I re-watched this film last night, so I take this opportunity to give you a feedback.
Even though the story may seem grotesque at times or exaggerated to you, I find it fairly accurate in its description of what I may have experienced in the sect I grew up in.
This story is fictionalized but based on a true story, that of Sarah Suco. Like me, she lived in a "new Catholic community".
The indoctrination side is well transcribed. The fanaticism which is slowly taking its place creeps in. The little sentences, the control even in every little detail of the life of all the members of the family is very well explained.
Watching this movie is quite difficult for me.
On the one hand, I want to show it to all the people close to me because it allows me to show part of what I have experienced.
The films allow you to enter a story, to understand "from the inside" and to have the possibility for the viewer to take or not distance from what he sees without hurting me. When I tell my story, people are confronted with the violence of what I have experienced but are also quite skeptical and have a hard time understanding what I am talking about because what I am describing is too far removed from what they know.
In addition, it is more difficult for them to ask for a break when I am telling and I am in "direct line" to see their reactions and the emotion which crosses them, the rejection, the fear ... and this can be very painful for them. me. Whereas with a film, the emotions will be more neutral and the person has the possibility of extracting themselves from the story without my taking this as a rejection or an abandonment on their part.
This allows me to understand the side on the fringes of society, the strange rituals ...
They can see concretely what I speak to them, the times of prayer, the fanaticism ... This film is an asset for me when I try to make understand what I lived.
However, it only shows a very small part of what I experienced. It barely flies over the reality of "new communities".
I was born there and it was part of my upbringing and my environment throughout my childhood and adolescence.
The heroine of the film enters this adolescent community, has external ties, has already developed a critical mind and therefore has the opportunity to question what is imposed and said to her. I didn't have it. And the community that she depicts has "exterior houses" reserved for families, so they have the possibility of spending time with family that we had little or no time for. Our lodgings were not separated, our parents had no work outside. The young heroine is alone in her school, we went to class with other children of the sect. We were always surrounded and bathed in this environment. The least of our actions were watched, reported to the guru ... The times of prayer were much more important. The children had very little time with their parents, a lot of time between young people was organized. We did not have the possibility, as Sarah Suco can show, to take a step back, to form external friendships that could have helped us to see our environment differently. Our houses were houses in the country and in the movie they are in the city. His possibility of opening up to the outside world was therefore more important compared to what I was able to experience.
Small flat: I find it unfortunate that the actors were not better directed when they do the singing and praying sessions. These moments seem strange and almost grotesque, laughable in the film but I think this is a key aspect that could have been better transcribed to understand the emulation that this kind of sect can arouse.
In these communities, these moments of prayer were very important and when we lived them, everyone was like drugged, overexcited ... We do not find in the film the trance side of prayers. When you watch it, you want to laugh, the actors are ridiculous ... I think it's essential to understand how people can fall into a sect and find themselves trapped there.
Everyone has more or less experienced this phenomenon to varying degrees of course! Man is sort of "looking" for it. It might shock you, but if you think and try to search objectively, in society the same sort of thing can happen. People who go crazy during the sales, those who line up for the latest I-phone, emulation in a stadium or at a concert ... in these moments, man is like out of time , his judgment, his will, his actions are as if carried by the group, the crowd ...
Small explanation on the moments of "prayers":
The moments when they sing in whisper without distinct words were called in the sect "the song in tongue".
The principle of this song: you are so empty, so connected that you become the receptacle of a divine song inspired by the divine, a song sung in an unknown language, a universal language, the language of angels. A bit like a shamanic trance. The holy spirit was supposed to come into each of us and the song was supposed to turn into a harmonious and holy song of "angels". At those times everyone was like drugged, in their own world.
The times in the chapel when they do a sort of laying on of hands on a person is called "rest in the spirit". The holy spirit is supposed to descend on us and we then experience a "rest" and then we put in "the hands of the holy spirit". People get caught up in a special emotion on these occasions and drop like flies, literally pass out.
The fact of being carried by the group, the crowd puts them in a trance. It is as if time stands still and people are like drugged again.
There is nothing wrong with screaming and being a fan of a singer. Young groupies can faint in front of their idol. Some people can be fans to the point of spending crazy sums ... It can become problematic when people cannot come back to reality and regain their independence of thought. When you come out of a stadium where you yelled and cheered a soccer player, you come back to life, reality takes over and that "worship" is just a parenthesis in your life.
During religious ceremonies, there was a very special atmosphere. We are huddled together in an enclosed space, there is incense, a sometimes subdued atmosphere. The ceremony of "rest in the spirit" was done after a long time of prayer, people felt a deep peace, a great happiness. The impression of being "surrounded" by love, carried by the group, by the songs was very strong. The guru could then say sentences, which seemed innocuous as in the film when he talks about the woman who is afraid of her husband and is lost. Some people could then be touched and ask to be "healed" of their wounds by this "laying on of hands". It was very strong, very intense moments of communion. We came out groggy, our minds foggy. We felt like we had truly communicated with God at this time.
