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1:11

It was 1973. A

1:13

young French motorsports journalist named

1:15

Claude Vourlien was on his way to work

1:18

when he had a sudden impulse.

1:21

He felt compelled to visit an old

1:23

dormant volcano that he used to go

1:26

to as a child. The

1:28

impulse became a compulsion.

1:31

And so he

1:32

drove. And

1:35

he's driving, what am I doing? What

1:37

am I doing? Why am I going there? I have

1:39

some work. He kept on going

1:42

anyways. Get out of the car. And

1:44

just looking at the sky, December 13, it's

1:47

cold. Why am I here?

1:50

That's Nicole Bertrand, a follower

1:52

of Vourlien's and a bishop in the church

1:54

that he would build.

1:56

And then he saw some flashing light

1:59

in the sky. He thought it was

2:01

like an helicopter, but there was no noise.

2:04

And then it kept on descending vertically.

2:08

And then the shape of a flab and

2:10

bell, and he said, wow, it looks

2:13

like a flying saucer.

2:17

Too bad he didn't have a camera, but

2:20

he just watched it. And

2:22

then this thing stopped about

2:24

a meter and a half from the ground.

2:27

And then a trap opened and a staircase,

2:30

then he started panicking.

2:32

Because

2:35

we are all intoxicated with aliens,

2:39

dangerous aliens, you know. But

2:42

he didn't move, he waited, and then he saw

2:44

coming two legs and a body.

2:49

A short human being came

2:51

out and walked to

2:54

meet him. Long hair,

2:56

beautiful almond-shaped eyes,

2:59

big smile.

3:00

The beings knew Borean's

3:02

name.

3:03

And he said to him, your name

3:06

is Claude Borean. And

3:09

I came here this morning to meet you.

3:12

And the conversation started in French.

3:15

And why me? Well, because

3:18

we have a very special mission for you.

3:20

But he asked him, come aboard, and

3:23

I will tell you more.

3:25

So Borean boarded their ship. They

3:28

showed him some of their clearly alien

3:30

technology and told him to return

3:32

the next day with pen and paper and

3:34

a Bible of all things.

3:37

He couldn't believe himself, but he came

3:39

back the next day. And for

3:41

seven days in a row, they

3:43

met at the same place for about an

3:45

hour. And he was asked to

3:47

make notes and to

3:50

write a book to share the explanation

3:52

of the origin of life.

3:54

This was the beginning of a strange

3:57

new faith with tens of thousands

3:59

of adherents. all around the world. One

4:02

that the media has long labeled as a cult,

4:05

but that its followers insist is

4:07

the only true path forward

4:09

for humanity. I'm

4:15

Arshy Mann, and this is Commons.

4:18

More after the break.

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6:35

When they talk about the Raelians,

6:38

what do they say? Raelians are people

6:40

who believe in extraterrestrials. The

6:42

Raelians are people who believe in UFOs. A little

6:45

bit stupid, people remember of

6:47

the cult. They have a

6:49

big gathering like today with

6:52

the OGs. Everybody have sex

6:54

together! Let's

6:56

start! And

7:01

you know it's not like that.

7:03

The voice you're hearing is that of Claude

7:06

Vorlien, who now goes by Rael.

7:08

His movement, Raelism,

7:11

is practiced by tens of thousands of

7:13

people across the world with significant

7:15

followings in France, Canada,

7:18

Japan, Burkina Faso, and

7:20

elsewhere. And ever since their

7:22

founding, the Raelians have been an object

7:25

of fear and fascination. So

7:27

as part of our season on cults, we

7:30

want to talk to some of the people who know

7:32

this movement the best so that

7:34

we can understand why this faith,

7:36

whose views are so different from mainstream

7:39

religions, has had such an enduring

7:41

appeal over the last half-century. Susan

7:45

Palmer, the Concordia professor that you

7:47

heard from in our last episode, first

7:49

encountered the Raelians at a New Age

7:52

psychic fair in 1987 alongside her friend

7:55

James.

