Editing Luc Jouret (section)

== Order of the Solar Temple ==
Di Mambro arranged for Jouret to meet [[Julien Origas]], the founder of the [[Renewed Order of the Temple]] (ORT), who Di Mambro was close to.{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|p=125}} Jouret joined ORT in 1981.{{sfn|Palmer|1996|pages=305–306}} Jouret and Origas became quite close, and Origas may have appointed Jouret to be his successor.{{sfn|Introvigne|2006|p=30}}{{sfn|Chryssides|2006|p=127}}  In 1983, after the death of Origas, Di Mambro urged Jouret to take over ORT, and he became its new grand master the same year.{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=220}} Within the year Origas's daughter forced him out of the group over a dispute involving leadership and funds, resulting in a [[schism]] with half of ORT going with Jouret.{{sfn|Palmer|1996|p=305}}{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|p=126}} Jouret then formed and lead a schismatic group of 30 ORT members, which opened branches in Martinique and Quebec.{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=219}}{{sfn|Palmer|1996|p=306}} The same year, Michel Tabachnik was made president of the Golden Way Foundation.{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=220}}

Di Mambro forced Jouret to divorce Pertué, claiming they had a "cosmic incompatibility" and that she was "unworthy" of him. In a letter in 1983, Jouret told their friends he and Pertué had mutually decided on a divorce. In a ceremony, Pertué was "emptied" of her "spiritual content", and condemned to wander until the day she died; Jouret was advised not to contact her, however they did interact occasionally in the following years. Despite her harsh treatment by the group, she did not leave.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|pp=108–109, 149}} Following their divorce, Pertué devoted herself to the group, developing [[anorexia]], depression, and other mental health issues; Jouret, however, was told by Di Mambro that he was the reincarnation of [[Saint Bernard of Clairvaux]] – he viewed Jouret as too important for such a "mediocre wife".{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|pp=108–109}} Pertué and Jouret officially divorced in 1985.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|p=293}} However, she told her family that she would continue to live with him.{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|p=146}}{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|p=293}} Following separation from Pertué, Jouret engaged in numerous brief relationships with women, with whom he would often be physically and verbally violent towards. From one of these relationships he had a son born out of wedlock in late 1983, whom he acknowledged as his a year later.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|p=149}} 

In 1984, Jouret and Di Mambro formed the International Chivalric Order of the Solar Tradition in Geneva, which would later become the Order of the Solar Temple.{{sfn|Palmer|1996|p=305}}{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|p=126}} Jouret was the outward image and primary recruiter for this organization, though Di Mambro was the actual leader.{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|p=126}}{{sfn|Palmer|1996|p=303}}{{sfn|Palmer|1996|p=305}} However, according to former member Thierry Huguenin, inside the order Jouret was simply like everyone else having a job to do; he was the "Grand Master", but Di Mambro was the "secret master" unknown to the public.{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|p=130}} In 1984, Jouret was ordained as a priest by [[Jean Laborie]], a "self-proclaimed bishop" and dissident Roman Catholic.{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|p=125}}{{sfn|Introvigne|2000|p=148}} Laborie had been contacted by Jouret, asking him to be ordained. Laborie, appreciative of someone willing to follow in his footsteps, which was rare, agreed to this quickly.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|p=118}} To make the ceremony more original, Jouret suggested they hold it in an actual chapel, which Laborie appreciated. Laborie still had some concerns, to which Jouret blatantly lied and suggested his motivation to become a priest was a desire to evangelize, and after becoming one said he would move to Africa to preach the word of Laborie's church. His actual motive was to obtain more power over the group, gaining the movement prestige.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|pp=117–118}} The ordination was done in the Castle of Auty in January 1984.{{sfn|Caillet|1997|p=108}}{{sfn|Introvigne|2000|p=148}} Laborie also ordained [[Thierry Huguenin]], another member alongside Jouret, and two other members.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|p=119}}

=== Lecturing and conferences ===
By this time Jouret was traveling widely through French-speaking Europe, Eastern Canada and [[Martinique]] as an inspirational speaker.{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|p=126}}{{sfn|Palmer|1996|p=305}} He traveled a wide conference and lecture circuit in hotels and universities in several countries. His specific presentations included ones titled: "Old Age: The Doorway to Eternal Youth", "Love and Biology", and "Christ, the Sphinx, and the New Man".{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|p=126}} Jouret was a popular lecturer to Francophone audiences in both North America and Europe, with one commentator describing him as "something of a phenomenon". His publications and lecture recordings were sold in several New Age bookstores and health food shops. He lectured to the public from a homeopathic and New Age persona, providing a path to the secret society beneath – usually, at least some who attended his lectures were interested. Jouret was known as an excellent speaker, and according to former member [[Hermann Delorme]]:{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|p=126}}

