Badpuppy Gay Today

Monday, 16 June 1997

Last week GayToday's top story told of its welcome TV publicity received from Pat Robertson's intellectually impoverished 700 Club, a daily gabfest for the spiritually deprived. The dorky televangelist's newscasters, in yet another of their inept attempts to cast aspersions on gay men and lesbians, clearly recited Badpuppy's GayToday Internet address. This was a major tactical error indeed, not to mention one that showcased typical CBN inaccuracies. Now that 700 Club members have been given access to Badpuppy's GayToday, it is time to provide them with a colorful and civilized alternative to the nonsense that has too long remained a staple of their TV diets. But more on this civilized religious alternative (one that has seemingly arrived from outer space) in a moment.

The Christian Broadcasting Network--on June 11-- falsely announced that GayToday's continuing series on cloning meant support for the cause of human cloning from "a number of homosexual groups" who, according the erroneous CBN report, "want to go ahead" with cloning. In fact, polls indicate that only 10% of gays (3% higher than the national average) think cloning is A-OK. The Clone Rights United Front (CRUF) founded by Randolfe Wicker, a gay media pioneer, does not consider itself a gay group and no other gay groups presently support the concept of reproductive freedom through cloning.

GayToday's editorial position on cloning is the same as it takes on other novel ideas: open-mindedness. That this newsmagazine pioneered pro-human-cloning news coverage does not mean that either its editor or its writers hope to arrange, in the near future, to be cloned. What GayToday does cheerfully appreciate about the dawning of cloning as an issue, however, are the many unsettling challenges it dumps on status-quo spirituality of the sort peddled by Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, D. James Kennedy, and other anti-gay zealots.

Dr. Ian Wilmut's cloned sheep, the sweet-natured Dolly, for example, sounds the arrival of the world's first truly authenticated virgin birth (no sex, no males involved) as well as the first known instance of same-sex reproduction. The CBN newscasters made no mention of this fact. The story of the Virgin Mary, by comparison, becomes mere 2,000 year old hearsay.

Nuns, theoretically, could give birth to their own carbon-copy likenesses and still, with cesareans, remain virgins. Humanity, thereby, would seem to assume what has previously remained a "divine" station once ascribed to God alone, that of The Creator of human life.

As the folk music genius, Bob Dylan, puts it, "The times they are a'changing."

An early cloning prediction made by both GayToday's editor and CRUF founder Randolfe Wicker, promised the arrival of a new religion based--in great part--on cloning.

What neither editor or founder knew at that time was that there already exists such a religion, the Raelian faith, founded twenty-five years ago. Rael, a Frenchman, and the esteemed transmitter of a message from outer space, reputedly from "the Elohim", has contacted Randolfe Wicker and, happily, CRUF's founder has now provided GayToday with details about a world-wide community of approximately 30,000 pro-cloning believers. A cursory study of their beliefs seem to indicate that Raelian philosophy is the perfect substitute religion for all of those 700 Club believers who thoughtlessly accept decrepit Christian Coalition dogmas and thus need a new sensual start on life.

In a reply two weeks ago to Christopher Rapp and Randolfe Wicker, GayToday's editor asked of Rapp: "Can you be absolutely certain this whole thing (the arrival of pro-cloners) isn't just a subplot (as Rapp had wondered) to Les Cages Aux Folles? Somehow, just somehow, I think, if you only really knew....."

If you, dear reader, are ready, you can learn more about recent Raelian history and beliefs communicated from "the Elohim" in the Raelian Information Pack you may order from sources listed at the end of the following essay.

Who are the Elohim? And where does cloning intersect with all this? What have the Elohim got to do with the Bible?

The Raelians say that in Genesis biblical account of creastion, the word "Elohim" has been mistranslated as "God" in the singular. The word, insist Raelians, is plural, however, and means "those who come from the sky." These visitors from outer space, the Elohim, were scientifically advanced and cloned themselves (made human beings in their own images).

Are you confused? Relax.

Edward Carpenter, a great grandfather of the gay and lesbian liberation movement (1844-1929) was just as open-minded about odd ideas as is Badpuppy's GayToday. In his magnificent autobiography, My Days and Dreams, Carpenter told of another strange religious group, The Hermetic Society, founded in the 1880's by Edward Maitland and Anna Kingsford. In spite of the peculiarities that surrounded Hermetic theories, Carpenter praised the zealous couple for "certain insights." One could, upon attending a Hermetic meeting, react , he said, by dissolving "along our different lines--in tears, or laughter, or through the doorways and passages as the case may be." While he did not himself subscribe to the Hermetic doctrines, he saw some significant merits in them nevertheless, and wrote: "We poor little mortals must be grateful for what illuminations we can get, however quaint or queer the mediating personalities may be."

