DOOMSDAY CULT: To Intervene, or NOT to Intervene in Humanity's Destruction?

The Raelian Movement is a doomsday cult that predicts that there is at least a 90% chance that humans on Earth will cease to exist due to a nuclear cataclysm in the near future.

How this nuclear cataclysm will occur, however, has dramatically evolved in Raelian literature. It goes from:

(1) ETs will intervene and nuke threatening Humans

(2) ETs won't intervene, Humans instead will self-destruct, to

(3) ETs will intervene after all, at least to delay the self-destruction and save Raelians

DESTRUCTIVE INTERVENTION IN RESPONSE TO A HUMAN THREAT
In Rael’s first book (The Book which Tells the Truth, 1974), the Elohim (extraterrestrials who supposedly created all life on Earth) said they would intervene and nuke us DIRECTLY or INDIRECTLY by blowing up stockpiles of our nuclear weapons if we posed a threat to them and other worlds in the galaxy. They mention intervening by using "rays" and "telepathy" to spark off a nuclear world war. (Intelligent Design, 2005, p. 105: please refer to the actual quotes at the bottom)

On three separate pages, the Elohim invoke visions of Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities they have nuked in the past because some humans were seen as a threat to them - unless we tame our aggression and become peaceful, the Elohim would “reduce [us] to silence”. (p. 92, 103, 105-106).

Should we become successful in becoming peaceful and welcome the Elohim, they would reward us with their scientific knowledge, comparatively 25,000 years in advance of ours (p. 71, 75, 107).

NON-INTERVENTION AND HUMANITY’S SELF-DESTRUCTION
But, in Rael’s second book (ETs Took Me to Their Planet, 1975), perhaps after realizing how he had unwittingly painted the Elohim as a destructive force themselves the first time, he rebrands the Elohim to have a complete non-interventionist stance on the destruction of Humanity.

Rael relates how Yahweh (his ET father and leader of the Elohim) delivering the second Message, first told him how he mis-transcribed the passages about an eventual intervention on their part to destroy humanity. Instead, Humanity’s future is on its own hands and will self-destroy if it doesn’t become peaceful. (p. 150)

INTERVENTION TO SAVE ONLY THE RAELIANS
The Elohim, however, will intervene on the fate of Raelians. Throughout Rael’s second book (1975) , he assures that only his followers will be saved in the event of an imminent nuclear cataclysm. (p. 150, 216-217, 298)

INTERVENTION TO ALSO SAVE IGNORANT SAMARITANS
By his third book (Let’s Welcome Our Fathers from Space, 1979), Rael revealed how good non-Raelians totally ignorant of Rael and the Elohim will also be saved by the grace of the Elohim in the Q&A section of his book. (pp. 238-239) In the latter part of his book, Rael wrote about what the Elohim had told him to keep secret for three years. In it, Yahweh seems to affirm how good people who have never heard of Rael would also be saved. (p. 289)

CHANCE OF SELF-DESTRUCTION
In Rael’s third book (1979), Rael mentions the chances of Humanity self-destructing. It ranges from 90% to 99%. (p. 286, 287, 291, 306) He, however, does NOT give us a timeline of when this cataclysmic event might occur, making that figure worthless as a prediction. A few years ago, Rael “revealed” that the chance for self-destruction was at 99.5%!

INTERVENTION TO DELAY SELF-DESTRUCTION OF HUMANS
Whilst the Elohim declared earlier that they would never intervene in the destruction of Humanity, in Rael’s third book (1979), Rael writes about a special number of 144,000 people who would be saved by the Elohim. According to the Elohim, they will actually intervene after all to otherwise delay the final cataclysm until the number is reached. (p. 298-299) I would assume the Elohim intervening by using "rays" and "telepathy" to render our weapons harmless in this case and decelerate the horrific event Raelians believe is very likely to happen. This contradicts the Elohim’s non-interventionist stance in Rael’s second book (1975). Their involvement was supposed to be confined to only saving the "just".

Rael goes on to define who these 144,000 shall be: (1) those people already re-created on [the Elohim’s] planet, who number 8,400 (p. 161), (2) those people who will have led a life dedicated to the blossoming of Humanity without ever hearing of the messages, and (3) also those people who will recognize Rael as [the Elohim’s] messenger after having read the messages and getting baptized or “sealed in their foreheads”. This number will supposedly be sufficient to start a new generation on Earth.

According to the latest Raelian publication, there are already more than 100,000 Raelians worldwide. Despite Raelism’s doomsday bent on the future, Rael has predicted that the Elohim would return openly at his ET Embassy by 2035 and peace and prosperity shall prevail on Earth henceforth.

I wonder how many people there are who will have never heard of Rael and also be entitled to be saved by the Elohim “soon”. What will happen if Humanity’s self-destruction is imminent and there are more than 144,000 Raelians? LOL

Since 1975 when the 99% figure was "revealed", it has been 42 years without any global nuclear conflicts. If and only if this year, WWIII breaks loose, the figure would go down to just a 2.2%-successful prediction (1 year in 42 years).

If Raelians realize a 99.5% prediction spells an imminent reality, how then do they still  hope for an ET Embassy to bring about world peace? Or, are they being realistic in their own worldview and realize the ET Embassy is a facade and when shit hits the fan in their lifetime, they will all be "saved" (but, much less than 144,000 "special" followers of Rael)?

Rael does call for his followers to "drop everything" and join him in proximity when the time comes to be saved from the nuclear cataclysm that is bound to take place in Raelian-lore. (p. 218)


Advocatus Diaboli

Rael’s Mediums: Telepathic or Psychotic?

