CaptPorridge you are so right about Rael. He does want to be God by another name. He talks about love and peace but if you don't see things his way you are stupid or an idiot. I'm curious missmek where your husband first found out about the Raelians? I'm not sure where mine did but he is really into science so that's what the appeal was to him. I don't really think he sees the whole picture of what they really are.

He found out about the raelians through the internet. The attraction is the ET and UFO aspect. At least at first. As you stated CaptPorridge, scientific is one thing they are not. Personally, my husband's dedication to this is growing stronger day by day. It reminds me of when you see anyone become "fanatic" in a new religion. Maybe due to the personal excitement of finding something to identify with. He feels I am closed minded because I feel Rael is a fake. I think he is an intellegent person to bring in such a following. He knows how to market what he is selling to reach the masses. There are quite a few discussions that are always the same between us:

[i:97fef99f91]Intellegent Design[/i:97fef99f91]: I put forth that rael's adaptation of ID is completely unscientific, there is no evidence except for his own account of meeting with the elohim and their transalation of scripture, which fails to be evidence. Is that not what they call in courts "hearsay"?
[i:97fef99f91]
Atheism[/i:97fef99f91]: I put forth that it is a false atheism, raelians believe in a creator, a profit, and a second coming. Theirs just happen to be E.T.s who will return to an embassy built for them and those who believe will have eternal life through cloning.

[i:97fef99f91]Geniocracy[/i:97fef99f91]: Is it not a fancy name for New World Order? In my opinion, having only the "Geniuses" of the word run the world is quite a scary thought. When one sect of the population contols all, are we not just turning the clock backwards.

[i:97fef99f91]Cloning[/i:97fef99f91]: Big Question: Where is Rael's and Clonaid's proof that they can do it? Why is there a major lack of support to them from the scientific community?

[i:97fef99f91]The Family Unit[/i:97fef99f91]: There is nothing that supports strengthening the family, there is nothing offered that even suggests that aspect. Where does rael even explore the realities of being a parent, a spouse, a devotion to that unity? All I can see is that he provides division of such.

[i:97fef99f91]Rael and his no-income state:[/i:97fef99f91] My husband states that if he were such a scoundral, why hasn't anyone found a problem in his finances? I don't know if anyone has or hasn't. From what I have read, they do not seem to release that info. It seems that he has his "non-profit" organizations and I truely wonder if the fact that now the headquarters are in the US, if there might be a deeper look into that in the future. But, who knows, I suppose the IRS has a few devoted raelians within them.


I don't think I am being close minded, I just feel that I am looking at this objectively and I am having difficulty in finding any rational basis in rael's message. I appreciate any experience or information that you have.

I took a look at the Raelian website. I've certainly heard about them and wondered what their baseline belief system really is. Apparently it is the belief that we were "intelligently designed" by aliens.

Alright, so who "designed" those aliens? What's the history? Was there a "first alien" some time, way back?

That belief system is not new but it certainly isn't scientific.

I suspect the lure of free, open sex is making this group look more valid than they really are.

I send my best to those of you who have loved ones in the process of examining this cult. I would suggest if the "scientific" arguement comes up during your discussions that you offer them the option of joining the local university science and research department as a volunteer. If an interest in the scientific proof of our origins is what they're after then better information can be found.

I doubt this is really their interest but at least this point might make them stumble in their arguement, and make them either think, or at least be more honest about their true motives.

Good luck to you all. I hope things work out for the better.

Quote
Fishbulb
I took a look at the Raelian website. I've certainly heard about them and wondered what their baseline belief system really is. Apparently it is the belief that we were "intelligently designed" by aliens.

Alright, so who "designed" those aliens? What's the history? Was there a "first alien" some time, way back?

That belief system is not new but it certainly isn't scientific.

I suspect the lure of free, open sex is making this group look more valid than they really are.

I send my best to those of you who have loved ones in the process of examining this cult. I would suggest if the "scientific" arguement comes up during your discussions that you offer them the option of joining the local university science and research department as a volunteer. If an interest in the scientific proof of our origins is what they're after then better information can be found.

I doubt this is really their interest but at least this point might make them stumble in their arguement, and make them either think, or at least be more honest about their true motives.

Good luck to you all. I hope things work out for the better.

I agree. The only problem I have is that your rationality can be applied to every single religion on the face of the planet.

