Editing Néo-Phare (section)

== Aftermath ==
The verdict was celebrated by [[anti-cultist]]s; [[National Assembly (France)|National Assembly]] member [[Jean-Pierre Brard]] declared that it was "excellent news", while the prosecutor stated that "nothing will ever be the same", calling Mussy's conviction a "victory".<ref name="P.2005" />{{sfn|Palmer|2011|p=149}} The case was interpreted as a warning and a precedent: Mussy's attorney declared, following the verdict, that "This is not a conviction that is neutral. It contains a very strong warning! Here we have the first jurisprudence!"{{sfn|Palmer|2008|p=113}}{{sfn|Palmer|2011|p=149}} The state anti-cult agency [[MIVILUDES]] said it was excellent news, and praised the effectiveness of the law.<ref name="P.2005" /> The prosecutor said afterwards that the case had been a close call because of the difficulty in determining guilt of brainwashing.{{sfn|Palmer|2011|p=160}} As of 2008, Mussy was paying the fine in installments.{{sfn|Palmer|2008|p=113}} Mussy later said of his conviction that "It was clear the National Assembly had a new law and they wanted to try it out on some little group to make an example—not a big powerful [cult] like Scientology that has lots of money to defend itself. I have no money. I knew I could not win."{{sfn|Palmer|2011|p=157}}

The cult researcher [[Susan J. Palmer]] argued that the application of the brainwashing concept in this specific case was flawed, even apart from the wider concerns about the legitimacy of the concept and how it is supposed to be proven.{{sfn|Palmer|2011|p=151}}{{sfn|Palmer|2008|p=115}} She also argued that {{Lang|fr|Néo-Phare}} did not fit the typical [[cult mass suicide]] model (like the Solar Temple, [[Jonestown]], and [[Heaven's Gate (religious group)|Heaven's Gate]]), and criticized what she believed was inadequate research of the group itself during the legal process, including its theology and history.{{sfn|Palmer|2011|pp=151–152, 167–168}} She said it may have been an attempt by the French justice system to compensate for the innocent verdict in the [[Tabachnik trial]] of the Order of the Solar Temple.{{sfn|Palmer|2011|p=163}} The OTS suicides had shocked the French public, and due to the failure of the justice system to convict the only person who ever went on trial in that case, there was no "satisfying" conclusion, deeply frustrating the French authorities.{{sfn|Palmer|2011|pp=162–163}} She also argued that the very high defection rate (14 of the 20 members had left over time) evidenced Mussy was not "a particularly effective brainwasher".{{sfn|Palmer|2011|p=166}}

Suicide researcher [[Loren Coleman]] viewed it as "another scare" relating to mass suicide in the aftermath of the Solar Temple case, noting it as such alongside another group led by [[Heide Fittkau-Garthe]] that had been accused of the same in 1998.{{sfn|Coleman|2004|p=88}} Psychologist [[Sonya Jougla]] argued that after the failure of his first apocalypse prediction, the failure became intolerable for Mussy as it showed tangibly that he had failed. She argued that he then reversed this meaning which avoided a loss of power for him and the group's beliefs.{{sfn|Jougla|2003|p=59}} She also said that the group's continued membership after the suicide and police investigations was an example of {{lang|fr|résilience sectaire}} ({{literal translation|sectarian resilience}}) a kind of "pseudo resilience", to handle stress from the group membership, with Mussy viewing this ability as a sign of one's spiritual evolution.{{sfn|Jougla|2003|p=60}}