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Cult leader predicts attempts on his life
More articles on this topic: RaeliansConstantly surrounded by bodyguards, Claude Vorilhon is convinced he’s the target of numerous assassination plots.
The prophet known to his followers as Rael wants his disciples to share his paranoia that George Bush and Jacques Chirac themselves want his skin.
“There’s a strong chance I’ll be the next victim of an assassination attempt,” proclaims Vorilhon in the weekly Contact magazine published for Raelian members.
“And the fact that we’re talking about it here today is one of the means of trying to avoid it,” he continues.
Vorilhon is a former race car driver and journalist who created the Raelian Movement, which he calls “an atheistic religion,” in 1973. He says he was visited by aliens in France who told him they were the “Elohim” mentioned in the Bible and had created the human race through cloning. Today his movement boasts 55,000 members in 84 countries.
Vorilhon claims the secret service of France and the CIA have been trying to eliminate him because he’s dangerous. The name of their secret extermination operation: the Abraham Project.
According to his theory, the mentally ill would be used as agents to assassinate him and carry out other crimes. Schizophrenics would obey voices emitted by audio systems secretly installed in their homes.
That would explain why a mentally ill person ransacked the Raelian church campground in November 2002, according to the guru. It was a test of their methods.
The former journalist goes as far as citing an alleged directive of President Bush: “I want the skin of this Rael who preaches atheism at all costs.”
“If I’m assassinated next by a mentally ill person,” concludes Rael, “you must cry out loud and strong what’s behind all that and that you’ve made investigations that unmask those responsible who are extremely high-placed in France and the United States.”
The Raelians don’t bat an eye hearing about such presumed plots. There is even one who hopes that it will happen.
“That would be good if one day Rael was killed or died,” says Pierre Bolduc, a friend of Rael’s since his arrival in Quebec 25 years ago.
“Because if he died, there wouldn’t be any further chance that one day he would deny all that he’s taught the last 20 years — his meeting with the Elohims and all that. Jesus wasn’t crucified for nothing!” he says.
Sun Media
Leader’s shaky mental state worrisome
The Raelian movement already shows signs of going off the rails.
That’s the opinion of Dianne Casoni, a renowned psychologist and criminologist who specializes in religious sects, after reviewing material gathered by Sun Media.
“Generally, it’s the mental health and the moral judgment of the leader that’s the greatest protection against loss of control,” says the University of Montreal professor.
Rael is already showing signs of paranoia — security guards are omnipresent and he has written about his fear of assassination.
“What worries me the most is when conspiracy theories develop,” Casoni explains. “The group says to itself, ‘We’re in danger, we have to protect ourselves,’ and sometimes it becomes, ‘We have to fight back’ and that’s when things can go on the skids.”
She recalls that religious cult leader Jim Jones constantly obliged his disciples to move before his paranoia resulted in the collective suicide of 912 members of his sect, the Temple of the People, in Guyana in 1978.
Another disturbing fact is that Claude Vorilhon, Rael, is tightening his hold over his disciples. The creation of the Order of the Angels, the women in his service, is an example.
“From year to year we see an increase in the assertion of Rael’s authority,” says Alain Bouchard, a sociologist observing the Raelian movement.
“He’s really starting to take himself more seriously,” he adds. “His ego’s growing.”
“It worries me to see that there’s a growth in the level of control and unreasonable demands,” says Mike Kropveld, director of Info-Sect.
Claude Vorilhon himself admitted the potential danger of a movement going in the wrong direction, after the first collective suicides of the Order of the Sun Temple in 1994.
“No one is protected from a loss of control,” he told Le Journal de Montreal at the time. “Jesus said: ‘Love one another’ and Catholicism produced the Inquisition. We shouldn’t be shocked by anything then.”
Seventy-four members of the Order of the Sun Temple were killed or committed suicide in three countries from 1994 to 1997. Ten died in Quebec.
For now, the effects on the members of the leader’s paranoia is limited to the sort of feelings you’d get from a horror film, according to Bouchard.
“The members are afraid; it’s created a thrill and a cohesion in the group so everyone is satisfied,” he says. “When they begin to construct bunkers, that’s when we should be worried.”
But things could become complicated the day the leader faces the crumbling of his movement, warns Casoni.
That could already be happening, for in spite of the pretensions of Rael, “the membership of the movement has been stagnating for the past 20 years,” Bouchard points out.
The leader will then have two choices — to accept the dissolution of his group or to adopt the hard line, only keeping the core of his group.
“In the end with the Order of the Sun Temple, only the most committed members killed themselves,” recalls Casoni.
Sect squeezes members for their money
A group headed by manipulators thirsting for media attention. A guru who is on the verge of losing his grip. Followers who are ready to give up their lives.
If you think the Raelians are inoffensive clowns, you’d better think again.
This is what Canadian newspaper company Sun Media discovered when it infiltrated the Raelian religious sect for nine months. No reporters have gone this far to uncover what this organization is all about.
In the coming days, we will take you inside this so-called atheist religion.
The Raelian movement captured world attention last December with bold claims its scientists would soon deliver the first human clone — a girl, named Eve — within weeks. No proof was ever furnished.
Claude Vorilhon, a former race-car driver and founder of the Raelians, later boasted that media coverage garnered his organization about $500 million worth of publicity.
“This event saved me 20 years of work,” he said.
But the guru known as Rael tells his indoctrinated disciples that his own life is constantly threatened by conspiracies fomented by the CIA and the French secret service.
Sun Media learned through confidential documents and interviewing one of Rael’s “angels” that several women have committed themselves to die if needed to protect their “beloved prophet.”
The results of our investigation alarmed Dianne Casoni, a psychologist/criminologist specializing in cult organizations.
“We mustn’t be naive and believe that the Raelians form a run-of-the-mill group,” says the University of Montreal professor.
The “paranoid attitude” recently adopted by the cult leader prompts Casoni to fear the worst.
Reporter Brigitte McCann and photographer Chantal Poirier got a taste of the Raelians’ siege mentality during a two-week “awakening” seminar last summer at the movement’s headquarters in Maricourt, Quebec.
They succeeded in mingling with women ready to offer their eggs to help Brigitte Boisselier, head of the Raelians’ Clonaid organization, launch so-called new experiments in the area of human cell culture.
Our reporters went as far as their sense of decency would allow to witness the Raelians’ strange custom of “sensual meditation.”
Always incognito, McCann and Poirier were submitted to a troubling secret interrogation aimed at testing their faith in “their prophet.” According to Casoni, this was clearly an intimidation and control tactic targeting the disciples.
Essentially, the objective of these control measures is to get the most money possible out of their followers. In less than 10 months, living as a Raelian cost the reporter more than $1,500.
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