Buddhist leader arrested after trying to control followers' minds with mercury-containing 'medicines'

In the laboratory of the leader’s Buddhist settlement, police discovered a bunker containing 180 kilograms of mercury and cinnabar. Photo: Policía Nacional < p>The leader of a Buddhist sect has been arrested in Spain, accused of trying to control the minds of his followers with homemade medicines containing mercury.

Jose Manuel Canovas, a 50-year-old Spaniard who was known to his followers as Total Transcendence ran a 10-hectare Buddhist settlement in the Murcia region for 15 years, teaching Eastern philosophy, yoga, meditation and spiritual healing.

According to the Spanish National Police, Mr Canovas spent most of his time in one of several cave houses on the hotel grounds, where he had a laboratory in which he claimed to practice alchemy, working to create an elixir with supposed restorative effects . He named the mixture «purified mercury» after the highly poisonous metal it contained.

The products of these experiments were given to members of the sect, and were also sold online and in herbalists' shops.

p>» Using various techniques of coercive manipulation, including the administration of dangerous psychoactive substances, he sought to manipulate the will of his followers in order to gain power over them and for financial gain,” the police statement said.

According to investigators, cult followers who assisted Mr. Canovas in his work experienced various symptoms apparently caused by the neurotoxic effects of mercury exposure.

Police also noted that the detainee did not have a safe disposal method . for the chemicals he used and dumped mercury-containing substances into the facility's septic tank.

Police found a bunker containing 180 kilograms of mercury and cinnabar, or mercuric sulfide, an ore from which the metal can be extracted.

Mr. Canovas, who traveled in India and claimed to have studied with Buddhist lamas, was assisted by several women who, police said, had cut off all contact with their families.

They also joined their leader in long vows of silence.

Membership of the so-called Mahasandhi Foundation cost up to 2,000 euros per year, and the organization also asked for donations on its website.

The foundation included Among its goals is the construction of “the largest Buddha statue in Europe.”