7:56

There are lots of Wiccans

7:58

and of course there's Scientologists. and a

8:01

lot of new age groups like mediums,

8:03

channelers, muskers.

8:05

And then I suddenly saw a UFO poster,

8:08

and there was two men there with long, long

8:11

hair. So I thought, cool,

8:13

a UFO cult. I always wanted

8:15

to study UFO cult. So when I talked

8:17

to them, I asked them a bit about themselves. They gave

8:19

me literature, and then they said, would you like

8:21

to enter a competition? I said, sure. So

8:24

they say, well, fill this in and put it in

8:26

the glass jar. And if you win, you get

8:29

a guide to come to your house, and he will

8:31

tell you about the message. Oh, I hope I win. I

8:33

hope I win. So I did it and said,

8:35

James, my friend. And then the

8:37

next morning, I phoned him and said, guess what, James?

8:40

They phoned me. Congratulations,

8:42

Madame Palmer, you have won. So

8:44

we will come to your house. We'll send a guide. I

8:46

said, yes. So then

8:48

I phoned James, and he said, oh, they told me

8:50

the same thing. And I said, oh, wow, what a coincidence.

8:53

And he said, Susan, don't

8:55

you get it? So

8:58

he was a missionary.

9:01

Susan would go on to study the Raelians

9:03

for years and write a book about them called

9:06

Aliens Adored, Rael's UFO

9:08

Religion.

9:09

They're a new religious movement, and they're

9:11

the largest UFO religion in the world. People

9:15

who believe that extraterrestrials created us and are coming

9:17

back. They worship extraterrestrials

9:20

as a kind of

9:21

gods, basically.

9:23

Susan remembers the first time she

9:25

met Rael. He was at

9:26

the meeting, and he got up and played the guitar, and

9:28

he sings his own songs in the style of Jacques

9:31

Brel.

9:32

And

9:35

he sang this really cute song about lesbian spiders.

9:38

I

9:38

thought, wow, how original.

9:41

He's very relaxed. He's very open,

9:44

friendly. I would say he's a very

9:46

creative person. Think

9:49

about all this galaxy and nebulae you saw. There

9:52

are inside us also stars

9:54

and galaxies everywhere, everywhere.

9:57

And we are flying in space.

9:59

And that enlarge

10:02

our consciousness and make

10:04

us feel love. And that love

10:07

will win.

10:09

Allez mons vie, les mon amours.

10:14

He's not very intellectual. You know, he's not exactly

10:16

scholarly or, you know, he's not like a

10:19

brilliant mind or anything, but he's very,

10:22

he speaks well.

10:23

In order to understand how his followers view

10:25

him, we spoke to Nicole Bertrand,

10:27

a Australian bishop who's been part

10:30

of the movement for more than four decades.

10:32

We met up with her at a cafe

10:34

in Montreal. Do you do a lot of media

10:36

interviews or not too often? I

10:39

did a lot.

10:41

Lot, lot, lot. Back

10:43

in 1977, Nicole Bertrand

10:46

was a teacher who was looking for some

10:48

sort of spiritual direction in life. I

10:51

want to understand what else,

10:53

you know. You're a teacher, you like your

10:55

job, especially July and August,

10:58

you know. And you have

11:00

fun, you travel a lot, a boyfriend,

11:03

everything is good. But

11:05

what else? There must be something more than

11:07

that to like in general. And

11:10

then one day her colleague lent her a copy

11:12

of The Book That Tells the Truth,

11:14

written

11:15

by Raël himself.

11:16

The book that tells the

11:18

truth helped me put

11:21

all the pieces together.

11:23

Finally, everything made sense.

11:26

You look at the sky and you see what are

11:29

we doing here? Why are

11:31

we on planet Earth? What's

11:34

the purpose of all that? So

11:36

for me, it was, bingo, I loved

11:38

it and I still love it.

