By Adam Hunt
As Rael prances into the penthouse, the curly antennae that sprout from the edges of his balding head bounce with each step. He is dressed in a white spacesuit with padded shoulders. Hanging from his neck is a silver medallion the size of a tomato slice.
Rael, 48, may look like an extra from a bad sci-fi flick, but he is the leader of the Raelian movement, a group that claims 29,000 members worldwide, 2,000 in Canada. Most of those in Quebec.
Raelians believe humans are DNA experiments created by aliens living in a far off galaxy. Our creators, they say, are called “Elohim,” Hebrew for “those who come from the sky.” references to the Eloim are found in the Bible, wrongly translated to the word “God.”
In 1973, the Elohim visited Rael, then known as Claude Vorilhon, who was working as a sports writer and race car driver in his native France.
Rael had taken a walk in the pit of an extinct French volcano when he was contacted by the Elohim. They brought him aboard their huge, silver flying saucer and told him about humanity’s origins.
The Elohim asked Rael to spread their message and to prepare an embassy in Israel, where they will land and meet with us officially.
As he sits beside his 19-year-old wife of three years and begins to speak, the eyes of his followers are fixed on his every move.
The swanky 34th floor Mimico penthouse that serves as our meeting place overlooks Lake Ontario and the Toronto cityscape. It hosts about a dozen Raelians: half of them women in tight leather skirts or bodysuits, the male followers with frizzy hair and vests.
All of them wear a large silver medallion around their necks: the Raelian symbol, a six-pointed star with a spiral in the centre symbolizing infinity.
Long hair is important to the Raelians “The hair is like an antenna for the radio,” explains Diane Brisebois. “You have telepathy with other people. When you think of other people, you send waves and you can catch them with your hair.”
Rael’s book: The Message Given to Me by Extra-Terrestrials, serves as the group’s bible. It has been translated into 22 languages and, according to Rael, has solved over one million copies. This, along with annual tithe of three to ten per cent of each member’s income, provides the bulk of the funding for the non-profit organization.
Rael says the money is used to “spread my message to the world and to fund the embassy for the Elohim.”
One of Rael’s followers, an oriental woman in a black bodysuit, brings me a glass of water. Looking around at the blank faces eyeing Rael’s every move, I decide to forego the drink.
Rael tells me about his second Elohim visit, two years after the first. On this visit, he learned that his mother had been impregnated by an Elohim. “I always felt different,” Rael says. “I have always been obsessed with peace…So it wasn’t at all surprising.”
The Elohim took Rael to their planet, where he met the prophets: Jesus, Buddha, Mohammed and Moses. “They were messengers of the Elohim,” Rael says. “They were to spread the words of the Elohim…they were then re-created by their genetic code on the Elohim’s planet.”
According to the Raelians, we will all be genetically reproduced if we behave. Humans will progress to a point where Earth will be a heaven, “It doesn’t matter if you’re Jewish, Catholic or Buddhist,” Daniel Chabot, National Guide of the Canadian movement explains. “If you have more positive than negative actions, they can recreate you. If you have more negative you’re going to die and never come back.”
Raelians believe that a computer on the Elohim’s planet monitors the actions of every individual. It serves as a storehouse for genetic codes and is the keeper of a balance sheet summarizing our lives. When someone dies, the computer spits out a report.
“They have all the information as to the characteristics of the individual. The colour of hair, skin, eyes and the way he is. With this information the Elohim can recreate a person exactly the way he was when he died,” Briesbois says.
“This is how Jesus came (back) from the dead,” adds Chabot. “He was genetically recreated and the people didn’t understand. It made him seem like a god.”
One day, according to Rael, we will also be genetically creating beings. “We can already create life with DNA. At some time we will be sending people to create life on another planet. And then they will do the same. And it will keep happening. It’s infinity in time and space.”
Despite the movement’s grounding in extra-terrestrial contact, UFO research groups want nothing to do with Rael. “They don’t like me,” Rael admits.
One of the largest UFO groups in the world, the Mutual UFO Network—a 4,000 member Texas—based organization has been following the group for years. “But we take him with a grain of salt about the size you put out in the pasture for cows,” says International Director Walter Andrus. “Nothing he says is documented.”
The Raelian movement has garnered most of its attention because of its sexual exploits. Raelians are notorious for their sexual permissiveness. They have distributed condoms outside Catholic schools, held seminars on masturbation and espouse nudity and free love.
But not all of criticisms of the movement are so harmless.
The Cult Awareness Network in Chicago has a thick file on the group. “The Raelian movement is an organization that demands total allegiance to a leader claiming divinity,” says executive director Cynthia Kisser.
People can lose their identity, their rationality and their money in a group like this…These guys have it all: sex and aliens.”
But Raelians have no time for nay-sayers. “Look around you, this is what’s weird,” says Daniel Chabot. “To start a war, fighting for stupid things. Some people don’t have enough to eat. This is very weird.”
“But some guy says he met someone from another planet. They want to give us their freedom. They want to give us their technology. They would like to see human beings become more human. I don’t think it’s weird.”
Speaking last week in front of a nearly packed auditorium at U of T, Rael touched on a range of issues from religious fanaticism to journalism to politicians.
But his main theme, as always, was global harmony.
“Love is the basic teaching of the Elohim…love and respect for others,” said Rael. “They are the cosmic glue,” that hold us together.
According to Rael, the Elohim will be hair to share their gifts with us in the year 2020. As long as enough people believe.
“It will happen,” assures Rael. “We will build an embassy and they will come.”
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