Aliens Adored: Raël's UFO Religion

by Susan J. Palmer

Aliens Adored is the first full length, in-depth look at the Raëlian movement, a fascinating new religion founded in the 1970s by the charismatic prophet, Raël. Born in France as Claude Vorilhon, the former race-car driver founded the religion after he experienced a visitation from the aliens (the "elohim") who, in his cosmology, created humans by cloning themselves. The millenarian movement awaits the return of the alien creators, and in the meantime seeks to develop the potential of its adherents through free love, sexual experimentation, opposition to nuclear proliferation and war, and the development of the science of cloning.

Sociologist Susan J. Palmer has studied the Raelian movement for more than a decade, observing meetings and rituals and enjoying unprecedented access to the group's leaders as well as to its rank-and-file members. In this pioneering study she provides a thorough analysis of the movement, focusing on issues of sexuality, millenarianism, and the impact of the scientific worldview on religion and the environment. Rael's radical sexual ethics, his gnostic anthropocentrism, and shallow ecotheology offer us a mirror through which we see how our worldview has been shaped by the forces of globalization, postmodernism, and secular humanism.

Genres: Religion, Sociology, Anthropology, Nonfiction, Ethnography

244 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Canadian sociologist and author whose primary research interest is new religious movements.

She is a professor of Religious Studies at Dawson College in Montreal and an adjunct professor at Concordia University, teaching sociology of religion courses.

Reviews

[Kirsten · Rating 4 out of 5]

Palmer, a sociologist specializing in NRMs (New Religious Movements, known to some as cults), spent approximately ten years in close contact with the Raelians. She was able to establish a great deal of trust among the leadership (particularly at first), and as a result she has almost unprecedented knowledge of the history and inner workings of the movement. This book is absolutely fascinating. Palmer actually has quite a bit of sympathy for the Raelians, noting that many of the accusations by ex-members are untrue or appear to be the result of the actions of individuals, rather than endemic to the movement as a whole. There were even things I could get on board with, philosophically -- for example, while the Raelians are very much about "free love," the official "doctrine" is that if a Raelian makes repeated unwanted sexual advances on another individual, they are ejected from the movement for seven years.

Palmer does not make any bones about the fact that many of the Raelian beliefs are deeply weird to outsiders, and discusses the odd situation surrounding "Clonaid" and the supposed cloning of human beings at great length. She does this mainly from a sociological and religious perspective, however; what she is interested in is the question of what such a stunt means about the changing focus of the religion, and what Rael and the other leaders hope to achieve by such publicity.

This is a great book, and one that I highly recommend to anyone who is interested in NRMs and the intersection of science and religion.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Raëlians are a fascinating group that believes they are paving the way for the eventual arrival of the aliens who created the universe. This book does a good job laying out the beliefs and practices of the group, which centers itself around its eponymous founder. There are lots of ways, however, in which Aliens Adored does not age particularly well, including the casual sexualization and objectification of most of the women described in the book, the casual way in which Palmer treats the likelihood of group members making sexual advances toward the college students she's bringing with her, and the cavalier way Palmer treats her interactions with both the group and the media. But that said, there's no better source to learn about such an interesting movement that challenges traditional notions of what it means to religious, plus it's short and easy to read.

[lillia]

i read this for class i promise

[Charlie · Rating 3 out of 5]

A strangely personal yet antiseptic look at one of the more whimsical UFO cults out there. Not quite Unarius-silly, but not Heaven's Gate-bleak either, the Raëlians claim to have cloned human beings, they support sexual freedom and deplore FGM, and they're going to meet our cosmic makers just as soon as humanly possible (and maybe sooner). There's no angry Operation Clambake protest here and no bizarre celebrity testimonials either. From what Professor Palmer tells us, these folks just seem to be having a lovely time, and we're welcome to join them. I would have liked this book better if it evinced the slightest sense of humor regarding its subject matter, but as it stands it's a valuable, entertaining overview of a harmless gaggle of loons.

[Carrie Poppy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent.