Raël (born Claude Maurice Marcel Vorilhon, 30 September 1946)Cult leader Raël denied residence in Switzerland, Agence France-Presse. 19 February 2007. Retrieved 13 March 2007. is a French journalist and religious leader who founded and leads the Raëlian Movement, an international UFO religion.
Before becoming a religious leader, Raël, then known as Claude Vorilhon, worked as a sports car journalist and test driver for his car-racing magazine, Autopop. AutoPop, la revue des pilotes Raël : Messie ou Menteur ?. Retrieved 20 June 2007.Raël, Intelligent Design, pp. 135–6. He reported an extraterrestrial encounter in December 1973 and subsequently formed the Raëlian Movement and changed his name to Raël. He later published several books, which detail the encounter with a being called Yahweh in 1973. He traveled the world to promote his books for over 30 years.Raël, Intelligent Design, Photo Section
Early life Vorilhon was born in Vichy, Allier, France.Raël, Intelligent Design, p. 123. He was raised in Ambert in the home of his maternal grandmother, who was atheist.Palmer, p. 32. His unknown father was Jewish and his mother a "devout atheist".Susan Palmer, Aliens Adored: Raël's UFO Religion, Rutgers University Press, 2004, p. 3.2 He attended a Catholic boarding school in Le Puy-en-Velay and caused a scandal by taking part in communion without being baptized. His parents withdrew him from the boarding school to put him in school in Ambert. He later advocated that Huguenot descendants receive reparations from the Church.
At age 15, Vorilhon ran away from boarding school and hitchhiked to Paris, where he spent three years playing music on the streets and in cafés and cabarets. He met with , the director of a national radio program (on Europe 1), who was scouting for young talent. Vorilhon signed a record contract and became a rising teen pop star on the radio. He took on a new identity, assuming the name Claude Celler, and released six singles, including a minor hit song, "Le miel et la cannelle" ("Honey and Cinnamon").Palmer, pp. 32–33. Vorilhon had a passion for the songs of Belgian singer Jacques Brel, and tried to imitate his singing style. He was saving up his money to buy a racing car, a dream he had since he was a young boy, but his prospects as a singer came to an abrupt end when Morisse killed himself in September 1970.Palmer, p. 34.
Vorilhon decided to work as a sports journalist to gain access to the world of car racing. He met Marie-Paul Cristini, a nurse. They moved to Clermont-Ferrand, where Vorilhon started his own publishing house.Raël, Intelligent Design 135–6. He created a sports car magazine, Autopop, whose first issue was released in May 1971. One of the tasks for his new startup was the position of testing new automobiles, which enabled him to enter the motor racing world.
The Raëlian messages
On December 3, 1973 in a secluded area within a French volcanic crater, Vorilhon claimed to see a strong flashing light and saw "something like a bell" made of shiny metal coming out from the sky slowly without any noise. A trapdoor opened under the craft, and an extraterrestrial being came out of a craft. The being told him, in French, that he had come for the sole purpose of meeting with him. Raël said he was given a message by this alien and told that it was his mission to pass this message on to the people of Earth. According to Vorilhon, the face of the extraterrestrial was "full of love."Raël, Intelligent Design, 11–109.
The book states that advanced human scientists from another planet with 25,000 years of scientific advances created all life on Earth through DNA manipulation.Raël, Intelligent Design, 90, 107, 113, 159.Harvey, Neil, , The Roanoke Times. 23 September 2006. Retrieved 20 December 2007. These scientists, Raël said, were originally called Elohim or "those who came from the sky".Raël, Intelligent Design, 11. He wrote that around 40Raël, Intelligent Design, 161–5. prophets in Earth's history were sent by Elohim,Segall, Rebecca, Close Encounter of the Raëlian Kind , The Village Voice. 4 September 2001. Retrieved 20 December 2007. but their messages were distortedRaël, Intelligent Design, 11, 33, 88, 293, 332. by humans, largely because of the difference in the level of civilization between the advanced race and Earth's primitive one.Raël, Intelligent Design, 73.
Raël said that he was given the mission to inform the world of the origin of the human species, in anticipation of these extraterrestrials' return by building a residential embassy in neutral territory.Raël, Intelligent Design, 101–104. He stated that certain mysteries were explained to him based on new interpretations of sacred texts such as the Bible.Raël, Intelligent Design, 10–79. He claimed that, on 7 October 1975, he was contacted by one of the Elohim, who took him to another planet to meet Buddha, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad. He stated that his second book, Les extra-terrestres m'ont emmené sur leur planète (Extraterrestrials Took Me To Their Planet), relates the teaching he received from these people. In this book, Raël describes harmonious and peaceable beings free of money, sickness, and war.Raël, Intelligent Design 163–4.
In 1974, Raël decided to give up his automobile magazine, Autopop. That September, the last issue, number 34, was published. Raël then devoted himself to the task he said was given by his "biological father", an extraterrestrial named Yahweh.Raël, Intelligent Design; 290–1. Shortly after a first public conference, Raël founded MADECH, a group of people interested in helping him in his task, which later became the International Raëlian Movement.Raël, Intelligent Design 139–40.
Marriages Raël has been married three times.Palmer, p. 43.
His first wife was Marie-Paul Cristini. Sociologist Susan J. Palmer said that Cristini, a nurse, diagnosed Raël as clinically depressed after he appeared at her doorstep in 1987, burnt out from the tasks he carried out within the movement.Palmer, pp. 54–5.