Meme credits: @raelquotes

Belief in telepathy is one of the main tenets of Raelism. It is believed that it was through telepathy that extraterrestrials, known to the Raelians as the Elohim, made Rael buy a copy of the Bible, just days before being made to go to the place where he would meet one of them face-to-face over six days for an hour each time at the end of 1973 (Intelligent Design, p. 7).

The ET, alleged to be Yahweh of the Bible, explained to Rael how all humans have an inherent ability to communicate telepathically: the brain being a transmitter of accurate waves and thoughts with our bodily hair acting as its antenna, citing the story of Samson who had lost his ability to communicate with Yahweh once his hair was cut. Therefore, the point about not shaving off any hair is very important to Raelians. (pp. 35-36). This explains why Raelians tend to fall for such pseudoscience and grow out their hair.

Rael also claims how Yahweh used telepathy to make him give his son a specific name (p. 94). At the end of Rael's alleged meeting, Yahweh shares something instructive:

"You know the truth, and we will stay in contact with you by telepathy to give you confidence and additional information if we think necessary." (p. 101)

About two years later, in 1975, Rael claims that he was taken to the Planet of Eternal Life, that is supposedly about 1-light year away on board one of their spacecrafts. While on their planet, Yahweh allegedly used a machine to awaken certain faculties that lay dormant in Rael's brain so as to be able to exploit its full potential (p. 171).

Yahweh then advises people to meditate to "open one's mind" and try and communicate with the Elohim while trying to be "in harmony with the infinite". Yahweh then mentions mediums:

"Mediums are useful, so seek them out. But balance them because their gifts as mediums - which are only gifts of telepathy - unbalance them, and they begin to believe in magic, the supernatural, and other incredibly stupid things, including an ethereal body, which is a new way of trying to believe in the soul which does not exist. In fact, what they are actually doing is tuning into people who lived several centuries ago, and whom we have recreated on this paradisiacal planet." (p. 172)

Rael's second book contains directives known as the "Keys" that would help people open their minds. In the chapter titled "The Human Brain", Rael goes back into explaining telepathy and the usefulness of meditation:

"We still have a long way to go in fully understanding the potential of the human brain. The sixth sense, direct perception, should be developed in young children. This is what we call telepathy. Telepathy enables us to communicate directly with our creators, the Elohim.

 Numerous mediums have come to me asking what they should do, because they had received messages from what they call “the beyond”, asking them to get in touch with me in order to help me, and for me to bring them “the light”. Mediums are very important people because they have an above average gift of telepathy, and their minds are already on the path to an awakened state. They should try to practice meditation in order to fully master their potential. I am eagerly waiting for all those mediums who have received such messages to get in touch with me, so that we may organize regular meetings. The true mediums who seek to be informed will all receive instructions. The power of one brain is great, but the power of several brains is infinite. Let those who have ears, hear." (p. 207)

In the chapter titled "The Reward", Rael writes:

"If you recognize the Elohim as your creators, and if you love them and wish to welcome them, if you try to do good to other people by making as much use as you can of all your potential, if you think of your creators regularly, trying through telepathy to make them understand that you love them, if you help the Guide of Guides to accomplish his mission, you will without a doubt be entitled to scientific reincarnation on the planet of the eternals." (p. 216)

Yet, given all of the above, Rael has quite recently excommunicated a couple of high-profile Raelians because they came forward and claimed to be receiving instructions directly from the Elohim through telepathy and other modes of communication. Rael brushed these individuals off saying they were suffering from mental illness. Rael communicated his official stance on this matter in a Raelian newsletter, which contradicts what he wrote originally in his books:

Regarding the allusion of mediums in the Messages 

Mediums, as explained in the Messages, have to receive a special training when they are little children. After childhood they cannot develop it. And even with this training they can only receive telepathic feelings: never clear Messages. We do not even have, right now, the knowledge about this training. For clear Messages there is a need for a surgery which was performed on me when I went to the Eternal life Planet. The call for regular meetings of sensitive people called "medium" and who can receive feelings and never clear messages will be organized when the Elohim will ask for it and not to create a new leadership but for a very special purpose. And that may happen or not. The Elohim decide and we follow. The only way to know when they decide is through the Prophet and not through people suddenly hearing voices... 

If I received the Messages in 1973 by " hearing voices" I would never have believed it, nor created any organization but would have instead ran to see a psychiatrist. For the simple reason that I am a rational person. I did accept the Messages and the mission because they were given to me in a physical contact and not at a "sunrise" or at any "solstice" which means nothing. 

Our mission is to fight traditional mysticism and even more neo-mysticism which attracts many people due to the disappearing of main religions. Peace and love. (Contact 379, p. 7)

Notice how Rael is conflating mediums who allegedly already possess telepathic abilities with normal people who need to be trained from a young age. Rael seems to be oblivious of himself instructing Raelians to meditate in order to develop their “sixth sense”. Rael also denies Yahweh’s prior directive to immediately organize regular meetings with mediums who will have received instructions, and not just feelings, from the Elohim. Rael also seems to forget his claim that the Elohim kept contact with him telepathically prior to his “surgery” that supposedly transformed him into a full blown telepath. Does this mean Rael was just vaguely in contact with them between 1973 and 1975? Does this also mean Rael can now, as did the Elohim to himself, mind-control other people?

To date, Rael has yet to seek out and acknowledge "true mediums" as Raelians. Instead, he does not hesitate to expel anyone who dares to contest his original writings, known as the Messages, or his dictatorial authority as the messenger of the Elohim in an attempt to purge his cult of “weak and psychologically unbalanced people, who take their dreams or mental disease induced hallucinations, for reality” (Contact 379, p. 7).

