10 Utterly Fascinating Cults

10. Raëlism

Raëlism was founded by French professional sports car tester and former pop musician, Claude Vorihon. In 1973 after a profound and life-changing meeting with extraterrestrial beings, who during a series of meetings with Vorihon laid out the foundations of the Raëlism movement, Vorihon changed his name to Raël and devoted his life to progressing the aliens' agenda.

Raëlians' beliefs mostly centre around aliens. Specifically the Elohim, a race of angelic alien scientists. (It should be noted that the Elohim prefer the term extraterrestrial, as the term 'alien' carries negative connotations.) What the Elohim want more than anything is an embassy and an invitation to Earth, so they charged Raël with getting that done. The embassy must have a landing pad for spaceships and a swimming pool, so finding the right real estate has proven pretty tricky. In 2010 the Raëlians received word that the Elohim would like the embassy built in China, but they have a deadline of 2035 so the clock is ticking.

Oh, and they're really into cloning.They attribute the resurrection of Jesus to cloning. They wanted to clone Hitler so he could be put on trial for war crimes, claimed to have conceived a human baby through cloning technology, and believe humanity can obtain immortality through cloning. Really, really into cloning.