History of Raëlism - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Throughout the history of Raëlism, members of the Raëlian Movement

Raëlism

Raëlism is a UFO religion that was founded in 1974 by Claude Vorilhon, now known as Raël.The Raëlian Movement teaches that life on Earth was scientifically created by a species of extraterrestrials, which they call the Elohim...

have advocated the use of sex-positive feminism

Sex-positive feminism

Sex-positive feminism, also known as pro-sex feminism, sex-radical feminism, or sexually liberal feminism is a movement that began in the early 1980s...

, condoms, birth control

Birth control

Birth control is an umbrella term for several techniques and methods used to prevent fertilization or to interrupt pregnancy at various stages. Birth control techniques and methods include contraception , contragestion and abortion...

, masturbation

Masturbation

Masturbation refers to sexual stimulation of a person's own genitals, usually to the point of orgasm. The stimulation can be performed manually, by use of objects or tools, or by some combination of these methods. Masturbation is a common form of autoeroticism...

, meditation

Meditation

Meditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit....

, genetically modified organisms, and human cloning

Human cloning

Human cloning is the creation of a genetically identical copy of a human. It does not usually refer to monozygotic multiple births nor the reproduction of human cells or tissue. The ethics of cloning is an extremely controversial issue...

. In the past, projects such as Clonaid

Clonaid

Clonaid is a human cloning company founded in 1997. It has philosophical ties with the Raëlian sect, which sees cloning as the first step in achieving immortality. On December 27, 2002, Clonaid's chief executive, Brigitte Boisselier, claimed that a baby clone, named Eve, was born. Media coverage of...

, for human cloning, and Clitoraid, for repairing genitally mutilated clitoris

Clitoris

The clitoris is a sexual organ that is present only in female mammals. In humans, the visible button-like portion is located near the anterior junction of the labia minora, above the opening of the urethra and vagina. Unlike the penis, which is homologous to the clitoris, the clitoris does not...

es, have been founded. Raëlians

Raëlism

are also believers of the Raëlian movement's

Raëlism

version of its history as described in the books written by Claude Vorilhon.

Early years

The beginnings of Raëlian

Raëlism

history goes back to the history of Raël, which concerns the origins of Raël, his personage, and his works, which developed from Claude Vorilhon. The personage purportedly began as the result of encounters described in Raëlian Messages, mainly from The Book Which Tells the Truth (1974) and Extraterrestrials Took Me to their Planet (1975). None of these encounters is verified from a factual standpoint but they tie in to the beliefs of Raëlians.

Raëlian

Raëlism

books are a primary source of Raël's history. Translated portions of the original text are distributed freely worldwide in 34 languages on the Internet. Some of the books include the contents of multiple Raëlian

Raëlism

books and have testimonials, footnotes, updates, and hyperlinks appended to them. In addition to the Raëlian books, a Canadian sociologist named Susan J. Palmer

Susan J. Palmer

Susan Jean Palmer is a Canadian sociologist and author with a primary research interest new religious movements. She is a professor of Religious Studies at Dawson College in Montreal, Quebec, and an adjunct professor at Concordia University, teaching sociology of religion courses.-Biography:Palmer...

writes about Raël's struggle to organize the young Raëlian movement.

Founding

According to Raëlian beliefs, on the morning of December 13, 1973 (Julian Date 2442029), Claude Vorilhon — who was at the time a professional test driver and automobile journalist

Journalist

A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...

for the Autopop Magazine — had a first meeting with an extraterrestrial humanoid, an Eloha (plural: Elohim), who landed a UFO within an inactive volcano called Puy de Lassolas near the capital of Auvergne

Auvergne (région)

Auvergne is one of the 27 administrative regions of France. It comprises the 4 departments of Allier, Puy de Dome, Cantal and Haute Loire.The current administrative region of Auvergne is larger than the historical province of Auvergne, and includes provinces and areas that historically were not...

, France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

(Clermont-Ferrand

Clermont-Ferrand

Clermont-Ferrand is a city and commune of France, in the Auvergne region, with a population of 140,700 . Its metropolitan area had 409,558 inhabitants at the 1999 census. It is the prefecture of the Puy-de-Dôme department...

