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Testimonials
by former Raelians
Marie-Helene
Sage Ali
Roland Dussault

• As liars tend to rehearse their words, not their gestures, most people believe they will be held more accountable for what they say than their body language or facial expressions, so they put a lot of thought into how they want to tell the story, however 80% of communication is non verbal.
  
• Interrogators and lie spotters look for 'emotional leakage'. Much of the time we're well aware of how our face shows emotion, and we even work to control it. Someone who is preparing to lie may realise that they'll be nervous while speaking and will therefore prepare to avoid showing their anxiety and will try to look relaxed.
  
• The problem for liars is that much of the time we can't anticipate our feelings - our emotions catch us by surprise. This is especially true when we're asked or told something we haven't prepared for.
  
• Baseline videos of Rael were used to determine normal patterns of behaviour, speech rhythm, gestures and body language
  
• Deception is not confirmed by one or two deceptive behaviours, but by clusters of behaviour.
  
• In the well known video of Rael appearing on Irish television in 1988, when Rael speaks about his encounter, there were not 2 or 3 observations recorded that indicate deception...but 7 (!)
  Video available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5nEuWVU07I
  
  1. A marked increased in the rate of blinking
  2. Stuttering
  3. Licking lips and rolling tongue
  4. Unnatural stillness through the upper body when describing the alleged encounter
  5. Assymetrical expressions (symmetrical expressions are typical of truthful behaviour)
  6. Steepling of hands - conveying confidence and superiority.
  7. Using objects as a barrier and as a form of protection

1. Raelians believe they hold the absolute truth and that Rael is the messenger of the Elohim
2. Raelians deeds and actions are motivated by the promise of eternal life
3. Raelians believe they are always being tested by Rael and / or the Elohim
4. Raelians justify that those who leave the Movement were never Raelian in the first place or that this is part of a 'cleansing' process so that the Movement remains pure.
5. Raelians justify everything Rael says and does without question. (The belief is that Rael is the son of 25,000 year old Yahweh, therefore he must know things we cannot begin to comprehend)
6. The belief that the 2002 cloning announcement was true
7. The belief that even if the cloning announcement was a hoax (hoax is also another word for 'lie') that it served a higher purpose as it brought millions of dollars in free publicity to the Movement and helped to spread the Raelian message.
8. The inability or desire to question anything that challenges the Raelian doctrine
9. Raelians consider that ex Raelians and those people who speak out about against Rael and the Movement are 'enemies'
10. Raelians are asked to cease all contact with ex Raelians who are deemed to be "negative and frustrated."
11. Fanaticism - the most indoctrinated are prepared to defend Rael even if it means losing custody of their children, losing friends and family - and some are even prepared to die for the cause.
12. The need to always be right
13. Loss of objectivity
14. Closemindedness
15. *Raelians think it impossible that they could be involved in a 'cult' in the traditional sense - this despite the fact that their leader and organisation bear all the hallmarks

