Claude Vorilhon's claimed encounter near Clermont-Ferrand launches the Raelian movement

When: 13 Dec 1973
Where: Clermont-Ferrand, France
Sources: 3 public sources

Puy de Lassolas, the volcanic crater near Clermont-Ferrand where Vorilhon placed his encounter Romary, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

French motor-sport journalist Claude Vorilhon said a small being stepped from a craft that landed in a volcanic crater near Clermont-Ferrand and gave him a message. Renamed Rael, he built a UFO-based religion whose Clonaid company made an unproven 2002 human cloning claim.

Sources

PressUFO Group Behind Cloning Effort (opens in a new tab)ABC News / 2002-12
OtherInternational Raelian Movement (Susan J. Palmer) (opens in a new tab)World Religions and Spirituality Project
OtherRaelians (opens in a new tab)Encyclopedia.com (Gale)

How sources are chosen and tiered

Where it fits

Earlier in Close encountersGallup poll: 11 percent say they have seen a UFONov 1973 Later in Close encountersBilly Meier's 'Pleiadian beamship' photographs1975

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