Raël focused on spreading his message in Japan in the 1980s, and by 1987, he met Lisa Sunagawa. Sunagawa soon began accompanying Raël during his travels to Lima, Miami, Brazil, and Martinique. In the 1990 Radio Canada television documentary They're Coming!, Raël is seen with four women,Lewis, p. 127. while Lisa, in slow motion, wears a pink tutu and holds hands with him.
Raël separated from Sunagawa sometime between 1990 and 1992. Around that time, Sophie de Niverville, whose mother and aunt were both Raëlians, was convinced of the authenticity of the messages. Sophie received a Raëlian baptism at age 15. When she turned 16, she married Raël at Montreal's city hall. During a December 2001 interview with Palmer, Sophie spoke positively about Raël, despite their divorce the previous year; they continued to live together.Palmer, pp. 43–5.
Racing career In 1994, wealthy Japanese Raëlians rented a race car and showed it to Raël. They believed that if he raced it, it would generate publicity for the movement. Raël accepted the offer on the condition that the funding not come from member tithes or embassy funding. Funding for Raël's races, which took place in the 1990s and early 2000s, came mostly from well-funded European and Japanese people.Palmer, p. 41. His best finishes included "a 3rd place finish in GT1 in Lime Rock with the Mosler Raptor in 1997, and a 7th place finish at Watkins Glen with a Viper GTS R in a 1999 FIA GT race".Raël to compete in Charlotte Motorsport.com. 27 March 2007. Retrieved 7 October 2007. Raël participated in the 1999 BFGoodrich Tires Trans-Am Series and the 2000 Speedvision GT Championship. According to Palmer, Raël announced in November 2001 that he intended to retire from professional auto racing. He said that he still enjoyed racing in the form of video games.
+ 1999 BFGoodrich Tires Trans-Am SeriesRoundDateCarStartFinishLapsTrackSourceTwo23 May 1999Chevrolet21st19th35 out of 40Mosport International RacewayMotorsport.comMosport Race Report, Results and Points , Motorsport.com. 23 May 1999. Retrieved 18 August 2007.
+ 2000 Speedvision GT Championship eventsRoundDateCarStartFinishLapsTrackSourceOne1 April 2000Lotus Esprit29th32nd15 out of 29Lowe's Motor SpeedwayMotorsport.comCharlotte GT Opener Race Results , Motorsport.com. 1 April 2000. Retrieved 18 August 2007.Two21 May 2000Lotus Esprit31st18th27 out of 27Mosport International RacewayMotorsport.comMosport GT results , Motorsport.com. 21 May 2000. Retrieved 18 August 2007.Three27 May 2000Lotus Esprit38thLime Rock ParkMotorsport.comLime Rock Park line up GT, Touring , Motorsport.com. 27 May 2000. Retrieved 18 August 2007.Eight15 October 2000Porsche 911 GT332nd25th25 out of 26Laguna Seca RacewayMotorsport.comLaguna Seca Fitzgerald wins third straight in GT, Motorsport.com. 15 October 2000. Retrieved 18 August 2007.Nine29 October 2000Porsche 911 GT325th25th29 out of 30Las Vegas Motor SpeedwayMotorsport.comLas Vegas GT results, Motorsport.com. 30 October 2000. Retrieved 18 August 2007.
Promoted technologies Raël believes that humans are slowly transitioning into a society wherein they will not need to work or have jobs. This is due to human technological advancement and because humans "are not made to work". He has stated that work is for machines, whereas humans are made to create, think, and enrich themselves.Rael talks about the messages of the Elohim (1/2). YouTube. Channel - TheInveritas. Published 25 June 2009. Retrieved 2 February 2018.
Much of Raël's advocacy concerning futuristic technology is described in his 2001 book, Yes to Human Cloning. He supported human genetic engineering in order to avoid genetically inherited diseases and to reduce the economic burden on society. He said that no distinctive emphasis needed to be allocated to a particular race or religion., Raël Press File. 5 February 2002. Retrieved 6 August 2006.Raël, Yes to Human Cloning, pp. 51–55. Elsewhere in the book, he stated that nanotechnology will make it possible to have micro-distributive power generation (essentially a power plant in each house), fur-like furnishings that are self-cleaning with hair-like fibers that move on their own,Cloning, pp. 133–6. and biological robots.Raël, Yes to Human Cloning, p. 132. Nanostructures control biology, so Raël expected that meat and salads will someday be grown in a machine via molecular construction.Brown, DeNeen L., The Leader of UFO Land, Washington Post. 17 January 2003. Retrieved 3 May 2007.Raël, Yes to Human Cloning, p. 72.
Raël believed that genetically modified food is the only way to stop hunger everywhere in the world, and he saw a future where qualities of different foods can be combined through direct genetic modification.Raël, Yes to Human Cloning, pp. 57–60. In Raël's book, Extraterrestrials took me to their planet (book number 2 in the volume Intelligent Design), he said that animation of plant life was possible through nanotechnology and that he was presented genetically modified flowers, that swayed and changed colors with music, while on another planet.Raël, Intelligent Design, p. 138.
Criticism and controversies
Plagiarism In recent years, many ex-Raëlians have accused Vorilhon of plagiarism. They have compared numerous passages from his books with those of author Jean Sendy. Raëlian concepts such as chemical education, infinity, geniocracy, and others are all found in Sendy's books. Most of Raël's book Sensual Meditation is said to have been derived from the Silva 'Mind Control' Method, which was allegedly taught to him by ex-level-5 guide of the Canadian Raelian Movement, Jean-Denis Saint-Cyr.