Does anyone have information on this group? The name of the leader is Rael (original name Claude Vorilhon), and they call themselves Raelians. Seems like an international organization.

I've only read a bit about their philosophy (which involves aliens) and there is no doubt in my mind that it's all nonsense. But I have a friend who is getting involved with them and I'm wondering if they are harmless or if it's time to stage an intervention. How concerned should I be about her? I don't want to confront her unless I have solid information.

Any help would be very much appreciated.

In my opinion the group fits the criteria of a destructive cult.

See [www.culteducation.com]

The group is run by Vorilhon, who seems to be an absolute dictator.

The Raelian group bases its beliefs essentially on Vorilhon's supernatural claims.

See [www.culteducation.com]

This is the subsection about the Raelians and Vorilhon.

Wow, this is a lot to digest...

Thank you.

Weird for sure. Look at just this one paragraph from Wikipedia:

Raëlians do not believe in reincarnation as dictated by mystical writings because they do not believe that an ethereal soul exists free of physical confinement.[19] Instead the Raëlians think that advanced supercomputers of the Elohim are right now recording the memories and DNA of human beings.[20] When Elohim release this information for the coming resurrection,people would be brought back from the dead and the judgments upon them would be realized based on actions in their past life. People excluded from physical recreation would include those who achieved nothing positive but were not evil.[21] Claude Vorilhon expressed an interest in cloning Hitler for war trials and retroactive punishment.[22] Raël also mentioned cloning as the solution to terrorism by suicide attacks, as the perpetrators would not be able to escape punishment by killing themselves if the Elohim recreated them after their attacks.[23]

So are they going to bring back the evil people just to punish them? Why bother? And then bring back all the good guys to create a better world (and they spend their time punishing the bad guys?) How complicated... And I doubt it would stop terrorists anyway. Pretty ridiculous!

[en.wikipedia.org]

Yeah sounds like they are really out there in their beliefs. Where does this stuff come from? Someone just dreams it up and then people follow them? Strange.

From Wikipedia:

"There is continuing debate on whether Raëlians can be identified as a cult. The government of France classifies the Raelian Movement as a "secte" (French word for cult). However, according to Glenn McGee, the associate director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Virginia, part of the sect is a cult while the other part is a commercial website that collects large sums of money from those interested in human cloning.[58] The Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor of the United States Department of State[59] and sociologist Susan J. Palmer[60] have classified the International Raëlian Movement as a religion."

Sounds like a very weird cult to me, with a cult leader who claims to have been taken aboard an alien spacecraft. They deny donating funds to Clonaid, although it is their organization and when one person asked where the first supposedly cloned baby, Eve, is, they completely evaded the question and answered a different one. Suspicious.

I've been reading a lot on them. Yes, they are really out there in their beliefs.

I have found a LOT of information on weird stuff that they teach or do, but it is difficult to find people who claim to have been "brainwashed" by them, or who had difficulty leaving the group.

Most of the articles out there paint them as eccentric but fun-loving and liberal, making them seem harmless and inoffensive.

For example:
http://io9.com/5860418/meet-the-raelians-inside-the-worlds-strangest--and-nicest--ufo-sex-clone-religion

But then I came across a testimonial from the leader's ex-wife:
www.dialogueireland.org/dicontent/media/iwasmarried.doc

and another testimonial from an ex-member (which is horribly translated, but still gives a good idea of the situation):
http://raelian.com/en/marie_julie.php

Thought those would be really good reads for anyone who is ever interested in this group.

"But then I came across a testimonial from the leader's ex-wife:
www.dialogueireland.org/dicontent/media/iwasmarried.doc"

This link doesn't work for me...

From the bottom article, he sounds like a megalomaniac and like so many, charismatic yet uses his power to seduce and control.

ultraspring,

This link doesn't go to a regular webpage. It links to a word document. For me it downloads it automatically. Check your downloads folder maybe?

Thanks, Sunny99, yes, that worked. Interesting (and so demoralizing) what his wife went through. And those poor kids!

Marie-Paul says: 'I thought I had married a fairly ordinary, if slightly egotistical, man. Not a freak. At first I believed that Claude really thought what he was saying was true, but over the years I began to think the whole Raelian movement was a trick to have more sex and to satisfy the enormous ego and need to be worshipped that he had always had.

'... It has been a long, grim, uphill struggle, but I am free of him. Is he mad? No, I don't think so. I think he is devious, crafty, manipulative and very, very clever.'

Better warn your friend. Anytime these people regularly have sex with lots of their followers, to me that's a clear message to stay away.

Also, funny that in the pictures of them at rallies, when they dress up as aliens, the alien look is the standard one we've been seeing for years, with the oblong eyes, skinny bodies. Didn't Rael tell them what the aliens REALLY looked like (or was his story also influenced by the stereotyped alien image we all have?) He could have at least been more creative!