A Frenchman advertised as a “healer” conducts his workshop in a Salesian residence in Spain. It is just a sample of a reality of habitual infiltration, known and allowed in many environments of the Catholic Church, especially in religious congregations.
Since last September, a poster has been seen in some establishments in Barcelona and on social networks announcing: “Demystify death.” The call was twofold: first, two free conferences –the “hook” for attracting potential stakeholders– in Gerona (in a hotel) and Barcelona (in the Casa del Tíbet), on October 20 and 21; but what is really important is the “experiential workshop” that will take place on Saturday, October 22, lasting 9 hours, and at a cost of 75 euros.
The claim is very significant, as it addresses fundamental questions for every human being: “What is beyond death? What teachings does it give us for life? If it is inevitable, why fear it? On the poster, a large photograph showing a kind-looking man: Bernard Rouch, who is presented as “physicist and telecommunications engineer. Writer and great connoisseur of various spiritual traditions. Teacher for 30 years of the Egyptian-Essenian care”. Y what does not go unnoticed and prompts reflection, is the venue for the workshop: a room in the Martí-Codolar Residence of the Salesians in Barcelona.
A Christian proposal… or another?
Observing the theme, what was raised in the call is delicate, since around the fact of death and the experience of mourning, the workshop establishes in its proposal “practical exercises” that will serve, among other things, to “experience the reality of the afterlife” and “understand how to maintain contact with those who left us”.
That in a house of the Salesians – a religious congregation founded by Saint John Bosco in the 19th century in Italy and fundamentally dedicated to the education of young people – a workshop on death and life is given, it could be perfectly understood in the light of the Christian faith as a proposal for formation (deepen Catholic teaching on death and the afterlife, the so-called “newest”, communion of saints…) and action (the call to conversion, rejection of sin, intercessory prayer for the deceased…).
But reality is not like that. The “experiential workshop” has not only been convened from a perspective alien to Christianity, but with an expressly syncretistic spirit (note that Rouch presents himself as a “great connoisseur of various spiritual traditions”), something typical of the esoteric thought of the New age. The confusion of the people involved can be great…and spiritually damaging.
One more New Age guru
That is why it is essential to answer this question: who is Bernard Rouch? According to his own official biography, he was born in France in 1968 and his spiritual identity has been marked by his mother, a Catholic woman who became Orthodox in Bernard’s childhood and later approached Hinduism and Christianity. buddhism. She also “received, in her moments of silence, messages from a ‘silent voice’ that inspired her in her life decisions.” For her part, her father also instilled in her a sympathy for Hindu practices and the Mayan and Aztec cultures.
In this way, Bernard Rouch “was able to express and develop the subtle capacities that were beginning to be born in him, such as vision and communication with the world of spirits.” When his mother entered a Buddhist monastery in the US, the teenage Bernard was taken in by relatives deeply involved in esotericism New age healing type. In fact, among them were the marriage of gurus Daniel Meurois and Anne Givaudan, inventors of “Egyptian and Essene therapies” and practitioners of “aura reading”.
As Rouch himself explains, he studied physical engineering and devoted himself to research at the European Space Agency (ESA) –although nowhere does he document these academic and work data–, and “at the end of the day he often carried out therapy practices” . He also traveled to India in search of wise men and teachers… In 1993 he began to teach “Egyptian Essenian therapies”, something that became his exclusive dedication in the year 2000. Since then, he has taught them in Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland and Canada.
A warped view of the Christian faith
In the guru’s curriculum it is emphasized that “he has always been sensitized by the approach to the subtle bodies and to the realities of an energetic and metaphysical order. […] developing a broad energetic and spiritual vision of life and of the human being”. A language typical of the anthropological conception of the New Age, which speaks of various bodies in the human being and always uses the term “energy”.