Take a second and think about it. Read your post, and then traverse, in your mind, every religion you have ever known.

What I am saying here is that religion, in and amongst itself, requires brainwashing to believe - whether you were 2 years old or 10 or 50 when you were indoctrinated.

To believe in life after death does not require a religion - I.E. a political institution.

Religion, whether a UFO cult, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, or any other religion that can be named will offer you nothing but comfort.

It's time people wake up to that fact. No religion will grant you eternity. When you follow a single person, even Jesus or Mohammad, you succumb to ONE person's belief. Stop being good Christians, Muslims, Hindus or the like. Start being good people.

Belief in one man, any man, is a road to destruction.

missmek, many of the points you brought up are the same that I brought up to my husband also. My husband couldn't see what was so apparent to me and family about Rael and his supposed religion. It was one of the most awful times in my life. Although things are better now I still think about the difficult times every day. I think what bothered me the most about Rael wasn't the part about him meeting with the aliens but with the "keys" in his books. It's what really made me realize this was a cult and rael was a fraud

First I would like to say hello to all of you and to express how grateful I am to have found this very useful website.

Let me quickly introduce myself, I am French (so please forgive in advance my broken english) and for a couple of years I've noticed in my country some growing cultish activities.

I guess a turning point was the Solar Temple collective suicide that involved several French celebrities.

This event made me realize that cults were not only fancy organisations with funnily dressed gurus, meditative music and followers dancing in a kind of trance, but that cults can also kill.

After typing "raelian" in the forum and getting zero result, I thought it could be worthwile to start a discussion about this cultish movement (sorry if it has already been discussed).

Rael movement initiated in France. The database links to many relevant articles dealing with the specificities of the raelian movement.

I would like to add a personal experience I had with this movement. It was springtime about twenty years ago in Southeastern France (Aveyron county). I was doing some truit fishing along a small wild river when I started to get a very strong allergy (sneezing, crying, nose running, etc.). The allergy was so strong that I could barely see anything any more. I started to get afraid to lose my way so I started to look around and saw a blurred old house a few hundreds of meters away from the river.

I walked towards the house. Some people went towards me. I explained them that I had a strong allergy and couldn't see much. They made me sit outside their property and gave me some water. I cleaned my eyes and got back my breath.

After a few minutes I could see better and I realized that I was sitting next to a big swimming pool that was surrounded with naked people.

Then the guy that gave me some water explained to me where I was. This huge house was the summercamp of the raelian movement.

Everybody was living naked and actually everybody was having sex with everybody. He also told me that in order to respect nature, children were also having sex. (edit : I didn't see any sexual interactions but I was told by this guy that sex was free including children). He said he had two children and that it is a great privilege for a parent when rael accepts to have sex with a children.

Well I had recovered and I started to understand in what kinf of weirdos place I had stumbled. So I proposed to leave. This guy told me I should stay because Rael should arrive very soon.

Indeed a few minutes later, Rael was reaching the place. He was driving a pink convertible BMW (quite unusual and extravagant in France) and his passenger was a typical blond bimbo with short skirt and high heels.

The guy who had helped me introduced me to Rael. After a quick introduction he started to promote the raelian life while trying to enrol me : "look at this nice castle we are living in", "we have many other properties", "see all those beautiful women", "here men can have sex with any women", etc.

Well he saw that his speech didn't have much impact and after thanking him for help I left the place and went back fishing.

Later on I saw Rael a couple of time on TV, he was talking about genetics, building spaceships, creating clones. Each time I couldn't stop thinking about what this guy had told me : "it is a great privilege for a parent when rael accepts to have sex with a children"

I thought it could be worthwile that I share with you a direct testimony about the life inside Rael's summer headquarter.

If a person searches Google for the keywords below, some information does come up about the Raelians, and allegations about the sexual abuse of children...
There also seems to be a lot of Raelian propaganda around these issues out there...

Of course, if anyone hears of any credible reports of the sexual abuse of children, then it should be reported immediately to the police, child services, the newspapers, government, etc.


