Throughout the history of Raëlism, members of the Raëlian Movement have advocated the use of sex-positive feminism, condoms, birth control, masturbation, meditation, genetically modified organisms, and human cloning.Broughton, Philip D. Promise of as much sex as you want and everlasting life, The Daily Telegraph. 31 December 2002. Retrieved 13 March 2007. In the past, projects such as Clonaid, for human cloning, and Clitoraid, for repairing genitally mutilated clitorises,"On s'en est fait passer une p'tite vite!", Cyberpresse.ca. 5 December 2006. Retrieved 21 September 2007.Raëlian effort to promote sponsorship of clitorises, Clitoraid.org. Retrieved 9 August 2006. have been founded. Raëlians are also believers of the Raëlian movement's version of its history as described in the books written by Claude Vorilhon.
Early years
The beginnings of Raëlian history goes back to the history of Raël, which concerns the origins of Raël, his personage, and his works, which developed from Claude Vorilhon. The personage began as the result of encounters described in Raëlian Messages, mainly from The Book Which Tells the Truth (1974) and Extraterrestrials Took Me to their Planet (1975).
Raëlian books are a primary source of Raël's history. Translated portions of the original text are distributed freely worldwide in 36 languages on the Internet.The Raëlian Movement: Downloads, The International Raëlian Movement. 2012. Retrieved 23 May 2012. Some of the books include the contents of multiple Raëlian books and have testimonials, footnotes, updates, and hyperlinks appended to them. In addition to the Raëlian books, a Canadian sociologist named Susan J. Palmer writes about Raël's struggle to organize the young Raëlian movement.Palmer, pp. 37-8, 57.
The foundations
All of the following are said to have happened to Claude Vorilhon in Raëlian belief:
On the morning of 13 December 1973 (Julian Date 2442029),In France, Julian Dates 2442030 and 2442696 begin at 1:00 P.m. on 13 December 1973 and 10 October 1975, respectively. All times are GMT +1:00. he had his first meeting with an extraterrestrial humanoid- an Eloha (plural: Elohim), who landed a UFO within an inactive volcano called Puy de Lassolas near the capital of Auvergne, France (Clermont-Ferrand).Raël, Intelligent Design, pp. 3-9.
Two days later, in a third meeting, an Eloha referred to similar insignias: one engraved on his spaceship and one on his spacesuit. Both formed by interlocked triangles which, according to the Eloha, means "as above, so below", enclosing a swastika which means "all is cyclic in infinite time". In Raëlism, the swastika symbolizes "The choice between paradise, which the peaceful use of science makes possible, and the hell of returning to the primitive stage where humanity submits to nature instead of dominating and benefiting from it." This is the original emblem of the Raëlian Movement which is used primarily in the African and Asian continents.Raël, Intelligent Design, p. 62.
Three days later, Claude Vorilhon met Yahweh Elohim for the last time that year on a Tuesday. On that day, Vorilhon was given the name for the religious movement which he was to establish. The six-letter name is "MADECH", which stands for "mouvement pour laccueil des Elohim créateurs de lhumanité" or "movement for welcoming the Elohim, creators of humanity". It also stands for "Moise a devancé Elie et le Christ" meaning "Moses preceded Elijah and the Christ". The "New Commandments" presented to him on that Tuesday concerned the establishment of Geniocracy, Humanitarianism, World Government, and his mission to catalyze these endeavors and to hasten the return of the ElohimAngels or fallen angels in Christianity and Jinn (Genies) in Islam. to Earth.Raël, Intelligent Design, p. 104.
Founding On 19 September 1974, Claude Vorilhon held his first public conference in Paris, France, which attracted more than 2000 people.Raël: Messenger of the Elohim , The International Raëlian Movement. Retrieved 1 December 2006. Soon after, Raël founded and began to establish MADECH. On 13 December, this was brought into fruition as 170 MADECH members gathered at Puy de Lassolas and formed an organization of "a president, a treasurer, and a secretary" who each signed a 10,000 franc check payable toward the publication of the first Raëlian book.Palmer, p. 37.
Susan J. Palmer commented that in UFO platform societies like the MADECH organization, there was no obligation of membership and commitment like those found in cults, but rather, an open place where people could freely exchange their opinions and relate their experiences on the subject of UFOs. Only the first Raëlian book had surfaced at the time, and Palmer says it had consisted largely of a "creation myth and eschatology", but it had "no rituals, no priesthood, no experiential dimension, and no coherent system of ethics" which would lead to an organized movement that had any chance of committing to large projects guided by a leader.Palmer, p. 57.
At the Place de la République in March 1975, Claude Vorhilon staged a purging of leaders who he believed hampered his own creativity.Palmer, p. 38. In the following month, Claude Vorhilon called for a meeting of the MADECH organization, which was held at its headquarters in Paris. As MADECH's president, Vorhilon conducted the meeting with the intention to rid the organization from the kind of pseudoscience that contradicted his physicalism.Palmer, p. 37. In addition to this, the MADECH officials had an increasing desire to blend-in with the rest of the ufologists and trekkies, and were becoming less interested in the Raëlian concept of Elohim extraterrestrials. A schism was becoming more apparent among the officials, and subsequently Vorilhon dismissed all of them. Their positions were replaced by an inner circle of seven people, whose mission was to inform the public of the Raëlian messages, and to raise funds for building an embassy for extraterrestrials.Palmer, p. 37. Vorilhon said that he resigned as president of MADECH by that June, because it seemed to him that MADECH could survive on its own, and that he had made a mistake by structuring it into a form that he likened to a "petanque club or a war veterans' association". Vorilhon then spoke of a personal desire to settle in the countryside, and write an autobiography of events that happened prior to his purported extraterrestrial encounters that began on 13 December 1973.Raël, Intelligent Design, pp. 142-143.