).

Two days later, in the third meeting, an Eloha referred to similar

Similarity (geometry)

Two geometrical objects are called similar if they both have the same shape. More precisely, either one is congruent to the result of a uniform scaling of the other...

insignias: one engraved his spaceship and one on his spacesuit. Both were formed by interlocked triangles which according to the Eloha, means "as above, so below" enclosing swastika

Swastika

The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form in counter clock motion or its mirrored left-facing form in clock motion. Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient...

which means "all is cyclic in infinite time". In Raëlism, the swastika

Swastika

symbolizes, "The choice between paradise, which the peaceful use of science makes possible, and the hell of returning to the primitive stage where humanity submits to nature instead of dominating and benefiting from it." This is the original emblem of the Raëlian Movement which is used primarily in the African and Asian continents.

Three days later, Claude Vorilhon meets Yahweh Elohim for the last time that year on a Tuesday. On that day, Vorilhon was given the name for the religious movement which he was to establish. The six-letter name is "MADECH", which stands for "mouvement pour l‘accueil des Elohim créateurs de l’humanité" or "movement for welcoming the Elohim, creators of humanity". It also stands for "Moise a devancé Elie et le Christ" meaning "Moses

Moses

Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...

preceded Elijah and the Christ

Christ

Christ is the English term for the Greek meaning "the anointed one". It is a translation of the Hebrew , usually transliterated into English as Messiah or Mashiach...

". The "New Commandments" presented to him on that Tuesday concerned the establishment of Geniocracy, Economic Humanitarianism, World Government, and his mission to catalyze these endeavors and to hasten the return of the Elohim to Earth.

On September 19, 1974, Claude Vorilhon held his first public conference Paris, France

France

which attracted more than 2000 people. Soon after, Raël founded and began to establish MADECH. On December 13, this was brought into fruition as 170 MADECH members gathered at Puy de Lassolas and formed an organization of "a president, a treasurer, and a secretary" who each signed a 10,000 franc

Franc

The franc is the name of several currency units, most notably the Swiss franc, still a major world currency today due to the prominence of Swiss financial institutions and the former currency of France, the French franc until the Euro was adopted in 1999...

check payable towards the publication of the first Raëlian book.

Susan J. Palmer

Susan J. Palmer

commented that in UFO platform societies like the MADECH organization, there was no obligation of membership and commitment like those found in cults, but rather an open place where people could freely exchange their views and relate their experiences on the subject of UFOs. Only the first Raëlian book had surfaced at the time, and Palmer says it had consisted largely of a "creation myth and eschatology" but it had "no rituals, no priesthood, no experiential dimension, and no coherent system of ethics" which would lead to an organized movement that had any chance of committing to large projects guided by a leader.

At the Place de la République in March 1975, Claude Vorhilon staged a purging of leaders which hampered his own creativity. In the following month, Claude Vorhilon called for a meeting of the MADECH organization, which held its headquarters in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, and as its president, he conducted it with the intention to rid the organization from the kind of occultism and pseudoscience

Pseudoscience

Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...

which contradicted his physicalist

Physicalism

Physicalism is a philosophical position holding that everything which exists is no more extensive than its physical properties; that is, that there are no kinds of things other than physical things...

point of view. In addition to this, the MADECH officials had an increasing desire to blend in with the rest of the ufologists and trekkies

Trekkies

Trekkies is a 1997 documentary film directed by Roger Nygard about the devoted fans of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek franchise. Starring Denise Crosby , the movie contains interviews with Star Trek devotees, more commonly known as Trekkies...

and were becoming less interested in the Raëlian view of Elohim

Elohim

Elohim is a grammatically singular or plural noun for "god" or "gods" in both modern and ancient Hebrew language. When used with singular verbs and adjectives elohim is usually singular, "god" or especially, the God. When used with plural verbs and adjectives elohim is usually plural, "gods" or...

extraterrestrials. A schism was becoming more apparent among the officials, and subsequently Vorilhon dismissed all of them. Their positions were replaced by an inner circle of seven people whose mission was to inform the public of the Raëlian messages and to raise funds for building an embassy for extraterrestrials. Vorilhon says he resigned as president of MADECH by that June, because it seemed to him that MADECH could survive on its own and that he had made a mistake by structuring it into a form that he likened to a "petanque club or a war veterans' association." Then he speaks of a personal desire to settle in the countryside and write an autobiography of events happening prior to his purported extraterrestrial encounters beginning on December 13, 1973.

