UFO true believers | South China Morning Post

Last week, the British government released more files on its official encounters with UFOs. As we know, some of the incidents have already been explained, but some have not. We will never know for certain what the truth is, until a UFO lands on the White House lawn - or not.

But there are people who 'believe' in UFOs and have taken that belief one step further and made it a religion.

Since the dawn of time, man has been seeking answers to the big questions - where did we come from, why are we here, why all of this. It is inevitable that some would turn to the idea of life on other planets as an answer.

Here are some of the more well known UFO cults and what they believe:

Raelians

The Raelians believe, like many UFO believers, that God is an alien. The sect was founded by Frenchman Claude Vorilhon in 1974, and has its headquarters in Paris. It is thought to be the largest UFO religion in the world. The Raelians believe in cloning and claim to have cloned the first human being, a girl named Eve.

Raelians believe humans were created by a race of creatures called Elohim, sort of small humans. These creatures have appeared to mankind throughout history in the form of gods or angels. They believe that Jesus, Buddha and Moses were prophets sent by the creators. Vorilhon, a former journalist, claims extraterrestrials took him to their planet for some personal tuition.

Heaven's Gate

Perhaps the most notorious UFO cult, Heaven's Gate will always be remembered for the mass suicide of members in 1997. The cult was founded in the 1970s, by Marshall Applewhite and Bonnie Nettles.

Applewhite had a heart attack and a 'near death experience'. He believed that he and the nurse who looked after him were 'the Two' spoken of in the Bible's 'Book of Revelations'. They combined their beliefs with science fiction - a healthy sprinkling of Star Trek jargon, and visions of an apocalypse.

When the Hale-Bopp comet whizzed by earth in 1997, the two believed there was a space ship in its tail. They believed the spacecraft would take them and their followers to a better place and 39 of them drank poison and die.

The dead were all found identically dressed, with armbands that proclaimed 'Heaven's Gate Away Team', just as the popular TV series Star Trek had had 'away teams' on almost every episode.

David Icke

We can't really say Icke's a religion, but he does sort of have cult status and many followers. He was a television presenter and soccer player who gained infamy with a terrible interview on a BBC show where he claimed all sorts of really strange things, among them that he was the son of God. The audience laughed at him and a lot of humiliation followed - as one would expect.

Icke wrote several books in which he claims the earth is run by alien lizards and humans are their creation. But he also believes the world is run by a secret society and this is why some people support his ideas.

Icke says he is the most controversial public speaker in the world and was once stopped from entering Canada because he was thought to be anti-Semitic.

Scientology

Hollywood stars like Tom Cruise and John Travolta are scientologists. They give this cult a lot of credibility, but it is also very controversial. Media reports have said that the cult earns millions from its followers, sometimes abuses them and harasses them if they want to leave.

Scientology was started by sci-fi writer L. Ron Hubbard. They believe people have been reincarnated many, many times - some even from lives on other planets - and they carry the memories of those lives into this life. They believe those memories affect this life.

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