On this episode of the Sofa King Podcast, we sift through the ashes of a pretty wicked cult that most people have near heard of: The Order of the Solar Temple. The OTS was a group that was loosely based on the beliefs of the Knights Templar with a heavy dash of the Rosicrucians, but after it met with some financial success and had a good base of followers, it was all about brain washing, sex, extortion, and transitioning to the Dog Star Sirius to escape the upcoming apocalypse. Oh, and then there was the time all of the members killed each other and themselves. That’s how you get to Sirius after all… The whole thing started in 1976 when Jo Di Mambro launched the Centre for the Preparation of the New Age. It was a small affair, but soon he had small groups coming to live with him and give him their money. He started a second franchise in Geneva, and a few years later, he met Luc Jouret. Di Mambro recognized that Jouret was even more charismatic than he was, and they partnered up. Di Mambro would be the shot caller behind the scenes, and Jouret would become the face man of the group. Eventually, the groups they had started merged to become The Order of the Solar Temple. They recruited more and more people and accrued more and more wealth. Their beliefs also grew more and more crazy. Eventually, Di Mambro became the reincarnation of Christ, and they were both forcing women to have sex with them as part of their rituals to appease the Jesus sun god. Their con game got more elaborate as they installed projectors, special effects, and holograms into their lodges to help show their miracles to the members of the different “clubs” of their cult. This went south, however. The guy who installed the devices and Di Mambro’s son told the cult about the false miracles. A lot of them bailed, but many stayed behind and doubled down in their belief. And this was when The Transit was born. The Transit was how they would use flame to cleanse their bodies and push their spirits to new reincarnations on a planet orbiting Sirius. They would live in paradise and start a new human race. This, of course, didn’t go so well. So, how many people died in their murder/suicide Transition to Sirius? What was the method of death? What happened to the three month old baby who they said was the antichrist? How man Transits were there for the Order of the Solar Temple? Listen, laugh, learn. Visit Our Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Order_of_the_Solar_Temple https://torontosun.com/news/world/solar-temple-massacre-mystery-endures-25-years-later https://people.howstuffworks.com/10-infamous-cults6.htm https://infosect.freeshell.org/infocult/phenomene/English/HTML/doc0008.htm https://filmdaily.co/news/order-of-the-solar-temple/ https://www.ranker.com/list/order-of-the-solar-temple-cult/amandasedlakhevener https://www.voxspace.in/2018/09/12/order-of-the-solar-temple/