11:41

So what is it that Claude Vourillon

11:43

said that the aliens told him when

11:46

they took him aboard their craft? Well,

11:52

first off, this wasn't their first

11:54

time here, apparently.

11:56

They told him we have been on Earth

11:58

twenty

11:58

years ago.

11:59

25,000 years ago and he said 25,000 years ago our

12:02

science allowed us to

12:04

start creating very

12:10

primitive

12:10

forms of life because

12:13

we were mastering a

12:15

genetic engineering and

12:17

the government of their planet said

12:19

you know there's always a risk when

12:22

you manipulate

12:23

DNA you don't even know the results

12:25

so why don't we look

12:27

for another planet where you can go

12:30

and continue your experiments

12:32

and that's what happened. They started

12:34

exploring, they found many

12:36

planets

12:36

eventually land on earth

12:39

at the beginning there was just one

12:41

continent and then they said

12:43

okay the light is

12:45

good

12:47

the distance from the sun is good

12:49

they studied all the parameters to see

12:51

if the code filled the laboratory

12:54

to create life and the answer

12:56

was yes.

12:57

So our story about ourselves

12:59

is totally wrong you thought life on

13:01

earth was a result of billions of years

13:04

of evolution? Nope

13:05

it was aliens. They

13:07

started with little planktons

13:10

to put in the ocean and then

13:13

small fish to eat the plankton and

13:15

then bigger fish to eat the small fish with

13:17

the plankton you

13:18

know ecology the way we know

13:20

it was in the ocean then they did

13:23

the same thing on earth it's this

13:25

line it's not random.

13:28

And these alien scientists were having

13:30

a blast futzing about with all of

13:32

this new life. And they had

13:34

contests for plants they

13:36

had contests for animals

13:39

every year they presented their most

13:41

beautiful and funny creation

13:44

and they had fun. I like

13:46

the crabs they walk on the side

13:50

and those flowers I don't know the name

13:52

but the flies you

13:54

know so they had a lot of fun.

13:57

Nature is very funny if you want to.

14:00

to look at the planet side of it.

14:02

In other words, the platypus really

14:04

could be a sort of cosmic joke. These

14:07

alien scientists, so the story goes,

14:10

were forbidden from creating anything in

14:12

their own image. But this group of

14:14

scientists decided to do it anyways.

14:17

We are the result of the rebellion,

14:20

scientists and artists

14:22

who said we are going to break the

14:24

rule. And the consequences

14:27

is when the planet, their original

14:30

planet found out that they created human

14:32

beings, they said, ah, you

14:34

decided to do it, you stay on

14:37

Earth, you're going to live among the

14:39

human beings that you created and

14:41

we'll see what happens.

14:43

But there was another rule, even more important

14:45

than the first.

14:46

Don't teach them science. They

14:49

were afraid that if our humanity

14:52

discovered science and if we

14:54

started using that science,

14:57

we could eventually try to

14:59

go through space and be

15:01

a threat to them. But then again, they

15:04

couldn't let their own

15:06

creation stay at the

15:09

level

15:09

that they were told to. So

15:11

they started teaching them science.

15:13

Over the years, the aliens sent messengers

15:16

from their home planet to teach us how

15:18

to live morally. You may even

15:20

have heard of some of them. Jesus, Buddha,

15:23

Muhammad, Joseph Smith. But

15:26

their messages were never fully understood

15:28

by the people.

15:30

And all was generally well

15:32

and good until one very

15:34

specific day, August 6, 1945.

15:39

Hiroshima. So for

15:42

those people who observe us from their

15:44

faraway planet, they see

15:46

human beings who know enough science

15:49

to destroy life. We proved it

15:52

with Hiroshima. They said, okay, they have

15:54

enough science to understand

15:57

that they have to become peaceful if

15:59

they don't want to.

15:59

to disappear altogether.

16:03

So they decided it was time

16:05

to send their final profit before

16:07

humanity ended up destroying itself.

