrose and Jurei were now more determined than ever to carry out their insane plan. So on October, he got his wish. The events that unfolded over those few days would redefine the meaning of transit from a journey through space to a one-way ticket to oblivion.

And trust me, the destination was far from heavenly. It all started on October 4, 1994, in Morin Heights, Quebec. The police would respond to a fire and found two charred bodies. And turns out, these weren't just any victims. They were Colette Rochet and Gary Gannaud, and they'd been murdered days before the fire was set. But this was just the beginning. In the same cottage, hidden away in a closet,

the cops found something even more horrifying. And those were the bodies of Tony de Trois and his wife, Susan Robinson, and their baby son, Christopher Emmanuel. The Antichrist, as de Montbrough claimed. On the night of October 4th, fires broke out in Sherry and Grange-Sou-Salvan. I said those wrong. I, it is what it is. Switzerland. And when the smoke cleared, the body count was staggering. 23 bodies in Sherry and 25 in Grange-sur-Savent. And many of those people had taken sedatives before being shot or poisoned. And in Sherry, the scene was like something out of a twisted

ritual. The bodies were arranged in a circle, like some messed up version of King Arthur's round table. And the cops found 65 bullets in the body. A bit overkill, if you ask me. Now, some of these deaths were straight up murders, but others, the cops would call slewer's lives. But how do you classify death when someone's been brainwashed into thinking they're going to a space vacation? It's not exactly a voluntary trip when you've been fed lies and fear for years.

So when the death settled, the body count was 53, 5 in Quebec and 48 in Switzerland, and DeMombrough and his pals didn't discriminate. They used knives, guns, poison, whatever it took to complete the transit. And during the first transit, Damonbro and Jurei would also be among those dead bodies. And the media were reporting on this insane cult and what had happened. It's not every day a bunch of seemingly normal people. Successful people decide to check out en masse because of some guy in diapers told them to.

This episode sponsored by Forkfall. Most meal delivery services promise healthy food, but look closer, and you'll often find cheap industrial seed oils hiding in the ingredients. Forkful does things differently. Forkful delivers chef-prepared meals made with premium ingredients you'd expect at a great restaurant, from center-cut filet mignon to wild-caught lobster mac and cheese. And every meal is 100% seed oil-free. Instead of canola or soybean oil, forkful chefs cook with extra virgin olive oil,

avocado oil, and grass-fed butter. Because better fats make better food. Meals arrive fresh, never frozen, with clear nutrition and ingredient transparency, so you always know exactly what you're eating. Restaurant quality meals. Real ingredients, no seed oils. Discover Forkful today at Forkful Meals.com. You train, you track, you eat right. But if you're over 40, you've felt it.

The results don't match the effort anymore. That's not willpower. It's biology. Hormones drop. Metabolism slows. your body stops responding the way it used to. Maximus is the online clinic that reverses your decline with prescription performance medicines, GLP1s, testosterone, and peptides that reduce belly fat, restore energy, and boost recovery.

Over 50,000 high performers have already broken through their plateaus. If you're ready to turn your hard work into measurable results, go to maximus tribe.com. That's maximus tribe.com. The fires were discovered in two Swiss villages. In the village of Chiri, police found a burnt-out farmhouse. Inside lay the bodies of 23 people. The public was shocked, horrified, and probably a little bit fascinated, too, as we do get fascinated with these crazy events.

And the Swiss cops and judges dug into this mess for months. And their conclusion was that this wasn't just some random tragedy. It was a result of years of manipulation and some seriously messed up theology. And de Mambro and Jurei had managed to convince intelligent people that death was just a quick pit stop on the way to Sirius. But this wasn't the end of it. Some of the survivors believed in the OTS's mission. After all, this death and destruction,

there were still people who thought, yeah, this seems pretty legit. The Order of the Solar Temple had one last trick up their sleeve. A PR campaigned from beyond the grave. DeMondro wasn't about to let a little thing like death stop him from controlling the narrative. After the bodies were found and the fires put out, investigators discovered a treasure trove of tapes

and documents left behind by the OTS. And these weren't just any old papers. They were carefully prepared statements and videos ready to be sent out to the world. And DeMambrough had planned this whole thing down to the last detail, including his posthumous message. And in a letter addressed to the French minister of the interior, he straight up accused the government of trying to destroy the OTS. His exact words were,

We accuse you of having attempted to deliberately destroy our order for reasons of state, So the guy was just blaming the French government for his own messed up actions. Classic cult leader. And the OTS left behind a whole bunch of documents that they called the Testament. And it was basically a collection of writings justifying their actions and describing the events leading up to the transit. And they even pointed out some of the members they considered traitors who were supposedly executed as part of the group's final act. So basically anybody that refused to be killed at the end of it got killed anyway because That's just how cults go.