Rael knows these people are delusional because he himself must have made everything up.


Advocatus Diaboli

Rael vs. Stephen Hawking: Whose Aliens are more Evil?

Credits: @RaelianMemes

Back in 2010 in a press release, Rael referred to world-renowned theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking as not only handicapped physically, but mentally as well, due to the ‘degenerative disease’ of ‘evolutionism’ or ‘Darwinism’. He elaborates on what he calls a “magical, irrational concept”:

His fears about murderous, invading aliens are based on the theory of evolution – the myth of evolution, to be more precise. He’s afraid humans are inferior to aliens who might invade. That’s logical, but only if you accept the myth of evolution.

Hitler’s views about superior Aryans; slavery and apartheid; and Hawking’s delirium of aliens wiping out humanity all fit perfectly with the evolution myth.

Let us be reminded that Rael claims that Extraterrestrials created all life on Earth and evidence of this feat is recorded in various holy scriptures, including the Bible, and that he is the last of their prophets - messengers who have been chosen to represent our cosmic creators.

Rael’s criticisms of Hawking’s views are nothing short of Orwellian Doublespeak considering that Raelian doctrine itself provides supporting evidence contradicting Rael.

Supremacy

First, Rael harps on about how advanced our alleged creators are, establishing a significant superiority to us on all levels. In fact, it is stated that these extraterrestrials are some 25,000 years more advanced than our earthly civilization (Intelligent Design, p. 107), and that they have not come across any other cosmic civilisation as advanced as they are.

In terms of superior races among humans, Rael claims in his book that these extraterrestrials created seven different races on Earth and amongst them, the "Jewish race" had been selected in a contest as the most successful type of humanoid on Earth due to their intelligence and genius and that this is why they are often considered as the “chosen people” (p. 18).

Alien Invasion

As Rael’s extraterrestrials are revealed to be the Elohim as described in the Bible, (as well as the deities of other religions), the destructive acts attributed to these gods are in fact the acts of the extraterrestrials. In Rael's first book, the Great Flood of the Bible is reinterpreted as being a cataclysmic event caused by the Elohim when they attempted to destroy all life on Earth using advanced nuclear weapons, except for Noah and his family who were saved by a small group of rebellious Elohim aboard a spacecraft along with the DNA of every species we find on our planet today, all because the intelligent humans they have created, albeit primitive technologically, were deemed a threat to them (p. 20). Therefore, even Raelian doctrine provides evidence of aliens making an attempt to destroy humanity. So much for Rael’s argument of aliens not capable of wiping out humanity.

Slavery
This also means that everything attributed to God can be attributed to Rael’s Elohim, which includes slavery as attested in the Bible, Qur'an or the Book of Mormon - religious texts recognized in Raelism.

Apartheid
As for apartheid, Rael writes how the Elohim allowed only a select few priestly figures to approach them, but only after wearing aseptic clothing (pp. 50-51), whilst making a point to shun humans who were sick or had any form of physical deformity or disability (p. 31), something quite reminiscent of the Nazi era in the 20th century.

Furthermore, Rael relates how the Elohim practice apartheid within their own civilization. He claims how a group of 700 Elohim live on "the Planet of the Eternals" completely separate from the 7 billion mortal Elohim, who live on another planet altogether, enjoying a lifespan of about 750 years (p. 110).

Cosmic Laws Were Meant to be Broken
Rael continues with his doublespeak in the same press release:

With intelligent design, you automatically have intelligent organization of the universe as well, organization based on peace and love, not on monsters ready to invade and destroy humanity.

Intelligent designers wouldn’t allow anyone to destroy their creation. What’s more, with cosmic laws based on intelligent design, violent species wind up self-destructing before they can spread their violence to other planets.

This "cosmic law" (p. 151) is nothing but a Raelian a priori assumption that contradicts its very own message.

According to Rael, the Elohim were able to escape their planetary system and therefore must be peaceful. However, as stated above, the Elohim not only intended to destroy their own creation completely, but acted on this - thousands of years after having met the criteria of escaping self-destruction and entering a peaceful interstellar level of civilization. Yet their violent tendencies didn't cease after that atrocious event. Rael also reinterprets Biblical events such as Sodom and Gomorrah (p. 24) as nuclear attacks on the two cities by the Elohim, or the events of the “Trumpets of Jericho” as the Elohim using advanced ultrasonic weapons and "full scale bombings" (p. 33). More examples of the Elohim's violent behavior can be found here.

Just to put things into perspective, all this purportedly happened about 15,000 years after these extraterrestrials had the capability to escape their own planetary system, supposedly passing through a self-destruction filter that prevents violent civilizations from spreading across space.

In his book, Rael claims that it takes 666 generations, or approximately 13,360 years (p. 304), to reach such a turning point in a civilization’s history [1]. According to Rael, the generation of 1945 was exactly that turning point in human history he calls the start of the Age of Apocalypse (p. 206). It’s rather damning when a civilization claims to be so advanced, yet demonstrates its own failure to have overcome its most basic, violent tendencies - directly contradicting the supposed cosmic law, even after having had more time than the entirety of human history. And all this by their own account.

Could they be suggesting that they are but one exception to the rule? It’s highly unlikely as Rael also claims that the Elohim created another two humanoid species on other planets, and that one may soon make contact with us (p. 357). Once again, the assumption being that this other creation has managed to escape their own planetary system, making them more advanced than us and guaranteed to be peaceful.