Understand me correctly, I am not trying to advertise it or say that these moments were beautiful moments. I think, on the contrary, that it is these kind of moments lived that then allowed the guru to establish his grip on the people who came into the sect. But what I'm trying to get you to understand is that anyone can be faced with it and the man is in some way "in demand" of this kind of moment. We want to commune with nature, to be so lost in the contemplation of its beauty, we want to be transported by music and feel each note vibrate in our body ... When we live this kind of moment as suspended in time we have the feeling of being alive, of being at peace, of being happy ... And that's what people felt in these ceremonies. To reduce cult victims to idiots and weaklings is misleading and false. They are people like you, with the same needs as you, the same intelligence as you and the same flaws as you. The difference is that they have to deal with experts in manipulation who will use these moments to enslave them.
I feel a lot of anger every time I watch this movie! How and why did no one save us? It was happening in full view of everyone!
When my friends watch it, they laugh and find it grotesque. They often say that they would not have fallen into the trap. They think that it only happens to others, that this kind of thing is known and that only really fragile and stupid people can still today fall into the nets of this kind of sectarian drift community ...
They don't understand that finding themselves in this kind of environment doesn't happen all at once, that "bleating" or strange acts are not shown immediately, that they are not accepted like that without that before. the spider's web was not woven around the prey with great care.
The bleating to call the "shepherd" at the table, in the sect where I grew up we did not do it. But the picture this gives is quite accurate. We had to wait for everything, the meal, the service ... sometimes we could wait 30 minutes or an hour for the guru to arrive and it was only then that the ceremony could begin! We then uttered great cries of joy to acclaim his arrival ...
The moments with the guru when he says "whatever it takes" to cut people off from their families are well transcribed. It is the association of the internal strong and the external strong.
In fact what poses a problem and can lead to sectarian aberrations is when the spiritual accompaniment is provided by the same person as the one who will decide your daily life. When you go to see a shrink, he will know everything about your thoughts, your feelings, your "weaknesses" but he will have no contact with you in your daily life. He will not know your family, your work colleagues, your living environment. So he won't be able to go talk to your boss and tell him that you hate him or go to your family and explain your intimate thoughts to them ... It becomes problematic when the guru knows your privacy in great detail and also decides on it. where you are going to live, your friendships, your entire daily life ... What if that person uses your intimate weaknesses to manipulate you or blackmail you around you and your daily life.
The control taken to the extreme on clothing and the ban on wearing certain colors was identical with us. It was even mentioned in the cult rules. Public pardons are correct. We were in front of everyone in the church.
Entering this kind of environment is done, I think, at the outset because the person is looking for an ideal and then will stay because he has a flaw, an injury. The people who came to us did so because they were disappointed with society and were looking for an ideal life. And that's what we stood for!
Everyone was smiling, attentive, attentive, affectionate ... We only said and showed positive. We said to save the world and humanity. Who wouldn't want to believe and hope in this? Who is not looking for friends, an ideal family? Who wouldn't want to fight for other human beings to be treated better? Who is not angry with society because its administration is cold and indifferent, against justice which is not fair, against man because he is selfish and cold?
We bore witness that this ideal world exists on earth and many hoped and believed in it. Of course, the reality was quite different, but the new followers only realized it too late, once all external links had been severely severed with their families and friends from their previous life, once words and acts of irreparable rupture had been said ... Once 10, 20 or 30 years had passed ... How then to start from scratch? How to return to a society that we no longer knew? How to explain 10, 20 or 30 years of absence from the world of work? How to go back and find accommodation when you came out of it breathless, bloodless and without a penny in your pocket? The sliding is done very slowly.
At the beginning, we want to believe it so we only see the positive things. Then the routine sets in, we are asked more and more physically and mentally and we tell ourselves that to have an ideal, we must deserve it, that it cannot be done without giving of oneself, without suffering ... We are transported, pushed by the testimony of others, the speech of the guru ... We sleep less and less, we work more and more ... Each of our thoughts, each of our acts is analyzed, dissected by the guru ... We get used to being directed, controlled and it's so much easier to let go like this ... Our life no longer belongs to us, the consequences of our actions no longer rest on our shoulders, the weight of life seems lighter: our destiny is in the hands of "God" ... Everything is "easier", "simple" ...
For families, the responsibility of children no longer rests on them, it is the group, the sect that takes care of it. A rebellious child who turns out badly is "educated" and taken back by the group. Parents no longer have to wonder if they are making the right choices, whether what they do and what their children become is their fault or not ... Mothers no longer have to deal with their children on their own downstairs. ages, they can leave them to other adults ... Meals are made by the community. All the life is regulated, pushed by the rhythm of life of the sect. The days of fatigue are erased by the dynamics of the group ... It is "easier" for families. Raising your child alone is hard, trying every day. In these sects, these difficulties no longer exist, everything is the responsibility of the group.
Young people are taken and educated in Christian values, the fear for parents that we fall into drugs, make bad encounters is erased ... To think that we feel less alone in the face of the abuses of the society we want protect your children ... Give values, a non-racist, non-individualistic, positive outlook to your children ...
In itself, looking for this for his children is not bad, it is the escalation that is serious, the hold and the manipulation that is taking place.
Here is a documentary on a new Catholic community illustrating some of the points denounced in the film les éblouis:
Comentários