Jean-Francois Mayer's Our Terrestrial Journey Is Coming to an End, The Last Voyage of the Solar Temple, published in the journal Nova Religio in 1999 by the University of California Press, is an abridged English version of Mayer's earlier French study Les Mythes du Temple Solaire and stands as the standard scholarly account of the Order of the Solar Temple's mass deaths across 1994 to 1997. Mayer is a scholar of new religious movements who researched the group's own doctrine and internal documents rather than relying solely on press coverage. Its strength is that direct engagement with the group's own belief system as the frame for understanding the deaths, published in a leading peer reviewed journal for the study of new religions. Its limit is that some of the group's internal reasoning remains genuinely uncertain even to specialists, since key figures died and left an incomplete record, which Mayer's own account acknowledges rather than resolves.
Facts
Assessment
Reliability Tier1
Jean-Francois Mayer's Our Terrestrial Journey Is Coming to an End, published in the peer reviewed journal Nova Religio in 1999 by the University of California Press, is the standard scholarly account of the Solar Temple deaths, written by a scholar of new religious movements who worked from the group's own doctrine and internal documents, treated at the top tier. NotesAbridged English version of Les Mythes du Temple Solaire; the standard scholarly account of the 1994-1997 deaths.
Citation
AuthorJean-Francois Mayer
PublisherUniversity of California Press
Publication Year1999
Source TypeJournal article
Claims Backed By This Source (26 claims)
This source backs 26 claims across the atlas. As facts: 21 well-attested. As cited relationships: 3 holds. Plus 2 entities citing it as a general reference with no single fact or relationship attached.
Disposition By Topic
- New Religious Movements, 15 claims: 12 well-attested, 2 holds, 1 general references.
- Sources, 7 claims: 7 well-attested.
- Articles, 2 claims: 2 well-attested.
- Years, 2 claims: 1 holds, 1 general references.
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