Woman ‘Cooked to Death’ at Retreat with New Age Guru

Last summer, Chantale Lavigne  was attending a retreat in Quebec hosted by Gabrielle Frechette, a self styled therapist and New Age guru, when the unthinkable happened.  After a grueling session called “Dying in Consciousness”, Frenchette called 911 to report that Lavigne and another woman were unconscious.  While the second victim survived, Lavigne sadly passed away.

Nearly a year later, police have completed their report.  It is now up to prosecutors to decide whether to press charges, and if so what those charges will be.

Dying in Consciousness was a seminar that consisted of being covered with mud, wrapped in plastic, put under blankets and immobilized with heads in cardboard boxes for about nine hours, under instructions to hyperventilate.  Lavigne had reportedly completed 85 sessions and paid more than $18,900 to Frechette for the ordeal.  Her last visit had grisly consequences.  Radio-Canada quoted coroner Gilles Sainton as saying the 35-year-old mother of two from St. Albert, Que., “was cooked to death.”

Frechette’s retreats and seminars were originally reported to be a detoxing spa treatment.  However, it was later learned that the woman was leading more of a self-improvement group that put her in a guru like status.  She claims that she channels the Biblical figure Melchisedech, and has been presiding over these sessions for over 20 years.

Frechette claims that over 2,000 people have successfully attended her retreats.

For more on the story please visit the following links:

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/01/26/quebec-woman-was-cooked-to-death-at-retreat-coroner-says/

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/01/25/chantal-lavigne-durham-death-enquete.html

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