16:10

That, of course, was Claude

16:12

Bourillon, the motorsports journalist. His

16:15

true name, they said, was Rael.

16:22

Rael

16:25

wasn't the first person to propose that we were

16:27

descended from aliens. In the 1960s,

16:30

author Erich von Daniken proposed

16:32

that most of the wonders of the ancient world

16:34

were built by alien astronauts, a

16:37

theory that continues to be popular amongst

16:39

viewers of late-night TLC programming.

16:42

Did ancient aliens really

16:44

help to shape our history? Did

16:46

they leave behind a secret

16:48

code, one which reveals

16:50

mankind's extraterrestrial

16:53

origins? And

16:55

religions that worship UFOs and

16:57

aliens are an entire subcategory

17:00

of new religious movements. But what

17:02

makes Raelism distinctive is

17:04

that their emphasis is on the idea

17:06

of science itself. They

17:08

don't believe in God. They kind of worship

17:11

the physical human being because that's

17:13

what

17:13

the extraterrestrials are. They're human beings

17:15

on another planet.

17:16

So they reject the idea

17:18

of a spiritual realm, of an unseen

17:21

magical realm

17:23

of goodness and beauty and so on. So

17:25

that's really different.

17:26

In fact, I think they're the only group I've met that does

17:29

that.

17:30

And Susan says that Rael

17:32

is a sort of religious genius.

17:35

I think it's the way he fits it all together

17:37

that's impressive. You know, I mean,

17:39

individually, these ideas might sound a bit hokey,

17:41

but just somehow the way he constructs them, it's

17:44

magnificent. Not that I believe it.

17:48

Take for example how Rael views

17:50

the Bible. He says that the Bible

17:52

is true, but that it's just been misinterpreted.

17:56

The Old Testament is actually

17:58

a history of our creation by aliens.

18:01

He says that Elohim, a Hebrew

18:03

word for God that appears in the Bible,

18:06

is actually what our alien creators

18:08

are called. The Garden of Eden

18:10

was a genetic laboratory. Lucifer

18:12

was the name of the alien political party

18:15

that decided to tell humanity about its

18:17

extraterrestrial origins. And

18:19

as for Jesus?

18:20

For Jesus to walk on water, it was

18:24

not a problem. They just

18:26

suppressed the gravity, and for them

18:28

it's like opening a

18:30

switch to put light in a room. It's

18:33

nothing. It's just technology.

18:36

Rael, in fact, says that he

18:39

is Jesus' half-brother. Here

18:41

he is debating a Christian back in the early

18:43

days of his movement. Why

18:45

if you were the Elohim? Would

18:48

you go to the south of France,

18:51

a second-rate journalist,

18:54

purchasing a magazine for car

18:57

drivers, and give them a

18:59

mission? A non-educated

19:01

man, and give him a mission? Why?

19:04

Why two thousand

19:07

years before

19:08

you go in Palestine and

19:10

you talk to a little

19:12

man, what Jesus? It's the same.

19:15

And Susan says that all of this

19:17

has made the religion strangely approachable

19:20

for many Catholics.

19:22

A lot of people in the group were attracted

19:24

because they had been brought up Catholics, but

19:26

they didn't really believe, and

19:29

that Rael uses the language, the symbols

19:32

that are in the Bible. It's basically

19:34

a materialistic scientific religion.

19:36

He takes science and religion

19:39

and he puts them together and

19:41

he explains all the contradictions, which

19:44

is sort of a big relief in a way for them. I

19:47

met ex-nons, ex-priests, ex-bishops

19:50

from the Catholic Church and his group

19:52

who were very very good at explaining the Raelian

19:55

theology because it's

19:56

based on the Bible.