However, earlier in Rael's writings, he states:

Out of the three worlds where life has been created, the one which makes the most progress will receive the inheritance [of the Elohim's advanced scientific knowledge]. The ones which have not progressed will be dominated by the other and eliminated. This is also true on Earth between peoples. (p. 75).

Does this not only support Hawking’s position and contradict Rael’s assurances that extraterrestrials will never invade us, but also nullify his anti-scientific stance against biological evolution where he claims that only violent species who wish to conquer other worlds are produced?

The vitriol against Hawking continued in 2016 in yet another press release, this time in response to comparisons made between extraterrestrials and European colonizers, if they were to come to Earth.

Ironically, in spite of all these inadequacies, Rael still decided to nominate Hawking as an Honorary Raelian Guide for his decision to withdraw from the Israeli President's Conference in protest against the nation's occupation of Palestine territories in 2013. Oddly enough, his honorary title hasn't been revoked, in stark contrast to Rael's habitual practice of excommunication of high ranking Raelian Guides who step out of line, speak out or question him - thus displeasing him.


Advocatus Diaboli

[1] According to Rael, the Elohim "decided to start their work on Earth" some 22,000 years ago (p. 81). He also claims a "day" in the Biblical creation story is about 2,000 years (p. 12), meaning it took the Elohim 12,000 years to create humans on the "sixth day". But, if the Elohim are 25,000 years in advance of us and if it takes about 13,320 years for a civilization to escape their planetary system, the Elohim civilization should be about 38,320 years old. This also means, the Elohim had 15,000 years to overcome their aggressive tendencies since leaving their planetary system and venture out into space before committing atrocities against us.

ラエリアンの虚偽情報:「聖」或るいは「無菌」?

クロード・ボリロン（Claude Vorilhon）のオリジナルのバージョンはフランス語で書かれていました。彼にメッセージをくれた宇宙人はフランス語で話しました。

ですから、フランス語のバージョンを注意深く見ることは非常に重要です。

他のすべてのバージョン、英語、イタリア語、日本語などは、フランス語のメッセージの差異を完全に100％反映していません。

クロード・ボリロンの本は、自分自身に知らせるだけでなく、精神的にも実存的な旅にも深く関わってくれる人々に影響を与えてきました。

私の場合、「真実を告げる書」を読むとすぐ疑問を感じました。

51ページの宇宙人によって与えられた例は、その本を信じる可能性を排除しました。

私は公平のために読書を続け、二番目に出版された本を読んで自分自身の義務を超えました。

私の懐疑主義は最終的に限界に達し、私は突然の結論に達しました：クロード・ボリロンはすべてを発明しました。

私は51ページに小さな宝を発見しました。これはかなり明らかになり、ボリロンの悪い意図の完全な例です。

私が言及しているこの講義は、フランス語を話す読者にとって、フランス語に特有の微妙なものであるため、この本のフランス語版読者にはっきりと理解できるものです：それはヘブライ語ではもちろん、英語、日本語、その他の言語では見つからないフランス語の同音異義語です（発音は同じだが、互いに区別される語）！

それは、ラエルのエロヒムが彼らの主張の証拠を提供するときはいつも、主にヘブライ語を引用している聖書の例を引用しているからです。

それで、この例では、51ページで言及したように、宇宙人はクロードに、彼らによって作られた人間は微妙な概念を理解することができない原始的な存在であることを明らかにしました。

彼らの原始性は、彼らに超自然的に見える最も洗練されていない出来事に、神聖で魔法的な性格を与えるよう促します。 エロハは、クロードに聖書に見られる変形の例を挙げます。。。

 

『エゼキエルが訪れた創造者たちの地球上の住居、すなわち「神殿」で彼らに奉仕していた祭司たちは、お務つとめの際には無菌の衣服を身につけていました。そして、創造者たちが危険な病原菌に汚染されないように、衣服は「神殿」に置いておかねばなりませんでした。 

　祭司たちが務めを行う衣服を、その所に置かなければならない。これは聖だからである。「エゼキエル書」42章14節 

「この衣服は無菌だから」と書くべきところですが、当時の何でも神秘化する未開な人たちには、創造者たちが説明したり見せたりしても、その内容が理解できなかったのです。』（Intelligent Design・地球人は科学的に創造された・創造者からのメッセージ・ページ　50-51）

したがって、メッセージのフランス語版によると、エロヒムは、衣類がフランス語で「細菌からの解放」を意味する「SAINS」であることを意味しました。 しかし、原始的な人々は、衣服はフランス語で "祝福" または "聖" を意味する「SAINTS」であると書いています。 彼は明らかに、エラーは「SAIN」の代わりに「SAINT」という言葉の誤用であると述べています。

それは良い例のように思え、かなり効果的です。

しかし、これらの「原始的な人々」が話さなかったフランス語の使用に完全に基づいているため、この推論には完全な欠陥があります。

実際、古フランス語の起源は842年にストラスブールの誓いにさかのぼります。

中世フランスは15世紀に現代フランス語が17世紀に現れました。それで、たとえ言語が存在しなくても、私たちの原始的な祖先は2つのフランス語同音異義語を混同することが可能でしたか？

彼らがヘブライ語、古代ギリシア語、ラテン語で間違いを犯した可能性はもっと高いですか？

そのような言語でもこのような間違いが起きる可能性はありますか？ この例では、「書くべきところですが」と指定されています。

フランス語が発明されていないときに、どのようにしてフランス語で書くことができましたか？

フランス語の繊細さを使って、原始的な人々が彼らには理解できないものすべてを神聖化していることを実証するためには、粗末な、厄介な、ばかげたアプローチではないですか？

