Raëlian beliefs and practices - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Raëlian beliefs and practices concern the concepts and principles of the Raëlian Church, the religious mission of Claude Vorilhon, a former French auto racing

Auto racing

Auto racing is a motorsport involving the racing of cars for competition. It is one of the world's most watched televised sports.-The beginning of racing:...

journalist. Followers of Raëlism

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...

are believers in an advanced race of extraterrestrials called Elohim who created life on earth. Raëlians are individualists who believe in sexual self-determination. As advocates of the universal ethic and world peace, they believe the world would be better if genius

Genius

Genius is something or someone embodying exceptional intellectual ability, creativity, or originality, typically to a degree that is associated with the achievement of unprecedented insight....

es had an exclusive right to govern in what Rael terms 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:...

. As believers of life in outer space, they hope that human scientists will follow the path of the Elohim by achieving space travel through the cosmos and creating life on other planets. As believers in the resurrection

Resurrection

Resurrection refers to the literal coming back to life of the biologically dead. It is used both with respect to particular individuals or the belief in a General Resurrection of the dead at the end of the world. The General Resurrection is featured prominently in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim...

of Jesus Christ through a scientific cloning process (which includes memory transfer) by the Elohim, they encourage scientific research to extend life through cloning, however critics outside are doubtful of its possibility.

Active followers of Raëlianism have exhibited their 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...

and anti-war

Anti-war

An anti-war movement is a social movement, usually in opposition to a particular nation's decision to start or carry on an armed conflict, unconditional of a maybe-existing just cause. The term can also refer to pacifism, which is the opposition to all use of military force during conflicts. Many...

views through outdoor contacts such as parades. The major initiation rite in the Raëlian Church is the baptism or Transmission of the Cellular Plan and is enacted by upper-level members in the Raëlian clergy known as guides.

Structure of the Universe

Raël says that, "Everything is in everything." Inside the atoms of living things, he says, are living things made of atoms which themselves have living things made of atoms, and so on, to the infinitely small. The universe itself is contained in an atom inside of another universe, and so on, to the infinitely large. Because of the difference of mass, the activity of life inside in a living thing's atoms would undergo many millennia before enough time passes for that living thing to take a single step. Raëlians believe the universe is infinite and thus lacks a center. Because of this, one could not imagine an ethereal soul would go, due the universe's infinite nature. They believe that infinity exists in time as well as in space, for all levels of life.

Creation of life on Earth by extraterrestrials

In his book The Message Given to me by Extraterrestrials (now republished as Intelligent Design: Message from the Designers 2006 ISBN 2940252203), Vorilhon claims that on December 13, 1973, he found a spacecraft shaped like a flattened bell that landed inside Puy de Lassolas

Puy de Lassolas

The Puy de Lassolas is a volcano in the Chaîne des Puys in France, peaking at 1187 metres. It forms, with the Puy de la Vache, a group of volcanic craters. Together, they thus form two half craters...

, a volcano near the capital city 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...

. A 25,000-year-old human-like extraterrestrial

Extraterrestrial life

Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...

inside the spacecraft named Yahweh said that 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...

was the name that primitive people of Earth called members of his extraterrestrial race—who were seen as "those who came from the sky". Yahweh explained that Earth was originally void of life, with thick clouds and shallow seas, but the Elohim came, broke apart the clouds, exposed the seas to sunlight, built a continent, and synthesized a global ecosystem. Solar astronomy, terraformation, nanotechnology

Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology is the study of manipulating matter on an atomic and molecular scale. Generally, nanotechnology deals with developing materials, devices, or other structures possessing at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometres...

, and genetic engineering

Genetic engineering

Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification, is the direct human manipulation of an organism's genome using modern DNA technology. It involves the introduction of foreign DNA or synthetic genes into the organism of interest...

allowed Elohim to adapt life to Earth's thermal and chemical makeup.

Yahweh gave materialistic

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...

explanations of the Garden of Eden

Garden of Eden

The Garden of Eden is in the Bible's Book of Genesis as being the place where the first man, Adam, and his wife, Eve, lived after they were created by God. Literally, the Bible speaks about a garden in Eden...