So the world is watching at this point waiting to see what the remaining OTS members might do next. And they would not be disappointed because there would come another transit. So over the next three years, the body count would continue to rise in a series of events that left investigators baffled in the public just horrified.

On December 23rd, 1995, just over a year after the first transit, police made a grim discovery in the Verkores Mountains near Grenoble, France, where 16 more bodies, including three children, were found in a remote clearing. And this wasn't some random tragedy. It bore the hallmarks of another OTS transit. And the victims had been shot twice before their bodies were set on fire, which sounds familiar to the first transit. And the killings were orchestrated by Christian Bonnet, a Swiss psychotherapist

who'd taken over the European branch of the OTS after D'Ambrose down. And she wasn't working alone. So two of her accomplices were Jean-Pierre Lardinchet and Patrick Rostin, who were an active duty at the French police. So investigators found that many of the victims had taken sedatives before being killed. It's like they were trying to make the death as comfortable as possible for the victims. How thoughtful. But why did these people agree to die? Well, according to witness accounts collected by the Swiss and French police,

some remaining OTS members had expressed regret for not participating, in the earlier transit, and they were actually jealous of the dead. And just when authorities thought they'd seen the last of the OTS, they would strike again on March 22nd, 1997, where five more bodies were discovered in St. Casimir, Quebec. And this time, the victims included four OTS followers and the parent of one of the members. And the Quebec police reported that there was no evidence

of violence or poisoning in this incident, although the victims had consumed significant doses of tranquilizers. And one victim was suffocated with a plastic bag, a method seen in the 1994 transit. And the police would find a letter explaining that their actions were intended to ensure a path to the new world. Because apparently the only way to reach the new world was through a cocktail of drugs and self-inflicted death. But in a bizarre twist, the children of one couple involved in this final incident were allowed to choose whether to participate in the sluerslide. And thankfully, they chose to live. And while that was the final event of the Solar Temple and it's supposedly gone at this point,

its shadows still looms large. And the OTS tragedies didn't end with those 74 deaths. They sparked a chain reaction that's still unfolding today. So after the smoke cleared, investigators and conspiracy theorists had a field day, obviously. And some people just couldn't believe that successful, professional people would be willing to off themselves on a cosmic road trip. So they came up with all sorts of wild theories. Maybe it was a government plot or the Illuminati or aliens, which all fair, to be honest. And this just lit a fire under the public and the anti-cult movement in Europe specifically,

which basically just amped up investigations into cults. And suddenly, every new religious group was under the microscope. France and Belgium went full paranoia mode, and they started side-eyeing all kinds of minority religions. Even peaceful groups got accused of being potentially violent or planning mass. slur-slid like the Order of the Solar Temple. But that's pretty much it for the Order of the Solar Temple. I mean, it's a somber reminder of how far people will go in search of meaning. I mean, 74 people's lives were lost and this...

Kevin's pissed about it too. I don't know if you heard him growl. I mean, it's just crazy to me how one person or two people can create this religion and convince people to take their own lives. It's just horribly sad, but also, I mean, incredibly fast, I mean, we're just people and we're all flawed and we all want to search for what we're here for and where we're going, but this one is very, very, very unfortunate. But that is it for today.

If you did enjoy this video or like or learn something from this video, go ahead and give the video a like. If you have any suggestions for me, let me know down below. I always love reading the comments and I take a lot of your suggestions and make them into deep dive videos. And until then, I will see your beautiful face in the next video. Okay. When you buy LG, you get so much more than just an appliance. You get more done, more cost savings, more peace of mind, and more control, because LG appliances are designed to do more,

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