ESCUELA MONTSALVAT
Escuela Montsalvat...
Escuela Montsalvat is a place near Montserrat mountain in Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain. It went thru different names like "Masia" (kind of country house), or “Monasterio” (monastery) till the moment that start being the “Escuela Montsalvat”. Here, the name “Montsalvat”, is related to the mythic story of King Arthur and Parsival, where Montsalvat is the place where the “Holy Grail” rests.
This place was bought by Ernesto Baron in the 80’s and it was rebuilt from old ruins by the “professors” and members who have passed there over the years.
Later there was some expansion of the place, buying some surrounding plots and edifying new buildings that became how it is today.
The area is divided into 2 main areas, the old and the new parts, that then is subdivided into more areas.
Not everyone has access to all areas, being the most restricted one, the old building where Ernesto has his own private area and also the areas that are considered more important (conference room, round table, “salon Imperial”, library, etc). The new area (that was built to be a bunker for a few professors in the 2012 process), became the “servant area” where there is a canteen, some group dormitories with bunk beds, laundry, etc...
The old building used to be Ernesto and Nefer Barón’s “castle”, but since many years they have moved out in order to be less exposed and only accessible to a very few professors. The actual house where they live is completely secret and no one is allowed to know.
Escuela Montsalvat has 2 main areas (blue - the original building, red - the 2012 extension building):
The area is all surrounded by walls, high gates, and cypress trees and under complete video surveillance by a team of professors 24/7 that work in shifts. Every day there are professors that come from the nearby "delegations" to take their shift in the middle of the night, independent if there are activities in the "Escuela" (school) or not. There is always people there for the different activities and maintenance (sleeping there also).
There is an area with some little rooms reserved for a video “sub-team” of Alcyon Pleiades, where the more sensitive material is edited. Video, photos, or any other kind of material relating directly to Ernesto and Nefer Baron is not allowed outside the “school” and it is extremely punishable if someone breaks this law.
It is possible to stay in the “Escuela” and help in the maintenance of the place, working in the garden, cleaning, building, etc…
To stay there and help, it is needed to ask for permission, offering your voluntary services but of course that members have to pay 15 euros/day (price of 2020). At the end of the stay, it is indispensable to send a note of gratitude for the opportunity…
The Escuela Montsalvat is the recruiting camp where, after some years as a student, specific members are invited to take a “professor” course. Here, is where the real brainwash and the construction of a new sense of identity are built up. (more about the course in the next section)
There is also another building used as a warehouse of the huge amount of material from past events, construction, decoration, etc…
It is also in this “Almacen” (warehouse) where all the construction concerning decoration for events and building props takes place as well all the normal maintenance work for the school. The team for building and decoration can stay there during periods of building projects. (there is a canteen and bunk beds)
It is an old factory located here:
The "Professor" course...
The “professor” course is taken in “Escuela Montsalvat” with the duration of 3 months.
In my personal experience, the invitation to take this “professor” course came at a very specific time, when the 2012 process left me in a state of complete confusion and in a state of struggle for economic survival.
Exploiting this vulnerable state, was one of the methods how Ernesto Barón was able to recruit members to take a new “professor” course.
From Europe, Latin America and Japan was created a group of around 130 students to take the course in Escuela Montsalvat.
There was a huge preparation during one year in order to “prepare us” for the course, with a lot of extra activities and practices, everything in secrecy and there was an increasing pressure to abandon family and friends.
New promises arose from “our Directors“, new manipulations appeared in the direction of how important this course is for the good of Humanity, the sacrifice to reach a greater good for the planet, promising spiritual and psychological evolution.
To put it simply, with a high cost of suffering and despair in the 2012 process, Ernesto created a huge problem and then offers the solution.
There were many other courses previously, each one of those with their specific idiosyncrasy and different configurations, but with the same objective of expansion of CEA and the number of “professors”.
By the way, “professor” is a very non-sense label, just another example of the typical “ernestian” way to make something look important.