Additional foundations In his book Intelligent Design, Raël discussed the following events occurred:
On 31 July 1975, along with his wife Marie-Paul and a devoted MADECH member- François, Raël sighted a UFO near his new home in the countryside near Clermont-Ferrand, the town that he previously had lived in.Raël, Intelligent Design, p. 135. The glowing craft performed aerial start-and-go maneuvers along a zigzag path. Raël thought that this was a verification that the new location that he and his wife were now living in was the right place and time.
He said that on 7 October 1975, an hour before midnight, after having a sudden urge to observe the night sky, he decided to go to Roc Plat, an uninhabited place between two brooks surround by a forest. A spacecraft suddenly landed and shone a bright light behind a bush. He then met the same extraterrestrial from his first encounter on 13 December 1973. After a few words, he was taken up in that spacecraft with the Eloha and sent to a remote base relatively close to the Solar System where he was given a resort-style relaxation treatment including an organic breakfast and over an hour in a Jacuzzi of warm blue liquid, slightly thicker than water.Raël, Intelligent Design, pp. 145-148.
On the morning of 8 October, Rael sat mesmerized and listened to a 3-hour lecture from Yahweh Elohim about his religions and philosophers, the need for geniocracy, Hinduism, Islam, and Buddhism, and about the ideas of divinity and souls, and later traveled to the Planet of the Eternals. The planet orbited around a very large star and had a climate similar to the rain forests of Earth. He later sat down with the Eloha and had a meal with the major prophets, including Buddha, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed. A guide showed him installations that housed machines for creating biological robots. He gave a picture of his mother to a machine which created similarly appearing biological robots. That night, he received an introduction to build his future home at the Planet of the Eternals and was presented young, mature female biological robots. He said that before reaching a climax, he wore a helmet which played music controlled by his thoughts, which the females danced to. Then the climax happens.Raël, Intelligent Design, pp. 148-171.
He said that on the morning of 9 October, he took a scented bath and that soon after, Yahweh Elohim (an extraterrestrial) presented Claude Vorilhon to a machine which maximized his faculties. Yahweh Elohim then gave advice to him, the one who has become Claude Raël. Claude Raël then spent a few more hours on the planet, doing yoga and being given a long guided meditation session, and enjoyed what that world had to offer while he was there, including meeting with the past messengers of the Elohim.Raël, Intelligent Design, pp. 171-178. By midnight of 10 October (Julian Date 2442695), 666 days after the first meeting with the Elohim and minutes after the last one, Claude Raël is back on Roc Plat.Raël, Intelligent Design, p. 178. His entire experience has taken exactly 72 hours.
He said that in the afternoon of 7 October 1976, at la Negrerie of France, fifty Raëlians witnessed cotton-like substances falling from the skyRaël, Intelligent Design, pp. 356-7. which Raël said has a historical relationship to manna.Raël, Intelligent Design, p. 28. Raël said that manna was a pulverized synthetic chemical food made by the Elohim, and that it was sent to Israelites on the ground in similar manner during their journey through an artificial passage in Red Sea formed by a repulsion beam.
Geniocratic movement In 1978, Raëlians had a conference for the French press, in which they announced their vision for a worldwide political movement for geniocracy. In March 1978, one of their members was voted onto the city council of Sarlat. However, in December of the previous year- 1977, the non-democratic nature of the geniocratic model of government, and the classification of Raëlians as a cult by the government of France, and the fact that the Raëlian logo contains a swastika, were used as grounds by France's state police to seize documents from Raël's home, and from the homes of other Raëlians.Palmer, p. 86.
Middle years
Claude Raël travels around the world
From 1980 to 1992, Raël and his movement became increasingly global. Beginning from 1980, Claude Raël's fifth Raëlian book Sensual Meditation was published for the first time and formal publication of the Raëlian Messages in the Japanese language beganHarmony Revolution, Japanese Raëlian Movement. Retrieved 2 November 2006. as part of the Raëlian mission to Japan.Palmer, p. 64. Two years later, Africa became another target area in the mission to spread the Raëlian messages.Palmer, p. 64. In May 1983, Claude Raël visited a famous landmark that survived the atomic bombing at Hiroshima, Japan, known as the Hiroshima Peace Memorial.Geniocracy (Japanese copy), International Raëlian Movement. Retrieved 3 February 2007.
At sundown in 1986, in a restaurant next to Villa Pamphilli park—just outside Vatican City—Raël began claiming to members that he was the true pope and played a guitar hymn about extraterrestrials.Palmer, p. 91. In 1990, Australians became the next Raëlian target,Palmer, p. 64. and in 1992, Canada's Raëlians purchased 115 hectares near Valcourt, Quebec, for a series of summer seminars in North America, and their leader gave it the name "Le Jardin du Prophète" (The Prophet's Gardens).Palmer, p. 61.