{{Blockquote|text=You start listening and by God, you know, you just all of a sudden feel so attracted to what he is saying. You talk about the universe, you talk about how man is made of four ingredients and how the stars are made of these same four ingredients. Then you go back to Egypt and Egyptology, and then somewhere along the line comes the possibility of extraterrestrials. And it goes on and it goes on like that. But the more you hear, the less you understand, and therefore, the more you want to know. You slowly get caught up in the web.}}

As part of a larger investigation into new religious movements in Switzerland in the late 80s, religious historian [[Jean-François Mayer]] attended one of his conferences.{{sfn|Morath|Lemasson|2023a|loc=33:30–34:35}} After the lecture, pamphlets were distributed and attendees were told that if they wished to know more they could file an application, where they were then invited to another lecture to learn more about the group.{{sfn|Mayer|1998|p=6}} At this lecture, fewer than 10 people expressed interest and by several months later only one person out of the group had joined the OTS.{{sfn|Mayer|1998|p=6}}

=== Apocalypse predictions ===
Jouret spent much time in Martinique, starting in 1984. The OTS had more than 100 members there, mostly inherited from ORT's branch.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=179}} At the head of the Martinique branch was Pierre Celtan, who in his decision making would always refer to Jouret (himself always referring to Di Mambro); he was described as "seduced" by Jouret.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=180}} Jouret began to give more Amenta Club conferences there, to hundreds of listeners, the wealthiest of whom were drawn into the group.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|pp=180–181}} While never publicly denigrating the beliefs of the Martinicans, knowing he had to take into account their beliefs in order to appeal to them,{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=180}} Jouret expressed his annoyance with the Martinicans to a friend, Claude Giron. He told Giron that while he tried to be comfortable with all the races, "it must be recognized that they have different abilities".{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=183}} Jouret was noted to act "haughty, distant, or frankly contemptuous" to black members of the Solar Temple in Martinique, while accepting the whites.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=183}}

Within a few months, he convinced the members in Martinique that they needed a new sanctuary, which he invited them to contribute to buying. In 1986, he told the Martinicans that the island would sink into the ocean by the end of the year.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=181}} The members were terrified, but Jouret gave them a solution, which was to move to the group's Canadian base, which he said would be protected due to it sitting upon a large [[granite]] plate with a strong [[magnetic field]].{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|pp=181–182}}{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=224}} Jouret predicted that Quebec would be spared from the apocalypse.{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=224}} He told the Martinican members that if they did not move to Quebec, they would die; 30 members took up this offer, selling their houses and leaving the spouses and children who did not want to go along.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=182}} Jouret advised them to not pay taxes and borrow huge amounts of money, used to fund the new location in Quebec, as after they died it would not matter. After the new year rolled around and Martinique still existed, members wondered if he could have made a mistake. He assured them that it was merely a "remission", but that the apocalypse would soon come and it was more important than ever to maintain the location in Canada.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=182}}

Following the [[1988 Saguenay earthquake]], the view held by Jouret and other Templars that Quebec would be a safe haven from the impending apocalypse was damaged, which was the main reason they had moved to Canada.{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=224}} Members of the Sacred Heart commune began to criticize his leadership and his predictions (viewing them as too specific).{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=224}} The farm was also not self-sustaining, and the commune was close to bankruptcy.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=291}} The members of the Sacred Heart commune disliked Jouret, accusing him of a lack of financial transparency and sexual exploitation of women. He was viewed as a dictator by the Quebec members of the group, and was also not present often as he constantly traveled. There was a resulting power struggle between the Quebec and Swiss Templars.{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=225}} Canadian members began to question him, and Jouret was replaced as the Grand Master of the Sacred Heart commune by Robert Falardeau in about 1990.{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|pp=133, 135}} The Archedia clubs were dissolved in 1991, and at about the same time New Age bookstores in Europe began refusing to host Jouret and his conferences.{{sfn|Introvigne|2006|p=31}} 

