Page 36 - 200303 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - February 2003

36 Rael the Raelian Clown Rael the Raelian Clown 36 A Rael Thing always had UFOs in my life, so has my nukes about, I'm out of here," he said - the Continued From Page 32 mother," he says. "When I saw [the Elohim would re-create him from his illustration] I thought, "Bingo - I know DNA, and take him to their planet where these spacecraft, they have been he would spend the rest of eternity flying Successive Israeli governments following me."' around with anti-gravity belts, discussing have refused to hand over land for the Gypsy, a middle-aged women with pest control with Buddha, and enjoying project. scarlet hair, appears particularly troubled, the attentions of compliant female robots. To this end, Raelians are supposed and twice rushes from the hall followed That night we have our to give up to 11 per cent of their net by the sound of shouting and vomiting. introduction to the sensual side of the income to the cult, and to gift their estates Aymonier explains that she is seriously Raelians - everyone has to be blindfolded, before death (to avoid challenges to the ill, and has had her children taken away and grope their way around the dance will) to local Raelian leaders. However, from her "because she is a Raelian". floor to the strains of New Age music as many local Raelians are unemployed, This worrying thread of until they bump into someone else, and one can join for a donation of as little persecutionism runs through proceedings. whereupon both parties are supposed to as $1, Australia's contribution is likely to As well as Catholics, Jews are high on the caress each other. be minimal. hate list (perhaps because of the refusal to Unfortunately, the guides' sixth AYMONIER, the Raelian Bishop allow the extraterrestrial embassy in sense (they refrain from shaving or of Oceania for the past decade, is a tall, Israel) and there is an increasingly cutting their hair so as not to inhibit their handsome, well-built French engineer apocalyptic tone to cult prophecies. "The extra-sensory organs) guides them with nipple-length black hair who end of the world by nuclear war is near," unerringly to the handful of good-looking appears on stage dressed in white and preaches Rael. "They [the Elohim] will women, leaving the rest of us to be with the Raelian symbol dangling around come to save the just." pursued by lumbering matrons in size 20 his neck. It used to be a Star of David But not all are obvious nutters. At hospital gowns. with a swastika in the middle, but this dinner (thankfully, this being a French Not for the first time, I wonder was changed to something more abstract cult, a glass of red wine is permitted, whether the wool is being pulled over our after it was discovered it might give which does a little to mediate the eyes in more ways than one. offence to Jews. awfulness of a grey roast and a lentil Many of the women are wearing Aymonier says he takes no money meatloaf) I sit next to Alek, a Raelian for the white feathers of the "Angels", from the cult and supports himself by 10 years who bears a striking Raelians who have agreed to support the constructing internet websites. "We have resemblance to the movie star Alan Alda cloning program by offering their eggs no property, we have no temple, we have (M*A*S*H) and says he is an Adelaide for implantation, or their bodies as no venue, we draw no salary," he says - gastroenterologist. surrogate mothers. According to Rael, and NSW Land Titles Office records Karen, a raven-haired there are 2000 people on the waiting list confirm no property recorded in the Englishwoman who belts out a mean prepared to pay $US200,000 each to have names of the cult or its known leaders. version of the Raelian anthem ("I'm a themselves cloned. In fact, Aymonier, judging by Raelian, yeh, yeh"), had been in Australia There is an awful lot of talking about sex. attendance at last month's seminar, for more than 20 years without seeing a We watch videotapes of pack-raping appears to have had an uphill task kangaroo until she spotted one near the dolphins, homosexual elephants and recruiting disciples. He claims to have camp. But she has had no trouble spotting bonobo apes bonking, and a speech by 500 members in Australia, but in spite of flying saucers hovering over Bondi -"just Rael, a 56-year-old man who affects the massive publicity sparked by the the common or garden cone-shaped type, white Captain Kirk-style suits and a human cloning announcement (the flashing red and white lights, the usual". topknot, who boasts: "My wife, she likes Raelians' website took 250,000 hits in I finally think I have found sex only once a month, but I like it more one day, four times more than it received someone "normal" when Brian, a pest often," before bursting into a big smile, in the previous year) only about 60 controller from Petersham with a beer "sank-you, sank-you, Raelian girls." people turned up, a dozen of whom are belly and a forage cap, admits he spent Aymonier is also no slouch in the newcomers. the day sinking schooners in the sexual stakes. The two best-looking There is the usual collection of Wisemans Ferry pub when he was women in the group are, respectively, his misfits and lonely, damaged souls, single supposed to be fasting. Well, it was 43 current mistress and his ex. "You must mothers (several brought their children) degrees out there. smile," he counsels, displaying a set of and the sort of people who attend "mind, Confessing that I was a reporter, I teeth like a marble xylophone. "How body and spirit" shows, where they are asked him how he got involved with the many girls have I got with my smile? I am recruited to the cause. Raelians, and he said he was in a park in irresistible." Jason from Shepparton, a man in Santiago, the Chilean capital, and met a But he is keen to debunk other his 30s with a long brown ponytail and man with a Raelian pendant. Next thing, accusations that have been levelled at the tattoos of pistols loaded with human they had taken him up a mountain, placed Raelians. "We have been accused of babies on his chest, jumps up to introduce one wet hand on his forehead and another having sex orgies, of pedophilia [this himself to the gathering. He says he has on the back of his head, and beamed his refers to the jailing of two Raelians in had a variety of jobs including coalminer DNA up to the Elohim, who were France for the 'corruption of minors'], of and prostitute, and since discovering Rael hovering in the sky in their mothership. It drug-dealing, of arms dealing. We are has been able to give up antidepressants. was the Raelian version of baptism, persecuted like the Jews before World Bob from Brisbane says it was the known as "transmission". War II; we are manipulated by the media, pictures of flying saucers that convinced "If they ever start throwing atomic like the first Christians." [End] him Rael was a true prophet. "I have