Some time ago, I was seeking for a school of yoga Instructors. Not that I practice it as a part of religion, but I think is a great exercise, reporting many benefits for the health.

I'm not really lucky with it, because after this story, I ran into Wai Lana, the wife of Chris Butler, but that's another chapter.

So I enrolled in the classes of this particular school (in Argentina, my home country).
Soon I found suspicious signs: pictures of the "Master" everywhere, with flowers all around the frame, incense sticks lit in front of it... The teachers would name "The Master" every second word and the studying material consisted in carefully selected parts of his books, photocopied.
When I asked for the complete book, they answered evasively and never wanted to hand it out.
The tests consisted in writing [b:2e7a25c728]literally[/b:2e7a25c728] what we learnt in those photocopies.

So I did my little research, and left promptly, a bit tired of the "Master" and the white outfit they made us wear for the classes (OH! Red flag??)

Here's what I found (amongst other stuff):

[en.wikipedia.org]

Quote: "Serge Raynaud de la Ferriere (January 18, 1916 – December 27, 1962) was a philosopher, psychologist, engineer, architect, linguist, painter, astrologer, author, holistic and medical doctor, cosmobiologist, scientist, professor, and founder of the Universal Great Brotherhood, a worldwide cultural organization having branches in more than 22 countries. He was proposed for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1962. He has been described as a world philosopher, humanitarian and a spiritual leader.

He achieved notoriety in the European and American press and radio, thus lending scientific credibility to the ancient science of astrology."

Did anybody else had contact with them?
Are they a dangerous cult?

I am familiar with the Universal Great Brotherhood as of 1973 and teh teachigns of its founder Dr Serge Raynaud de la Ferriere. It is a non profit , cultural, civic, organization and is registered with the United Nations Dept of Information as of 1948.
The goal is to unite science, religion, art and didactics for the purpose of intellectual and spiritual growth of humanity. Their goal is Peace, Tolerance and Truth. Social Services are performed as well as per the request of the Founder. No particular religion is followed but all religions, philosophies, sciences, psychologies are studied without preference of any. The founder died in 1962. There are Centers in 23 countries.

I suspect that the problem here lies in that perhaps some of its members are not fully aware of the goals of the organization, or even the teachings of the founder who wrote 99 books. Decades ago Editorial Diana published and distributed those books but something happened and the organization withdrew the publishing from Diana, and now they print the books themselves, which has caused the books to practically disappear from the public eye.

Each Center functions according to the educational/social/economic level of its participants I would imagine for example the Center in Manhattan, New York City compares the teachings of de la Ferriere with the teachings of other philosphers, psychologists, scientists, religionists etc , with the purpose of drawing a synthesis or a conclusion from the different teachings. There is onyl one drawback at this center which is although most of its membes in new york city speak english they prefer to speak in spanish and therfore when non spanish speakers arrive they feel excluded and therefore leave. Hopefully this will change in the vey near future. ***Evelyn

There are Centers in Norway, Italy, Spain, and you will never see flowers or incense around the pictures of the founder Serge Raynaud de la Ferriere, and you might not even find pictures in those centers.

They do not resemble a dangerous cult. Actually they do not resemble a cult at all.

Some of the teachings of this group and its vehicle "Mission of the Aquarian Order" sound cult like. For example:

Quote

ARTICLE 6.

With the purpose of fully carrying out the objectives and goals pursued by the Foundation and in conformity with the articles 1 and 2 of the present statutes, the Universal Great Brotherhood intends to:

a) Found Schools of Wisdom and Schools of Initiation.

b) [b:37b54ad670]Establish Spiritual Colonies [/b:37b54ad670](Ashrams), Institutes of Improvement, Retirements for Idealists and Sanctuaries for those disciples who are preparing themselves to instruct the Humanity of the New Aquarian Age.

Quote

d) The Schools, as well as the Colleges and the [b:37b54ad670]Colonies,[/b:37b54ad670] will have an internal regulation according to their activities, but [b:37b54ad670]subjected to the spirit and the rules that the present statutes impose. [/b:37b54ad670]

[www.maestre.org]

I have googled them before as I met someone who was into them. I couldn't find much about them but yes they did seem a bit dodgy to me.

I won't link to his site off here because he was friendly to me, but his site seemed a bit mad keen with huge pages of teachings, pictures of the founder, dediction to spreading his work etc. Sounded a bit over-zealous on his site.

And he was mad keen to give strangers the URL etc inviting them there to view his wares.

dwest I will PM you with it. :)

Oh I am sorry it's not them, I think it's one of many groups with a similar sounding name and philosophy.

I met one of their members in Auvergne, South of France, they have some
followers in the region, who gather in a school/temple. They are very much
into plants and peace, according to the guy. From what he was saying it
sounds a lot like the bell 'New Age' rings.

Quote
kenshin
I met one of their members in Auvergne, South of France, they have some
followers in the region, who gather in a school/temple. They are very much
into plants and peace, according to the guy. From what he was saying it
sounds a lot like the bell 'New Age' rings.

*********I can assure you as a member of the Universal Great Brotherhood that there is no chapter in France. There is a similar sounding organization which is the Universal White Brotherhood which was founded by Peter Deunov in Bulgaria in 1900. Then the following president of the organization Omraam Mikhael Aivanov established their main office in france. Now they have chapters in switzerland (1945) and different parts of europe.

If it is not too much trouble can you share with me their phone number and address? Do they speak english at all? thanks evelyn

Yes, that's the group I know, the Aivanov group.