Testimony of Matthieu. France

Matthieu, France

This is a testimony addressed to the general public, who would not yet have knowledge of the association "New Acropolis" in France, and who would seek information other than official or unsourced communication.

My name is Matthieu Chevillot, and I was a member of New Acropolis in Bordeaux, at Espace Mouneyra, between 2017 and 2018. I add my voice to that of other ex-members who dared to lift the veil on the hidden nature of the New Acropolis association.

I joined, attracted by the eclecticism professed there, I stayed thanks to the camaraderie and human warmth, but I left because of the drift of the teachings toward esoteric themes, the growing presence of magico-spiritual theses and beliefs, the subtle undertaking to call doubts into question, and above all, the existence of a parallel, occult movement behind the public and official façade.

After spending six months in the first cycle of philosophy and with the group "Perséus", I was identified and called to be part of the Living Forces.

I was able to discover the movement’s back room, with its banner in the style of an "imperial eagle", its uniforms, its rituals in curtained rooms saturated with incense, and its organization inspired by the military, with the Security Corps, the Labour Brigade and the Feminine Brigade. Two sections for men, and one for women, without mixing.

Having been a soldier myself a few years earlier, it reminded me of some key words of this type of organization: hierarchy, obedience, discipline. But then, why hide this symbolism from members and the general public, if there was nothing wrong with it all? So I continued cautiously, to find out more.

The rest of the curriculum only confirmed my fears. The staging exercises for aspirant Living Forces consisted of learning talking points to cajole neophytes or defuse accusations of sectarianism against them. There were also texts called the "bastions" that I had to study, presented as written by the founder Jorge Angel Livraga, which at times exalted effort and personal sacrifice, and at other times glorified the advent of a superior human race, of which New Acropolis would be the breeding ground, and where "there would be no place for the weak".

My instructor then assured me that these were not the group’s values. But why on earth keep them in the curriculum? Why, away from outside eyes, did the working meetings composed of Living Forces open with a "Roman salute" and by pronouncing "Avé" in front of a mythological effigy?

The so-called "Roman salute", while acceptable in its ancient context, has become illegal in Europe since 1945. I complained to the one who performed it in front of me. Here is his answer, which I quote from memory: our body would be an energy magnet with a positive pole and a negative pole, the right hand being the most positive end. By raising the right hand in this way, one would thus present the most emitting part of positive waves, which would make it a completely benevolent and peaceful gesture, nothing to do with the fascist gesture.

Far from reassuring me, this absurd explanation shed more light on the phenomenal weight of spiritualizing and esoteric discourse used to defend conspiratorial theses held by the school’s deputy director, and even on gestures and words unthinkable in the public sphere.

Thus, I suspected that for many members it had become "normal" to perform the Roman salute, even in black or brown uniforms, without any resistance. As for the only annual meeting I attended, forbidden to non-Living Forces, where the president, Mr. Fernand Schwartz, ordinarily so affable and charming, had on occasion embodied a fearsome, martial, almost tyrannical figure, people lamented that members were not staying, but without knowing why. Order of the day: recruit new members, and increase presence on social networks.

Remembering what had drawn me to New Acropolis, after a year of presence, nothing corresponded anymore to the image I had formed. I saw the same cycles of communication, training, incorporation, indoctrination replay before me, and this time I was called to move from the role of spectator to that of agent, an accomplice to this duplicity toward the public.

Recycle the same themes of the "hero", the "warrior of peace", the "reenchantment", the "mystery" or the "sacred", use keywords, miracle formulas, flatter the beliefs of new recruits to enlist them, and above all maintain a respectable, cultural, artistic and philosophical façade for the association, because the backstage was frankly neither honest nor publicly defensible.

Personally, I had experienced wonderful human moments with my comrades from Perséus, but having to obey this organization and its fanciful, even repulsive beliefs for some, was too high a price to pay. And above all, damn it, it was supposed to be just a school of philosophy, not a pseudo secret esoteric army.