However, Jouret could still give conferences in Canada.{{sfn|Introvigne|2006|p=31}} Jouret founded a separate group, {{Lang|fr|l’Académie de Recherche et Connaissance des Hautes Sciences}} or ARCHS (a pun on the "ark of survival"), taking several loyal members with him.{{sfn|Introvigne|2006|p=31}}{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|p=135}} Hermann Delorme was made president of ARCHS, but this was actually a ceremonial role with little meaning.{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|p=135}} His close friend Jean-Pierre Vinet, a vice president in the [[Hydro-Québec]] company, helped him transition to a different role, lecturing for management; several officials of Hydro-Québec then joined ARCHS.{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|p=135}} Jouret, having given up his profession as a [[Homeopathy|homeopath]] to devote himself fully to the OTS, began lecturing on [[personal development]] at various companies, universities and banks, mainly in [[Quebec]]. Di Mambro, who had a dim view of these lectures as "disseminating the ideas and principles of the OTS to the public", began sabotaging the lectures. Jouret eventually abandoned his activities and became totally dependent on Di Mambro.{{sfn|Morath|Lemasson|2023b|loc=34:00–35:50}}{{sfn|Introvigne|2006|p=31}} He slowly became less prominent in the leadership role of the Solar Temple and quit its executive committee in January 1993.{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=226}}

=== Second marriage and affairs ===
On 1 April 1989, Jouret married his second wife, Marie-France Paré, a Canadian woman 12 years his junior. He was her third husband. Their wedding was held in [[Ottawa]] while the reception was held in the group's elaborate commune in [[Saint-Sauveur, Quebec|Saint-Sauveur]]. They married in a [[civil ceremony]], to which he invited Di Mambro and some of his relatives, who had not seen him in several years. They were shocked by the luxury, which they saw at odds with their simple upbringing, and found the wedding bizarre. Jouret claimed he was in love with her, but in reality the marriage was probably so he could acquire Canadian citizenship, which he did following their marriage.<ref name="Gaze941008">{{Cite news |last=Baker |first=Geoff |date=1994-10-08 |title=Jouret's Quebec-born ex-wife still in shock |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-gazette-jourets-quebec-born-ex-wife/160677618/ |access-date=2025-06-02 |newspaper=[[The Gazette (Montreal)|The Gazette]] |location=Montreal |page=A8 |language=en-CA |via=[[Newspapers.com]] |issn=0384-1294}}</ref>{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|p=151}}

Following their marriage Paré was his secretary, [[attaché]] and an officer of some of the OTS's companies. They did not live together at any point.<ref name="Gaze941008" />{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|p=151}}  During this marriage, he had numerous affairs with other women, and also a homosexual affair with [[Camille Pilet]], the OTS's financer. Pilet was 21 years Jouret's senior. They met in 1981, when Jouret, as his doctor, treated him for a heart issue. Pilet, grateful for his recovery, became a follower and a friend. He was a very wealthy sales director for the [[Piaget SA|Piaget]] watch company and several other watch companies, with a network of 40 million francs, and something of hypochondriac.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|p=152}} He officially joined the OTS in 1987, and rose quickly within the group, which took much of his fortune.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|pp=152–153}} A former group member testified that by 1988, Jouret was "living off" of Pilet's money, as well as the donations of other people and various inheritances. He received several million francs from Pilet.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|pp=152–153}} 

Beginning in early 1990, Arnaud Bédat said Jouret "fell in love" with Pilet, as testified by a former member, who said he was "very much in love with him".{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|pp=152–153, 293}} In 1990 Pilet told his mistress of over 25 years that he could no longer meet her, claiming this was because he wanted to take a spiritual path; in reality this was because he was with Jouret.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|p=153}} Deeply ashamed of their relationship and blaming Pilet for it, Jouret publicly mistreated Pilet. Few people in the group knew they were having a sexual relationship, with one of them being Di Mambro.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|p=153}} Jouret and Paré ultimately separated on 11 September 1991, and divorced after 20 months on 8 December 1991. She survived the OTS deaths and spoke of her shock following them.<ref name="Gaze941008" />{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|p=151}} Jouret may have also had a relationship with Jean-Pierre Vinet, though this is less certain. Both Vinet and Pilet died in the mass murder-suicides, likely two of the willing participants and orchestrators.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|pp=152–153}}