Sightings

In his book Intelligent Design, Raël claims the following events occurred. On July 31, 1975, along with his wife Marie-Paul and a devoted MADECH member, François, Raël sights a UFO near his new home in the countryside near Clermont-Ferrand

Clermont-Ferrand

, the town he previously had lived in. The glowing craft performed aerial start-and-go maneuvers along a zigzag path. Raël thought that this was a verification that the new location that he and his wife were now living in was the right place and time.

He said that on October 7, 1975, an hour before midnight, after having a sudden urge to observe the night sky, he decided to go to Roc Plat, an uninhabited place between two brooks surround by a forest. According to him a spacecraft suddenly landed and shone a bright light behind a bush. He said he then met the same extraterrestrial from his first encounter on December 13, 1973. He said after a few words, he was taken up in that spacecraft with the Eloha and sent to a remote base relatively close to the solar system where he was given a resort-style relaxation treatment.

He said that on the morning of October 8, received a lecture from Yahweh Elohim about his current achievement towards the foundation of MADECH, the need for geniocracy

Geniocracy

Geniocracy is the framework for a system of government which was first proposed by Rael in 1977 and which advocates problem-solving and creative intelligence as criteria for regional governance.-Definition:...

, Buddhism, and about the ideas of God and Soul, and later traveled to the Planet of the Eternals. He said the planet orbited around a very large star and had a climate similar to the rain forests of Earth. He later claimed to have sat down with the Eloha and had a meal with the major prophets including Buddha, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed. He said that a guide showed him installations which houses machines for creating biological robots. He gave a picture of his mother to a machine which he claimed created similarly-appearing biological robot. He said that in the night, he received an introduction to bedroom his future home at the Planet of the Eternals and was presented young, mature female biological robots. He said that before reaching a climax, he wore a helmet which plays music controlled by his thoughts which the females danced to. Then the climax happens.

He said that on the morning of October 9, he took a scented bath and that soon after, Yahweh Elohim (an extraterrestrial) presented Claude Vorilhon to a machine which maximized his faculties. Yahweh Elohim then gave advice to him, the one who has become Claude Raël. Claude Raël then spent a few more hours and enjoyed what that world had to offer while he was there, including meeting with the past messengers of the Elohim. By midnight of October 10 (Julian Date 2442695), 666 days after the first meeting with the Elohim and minutes after the last one, Claude Raël is back on Roc Plat.

He said that in the afternoon of October 7, 1976, at la Negrerie of France

France

, fifty Raëlians witnessed cotton-like substances falling from the sky which Raël said has a historical relationship to manna

Manna

Manna or Manna wa Salwa , sometimes or archaically spelled mana, is the name of an edible substance that God provided for the Israelites during their travels in the desert according to the Bible.It was said to be sweet to the taste, like honey....

. Raël said that manna

Manna

was a pulverized synthetic chemical food made by the Elohim, and that it was sent to Israelites on the ground in similar manner during their journey through an artificial passage in Red Sea

Red Sea

The Red Sea is a seawater inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. The connection to the ocean is in the south through the Bab el Mandeb strait and the Gulf of Aden. In the north, there is the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and the Gulf of Suez...

formed by a repulsion beam.

Geniocratic movement

In 1978, Raëlians had a conference for the French press announcing their vision for a worldwide political movement for Geniocracy

Geniocracy

. In March 1978, one their members was voted onto the city council of Sarlat. However, in the previous December, the authoritarian nature of the Geniocratic

Geniocracy

model of government, the Raëlians being a sect, and the swastika in their logo prompted the police to seize documents in Raël's home as well as the homes of other Raëlians.