20:05

Since he founded his religion in the 1970s,

20:08

Rael has both attacked the media for mischaracterizing

20:11

his beliefs and rituals, and engaged

20:14

in elaborate press stunts in order

20:16

to get attention. He quickly became

20:18

a media sensation in his native France

20:21

after he published his first book, The Book

20:23

That Tells The Truth, in 1974. Nicole

20:26

Vertrand met him later that decade

20:29

when he began his first missionary project

20:31

abroad in Quebec. Back at

20:33

that café in Montreal, we asked Nicole

20:35

to describe what she remembers about

20:38

the first time she saw Rael.

20:40

Well, two legs, two arms,

20:44

black curly hair, a beard. He

20:48

was dressed in black. He's

20:50

not very tall, wearing

20:52

glasses. And he spoke

20:54

in French and very simply

20:57

is so funny. It's

21:00

more funny in French because it's his

21:02

first language and we play

21:05

word games that cannot be translated.

21:08

But he's a very simple person.

21:12

You look in his eyes and you're almost intimidated

21:15

by the amount of love that comes

21:17

from his eyes.

21:19

By the 1990s, Raelism

21:21

was becoming increasingly controversial in France

21:24

and it was placed on an official list of cults

21:26

by the French government in 1995.

21:29

Media attention began to be more negative

21:32

and Rael refused to pay taxes

21:34

on his religious writings. By the time

21:36

Susan Palmer was studying the group in the 1990s in

21:38

the early 2000s, Rael had

21:42

moved to Quebec. He built a complex

21:44

out by Valcour called UFO

21:46

Land.

21:47

It was like a museum of UFO

21:50

history, ufology. They had

21:52

giant strands of DNA made

21:54

in fiberglass. And it's

21:56

supposed to be the same UFO that

21:59

he first encountered.

21:59

period.

22:00

In Canada, Ryle's teachings

22:02

about sex made him enormously

22:05

controversial.

22:06

Ryle, he comes out of the

22:08

60s and 70s, you know, Richard Bardot

22:10

and Sam Tropez and all that. So

22:12

sex is something that's glamorous.

22:15

He's always preached free love.

22:17

And the idea is it's your choice.

22:20

And marriage is something

22:22

that's,

22:23

you know, being opposed on you by the Catholic

22:25

Church or is not realistic

22:27

because people are naturally, for

22:29

us, he's concerned, you know, promiscuous,

22:31

I guess.

22:31

So in the Raelians, they

22:34

have meetings where, you know, people are sort of hugging

22:36

and kissing and my students were

22:38

kind

22:38

of shocked when I took them, you know, and one guy

22:41

said, he saw this girl kissing this guy

22:43

and then all of a sudden she was sitting kissing another guy

22:45

and this woman who was 40 old enough to be his mother

22:47

kind of made a pass at him and he was like, ugh.

22:50

During the summer, they would hold a two-week

22:52

conference at UFO land. There

22:55

were seminars on everything from the Elohim

22:57

to intelligent design to how

22:59

to succeed at your job. It was all

23:02

fairly normal but with one

23:04

big difference.

23:05

They'd all be in the nude. And

23:07

the idea was that the Elohim on their

23:10

planet don't wear clothes. So we want to be like

23:12

them, you

23:12

know, so I think, I thought that was pretty funny.

23:14

They

23:15

had a swimming pool and the air was going swimming and they invited

23:17

me and I thought, I'm not going to take off my clothes because there's

23:19

probably some anti-cultist who's going to film

23:21

me and say, Susan Palmer, come on.

23:26

These summer retreats became a constant

23:29

target for the local and international media.

23:31

In 1991, a radio

23:34

reporter snuck into the Rayleigh and summer

23:36

conference and secretly went around

23:38

recording people having sex in their

23:40

tents and then broadcasted on

23:42

air without their consent to

23:45

prove just how licentious the Rayleighans

23:47

were. And Susan says that

23:49

the local press would treat them almost

23:51

like they were part of organized crime.