It is in just this spirit that GayToday presents the interesting thoughts of a Raelian missionary, hoping his approach to life will especially appeal to Christian Coalition members everywhere. One aspect of Raelian practice that should cause particular joy to all, whether Christian Coalition members or gay men and lesbians, is the Raelian emphasis on sensual awareness. While the Raelian message has arrived on GayToday's doorstep in an extraordinarily strange bottle, it would seem, based on the following essay, to contain some very fine wine. The Raelian message bears likenesses--in its universal appeal-- to other newly-birthed religions such as the Baha'i World Faith, especially in the manner--"progressive revelation" in which Rael has accounted for the existence of world religions like Buddhism, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity.

Who knows but that centuries from now, Raelians, like the early Christians, may later--when Rael has ascended-- count their membership in the hundreds of millions.

Let it be said--in history's light-- that GayToday welcomed Raelian thoughts not in the spirit of a famed Roman Catholic theologian who said, "I believe because it is absurd," but because, shorn of its oddest elements, Raelianism makes far better sense than either Pat Robertson or the Pope can ever command.

THE RAELIAN LIFESTYLE: Threat or Solution?

The same applies to the individual; every new stimulus impinging on our senses threatens our status quo - but in living systems, status quo means stagnation and death new information threatens our previous concept of reality because it forces us to reevaluate. That is the basis of learning. To gain a new understanding, we must not be afraid to let go of our old understanding. It is just like Tarzan jumping from rope to rope. If we are afraid of letting go of our old rope, we can never grab the new one to move forward.

Humanity is hanging over a snake pit slowly losing its grip. Along comes a new philosophy which is like a series of new ropes which can lead us to a beautiful clearing in the jungle, but humanity is afraid to let go its old decaying rope before grabbing the new one. In a way I don't blame its caution, who knows, the new rope could lead to an even greater disaster, but that is why we have reason and foresight. Combined with objectivity, these two intellectual qualities enable us to look ahead at where the ropes will lead us and enable us to select the direction and destination we desire. I have seen the pits that human beings fall into in their lives, I have seen how the Raelian life style has enabled people to help themselves, and I can say that the ropes really do lead not just to safety, which is a fairly emotionally neutral position, but positively to an elysian clearing where life is genuinely fun. Furthermore, and I will develop this later, humanity can only survive as a cohesive group into the next century if all its members are fulfilling themselves. Global fun is essential for our common survival.

So what is this pit that humanity is hanging over ? One doesn't have to have a doctorate to see that the great threats to humanity's survival are war, violence, illness, depression, drug abuse, famine, destruction of the earth's resources and religious, racial and indeed, general intolerance. Though varied in their symptoms, the causes can be summarized in a few words; lack of awareness and lack of pleasure!

How can this be ? And yet it is true. This is exactly what Rael was teaching twenty years ago. At the time, it seemed an extremely simplistic viewpoint, surely this was a completely loopy vine rope to grab onto, but since then, advances in the fields of neurobiology and psychoimmunology have revolutionized our thinking and confirmed all these assertions, as well as the proposed solutions!

For the past twenty years, Rael has been explaining how, like a plant, a human being needs just the right conditions to grow, blossom and flower. We are designed to be happy, to be responsible, to "do good", to feel high, to be creative, loving and fulfilled, all the time, but if our needs are not nourished, we fade, sieze up, become twisted, irresponsible, aggressive and fall prey to disease. The prime indicator of whether our environment is feeding us nourishment or poison, is sensory pleasure or pain. A flame hurts us, this indicates that it is destroying us - time to do something quick such as flee. If we can't get out of this unpleasant situation, the next resort is to fight our way out, which is where aggression comes from. A violent person is a suffering person and must be helped, not punished. On the other hand, a caress feels pleasant and this means that it is actually feeding us, it is really nourishing something in us, it is developing our mind and body. This is sensory pleasure, but it is not the only type encouraged by the Raelian philosophy.