Claude Raël travels around the world

From 1980 to 1992, Raël and his movement became increasingly global. Beginning from 1980, Claude Raël's fifth Raëlian book Sensual Meditation was published for the first time and formal publication of the Raëlian Messages in the Japanese language began as part of the Raëlian mission to Japan. Two years later, Africa became another target area in the mission to spread the Raëlian messages. In May 1983, Claude Raël visited a famous landmark that survived the atomic bombing at Hiroshima

Hiroshima

is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

known as the Hiroshima Peace Memorial

Hiroshima Peace Memorial

Hiroshima Peace Memorial, commonly called the Atomic Bomb Dome or , in Hiroshima, Japan, is part of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. The ruin serves as a memorial to the people who were killed in the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6,...

.

At sundown in 1986, in a restaurant next to Villa Pamphilli park—just outside Vatican City

Vatican City

Vatican City , or Vatican City State, in Italian officially Stato della Città del Vaticano , which translates literally as State of the City of the Vatican, is a landlocked sovereign city-state whose territory consists of a walled enclave within the city of Rome, Italy. It has an area of...

—Raël began claiming to members that he was the true pope and played a guitar hymn about extraterrestrials. In 1990, Australians became the next Raëlian target, and in 1992, Canada's Raëlians purchased 115 hectares near Valcourt, Quebec

Quebec

Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

for a series of summer seminars in North America, and their leader gave it the name "Le Jardin du Prophète" (The Prophet's Gardens).

First wave of sexual advocacy

Quebec remained as the epicenter for Raëlian campaigns and testing of experimental ideas. In December 1992, a project—Operation Condom—was launched in response to a veto of the Montreal Catholic School Commission against the installation of high school condom vending machines. A mobile condom vendor—a pink van dubbed the "condom-mobile"—was orchestrated by a Raëlian transsexual. The transsexual advocated the notion that extraterrestrial Elohim

Elohim

wanted the teens to live a long life of pleasure

Pleasure

Pleasure describes the broad class of mental states that humans and other animals experience as positive, enjoyable, or worth seeking. It includes more specific mental states such as happiness, entertainment, enjoyment, ecstasy, and euphoria...

and criticized the commission by quoting statistics about teen pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases. About 10,000 condoms were distributed.

In Montreal

Montreal

Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...

July 7, 1993, a conference about masturbation

Masturbation

entitled "Yes to Self-Love" was hosted by Betty Dodson

Betty Dodson

Betty Dodson is an American sex educator, author, and artist. Dodson held the first one-woman show of erotic art at the Wickersham Gallery in New York City in 1968. She left the art world to teach sex to women...

, Raël

Raël

Claude Maurice Marcel Vorilhon is the founder and current leader of the UFO religion known as Raëlism....

, and a Raëlian bishop. Betty Dodson, who came to Montreal the previous month, spoke about her dream of a worldwide masturbation campaign for the 2000 New Year's celebration. Raël described his view on self-love, saying it is how people become linked to the cosmos, while Daniel Chabot—a local college psychology professor—spoke about the psychological benefits of masturbation. Chabot's statements, along with his status with the sect and his purported use of his psychological credentials to attract new recruits led to some controversy with a corporation. The corporation won the suit but was ultimately charged by Chabot.

Raël's return to racing

In 1994, rich Japanese Raëlians rented a race car and showed it to Claude Vorilhon. They believed that it would generate publicity for the movement. Claude accepted the offer on the condition that the funding must not come from member tithes or embassy funding. So the funding of Raël's races which took place in the 1990s and early 2000s came mostly from well funded European and Japanese people.

Calls for religious and tax-exempt status

On October 7, 1994, Raëlians began implementing their own version of baptism in front of a baptismal font inside St. Peter's Basilica

St. Peter's Basilica

The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter , officially known in Italian as ' and commonly known as Saint Peter's Basilica, is a Late Renaissance church located within the Vatican City. Saint Peter's Basilica has the largest interior of any Christian church in the world...

, however, in response to Catholics' complaints, Vatican guards escorted the Raëlians to the exit gates of the city. In the same week, Raël purportedly handed a copy of his book Le Livre qui dit la vérité to Pope John Paul II

Pope John Paul II

Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...

.