23:54

They had a photograph of all the leaders

23:56

sitting at supper from the balcony and

23:58

they would have little arrows. saying

24:01

where they worked, what their names were. And

24:03

the thing is, this was exactly like the

24:05

articles that used to appear on the bikers,

24:07

you know, the health angels in the General de Montréal.

24:10

They do the same thing. They'd have mamboucher

24:13

and supper, little arrows, and saying

24:16

where everybody worked. And it

24:18

was really bad because a lot of them lost their jobs and, you

24:21

know, lost contracts because they were

24:23

exposed to evil cultists.

24:25

Sexual freedom and sex for pleasure are central

24:28

elements of Rayleigh and philosophy.

24:31

Here's Nicole again.

24:32

The LOM created us with

24:36

sexual organs for two reasons. The

24:39

first one being reproduction and

24:42

the second one for pleasure. We

24:44

all know that. So we advocate

24:47

freedom with consenting

24:50

adults. I don't know anyone who's against

24:52

that.

24:53

Freedom

24:55

is freedom. You choose. You

24:58

want to have

24:59

one partner for your entire

25:01

life. It's your privilege.

25:04

You want to change partners. Often

25:07

it's your privilege, as

25:09

long as they are consenting adults.

25:12

And Nicole says that the media image

25:14

of them as sex-obsessed can

25:16

lead to some awkward moments.

25:19

That one seminar, it's about 15

25:22

years ago, there was a couple in

25:24

their 40s. They came

25:26

together and after three days,

25:29

there was a fee of $100 for the first seminar, okay? They

25:34

came back and they said, we want

25:36

to be refunded. So we said, what's

25:39

happening? We're leaving and

25:41

we want to be refunded. No

25:43

problem. So why are

25:45

you leaving? You don't like it here?

25:49

They said, well, with all what they say

25:51

in the magazine and the newspaper and

25:53

the radio about the Rahailians, we

25:56

thought we were going to have

25:58

sex-obsessed.

25:59

parties every night. But

26:02

so far nothing happened. So

26:06

we want our money back. We

26:08

just refunded them. And you

26:11

said, well, sorry, you were

26:13

a victim of the media.

26:16

And the Reolians have made advocating for sexual

26:19

freedom a central part of their political

26:21

mission. Reolians were marching in

26:24

pride parades as early as the 1980s,

26:26

when Montreal Catholic high schools banned

26:29

condoms in the 1990s. Reolians

26:31

distributed free ones to students outside

26:33

of schools. They've held conferences

26:36

on the joys of masturbation. Susan

26:38

attended one of those.

26:40

And they have this sort of new age speaker

26:42

from California who very much endorsed

26:45

masturbation for her middle age

26:47

female clients. So they're talking about the

26:49

psychological benefits and so on. So

26:52

I asked this guy who was sort of a friend

26:54

of mine by this time and I said, like, why on earth would they

26:56

be? Would Reol want to

26:58

talk about this stuff when

27:00

he's just trying to make people

27:03

get ready for the return of the extraterrestrials

27:05

and what's this got to do with it?

27:08

So

27:08

he said, well, Jesus himself

27:10

preached masturbation. I said,

27:12

what? He said,

27:13

yes, it's in the Bible. Just read the Bible.

27:15

And I said, I know the Bible, but I never saw that. And he

27:17

said, well, when he says, love thy

27:20

neighbors thyself.

27:25

And in 2014, a Reolian

27:26

surgery clinic was

27:29

opened in Burkina Faso in order

27:31

to provide clitoral reconstruction

27:33

surgery for women who had been circumcised.

27:36

Here's Harold Hennig again, a Reolian

27:39

doctor that you heard from in the very

27:41

first episode of this season. Harold

27:44

was one of the doctors who went to Burkina

27:46

Faso in order to provide the surgeries.

27:50

And now these women had sexual feelings

27:52

that they never had before,

27:54

restoring their sexuality, being

27:56

able to give you back your sex when it's gone, been

27:58

taken away from you. imagine.