, a large laboratory that was based on an artificially constructed continent; Noah's Ark

Noah's Ark

Noah's Ark is a vessel appearing in the Book of Genesis and the Quran . These narratives describe the construction of the ark by Noah at God's command to save himself, his family, and the world's animals from the worldwide deluge of the Great Flood.In the narrative of the ark, God sees the...

, a spaceship that preserved DNA that was used to resurrect animals through cloning; the Tower of Babel

Tower of Babel

The Tower of Babel , according to the Book of Genesis, was an enormous tower built in the plain of Shinar .According to the biblical account, a united humanity of the generations following the Great Flood, speaking a single language and migrating from the east, came to the land of Shinar, where...

, a rocket that was supposed to reach the creators' planet; and the Great Flood, the byproduct of a nuclear missile explosion that the Elohim sent. After tidal wave floods following the explosions receded, Elohim scattered the Israelites and had them speak the language of other tribes.

According to Vorilhon, Elohim contacted about forty people to act as their prophets on Earth, including 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...

, Elijah, Ezekiel

Book of Ezekiel

The Book of Ezekiel is the third of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, following the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah and preceding the Book of the Twelve....

, Buddha

Gautama Buddha

Siddhārtha Gautama was a spiritual teacher from the Indian subcontinent, on whose teachings Buddhism was founded. In most Buddhist traditions, he is regarded as the Supreme Buddha Siddhārtha Gautama (Sanskrit: सिद्धार्थ गौतम; Pali: Siddhattha Gotama) was a spiritual teacher from the Indian...

,
John the Baptist

John the Baptist

John the Baptist was an itinerant preacher and a major religious figure mentioned in the Canonical gospels. He is described in the Gospel of Luke as a relative of Jesus, who led a movement of baptism at the Jordan River...

, Jesus

Jesus

Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...

,
Muhammad

Muhammad

Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...

, and Joseph Smith. The religions thought to be from Elohimic origins include Judaism

Judaism

Judaism ) is the "religion, philosophy, and way of life" of the Jewish people...

, Buddhism

Buddhism

Buddhism is a religion and philosophy encompassing a variety of traditions, beliefs and practices, largely based on teachings attributed to Siddhartha Gautama, commonly known as the Buddha . The Buddha lived and taught in the northeastern Indian subcontinent some time between the 6th and 4th...

, Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

, Islam

Islam

Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...

, and Mormonism

Mormonism

Mormonism is the religion practiced by Mormons, and is the predominant religious tradition of the Latter Day Saint movement. This movement was founded by Joseph Smith, Jr. beginning in the 1820s as a form of Christian primitivism. During the 1830s and 1840s, Mormonism gradually distinguished itself...

.

From the Raëlian point of view, religious texts indicate that the Elohim would return at the age of Apocalypse

Apocalypse

An Apocalypse is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception, i.e. the veil to be lifted. The Apocalypse of John is the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament...

or Revelation

Revelation

In religion and theology, revelation is the revealing or disclosing, through active or passive communication with a supernatural or a divine entity...

(unveiling of the truth). Humans from another world would appear to drop down from the sky and meet in the embassy they have asked Raël to build for them and share their advanced scientific knowledge with humanity. Thus, one of their stated main goals of the Raëlian movement is to inform as many people as possible about this extraterrestrial race.

The controversy surrounding the origins of Raelian beliefs centers on the writings of several authors in the late 1960s. Jean Sendy, a French writer, translator, and author of books on the esoteric and UFOs wrote several novels detailing the creation of Earth by extraterrestrials. One of the best known researchers in this field is Erich van Däniken, the 'father' of the Ancient Astronauts theory, which postulates that Earth might have been visited by extraterrestrials in the remote past.