In March 1995, the Raëlians attained religious-corporation

Religious corporation

A religious corporation is a type of religious non-profit organization, which has been incorporated under the law. Often these types of corporations are recognized under the law on a subnational level, for instance by a state or province government...

status in Quebec and was therefore eligible to apply for federal tax exemption in Canada. However the tax department refused the application since according to them, they did not meet the requirement of religions which believe in transcendental and immaterial beings. Raëlians made an appeal which did not go through. However, in the United States, the Raëlians' attempt to achieve tax-exempt status was a success.

Museum for the paranormal

In August 1997, UFOland—built by the Raëlians as the largest structure in North America made out of bales of hay—opened on their Valcourt estate. Its purpose was to inform the public about the Raëlian interpretation about the UFO phenomenon and to attract funds for the Raëlian Foundation
Raëlian Foundation
The Raëlian Foundation, is an organization which publishes and sells some copies of the Raëlian Messages and provides financial support for the guide of guides in the Raëlian Movement...

. The first room served as an attraction for their proposed Raëlian embassy for extraterrestrials. Audio visual presentations in six other rooms displayed teachings about the Raëlian message, sightings, and government cover-ups concerning UFOs. In 2001, UFOland was closed to the public. The reason given by the director for UFOland was that the revenue did not justify the costs—including two hour trips from Montreal.

Anti-clerical campaigns

In July 2001, Raëlians on the streets attracted Italians and Swiss people as they gave leaflets in protest to over a hundred child molesters in existence among Roman Catholic clergy in France. They recommended that parents should not send their children to Catholic confession. The Episcopal vicar

Vicar

In the broadest sense, a vicar is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior . In this sense, the title is comparable to lieutenant...

of Geneva sued the Raëlian Church for libel but did not win. The judge did not accept the charges for the reason that the Raëlians were not attacking the whole of the Catholic Church.

In October 2002, Raëlians in a Canadian anti-clerical parade held handed out Christian crosses to high school students. They were invited to burn the crosses in a park not far from Montreal's Mount Royal

Mount Royal

Mount Royal is a mountain in the city of Montreal, immediately west of downtown Montreal, Quebec, Canada, the city to which it gave its name.The mountain is part of the Monteregian Hills situated between the Laurentians and the Appalachians...

and to sign letters of apostasy from the Roman Catholic Church. The Quebec Association of Bishops called this "incitement to hatred", and several school boards attempted to prevent their students from meeting Raëlians.

Advocacy

On December 26, 2002, Brigitte Boisselier

Brigitte Boisselier

Brigitte Boisselier is the head of Clonaid, the "scientific wing" of the Raëlians. She has been a Raëlian since 1992 and primarily known for claiming that the company, run by church members, was the first organization to clone a full human being in the early 2000s...

, a Raëlian Bishop and CEO of a biotechnology company called Clonaid, announced the birth of baby Eve, a human clone, which at that point ignited much media attention, ethical debate, doubt, critics, and claims of a hoax. Spokespeople for the movement, such as Claude Vorilhon, have suggested that this is only first step in achieving a more important agenda, saying that that accelerated growth process and mind transfer

Mind transfer

Whole brain emulation or mind uploading is the hypothetical process of transferring or copying a conscious mind from a brain to a non-biological substrate by scanning and mapping a biological brain in detail and copying its state into a computer system or another computational device...

, in combination with cloning

Cloning

Cloning in biology is the process of producing similar populations of genetically identical individuals that occurs in nature when organisms such as bacteria, insects or plants reproduce asexually. Cloning in biotechnology refers to processes used to create copies of DNA fragments , cells , or...

are mechanisms by which eternal life

Immortality

Immortality is the ability to live forever. It is unknown whether human physical immortality is an achievable condition. Biological forms have inherent limitations which may or may not be able to be overcome through medical interventions or engineering...

may be achieved.

According to the Japan Today
Japan Today
Japan Today is an online newspaper based in Tokyo, Japan. Launched in September 2000 Japan Today publishes original content in English such as interviews and news stories, as well as translations of articles from popular Japanese magazines and newspapers. They are hosted by GPlus Media Co. Ltd....

of February 10, 2003, that Sunday, about sixty Raëlians celebrated with banners the purported birth of the first cloned babies: 1) a baby girl named Eve, 2) a daughter and clone of a Dutch lesbian, 3) a son and clone of a Japanese male. The small parade event began at Hiroshima Station

Hiroshima Station

is a JR West railway station located in Minami-ku, Hiroshima, Japan. Hiroshima Station is the terminal station for several lines, and all Sanyō Shinkansen trains stop here.-History:...

and ended at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

is a memorial park in the center of Hiroshima, Japan. It is dedicated to the legacy of Hiroshima as the first city in the world to suffer a nuclear attack, and to the memories of the bomb's direct and indirect victims ....

