Of all the places in the world where the Raelian movement is based, Quebec is the place with the most adherents relative to the population. And that is explained.
In the mid-1970s, Quebec experienced great religious, cultural, social and political upheavals: the ideal breeding ground for a new religion to germinate there, stressed in an interview with the agency QMI Arnaud Bouquet, the director of the documentary “Raël QC “, which will be available on True on Tuesday.
“My first ‘flash’ was saying to myself, ‘But how do you explain that? What does that matter, when Raël settled here, there was fertile ground for it in Quebec,” he asked.
In his 90-minute film, the director traces the captivating journey of Claude Vorilhon alias Raël from his steep rise to his fall without prejudice and without bias. The story is told by a dozen former and current supporters – most of whom have agreed to speak on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals – and many specialists in the field.
Born from a lack
What began as a “friendly” religion that talked about extraterrestrials and was often ridiculed or taken lightly in the media has quietly become the scene of rape and sexual assault, including of minors.
“The Catholic religion began to lose its luster after the Quiet Revolution, and as the people were of Christian culture there was a religious shortage. It was also a great time of liberation (religious, sexual, women), the pro-independence movements were no longer behind the scenes, and extraterrestrial culture was huge, with ET and Star Trek among others, the director recalls. stating that the table was set to welcome such a movement championing these freedoms.
“It was also the time of the New Age, when we suddenly became less interested in religion and more in esotericism and spirituality. There was something more colorful and psychedelic about the new religions and I think there was some success here in post-hippie culture that there were traces of,” he continued, emphasizing Rael’s charisma and talent for gathering followers and his message to spread.
With a mystical discourse that regained the scientific and technological aspect, then very fashionable since the first voyage to the moon, Raël, proclaiming himself the last prophet, was able to benefit from the societal, philosophical and identity challenges.
The reticence of the Raelians
While doing Raël QC, Arnaud Bouquet tried many times to speak to Raël and spokespeople for the movement – there are currently more than 200 Raëlians active. Each time his attempts failed. “They cited the long-running dispute with the Quebecor group after infiltrating the Journal de Montréal in the early 2000s as the reason. They have held a grudge against Quebecor ever since,” the director said.
- Produced by St-Laurent TV in association with Quebecor Media, the documentary “Raël QC” airs this Tuesday on Vrai.