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tongue of French and even claimed the ability to speak all of Earth's languages. The being claimed to be from another planet and had visited Earth many times on previous occasions. Vorilhon claimed he was chosen by the extraterrestrials to be a liaison between the ETs and mankind because, as a journalist and a free thinker, they believed he would bring their message to mankind without any "anti-religious bias." (Not to mention the fact that he was one of their offspring! ) Vorilhon claimed he was told to return the next day with his Bible and that he was given extensive commentary on critical portions of the Bible, especially those regarding the origin of mankind. They had six meetings on successive days, and the notes of those meetings were privately published in the book The Message Given to Me by Extraterrestrials. According to Vorilhon, the ETs gave him a new name, Rael, which means "the man who brings light." He was told that he was one of many "light workers" who were chosen to deliver the message to mankind regarding our origin, purpose, mission, and ultimate destiny in the universe. One might expect that such a visitation from our "space parents" would be accompanied by detailed information on how to solve our increasing global difficulties. With their supposed highly advanced technology, surely they would have solved the kinds of political, economic, environmental, and medical problems we now face. And yet, no such message was given. Instead, Rael was given a religious message—in effect, a Bible study conducted by an ET! The primary message that the extraterrestrials wanted Rael to understand was that they created mankind. According to Rael, the extraterrestrials told him that they created humanity in their image by sophisticated genetic engineering techniques. In The Message Given to Me by Extraterrestrials, the extraterrestrials describe for Rael the "true" story of creation. According to Rael, he was given the following interpretation of the creation story in the book of Genesis: "Let us start with Genesis chapter 1: In the beginning Elohim created the heavens and the Earth. In Genesis 1:1 the word ‘Elohim,' wrongly translated in some Bibles by the word God, means in Hebrew, those who came from the sky, and furthermore, the word is plural. It means that the scientists from our world [the extraterrestrials speaking] searched for a suitable planet to fully realize their projects. They created, or rather discovered the Earth, and realized it contained all of the necessary elements for the creation of artificial life." "The messages dictated to Rael explain how life on Earth is not the result of random evolution, nor the work of a supernatural ‘God.' It is a deliberate creation, using DNA, by a scientifically advanced people who made human beings literally in their image . . . in Genesis, the Biblical account of cre- ation, the ‘Elohim’ has been mistranslated as ‘God' in the singular, but it is a plural, which means ‘those who came from the sky.'" 81 THE MESSAGE FROM ET Officials of the international Raelian movement, which boasts over 30,000 members, elaborate on this message: