The proliferation in Spain of sectarian groups that use increasingly sophisticated collection methods concerns the experts and the police. The case of the Genius Study Technique Company, which captures young people with the promise of heal possible to address with a broader look. On the one hand, the sectarian groups not only have religious or cultural roots, but are turning the so -called coaching – training of people or groups to achieve certain challenges – mainly aimed at economic success. On the other hand, they go beyond a simple fraud or a pyramid scam, because they use personal manipulation techniques that carry serious damage to the victims, who ultimately feel deceived and even guilty for having convinced others. According to Juantxo Domínguez, president of the Sectary Prevention Net , but with more sophisticated hitch techniques. It is no longer so necessary to capture in the street and move more through social networks. ” At the end of September, the associations of victims of the sects presented in the Congress of Deputies more than 300,000 signatures to ask that coercive manipulation be a crime. What day, Dominguez already warned of the need to expand the look beyond what It is generally perceived when the sect or sectarian words are used, and that is why they prefer expressions such as «abuse of weakness or what has always been called brainwashing.» And he explained it very graphically: “The panorama has changed dramatically. For each vulnerability situation, there is a new coercion group and from there they hunt you like a duck. ” The victims ask for a change in the Criminal Code so that these crimes can take a prison sentence of up to eight years. The Redune Association, according to its president, collaborates closely with the National Police. “What we do is to face. Advertise the testimonies of those affected and that this serves to alert more people. If anyone dares to denounce, we accompany them, ”says Domínguez, who, however, recognizes that it is not usually the usual:» The majority are not clear about what kind of crime they have committed against them or how they can prove it. » Both Redune experts and specialized psychologists and researchers in the sectarian phenomenon agree that, for a while to this part, security forces, and especially the National Police, are reinforcing their teams to deal with the proliferation of this type of groups. Just a year ago, the National Police launched the first operating plan for police action and coordination against destructive sects; And he has enabled the email address: sebetasdestructivas@policia.es. «The next step,» explains Luis Santamaría, researcher at the Ibero -American Study Network of the sects, «is that justice is also sensitive to this issue.» He explains it like this: “There are many cases in which the police do a good investigation job, to collect evidence, to show that crimes are being committed in sectarian contexts, but then the judges are not sensitive to a brutal reality in which there are a strong social conditioning that leads the subject to lose freedom and even when he is a victim or author of certain criminal crimes. I am not a supporter – as other partners are – that a new crime of coercive persuasion is believed, because it would be very difficult to articulate and apply. But I am convinced that if the laws we have apply well, if the forces of the order, the judges and the prosecutors manage to understand the peculiarity of the sectarian phenomenon, much more could be done than it is done. ” New «sectarian» groups are «more than a scam, because the economic damages they cause are not the most important.» Santamaría points out that the serious thing is the «psychological wound» that cause: «not only lose their savings, their friends or their time, but also the illusion, because there is a time when everyone realizes that, when the instructions of the Group, they became accomplices, and that revictimizes them again. ” The lawyer and sect expert, Carlos Bardavío, places in the months of the pandemic a key moment of the current proliferation of these groups. «The boredom, in the absence of work, of confinement at home looking at the computer,» he explains, «caused many companies to take that time to sell novel, striking products, gaining the confidence of a certain vulnerable sector of youth.» For example, it was the case of the IM Academy cryptosect. Of these gurus, closer to marketing, to coaching, which launch messages that impact and give that impression of freedom. ” “When they offer easy recipes to complex problems; when they use spiritual language to respond to something scientific; When he insists on convincing the person of how special he is, that he is the chosen one, that he is part of an elite; And above all, when belonging to the group implies an isolation of their closest social circle, ”summarizes Santamaría. It is not always easy to distinguish them, the expert recognizes: «The key is to observe the degree to which a person has assumed an ideology as absolute in his life.»
The Nebrija breaks with Genius
The Genius course, until a few days ago, maintained a bond of collaboration with the Antonio de Nebrij They replied: «We have no evidence that this company carries out sectarian practices, but anyway, the contractual relationship with them has been decided immediately.» For their part, Genius has sent a statement this Sunday signed by its leader Giacomo Navone, in which he addresses his employees and to which the country has had access. Navone denies the dynamics that reported six extrabajadores of the company to this newspaper, and points out: “Both the training method and the business model of our company are in permanent review to be able to adapt to the changing social and personal circumstances that occur. In recent years, we have made important changes that have meant an important transformation of Genius. ”