There is also the enjoyment of being appreciated for the pleasure we give to others, such as when they enjoy the food you have just cooked for them, or when you have just performed a musical piece, dance, told a joke or simply been nice to someone. There is the whole area of being in love, giving love and making love. There is also the essential need to feel that we are doing something useful with our lives and that we are in control of it, a feeling of hope, a direction and the satisfaction of achievement. All these types of pleasure feed essential nourishment to the individual's mind and body, and luckily for society, may all benefit humanity. The happier people are, the more productive and creative they will be, bringing richness and variety to mankind's global mind.

However, there is one essential difference between plants and human beings, and that is that we can choose our environment. Obviously, if we are ~n an unpleasant situation, we can change it and make it better. This is the prime aim of Raelian culture. For this we need to develop the insight to question that which generations of habit has rendered unquestionable and to implement a new solution. Again, this requires cutting and letting go of the sacrosanct rope vines we have been born tied up to. before we can grab new ones. even if no one has ever touched them before. Of course pioneering this positive rebellion requires courage, and you certainly can't force anyone else to do the same. The trick is simply to swing your own way and others will follow by example, at their own pace, when they see the way is safe.

So to return to the difference between us and plants; when in an unpleasant situation. we can either act and improve the situation or we can walk away. Both are better than nothing because inaction spells toxic build up! However when both changing or fleeing are impossible, there is a third option which is to change your own perception of the situation. Every situation contains some positive, it is a matter of seeing it and feeding yourself with that.

Now twenty years later. modern science is backing ail this up. Recent research clearly indicates how the immune system is weakened by stress and all the negative emotions of fear, unhappiness, guilt, uncertainty, indecision, lack of direction, hope or control over our lives. On top of that, the evidence is piling up how pleasure and sensuality boosts the immune system as does touch, massage, being loved, being in love, succeeding, creating and generally fulfilling one's senses. Laughter clinics are gaining more and more credence following discoveries of how it increases the immune response and speeds healing. Not only do these pleasurable activities enhance the immune system while unpleasant ones deplete it but they effect every other system in the human mind and body too.

Modern research in psychology also demonstrates how aggressive behavior is simply a desperate attempt to reduce or avoid one's own suffering. Whole wars and torture chains, where the abusee becomes the abuser, are fought on this principle. Every social worker knows how discontent leads to violence, as do most dictators, who don't hesitate to use it to whip their frustrated people into a jingoistic war fever.

Therefore, from my own personal experience, and in the more objective light of science, I would say that the three pronged approach of the Raelian lifestyle which encourages - a vigilant re-assessment of one's own value system, - an exertion of choice and implementation of one's life conditions, and the development of a positive attitude so as to gain nourishment from any situation, - is extremely beneficial not only for the individual, but also essential for the survival of humanity.

We are all born into a world of contradictory values which have been passed down unquestioned since the middle ages. Just because our great grandparents had problems with taboo subjects such as their sexuality, death, science etc... should we dumbly pass on these inhibitory values to our children ? Just because a parent was once abused as a child does that give them the right to abuse their own children? Of course not. In some parts of the world, it is the mother's role to hold down her daughter while the clitoris is excised. Blinded by the sheer weight given to this ceremony from her culture's value system, the mother thinks she is helping her daughter Ç` fit in ', to society through this operation. Not only is she robbing her daughter of the chance for a complete sexual relationship, she is also robbing her culture of fulfillment. In fact she is contributing to the complete excision of any balanced sexual relationships within her whole group. She is injecting frustration and pain into the community which will manifest itself as aggression and violence among the male contingent. She might as well carry out a lobotomy on her daughter, the results would be the same, but at least it would be less painful!

And yet this is really no different to what we do in our own society. Every time we tell our children to stop playing with their sexual organs, every bit of guilt we induce on the enjoyment of their senses, every time we tell them to shut up and not ask questions, every time we teach fear, impose our own value system, normalize behavior or frown on someone with different values to us, we are physically inhibiting a specific brain pathway in both themselves and in our own self. We are paralyzing a neural circuit and in effect performing a lobotomy. We are inhibiting someone from expressing themselves. We are locking up our own prisoners of conscience within our own minds because they speak out and threaten the norm. We are sending mankind to a rehabilitation camp and throwing away the key to our own creativity. Just think of how many Mozarts', Picassos' or Einsteins' we have prevented from benefiting us. By creating frustration, we contribute to illness and more violence. By abusing, we are creating new abusers, we are breeding potential dictators. who when given a position of power might even destroy humanity.

