Licht-Oase
Licht-Oase (Light Oasis) was a New Age cult led by Arno Wollensak and Julie Ravell with around 40 members. It was also known as Ramtha.[1]
History
[edit]In the 1980s Arno Wollensak was a follower of Rajneesh, eventually starting his own group.[2] The group lived in Germany, Austria, France and Portugal before relocating to Belize.[2]
Reports of sexual abuse of minors within the cult lead to a police investigation.[3] In 2007 Wollensak failed to appear in court. He and Ravell fled to Uruguay using forged Surinamese documents in 2008.[citation needed] The case was transferred to the German Federal Criminal Police in 2014. Wollensak and Ravell were arrested by police in Uruguay and brought to Montevideo on 12 June 2015.[4]
A request for his extradition to Germany was made, but denied by an Uruguay court due to statute of limitations. Wollensak was then released.[5] He was found murdered in Uruguay August 28, 2016.[6]
Accounts from inside the cult
[edit]The practice in the group to separate children from their parents inspired the artwork "Disappearing Mother" by former member Katharina Meredith.[7]
Lea Saskia Laasner described her experiences in the cult in her book Allein gegen die Seelenfänger. Meine Kindheit in der Psycho-Sekte for which she won the Prix Courage in 2005.[8]
References
[edit]- ^ "Sekten-Führer aus Oerlinghausen in Uruguay verhaftet". Lippische Landes-Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 13 April 2020.
- ^ a b "Mi madre huyó de Uruguay". El Pais (in Spanish). Retrieved 13 April 2020.
- ^ Meredith, Katharina. "Psychoterror im Dschungel". Tages-Anzeiger (in German). Retrieved 13 April 2020.
- ^ "Zielfahndungserfolg des Bundeskriminalamtes. Festnahme von zwei deutschen Staatsangehörigen in Uruguay". www.bka.de. Retrieved 13 April 2020.
- ^ "Er war ein gesuchter Sex-Verbrecher - Deutscher Sektenchef in Uruguay ermordet". bild.de (in German). 31 August 2016.
- ^ "Arno Wollensak, el líder de una secta alemana que apareció muerto en La Floresta". El Pais (in Spanish). Retrieved 13 April 2020.
- ^ Whitsett, Doni; Post Rosow, Natasha (2019). "Global Violence of Women in Cults". In Zaleski, Kristen; Enrile, Annalisa; Weiss, Eugenia L.; Wang, Xiying (eds.). Women's journey to empowerment in the 21st century : a transnational feminist analysis of women's lives in modern times. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-092709-7.
- ^ "Prix Courage 2005: Die Siegerin heisst Lea Saskia Laasner". Beobachter (in German).