By: Arehan Brand
Raëlianism
The religion of mad men
Remember the days when we were so obsessed with aliens and extra-terrestrials? One guy took it to the extreme by creating his own religion called: Raëlianism… leaving some men wondering: how hard is it to start your own religion?
A former motor-racing journalist, Claude Vorilhon (now known as Raël), went on a warm Summer’s day to Puy de Lassolas, a volcanic park in Auvergne, France, where he unexpectedly met a small green man who explained the origins of humans and how we should organise our future.
After a few more meetings, Vorilhon finally accepted the role of Prophet to the Elohim, our Creators, in order to spread the word of their existence and to prepare us to be more peaceful and ‘conscious’. ‘Conscious’ enough to welcome them by building them an Extra-terrestrial Embassy where they could come and share their knowledge with their creations.
According to Raël’s versions, Jesus, Buddha and many other prophets were mere messengers of the Elohim who came to inform humans of the Elohim each era.
In one of Raël’s books, The Message Given to me by Extra-terrestrials, he narrates his encounter with Yahweh, a 25 000-year-old humanlike-alien. According to Raël, on 31 December 1973, he went to Puy de Lassolas, the place he had his first encounter with an extra-terrestrial and discovered a spacecraft within a volcano. Inside it was Yahweh, who explained the origins of life on Earth and offered some explanations to some major Biblical themes.
These themes include: the Garden of Eden (which in the Raëlian sense is a major lab), Noah’s Ark (obviously a spaceship that conserved DNA for cloning processes) and the Tower of Babel, which is supposed to be a shuttle that was going to reach the Creators’ planet.
Side-note: Who goes to a volcanic park on 31 December – the last day of the year? Did Raël have a revelation that he would meet Elohim that day at that specific park? Not that I’m implying that he’s hallucinating… or lying.
When you thought things can’t get any more alienated, they do!
Two women-only groups were created by their Messiah. The first group, called the ‘Order of Angels’, is responsible for helping defend the Raëlian ideology. According to some, they are also responsible for helping donate eggs for cloning purposes. The other group, known as ‘Raël’s Girls’, consists of women working in the sex industry. Their main responsibility is to entertain and pleasure Raël – this probably explains where Charlie Sheen got his inspiration. It won’t come as a surprise that Raël and his ‘Girls’ also featured in Playboy.
It is no surprise that Raëliens share their women and men, as sharing is one of their ethics. Other ethics include promoting world peace, democracy and non-violence.
These seminars where the sexual adventures take place are often the target of criticism. News KNBC once referred to it as ‘a cross between a nudist camp and New-Age retreat’.
The baptism is quite similar to those of the Christian religion, but Raëlians believe that once the water touches the forehead of an ‘inductee’, that inductee’s genetic information is stored in a remote computer akin to Noah’s Ark. This ‘genetic information’ will then be used for Judgement Day when the Elohim returns to Earth to share their knowledge with their earthlings. No need to worry: according to Raël, the Elohim extra-terrestrials will only return in 2035 – enough time for you to have your soul saved and to start building that Extra-terrestrial Embassy.
Before you get too excited to join, there are a few things you first have to do. First you need an official ‘apostasy’: to scrap your name from your previous religion’s ‘lists’ that keep you bonded to its beliefs. Raël says that by not going through the process of apostasy, you are still bound by your previous religion’s causes of ‘gay is not the way’ and a few others. Only after the apostasy, are you eligible to be baptised.
In 1997, Raël founded Clonaid, a company that attempts to clone people. In 2000, Raël handed it over to Brigette Boisselier. Miraculously, in 2002, they announced that they were able to scientifically clone an American woman. This ‘successful’ cloning on the 26th of December 2002 led to the birth of Eve – a date that seems unlikely for a cloning procedure. Perhaps the ‘scientists’ received a late answer from their Jesus, who was one of the Elohim’s prophets. Another company they founded is Clitoraid: an organisation that is against female genital mutilation.
The religion has four major ceremonial dates: August 6th marks the anniversary of the Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Raëlians take the 7th of October off to commemorate the day the day that Raël visited the extra-terrestrials’ planet to have lunch with religious leaders such as Jesus and Buddha. December 31 marks the day that Raël had his first alien encounter. The first Sunday of April evokes the day that dark-skinned extra-terrestrials created Adam and Eve.
Raëliens are mainly in the news for the controversy they create… which may be publicity stunts to attract more followers. As if the orgy thing weren’t enough.
A major part of the religion revolves around sexuality. At some of the Raëlian seminars, special sexual adventure-orgies are organised for those who are sexually adventurous. The religion promotes sexual liberty, as they believe sex, pleasure and masturbation are gifts and liberties given to us by the extra-terrestrial Creators.
