Aliens Adored: Raël's UFO Religion (review)

This fascinating, highly readable ethnography of the Raelian movement adds significantly to our relatively meager social scientific knowledge of new religious movements, especially the UFO variety. This book is masterfully crafted by Susan Palmer, a teacher in religious studies at Dawson College and an adjunct professor and lecturer at Concordia University. The study is primarily based on long-term participant observation (Palmer's first contact with the Raelians dates to 1987), it is supplemented with some data from face-to-face interviews. Most of this work is Palmer's, but she also had trained help from some of her students at Dawson.

The book covers the origins and history of the movement from its inception in France and its subsequent efflorescence in Quebec, all orchestrated by Raël (born in France as Claude Vorilhon), a charismatic prophet whose special qualities were gained, in part, from direct contact in France in 1973 with an alien who had just arrived by flying saucer. This alien — an "Eloha" (singular of the Hebrew elohim) — reveals to Vorilhon the latter's true identity as Raël, the last prophet sent by a race of superior scientists from a planet in another galaxy to convey a message to humankind. A popular book (1974) penned by the prophet follows, wherein he explains his entrusted mission to save the human race from nuclear disaster. A second alien contact occurred early in 1976.

Raël has worked tirelessly since 1973 to spread the message he says he is obligated to disseminate on orders from the Elohim. This has led him to establish missions for the movement in over one hundred countries, the Quebec mission being one of the most dynamic and the focus of much of this book. In fact Quebec, the first missionary outpost (founded in 1976), has for some time, been the movement's headquarters. Here is where campaigns are launched and new ideas tried out. Here one finds its most elaborate bureaucratic expression, as evident in the various ranks of guides and animators and the Council of the Wise, which deals with errant members and controls heretics. Raël occupies the top of the organizational pyramid, the "Guide of Guides."

Culturally, there are rituals centered on, among other areas, initiation and meditation. Ethical considerations abound as well; they relate to Raelian values and include respect for cultural differences, search for world peace, and promotion of nonviolence. And there are battles to be fought. One of them is against the anticult propaganda emanating from the francophone countries in which Raelian presence has been strong. Another is the movement's reputation for being sexually libertine, for which there is some justifiable evidence. A third is Raël's unsavory reputation in France (which forced him to leave that country for Quebec), mainly the result, says Palmer, of "ambush journalism perpetrated by a television host, Christophe Deschavanne" (71). The latter's show saddled Raël in the eyes of French viewers with the reputation of depraved cultist, who breaks up families, leads single mothers into nymphomania, and endorses pedophilia.

But by far the most internationally controversial aspect of the Raelian movement has been its position on and activity with reference to the question of human cloning. For Raël such cloning is a central part of the group's theology, put into practice in 1997 through an affiliated company called "Clonaid." Its goal and that of the movement is "to help humanity attain immortality" (178). The cloning program gives the movement both a scientific foundation and a humanitarian objective. More recently claims to have actually cloned a human being flooded the world press, though no convincing proof of such was ever found.

This study is, as mentioned at the outset, an ethnography. As such it does not lay down grounded theory of, say, UFO cults or, more broadly, new religious movements. Palmer could have done this, but obviously chose not to, perhaps in belief that a detailed ethnography of such a group is...