28:01

But

28:01

the clinic became the subject of media

28:03

attacks by Catholic institutions

28:05

in Burkina Faso. It was shut

28:07

down after only providing surgeries

28:10

to 25 women.

28:11

It was partly the movement's fault

28:14

too because we want publicity, you

28:16

know, and so if you bring it up then it

28:18

becomes public and now there's these people that

28:20

are in the public and now

28:22

they have to decide are we going to,

28:25

you know, go with this group who's atheist

28:28

or are we going to go with this group that's Catholic

28:31

and, you know, politics. The

28:33

Roman Catholic Church is very strong.

28:36

I was part of it so who wins?

28:38

They closed us down.

28:40

Rael's sexual life is also

28:42

the source of some of the most persistent

28:44

criticism of the movement.

28:46

In the late 90s Rael created

28:49

a religious order known as Rael's

28:51

Angels made up entirely of attractive

28:54

women. Their goal is to sexually

28:56

please the prophets and the Elohim

28:59

when they arrive on Earth, but until

29:01

then they can only have sex with each

29:03

other or with Rael himself

29:06

because he is the only prophet currently

29:08

on the planet. He also married

29:10

a 16 year old girl from Montreal

29:12

with the permission of her mother in 2002.

29:16

While not illegal at the time, his marriage

29:18

to a teenage girl certainly raised eyebrows

29:21

and earlier this year Radio Canada

29:24

released a documentary called The Women of

29:26

Rael in which two former high-ranking

29:28

Raelian women alleged culture of

29:31

misogyny within the movement encouraged

29:33

by Rael himself an accusation

29:36

that the Raelians deny, but

29:38

the biggest scandal to hit the Raelians

29:40

which brought them worldwide attention

29:43

and scrutiny from all kinds

29:45

of governments had nothing to do with

29:47

sex and everything to

29:50

do with science.

29:52

His name is Rael

29:54

and he heads a wealthy well-organized

29:57

religious sex whose face is

29:59

science. and whose ambition is

30:01

to use existing technology to

30:04

clone a human being.

30:07

In 1996, Dolly the

30:09

sheep became the first ever cloned mammal,

30:12

and Rael announced his intention

30:14

to clone the first ever human.

30:16

Here he is speaking to 60 Minutes

30:19

in 2001.

30:20

When I was talking in my public speech 27

30:23

years ago about, we will soon clone

30:26

human beings, everybody was laughing.

30:29

Then came Dolly the sheep, and

30:31

now nobody is laughing anymore, everybody

30:34

is a fool, and we are laughing.

30:36

Cloning has always been an important

30:38

part of the Raelian religion.

30:40

Rael preaches that it's the path

30:43

to immortality. Here's Harold

30:45

Henning again, who joined the Raelians

30:47

because of his interest in cloning. Do you

30:50

understand what cloning does? It

30:52

allows you to live forever.

30:54

And if we're able to live long enough,

30:56

we'll be able to take your mental ability,

30:59

download the knowledge you have into

31:02

a computer, take this clone

31:04

that has no memory, take those memories

31:06

and put them in that clone

31:08

and you're away.

31:09

A Raelian affiliated company called

31:12

CloneAid was leading the effort,

31:14

and at its helm was Brigitte Bois-Saulier,

31:17

a chemist and dedicated Raelian, who

31:19

had been fired from her job as a researcher

31:22

at a major French chemical firm after

31:24

she went public about her faith. CloneAid's

31:27

mission caused a media firestorm

31:29

and even prompted congressional hearings

31:31

in the US. And then in 2002,

31:35

CloneAid claimed success. Here's

31:38

Brigitte Bois-Saulier speaking to the press.

31:41

I'm very, very pleased to know that

31:43

the first baby clone is

31:45

born. She was born yesterday

31:49

at 11.55am

31:53

in the

31:53

country where she was born. So

31:55

this will not give you more details

31:57

about the location. She's

32:01

fine. We call her Eve between us.

