The sectarian and conspiratorial excesses of the Raelian movement, at the heart of a Netflix documentary

The Raël sect, founded by Claude Vorilhon and which celebrated its 50th anniversary on Wednesday December 13, is starring in a documentary mini-series on Netflix. The opportunity for Complorama to retrace its genesis, its conspiratorial trajectory and the conspiratorial overtones of its guru.

It is the story of a singer who is said to be in search of notoriety who became a self-proclaimed prophet. Claude Vorilhon, nicknamed “little Jacques Brel”, passionate about racing cars, claims to have had an encounter of the third type. On December 13, 1973, the “Elohim”, these extraterrestrials who came to him, gave him a message: they were at the origin of life on Earth. Netflix is ​​dedicating a documentary mini-series, Rael, the prophet of extraterrestrialsto be published Wednesday February 7.

Claude, who has become the messenger Raël, launches his movement. Objective: spread the good word and build embassies to celebrate the return of the Elohim to Earth. “They told me: ‘Stop your work, and go around the world, carry this message. People will laugh at first but gradually people will understand and prepare this embassy where they will come officially, and there I I won’t be alone, everyone will be able to see them.”he assures on the set of the television show “Gone with Time” on Antenne 2, June 18, 1994.

“It’s a movement that is really characterized by its ability to get people talking about it, to use the media,” notes Rudy Reichstadt. The movement claims 100,000 members and is present in 120 countries. The personality of Claude Vorilhon is central according to him: “Claude Vorilhon was born on September 30, 1946 in Vichy, he is both prophet and Messiah, he demands that we call him ‘My Beloved Prophet’ or ‘His Holiness Raël’. His mother would have been ‘abducted ‘, artificially inseminated by extraterrestrials and then sent back to Earth.”

Identified as a sect since 1995

This movement has been identified as a sect in France since 1995, and “advocates a ‘world government’ organized around a new system he calls ‘geniocracy’, a political system which must replace democracy”, explains Rudy Reichstadt. Rael “says that we must abolish elections and votes and reserve the right to vote for the intellectual elite”, which would be designated by intelligence quotient tests. This movement also advocates “sexual mediation”notes Tristan Mendès France.

The sectarian movement organizes what it calls “awakening courses”. Etienne Jacob, journalist at Figaroauthor of the book Investigation into The Family, a mysterious religious community (editions Rocher), investigated the Raël sect. In 2022, he infiltrated one of these courses under a false identity for a week. “The idea of ​​this course was the awakening of consciousness through meditationshe explains, with theoretical courses taught by various teachers who are ultimately somewhat seasoned followers.” The journalist remembers one of the first courses which consisted of “educate us how to detect objective information. And in fact, it was more of a course in disinformation by giving us sources to believe and rather to distrust everything. Distrust everything, have a critical mind, why not , but the sources that were given by the Raelians were not necessarily the right ones.”

“One of the high points of the course was a videoconference with Claude Vorilhon, currently in Japan, where he gave us a hyper-pronounced conspiracy speech, with this idea that today in our society, we are made to think too much . And that is still the beginning of opening your brain to the influence, to the manipulation of which you are going to be a victim.”

Etienne Jacob, journalist at Le Figaro

“In this type of movement, we find a lot of people who gravitate towards this conspiracy ecosystemcontinues the journalist. And it’s true that not all of them relate only to the Raelian movement. I was in a bungalow with a group of raw eaters who were under the control of Irène Grosjean, the high priestess of “raw eating” and whose sectarian excesses the Miviludes has noted on several occasions (…) And this ecosystem there, it’s a little scary because we have the impression that people are locked in this loop.”

“The idea is not only to work on thought, it is also to work on bodiesnotes Tristan Mendès France. There are few surprises that these bridges are being woven throughout the world of well-being and alternative health.”

“The sectarian and conspiratorial excesses of the Raelian movement” is the 58th episode of Complorama with Rudy Reichstadt, director of Conspiracy Watch, and Tristan Mendès France, lecturer and member of the conspiracy observatory, specialist in digital cultures. A podcast to be found on the franceinfo website, the Radio France application and several other platforms such as Apple podcasts, Podcast Addict, Spotify, or Deezer.