Participants were wrapped in mud and plastic, covered with blankets, and left immobilized for about nine hours. Cardboard boxes were placed over their heads and they were encouraged to hyperventilate. Lavigne died of hyperthermia when her body was unable to dissipate heat properly.
The seminar was held at a spa called Ferme Reine de la Paix and organized by Gabrielle “Séréna” Fréchette. In her work as holistic healer, Fréchette channels “Melchizedek,” a mysterious king and priest that appears in the book of Genesis. Lavigne had already completed 85 personal development seminars at the spa, for which she paid more than $18,900....
In audio recordings of the session, Fréchette allegedly states, “The time has come for this body of death that you believe is yours… Death is freedom… death is the truth.”
January 30, 2012
In a "personal development seminar," Chantal Lavigne "was accidentally 'cooked to death' during a class called 'Dying in Consciousness.'"
This happened in Canada last year:
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Think of it as evolution in action.
You can die for a lot less than $18,000 and a lot quicker than 9 hours. Darwin Award nominee
Steve, great minds think alike.
I guess Ms Frechette channels Melchizedek because he got an automatic 10% cut of the loot.
She'd be a lot less dangerous if she was channeling Onan, the patron saint of small families.
Paging Crack Emcee!
Once again it has been proven that a fool cannot kept away from their folly. A sad affair but unfortunately Frechette will continue as before since after all it was only one in two thousand.
Is she opening up a franchise in Sedona?
Cult religions have always offered candidates an initiation ceremony that mimics death, followed by a rebirth as a different person.
The fly in the ointment, other than it all being a pure lie, is the ones who don't fully regain their minds and their bodies in order to resume living as "changed" people.
Some instead go insane and end as psychopaths. And some end as sacrifices made to the cults' spirits, like this former person did
Interestingly, the famous Navy Seals training beyond human endurance levels is a way to do the same thing.
Chew an aspirin tablet for spiritual cleansing.
After a few bad moments, it leaves the mouth very sweet and clean tasting.
I discovered this as a wee child.
Also cures headaches.
And cue Crack Emcee...
That's one heck of a "personal development" seminar!
@ MikeR
And have the same last name initial?
But see, alan markus and I don't share an initial... so maybe not.
@ rhhardin
I was under the impression that dentist don't approve of the chewing of aspirins because it's hard on the teeth.
She should have stepped up to the platinum service level - the one that included the continuous ice-water enema while wrapped.
Doh!
...wrapped in mud and plastic, covered with blankets, and left immobilized for about nine hours. Cardboard boxes were placed over their heads and they were encouraged to hyperventilate.
Reckless endangerment. Involuntary manslaughter.
I was under the impression that dentist don't approve of the chewing of aspirins because it's hard on the teeth.
That's true, as aspirin is an acid; it's also hard on most tissues. Always use a buffered type and with plenty of fluid.
I think most dentists would also be against being wrapped in mud and plastic for nine hours. That seems to be hard on most everything.
Will this procedure be covered in the US by Obamacare?
Another Darwin award nominee.
"...wrapped in mud and plastic... left immobilized for about nine hours. Cardboard boxes were placed over their head..."
If a magic marker had been used to write "insert penis here" over their backsides, I'd say they could have saved some money and achieved the same degree of personal development by consuming a case-and-a-half of Natty Lite.
aww SteveR beat me to it.
Some people don't attain their full growth and development until they reach their post mortem years.
And pseudo - or in this case, non - science kills yet another poor sap.
But one thing bugs me about the article. It's titled "Rethinking Religion After Latest Holistic Death". I'm sorry, but there's no need to go as far as invoking grand philosophies when the real question is, why didn't they think basic, intuitive physics? Such as heat retention?
Sometimes people need to resist the human trait of attempting to investigate the solution to a smaller, focused problem by making it a grander, more encompassing one.
Reminds me of a friend in high school. He'd offer people a vitamin and they wouldn't take it out of distrust. He'd offer them the same vitamin pill and tell them it was some sort of recreational drug and they'd accept his offer.
Some people must search for some sort of miracle. It's a mental illness.