With the publication of Chariots of the Gods? in 1968, Erich von Däniken introduced the intervention theory to the general public. Von Däniken wrote that the technologies and religions of ancient civilizations were granted by extraterrestrials worshiped as gods. Von Däniken argued that only extraterrestrial intervention can explain the higher technological knowledge presumed to be essential for the production of ancient artifacts such as the Egyptian pyramids, Stonehenge and the Moai of Easter Island. Humans in ancient times considered this extraterrestrial high-tech to be supernatural and the aliens themselves to be 'gods'. One can find direct parallels to the messages that Vorilhon claimed to have received and written about in his books. Marie-Hélène Parent, ex-guide Raëlian priest, describes Sendy and Vorilhon meeting several times for drinks and conversation throughout the years of 1973 and 1974, prior to Vorilhon's claimed extraterrestrial encounter.

Humanity's chance of creating life on other planets

Raëlians believe that humanity would be able to create life on other planets only if it is peaceful enough to stop war. If done, humanity could travel the distances between stars and create life on another planet. Progress in terraformation, molecular biology, and cloning would enable these teams to create continents and life from scratch. Progress in social engineering

Social engineering (political science)

Social engineering is a discipline in political science that refers to efforts to influence popular attitudes and social behaviors on a large scale, whether by governments or private groups. In the political arena, the counterpart of social engineering is political engineering.For various reasons,...

would ensure that this creation would have a better chance of both surviving as well as having the potential to understand its creators. Research on how globalization would occur on another planet would allow scientists to decide what traces of their origin should be left behind so that their role in life creation would someday be revealed. The progress achieved by the science teams would ultimately sustain a perpetual chain of life.

A coming judgement

Raëlians do not believe in reincarnation as dictated by mystical writings because they do not believe that an ethereal soul

Soul

A soul in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions is the incorporeal essence of a person or living thing or object. Many philosophical and spiritual systems teach that humans have souls, and others teach that all living things and even inanimate objects have souls. The...

exists free of physical confinement. Instead the Raëlians think that advanced supercomputers of the Elohim are right now recording the memories and DNA of human beings. When Elohim release this information for the coming resurrection, people would be brought back from the dead and the judgments upon them would be realized based on actions in their past life. People excluded from physical recreation would include those who achieved nothing positive but were not evil. Vorilhon expressed an interest in cloning Hitler for war trials and retroactive punishment. Raël also mentioned cloning as the solution to terrorism

Terrorism

Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...

by suicide attacks, as the perpetrators would not be able to escape punishment by killing themselves if the Elohim recreated them after their attacks.

Initiation of new members

The major initiation rite in the Raëlian Church is the "baptism" or "transmission of the cellular plan" and is enacted by upper-level members in the Raëlian clergy known as guides. Canadian sociologist 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...

says that in 1979, Raël introduced the "Act of Apostasy" as an obligation for those preparing for their Raëlian baptism. CTV Television Network

CTV television network

CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...

states that apostasy

Apostasy

Apostasy , 'a defection or revolt', from ἀπό, apo, 'away, apart', στάσις, stasis, 'stand, 'standing') is the formal disaffiliation from or abandonment or renunciation of a religion by a person. One who commits apostasy is known as an apostate. These terms have a pejorative implication in everyday...

from other religions is required for new Raëlian members. Joining the Raëlian Church through transmission of the cellular plan happens only in certain days of the year. There are four such days—marking anniversaries in the Raëlian calendar.

The Raëlian baptism is known as transmission of the cellular plan where "cellular" refers to the organic cells of the body and the "plan" refers to the genetic makeup of the individual. This Raëlian baptism involves a guide member laying water onto the forehead of the new member. The practice began on "the first Sunday in April" of 1976 when Raël baptised 40 Raëlians. Raëlians believe that their genetic information is recorded by a remote computer and would become recognized during their final hour when they will be judged by the extraterrestrial Elohim

Elohim

.

There is continuing debate on whether Raëlians can be identified as a cult. The government of 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...

classifies the Raelian Movement as a "secte" (French word for cult

Cult

The word cult in current popular usage usually refers to a group whose beliefs or practices are considered abnormal or bizarre. The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices...

). However, according to Glenn McGee

Glenn McGee

Glenn Edwards McGee is an American bioethicist. He holds degrees in philosophy from Vanderbilt University and Baylor University and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in the Human Genome Project...