The more technology develops, the more damage can just one unhappy and frustrated individual do. That is why I believe that humanity cannot survive if even a few people are unhappy and dissatisfied. This is mankind's snake pit and the rope vine it is hanging on for dear life is fast disintegrating ! The solution, in the guise of another rope vine which we have always ignored because of its taboo connotations, is the above mentioned three pronged approach. It requires an objective reassessment of our value system so as to ensure that all our thoughts words and actions enhance sensory pleasure and emotional fulfillment of both ourselves and those around us.

This has always been the Raelian ethic and is an important contribution to society. However, perhaps the most unique aspect of this philosophy is the concept of infinity. As we open our senses to the infinitely small particles that make us up, the infinitely large that we are part of, and the infinite reaches of time, the various techniques as taught to Rael by the Elohim stimulate the brain and body to release naturally occurring positive substances. These bring about a natural high and an all pervading harmony. This is the demystification of the famous states of religious ecstasy, except that here, you don't have to believe in god, only in love. Hence the need to fight to impose religious belief is made redundant as this `. communion with infinity,, becomes accessible to all. It is a state that we are designed to be in all the time and the drug user's preoccupation with artificial stimulants and hallucinogenic experiences are merely a clumsy attempt to reach this natural state.

Incidentally, what the vast figures of tobacco. coffee. alcohol, drug abuse, illness and depression all tell us is that people are just not happy. They do not know how to sort out their lives so that their needs are fulfilled and they are just too inhibited to let themselves go naturally. Whether it is as a rebellion against authority, cheap thrills to relieve boredom, as a way of making friends in a contact deprived world, a communion with love and ecstasy, an attempt to discover the hidden potential of the mind through hallucinogenics, an escape from the drudgery and pain of reality through narcotics or the habitual blotting out of problems with alcohol, the root cause is a deprivation of human needs. The answer lies in all that has been mentioned in this article and is summarized by the Raelian practice of Sensual Meditation.

Central to this concept of infinity is the realization that everything, including ourselves, is interlinked. Integral to this is an awareness of the consequences of every ripple we make in the fabric of our world. a world which reflects back on us. Hence it becomes all the more important to choose what effect we have on it, rather than leave this to random or unconscious habits passed down unquestioned to us from our ``education". Consequent to this is a loving sensitivity towards ourselves and especially our environment and a willingness to take responsibility for what we do. In a world of dwindling resources, epidemics, war and starvation, this is indeed a welcome breeze.

I have spent most of this article assessing the problems of this world and using modern science to measure the effectiveness of the solutions proposed by the Raelian organization. However, not all is doom and gloom. Indeed planet earth is a beautiful and varied place and humanity is extremely resourceful with many positive things in its favor and I would like to finish optimistically on the future rather than the past.

The recent dissolution of the Berlin wall and the thawing of east west relations has shown how unexpected change can be. Though it appeared to happen very suddenly, the seeds had been planted many years ago. It was the surface manifestation of a complex process involving centuries of global events. It was just a bud on the unfolding tree of humanity. And yet, like a hurricane whose seed can be shaped by the movement of a butterfly wing, we can still have our say on the final shape of our future, and this is where foresight, logic and an open mind comes in handy. Without these, as mentioned at the start of the article, even the solution might be misconstrued as a threat. We need to be like an experienced sailor. Instead of being afraid of a full frontal wind blowing us backwards, we can use it to shoot forwards. We can either use the prevailing winds wisely or get thrown onto the rocks by them through ignorance. In a world growing smaller daily through mass communication, we cannot survive long without a world government, so we might as well prepare for it now. Then when it does happen, it will happen right.

Imagine a world government a world currency and a word auxiliary language. How else can we answer the third world debt, protection and fair distribution of resources, pollution control and global agricultural policies ? It is the only viable way of ensuring that all countries and people have sufficient food, shelter, education, sensory fulfillment and the above mentioned human needs. Fulfill their needs and you automatically remove the breeding ground for dictators and war.

Projecting into the even more distant future, what happens when machines replace most human jobs ? Will some earn whilst others remain penniless or will we learn how to do without money altogether? Will we die of boredom or will we gain our satisfaction and fulfillment from a true leisure society ? When life prolongation develops as a science, what criteria will we use to choose candidates or will everyone be eligible ? What constraints should we impose on our geneticists to protect our planet's fragile ecological balance from the new life forms they will synthesize? These are all issues which we will have to face sooner or later. Are we really equipped to judge all these changes with our middle aged belief system, or will we shed our obscuritanist thinking in time to rise to the challenge ? Whatever direction we choose, the Raelian vine rope movement is the ideal preparation for the future.

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