The Raelian Dilemma

The story of the Raelians and their efforts to clone a human being has suddenly become one of the hottest stories of 2001. Understandably, many ufologists have run to hide away until the dust settles and people forget.

The ufological pain is especially great when it is made public that the alien who greeted Raelian leader Claude Vorilhon (Rael) in 1973 was a green-skinned extraterrestrial greeted him with the question: "Aren't you sorry that you didn't bring your camera?"

Ufologists worry, although naturally there is no connection between UFOs and cloning. Osama Bin Laden is a Moslem which does not make all Moslems terrorists. Or, take for example Adolf Hitler, who was raised a Catholic and wanted to be a priest. He like the Raelians turned to another for the inspiration for his actions. Hilter wrote,

"Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord."

"My feelings as a Christian points me to my Lord and Savior as a fighter. It points me to the man who once in loneliness, surrounded by a few followers, recognized these Jews for what they were and summoned men to fight against them."

So, are all ufologists supporters of the Raelians philosophy. No more than all Catholics want to exterminate the Jews. Still, the Raelian disclosures will hurt serious UFO researchers.

The story of the Raelian girl cloned from her mother is made more tantalizing by the fact that the media has widely identified the Raelian group as a UFO cult, and the largest UFO-based religion in the world. This cult reference is never left out of the the description, of course, because it helps the mind to quickly flash back to the Heaven’s Gate cult and their multiple suicide exit from the world in March, 1997. Every story sells better with  a"tabloid" spin, and news is after all a business. Only ufologists work for free.

The Raelians, it turns out, believe that mankind was created by extraterrestrial genetic manipulation. They interpret Genesis 1:1 "Elohim," not as a "God" as some Bibles do. "God," according to the Raelians, means in Hebrew "those who came from the sky." The word is a plural. It means that the scientists from another world who searched for a planet that was suitable to carry out their projects. Their project on earth was Homo sapiens.

Working on that premise - the Raelians have now also altered genes and have cloned a human being. It is an idea many believe is beyond human sanity. Sanity, however, is relative however depending on what generation you are from. I recall, for example, sitting in a University religion course in the 70s where a professor with two Ph.D.s assured us simple animal cloning would never take place. "Man," he said, "would know when to pull back."

Well he was wrong, and now we have not only cloning, but human cloning. Science, it appears, recognizes no boundaries, and based on recent events where planes full of innocent civilians were flown into the World Trade Center, religion knows no boundaries either.

The interesting part of the cloning story is that the Raelians might just be right on their theory of alien influence in evolution. Their theory is at least is arguable against the theory of the six day creation held by fundamentalist Christianity. It also would stand its ground against the religious faith of evolutionary theorists who have been searching for various missing links, or plugging up holes of inconsistency in Darwin’s theory for the past century.

Ufology could, if asked, provide a lot of evidence to support the Raelians. Ufology could, for example, provide countless stories about alien abductions. I can assure you they will not, even though most would agree with the Raelians about what the aliens are doing.

This is despite the fact that there have been many theories advanced to explain abductions. These include the theory that the whole thing is an elaborate operation by the black ops boys who are able to make thousands think they have talked to aliens, even though they can’t seem to find Osama Bin Laden. Many others believe abductions to be nothing more than some sort of mass misinterpretation of simpler realities that suddenly overcame modern society starting in 1961.

If we, however, were to take a vote inside the UFO community, or if we were to use the "walks like a duck -quacks like a duck" test - I am sure the most votes about what abductions are, would go to the theory that it is some sort of alien genetic manipulation project. This pro-Raelian conclusion, however, will not be shared.

We in the UFO community could tell the story of the approach made to Linda Howe and Home Box Office in 1983 by a member of the United States Air Force Office of Special Investigations in an office at Kirkland Air Force Base to support the Raelians but we won’t.

"During the conversation," said Linda Howe, Agent Doty handed me some typed pages which were simply typed ‘Briefing Paper for the President of the United States’ about the subject of unidentified flying vehicles. . . The paper outlined the government’s effort since the 1940's to ascertain the origin, nature, and motives of the E.T.s through Project Sign, Grudge, Gleem, Pounce, Blue Book and others, and concluded with a list of some current projects. . . and one project that had been closed because it answered all the questions and mysteries about the evolution of homo sapiens on this planet."

We could also tell the Raelians, that the same story of the United States government looking into the aliens possible influence in our evolution, was told to many other researchers by people directly attached to the government, and that the concept makes sense. IF the government was secretly working on UFOs behind the scenes it would not take a rocket scientist to conclude that one of the first questions they would ask is "how long have the aliens been here, and how have they influenced our society?" The government would surely have covered this evolutionary scenario.

California researcher Bill Moore, along with his associate Jamie Shandera, were two of the people who were told that aliens that had influenced our evolution. Moreover, it was more than one government insider telling them the story. According to writer Jerome Clark, Moore and Shandera were told, ''Nine extra-terrestrial races are visiting the earth. One of these races - little grey-skinned people from the third planet surrounding Zeta Reticuli - have been here for 25,000 years and influenced the direction of human evolution. They have also helped shape our religious beliefs." (The Raelians also use the same 25,000 year figure)

Neither ufology nor science, however, will entertain serious discussion of the Raelian ET cloning hypothesis for a second. Science will not because they have the evolutionary world view to maintain. Strong beliefs, whether they be scientific or religious die hard. Both science and religion have been known to deal severely with those who have disagreed with them in the past.

Secondly, science will not consider any E.T. evolution hypothesis because the government has painted the UFO subject as a fringe notion not worthy of study. Any good science student, hoping to someday be a player in the big scientific world, is encouraged to stay within the field of play. Once established, scientists must remain quite lest they be Trent Lotted from the club, as abduction researcher John Mack experienced at Harvard Medical School following his pronouncement of ufological beliefs in 1994.

