Prophecy on Stage: Fame and Celebrities in the Context of the Raelian Movement

Abstract

Santa Suzana, Barcelona, August 2005. After a series of train delays, I finally reached the Indalo Hotel where 600 Raelians had convened for the “European Raelian Seminar.” I was in a rush, one day late for the conference and worried about arriving on time to take part in the event. When I finally arrived, the first image I saw was Raël himself on stage. Raël is the prophet and leader of the Raelian Movement. It was not the first time I had seen Raël’s image, indeed I had often seen the latter projected on stage, but I had never seen Raël in person.¹