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.