Search google for words like: (search those words, or words along those lines)

raelians sexual abuse children

In the interest of clarifying what is rumor and what is not, I will just address the rumor that says that Raelians are sympathetic to pedophilia. Is it really true? That would be something really big if true... The specialists agree that raelians like nudity and sexual freedom (the right to have sex in any form they want between consenting adults) but they also say that they are against sexuality with children. Both specialists of religion James R. Lewis (has been the director of CAN (cult awareness network) - book: An Encyclopedia of Contemporary Myth) and Susan Palmer (Book: Alien's Adored: Rael's UFO religion) who dedicated a big part of her studies on the raelians confirm this view. Also Massimo Introvigne and J.Gordon Melton from the CESNUR (Center of Study of the New Religions), international association grouping specialists on the new religions internationally, have published a book (Pour en finir avec les sectes- "To End the Cults") where they confirm that rumors have taken priority upon rigorous studies. Their studies of many new movements have confirmed that many rumors are not true, specifically the one about the raelians and pedophilia. Also the raelians have a website [www.nopedo.org], which works against pedophilia and are helping society to denounce pedophiles. There is also a message on the home page of the raelian website www.rael.org for pedophiles (bottom of page) that debunk this rumor about raelians having sex with children. But I guess, as long as people will propagate this rumor, it will continue. That is why rigorous methods are so important to get to the bottom of things. Knowing what is and is not rumors is a task that requires a scientific method and the results of studies help society overall by targeting the real problems instead of going after the fog of the rumors. But it is interesting how a rumor can propagate for those who study that phenomenon. We have an example right here with what "consciousness" has written.
Here is the text I found on the raelian homepage using the link "Message to pedophiles":

Excerpt from raelian website:
===
"Even if we are in favor of sexual freedom between consenting adults, if you are a pedophile you are definitely not welcome in the Raelian movement. Not only because our position is very clear condemning it as a mental disease, but also because, contrary to the politics of the Catholic church which has been hiding pedophile priests (see nopedo.org) and moving them from parish to parish so they can make more victims of their disgusting behavior, the Raelian movement has a strict policy of not only expelling immediately any member suspected of pedophilia or sex with people under legal age BUT ALSO to immediately report them to the police."

"Some of you may have been attracted to our philosophy due to defamatory articles in French speaking newspapers and magazines, stating that our philosophy being in favor of sexual freedom would then favor pedophilia. The reality is strictly the opposite. When individuals have a fulfilled sexual life, they don't even think of imposing their sexuality on children, unlike Catholic Priests unfortunately do, due to their lack of sexuality. ...
===========
In conclusion,
Even though there are a lot of things that can be perceived as "abnormal behavior" by the majority, the raelians seem to abid by the law. We must be careful to stick to the facts as much as possible because propagating false rumors will not help understand what is really going on. It is always good to check with the specialists when we really want to know something about a group.

mletou:

Are you serious quoting these "specialists"?

You refer to "James R. Lewis (has been the director of CAN (cult awareness network...Susan Palmer...Massimo Introvigne and J.Gordon Melton from the CESNUR..."

But these specialists specialize in cult apology and are all well-known as "cult apologists."

See [www.culteducation.com]

Lewis and Melton flew to Japan all expenses paid by Aum, the cult that gassed Tokyo subway system and murdered 12 Japanese, and pronounced the group persecuted.

Needless to say they were woefully wrong according to police reports, court convictions and records.

Whatever "director" position Lewis held at "CAN" was after Scientology litigation bankrupted the organization and that "cult" took over CAN.

See [www.culteducation.com]

CESNUR has long been an archive for cult apology and many cult groups point to its Web site.

Palmer has repeatedly apologized for cults and is not credible.

See [www.cultnews.com]

J. Gordon Melton is shameless and has taken money repeatedly from cults to do "research."

See [www.cultnews.com]

He took $10,000.00 from a charity associated with the depraved child molesting "cult" called "Children of God."

A paper has been written by credible scholars critical about the pandering of people like Melton.

See [www.culteducation.com]

Please don't smear this message board with such unreliable information and/or sources.

There seems to be a lot of propaganda by the Raelians on the internet about child sexual abuse, and various comments about the Catholic priests sexual abuse of children, etc.

One can be sure anytime a thread on the internet gets picked up, involving the Raelians and allegations of child sexual abuse, pedophilia, they are going to post those types of pre-scripted propaganda statements.

Hopefully, the various authorities are continuing to monitor the Raelians and investigate whatever claims come forward. Children need to be protected.