. In the article, figures by the observers and a representative of the movement suggest that one percent of Japan

Japan

's Raëlians participated in the event.

On August 6, 2003, the first day of Raëlian year 58 AH, a tech

Tech

Tech may refer to:*an abbreviation for technology, and terms that are derived from it**technical support, services providing assistance with technology products**techno, a form of electronic dance music...

article on the USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...

newspaper mentions an "unlikely ally" of the Monsanto Company, the Raëlian Movement of Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

. The movement gave vocal support in response to the company's support for genetically modified organism

Genetically modified organism

A genetically modified organism or genetically engineered organism is an organism whose genetic material has been altered using genetic engineering techniques. These techniques, generally known as recombinant DNA technology, use DNA molecules from different sources, which are combined into one...

s particularly in their country. Brazilian farmers have been using Monsanto's genetically engineered soy plant as well as the Roundup herbicide to which it was artificially adapted. The Raëlians spoke against the Brazilian government's ban on GMOs.

The Raëlian Movement promoted 2004 as the "year of atheism". On December 11, 2004, Raëlians marched in the Atheist Convention in Rome. One of them said, "[Just as] children need to understand that there is no Santa, people need to realize there is no God." In YouTube

YouTube

YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....

, Raëlians have posted videos in denial of the Holy Spirit

Holy Spirit

Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of the Hebrew Bible, but understood differently in the main Abrahamic religions.While the general concept of a "Spirit" that permeates the cosmos has been used in various religions Holy Spirit is a term introduced in English translations of...

in response to the Blasphemy Challenge. Despite their anti-religious leaning, Raëlians—who are philosophical materialists

Materialism

In philosophy, the theory of materialism holds that the only thing that exists is matter; that all things are composed of material and all phenomena are the result of material interactions. In other words, matter is the only substance...

—believe that a trained mind can achieve telepathic communication

Telepathy

Telepathy , is the induction of mental states from one mind to another. The term was coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, and has remained more popular than the more-correct expression thought-transference...

with extraterrestrial Elohim

Elohim

.
"The group of UFO believers wants to clone its most beautiful members"—the Raëlians—appeared in the October 2004 issue of Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...

magazine. On April 12, 2005, Raël and a few of his partners had a meeting with Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner

Hugh Hefner

Hugh Marston "Hef" Hefner is an American magazine publisher, founder and Chief Creative Officer of Playboy Enterprises.-Early life:...

at his Playboy Mansion

Playboy Mansion

The Playboy Mansion is the home of Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner. Located in the Holmby Hills area of Los Angeles, California, the mansion became famous during the 1970s through media reports of Hefner's lavish parties.-History:The house is described as being in the "Gothic-Tudor" style...

and were photographed in issue 269 of the Raëlian Contact newsletter.

Africa

In 2006, the Raëlian Movement vocally advocated the concept of a "United States of Africa" following a more honest and complete decolonization that would involve the disbanding of corrupt rulerships as a result of Africans returning to their non-Christian ancestors' religious and territorial roots, which existed before colonization by Europeans. However, Raëlians later emphasized that the word "Africa" was colonial in origin, so on December 28, an article in Raëlian Contact 325 suggested a different name: The United Kingdoms of Kama.

In the same year, the Raëlian Movement founded a public fundraising effort, Clitoraid, to pay for repairs of clitorises, especially for women in Africa where excision is rampant. In January 2007, two female Raëlians Lara Terstenjak and Nadine Gary presented themselves for organization at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo

AVN Adult Entertainment Expo

The AVN Adult Entertainment Expo is a trade show held each January in Las Vegas, Nevada, and is sponsored by the Adult Video News Magazine . The 2010 AVN Awards show was held during the Expo at the nearby Palms Casino Resort. The AEE is the largest pornography industry trade show in the United...

in Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas, Nevada

Las Vegas is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and is also the county seat of Clark County, Nevada. Las Vegas is an internationally renowned major resort city for gambling, shopping, and fine dining. The city bills itself as The Entertainment Capital of the World, and is famous...

to raise funds in support of the cause.

