Page 232 - Aesthetic Formations Media, religion, and the Sense

Prophecy on Stage 217

on the body, instincts, hormones—chemical aspects of the human leading
to its formation—and, above all, DNA, the centerpiece of her speeches
being the possibilities opened up for humans by science, of which cloning
was (or will be?) merely the beginning.
The afternoons of the first days involve talks too, but gradually experi-
ences led by the speakers are included where the audience begins to take
part more actively in the “rational” argument of the message of Raël,
Daniel, and Brigitte. The audience is rarely allowed to make interventions
or comments to the group as a whole: instead, the interactions are orga-
nized in small groups that go beyond conversation to include experiences
that transfer the prophet’s words to corporal activities. As preparations,
these experiences anticipate the nighttime performances. Taking the form
of shows and parties, the nocturnal performances directly affect the body,
their main mediations being through music and dance. As performances
organized for an audience, the shows prioritize sensory stimulation, start-
ing with vision and spreading to all the other senses: bodies as images dis-
play the model of Raelian sensuality and corporality, lights create
atmosphere, music stimulates the hearing and the overall nonverbal mes-
sage provokes the whole body. Hence, the main mediation in the shows is
the living body of the performers: music and dance embodied in people
who display themselves in order to develop themselves and provoke the
development of others who watch them.
In the parties, the mediation becomes the body of those who were previ-
ously just part of the audience. Music and dance now affect everyone and
become universally accessible. Sensuality finally reaches the bodies of all
the Seminar’s participants. The models spoken of in the morning, experi-
mented in the afternoon and seen in the shows can be lived to the full at
night. The typical intentionality and mediation of each activity suggested
at the Seminar create characteristic environments and relations responsible
for different levels of the Raelian experiences.

The directionality of performance and the media of performance are struc-
turing the ritual context; together they constitute the meaning of the ritual,
variously enable the communication of its meaning, and create the possibil-
ity for the mutual involvement of participants in the one experience, or else
distance them and lead to their reflection on experience perhaps from a
structured perspective outside the immediacy of the experience. (Kapferer
in Turner 1986, 192)

The shows are the highest point of the spectacle while the parties are a
popularization of the performance. In the shows, the design of the specta-
cle predominates completely—some people present themselves and the
others watch. The split between stage and audience is striking. Those who