On the other hand, I hope that scare stories about this do not inhibit young people from wrapping themselves in mud and plastic for nine hours.
Didn't Wo Fat try to do that to Steve McGarrett in the pilot for the original Hawaii Five-O (the good one)?
Now this is crazy. Fergit Santorum, this is crazy.
Trey
Will this procedure be covered in the US by Obamacare?
Covered? It will be mandatory!
rhhardin said...
Chew an aspirin tablet for spiritual cleansing.
Carnifex said...
@ rhhardin
I was under the impression that dentist don't approve of the chewing of aspirins because it's hard on the teeth.
Dentisys aren't fond of aspirin but Cardiologists are. A tip froma guy who's had a heart attack.
At the first sign, call 911 and chew aspirin. It's a blood thinner and very few people are going to die from a bleeding ulcer in the 20 minutes it takes you to get seen by an ER Doc (20 min, assumes you ride into the ER on an ambulance complaining of HA symptoms :)
once you get there, they'll do the fancy stuff and give you Heparin and Plavix to thin and lubricate the arteries, but start with aspirin yourself.
From Harvard Med:
Aspirin for heart attack: Chew or swallow?
You’ve always been healthy, but you seemed to run out of steam at your wife’s 60th birthday dinner last week. And now your chest feels heavy, as if you’re in a vise. You take some antacids, even though it’s 7:00 a.m. and you haven’t even had breakfast. But you get no relief, and the pain is spreading to your jaw and shoulder. You call your wife, who takes one look at you and rushes to the phone. After calling 911, she brings you an aspirin and some water.
Your wife got it right: You may be having a heart attack, and you need to get to the hospital fast. You also need to get some aspirin into your system quickly — but should you chew the tablet or swallow it?
The reason you need aspirin is the same reason you should call 911 without delay: A heart attack is a dynamic event, and early intervention can limit the damage. The paramedics can give you oxygen and medication, and they’ll monitor your blood pressure and heart rhythm to forestall complications as they speed you to the ER. In the hospital, doctors will take EKGs and blood tests to see if you are having a heart attack; if so, they will usually try to open the blocked artery with an angioplasty and stent or, if that’s not available, with a clot-busting drug.
It’s modern cardiology at its best, and it has improved considerably the outlook for heart attack victims. But how can a humble aspirin tablet add to high-tech medicine, and why is speed so important?
Most heart attacks develop when a cholesterol-laden plaque in a coronary artery ruptures. Relatively small plaques, which produce only partial blockages, are the ones most likely to rupture. When they do, they attract platelets to their surface. Platelets are the tiny blood cells that trigger blood clotting. A clot, or thrombus, builds up on the ruptured plaque. As the clot grows, it blocks the artery. If the blockage is complete, it deprives a portion of the heart muscle of oxygen. As a result, muscle cells die — and it’s a heart attack.
snip
Aspirin can help prevent heart attacks in patients with coronary artery disease and in healthy men over 50 years of age. Only low doses, between 81 and 325 mg a day, are needed. But people who think they may be having an attack need an extra 325 mg of aspirin, and they need it as quickly as possible. For the best results, chew a single full-sized 325-mg tablet, but don’t use an enteric-coated tablet, which will act slowly even if chewed. And don’t forget to call 911, then your doctor. It’s a contemporary update on the old reminder to take two aspirin and call in the morning — and it’s good advice to chew over.
This is right up Crack's alley. Like a dog whistle.
Ain't nobody gonna wrap me in plastic!
Will you mind if I have a go at the trollish misdirection to Drudge covering Michelle's lingerie and the inside scoops?
It is annoying when the photo accompanying the article does not match. Mi plato is not lingerie. Who imagines a grocery store shelf stacked like that? It is hopelessly idiotically stacked. Like a Sesame Street grocery store, a single row of tins lined up like little soldiers. It's not even a good photographic backdrop. It totally fails both as an actual grocery store shelf AND as a photographic backdrop. It is weird, like a Stalin era propaganda picture. But worst of all worsteses, it accompanies a story about lingerie shopping.