Relocation of the North American headquarters

In February 2007, the Raëlian Movement put up for sale the UFOland headquarters compound near the small village of Maricourt, Quebec

Maricourt, Quebec

Maricourt is a village of 437 people, part of the Le Val-Saint-François Regional County Municipality in the Eastern Townships region of Quebec.-References:...

for $2.95 million (Can.). Their intention was to shift the headquarters to somewhere in the southern United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, possibly to Palm Springs

Palm Springs, California

Palm Springs is a desert city in Riverside County, California, within the Coachella Valley. It is located approximately 37 miles east of San Bernardino, 111 miles east of Los Angeles and 136 miles northeast of San Diego...

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

.

In May 2007, George Knapp

George Knapp (journalist)

George Knapp is an award-winning American investigative journalist.A longtime fixture in Las Vegas media, he works at KLAS-TV and is also a frequent host of the Sunday night/Monday morning Coast To Coast AM syndicated radio show...

, the Chief Investigative Reporter of the KLAS-TV

KLAS-TV

KLAS-TV, virtual channel 8 , is the CBS-affiliated television station serving the Las Vegas, Nevada market; it is owned and operated by Landmark Media Enterprises...

station, reported the sale of the Canadian retreat. The Raëlian Movement was relocating their North American headquarters to Las Vegas, Nevada

Nevada

Nevada is a state in the western, mountain west, and southwestern regions of the United States. With an area of and a population of about 2.7 million, it is the 7th-largest and 35th-most populous state. Over two-thirds of Nevada's people live in the Las Vegas metropolitan area, which contains its...

. In Knapp's article, Ricky Roehr, the President of the Raëlian Movement in the United States, said the Raëlians chose Las Vegas because they thought that it was a happy and open-minded community. Knapp says the Raëlians plan to build a place or buy and renovate a hotel in order to conduct their seminars.

Members leaving after claims that Raëlian books were plagiarized from Jean Sendy's works

In November 2009, Wonjune Lee, an eleven-year member of the Raelian movement, came across information regarding works of fiction that were published by Jean Sendy

Jean Sendy

Jean Sendy is a French writer and translator, author of works on esoterica and UFO phenonema. He was also an early proponent of the ancient astronaut hypothesis.-Ancient Astronauts:...

, a prominent UFOlogist and French author. Particular passages in one of Sendy's works, "Those gods who made heaven & earth", published in 1969, were paralleled with particular passages in the Raelian book The book which tells the truth, published in 1974.

Cited texts

Lewis, James R. Controversial New Religions Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press
Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as...

, 2004. ISBN 019515682X.
Raël
Raël
Claude Maurice Marcel Vorilhon is the founder and current leader of the UFO religion known as Raëlism....

, Intelligent Design: Message from the Designers. Nova Distribution, 2006. ISBN 2940252203. - The messages given to Raël published in 1973, 1975, and 1979.
Palmer, Susan J.
Susan J. Palmer
Susan Jean Palmer is a Canadian sociologist and author with a primary research interest new religious movements. She is a professor of Religious Studies at Dawson College in Montreal, Quebec, and an adjunct professor at Concordia University, teaching sociology of religion courses.-Biography:Palmer...

Aliens Adored. Rutgers University Press
Rutgers University Press
Rutgers University Press is a nonprofit academic publishing house, operating in Piscataway, New Jersey under the auspices of Rutgers University.-History:...

, 2004. ISBN 0813534763.

Early years

Founding

Sightings

Geniocratic movement

Claude Raël travels around the world

First wave of sexual advocacy

Raël's return to racing

Calls for religious and tax-exempt status

Museum for the paranormal

Anti-clerical campaigns

Advocacy

Africa

Relocation of the North American headquarters

Members leaving after claims that Raëlian books were plagiarized from Jean Sendy's works

Cited texts

Further reading