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Training centre for release of the Atma-energy (Template:Lang-de), also known as Atman Foundation, was a new religious movement active mainly on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands and in Germany and is best known for a police and media scare in which an alleged attempt to commit ritual suicide took place in Teide National Park in Tenerife in 1998. It was reported that the 32 members of the sect believed that they would be collected by a spacecraft and taken to an unspecified destination. Failing that, they were believed to be going to commit suicide. However, later articles disputed this, claiming there was no intention to commit suicide by the group.

History

It was founded by a German psychologist, Heide Fittkau-Garthe, who, on August 15, 1994, sold all her assets and moved to Tenerife. She founded Training centre for release of the Atma-energy (Template:Lang-de), active mainly on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands and in Germany The Spanish media referred to the group as "secta de Heide Fittkau," after its founder.

On January 8, 1998, Fittkau-Garthe was alleged to have attempted suicide with her followers in Teide National Park, resulting in a police raid on the premises that the sect had in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

According to Spanish and German police, the group was going to perform a sacrifice similar to that performed by the Order of the Solar Temple on October 4, 1994, in Cheiry and Salvan, two villages in Switzerland, and linked the group to the OTS. It was later clarified that the Atman Foundation had nothing to do with the Solar Temple. Just three years later in 1997, the Heaven's Gate sect also committed a ritual suicide in San Diego, California. These events may have alerted the police about the Heide sect. Apparently, the 32 members of the sect believed that they would be collected by a spacecraft and taken to an unspecified destination. Failing that, they were believed to be going to commit suicide.

The group was thought to be planning to drink fruit juice laced with poison, which was confiscated during the raid. On analysis, the fruit juice was found not to contain any poison. In Germany all charges were eventually dropped against members of the group due to lack of evidence, although the accusation still remained in Spain as of 2004 with no trial scheduled. The acquittal of Fittkau-Garthe in Spain received almost no attention in the news.

Later articles in Tenerife News and Diario de Avisos disputed the earlier story, saying there was no intention to commit suicide by the group. When interviewed by a local daily newspaper, Fittkau-Garthe claimed that the group was not a cult, and that a daughter of a member of the group had contacted Interpol and accused them of plotting a mass suicide after a family row.

Beliefs

According to Angela Gabriela, a former member of the sect, the highlight of the ritual was the "love ring." This practice consisted of huge orgies, even between members of the same family.

See also

• Doomsday cult
• Mass suicide

References

1. Schmid, Georg; Eggenberger, Oswald (2003). Kirchen, Sekten, Religionen: religiöse Gemeinschaften, weltanschauliche Gruppierungen und Psycho-Organisationen im deutschen Sprachraum: ein Handbuch [Churches, sects, religions: religious communities, ideological groups and psycho-organizations in the German-speaking world: a handbook] (in German). Zürich: Theologischer Verlag Zürich. pp. 269–271. ISBN 3-290-17215-5.
2. ^ Richardson, James T., ed. (2004). Regulating Religion: Case Studies from Around the Globe. Critical Issues in Social Justice. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers. p. 157. ISBN 978-0-306-47887-1. The case refers to the Atman Foundation (originally a splinter group from the Brahma Kumaris) and made international headlines on January 8, 1998, when it was announced that the Canary Islands police had prevented a mass suicide of "a branch of the Solar Temple" by arresting its leader. German motivational speaker Heide Fittkau—Garthe. and a number of followers During subsequent months' the case disappeared from the international media. At the local level, it was clarified that the Atman Foundation has nothing to do with the Solar Temple but, according to a family of disgruntled German ex-members, may be "just as bad". Police investigations in Germany failed to detect any evidence that the Foundation was preparing a mass suicide. However, the accusation is maintained in Spain at the time of this writing, together with some others, although no trial has been scheduled.
3. "La policía frustra el suicidio colectivo de los 33 miembros de una secta en Tenerife" [Police foil mass suicide of 33 cult members in Tenerife]. La Vanguardia (in European Spanish). No. 41719. 9 January 1998. p. 21. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
4. ^ "Beam them up, Heidi - Remembering the Las Cañadas suicide sect scare". Tenerife News. Archived from the original on 28 September 2007. Retrieved 13 October 2007.
5. Alves, Jose (9 January 1998). "Une Secte Issue De L'ordre Du Temple Solaire Suicide Collectif Evite Aux Canaries" [A Cult From The Order Of The Solar Temple, Mass Suicide Avoided In The Canaries]. Le Soir (in French). Retrieved 17 August 2023.
6. Ordaz, Pablo (18 January 1998). "La líder de la secta de Tenerife recaudó 300 millones entre sus fieles" [Tenerife cult leader raised 300 million from her followers]. El País (in European Spanish). Archived from the original on 7 February 2015. Retrieved 31 October 2013.
7. Usher, Rod (19 January 1998). "Near-Death Experience". TIME. Vol. 151, no. 3. Archived from the original on 22 May 2011. Retrieved 19 March 2016.
8. ^ Lutzardo, Maile (21 April 2004). "Suicidio colectivo con zumo de frutas" [Mass suicide with fruit juice]. Diario de Avisos (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 20 October 2014.
9. "Judge frees spaceship cult". The Irish Times. 14 January 1998. Retrieved 23 June 2015.
10. Palmer, Susan J. (2011). The New Heretics of France: Minority Religions, la Republique, and the Government-Sponsored "War on Sects". Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press. p. 54. ISBN 978-0-19-973521-1.
11. Herrero, A. (12 November 2009). "Heide Fittkau y el "anillo del amor"" [Heide Fittkau and the "ring of love"]. La Opinión de Tenerife (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 13 June 2011. Retrieved 31 October 2013.

• Apocalyptic groups
• UFO religions
• Hindu new religious movements
• Organisations based in the Canary Islands
• Religion in the Canary Islands
• Cults