I thus ended up abandoning the integration process into the Living Forces, but the harm was already done within me: all those familiar, friendly faces around me were already in reality Living Forces, or in the process of becoming so. These people had therefore read the bastions, accepted its system, and all the rest of New Acropolis’s beliefs, rituals and duties awaited them.

I finally made the decision to leave, to save my honour and my mental health, but at the cost of the many friendships I had formed in this human group. It took me several months to resolve this dilemma.

Let my intention be perfectly clear here: I am not attacking people. I would even have liked to keep these beautiful friendships, but since New Acropolis has such a hold on the psyche of its members, and on the information it can draw from its contacts with former members, I had to resign myself to considering them as acquired to the interests of this movement.

I would like to be able to sweep away all these bogus beliefs and obscurantist superstitions, but in France, everyone is free to adhere to them or not, to believe in theosophical content or not, to become a Living Force or not, and to participate in the functioning of this organization or to leave it. This is, among other things, the principle of the 1905 law, known as the separation of Churches and State.

What I nevertheless want to report, and bring to public attention, is the New Acropolis "system", which checks a number of boxes defining a sectarian drift.

Some problematic points

The cult of personality: is Jorge Angel Livraga not the Alpha and the Omega in New Acropolis? And did not his successors assume this stature?

The exorbitant nature of the financial requirements: in an ordinary association, the membership fee is paid annually and rarely exceeds 150 euros. Why in New Acropolis is the first cycle fee 30 euros per month? Why, when a member agrees to continue to the next cycle, is the increase to 50 euros announced only after the ceremonial passage and the start of the courses? And with entry to the Living Forces, the fee rises to a minimum of 75 euros per month, with compulsory purchase of overnight stays at the Cour Pétral to take part in workshops and ceremonies.

Mental destabilization: teachings based on Hindu esotericism, specifically the opposition Kama-Manas vs Triad, in other words "critical mind" versus "soul", are tools of thought control. If one hopes to progress toward the Ideal, one must learn not to listen to one’s Kama-Manas, therefore turn off internal warning signals, stop doubting, stop being defensive.

The relationship to the body and its physiological needs is also a field of control: meditation practices, pranayama sessions, sleep deprivation envisaged as a source of progression, belief in the acquisition of supernatural powers, repetition of certainty in reincarnation and the immortality of the soul as an incentive to physical sacrifice in the service of the Ideal.

Other operational irregularities struck me: I was not invited to any annual general meeting, nor informed of the deliberations. At public conferences organized in a venue owned by New Acropolis, the public was nevertheless told that the hall was "graciously made available by Espace Mouneyra". Often, invited speakers were themselves members of New Acropolis from another city, without their link to the organization being mentioned.

When Mr. Fernand Schwartz traveled to Bordeaux for a conference, it was officially in his capacity as an egyptologist, without any mention of his link with the organization. Why maintain this opacity, if not to prevent the public from suspecting something, in particular the closed and circular nature of the references and activities? The school said it taught philosophy, but there was never any question of studying Rousseau, Kant or Spinoza, for example. One exception, however, for Nietzsche.

Finally, the growing personal investment: between evening classes, Perséus workshops, poster pasting, rehearsals for conferences, help in the kitchen or at table service, maintenance of the premises, welcoming prestigious guests, preparing upcoming ceremonies, member weekends, Perséus weekends, I had two or even three full evenings a week devoted to New Acropolis, and often an additional day. It was both addictive and constraining.

And to think that the first teachings were about Plato's allegory of the cave. What irony: if the myth told of leaving one cave to access the light of the open day, with New Acropolis, seen from the outside, it is to leave a first cave to take refuge in another.

There would still be so much to say, but here I have strictly limited myself to speaking about what I personally saw, heard and experienced, to guarantee the authenticity of my statements.

Done in Bordeaux, 04 February 2023