For this reason, despite the fact that he insists on his Orthodox Christian baptism and his claims to have carried out some biblical studies in a Protestant Theology Faculty, it is enough to see the articles that he publishes on his web page to verify the esoteric interpretation that he makes of the elements of Christian faith: Resurrection of Christ, Christmas, Palm Sunday…
Thus, Bernard Rouch takes on a Christian appearance, to offer a completely allegorical reading of the mysteries of the life of Jesus. “Christmas night, beyond its historical significance, has been a sacred night for millennia,” he says, explaining that “at this time of year a portal opens in which the power of Heaven is manifested with greater intensity in the earth”, in the form of “vibration” or “almighty energy”, without any allusion to the birth of Christ.
Something similar happens with the Resurrection, whose meaning would be the “power of love to bloom again like the flower in spring.” For Rouch, its main meaning is not so much the event that Jesus starred in, but that “it is time to leave behind our winter, our convictions, to let new horizons flourish.”
On the celebration of Palm Sunday, for example, this self-proclaimed spiritual teacher reveals his “secret message”: “the palm leaves and other branches that the crowd waved over their heads represented their vertical connection with the Father. Like an antenna, he reminded them of their own divine essence.” The usual in New agewhich insists on the “divine essence” of each person, on the delusion that we would all be gods, we would all be God.
The risk pseudotherapeutic
On his web page dedicated to therapeutics -because he has always used the term “therapies”, although now he uses “care” to avoid legal problems-, he exposes a series of mixed concepts without the slightest historical rigor -a peculiar connection between the Ancient Egypt, the Jewish people of the Old Testament, the Essenes…-, to legitimize the statement that “Egyptian Essenes care are energetic healings that allow the patient to be accompanied towards the reunion of the balance of all the components of his being”.
The guru continues by stating that said care “allows for in-depth work and promotes the improvement of the harmony between the different energetic bodies – namely, the etheric, emotional and mental- of the being. They also allow us to trace the origin of the pain to return to its source.” Statements like this denote an anthropological conception distant from all rational scientific knowledge and, of course, from the Christian worldview. It is clear when seeing that they propose “aura reading”, defining it as “a great tool that gives the ability to perceive the state of health and the harmony of the subtle bodies in relation to the physical body”.
And here comes, of course, the danger of these “therapies” for the person who falls into the guru’s net, in addition to the spiritual risk already mentioned: “this care is a help for the sick person, who is the victim of an existential deprivation of physical, psychological and mental suffering. They act on the lack of harmony between the body and the soul, to reconnect the human being with the energies of the earth and the sky, leading the organism to a new balance and a new harmony”.
Although the guru clarifies – to avoid responsibility for what can happen – that his practices cannot replace medical treatments, he has the irresponsible cheek to say that “they can support and help people living with diseases such as diabetes, cancer, multiple sclerosis, AIDS, allergies, food intolerances, hypertension, depression, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, etc.”, since they help “understand the causes that led the individual to the disease.” A very dangerous statement typical of pseudotherapies.
The infiltration in catholic spaces
And so it is possible to imagine who will integrate, in a significant proportion, the assistance to this “experiential workshop” around the experience of death: patients (some perhaps terminal or evicted by doctors) and people with a special vulnerability. An email message sent these days to the religious congregation that runs the residence where it is celebrated read as follows: “Please cancel the event, do not let something like this spread in a Salesian space, in a Catholic place. We cannot be complicit in this barbarity, in this scam.”
Despite being a frequent practice, the use -normally in exchange for money- of ecclesiastical-owned spaces for activities of sects and practices of the New Age is a huge mistake, since many people trust something that is celebrated in a parish or religious premises. The complicity with those who perpetrate a deception of this magnitude – in its various dimensions: psychological, family, social, health, economic and spiritual – is not acceptable in any way.
The Vatican document on the New Age (Jesus Christ, bearer of the water of life) is clear in this regard when he says: “Unfortunately, it must be admitted that in many cases some specifically Catholic spirituality centers are actively engaged in spreading New Age religiosity within the Church. It is necessary to correct this situation, not only to stop the spread of confusion and error, but also to become effective promoters of true Christian spirituality.”
Egyptian-Essenian Care, a New Age pseudotherapy that “sneaks” into Catholic spaces