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Author of Raëlism and founder and current leader of the Raëlian Movement

Before becoming a cult leader, Raël, then known as Claude Vorilhon, worked as a sports car journalist and test driver for his car racing magazine, Autopop. Following a purported extraterrestrial encounter in December 1973, he formed the Raëlian Movement and changed his name to Raël. He traveled the world to promote his books for over 30 years.

Vorilhon was born in Vichy, Allier, France. He was raised in Ambert in the home of his maternal grandmother, who was atheist. His unknow father would be Jewish according to a documentary (but it could be false) and his mother a "devout atheist". He attended a Catholic boarding school in Le Puy en Velay and caused a scandal by taking part in communion without being baptized. At age 15, Vorilhon ran away from boarding school and hitchhiked to Paris, where he spent three years playing music on the streets and in cafés and cabarets. He met with , the director of a national radio program (on Europe 1), who was scouting for young talent. Vorilhon signed a record contract Vorilhon had a passion for the songs of Belgian singer Jacques Brel, and tried to imitate his singing style. Vorilhon decided to work as a sports journalist to gain access to the world of car racing. He met Marie Paul Cristini, a nurse. He created a sports car magazine, Autopop, whose first issue was released in May 1971. The book states that advanced human scientists from another planet with 25,000 years of scientific advances created all life on Earth through DNA manipulation. These scientists, Raël said, were originally called Elohim or "those who came from the sky". He wrote that around 40 prophets in Earth's history were sent by Elohim, but their messages were distorted by humans, largely because of the difference in the level of civilization between the advanced race and Earth's primitive one. Raël said he was given the mission to inform the world of humanity's origins in anticipation of these extraterrestrials' return by building a residential embassy in neutral territory. He stated that certain mysteries were explained to him based on new interpretations of sacred texts such as the Bible. He said that, on 7 October 1975, he was contacted by one of the Elohim, who took him to another planet to meet Buddha, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad. He stated that his second book, Les extra terrestres m'ont emmené sur leur planète (Extraterrestrials Took Me To Their Planet), relates the teaching he received from these people. In this book, Raël describes harmonious and peaceable beings free of money, sickness, and war. In 1974, Raël decided to give up his automobile magazine, Autopop. Shortly after a first public conference, Raël founded MADECH, a group of people interested in helping him in his task, which later became the International Raëlian Movement.

Raël has been married three times. His first wife was Marie Paul Cristini. Sociologist Susan J. Palmer said that Cristini, a nurse, diagnosed Raël as clinically depressed after he appeared at her doorstep in 1987, burnt out from the tasks he carried out within the movement. Raël focused on spreading his message in Japan in the 1980s, and by 1987, he met Lisa Sunagawa. Sunagawa soon began accompanying Raël during his travels to Lima, Miami, Brazil, and Martinique. In the 1990 Radio Canada television documentary They're Coming!, Raël is seen with four women, while Lisa, in slow motion, wears a pink tutu and holds hands with him.

Raël believes humanity is slowly transitioning into a society where humans will not need to work or have jobs. This is due to human technological advancement and because humans "are not made to work". He has stated that work is for machines, whereas humans are made to create, think, and enrich themselves. Much of Raël's advocacy concerning futuristic technology is described in his 2001 book, Yes to Human Cloning. He supported human genetic engineering in order to avoid genetically inherited diseases and to reduce the economic burden on society. He said that no distinctive emphasis needed to be allocated to a particular race or religion. Elsewhere in the book, he stated that nanotechnology will make it possible to have micro distributive power generation (essentially a power plant in each house), fur like furnishings that are self cleaning with hair like fibers that move on their own, and biological robots. Nanostructures control biology, so Raël expected that meat and salads will someday be grown in a machine via molecular construction. Raël believed that genetically modified food is the only way to stop hunger everywhere in the world, and he saw a future where qualities of different foods can be combined through direct genetic modification. In Raël's book, Extraterrestrials took me to their planet (book number 2 in the volume Intelligent Design), he said that animation of plant life was possible through nanotechnology and that he was presented genetically modified flowers, that swayed and changed colors with music, while on another planet.

In recent years, many ex Raëlians have accused Vorilhon of plagiarism. They have compared numerous passages from his books with those of author Jean Sendy. Raëlian concepts such as chemical education, infinity, geniocracy, and others are all found in Sendy's books. Most of Raël's book Sensual Meditation is said to have been derived from the Silva 'Mind Control' Method, which was allegedly taught to him by ex level 5 guide of the Canadian Raelian Movement, Jean Denis Saint Cyr. In her book Raël, Thief of Souls: Biography of a Liar , Maryse Péloquin provides the result of her ten years of research into Vorilhon and his movement, with compelling evidence to support the conclusion that Raël has copied concepts from, and often paraphrased full paragraphs from, other UFO and ancient astronaut authors of the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s, such as Sendy, Brinsley Le Poer Trench, and Robert Charroux. In her book, the dialogue of Raël's "encounter with an ET" is shown to closely resemble that of "contactee" George Adamski, who claimed that he had an encounter on 13 December 1952. Much of the Raëlian philosophy also closely matches that of Osho. The white costume Raël wears closely resembles one that Osho was known to have worn.

In 1992, Raël appeared on Ciel mon Mardi, a French talk show hosted by journalist Christophe Dechavanne. Toward the end of the show, Raël's sexual liberalism was critiqued by a priest, a social worker, and a psychologist. A former Raëlian, Jean Parraga, believed that his wife and children were being held as prisoners, and that Raël attempted to break up his family. Parraga thought that his wife and children were being treated like criminals in activities such as orgies and sacrifices that involve children, at the Sensual Meditation camp. Parraga also had a criminal record as a drug dealer and car thief, and in August 1992, he attempted to shoot Raël. Raëlians from around the world sent letters of protest to Dechevanne's TV station. Dechavanne portrayed that as "incitement to violence" and sued Raël. The judge appointed to the case decided to question Raël. Raël agreed to ask his members to stop sending letters if the station apologized publicly. The two parties agreed to drop the feud. A Swiss newspaper that called Raëlians "rat heads" was sued for defamation. Another suit was brought against journalist Stephane Baillargeon for writing in the Montreal daily Le Devoir that Raëlians defend pedophiles and that certain ex Raëlians claim the "gourou" likes very young girls. After some negotiation, Le Devoir published a letter from Raël condemning the charge as "ignominious defamation" and asserting that the Raëlian Movement had "always condemned pedophilia and promoted respect for laws that justly forbid the practices that are always the fault of unbalanced individuals". On 13 December 1994, Gérard Chol, director of Le Maine Libre, was declared guilty by the High Court of Le Mans for public defamation for claiming that the Raël's movement was laundering money coming from drug trafficking, prostitution, arms dealing, and the sale of pornographic videotapes. Chol was ordered to pay 1FF in damages and 3,000FF in proceedings costs and to publish the penal judgment in Le Maine Libre.