, the associate director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Virginia, part of the sect is a cult while the other part is a commercial website that collects large sums of money from those interested in human cloning. The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor

Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor

The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Affairs at the United States Department of State is one of three bureaus and two offices that constitute the Office of the Under Secretary for Global Affairs...

of the United States Department of State

United States Department of State

The United States Department of State , is the United States federal executive department responsible for international relations of the United States, equivalent to the foreign ministries of other countries...

and sociologist Susan J. Palmer

Susan J. Palmer

have classified the International Raëlian Movement as a religion.

Activism

Raëlians routinely advocate sex-positive feminism and genetically modified food and actively protest against wars in addition to the Catholic Church. For example, a photographer of the Associated Press snapped a picture of half-naked Raëlian women wearing pasties

Pasties

Pasties are adhesive coverings applied to cover a woman's nipples and areolae. Though pasties are commonly associated with burlesque and erotic entertainment, they are also at times worn as an undergarment and occasionally as beachwear.Some women wear pasties when wearing a strapless or backless...

as part of an anti-war demonstration in Seoul

Seoul

Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...

, Korea

Korea

Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

. A snapshot by Agence France-Presse revealed Raëlians in white alien costumes with signs bearing the message "NO WAR ... ET wants Peace, too!". On August 6, 2003, the first day of Raëlian year 58 AH, a tech 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.

Topless Rights of Women

Several Raëlian groups in the United States have organized annual protests, claiming that women should have the same legal right to go topless in public, that men enjoy without fear of arrest for indecent exposure. Some have called this a publicity stunt designed to recruit members. Go Topless Day is their annual event, with women protesting topless except for nipple pasties to avoid arrest. It is held near August 26, the anniversary of the day women were given the USA right to vote.

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.

Embassy for Extraterrestrials

Raëlians believe that life on earth—as well as many religions of the world—was the work of extraterrestrial influence. They believe these were scientists and that ancient people saw them as "gods" and gave the name "Elohim

Elohim

". Raëlians believe that the Embassy for Extraterrestrials or "Third Temple

The Third Temple

The Third Temple, or Ezekiel's Temple , is a temple architecturally described in the Book of Ezekiel...

" is to support an official contact with Extraterrestrial Elohim and their messengers of the main religions at the "New Jerusalem

New Jerusalem

In the book of Ezekiel, the Prophecy of New Jerusalem is Ezekiel's prophetic vision of a city to be established to the south of the Temple Mount that will be inhabited by the twelve tribes of Israel in the...

". Writers who have influenced Raëlian beliefs include Zechariah Sitchin and Erich von Däniken

Erich von Däniken

Erich Anton Paul von Däniken is a Swiss author best known for his controversial claims about extraterrestrial influences on early human culture, in books such as Chariots of the Gods?, published in 1968...

.

The International Raëlian Movement envisions having an entrance with an aseptic

Aseptic technique

Aseptic technique refers to a procedure that is performed under sterile conditions. This includes medical and laboratory techniques, such as with microbiological cultures. It includes techniques like flame sterilization...

chamber leading to a conference room for twenty-one people as well as a dining room of the same capacity. In the plan are seven rooms for the purpose of receiving human guests into the embassy. The embassy building, along with the swimming pool, would be in the center of a large park and protected from trespassing by a wall−a maximum of two stories-to surround the entire complex's circumference. Trees and bushes are to be planted in the outskirts of the wall's area. The walls are to have a northern and southern entrance. The landing pad for the embassy should be able fit a spaceship of twelve meters of diameter or 39'4" on its terrace. The terrace is to be above the rooms in the torus, which are for extraterrestrials only. The seven rooms directly underneath the landing pad would be protected from occupants of other rooms with a thick metal door. Finally, the International Raëlian Movement wants to avoid military and radar surveillance of the airspace above the embassy. Buildings for administration, food and water provisions, and state-of-the-art sanitation and communication systems are part of this vision. A nearby replica of the Raëlian Embassy for Extraterrestrials open to the public is expected to show visitors what it is like inside the real one.

