The Thing About Cults

The Raelians, a cult that believes aliens seeded humanity on Earth, became famous worldwide when they announced two decades ago that they had cloned a human baby from skin cells. They have small chapters across the world. In India too, there is a microscopic community and April is the month when they have their big day, an initiation ceremony in Mumbai. This time, according to their website, there is a three-day conference, with a special speaker from Japan. Their beliefs are pacific and, as with many cults and sects, the believer is there for whatever solace he or she is seeking from life. The trade-off is to set aside some rational parts of the mind.

The Raelian conception of the world might be plausible because anything is plausible in questions over origins—how did the universe begin, why should organic life happen only on Earth, why should consciousness develop only in human beings? No one can know for certain, so it is a fertile area to fill with whatever one wants to. And, yet, it is incredulous because this special knowledge is based entirely on the idea of a revelation—the alien chose to connect with one individual and show him the truth, and that was then further transmitted. Replace ‘alien’ with ‘god’ and you will find what the Raelians profess is what religions have been doing since the beginning of time. The vast majority alive has some belief or other that makes them not very different from alien-worshippers. The reason it does not seem absurd is in the trick of scale. Once more people are believers than nonbelievers, the minority are the odd ones, like atheists.

The objective of all cults is to get to the critical mass that makes them a religion. Once that happens, growth and respectability are assured. Getting to that point can however take a long time. The shortcut for cults is to tag themselves to an established one, and that is why when you look closely at any major religion, numerous sects can be found in them.

cultfaithMumbaiRaeliansreligion