We had to pay some thousands of Euros for the stay and all of the “materials” needed, like specific clothes, shoes, notebooks, perfumes, etc… to engage this 3 months course. There was list of things allowed to bring, most of the materials and the clothes were provided by CEA (included in the price) and delivered on the first day.
Everyone arrived to Escuela Montsalvat with the specific rules and codes of behaviour (imposed during the preparation), and with the hope of restoring the meaning in personal life.
We had to deliver our telephones and our passports were retained (pretty illegal, but anyway). This retention of passports was not held as being important by the newcomers (that was the least of preoccupation at the moment), and it was also presented to us with the reason “it is just for bureaucracy reasons, we will return them later on.”
Our passports were retained until the end of the course, and the real reason was to ensure that no one would easily escape from the instalations.
Little groups were arriving at the “Escuela” one at a time to not raise suspicions and curiosity from neighbors and locals.
When everyone was there, and after a long time of waiting, “Our Beloved Directors” appeared, and in a friendly way started to offer promises and reassuring how incredible it was to be there, then they guided us through a quick walk around… and the course began!
There was also a small team of “collaborators”, already professors, that will going to be responsible for making everything work out. During the course, they were the connection between us and the "Directors" and also who organized everything in the practical sense.
It is impossible to go into all the details, so I will just point out some major subjects about the course.
In a retrospective way that, I wouldn't say that it was a bad experience by itself (for some people was), it was a kind of hypnotic experience, but in the end, the psychological costs were huge.
Very soon, the group started to engage in a “dreamy kind” of state, where all the beliefs start to change, the diversity of perspectives of life of every individual started to dilute and being replaced with a standard dogma to serve the cult.
The time passed in Escuela Montsalvat with a mixture of pressure, tension, happy moments, contemplation, being watched all the time, moments of tension relief (which was misunderstood as being happy, like a little walk in the garden)… it was a very, very, very complex web of feelings, thoughts, emotions but with a strong feeling every single moment underlining all activities, the fear of committing some error!
After a while, the fear of our own thoughts began to appear, fearing that some thought could arise, like doubt or critic is a huge constant stress state (if it arises you have to report or lose your soul). The indoctrination starts kicking in, and the partition of our own mind happens without we even realize.
SEXUALITY is very repressed in CEA, as a student or as professor you are guided in the direction of religious dogma where sex is evil. In this case, there is a term called “quedas” (falls) that is very specific.
When a man has ejaculation it is considered having a “queda” and that is very evil. To avoid it, or he should abstain from sexual intercourse or practice the “Alquemy” (CEA term for a specific ritual during sex).
On the other hand, there are the “unconscious falls”, commonly known as “wet dreams”. In both of those types of “quedas” (falls) it is needed to report immediately and those cases can be exposed publicly during annual gatherings of professors (telling who had “quedas”, how many, etc…).
It is clear for men what is meant by having a “queda” but for women it is not clear. When asked about this, both Ernesto and Nefer, always evade them selfs from answering, or by deviating the attention or given shallow answers like “you should know by yourself”, “lets not enter again into that old subject” and so on.
Ernesto Barón is very sexist, discriminating very openly women and alway referring to them as a “problem”. This is not a topic to enter now, but indeed it is a big problem inside CEA and how women is treated. There are many expressions typically used by Ernesto referring to woman, like “the famous and problematic “campo feminine” (feminine “field”)", or “the seducers” and so on. Those are very pejorative expressions that cause enormous repression in women and they start feeling as being “born evil” by nature.
In the last years (at least during my course), “Alchemy” was not recommended by Ernesto Barón, because the common people are too weak-willed and it is better to abstain totally from sexual intercourse. This is a very tricky and powerful tool to manipulate couples where, in addition to that, you are obliged to report on your partner (on all subjects) in order of the great good and truth.
On the other hand, if the professor is single, “our beloved Directors” can point to another member as being the perfect partner. There are some cases of marriages that took place under these conditions, following the “guidelines” of Ernesto Barón. I saw that manipulation directly during my course, where a student (masculine) was encouraged to engage another student (feminine) directly by Ernesto Baron.