私の記憶が正しければ、ラエリアン・ガイドのレオン・ムレる（Leon Mellul）はこの悪い例を説明するテキストを書いていました。おそらく著者は同じ考えをしており、この参考文献は同じ本の英語版からは除外されていると思われます。彼の説明は完全に理解できず、読者の知性を引き出すよう求められました。前述の文章を守るための彼のテキストは確信できませんでした。

ラエリアン・ムーブメントの多くの人々はこのナンセンスを認識することができます。

ビジリット・ボアッセラ（Brigitte Boisselier）、マルセル・テルッセ（Marcel Terrusse）、マルク・リバード（Marc Rivard）のような人々は、この非論理的な誤りを認識しなければなりません。。。彼らが彼らの感情を背後に置くことができれば。



マリーズ・ペルクイン（Maryse Péloquin）による執筆

Raelism and Alien Abduction Denialism

According to the Raelian mythos, extraterrestrials (ETs) “that are capable of escaping their planetary system are always peaceful.” (Intelligent Design, p. 151).

The ETs in question here, are the Elohim of the Bible, that Rael interprets as translating to “those who came from the skies” (p. 11); a technologically advanced race of ETs who created all life on Earth - including human beings who were made “in their own image” (p. 19). These ETs contacted Rael and gave him the mission to build an embassy on Earth so that they can peacefully “return” and give humanity their advanced scientific knowledge. All religions were supposedly created by them for primitive people so that once humanity developed sufficiently, they would finally understand they were if fact mistaken as supernatural gods.

Peaceful ETs
That ETs are always peaceful is used as evidence to support Rael's claim that there have never been any alien abductions on Earth and there never will be. In the same time when Real vehemently declares any UFO reports as being those of the Elohim, he explains away abduction reports as being clandestine efforts by US secret services to create fear among people that ETs are dangerous in a bid to justify continuing with their military industrial complex in the absence of a terrestrial enemy such as the former USSR. As for the people who claim to have been abducted, coined as “abductees”, Rael explains how they are psychologically imbalanced people who are also prone to using drugs and alcohol:

History of the Alien Abduction Phenomenon
Belief in aliens has increased steadily since the birth of modern alien research in the 40s and 50s, following sensational news such as the Roswell UFO incident. Surveys in Western cultures estimated belief in aliens to be as high as 50% in 2015. And despite the fact that it is considered rare, a significant number of people also believe they have experienced alien abduction.

Present day awareness of alien abduction dates to the 1961 case of Betty and Barney Hill, who witnessed odd lights and experienced “missing time” and “lost memories” while driving. The reported consequences of abduction are often loss of memory, missing time, and problems such as sickness, sleepwalking, nightmares and psychological trauma.

Although the accuracy of the numbers is questioned, a poll by the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research conducted 30 years after this account said that around 3.7 million Americans believed that they too had experienced alien abduction. However, many psychologists are less convinced, and think they can provide more down-to-earth, scientific explanations.

Scientific Explanations
While some hoaxes that were perpetrated mainly for financial gain or social advantage may be true in a few cases (such as with UFO “contactees” such as George Adamski and Billy Meier and cult leaders like Rael), there is no reason to assume that the majority of “abductees” were intentionally fraudulent in their claims. In fact, psychologists have come up with a number of plausible, scientific explanations for people’s supposed alien encounters.

Studies suggest that neuropsychological theories, particularly sleep paralysis and temporal lobe sensitivity, also could explain claims of alien abduction.

Sleep paralysis is a feeling of being conscious but unable to move, often with a feeling of fear or dread, and the sense of another presence – perhaps evil or malevolent, a feeling of pressure on the chest and difficulty breathing, and of being held or restricted to a lying position, all of which occurs when a person passes between stages of wakefulness and sleep. It is noteworthy that Raelian Bishop Guide, Dr. Marcus Wenner, once mentioned this as an explanation for alien abductions in a Raelian publication.

Temporal lobe sensitivity is a theory that suggests the temporal lobes of some people’s brains are more vulnerable to influence from low-level magnetic frequencies. Michael Persinger, a neuroscientist at Laurentian University in Canada, is among those who believes that increased temporal lobe activity can explain paranormal experiences such as alien abduction. His theory is that magnetic fields stimulate the temporal lobes, resulting in hallucinatory experiences similar to those reported by alien abductees.

Another explanation of experiencing alien abductions depends on the personality characteristic known as the proclivity for fantasy. There are also other psychological explanations, such as dissociation – where an individual’s mental processes detach from each other and from reality, often in response to extreme or stressful life events. A tendency towards being fantasy-prone and dissociation has been linked in studies to childhood trauma and hypnotic suggestibility.

Psychologists argue that regression hypnosis, such as that popularized in the 70s by UFO enthusiast Budd Hopkins who wasn't formally trained as a psychotherapist, encourages the creation and recall of detailed fantasies. For example, it was under regressive hypnosis that Betty and Barney Hill's “missing memories” were “recovered. It’s for these reasons that it’s believed alien abduction experiences may arise from a combination of personality characteristics and susceptibility to false memories.

Raelian Abductions
Interestingly, from these regressive hypnosis sessions, Hopkins discovered many “abductees” were subjected to a “child presentation” in which the claimants were shown a child. Often, the children appear to be neither human, nor the same species as the abductors. Instead, the child will almost always share characteristics of both species. These children are labeled by experiencers as hybrids between humans and their abductors.