There's a type of porn, especially popular in Japan, in which a naked young woman is completely wrapped in several layers of thick plastic wrap. A small hole is cut in the wrap so she can breathe, and a second hole is cut so men can, er, you can figure that one out.
Chip is keen.
Interestingly, Christian tradition sees the rather horrible death of Jesus ( See, Mel Gibson's movie) followed by rebirth on Easter morning as the required public initiation ceremony. The converts partake of by symbolic death and burial in baptism through faith in Jesus having gone through it as their epresentative.
Now when a baptiser holds a Christian convert under too long and drowns him/her, that would be the same thing.
In one way I get really angry at the quack, but the herd does obviously need some culling, and if they are gonna volunteer and pay her.
As a Quebecker, I have often thought that perhaps we in the french corner of North America have a particular penchant for cults.
Not far from this farm is another compound of alien-worshippers, "The Raelians". This group became famous for a while because they claimed they discovered how to clone people.
Anyway, I met a lovely chap once who joined the Raelians with his girlfriend. But he soon quit the cult.
"Why?" I asked.
"Because I couldn't handle watching priests having sex with my girlfriend."
Yes, I thought, that would do it.
You know, if they kept her wrapped and put her right in the fridge, she'd prolly stay fresh for days.
No big loss, she's brain dead a long time ago.
The Darwin-inspired comments here are disgusting (Darwin Award; evolution in action; culling the herd). So a woman makes a stupid decision, dies as a result, and people think that makes it appropriate to treat her death with ridicule and flippant disregard? You know, this was a person. Probably before hyperthermic delerium set in she was scared and panicking. I don't understand how anyone can treat this so casually. Are people suggesting the world's a better place without her around? Probably her closest friends and family would disagree. Seems to me that it's Darwinism that 'hardens hearts and enslaves minds.'
"Lavigne had already completed 85 personal development seminars at the spa, for which she paid more than $18,900."
85?
85!!
Man, I'm totally in the wrong bidness.
What does one do at a "personal development seminar" anyway?
Sounds like hell.
And mud and plastic, blankets and cardboard boxes?
Shit, sounds like downtown New York , Occupy Wall Street, or when I was about nine years old.
She's dead. Wrapped in Plastic.
"I don't understand how anyone can treat this so casually."
Because the reality is too horrible.
We laugh at what we fear; black humor to mock the scythe.
Laughing beats moaning at the abyss.
Cocaine used to be God's way of saying you had too much money. Now it's consciousness raising.
Didn't Gibbon cover this sometime back?
EMD, maybe Gabrielle “Séréna” Fréchette was channeling Bob rather than Melchizedek...
Oh Coketown, don't be so sentimental, people die wrapped in plastic and mud everyday...
@Coketown: I don't think any of her friends and family would seek solace by reading this thread. There are some activities such as auto-erotic asphyxiation, bungee jumping, and wrapping yourself in mud and plastic for nine hours that are by their very nature risky. Part of the risk involved is the knowledge that if it all goes wrong, there are going to be a number of tasteless jokes at the funeral. For this very reason, I refrain from auto erotic asphyxiation and wrapping myself in plastic and mud for any more than a half hour.
The class was "Dying in CONSCIOUSNESS".
Was Chantal trying to get extra credit?
Stay away, Crack. This one is too easy. We need you for the more difficult cases.
Lavirgne's last words:
"And don't call me Shirley."
I'm super serial.
What does one do at a "personal development seminar"?
Sounds like it involves the repetition of words without meaning, soporific music, sexless massage, handsome young gurus, yoga, incense, fleeting mental improvement, and parting with wads of cash.
On the whole, I would rather read a book and drink some wine by the beach. Or by the curb, should no beach be found.
New Age kills. It's a proven fact. Paging Crack, Mr. Crack you are being paged.
Here's a troll-ish argument.
People risk death all the time. They go hang gliding and bungee jumping. They drive too fast in cars. Some raft in dangerous rivers.
Aren't they all knowingly risking death? How's baking yourself inside a life-size statue of yourself any different?
and people think that makes it appropriate to treat her death with ridicule and flippant disregard?