It is also extremely discouraged and criticized if some couple of “professors” want to have children. They become targets of ridicule, discouragement, exposure and criticism, with logic and explanations that go like “that is losing your soul”, “that you are being extremely egoistic and should focus on the sacrifice for humanity, not in your egoistic aim of raising your own child”, “we are at the end of the times, it does not make sense to put a child in this world”… and so on. There are many types of logic applied depending on the moment, but always against this human natural choice.
It is never explained, and it is a tabu that can never be questioned, why Ernesto has a handful of sons and daughters, how he managed to “make” all of them without the so famous “quedas” (he himself said that he does not have any “queda” for about 45 years, said in 2020). Also very strange that he has grandchildren, children that he helps to raise… are they products of common human “fornication” (as he calls the act of procreation)? Or in this case, are they also superior and special beings?
The damage is huge in those couples that later in life abandon the cult, and feel regret for not having a family. Many single people (man or woman) have to live a life without ever having the opportunity to experience the gift of sharing life with another human being. The despair is huge in those young persons where the only solution is the partition of the mind, hiding all those aspects of life in some corner of their mind and pretending they don't exist. I can not imagine the degree of regret and unhappiness that someone can experience in later life, the feeling of “lost life”.
This is serious! Looking back, I remember a young lady (from my course) in her early 20s, single, saying that her big dream is traveling the west coast of America but in her own words, “I know that it will never happen”.
Already "professor", I was an acquaintance to a lady in her middle 60s that has been in the cult since she was 20 years old, never had a companion in life, all her life just working to get money to pay the local “delegation” and serve the CEA. It was clear the complete desperate state that she was living in (when I left she was still in the cult), but not knowing how to deal with it, after all, it seems too late… Again, the only solution is to partition of the mind and not look to that pain, probably there will be a moment where the confront with reality is inevitable and that can be extremely traumatic and painful.
As a final example, I know a couple that left the cult after 25 years of servitude and regrets the lost opportunity of having children, it was late for biological reasons.
All of those examples could have been my case, and I have profound respect for those people, my heart is in pain for them. Making this website was a huge investment of “life” and is dedicated to all of those that suffer the consequences of this cult. It was (and is) my motivation behind all of this work.
It hurts when you experience directly someone with more than 70 years old being “discarded” and being expelled with no apparent reason after a life of servitude (abandoned in the world). Just “trowed” away.
For someone outside this cult influence this can seems surreal, after all, how it is possible that people allow this manipulation?
But, I do not consider myself a dumb person, but anyhow It happened to me, I was kept “prisoner” in this self deception, trapped by my own mind and it is serious…
Anyhow, is all of this for the great good of humanity?
Back to the course, during those 3 months there was a huge amount of lectures called “conferencias” that were delivered to the students, some by Ernesto other by Nefer, but mainly by video (old recordings from previous courses). We should take notes of those lectures, in our notebooks, then transcribe them to a new notebook, and after that, prepare ourselves to present the lecture to the other students. This was a kind of exercise where we can practice in order to later on, after the course, present those lectures to the community where we will be assigned to, in order to gather more people and close this vicious cycle.
A very important focal point in this activity is to be able to deliver the lecture as it was received without any difference. It is not allowed to say any other thing besides what was delivered, just an exact copy is allowed.
The understanding of the lecture was not important and many questions, dissent, other points of view, etc are extremely discouraged.
The content of those lectures is mainly dogmatic, many of them are just nonsense. Some “conferencias” contradict the other ones, their lack of consistency is huge, and dealing with that (finding your own sense for the contradictions) leads to the main point of total control and the psychological partition where any doubt or dissent is viewed as our own bad ego interfering with the “Great Undertaking”.
After some point, everyone becomes just a puppet, talking like a parrot, with no individuality, and where all the independent thinking gets trapped in some darker corner of our own mind.
Then you are a “professor” and can deliver the knowledge to humanity, according to a specific list that you should follow in the correct order.