In February 1991, the Raëlian Church modified their symbol to remove the swastika to help in negotiations with building the "Third Temple of Israel". The official reason given was a telepathic request from extraterrestrials called Elohim

Elohim

to change the symbol in order to help in negotiations with Israel for the building of a Raëlian "embassy" or "third temple of Israel" to greet the anticipated coming of extraterrestrials and founders of past religions, although the country still denies their request.

On December 13, 1997, the leader of the International Raëlian Movement had decided to extend the possibility of building the embassy outside of Jerusalem and also allow that a significant portion of the embassy property be covered with water. The area of the proposed embassy property is still envisioned at a minimum of 3.47 square kilometers, with a radius of at least 1.05 kilometers.

In 2005, the Israeli Raëlian Guide Kobi Drori stated that the Lebanese government was discussing proposals by the Raëlian movement to build their "interplanetary embassy" in Lebanon. However, one condition was that the Raëlians did not display their logo on top of the building because it mixes a swastika and a Star of David. According to Drori, the Raëlians involved declined this offer, as they wished to keep the symbol as is.

Ideas on how government and the economy should run

According to the book Geniocracy, creating a peaceful worldwide political union requires a form of government that favors intelligence over mediocrity. While having a democratic electoral apparatus, it differs from traditional liberal democracy

Liberal democracy

Liberal democracy, also known as constitutional democracy, is a common form of representative democracy. According to the principles of liberal democracy, elections should be free and fair, and the political process should be competitive...

by requiring members of the electorate to meet a minimum standard of intelligence. The thresholds proposed by the Raëlians are 50% above average for a candidate and 10% above average for a voter. Raëlians believe that a world government

World government

World government is the notion of a single common political authority for all of humanity. Its modern conception is rooted in European history, particularly in the philosophy of ancient Greece, in the political formation of the Roman Empire, and in the subsequent struggle between secular authority,...

is only possible through establishing a global currency, a common language, and a transformation of militaries of the world into civil police.

In Raël's book, Extraterrestrials took me to their planet, Raël claims that an extraterrestrial gave him the idea of Economic Humanitarianism. Under the establishment of Economic Humanitarianism, people would not have ownership of businesses or exploitable goods created by others. Instead, people would rent each of them for a period of 49 years. The founders would be able to receive the rents for up to 49 years or when they die, which ever is later. Any rents not inherited by relatives after 49 years would go to the State. By balancing inheritances, children would be born with enough financial means to forsake menial tasks for endeavors that may benefit the whole of humanity. Family houses could be inherited from generation to generation, free of rent.

In his much later book, Maitreya, Raël says the road to a world without money is capitalism and globalisation, as opposed to communism. Capitalism would allow those who contribute much to society to also contribute to its scientific and technological development. Under capitalism, society would produce as much money as it can. The money would become important in the short run as nanotechnology quickly lowers the cost of goods while putting many people out of work.

An anti-cult organization called Info-Cult argued that Geniocracy was a fascist

Fascism

Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

ideology. However, Geniocracy is not a political party because it allows for differing political viewpoints.

Liberal sensuality

According to Vorilhon's book Sensual Meditation, one should develop the ability to break free of habitual thoughts that prevent one from appreciating everyday phenomena. The book describes in detail six different meditations involving make full use of the lungs capacity to expand and contract, oxygenating the blood and the cells within, imagining heat travelling upwards from toe the head, allowing the skin to feel under itself, and experiencing touch with another person's body and examining their figure.

According to the book Maitreya by Vorilhon, love involves experiencing different varieties and possibilities that allow one to break habits in order to make life more pleasant and interesting and that it is the only thing which can stop war and injustice that persists in today's world. Raëlians believe in the right to form new religions or new political parties as long as they do not promote violence. As individualists, Raëlians believe that the one who gives the order to harm others is less at fault than the one who executes it.

Raëlians say they encourage adult homosexual, bisexual, and heterosexual relationships and that society should recognize them legally. However, government authorities such as those in Switzerland fear that Raëlians are a threat to public morals for supporting liberalized sex education

Sex education

Sex education refers to formal programs of instruction on a wide range of issues relating to human sexuality, including human sexual anatomy, sexual reproduction, sexual intercourse, reproductive health, emotional relations, reproductive rights and responsibilities, abstinence, contraception, and...

for children. The authorities believe that such liberalized sex education teaches youth how to obtain sexual gratification which would encourage sexual abuse of underage children. The Raëlians disagree with those fears and stated that sex education done properly would involve educating parents as well as children.

