The Keppe Cult

From Brazil, the eighth wonder of the world: Norberto R. Keppe!

The Gothenburg Book Fair is an event that dominates Swedish media (not that that's very hard) for four days every September. Every year, a country or similar is "in focus". This year, Brazil is the chosen one. So, what do we get in the way of culture from the big country?

In the list of exhibitors, the foreign ones are conveniently grouped. In the Brazilian section there is, as expected, a hefty line of names. That all but one are located in the same two booths is nothing unusual, you'll often see several exhibitors sharing a bigger booth. On a closer look, however, one of the booths does catch the attention of the skeptical eye:


The Good Action ("Den goda handlingen", in Portuguese Ação no Bem), Grande Hotel Trilogia, Keppe & Pacheco Instituto Educacional, The Keppe Motor, Proton Editoria, STOP the Destruction of the World and Trilogy Institute are seven branches on the same tree: The cult of Norberto R. Keppe.

I've briefly studied this major crank before and been amazed by his many, diverse and elaborate delusions. This is a guy who doesn't merely stand on the shoulders of Newton, Pasteur and Einstein, he tramples them into a pulp. Norberto Keppe has, for example:

• discovered a theory of physics far superiour to anything the world has ever seen before (it's crown jewel is the Keppe motor, which in practice is a perpetuum mobile)
• found that diseases are not caused by bacteria and viruses but are all psychological
• found that vaccines are dangerous and should be avoided
• invented a way to learn languages much faster, with improved health, relationships etc as bonuses
• created a combination of capitalism and marxism with the benefits of both and the disadvantages of none

And on it goes ... The major work of Norberto Keppe, on which many others are based, is his "analytical trilogy" (a development of his earlier integral psychoanalysis). It is, believe it or not, a unification of science, philosophy and theology, hence the name. And by the way, it's also the cure of all the world's ailments, physical, political, and what have you.

- Roberto Giraldi, "The Myth of E Coli Bacteria", STOP the Destruction of the World - Journal of Trilogical Science, "Year IV no 54"

It seems as if Norberto Keppe has tried to spread his pseudoscienctific verve over as many fields as possible. His faithful sidekick Cláudia Bernhardt de Souza Pacheco has a fearsome CV as well, and they release a steady stream of Youtube clips where they solve the problems of the world. And then there's Gilbert Gambucci, who "analyzes the pathology of those who wield economic power" (code for the eternal Jew), in other words goes on about the usual conspiracy theories, for hour after hour on Youtube. In short, here's something for everyone.

Like many other cults, the cult of Keppe has a taste for creating many organizations. I'm not sure why. It's probably not to make it harder to track them, since all I've seen are proudly cluttered with NRK references. Perhaps the point is to look bigger.

The mission of the STOP the Destruction of the World Association is to provide consciousness of the root causes of human and social illness and offer therapy based on the Analytical Trilogy science of psycho-socio pathology to heal them.

- One of the branches tells us what it's supposed to do

Let's take just one more example (feel free to google, I won't link to these people): Cambuquira. It is a town (pop. 13 000) in south Brazil, not too far from São Paulo. If the many Keppe sites are to be trusted - that's a big if - this is a town that is virtually run by the cult. A new Jonestown?

Under this leadership, Cambuquira has become a living experiment where Brazilian psychoanalyst and social scientist, Dr. Norberto Keppe’s socio-economic proposals are being implemented. The finality of this initiative is “food, clothing and shelter free for everyone” and the vibrant volunteer project that has sprung up around this is involving more and more citizens of the town along with an international volunteer force associated with Keppe’s Society of Analytical Trilogy.

While looking for Keppe stuff, I found surprisingly little in the way of criticism and debunking. The only Wikipedia graced by his presence is, for some reason, the Finnish one. How come the saviour of the world isn't featured in a score of languages, in addition to the very obvious English and Portuguese? All I've found so far is a hint in another article, where Société internationale de trilogie analytique is mentioned in a French 1995 Parliamentary report on dangerous cults.

Is it the language barrier that keep more people from finding and studying the Keppe Cult and realizing what it is? So far, few skeptics seems to have shown much interest in the amazing world of Keppe, apart from minor parts like the comparably harmless motor. (Still, that's something you can debunk in the proper sense of the word, rather than the vast amounts of psycho-socio-woo the other branches of the cult keep us happy with.)

I will certainly pay a visit to booth B07:76 on the Gothenburg Book Fair. After all, they do represent a third of the number of exhibitors from the focus country.