There is a plan of "conferencias" (lectures) that we should deliver to the students, in the correct order and can not be adapted... They have to be transmitted as received, even if we didn't understand the content. Here is one plan of lectures to follow:
During the course, together with those lectures, there was what is called “practical psychology”, that is, processing the daily reports that everyone makes about everyone else, even about themselves. So every little mistake made, or anything that somehow can look as disobedience to the strict and direct orders from “our Directors” have to be reported immediately.
Here, the self-report is one of the most important ways of manipulation and control.
What was told to us frequently, was that everything comes to “light” at the end and that the truth can never be hidden and so, it is better to have the value to report about yourself. If we would not report it by ourselves, we could suffer some “divine justice” punishment, and that would be much worse (like losing your soul).
Those reports were always about someone that does something, and that person then goes under public exposure.
Those reports can differ from a collaborator reporting some student about sitting in the wrong chair in the canteen, or a student reporting that another student farted (this really happened in my course)…
Then there is always some punishment or “psychological help” (as Ernesto calls it) to the one that was reported. Sometimes easy going, but most of the time with a lot of pressure and tension that creates all kinds of traumas and fears on others (even the fart one was serious!).
Many end up being expelled from the course, sometimes with no specific reason, and this process slowly incepts fear on everyone else. This method leads to extreme conformity in being and acting in a very narrow specific way.
Another important aspect is the called “temple” that is in a separate room, near the classroom where we would enter only on specific occasions and not everyone was allowed to enter.
Only the chosen ones or those that had not made any trouble could enter. To enter the temple we had to dress a “kimono", there was a huge ritual in the preparation before and during entering the temple, where we have to say some words (some esoteric words), and everyone was very repressed and trying the best to not make any error.
Sometimes the activities inside the temple were nothing special, just some meditation, singing some mantram, Ernesto or Nefer will tell some story or some reflection, etc.
But other times they were very important and strongly emotional, with some rituals going on, where we had to pledge alliance to “Escuela Montsalvat”, or to “Christ”, or to “Samuel Aun Weor”, etc…
One of these psychologically strong rituals was the pledge of fidelity, near the end of the course (already completely indoctrinated).
In this “ceremony” inside the “temple”, we had to come to the front one by one and with one hand on a Bible, which was held by Nefer Baron, and with the other hand on the so-called “sword of the Master Samael Aun Weor”, which was held by Ernesto Baron, we had to read out lout some sentences, taking an oath of eternal fidelity to “the holy order of Monsalvat”. We had to say that “if we would ever break that promise, that the law would fall over us”.
What “the law falling over us” means exactly we were not told, but due to stories that had been told to us during the course and in the past, it was clear that it would mean that something terrible could happen to us like an accident, an incurable disease and of course losing our soul and going to hell…
So this fidelity became a question of life or death.
This “fear” to never leave the cult was placed inside us, and that “ceremony” was a huge psychological and emotional manipulation.
At the end of all that “ritual”, some of us received a ring, as a sign of loyalty. The inscription in the ring was “Montsalvat semper fidelis”.
(Of course, everyone who received the ring had to pay in cash for it)
The important point is, that whatever was the activity, the temple is sacred and we should be grateful to “Our Beloved Directors” for the opportunity.
Infinite other things could be said about the “course” experience, but the intention here is just to give an overview of what it was.
There were Sunday activities, some sports activities, assisting films and movies, party celebrations, theatre plays presented by groups or nationality, and so on…
And the big theme of UFOs, showing us all kinds of footage (some very foolish) and making us believe that it was UFOs with some Pleiadians, or sometimes Arthurians, etc. (see more about that in the 2012 section)
We did never leave the area during those 3 months, never saw any person other than those participating in the course, and almost no contact with family (only allowed calls if it was really necessary).
At the end there was a big party celebration, where we will know where is going to be our destiny as “professor”, to deliver the knowledge to humanity. You never go alone to that destiny, or you go as a couple, or together with another new professor, or you will join an old one.