Some people lead lives (and suffer a death) that cry out "Ridicule me!!!" The poor woman was probably schizo-affective or some such thing. Jim Jones, Charles Manson, Sun Myung Moon, L. Ron Hubbard and every other cult leader loves people like this. Her death is tragci but no more tragic than her life.
How's baking yourself inside a life-size statue of yourself any different?
It's not nearly as much fun.
Think of it like this - 99.999% of people die in total anonymity. This woman achieved internet fame!
The culture of death: abortifacients, surgical abortion, euthanasia, all suggested as solutions to problems soon make death appear to be the truth.
Five will get you a ten that these 'self-improvement" seminars are loaded with postmodern types liberated from traditional morality, preferring self-defined relativistic moral paths ending in TRUTH!
Death is an obscenity injected into creation by man. Jesus Christ conquered death with His resurrection. Why would anyone embrace death as the truth?
We laugh at what we fear; black humor to mock the scythe.
The scythe is there as a symbol of harvest.
In itself it's beautifully designed for cutting grass, and geometrically incapable of inflicting injury except perhaps to the ankles of an adjoining scyther who is careless.
It's completely useless as a weapon. The balance and geometry are completely wrong.
People risk death all the time. They go hang gliding and bungee jumping. They drive too fast in cars. Some raft in dangerous rivers.
Aren't they all knowingly risking death? How's baking yourself inside a life-size statue of yourself any different?
Probably no alcohol involved in her case.
gerry - death has existed since the first prokaryote died a billion years ago. Jesus was just another Jewish extremist crucified by the Roman government on Golgotha as example for troublemakers.
A metaphor, my dear rh!
Interesting that death needs no weapon.
The first international harvester.
Where are prokaryote civil rights?
Reckless endangerment. Involuntary manslaughter? Well here will be murder. She knew that she can cause death and still went on, so there is intent
Jose - what crazy consenting adults do with each other is their business. I honestly don't want to get involved.
The Drill SGT said...
-rhhardin said...
- Chew an aspirin tablet for spiritual cleansing.
- Carnifex said...
- @ rhhardin
- I was under the impression that dentist don't approve of the chewing of aspirins because it's hard on the teeth.
Dentisys aren't fond of aspirin but Cardiologists are. A tip froma guy who's had a heart attack.
Thanks for capsule version of this DSgt. I knew you were supposed to chew, but didn't know the details. Appreciate it.
Anybody else think that this was a great cover for an actual homicide?
What if ...and only what if, mind you ...and even given this was weird-to-the-point-of-excess behaviour (cult-like, even) ...the procedure was known to be demonstrably safe through hundreds/thousands of previous examples ...but someone knowingly wanted the woman dead, and knew that "just that little bit extra" would have the desired outcome to the killer (i.e., her death).
Kind of moves it outside the realm of Darwinian idiocy, to the realm of murder with intent to kill, doesn't it?
What do you say, Dr. Ann?
And if you have a hard time wrapping your mind around that, I bet you don't watch Castle, either.
...and now that I've written that, someone ought to notify a writer on that show that we've got their next episode.
"What if ...and only what if, mind you ...and even given this was weird-to-the-point-of-excess behaviour (cult-like, even) ...the procedure was known to be demonstrably safe through hundreds/thousands of previous examples ...but someone knowingly wanted the woman dead, and knew that "just that little bit extra" would have the desired outcome to the killer (i.e., her death)."
Wasn't that an episode of Law & Order:Criminal Intent?
Can her heirs sue for rightful death?
Wasn't that an episode of Law & Order:Criminal Intent?
There was a similar episode that involved exorcism.
Call it "assisted suicide"
I think Crack Emcee is working a day job in Texas now, so it might be awhile before we hear from him.
Some people lead lives (and suffer a death) that cry out "Ridicule me!!!"
I think a better approach is to help these people while they're alive instead of ridiculing them once they're dead. But this callous treatment of other people's deaths isn't even limited to the kind of weird stories that Althouse linked to. A few months back, a young man died at a Rockies game after sliding down a handrail and hitting his head--a pretty innocent act. The news site's comments page was filled with just this kind of sick depravity: What an idiot, Darwin Award finalist, cleansing the gene pool, etc. It's disgusting to treat a tragedy in this manner, but it's becoming far more common.
