Netflix series: Rael, the alien prophet

I vaguely remembered hearing about the Raelian cult back in the last century, but didn't remember any details. And since the meditation method I'm involved with borders on being a cult, I thought I would check out this limited series on Netflix.

This French guy back in the 70s claimed to have been visited by the Elohim (aliens) and been on their flying saucer. Apparently, these aliens actually were the ones who created humans, by genetic engineering, back in the day. And if we live the way they want us to, and build an embassy ready to receive them, they will come back and help us out. So he wrote a book about it and started recruiting followers.

The recommended lifestyle involved a lot of nudity and free love, as usual. But things took a weird turn when at some point the Pope declared that human cloning would be an abomination, and should be banned. Since Rael hates the Pope and considers the Catholic church to be an exemplar of the worst way to live, Rael immediately declared that cloning would be the way that the Elohim would enable us to live forever. And set up a company to research making it happen. This led to the Raelians being hounded around the world, moving from France to the US, then to Canada, and then fragmenting somewhat to different countries.

I found it kind of interesting. Obviously, the original basis of the cult is rather nutty, and seems to be mostly aimed at getting Rael money and sex, as you might expect (mostly sex, really, he doesn't seem to have collected Rolls Royces or mansions or the usual holy roller accoutrements). But the machinations of various people to try and get the Raelians into court, accused of pedophilia (I didn't see any evidence of that) and assorted crimes around cloning (there's no evidence they did that either) actually made me feel somewhat sympathetic to the "bad guys".

And the cult still exists, and may even be having a resurgence, in Africa. I get the impression that if I met Rael, I'd probably like him. Not enough to join his cult, but he looks like a good guy to share a bottle of wine with.