32:04

But despite their promises, CloneAid

32:07

never provided proof that they were telling

32:09

the truth. While government and media

32:11

investigations went on for years, no

32:14

evidence has ever emerged to indicate

32:16

that CloneAid ever actually cloned

32:18

a baby. All of the media attention

32:21

brought on by their cloning claims marked

32:23

the beginning of the end for Rael's

32:26

residency in Quebec. In the mid-2000s,

32:28

he moved to the United States, and then eventually

32:31

to Japan, where he lives now. Raelism

32:34

continues to be a growing movement around the

32:36

world, attracting believers from all

32:39

parts of society. In terms

32:41

of new religions, it has undoubtedly

32:44

been a success. Now, in this

32:46

episode, we've only touched on a small

32:48

slice of their beliefs, practices,

32:51

and history. But how

32:53

should we think about this group? Well,

32:56

despite their novel beliefs, Raelism

32:58

doesn't seem to have many of the attributes that

33:01

we fear about so-called cults.

33:03

They lack an us-versus-them mindset.

33:06

They're not closed off from the world, and

33:09

while there have been some accusations

33:11

of sexual misconduct within their movement,

33:14

it's considerably less than other movements

33:16

that we'll cover this season, or frankly,

33:19

many mainstream religions. And

33:21

so, the Raelians have been subject to real persecution

33:24

for their beliefs. Because of their strict

33:26

pacifism, Raelians have been jailed

33:29

in countries with mandatory conscription like

33:31

Switzerland. Raelians have lost their

33:33

jobs and custody of their children, not

33:36

because of specific things they've done, but

33:38

simply because of their association with

33:41

the religion. So to me

33:43

at least, the Raelian movement appears

33:45

to be largely harmless, especially

33:47

compared to some other groups that

33:50

get labeled as cults.

34:00

is to prepare for the return

34:01

of the Elohim.

34:04

2035 is the year

34:06

when we expect the Elohim to come. We're

34:08

excited and at the same time there

34:11

is so much negativity

34:14

on the planet. Our chances

34:16

of survival as a humanity

34:19

are very slim.

34:20

Nicole says that if we don't welcome

34:23

them with an embassy, and if we don't end

34:25

the violence and infighting on Earth,

34:27

the Elohim will leave us to our own

34:29

devices and will eventually exterminate

34:32

ourselves through our misuse of technology.

34:35

But if we follow Ra'el's message, then

34:37

we will all be welcomed back to the home

34:39

planet and give an immortal life through

34:41

advanced cloning technology.

34:43

Nicole has been a Raelian for

34:46

almost half a century,

34:48

and she continues to be an advocate

34:51

for her faith.

34:52

It's not the best time of our

34:54

history as Raelians, but

34:57

we know that a lie doesn't change the truth.

35:00

You can call us names, being

35:03

lied about, being laughed at. You

35:05

know, in the time of Jesus, they were given

35:08

for food to lions. So what's

35:10

a laughter? I

35:12

don't mind if people laugh at me. I said, oh,

35:15

laughter is very good for your liver. Laughter

35:19

doesn't hurt.

35:19

Lions hurt.

35:22

I'm not dangerous. You feel threatened with me? Laughter.

35:26

So being a hope,

35:28

it means nothing to me. Being different?

35:29

Yes. I'm different and

35:31

I'm proud of being a Raelian.

35:56

Thank you.

36:13

That's your episode of Commons. If

36:15

you liked this episode, please leave

36:17

us a rating and review in Apple Podcasts.

36:20

This episode relied on work done by Susan J.

36:22

Palmer, Yoav Shamir, Monica

36:24

Mark at The Guardian, and many, many

36:27

others. If you want to get in touch with us, you can

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tweet us at CommonsPod. You

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can also email me, arshi, at CanadaLand.com.

36:34

This episode was produced by me, Noor

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Azria, and Jordan Cornish. Our managing

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is Karen Pugliese. And our music

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