Gilbert Bourdin

French guru, the founder of the Association of the Knights of the Golden Lotus in 1967 and two years later, of the holy city of the Mandarom. He took the name of the "Lord Hamsah Manarah." A retired Catholic school teacher. Rosicrucian and freemason, Bourdin was initiated in 1961 by the Indian master Sivananda and started gathering followers in southern France. He became quite well-known as a yoga teacher and the author of some 22 books. Bourdin married 6/26/1954; divorced 11/04/1977. Gradually, Bourdin revealed himself as the Messiah: the Lord Hamsah Manarah. In 1990 he was publicly crowned as the Messiah at the Mandarom. The public ceremonies were interpreted as an arrogant challenge by the anti-cult movements and the media. The Mandarom with its huge constructions was, simply, too visible. Two TV networks (Antenne2 and TF1) started a campaign exposing the Mandarom as a "cult concentration camp." Among the anti-cult activists emerged militant psychiatrist Jean-Marie Abgrall, and Robert Ferrato, leader of an ad hoc ecologist group. The Mandarom was raided repeatedly between 1992-1995 by tax and police officers in a military style. Roberto Ferrato and a reporter for the TV network TF1, Bernard Nicolas, played a key-role in making an apostate, Florence Roncaglia, "remember" that she had been molested and raped by Bourdin in the 1980s. A complaint was filed in 1994. Later, other female apostates, some minors at the time, came forth with similar charges. Based on Roncaglia's complaint, the Mandarom was raided again on 6/12/1995 and Bourdin was arrested. He died on 3/19/1998 at 8 AM at the Hospital of Grasse, France. Link to Wikipedia biography