Thursday, March 29, 2012

The Rival Prophets of Rael


In her book Aliens Adored, sociologist Susan Palmer relates about a couple of ex-Raelians who might be categorized as heretics or “counter-cultists” - meaning their reasons for leaving are strictly ideological. They are preoccupied with correcting Raël’s theology and launch countermovements over what might appear to outsiders as abstruse theological nitpicking concerning the true nature of extraterrestrials:
Pierre Andre Bouchard, a self-proclaimed prophet who published a tract, A la découverte des veritables Elohim (In search of the real Elohim) with a vanity press, Les editions nouvel art de vivre, in Montreal in 1977. In it, he propounds his own alternative biblical interpretation of the Elohim and Raël’s creation myth. The RM handled this heretic by ridiculing him and dismissing his ideas as “delirious” in one publication: “Maitre Pierre of confused spirits, who addressed the Raelians in a delirious mystico-esoteric prose developing the idea that the extraterrestrials were angels sent by God!!” (20 ans, 52).
There is a book in French about Bouchard titled Pour la plus grande gloire des Elohim : mémoire sur le livre de Pierre-André Bouchard (For the greater glory of Elohim: in memory of the book by Pierre-André Bouchard) with a preface by ex-Raelian Bishop guide Jean-Denis Saint-Cyr "À la découverte des véritables Elohim" (In search of the real Elohim).



Palmer also mentions:
Victor Legendre
Another “heretic” and rival prophet emerged out of the highest rank of national guides in the 1980s - Victor Legendre. A double apostate, Legendre was a former Catholic priest from Quebec who rose rapidly to the peak of the Raelian structure as bishop and national guide of Canada; he resigned his post in 1992 and left with his girlfriend, “Louise,” [pseudonym] level 2 in the structure.. [ ] .. Legendre and Louise today are more than apostates; they are rival prophets who have formed a schismatic (albeit miniscule) movement parallel to the RM. They distribute a newsletter called Les Apôtres des derniers temps (The Apostles of the last days). They argue that the Raelian Movement went off the rails and that Raël, although originally serving as a mouthpiece for the benevolent Elohim (from Lucifer, the political party that promotes free choice and scientific knowledge for humanity), was later taken over by Satan, the rival party of their planet that plans to institute a fascist government on earth and bring about a mechanistic, predetermined, and collective salvation for humanity. The Apostles of the Last Days prefer to maintain a low profile in society, although they do occasionally try to reach out to Raelian members, hoping to reform the IRM, expose Raël as the puppet of evil extraterrestrials, and rescue misguided souls. It is interesting that they have moved away from Raël’s radical materialistic worldview and have incorporated apocalyptic strands from Quebec’s ultramontane Catholicism, such as Virgin apparitions and guardian angels. (pp. 162-165)
Victor has his own organization called Mouvement d’accueil des Élohim ou MADÉ (Movement for Welcoming the Elohim). In one of Victor's essays titled « La crise 1992-2000 » (The crisis 1992-2000), he writes:

In addition to the financial problems which faced the Raelian movement, other more serious problems affecting it, namely the problems facing an ideological messages. The most critical problem is that the mission of the movement , namely the dissemination of messages throughout the world and home of the Elohim creators in an embassy , is compromised because it was obscured by cloning ( CLONAID), Rael's participation in motor racing, the establishment of a congregation of angels (or women called "religious" dedicated to the worship and enjoyment of Rael and guides), etc. (translation by Google)

Strangely, Rael retains Victor's testimonial in his latest compilation e-book Intelligent Design (Impressions of a ‘Priest’, pp. 334-338). Perhaps it's because Victor and his movement enjoys a low profile and it benefits Rael to have his testimony in order to entice more people from the clergy to join the IRM.


Another rival prophet goes by the name of Eileen Lakes. According to her website Utopian Network she was a founding member of the Japanese Raelian Movement:

Eileen Lakes
Ms. Eileen Lakes is a Utopian, Spiritual Leader, and Japanese. She was born in the city, Hirosaki-shi, Aomori-prefecture, Japan.. [ ] .. In the summer of 1977, she read the serial stories about the UFO contact case of Mr. Claude Vorilhon "Rael" in the bi-monthly Magazine "The Cosmo." The serial stories were picked up from the story of the book "The Message Given To Me By Extra-Terrestrials," written by Mr. Claude Vorilhon "Rael," "The Last Prophet." She was strongly shocked and was deeply impressed by reading it. At the moment, she could believe that our Creators (Gods) were space aliens and they created us, the mankind, and other living things scientifically. When she was 20 years old in November 1978, she experienced the Last Judgment in Tokyo, Japan.. [ ] .. In December 1980, she organized the Japanese Raelian Movement with Mr. Nagai and Mr. S. at first. But she seceded of The Raelian Movement because her opinion was different from that of Mr. Claude Vorilhon "Rael" about "Free Sex" and "Last Judgment." Afterwards, she came to receive personal revelation from our creators since she began to pray to our Creators, "Elohim" very well every day. She had joined Religion "True Light" and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, too. On April 27 (Wed.), 1988, she took the Water Baptism so that her whole body could be covered with water and clean all her sin, too, when she was 30 years old. In the spring of 1992, she was given the name "Eileen" by our Creators, "Elohim." (The name of "Eileen" means "Light" and "The Sun.") And she has been engaging in missionary work to all over the world from Japan under the family name of "Lakes," which came from the Great Lakes in the U. S. A. and the Dragon God, one of her Guardians.. [ ]..  Then she newly founded Survival Group "Utopia" on July 30, 1992. And, she began to guide other people what to do for the new, highly advanced scientific civilization "The Kingdom of God" which would be made after "The Water Baptism" (the large flood) in the harvest time so that the people as many as possible would be reborn and survive there.
In 1997, Eileen Lakes predicted that the following series of events would commence in July 1999:
• The planets in the solar system would suddenly align into a "Grand Cross" configuration.
• This movement would cause the Earth's poles to shift by 90 degrees, leading to a worldwide flood known as the "Water Baptism."
• Survivors would form a worldwide society -- the "Kingdom of God" -- using a form of socialism dubbed "Eileenism." Jerusalem would be the capital of Earth, and Earth would the capital of the solar system.
• Humans would have life spans of over 1,000 years and would swear loyalty to aliens and their almighty supercomputer, seeing as how humans were created by aliens.