=== Legal issues ===
Members in Martinique were beginning to be frustrated with Jouret, viewing him as a dictator who was controlling and intruded unnecessarily into their private lives.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=183}} In 1990, Michel Branchi, a member of the [[Martinican Communist Party]] and correspondent for the Martinican branch of the [[anti-cult group]] [[Union nationale des associations de défense des familles et de l'individu|ADFI]], who happened to have a relative in the OTS,{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=183}} organized a meeting between the families of members and Jouret in order to "attack" him.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=184}} Questioned by their relatives about, among other things, why couldn't they see their relatives and what the money was used for, Jouret refused to answer and invoked his rank in the group, wishing for respect. A relative of one member insulted him, and Branchi said that if he did not leave Martinique they would take the "necessary measures".{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=184}} At the same time, other Templar movements in Martinique were threatening his livelihood; he returned to Canada.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=184}} This incident deeply affected the group.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=184}} Jouret was terrified, and expressed to a friend that he had no choice but to leave in light of the threats he had received. He asked Giron to add to the group's survival kits [[iodine]], to help them survive a [[nuclear explosion]]. Giron expressed to Jouret that his "trap" was "money and women".{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=184}} Every [[summer solstice]] Jouret sent all the members a message; in the message in 1991, Jouret instead sent an "indecipherable cosmic jumble", invoking a variety of esoteric elements.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=184}} 

In March 1993, two members of the OTS – Jean Pierre Vinet and Hermann Delorme – were arrested for attempting to purchase three semiautomatic guns with silencers, which are illegal in Canada; this came after Jouret had encouraged them to buy the weapons.{{sfn|Introvigne|2006|pp=31–32}}{{sfn|Mayer|1999|pp=179–180}} A warrant for Jouret's arrest was issued, which could not be carried out as he was in Europe, and the Canadian press's attention was drawn to the OTS.{{sfn|Introvigne|2006|p=32}} He was caught on a police wiretap saying:{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=193}}
{{Blockquote|text=When I see the violence unleashed around me, around us. I'm talking about Jo and myself, for example, because we don't accept that we're part of a very specific figure at the end of time. [...] My God, what a circus. It's becoming terrible. We're living a crazy, crazy end... [...] If you only knew what you have to do to keep the machine going, you have no idea. Anyway, in short, we're coming to the end. [...] What a planet, my God, what the hell did we do to land on this shit.}}
Vinet and Delorme appeared in court on the charge of trafficking prohibited weapons on 30 June 1993. Jouret appeared 15 July, on the grounds of arms trafficking and conspiracy. He pleaded guilty, but obtained [[conditional discharge]] at his request, which kept his criminal record clean and allowed him to keep practicing medicine.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|pp=193–194}} The judge believed that the weapons purchases had been made in a "defensive context", and that the individuals involved had already been punished by the media coverage.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=194}} Jouret and the other two men were given only a light and symbolic sentence after the crime: one year of unsupervised probation and a $1000 fine intended to be paid to the [[Red Cross]].{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=194}}{{sfn|Mayer|1999|p=180}}{{sfn|Mayer|2006|p=96}} Jouret was silent during the trial, and immediately returned to Switzerland, having spent less than 24 hours in Quebec.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|pp=193–194}} In the aftermath the media took interest in the group; the Canadian press began to report, using information gained from police [[wiretaps]], conversations between members of the OTS, which they described as a "[[doomsday cult]]".{{sfn|Mayer|2006|p=96}}{{sfn|Mayer|1999|p=180}} 

Following the gun scandal, Jouret became very paranoid and concerned with purported injustice, as well as the legal investigation he faced in several countries.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=195}}{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|pp=228–229}} Delorme never spoke to him again after the incident, but Vinet told him that Jouret was "changed" and that he became a "tired, tired, tired, disappointed, disillusioned person".{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|p=138}} He began speaking of the "transit" concept previously established by Di Mambro.{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|pp=228–229}} His physical condition began to deteriorate, and he did not sleep; instead, he spent the nights reading [[comic books]].{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|pp=194–195}} According to a former member, he constantly repeated that he was "sick of it" and that they had to "stop it".{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=195}} In June 1994, he called his mother and tell her that, if anything happened to him, to not worry, as he had already done a lot in his life. His mother was extremely worried about him due to his obsession with the apocalypse and his pessimistic outlook.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|pp=195–196}} The next month he called a former friend who had recently become slightly distanced from the group; Jouret begged him to meet up. According to this friend, Jouret was anxious and felt threatened, but would not say why.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=195}}