In that sense you are always under surveillance, one can always watch the other (and report in the name of “fidelity” to the greater good).
When you arrive at the place of “mission”, there is a hierarchical structure (organized by country or zone) that you have to report periodically about your situation, report about sexual “quedas”, report about your partner and so on…
You have to open a delegation in your assigned destiny, find a job to be able to rent some kind of room to deliver the lectures, find some way to get students and constantly report your activity.
If after a while you do not have students, then you start being a target of pressure, that you are not doing enough, so you should increase the amount of lectures, pay for advertising, create some way to get students… or you will be seen as a loser.
Then, life becomes so busy that you will never have time again to even think your own thoughts, everything is full with activities, events, getting money to pay all the participations, every week you have professors gatherings to watch the videos "Alcyon Pleiades" (code name inside CEA for those videos is “AP” ou “Capitulos"), or to read some chapter of some book, or sing some mantram… life becomes really full of garbage content, infinite stress, pressure to get money to participate in the activities and events, travel to the “Escuela” to help in the maintenance, and so on and on and on…
In my case, there was the extra step of joining the video team, but there are many other teams that demand the full time of the person's life. The bottom line is that no one is able to have a normal life again, there is barely anyone in the CEA that after being “professor” had some days of holidays, never again!
Life becomes a drag, a rush into life annihilation, depression, cognitive dissonance between reality and belief, partition of mind and identity, dissociation between what you are and what you should be under the eyes of this cult and his twisted narcissistic leader Ernesto Cabrón and his self-deceived holy wife Maestra Nefer.
Events...
There are different events organized by CEA, being the main ones the international gatherings that can occur in any part of the world (between 5 to 7 days).
There are (or used to be) other types of events, for instance, European gatherings or South America gatherings, that were more local and not open for all members, in fact, those were made secret from the “non invited”.
For instance, if there is a South America gathering, the European members will not know about that.
Only a little group would know, the people that were needed for the realization of the event (teams, collaborators, etc)
All the other members will not know about that event, or they will know only a long time after it had happened.
The events can have different names like “Dharmalaya”, “Congress”, "Seminar", etc... They can differ a little from one another, but those differences are minimal, the structure is always the same.
Those events are quite expensive, the price is not fixed for everyone, because of the different locations from where people travel.
I had always traveled from Europe, and the last one (Japan 2018) in my case had the price of around 5.000 Euros per person.
This includes the airplane ticket, the hotel, 1 meal per day and the entrance to the event. Everyone is led to believe that the travel is very expensive, and no one dares to talk about why it is so expensive.
There was never a clear description of the values, or the cost of anything. There is just presented the total price, nothing else. There was a huge pressure to participate, always reinforcing how important it is for our souls and for humanity.
The events from the last years that I had participated in, were gatherings of around 2000 people.
They always occur in a 5-star hotel, or very expensive conference hall, where Ernesto and Nefer Baron had their stay on the most luxurious suite or penthouse available.
Every day, people gather in the main hotel (some come from other hotels), everyone has to be in the place of the lectures hours before it starts. Then there is a strict security protocol to follow every day, where everyone is scanned and frisked, because no one is allowed to bring inside more than the official pen and notebook (that is distributed on the 1st day), besides some personal medication, kleenex, or something alike.
Everyone has to leave the phone in the hotel room and it is extremely forbidden to use it outside of it. This is punishable and you can get expelled from the event if you do not follow those rules.
Everything is recorded, there are cameras everywhere and a huge team that is dedicated to video recording, everyone is under extreme surveillance and there is always present this feeling of being watched.
There is also a team called “vigilantes” (watchmen) that walk around always exerting the pressure of surveillance upon everyone. And also a team of women that organizes and sits everyone by zones.
As a footnote, I was participating in one of those “watchmen” teams, and it is absurd how the people behave depending on if they are in the range of one watchman, or not. Soon as they notice one, they change their posture, becoming fearful and rigid.
All because it is an extremely repressive environment where anyone can report or “inform” you about any suspicious behavior or word you can say.
