The world of Cults: in pictures Freemasonry cult - France

Maude Julien, now 60, was forced to hold onto an electric fence for without showing feeling as a child. The ritual was considered to be a test of her willpower by her father, who wanted to make her “superhuman”. She says she was subjected to 18 years of controlling and manipulative behaviour by her father Louis Didier, an alcoholic who belonged to an esoteric lodge of Freemasonry which believed in the occult. He reportedly believed his daughter had been chosen as his protector, so sought to indoctrinate her and make her withstand torment by making her participate in cruel experiments. She says she was locked overnight in a rat-infested cellar to “meditate about death”. He forced her to drink whiskey before making her walk in a straight line, which she says led to the liver damage she lives with to this day. Didier adopted a 6-year-old girl, who he groomed to become his wife. The three lived in a remote mansion in northern France, which Ms Julien was forbidden to leave for a decade.

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