Although the events didn't unfold quite as expected in 1999, Lakes continues to tell her follower(s) to prepare for the "Kingdom of God," which now will occur around 2070, by which time she should be dead enough to avoid scrutiny when nothing happens. Interestingly, Rael has decided on 2035 to be the day of the "Great Return"... Rael would be 89 years old by then. Her website got a new make-over "The Millennium Era" in January 2000 with the theme of "The Coexistence of Humans & The Earth" to make efforts to grow "new Millennium humans" suitable to the coming new space age "Millennium Era."




Though not an ex-Raelian, Matthew Turner, aka Sol Manitou (meaning Sun Spirit) claims contact with the same extraterrestrial characters Rael has chosen for his fantastic story. Unlike Rael who "became a prophet" at age 27, Turner claims communication since childhood:
Sol Manitou

Since I, Matthew Turner (named Sol Manitou by the Elohim) was a young child I have been in touch with these beings that call themselves the Elohim (translated as those who come from the stars), also known as the Founders, The Watchers, The Council of 12, who have been with us since the beginning, at that time I knew them as the Ascended Masters or beings that became enlightened from many lifetimes on earth and ascended to the higher dimensions. These Elohim explained to me as a young child that I came to earth from higher cosmic dimensions as a messenger for them and that I chose to incarnate on a global service mission having a function of assisting in awakening humanity in all parts of the globe.. [ ] .. I was adopted under strange circumstances and throughout most of my childhood felt that I was not from this planet. I was always focused on the stars to the point where I would sleep in the driveway waiting for my 'true family' to come down and take me back home. As a child I was always reading, and had hundreds of books about the New Age, Metaphysics, Channeling etc. I went to a meditation and channeling group at age 12 where it was explained to me by a higher being, Vywamus, that I came to this earth from higher cosmic dimensions on a service mission that had global purpose. I have always felt this since a young child.. [ ] .. I was guided by the Ascended Masters & Elohim to go to Sedona and I was shown that I would change the world starting there. The Elohim asked me if I would run for Mayor along with my close friend Suzy Chaffee running for Council to make Sedona a model city for the world. Our platform was to change Washington from Sedona, making laws that reflected a conscious society...

Turner's website is http://ascensionearth.com/ that features an embedded You Tube video about extraterrestrial Elohim based on a full trance reading "Human Origins: The Elohim MATAARE CHANNELS THE MERLIN" in 1995 at the Healing Center, Arlington Massachusetts of a belief that humanity descended from the Elohim. The trance was recorded by Andrew Lutts of the Salem New Age Center.

Turner's website also promotes Raelism with links to Rael's books and videos (see left). Looks like this guy's not really in the rival category like the ones above. : P


Prophet [of] Yahweh
Last but not least, there is Ramon Watkins aka Prophet Yahweh or The Seer of Yahweh. He is the only one who has a Wikipedia entry besides Rael. The Elohim are extraterrestrials, claims Watkins, but of course they are "superhuman black men [who] are travelling around the universe in actual spaceships, and are preparing to be seen by the world. The Original and True Biblical Israelites were Dark Blacks Skinned People, Who Lived on the North East Corner of Africa." Watkins managed to get some media attention a couple of years ago with videos showing what appears to be him summoning UFOs that look like distant ballons made of white and/or reflective material such as mylar. He used to run a website that charged you to watch his amateur hoax videos. Watkins is based in Las Vegas... and so is the HQ of the US Raelian Movement. There was some talk over at the ATS forum on how Watkins and the Raelians have already brushed elbows. LOL

I wonder how many more will pop-up claiming to be the messengers of the plausible but yet unseen extraterrestrials in Rael's lifetime. To date, none of such claimants have been able to provide supporting evidence for their fantastic encounters.


Advocatus Diaboli

2 comments:

  1. About Pierre André Bouchard, the comment you made about ¨Maitre Pierre of confused spirits...¨ seems to be referring to an early raelian apostate I remember, who took the name Maitre Pierre after becoming a follower of ¨The Revelation fom Arès¨ de Frêre Michel Potay http://www.freesoulblog.net/zjDt.html

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  2. A new Elohim-contact claimant, Ashwin Farinacci...

    Video interview part I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ya_ASDqg9qE
    Video interview part II http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGjMfcscRe0
    Radio interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqjYUaXpt3I

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