The Raël Revolution

Claude Vorilhon or Raël is the founder-leader and prophet of a strange new religion, known as Raëlism, the Raëlian Movement or the Raëlian Church. The term "Raëlian Revolution" has also been used. Critics consider it a bizarre cult. This curious movement became big news about ten years ago, when their company Clonaid claimed to have successfully cloned a human baby. Otherwise, the Raëlian religion is centred on effective worship of space aliens. Vorilhon claims to have met a highly evolved alien in the French mountain region known as the Massif Central, and was later allowed to visit his home planet. He retold the story in two short books, "The book which tells the truth" and "Extra-terrestrials took me to their planet". Later, he also published a third book called "Let's welcome our fathers from space". Today, Raël's three most important works are available under one cover, but there are also older editions of each book in various languages. 

For whatever reason, the Raëlian revolutionaries were very much in fashion during the late 1990's and early 2000's. Raëlians were often featured on Swedish TV, usually uncritically. They also evangelized outside the major metro station in Stockholm City. I bought their material from one of the eager missionaries. It seems the Swedish branch had run out of the second part of Raël's space trilogy, which worried the missionary greatly. He emphasized how important it was to read Raël's three main books in the right order, and almost refused to let me buy the third volume unless I gave him my phone number, so he could contact me when the second part had again become available...

Ha ha ha. That's how they always try to hook you, isn't it? I didn't fall for his cultic pitch, and insisted on buying volumes one and three, to which he eventually relented. Nor did he get my phone number.

The Raëlians have always struck me as a quintessentially postmodern phenomenon, typical Maastricht-Clinton era-fall of Communism stuff. The libertine message, the trans-sexual and transhumanist angles, the constant attacks on the Catholic Church, and the mainstreaming of the UFO subculture, all this sounds "so 1997".

Or does it?

I was surprised when finally reading Raël's first book, "The book which tells the truth" (that's a translation of the French title, by the way). It sounded extremely anachronistic. But then, that's hardly surprising. Vorilhon published the book already in 1974. Reading it was like reading a message from a time long gone. The parallels with the Theosophically-inspired contactee literature from the 1950's and 1960's are obvious, as are the similarities with the speculations of Erich von Däniken (a best selling author at the time). The alien being encountered by Vorilhon is a humanoid space traveller of small stature, landing on Earth in a UFO with the usual flashing lights. He seems to be all-material, but (of course) spiritually advanced. As usual, the aliens are worried about our nuclear tests, and fear that humans might one day be able to hurt the alien race. Also as usual, they can't reveal themselves in public, instead carefully choosing an ordinary mortal as their go-between and messenger. Like George Adamski, Vorilhon is eventually allowed to visit the aliens' home planet, and (again like Adamski) this happens in a sequel to the first book. Also like Adamski, the space brother reveals a mysterious symbol to his chosen messenger, a symbol with obvious Theosophical connotations - a swastika within the Star of David. In contrast to the Theosophically inclined contactees, however, Vorilhon's alien friend is more technological than occultic-Buddhist. He reveals that the space aliens are our creators, that all life on Earth is the result of advanced genetic engineering by alien scientists, and that the aliens have mated with human females. The Bible turns out to be filled with covert references to alien intervention, most notably (surprise) the prophecies of Ezekiel. Here, the similarities with Erich von Däniken become apparent. Naturally, Jesus was a space alien, too! Nor is it surprising that the aliens are known as...the Elohim.

Does this mean that Vorilhon was a mere plagiarizer? Probably not, since his little neo-religious group survived into the 1990's and 2000's, at which point it began to really thrive. (Incidentally, I don't know much about the history of Raëlianism. It's possible that it was well-established in France and Quebec before spreading internationally, but I suppose the global success must have come around the time I met them in Stockholm.) I honestly can't see much in Raël's first book that would move a young adult 25 years later, but at some point, the prophet must have began incorporating sexual libertinism, trans-sexuality and other "postmodern" themes into his message, making it more attractive for a new generation, although I'm sure some of it may have worked at least in California already in 1974! Vorilhon's philo-Semitism and Zionism might perhaps be more controversial in left-liberal circles, who usually support the Palestinians (at least this is the case in Europe).

However, Vorilhon's message also contains elitist and anti-democratic traits. He calls for "geniocracy". Only people with high IQ should have the right to vote, and only geniuses should be allowed to run for office. Jews are the smartest people on the planet, since they are directly descended from the alien scientists. Only those who obey the messenger will be granted a kind of eternal life by the space aliens, etc. Everyone outside the fold is a fool. There even used to be a political party devoted to geniocracy in France, a kind of Raëlian version of the TM's Natural Law Party. Of course, none of the above is particularly surprising, and shows that the Raëlians have pretty much the same authoritarian, cultic tendencies as other new religious movements. Usually, however, the more overtly fascistic ideas are carefully hidden away. Vorilhon seems to be preaching them from the roof tops. Trans-sexual, philo-Semitic fascism? How about that?

In a sense, I agree with the anonymous Raëlian revolutionary who tried to convert me years ago. You probably have to read the three books in the right order, and presumably some of Raël's other books as well, in order to really "get" this movement. "The book that tells the truth" only tells part of the truth, the part which sounds stranded in the fads of the early 1970's.

Stay tuned for further revolutionary developments...