Claude Vorilhon, a former race-car driver and journalist, encountered a harmonious 4-ft-tall space alien while climbing volcanic rocks in France in 1973. The being said he came from a distant planet and had long dark hair and almond shaped eyes. He gave Vorilhon his new name, Rael, and told him "we were the ones who made all life on earth."
"I have many things to tell you and I have chosen you for a difficult mission...You are going to transmit to humans what I am going to tell you and according to their reactions, we will see if we can officially show ourselves to them...come into my machine (a UFO shaped like a flattened bell), we will be more comfortable to talk," the alien said to Rael.
And so began the Raelian movement (website: rael.org), which now has chapters in 84 countries with over 55,000 members. The organization is headquartered near Montreal, with their museum and seminar center UFOland which features a replica of the flying saucer Rael first saw in 1973 (and subsequently took a ride in). Rael teaches members to prepare for the coming of the extraterrestrials, as well as to practice both sensual pleasures and cutting edge science. In that regard, his name (along with his chief scientist Brigitte Boisselier) has been all over the press in relation to their Clonaid operation which allegedly has successfully cloned the first human child, "Eve." For Rael, cloning is a no-brainer. "Thanks to genetics, we will soon be able to choose not only the gender and physical attributes of our children, but also a superior intelligence that leans more towards either art or science," he wrote.
--L.L.