Editing Joseph Di Mambro (section)

== Solar Temple ==
{{Main articles|Order of the Solar Temple}}In 1984, Jouret and Di Mambro formed the International Chivalric Order of the Solar Tradition ({{Langx|fr|ordre international chevaleresque de Tradition solaire}}, OICTS) 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}} 

Di Mambro variously claimed to be a reincarnation of [[Osiris]], [[Akhenaten]], [[Moses]], and the Italian occultist [[Cagliostro]]. He pretended to receive his orders as the leader of the group from mysterious masters. Di Mambro ordered his followers in their personal lives, particularly the OTS practice of cosmic coupling, which forced apart married couples and put them with other members, which he claimed as the will of the "Cosmic Masters".{{sfn|Lewis|2004|p=302}} A former member alleged that Di Mambro would have sex with members of both sexes, and convinced men in the group that sex with him "reharmonize[d] the chakras". This sometimes involved practices like [[sodomy]] and sexual relations with other males, though Jouret was said to be more engaged in that than Di Mambro was.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|1997|p=148}}  

=== Decline ===
Beginning in the late 1980s, several members began to doubt Di Mambro, and several scandals and issues rocked its membership.{{sfn|Mayer|1998|p=7}}{{sfn|Walliss|2006|p=112}} Elie wrote a letter to his father, accusing him of being a monster. He then returned to the group, but upon his return discovered his father's prop closet used to fake the mystical apparitions that appeared in OTS ceremonies.{{sfn|Palmer|1996|p=}} They were operated by Antonio "Tony" Dutoit. Dutoit confirmed this and left the group.{{sfn|Mayer|1998|p=7}}{{sfn|Walliss|2006|p=112}} Dutoit, a Swiss citizen, was formerly very close to Di Mambro, to the point where he was considered his adopted son. He was the one in charge of the ceremonial special effects staged by the group.{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|p=116}}{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=392}} After 1991, he distanced himself and had threatened to reveal that the effects were fake.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=392}} His wife Nicky Dutoit had been for some time responsible for educating Di Mambro's daughter.{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=393}} Elie, who also realized that the "masters" his father presented did not exist, then revealed this to other members.{{sfn|Mayer|1998|p=7}}{{sfn|Walliss|2006|p=112}}  

In response, some members left the group and demanded a reimbursement of money they had donated.{{sfn|Walliss|2006|p=112}} Di Mambro promised to return the sums requested, but several OTS members resigned in quick succession in 1990, leaving only the core group of OTS members.{{sfn|Mayer|1998|p=7}} The leaders began to monitor members who said they wanted to leave the OTS. Some were spied on, others had their phones tapped. Many members, including Di Mambro's own son and many high-ranking members, left.{{sfn|Bogdan|2014|p=289}} In the 1990s, 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 in several countries. Di Mambro, who had a dim view of these lectures, began sabotaging Jouret, who eventually abandoned his activities and became totally dependent on Di Mambro.{{sfn|Morath|Lemasson|2023b|loc=34:00–35:50}}

Di Mambro also believed his daughter Emmanuelle, the "cosmic child", to be under threat from the [[antichrist]]; he reportedly believed the antichrist was born to the Dutoit couple,{{sfn|Walliss|2006|p=112}} though this interpretation has been disputed.{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|p=145}} Di Mambro had previously forbidden Nicky from having children following a miscarriage, but after she left the group, she and Antonio had a son, who they named Christopher Emmanuel.{{sfn|Walliss|2006|p=112}} The Dutoits had invited Di Mambro to be the godfather of this child;{{sfn|Bédat|Bouleau|Nicolas|2000|p=213}} Di Mambro was deeply offended by both the name similarity and the disobeying of his instructions.{{sfn|Walliss|2006|p=112}} Di Mambro was also having health issues: he had kidney failure, diabetes, and became incontinent, having to wear diapers. He also told Thierry Huguenin that he had cancer.{{sfn|Palmer|1996|p=315}} Compounding the difficulties, Di Mambro also began having issues with Emmanuelle. Though she had been raised from birth to be a messiah figure, by the age of 12 she had become uncooperative, rejecting her role in the group and taking an interest in typical teenage [[pop culture]].{{sfn|Palmer|1996|p=315}}{{sfn|Walliss|2006|p=112}} Bellaton was also irritated with him using her home to throw parties without her permission; she also was engaging in a "non-cosmic" relationship with OTS member Patrick Vuarnet.{{sfn|Palmer|1996|p=315}}

The concept of "transit" was first brought up by Di Mambro in 1990 or 1991. It was to mean a voluntary departure of the members to another dimension in space, or an act of consent to bring the "germ of life" to another planet.{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|pp=228–229}}{{sfn|Mayer|1999|pp=181–182}} He told the members that they would be summoned on short notice, and would need to be ready as this could occur any day.{{sfn|Mayer|1999|pp=181–182}} They conceptualized the transit as a ritual involving magic fire, where they would undergo a spiritual voyage to the star [[Sirius]].{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=221}} In March 1993, Jouret and several other members became embroiled in a gun scandal.{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|pp=226–228}} Properties were raided by police in March of that year, and several members were arrested.{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|pp=226–229}} Di Mambro and Jouret's original plan seemed to have been a mass suicide in the spring of 1993; following Jouret's arrest that year, plans for a "transit" were found on his computer. However, due to the esoteric language, the police failed to understand what the documents meant.{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=229}}

This original transit was intended to take place at a luxury house in the village of [[Saint-Sauveur, Quebec|Saint-Sauveur]] in the [[Laurentian Mountains|Laurentians]] in Canada, where the OTS had an underground ceremonial [[crypt]]. After the police raid Di Mambro ordered OTS members to destroy the crypt and empty the house, viewing it as having been ruined by the intrusion; the transit plans were then postponed and moved to Switzerland.{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=229}} According to another interpretation, however, this may have only sped up their plans.{{sfn|Hall|Schuyler|2000|p=144}} In a tape likely dating to spring 1994, Jouret and Di Mambro discussed the [[Waco siege]], saying that the [[Branch Davidians]] had "beaten us to the punch", with Di Mambro telling Jouret that "what we’ll do will be even more spectacular".{{sfn|Mayer|1999|p=172}} He also ordered the Dutoit family to be murdered.{{sfn|Walliss|2006|p=112}}