If you're the kind of person who thinks ridiculing an innocent person's death is ever appropriate, there's really no helping you.
Tark -- totalement d'accord. I lived in Quebec for thirteen years and speak the language with pretty much native fluency.
You understate the Quebec penchant not only for bizarre cults, which are legion there, but for "alternative" healing, therapy, growth and everything else.
You also omit a dreadful Quebec propensity to anti-Semitism, only one example of which was the "language police" (backed up by real police) removing all Passover foods from the shelves in Montreal (during Passover!) because French was not the predominant language on the labels.
It reminds me a lot of the bizarre Wagnerian and Anthroposophic rituals and practices so beloved of the Nazis nearly a century ago.
Very unhealthy, which is one reason I no longer live there.
“The time has come for this body of death that you believe is yours… Death is freedom… death is the truth.”
That'll be $3,000.
@Bart:
Hey, are you me from another dimension, or I you? J'habite maintenant à Kansas, j'ai habité à Montréal pendant neuf ans...pardonnez-moi, I just started reminiscing about a lovely Québecoise. Nevermind.
Disappointing, no mention of kool-aid or new Nike sneakers to wear. A poor value if you ask me.
I think she made an error in her chants and mistakenly channelled Mxyzptlk.
Will this procedure be covered in the US by Obamacare?
Covered? It will be mandatory!
Only for the elderly and people with expensive diseases.
I would recommend to all who practice auto erotic asphyxiation that they leave a suicide note claiming that the constant bullying of Palin supporters drove them to suicide. That way if the act doesn't work out as planned, the heirs will not be subjected to ridicule. Instead, there's a good chance the deceased will receive a state funeral with a eulogy delivered by Obama and several major movie stars as pallbearers. Think ahead......So far as burying yourself in mud and plastic goes, the right move is to claim that this was done as part of the quick loss weight regimen, and not as part of some shamanistc healing ritual. Everyone wants to lose weight, but few wish to meet God just yet....Not everyone can die with dignity and decorum but all of us can fake it.
Jess and Bart,
Kansas is great but Quebec is spectacular.
It has its ugly moments and - in this case - perverse oddities, but remember this:
When oil and gas are gone, Quebec will be the true energy superpower of the continent. Give us a couple of centuries and we will rule the world! C'est magnifique!
A sickle, as opposed to a scythe, is pretty dangerous. You can easily hack off your own fingers.
Cue the nanny staters and secular "separation of church and staters" to the extreme....quick more laws, more rules, more process...it's all religions, it's 99% not the 1% or less, it's global warming...no wait, just read we're in the ice age again so scratch that.
It is what it is. Dumb and dumber with money to spend. The end.
Anyone who offers this kind of "treatment" is a charlatan.
Anyone who believes that things like this work is incredibly gullible, deluded, or an idiot.
I'm very sorry for Mlle. Lavigne's family, but she chose to give thousands of $$$ to this charlatan and willingly participated in a stupid activity that ended up killing her. Unless she was mentally ill, she was hardly an innocent victim.
In the sex trades (I saw this in a movie) they have a code system where the fantasy or whatever ends when you tap three times or something..
I don't understand this story.. other than fodder for more regulations.. save people from themselves.. and something about the purification (that's not the word I want) of the gene pool when stupid people off themselves.
A perverse side of me wants it to happen more often.. but thats awful and I have to work on that.
No it was not Deep Throat.
and no.. that is not a link to Deep Throat.
I'm looking for a George Carlin bit but I cant find it.
Its about when the news of a natural disaster he would pay careful attention to the death toll.. and be disappointed if it was in the hundreds.. and how people in the media would sound as if a big death toll was in their interest.
You had to listen to him tell it.
Funny stuff.. he told Imus he was developing that bit when 9/11 happened and he had to shelve it.
alan markus,
I think Crack Emcee is working a day job in Texas now, so it might be awhile before we hear from him.
