Page 226 - Aesthetic Formations Media, religion, and the Sense

Prophecy on Stage 211

book launches, press conferences, and prominent Web sites. Visits to new
countries to launch the movement were conducted whenever the local
6
group was able to host a set of activities. These visits used to include
speeches and meetings with those interested in Raelian ideas, but also—
and perhaps mainly—interviews on radio and TV programs, as well as a
book launching event. In 20 ans, Raël’s participation in these kinds of
events is repeatedly highlighted as a key part of the movement’s progressive
development.
The position of the Raelian Movement in the mass media is strategi-
cally planned with part of its “Structure” dedicated to developing its media
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activities. In general, people who have already heard of Raël have done so
through his public media appearances. This resonates with Van de Port’s
(2005c, 46, see also this volume) analysis of the “priests-who-go-public” in
the context of Candomblé in Salvador (Brazil), which shows that the cred-
ibility of a religious leader in the contemporary world is dependent on his
or her media performance, emphasizing the introduction of new parame-
ters into the religious scene—namely, the modes of perception and evalu-
ation cultivated by modern mass media consumers.
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Self-styled “prophet of the scientific age,” Raël legitimizes himself as
a media age prophet, a “pop star” who uses these mediations to assert his
sacred status within the movement and beyond. The media imaginary
confers sacredness on the prophet. His religious “aura” is produced
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through the language of the mass media. During the Raelian Seminars,
the RVP (Raël Video Production) team exclusively records all of Raël’s
steps from his arrival at the airport, including his speeches, walkabouts,
and leisure time, presenting clips of these images of the prophet over the
course of the event as a way of registering the presence of a “superstar” in
a particular city. All of his “tours” are recorded and transformed into
video clips, also shown during the meeting, especially the packed airport
scenes and the bustling evenings of autograph signing. The prophet status
attributed to Raël is reaffirmed through a continual construction of his
status as a “celebrity” both within the movement and—especially—
beyond.
De Certeau (cited in Van de Port 2005c) argues that the objects and

people worthy of our belief and of being invested with our “belief-energy”
are found in the cinema, sports, the arts, in general, concert halls, pop
festivals, and so on. Thus in Van de Port’s application of De Certeau’s
work, the fact that these entertainment celebrities have become the recep-
tacles of our “belief energy” explains the huge expansion in media perfor-
mances among specific religious leaders (in his own study, Candomblé
priests). Being a religious leader in the media age virtually implies being a
celebrity.