1. Personal charm and ability to use language and words with consummate skill to sway others to one's own dogma. The potentially cultic leader is most usually a master at word usage, usually highly intelligent, often highly educated. He can manipulate words and contexts with such skill that the listener is either so confused by his rhetoric that he feels he must be the one who is deficient, or he can explain away contradictory behaviours or ideas so convincingly that one wonders why one ever doubted. He can turn a phrase to the degree that he can deliver a blistering and invalidating reprimand, and make the victim feel like it is done in genuine love and concern for the well-being of the victim. Word and language usage is the PRIMARY tool of the cultic leader, the goal being to emotionally and verbally destroy any critic that cannot be swayed to his way of thinking.
2. Emotionally manipulative. While appearing to be sacrificial and loving, a cultic leader will manipulate the emotions of the victim to the place where anything he does or says is warranted and acceptable. Domination and humiliation are the goals of this manipulative behaviour. The emotionally manipulative leader strives to control his victims' emotional responses to his behaviour and pronouncements, usually with the induction of guilt. In many religious leaders, this guilt induction and fear is almost always couched in the threat of loss of favour with Yahweh. Such leaders have no compunction about manipulating the dissident or questioning group member into believing that their salvation is at stake if they do not obey them in particular. By implying; that if you do not honour them, your salvation and standing with Yahweh is at stake. This is the stock in trade of the cult leader, guilt if you question, and threat of loss of salvation.
3. The cultic leader has an inflated and grandiose sense of self. He styles himself as a prophet and apostle, Messiah's personal representative on earth, a ruler of grand proportions. They may claim humility and a servant's heart, but you will find most of their rhetoric obsessively concentrating on their own personal obtaining and maintenance of power and authority. Again, in religious abusive groups, the leaders tend to have a vision of being grand rulers and kings in the Resurrection, and desire, more than anything, to begin that totality in this life. They genuinely feel they are entitled to adoration and total obedience and control of all those in their sphere.
4. Most cultic leaders have a tendency toward pathological lying. This is so unpleasant that many times, they completely convince themselves of their own lies. They can create and completely buy into a belief system about their own powers and abilities. These leaders have an inability to see or admit the truth even when caught in a lie....there are always extenuating circumstances and viable reasons for their deceits. Another side of this characteristic is to take something that is basically true and combine it with the fabrications to present an aura of credibility. While more subtle, it is, nevertheless, just another side of the deceit coin. They are not beyond plagiarism either! They will obtain other people's writings, make some changes and then use their own name as the author of the stolen work!
5. A defining characteristic of cult leaders is the fact that, no matter what pain or destruction their actions towards others has brought, there is absolutely no shame, remorse or guilt on their part for the consequences of their actions. If they even give it thought, it is only how to rearrange the perspective on events to present themselves as justified and right in their actions. This is frequently combined with the penchant for deceit discussed above in fabricating plausible sounding explanations for their actions. A frequent justification is..."Yahweh told me to.....Yahweh told me....." for all true believers, there is always a reluctance to deny what may well have been instruction from the Master, and these cult leaders know this. No matter what pain they cause others, they have it worked out how it is the victims' fault, some deficiency on their part that led to their own suffering. Never is it the cult leaders fault the pain and suffering he causes.
6. The cultic leader tends to have very shallow emotions, very insecure. Despite the dearth of real, heartfelt, emotions, the cult leader with the gift of the gab frequently presents as eminently loving, gentle, kind and concerned, especially with those he is trying to develop control over. He presents his demands for control as being only in the very best interest of his victims and presents himself as sacrificially taking such control out of love and commitment. He can convince his followers that he loves them unconditionally, but that love, if experienced in truth at all, is conditional solely on his victims' total acceptance of his domination.
7. There is a tendency for this type of leader to be incredibly callous about the pain and distress of his victim, having no regard for the feelings of the victim. In religious groups with this type of leader, there is great emphasis placed on the unreliability of feelings and the necessity to overcome them, thereby invalidating everything the victim is suffering. A common ploy is for the victim to be told that his/her feelings are not valid because no one else feels that way. All the leader's manipulative skills are utilized to exploit, control and gain power over the victim. Since the victims do not believe that the leader would intentionally hurt them, they rationalize, with the help of the leader, that the infliction of such pain is for their own good...or has some sort of "redemptive" purpose.
8. The cultic leader's sole goal is to gain and consolidate his control of his group, and increase the size of the said group. A frequent statement made by such leaders is...."Yahweh will provide....".Donations from the group are encouraged, and in some groups, members are expected to donate everything they have to the group. Resources are rarely apportioned according to need, but according to the leader's perception of need.
9. Contempt of those who do not understand him is almost a defining characteristic of the cultic leader. He makes it plain that in his view, those who either cannot understand the complex and usually very esoteric belief system, are flawed spiritually and nowhere near as worthy as he and those who follow him are. He claims to have exclusive revelation to the truth, and is convinced that those who do not share this same revelation are; blinded to truth, in error, or overtly demonized. This leader does not conceive that there is anything at all wrong with him, that there is no possibility at all of error on his part. When confronted with obvious errors on his part, rage ensues and attacks on the credibility of the one voicing the errors are common tactics. This becomes a tool that the cult leader uses to control their members.
10. An easy determinant of whether or not a group has a cultic and abusive leader is to observe his actions toward one who has left the group. If those who leave remain quiet, and do not voice their knowledge of the workings of the group, the leader concocts his stories about why the person left, and will leave it at that. If, however, the person speaks up or tries to impart that information, that person is immediately demonized. Character assassination, interspersed with a voiced concern for the escapee's spiritual (or mental) health, follows. Since the facts coming out cannot be refuted, the leader resorts to ad hominem attacks and immediately counsels others in his sphere of influence not to have contact with the vocal escapee.

• The group is focused on a charismatic living leader to whom members seem to display excessively zealous, unquestioning commitment.
  
• The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.
  
• The group is preoccupied with making money.
  
• Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.
  
• Special techniques such as meditation, denunciation sessions and debilitating work routines are used to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).
  
• The leadership dictates sometimes in great detail how members should think, act, and feel.
  
• The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s), and members (for example: the leader is considered the Messiah or an avatar; the group and/or the leader has a special mission to save humanity).
  
• The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which often causes conflict with the wider society.
  
• The group's leader is not accountable to any authorities (as are, for example, military commanders and ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream denominations).
  
• The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify means that members would have considered unethical before joining the group.
  
• The leadership or style of teachings induces feelings of guilt. Members may feel inadequate as they try to live up to unrealistic expectations about what constitutes 'appropriate' behaviour in order to control them.
  
• Members' subservience to the group may cause them to cut ties with family and friends, and to give up personal goals and activities that were of interest before joining the group.
  
• Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group.