But, this is uncannily similar to what we find in Rael's writings, except that the ETs were humanoid but about 1.2 meters tall with a slightly greenish tinge. (p. 5)

In Rael’s first book (1974), while he was still known by his birth name: Claude Vorilhon, claimed that this act of creation of life on Earth - especially, humans in their likeness - was merely an “experiment” (pp. 10, 17, 39). Further on, Rael relates a story of how some of those Elohim scientists who came to Earth then “chose” and “took” the most beautiful daughters of humanity and had children with them.

“And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of Elohim saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.” Genesis 6: 1-2

“The creators living in exile took the most beautiful daughters of humanity and made them their wives.” (Intelligent Design, p. 19)

Rael then writes:

“When the sons of Elohim came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.” Genesis 6: 4.

“There you have proof that the creators could have intercourse with the daughters of humanity whom they had created in their own image, and in so doing produced exceptional children. These actions seemed very dangerous to people on the distant planet. The scientific progress on Earth was fantastic, and they decided to destroy what had been created.” (p.19)

The Elohim government back in their own planet decided to destroy all life on Earth by showering the planet with nuclear bombs that supposedly resulted in the Biblical Flood. Yet, after such a blatant act of aggression, the Elohim decided to allow their human progeny saved by Noah to rule over Earth. One example Rael gives is that of the birth of Samson. The Elohim chose an infertile woman, cured her infertility, and then impregnated her without her husband’s knowledge:

“And the angel of Elohim came again unto the woman as she sat in the field: but Manoah her husband was not with her.” Judges 13: 9.

“It is easy to imagine what happened during her husband’s absence... It was an easy task for the scientists to cure her sterility. In this way she was made aware that she was going to give birth to an exceptional individual, and that she should take the utmost care of her baby. It was wonderful for the creators to mate with a daughter of humanity. This enabled them to have sons ruling directly on Earth, where the atmosphere was not suitable for themselves.” (p. 35)

This would mean, they had to take her aboard one of their spaceships to perform the procedure. The same was supposedly done to Jesus’ mother, Mary:

“The creators therefore decided to arrange for a child to be born of a woman of the Earth and one of their own people. The child in question would thereby inherit certain telepathic faculties, which humans lack:

She was found with child of the Holy Ghost.” Matthew 1: 18.

Mary was the woman chosen, and obviously her fiancé found these tidings hard to accept, but:

“Behold, the angel of Yahweh appeared unto him.” Matthew 1:20. (p. 65)

These two accounts are reminiscent of modern alien abduction stories where many women testify of being abducted and then inseminated to produce hybrids. Rael claims to be one such hybrid: the product of a union between an ET called Yahweh (the President of the Eternal Council of the Elohim) and his human mother. Rael relates the following conversation he supposedly had with Yahweh on the Planet of Eternal Life in this 2nd book (1975):

“The person whom you looked upon as your father was not your real father. After the explosion at Hiroshima, we decided that the time had come for us to send a new messenger on Earth. He would be the last prophet, but the first one to address Mankind asking them to understand and not to believe. We then selected a woman, as we had done in the time of Jesus. This woman was taken aboard one of our ships and inseminated as we had done with the mother of Jesus. Then she was freed after we had totally erased from her memory all traces of what had happened. ...[ ]... Your real father is also the father of Jesus, and that makes you brothers. You are presently looking at your father. Your foster-father was like Joseph, he was to take care of you and your mother until such time as you could provide for yourself.” (p. 290)

As far as I'm aware, Rael's mother Marie-Colette Vorilhon, has never gone through such regressive hypnosis to retrieve her “erased memory”, nor was his “human” father, Marcel Heimendinger, ever contacted by the Elohim to reveal the “true” nature of Rael's extraordinary birth (as they supposedly did with Joseph). Notwithstanding the story about the Elohim, Rael grew up as an illegitimate child whose father was already married to another woman. In a TV interview with Rael's mother and aunt, they discount Rael's story as harmless fantasy that may have some beneficial outcomes. Real's mother humors the interviewer using confirmation bias and synchronicity to say her name was similar to the mother of Jesus, Mary and that her lover was like a carpenter just like Joseph, since he ran a saw mill [1]:

UFO-focused Organization
When Rael started out in early 1974 with MADECH (French acronym for “movement for welcoming the Elohim”), most of his members were UFO enthusiasts. It was a very hot topic at the time. But, wishing to gain some control as the “messenger of the Elohim”, Rael had disbanded MADECH and came up with his 2nd book in late 1975 and transformed his organization as the International Raelian Movement (IRM). His cult is still centered around the UFO and ET phenomena. And the official Raelian website used to promote the IRM as “the largest UFO-related organization in the world”. Recently leaked internal documents suggest Rael’s followers consists only of about 18,000 and IRM members being less than 3,000 worldwide.

Whilst relying on the popularity of the UFO phenomenon to lend credibility to his claims, Rael always dismisses other contactees' and abductees' claims of extraterrestrial encounters as the result of psychological disorders or the use of drugs, which lends some credence to Rael in light of the probable causes explained at the beginning of this article, or that their encounters were genuinely an encounter with the Elohim, but were misinterpreted or mystified due to their prior beliefs.

Furthermore, many rivals have challenged Rael's prophethood, with claims of having some form of contact with the Elohim, including people from the ranks of the Raelian Movement itself. For these particular claimants, Rael publicly excommunicates them, not hesitating to label them as mentally ill. Most recently, he added his former long time partner, Sophie de Niverville to this list after she claimed to have received communications from them, going as far as publicly disclosing her medical history and instructing his followers to avoid contacting her, a common practice in similar groups.

