Stocker and Kohler had formed a religiously fanatical cult. One of the members was a Carmelite nun, Sister Stella AKA Sternli or Little Star, nee, Olga Endres who claimed she had a telephone connection to heaven. The nun met Stocker and Kohler when they were in a pilgrimage in Jerusalem.
The three of them formed an unholy alliance. The nun provided the cult leaders with revelations. Stella became their child. Kohler ordered the nun to play with dolls. She claimed she was the mother and Stocker was the father. Stella lapsed into a mental state that resembled infantilism. She later said that she no longer had her own will and lived in constant fear. She was treated like a child. She said she was suffering from a "malignant delusion."
Professor Walter Nigg, church historian former with the Zurich University, believed that Bernadette was manipulated into a role that resembled that of a witch in the Middle Ages. She began to play a delusional part in the role that had been forced on her. She said she had done repulsive carnal things with the devil.
Dr. Bender believed that Bernadette felt she had lost God's support and that she had turned to the devil for his super powers.
Josef Hasler, Bernadette's father, offered his farm as a refuge to Stocker's and Kohler's cult. He gave Stocker and Kohler control of Bernadette and another daughter, Madeleine. He later said that he had no idea what would happen to his daughters.
The Holy Parents, as Stocker and Kohler called themselves took complete control of the girls who were not permitted contact with their own parents. The unholy alliance censored the Haslers' mail. Food was doled out to them. The family car was used by the alliance for their "missionary" work. The Haslers were subject to constant brainwashing. Josef was no longer permitted to talk to his wife and when she was taken to the hospital for a premature birth, was not permitted to visit her.
Kohler was the more dominant of the two. She and Stocker developed a following that was convinced that Bernadette had made a pact with the devil and needed physical punishment to exorcise the devil.