You nailed it, alan, but thanks to everyone for the shout out:
My wife - currently with three ninny notches on her belt - had amongst her *many* interests (psychics, homeopathy, reiki, U.F.O.s, etc.) a lot of time for the cult of Ashtar. I've got tapes of the "channeling' sessions in storage, and what's most remarkable about them is how bad the channeler/con woman is. I mean, just awful. Not convincing in the least. And yet she had devoted followers. Crazy.
And yes, davis,br, it is was a great cover for an actual homicide - all "spiritual" stuff is, because society's so "tolerant" of "belief" and quackery. My wife killed three people and she's not in prison. That fact wigs me out almost as much as the excuses people make (and acceptance people have) for NewAge. They can literally get away with murder and, as Coketown noticed, people will laugh, or make the sad face, but the idea of actually doing something - especially to the con artists - is beyond the pale. James Arthur Ray is one of the few (compared to the number I follow) that got what was coming to him - and he got off easy! (Two years for three deaths? Seriously?) We, as a people, are so confused it's chilling.
Cont'd.
Another angle - put yourself in my shoes:
You KNOW your wife's delusional (and, now, dangerous) so while you're always waiting for that call saying another body dropped, and you vacillate between hating her guts for destroying your life (and taking others) while loving her enough to want to get her some help, everyone focuses on the fact you're divorced (which you're "no-fault" forced into) so they can - at least in part - blame you for the break-up (or something - what happened to "no-fault"?) because you're a realist (pretty much anyone who "believes" in the unseen) "a man" (my wife's "protective" girlfriends, the "protective" courts, and the ever-"protective" feminists) and whatever other "teachings" NewAge has inculcated our culture into adopting, in a knee jerk fashion, all of which limit your ability to have any influence on the situation, especially as her husband. You have what seems like the whole world against you (especially with the Oprahfied-election of Obama) and it's maddening.
Finally, I was once like you guys - oh, how I laughed. I rarely asked questions, or looked too deeply, obediently walking behind her through NewAge bookstores (while rolling my eyes) and my "friends" - even the males - telling me it was all "harmless." Never a mention of cults, or even groups, but just one of those goofy things out there, like so many others, that people do.
But (in case you haven't noticed) people take their "beliefs" very seriously - try talking a Christian away from Jesus - and they get especially fanatical when you start asking pointed questions. THAT's when you get down to the real nitty-gritty of life - what's real and what isn't, who and what is "crazy," and what ARE these cults doing (and capable of) that they're not telling YOU about?
And take my word for it, they''ll never tell.
David,
Stay away, Crack. This one is too easy. We need you for the more difficult cases.
They're ALL difficult cases - so diffi(cult) most folks just nervously chuckle and back away,....
wv: "lemob" - NewAgers in France,...
Bart Hall (Kansas, USA),
More evidence for what I've said, here, about the French and the occult. Also:
You also omit a dreadful Quebec propensity to anti-Semitism, only one example of which was the "language police" (backed up by real police) removing all Passover foods from the shelves in Montreal (during Passover!) because French was not the predominant language on the labels.
I've seen it - the breaking of Jewish shop windows and the like - it's incredible. But wherever you find the occult, you'll also find all the elements for Naziism - they are so intertwined in the modern world it's almost impossible for anyone knowledgeable to see one without the other.
Everyone else is either deluded away from seeing it, or willingly averting their eyes,...
Lem,
I don't understand this story.. other than fodder for more regulations..
No, we need to enforce the laws we have - starting with FRAUD.
@ Pogo
Pogo said...
Interesting that death needs no weapon.
The first international harvester.
ka-ching!
"You also omit a dreadful Quebec propensity to anti-Semitism, only one example of which was the "language police" (backed up by real police) removing all Passover foods from the shelves in Montreal (during Passover!) because French was not the predominant language on the labels."
By sheer coincidence no doubt C-fudd is a great admirer of the Fwench. It didn't hurt that they betrayed Jewish kids to the Nazis during WWII either.
Uh, she could have gone to confession...
Takes 10 minutes and it's free.
Rinse and repeat.
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