Shamanic cult leaders arrested for sexual abuse of members

Police in Spain have arrested three people accused of running a shamanic sect that recruited vulnerable young people, some of whom were later abused sexually during drug-fuelled sessions of supposed group psychotherapy.

Around 100 people are said by the Spanish authorities to have fallen victim to the so-called Soul Family organisation, each paying more than 10,000 euros to become members and subjected to “psychological control techniques” to prevent them from leaving.

The three people arrested in the village of Pobla Tornesa, eastern Spain, are described as forming the leadership of the sect, led by a woman who acted as the chief psychotherapist and who was referred to by her followers as “Mistress”.

The Guardia Civil police force said the leader’s husband was one of the other two individuals detained during the raid on the villa where the “family” gathered for meetings and rituals.

The police acted after being approached by the parents of two victims, who had themselves been contacted by a group of people that had managed to leave the sect and wished to report its allegedly criminal behaviour.

According to a statement by the Guardia Civil, the sect’s leaders held “shamanic rituals typically involving the consumption of drugs, mezcal and other hallucinogenic substances”, as well as collective nudity and workshops related to chakras and sexual therapies.

“Sometimes these acts were carried out against the will of the victims after their willpower was annulled, and the leaders of the house sometimes filmed rituals in which several instances of sexual abuse allegedly took place.”

Young people with emotional issues targeted

The sect preyed on young people from the Castellón area and Catalonia, always seeking out individuals usually aged around 20 who had serious emotional issues or problems in their lives. Some members allegedly joined the sect while still under the age of legal responsibility, in Spain set at 18.

The young acolytes of the sect were persuaded that the leader was in “the possession of absolute truth” and also warned that their personal information could be used against them if they were disloyal or tried to leave the organisation.

According to the Guardia Civil, the therapy sessions and rituals were held when the “Mistress” deemed appropriate and individual members would suffer shaming punishments and humiliation if they did not obey the instructions.

Normally, the authorities claim, the emotional control of groupthink was sufficient to keep most members of the sect in line.

But there was also a special group within the sect’s hierarchy known as “the Circle” or “the Veterans”, made up of individuals who had spent more than 15 years within the organisation and who acted as enforcers of group control mechanisms. These veterans were supplied with intimate information about the younger members of the sect, which they could use to exert influence over them in case of conflict.

In the search carried out in the villa where the sect was based, officers found what they called “a significant amount of cash” kept in envelopes with annotations of the names of the alleged victims, lists of payments for sessions held, psychotropic substances, and a large number of agendas and notes corresponding to the life and personal data of apparent victims of the sect.

The three people arrested are being investigated by a criminal court in Castellón on suspicion of a series of offences including sexual abuse, forming an illegal organisation, crimes against public health and disclosure of secrets.