They haven't gone away you know.
Raelian movement in Ireland: ‘Some think it’s a cult but it’s nothing like that’
Moya Henderson leads a religion which claims we are the ancestors of extra-terrestrials
about 11 hours ago
by Graham Clifford
“With the greatest of respect Claude, a lot of people would describe you as a nut,” – it’s a winter’s night in 1988 and Gay Byrne is in full flow.
Frenchman
Claude Vorilhon, founder of the ‘UFO religion’ Raelianism, smiles as the
Late Late Show host, and the studio audience titter.
The former sports-car journalist is telling the Irish nation that we all actually derive from extra-terrestrials, that they’ve taken him to their planet and that we’re to build an embassy on earth to welcome them back again.
Vorihon (or ‘Rael’ as he’s referred to), dressed in all white with a dark beard and a large pendant around his neck, doesn’t look like your average
Late Lateguest of the grey 80s.
At its height the Raelian Movement had 200 members in Ireland but the figure today stands nearer 60
It's fair to say that few in the studio, or across the country, take him seriously.
But in a sittingroom in Artane a thirtysomething-year-old civil servant is intrigued by what she hears. She isn’t sniggering – on the contrary
Moya Henderson wants to know more.
“He talked of how the bible was written in old Hebrew and then translated into Greek, Latin and other languages but that the word ‘God’ was mistranslated. The word in the original bible was ‘Elohim,” says Henderson, the head of the small
Raelian Movement in
Ireland.
She continues: “The Elohim means ‘those who came from the sky’ and it was they who made us and the world as we know it.”
Two days after that
Late Late Show item she went to Liberty Hall for a public meeting where Rael was selling his book, speaking about his religion of peace, meditation and respect and hoping to sow the seeds of an Irish branch of his movement. ...
At its height the Raelian Movement had 200 members in Ireland but the figure today stands nearer 60. Internationally its is claimed the religion has 90,000 followers (though the actual figure is thought to be closer to 20,000) – the majority in
Canada where the Raelian Movement is at its strongest. ...
And around Henderson’s neck is the Raelian symbol pendant – a Swastika encircled by the Star of David. ...
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