Scientists, after all, want to be loved too, and like Rodney Dangerfield they want to be respected. Many a scientist has shied away from ufology, as it would cause his loyal independent colleagues to scatter and damage the scientist’s "credibility." Because scientists are not generally well paid self image and credibility become key motivating factors. Having been on a University campus for 30 years I know that Ph.D.s love to be referred to as Dr., and lecturers addressed as "professor" will never correct you.

This desire acceptance by the insecure scientific community is also a major element in ufology. The reason for this is that ufology is a field of study that would like to be a science when it grows up. The desire is so strong that it is willing to "do whatever it takes to get there." Sometimes, however, that involves trading truth for gains in peer perception. This desire to be "accepted," however sometimes get people, evidence, and reputation all mixed up, and it has led to some major setbacks in ufology.

Consider the problems we have had with witnesses in the Roswell case, the intelligence field, or in government. Anyone with a title, degree, or high ranking position in government is allowed to say anything without review. Ufology has been quick to deify these people, promote them, and above all believe them.

Colonels such as Corso or Kaufman have been big stars in the study of the Roswell crash. Drs. such Dr. Terrence Meaden (who became famous for the bizarre notion that wind caused the elaborate crop circles in England) and Dr. Michael Persinger (who proposed that abductions were electrical events in the temporal lobes caused by "people who are capable of vivid imagery and who are under some sort of stress -- anything from lack of oxygen and food to a recent bereavement." or that an 18 month series of UFO sighting in Manitoba Canada was caused by an earthquake in Minnesota 600 miles away)

Why would ufology listen to such apparent nonsense? Well, because Drs. and Colonels bring quick and needed credibility to a field that is always being laughed at. We ufologists want to be loved, respected and listened to, so we accept anything that some titled person will tell us. They provide us comfort in our struggle to gain acceptance. They put us with the "in" crowd, just like impressionable teenagers who will run with whichever crowd that will accept them. Colonels and Drs. allow us to go to our friends and relatives and say, "look at all the respected professionals who agree with me. I’m not crazy after all."

Our parents told us not to worry about what others say, and we tell our children the same thing. However, when it comes down to the crunch, we say screw the truth and grab at reputation and respectability. Everyone wants to vote for the winning side. Raelians aren’t perceived as potential winners.

We will not support or defend the Raelians because they are, at first glance, the fringiest of the fringe. We will not support them because like Trent Lott they have some serious accusations of skeletons in the closet. Like politics, in ufology it takes only one slipup and your done. The Raelians never overcame the stories which included unorthodox sexual practices, and french tax evasion accusations.

Yes, getting out the UFO message is a bit like running for President. The person’s image has to come across clean. The messenger has to appear like the middle-of-the-road guy next door. Al Gore, on the other hand was never able to overcome the image that he was a stuffed shirt with no personality.

The message with George Bush was not the most important thing, nor was his knowledge of the world situation. These would not sway the media. When, for example, a reporter from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation asked George Bush about Prime Minister Poutine’s endorsement of him for President, George Bush answered that "He appreciated his strong endorsement" and that "Canada and the U.S. have always been strong neighbors" yada yada.

The question was asked because Bush couldn’t name the Pakistani leader earlier and the press had picked it up. Bush said he had studied up on the world leaders, so the CBC show decided to see if he knew who the leader right next door was. Unfortunately for Bush, the Canadian Prime Minister was Jean Chretien. Poutine is a french dish of french fries covered with cheese and gravy. The Canadian population had a good laugh, and the tape ended up being played in many schools along with other clips such as Al Gore not knowing the name of the Canadian capitol after having been vice-president for eight years.

The U.S. media however, did not pick up on the Bush gaff. They gave the image nod to Bush after his handlers were able to spin the stories about past drinking and drug use into negative lies being pushed by the opposition because they feared dealing with the issues, and he was elected leader of the Free World.

The Raelians control of the press has been less successful. Perhaps the cloning project is the home run they have always hoped for. It is not that the Raelians didn’t try to get media attention in the past. After all one of their two main goals is to "spread the message" (the glad tidings that humanity was created from the DNA of superior extraterrestrial alien scientists, or "Elohim" and that they will return around 2035).

They have done many things to attract media attention such as in the early 1992 during their "Planetary Week," when they launched Operation Condom. It was a protest against the Quebec Catholic School Commission's decision to veto condom machines in their high schools. The Raelians appeared at every Quebec high school in a "condom-mobile"—a pink van decorated with flying saucers and condoms. Then the Guides, "dressed in white padded suits with swastika medallions, would jump out and distribute 10,000 condoms to bemused teens on recess."

Such beliefs and actions have gotten the group painted as a cult by the media, and the "cult" word is the "kiss of death" for any up-and-coming scientist or ufologist. Right or wrong they have quickly become a group that is studied from a distance. Their message gets lost in the circus atmosphere. The issues are ignored. Addressing the Raelian issues is something that even ufologist’s darling newspaper writer at Florida Today, Billy Cox, will have to think carefully about as he writes his story on the Raelian news conference that happened right in his backyard.

One respected researcher who has been in the UFO business for many decades, Robert Barrow, told me the Raelian story would set ufology back 50 years. He may just be right. It will be a 50 year step back towards gaining credibility, however, not in discovering the truth. In reality, I think most ufologists know many of the basic truths behind the UFO mystery.

Ufology’s problem lies not so much in a lack of facts, but in the fact that we have not found a way to tell the story of our discovered truths so the media will listen, and because the media holds the ultimate prize of awarding us credibility, they are the only real players worth consideration. Perhaps what we need is a George Bush, and a team of ruthless spinners to peddle the message.