Volcano
Hawaii
July 2016
In 1946 Vichy, France, a baby was born. He was named Claude Vorilhon. Claude grew up to become a singer/songwriter, a sports writer, a race car driver and the leader of a good-intentioned, semi-wacko cult group.
As a musician, he sounded a little like Antonio Carlos Jobim, but not too much. His music was kind of etherial with long organ chords and dancing high notes on the strings, like sprites flitting about above an electro pop percussion track, run through with heavy reverb. A number of his songs began with breathy spoken word, in French. Frankly he was a little boring.
He switched to race cars, testing them more than actually racing them, although he had moderate success in the few races he entered. From racing, he moved on to publishing Autopop magazine which was dedicated to the world of le automobile racing.
He is most famous however, as the messenger for the Elohim, the extraterrestrials who, according to Vorilhon, created us.
When our hero was 27 years old, he was naively on his way to work in le automobile when he inexplicably veered off the beaten path and drove to a volcano crater. Here the aliens introduced themselves to him. Two years later, in 1975, they had another meeting. This time he boarded their spaceship and visited their home planet.
On this unfamiliar soil, or whatever it was they stood upon, they imparted great wisdom to Vorilhon. They told him that, as an experiment, they created us — humans — in their own image. And now they were choosing him to be their current messenger. Every epoch they appoint a herald to spread the message and now it was his turn; he would be their “final prophet.” They renamed him Raël and bestowed upon him the mission to spread the message of peace and sensual meditation. They told him to build an embassy on Earth to be ready for their return in 2025.
Sounds like an exciting trip, eh? While he was on their planet, he was introduced to previous prophets: Jesus, Buddha, Joseph Smith, Confucius and Janis Joplin.
I am kidding about Janis Joplin.
As I’ve said, the extraterrestrials — Raël calls them the Elohim — explained that they created us in their image. They were human-shaped, yes, but only four and a half feet high and they had pale green skin, bulbous heads and almond eyes. Hmm… The Raëlians — followers of Raël, of course — say that these human/light-bulb-shaped hybrids were the original inspiration for the Judeo-Christian god. I think they were the original inspiration for the most popular depiction of aliens in the movies. God? Hmm… Pretentious?

I watched a television interview with Raël wherein he claimed to be the half brother of Jesus. When asked how that could be, he explained, “We have the same father. Jesus was the son of an extraterrestrial and a woman from Earth. [Some] years ago they chose a woman from Earth and with her, they had a child, and I’m that child.” Whether his French mother and father had any comment in response is not known.
Vorilhon, in the television interview, appeared most sincere. He spoke English with a charming French accent. He was calm and apparently undisturbed by the near constant derisive chuckles from the audience. He explained that Elohim means “people from the sky.” It doesn’t. Well, not exactly. Elohim, even though it is the plural form, is the Hebrew word for “God.”
So. We were created by the Elohim in a lab by genetic manipulation. In fact, using their own DNA as source material, the Elohim created all life on Earth. The Elohim do not spawn young, they do not have children (other than a few scattered prophets here and there.) They reproduce by cloning — Clonaid is the name of their company — so there is no god and there is no soul. On their planet, they have eliminated disease, greed, war, starvation, poverty and employment.

Well then, what the heck do they do all day long? They perform kind acts, they have non-reproductive sex, presumably they sing songs in French.
Raël makes numerous claims on behalf of the Elohim and their existence, prowess and magnificence. Sometimes he makes these claims in scientific language. But any of us who made it through tenth grade biology class will recognize that his technological assertions have a low degree of validity. If it sounds too good to be true — and the Raëlians do sound pretty hip — I remind you to be skeptical.
Raëlian philosophy covers a lot of ground. Here’s your checklist…
√ sex-positive feminism
√ meditation
√ free love
√ condoms, lots of condoms
√ birth control
√ masturbation
√ non-violence
√ nudity
√ genetically modified organisms
√ human cloning
Raël will address any issue; Raëlism has all the answers. Just ask them about…
√ traditional religions
√ whether God exists and whether the soul exists
√ resurrection
√ suicide
√ homosexuality
√ sexual freedom and socially-imposed guilt
√ the nature of death
√ the nature of pleasure
√ the structure of Infinity
√ the purpose of life
√ the Genetic Code
√ the political, economic and social system of Geniocracy.
Sure looks like a religion, doesn’t it. But one difference from your standard Earth religions is that the Raëlians approve these items.
(Oh, and that last one on the list, “Geniocracy,” is a form of rule proposed by Rael in 1977. Simply it’s government by geniuses who were chosen to rule by an electorate of above average intelligence.)
And oh yes, look. Like residents of San Francisco who do not like their city to be called “Frisco,” the Elohim really don’t like the word “aliens.” It is the root of the word “alienation,” and nobody should have to be alienated. Instead, use the term “extraterrestrials.”
Lisa and I are enjoying the week in the town of Volcano in southeastern Hawaii. Just a mile up the road from our house is the Raëlian Peace Park. The Raëlians wanted to locate this fun place in Jerusalem but when the Israelis identified a Raëlian symbol as the swastika, the emblem used by the Nazi party, they said no. That’s why it’s here in Hawai’i. Why it’s just up the road from the house where we chose to stay is unknown to me. Unless the Elohim have plans for these two Highpointers.
