Jean-Marie Abgrall
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| Born: | April 12, 1950 Toulon, France  |
|---|---|
| Occupation: | psychiatrist, author |
Jean-Marie Abgrall, M.D., born April 12, 1950 in Toulon, France, is a French psychiatrist, criminologist, specialist in forensic medicine, cult expert, and graduate in criminal law. He has been an expert witness at the Supreme Court of Appeal and Court for Businesses in France on the subject of cults, and analyst of cult deviances. In particular, he is most knowledgeable about Scientology, The Children of God and the Order of the Solar Temple, which he claimed maintained links with Gladio, NATO's stay-behind organization during the Cold War. He also claimed that the AMORC Rosicrucian cult, of which he had been a member, had been related to Jacques Foccart's networks [1]. He has written many books on the subject, several of which are used as references. Abgrall has been orally attacked by various cults, including the Aumism movement and the Rael Movement, which lost a trial against him [2]
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[edit] Voyage Au Pays Des Nouveaux Gourous
[edit] Report for Landmark Education
Dr. Abgrall is featured in the Voyage Au Pays Des Nouveaux Gourous (Travel to the Country of the New Gurus) documentary on France 3, which accused Landmark Education of being a cult, as an expert on cults and psychiatry. Landmark Education's spokeswoman and Landmark Forum Leader Sophie McLean referenced Dr. Abgrall in her discussion with Pieces a Conviction staff :
Ms. McLean attempts to dismiss the description that her company is a "cult" or "cult-like" and that its business is somehow based upon "brainwashing." McLean specifically cites a report Landmark paid a French psychiatrist Jean-Marie Abgrall to prepare.
However, despite being paid more than 45,000 Euro Dr. Abigrall is less than positive about Landmark. He laments that Landmark’s leaders lack meaningful training and calls this "shocking." He then refuses to take a position as to whether the company is a cult or not. [3]
Dr. Abgrall was interviewed on Landmark Education by Pieces a Conviction's investigative journalism]team, and asserted a different opinion on-camera from the one he gave in his written, sealed report to Landmark Education.
Dr. Abgrall states :
It's not true that I said it's not a cult! I neither wrote that it is a cult nor that it's not a cult. I haven't taken a stance. My critique is of techniques that haven't been mastered at all. There is no control of a psychologist. They just put anyone in there, which means that if they guy takes a blow, he leaves alone in a daze, there's no one to take control for him. They don't exchange information, there's no real inspection of the technique. These guys aren't trained, as if tomorrow you set up shop as a psychotherapist. I mean, that's what's shocking.[4]
Jean-Marie Abgrall ceases cult watching activities on May 29, 2004, after an instruction revealed that he had been paid for an audit mission in 2001 by Landmark Education, qualified as a cult in the 1995 French Commission report on cults.
[edit] References
- ^ p.14 quote from Libération concerning OST, Gladio and Jacques Foccart, on Survie NGO website
- ^ Procès Raël contre Jean-Marie Abgrall
- ^ Why did Landmark Education leave France?, September 29, 2006, Cult News
- ^ Dr. Jean-Marie Abgrall, May 24, 2004, Pieces a Conviction, France 3, Voyage Au Pays Des Nouveaux Gourous, Interview with Dr. Abgrall.
[edit] Books
- Soul Snatchers: The Mechanics of Cults, by Jean-Marie Abgrall, Alice Seberry (Translator), December 1999, 296 pages, ISBN 1-892941-04-X, Algora Publishing, paperback
- Healing or Stealing?: Medical Charlatans in the New Age, by Jean-Marie Abgrall, Chantal Thomas, 2000
- Los Secuestradores de Almas, by Jean Marie Abgrall, 2005
- La Mecanique Des Sectes, by Jean-Marie Abgrall, 2002
- Tous manipulés, tous manipulateurs, by Jean-Marie Abgrall
- Les sectes de l'apocalypse: Gourous de l'an 2000, 1999
- Martin et le gourou by Jean-Marie Abgrall, 2001
- Sectes, gourous, etc... Eviter aux ados de se laisser piéger by Dominique Biton and Jean-Marie Abgrall
[edit] See also
- Voyage Au Pays Des Nouveaux Gourous, 2004 France 3 documentary on Landmark Education, Abgrall appears as expert commentator
