ABSTRACT
The contents of this chapter are based on a particular empirical study which is contained in the report on neo-rural communities of an apocalyptic type in France today. Illness and health were not among the central themes of the study, at least not at the outset. The aim of the research was basically to analyse the link between these groups’ independent and geographically limited survival practices together with their catastrophic beliefs, and the fact that explicit religious interests often arise within these same groups. 1 However, during the course of the research, one thing became apparent: the importance of healing, in all the communities observed, in the process of constituting an apocalyptic conscience, linking the original catastrophic conviction with a certainty that survival is possible for individuals or small groups of people who are prepared and regenerated.