Whenever a UFO sighting is benign, Rael jumps at the opportunity to claim that it was in fact his Elohim that were behind the event. Two of the most recent UFO sightings that garnered a great deal of media attention and internet hype – the Jerusalem Temple sighting and the UFO wave over China – were featured prominently on the Raelian website dedicated to promoting the building of an embassy for extraterrestrials.

Both have been thoroughly debunked.

Cognitive Dissonance and Circular Reasoning
Yet despite violent events such as the Biblical Flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the Trumpets of Jericho - acts perpetrated by the Elohim as documented by Rael in his own books, he still vehemently denies any possible aggression by space aliens as well as the “abduction” phenomenon, even though by definition, his mother's supposed impregnation falls into this category.

This is yet another demonstration of how cognitive dissonance is embedded within Raelism. On the one hand, all accounts of abductions are completely rejected – the universal law that prevents aggressive beings from leaving their solar system ensures that all extraterrestrial visitors are benign. Any claims contrary to this position are the result of psychological misinterpretations or deliberate lies. Yet, on the other hand, when some specific people in the Raelian narrative were taken and had procedures such as insemination performed upon them (without their consent), these are somehow not “alien abductions”, nor are they recognized as a form of violence or aggression.

While abductees believe in the ET abduction phenomenon, just like UFO enthusiasts believe in ET visitations, Rael obliquely discounts the former while promotes the latter.

One can conclude that Rael is a deliberate hoaxer who knows very well he hasn't met any space aliens himself and therefore alien abductions can also not ever happen. He uses the fallacy of circular reasoning to make it all sensible in his followers’ minds:

(1) ETs, i.e. Elohim are peaceful
(2) therefore, no violence and abductions can be expected from them
(3) but, his story records Biblical violence and abductions, especially of his mother
(4) but, these were all done for peaceful ends that will allow the Elohim to return
(5) therefore, Rael is the Messenger of peace who will welcome back the loving Elohim

Advocatus Diaboli


Footnote:
[1] In Alsace (Bas-Rhin), . Strasbourg, HAMANBURGER, at 10, rue du Vieux- March.-aux-Vins et GOTTWEISS ET HAMANBURGER au 5, rue Koenigshoffen en SARL.

RAEL: Thief of Souls - Biography of a Liar

Download PDF of Maryse Péloquin's book:

In French

Raël: Voleur d'âmes

Biographie d'un menteur

A bootlegged version with additional info:

In English

Rael's Secret

The Suppressed History of the Raelian movement

Evolution of Raelism's Scientific Denialism

Rael "selecting" RT's article with no comments

An article by RT titled "Scientists go ape after Indian minister dubs Darwin theory ‘wrong’" published on January 23rd mentions Satyapal Singh causing quite a stir last week after challenging Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution as “scientifically wrong.” “Since man is seen on Earth, he has always been a man,” claimed the minister, who has a PhD in chemistry. Given that “nobody saw a man turning into an ape,” Singh suggested a change in the curriculum.

Of course, a joint statement by three science academies of India condemned Singh's statements as being "a retrograde step to remove the teaching of the theory of evolution from school and college curricula or to dilute this by offering non-scientific explanations or myths."

Rael shared this news on his FaceBook page and swiftly published it on his Rael-Science page on January 24th. Then the International Raelian Movement (IRM) issued a press release on January 25th about Rael offering his support to Singh. Rael usually makes his public statements under the the banner "COMMENT:"; however I was unable to find any.

According to Raelism, biological evolution is a myth. Under the title "Evolution: A Myth", Rael writes about his exchanges with Yahweh, his supposed ET father:

"you must dispel from your minds all uncertainty about evolution. Your scientists who have elaborated theories of evolution are not completely wrong in saying that humanity is descended from the monkey, and the monkey from the fish, and so on. In reality, the first living organism created on Earth was unicellular, which then gave rise to more complex life forms.

But this did not happen by chance! When we came to Earth to create life, we started by making very simple creations and then improved our techniques of environmental adaptation. This enabled us to make in turn fish, amphibians, mammals, birds, primates and finally man himself, who is just an improved model of the monkey to which we added what makes us essentially human.

In this way, we made human beings in our image, as it is written in the Bible in Genesis. You could have realized for yourselves that there is little chance of a series of accidents producing such a large variety of life forms - the colors of birds and their elaborate mating rituals, or the shape of certain antelope horns.

What natural need could lead antelopes or wild goats to develop curled horns? Or birds to have blue or red feathers? And what about exotic fish?

All that is the work of our artists." (Intelligent Design, p. 92)

To explain away how natural selection and genetic mutations drive the evolutionary process, Yahweh adds:

"Evolution of the various forms of life on Earth is really the evolution of techniques of creation and the increased sophistication of the creators’ work. This eventually led them to create people similar to themselves. You can find the skulls of prehistoric men who were the first human prototypes.

These were replaced each time by others more evolved. This continued right up to your present form, which is the exact replica [1] of your creators who were afraid to create anything highly superior to themselves, although some were tempted to do so." (p. 93)

IRM's press release supporting Singh

Raelism's stance on biological evolution falls clearly under scientific denialism akin to Christian Creationism. However, faced with the reality of scientific evidence backing the Theory of Evolution, even the Catholic Church has eventually adopted the idea of Theistic Evolution that claims that God has intentionally created mechanisms for his creation to evolve.

To my surprise, in IRM's press release, Raelian spokesperson Brigitte Boisselier (the perpetrator of the human cloning hoax of 2003) apparently attempts to change the rigid Raelian mythos concerning evolution and creation by stating:

“Scientists are able to genetically modify species. In doing so, they show that random mutations are not the only path to explain how new species arose, but directed mutations by advanced scientists could be another way. It’s possible to imagine a large scale and deliberate genetic engineering undertaking responsible for simple protozoans, colorful birds, graceful mammals, and even Homo sapiens.”

