Raelism and Money: NO, HE MAKES NOTHING!!

When asked whether Rael makes any money out of his mission as the last messenger of the Elohim, most Raelians would assert, "No, Rael makes nothing!!"

According to http://www.rael.org/faq

Does Rael receive a salary from the Raelian movement ? 

• No, the Raelian Movement is a non-profit organisation which does not pay any salary to anyone, including Rael, not even a secretary. All it's members are voluntary helpers donating some of their free time.
• In order to make sure that money from the Movement is NOT used to pay a salary to Rael, that supports Rael financially there is a separate organisation named the Raelian Foundation. Raelians may make donations to this Foundation if they wish, but it is not mandatory.

You accept donations, where does the money go?

• As our society is still based on a money system, the Raelian Movement too depends on donations to fund its activities throughout the world.



Korean Raelians volunteering
their time at a "Happiness
Academy" seminar in Japan

• Donations made to the Raelian Movement are used for our two main goals:

1. to inform mankind about the Messages given to Rael by the Elohim (through flyers, posters, billboard ads, lectures, paying for the hosting of this website etc.)
2. to build an embassy to officially welcome the Elohim

• No member of the Raelian Movement receives a salary, we all help on an entirely voluntary basis. This also applies to Rael himself who doesn't receive one cent from the Raelian Movement. Anybody who would like to donate money to him personally can do so through the Raelian Foundation which is a totally seperate entity allowing him to devote his life fully to his mission.

It is apparent that many if not all Raelians are simply confused and cannot distinguish between the International Raelian Movement (IRM) and the Raelian Foundation (RF) or that they are just parroting what they've been grilled to say by their PR spin-doctors making us believe that Rael lives off solely from royalties from his printed books and some donations. What's not mentioned is that money for the Embassy also goes to RF as well as entire personal inheritances of deceased Raelians, and anything tied to Claude Vorilhon such as compensation awarded from lawsuits, etc. Clearly, Rael DOES make a lot of money through RF.

Article 4. The foundation is to:

- Philanthropic, philosophical, scientific, etc.

 within the messages received or

receivable by Rael "Claude Vorilhon"

- Installation of the Embassy to receive

the Elohim

- Establishment of research laboratories

 for the creation artificial life.

The Raelian Foundation is based in Vaduz, Liechtenstein at the border of Switzerland and was established in 1977. It can be called the personal piggy bank of Rael. The sole beneficiary is Claude Vorilhon. RF was originally called Fondation pour l'acceuil des ELOHIM (FACE; Foundation for Welcoming the Elohim) and one of its top missions (see the document on the left) is to create a fund for the building of the Embassy! But, as we saw in the FAQ at rael.org, IRM is apparently collecting funds for building the Embassy. A portion of all donations to IRM apparently goes to the "Embassy fund" which basically means they get siphoned off to RF. On top of a 1% donation to Rael as a Raelian commandment, IRM recommends its members to donate 7% of their net incomes. National movements want 3%. For the dedicated Raelian, that's 11% of their net incomes.

The official FAQ mentioning the non-mandatory nature of donations is very misleading. IRM would not impose a donation rule "officially", but according to Rael's e-book, Intelligent Design we read under the chapter "New Commandments":

You will, at least once a year, give a donation to the Guide of Guides that is equal to at least one percent of your annual income, in order to help him devote himself full time to his mission and travel around the world to spread this message. (p. 175)

A modification was made subsequently: The annual donation, which is equal to be made payable to the Raelian Foundation at least one per cent of net annual revenue. This will provide for the needs of the Guide of Guides, and permit him to devote himself full time to his mission: spreading the messages.(p. 358)

Also stated, is a commandment about a Raelian's last will: In accordance with what is written earlier in this message, you will not leave an inheritance to your children, except for the family house or apartment. The rest you will leave in your will to the Guide of Guides, and if you fear your descendants might not respect your last will and testament but might try to recover your property through the courts, you will bestow it while you are alive on the Guide of Guides, in order to help him spread the message of our creators on Earth. (p. 192)

If a Raelian does not comply with these commandments, the official tag line is: "you are not obligated to do anything, but by doing so you are not being consistent with the Messages (Rael's books)". This includes the non-obligation to join IRM after becoming a Raelian, i.e. getting baptized.

It should be noted, on top of having this personal piggy bank, IRM pays for all of Rael's travel and hotel expenses. Rael is also known to crash into his followers' houses for extended periods of time. For the past year, Rael has been living in Okinawa. He had fled to Okinawa from Narita, Japan following the devastating earthquake, tsunami and resulting radiation leaks from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. The Japanese Raelians had just opened a meditation lodge in Narita, but after the 03/11/11 earthquake, it was evacuated. Here's an e-mail from Brigitte Boisselier in April 2011, urging Raelians around the world to give donations so that they could buy a house for Rael and set up a Raelian commune of sorts in Okinawa so that he no longer has to "live out of a suit case".

Elohim's fair deal

Going back to the donate at least 1% commandment, it is obvious that it would take just 100 people to donate money to Rael to amount to sufficient funds for a single person. But, as the membership base increases, Rael would get unnecessarily richer! Rael has recently claimed a 85,000-strong membership base. Even if 90% of these 85,000 do not donate any money to Rael, he would still make 8.5 times the money necessary to live comfortably compared to an average person. CEO's of Wall Street banks make 50 times the average. If all Raelians donated to Rael, he would make 850 times the average... to give you some perspective on the number, if the average Raelian income is $24,000, then Rael would make $20,400,000 per year and that is expected to increase as his membership base expands!! Now, that, is obscene. X (

So much for fairness. The Elohim must be very wise in the cunning monetary sense. Raelians should "occupy" Rael. : P



Advocatus Diaboli