Raël

Raël (born Claude Maurice Marcel Vorilhon, 30 September 1946) is a French journalist who founded and currently leads the Raëlian Movement, an international UFO religion.

Prior to becoming a religious leader, Raël, then known as Claude Vorilhon, worked as sports-car journalist and test driver for his own car-racing magazine, Autopop. Following a purported extraterrestrial encounter in December 1973, he formed the Raëlian Movement and changed his name to Raël (meaning "messenger of the Elohim"). He later published several books, which detail the encounter with a being called Yahweh in 1973. He traveled the world to promote his books for over 30 years.

Vorilhon was born in Vichy, Allier, France. He was raised in Ambert in the home of his maternal grandmother, who was atheist. His father was Jewish and his mother was a "devout atheist". He attended a Catholic boarding school with Le Puy-en-Velay and caused a scandal by taking part in communion without being baptized. His parents withdrew him from the boarding school to put him in school in Ambert. He would later advocate Huguenot descendents to receive reparations from the Church.