Looks like Raelism itself is slowly evolving to become more compatible with real science by injecting "directed mutations" in its discourse to show an acceptance of biological evolution, but at the same time alluding that it was indeed ETs who deliberately created such mechanisms for life to evolve with the changing environment. LOL


Advocatus Diaboli

[1] The following is the description Rael gives of Yahweh: "I could see then this was certainly no child even though the figure was only about four feet (1.2 meters) tall. His eyes were slightly almond shaped, his hair was black and long, and he had a small black beard. I still had not moved, and he stopped about ten meters away from me.

He wore some sort of green one-piece suit, which covered his entire body, and although his head seemed to be exposed, I could see around it a strange sort of halo. It was not really a halo but the air about his face shone slightly and shimmered. It looked like an invisible shield, like a bubble, so fine that you could barely see it. His skin was white with a slightly greenish tinge, a bit like someone with liver trouble." (p. 5)

Copyright: Raelian Foundation

Being about 4 feet tall and having greenish skin aren't an "exact replica" imposed on us by our supposed creators.

As for the bubble, Yahweh later explains: "My face seems to be in the open air, but really it is protected by an invisible shield composed of repellent rays inside which I breathe different air from you. These rays let waves pass through, but not air molecules. It's a bit like the way you prevent fuel deposits escaping from certain ports in your technology by using emissions of bubbles." (p. 105)

But in Rael's alleged 2nd encounter with Yahweh, Rael relates: "I noticed one difference right away. He no longer had on the spacesuit that had seemed to make a halo around his face the first time." (p. 146)

Asked about this apparent contradiction, Rael brushed it off as "psychology" (p. 228). Read my take on this here. LOL

[RAELIAN DISINFO] Rael used a Human Cloning HOAX from the '70s

Rael claimed the following in his book "Sensual meditation" published in 1980:

"An American millionaire has already had a child which was produced purely from one of his own cells without the female element modifying his genetic code." (p. 49, Sensual Meditation, e-book 2002)

He was referring to David Rorvik, who in his book "In His Image: The Cloning of a Man" (1978) made the startling claim that the world's first human clone had been born. Rorvik was not just a random eccentric whose claim could be dismissed. He was a respected writer who had worked as a medical reporter for both Time and the New York Times, and therefore he spoke with some credibility. His publisher, J.B. Lippincott Company, itself was a well-regarded publisher of medical books.

According to Rorvik, he had been approached in 1973 by a wealthy American millionaire who wanted to create a clone of himself. The millionaire, whom Rorvik referred to as 'Max' in order to conceal the man's identity, asked Rorvik to manage a research project with this aim. Rorvik accepted the challenge and used his connections as a well-placed science writer to recruit the necessary scientific talent. The scientific team was flown to a lab located on a secret island somewhere 'beyond Hawaii,' where after five years of experimentation they succeeded in creating a viable human egg containing Max's DNA. They implanted the egg into the uterus of a surrogate mother (an island resident code-named 'Sparrow'), and nine months later the first human clone was born.

Human Egg Cell

It's interesting to note that Rael emphasized how the alleged clone "was produced purely from one of his own cells without the female element modifying his genetic code" despite Rorvik stating "a viable human egg [i.e. an ovum] containing Max's DNA" was created. Even with our current cloning technology called Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer (SCNT), a donor ovum is required. Ova contain tiny bits called Mitochondria that remain after the cell nucleus is switched using SCNT. This is true even with normal fertilization: the mitochondria of the ovum remains, while the sperm cell's mitochondria is discarded. While it's true the female mitochondria won't modify the genetic code in the cell nucleus, this female element nevertheless will remain. Moreover, mitochondria contain DNA of their own.

Nuclear transplantation in amphibians
using embryonic cells as nuclear donors

Going back to Rorvik's claims, scientists, were skeptical. They argued that Rorvik's claim could not be true because the state-of-the-art in cloning technology was nowhere near the level required to produced a human clone. The cloning technique he described was loosely based on a procedure that had been successfully used to clone a frog in the mid-1960s. However, it was well known that this technique would not work in mammals because of the differences between mammalian and amphibian biology. Moreover, it should be noted that the transferred cell nucleus was not from a somatic cell, but embryonic cells.

Rorvik's book sold extremely well and sparked national debate about the ethics of cloning. However, within months Lippincott and Rorvik found themselves in court when they were sued for defamation by J. Derek Bromhall, a British scientist whose research had been cited in the book. The court asked Rorvik to provide concrete evidence of the existence of the cloned boy. When he failed to do so, the court ruled that Rorvik's book was a "fraud and a hoax." A year later, in 1982, Lippincott agreed to pay an unspecified amount of damages to Bromhall.

Rorvik's motivations for perpetrating the hoax remain unclear. Money might have been a factor, although he lost a great deal of what he earned from the book to legal fees. Alternatively, he might have hoped to draw attention to the ethical issues raised by the startling advances being achieved in the biological sciences. During the 1980s these advances spawned the biotechnology industry and in 1997 allowed the (true) cloning of a mammal, a Scottish sheep named Dolly. In this sense, although Rorvik's story was not true, it was, at least, prescient.

Rael never updated his book to reflect the court's ruling in 1981. Perhaps he took inspiration from it to perpetrate his own human cloning hoax through Clonaid in 2003.



Advocatus Diaboli

Reference: http://hoaxes.org/cloning.html

Update: In late January, 2018, the first successful cloning of primates has been announced.