The field of health and well-being still confirms its preeminence in questions and reports to Miviludes. They represent 39% of messages received in 2015.
During the interministerial meeting of December 14 in Matignon, the interministerial mission for vigilance and the fight against sectarian aberrations (Miviludes) submitted its report. And the document is a bearer of hope. In recent years, all of the questions and reports sent to Miviludes have been permanently above 2,000 per year, after the exceptional peak in 2012 (2,800).
The vast majority of requests come from individuals (78% in 2015), while institutional partners represent 15%, associations 4% and companies 3%. To this must be added contacts with journalists and elected officials. But in this distribution, one area particularly worries the authors of the report. It is about well-being and health. Last year, it confirmed its preeminence in the questions and reports sent to the Mission, reaching 39% of messages received in 2015.
The hypnosis boom, a boon for some
Hypnotherapy, energiology, liberation of breastplates, reiki, magnetism… The well-being market has never done so well. According to Miviludes, it represents a windfall of several hundred million euros. Hypnosis especially causes a sensation. It is often presented as the miracle treatment to overcome anxiety, bulimia, stress. It is also recommended to fight against all addictions, in particular smoking.
But in their report entitled “Evaluation of the effectiveness of the practice of hypnosis” published in June 2015, Inserm researchers indicated that “the risk seems to exist rather at the ethical-legal level (with in particular the risk of manipulation psychological and the creation of false memories), and ethical charters are often proposed by professional associations, in order to guarantee and ensure the interest and well-being of the patient ”. Unfortunately for those who fall into the trap, Miviludes has found that these charters are ineffective.
Cancer patients, prime targets
And in their attempts to take advantage of the weak, the authors have no qualms. Patients with serious illness remain the main target of sectarian movements. Cancer, the emotional burden of which is very important, is of particular interest to these vultures. The latest example is that of a pseudo-religious congregation installed in the west of France. It claims to cure cancer through prayer and recommends that its followers abandon all conventional treatment. The guru teaches the sick that “only God can heal them, that we must carry the cross of suffering and disease without calling on doctors, nor resorting to drugs. “
In November 2015, the Montpellier Criminal Court dealt with the fate of Dr Claude Sabbah, inventor of the “total biology of living beings” (BETV). He was sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of € 30,000 for false advertising following the complaint filed by the wife of a patient suffering from prostate cancer. The latter had been convinced to treat himself only by BTEV, excluding any proven oncological treatment. Without proper treatment, he died in great suffering, reports the Mission.
Psychiatry in the sights …
Finally, Miviludes alerts the directors of public establishments specializing in psychiatry. The latter are regularly requested by certain organizations which seek to intervene actively in this field, in particular with institutions which welcome people with mental disorders.
They usually proceed by requests for information, inquiries, petitions, public demonstrations, referrals to parliamentarians. Among these organizations, there is the Citizens Commission for Human Rights. Founded in 1969 in the United States, it is one of the many entities dependent on the Church of Scientology. This association is commonly referred to by its acronym “CCDH”. This allows him to introduce confusion with some of his interlocutors who may confuse it with organizations such as the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights (CNCDH), or the League of Human Rights (LDDH), with which it has of course no connection.
… of Scientology
The association’s stated aim is to fight “against human rights violations in psychiatry and to clean up the field of mental health”. She therefore works on various topics such as electroshock, the consumption of psychotropic drugs, psychiatric “internments” presented as abusive. In this regard, Miviludes notes the existence of another structure linked to the Church of Scientology.
Created in 2004, it is called “Collective of doctors and citizens against degrading treatment in psychiatry”. People far from being irreproachable since the legal proceedings concerning the Church of Scientology or some of its leaders are numerous. This is especially the case since the first conviction, in 1978, by default, of its founder Lafayette Ron Hubbard, to four years in prison for fraud.
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