Susan J. Palmer writes that in 1991, a French journalist went to a Raëlian Seminar and taped couples having sexual intercourse in tents. These tapes gained widespread publicity—with news stories describing these practices as perverted and a form of brainwashing.

Since 1991, Raël

Raël

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

's teachings on sexual intercourse have caused controversy among other religious groups. The next year, Catholic schools 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...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

objected to a proposed condom vending machine as contrary to their mission. In response, Raëlian guides gave the Catholic students ten thousand condoms. The Commissioner of Catholic schools for Montreal said they could do nothing to stop them. Around this time, Raëlians dubbed the event "Operation Condom".

Cloning of humans

In the scientific community, reproductive 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...

refers only to the creation of a genetically identical living thing. "Genetically identical" does not mean altogether identical; this kind of cloning does not reproduce a living thing's memories or experiences, for example. However, in discussions of Raëlianism, cloning sometimes seems to refer not only to reproductive cloning, but also reproductive 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...

plus mind and/or brain transfer, or to a process of making adult clones. Raëlians take this even further and say that humanity can attain 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...

through the science of cloning.

According to the book Yes to Human Cloning, the first stage of this extended cloning process is creating a human embryo through human cloning

Human cloning

. Raëlian bishop and Clonaid CEO 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...

claimed that an American woman underwent a cloning procedure of this type that led to the birth of a girl named Eve on December 26, 2002. Vorilhon told lawmakers that banning the development of human cloning was comparable to outlawing medical advances such "antibiotics, blood transfusions, and vaccines."

The second stage of cloning, according to Raëlians, is causing the clone to mature faster than normal. Raël says that in the future, scientists will discover an "accelerated-growth process" in which a process like guided self-assembly

Self-assembly

Self-assembly is a term used to describe processes in which a disordered system of pre-existing components forms an organized structure or pattern as a consequence of specific, local interactions among the components themselves, without external direction...

of rapidly expanded cells or even nanotechnological

Nanotechnology

assembly of a whole human body

Human body

The human body is the entire structure of a human organism, and consists of a head, neck, torso, two arms and two legs.By the time the human reaches adulthood, the body consists of close to 100 trillion cells, the basic unit of life...

can form in a very short time.

The third stage is the transfer of memory and personality from the original person to the mature clone. For the process to maintain one branch one personality and memory, as opposed to two, a recording of the individual's mind would be required before the time of death, and would be transferred to an adult clone body after the original has died.

In the final stages of development, hitherto unknown information contained within undamaged DNA would be enough to bring others back from the dead including their memories and personality. This would be done by taking a small sample from someone's body and preserving it at the time when the level of the brain's efficiency and knowledge is highest. On the day of death, a cell would be taken from the sample for the cloning to take place, and the memories and personality would be restored to their peak level.

The Raëlian Church has close links with the controversial company 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...

. Brigitte Boisselier

Brigitte Boisselier

, a Raëlian and chief executive of Clonaid

Clonaid

, made a controversial and unverified claim that a human baby was conceived through cloning technology. Around this time, Clonaid's subsidiary BioFusion Tech claimed to have in possession a cell fusion device that assisted the cloning of human embryos. The Vatican

Holy See

The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...

, however, says that experimenters expressed "brutal mentality" for attempting to clone human beings. Pope

Pope

The Pope is the Bishop of Rome, a position that makes him the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church . In the Catholic Church, the Pope is regarded as the successor of Saint Peter, the Apostle...

John Paul II criticized the experiment which he believes threatens the dignity of human life. In response, the leader of the Raëlian Church dismissed the Pope's ethical concerns, calling them an "accumulation of religious prejudices."

External links

Who are the Raëlians? David Chazan, BBC News 2002.
The Raëlian books compared to Jean Sendy's
Testimonies by ex-Raelians Site by former Raelian.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

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Cloning of humans

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