It is very easy to maintain order under those conditions, but in the end, everyone is just being mind and behavior controlled. This creates the "ground" and prepares for indoctrination without independent thought. Everything has to fit on the collective order, no individual activity is allowed, and everyone has to dress and talk according to the predefined “indications”. If there is a slightly noticed difference from the "herd", you become a suspect and for sure that someone will inform about the fact.
In this manner it is impossible to have any true conversation or human sharing, the relations between people go just till a certain point, which makes everyone a stranger, despite the fact that we are supposedly a “brotherhood”.
After the security frisk, we enter the lecture hall and sit normally for more than 1 hour waiting. During this waiting, there is music, relaxing music and it is noticeable how people start to enter in a kind of alpha brain state. There is some numbness appearing and everyone gets a little sleepy, entering in more relaxed brain waves.
After this waiting, the “Directors” are announced with big enthusiasm: “Let us welcome with a huge applause, the invited speakers, our beloved directors of Escuela Montsalvat, Ernesto and Nefer Barón!”.
Everyone stands up applauding very intensively and there is a huge euphoria in the room, applauding and applauding till it becomes ridiculous, if it was seen from the outside.
Then there are some initial words (from Ernesto Barón), and after a while the numbness and sleep come back, opening the ground for the lectures that follow. The ambiance helps the indoctrination via alpha and lower brain waves in a collective hypnotic state.
Most people fight against the sleepy state, which is seen as being an ego resistance to the knowledge (it is punishable), and sometimes the experience of the lecture is just your own fight against sleep.
Of course that the sleepiness is just the normal reaction to an extremely boring lecture, with no real interest from the listeners.
No one falls asleep if they are interested in the subject…
The lectures are basically the reading of the new book that will come out during the event, that will be available to buy. Those lectures were always accompanied by images and multimedia that were prepared in advance by some specific team of “professors” (similar to the video teams).
Besides these lectures, there is also “practical psychology” that consists in bringing some person on the stage, in front of everyone, and Ernesto deals with some aspect of that person. Normally the person gets in this position because of some “inform” or report that was made about him or her.
This “practice” can have very different developments and consequences for the person, that can differ from a mild reprehension to the expel from the event or the institution.
There is always this public exposure that can be traumatic not just for the person exposed, but most important for everyone else because no one wants to be in that position of exposure. Again there is this machination of control thru fear and repression, that brings traumatic experiences to the participants.
On the last day, there is always some traveling on buses to touristic crowded places, and at the end of the day, there is a celebration - “La Clausura” (closing ceremony). This ceremony is just a formal dinner, with everyone very well dressed and then a presentation of various performances that were prepared by delegation (country) before. Between performances there is music and everyone is invited to dance with our “beloved Directors”… It can be fun, but the cameras are still recording and everyone is still under surveillance (remembering that you can only dance in a certain way!)
Those events are like everything in CEA, it is not a bad experience by itself, but in reality, is a waste of time. After all, I found no answers to the questions that I was hoping to answer when, many years ago, I decided to go to my first “lecture” in my hometown.
It is strange that the moment where everyone seems happy is on the last day. Maybe is because you made it till the end, then you feel good, even if it is an illusion, it is a moment of internal euphoria.
Everyone becomes slightly open and happy, is this the effect of the knowledge received? Or for the “internal” work that was done during the event?
Hum….
In all the events that I participated in, I saw no real interest in discovering what life is about, what is the role of a human being, what is our place in existence…
It is just a theatre where money and status have a big role, stories of kings and queens, fairytales that can only postpone what promises…
...but the real cost of that is tremendous. Real spirituality gets lost in those mind games, life shuts down.
From 2004 till 2020 I participated in many gatherings, and at the end, there is always an awarding of diplomas, where you can feel that you made it, a kind of proof of graduation, that is delivered in bulk and later distributed by the responsible of country.
I have a lot of “degrees” on the matter, and here are some diplomas and other stuff from my collection :)
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