On the morning of 13 December 1973 (Julian Date 2442029), Claude Vorilhon — who was at the time a professional test driver and automobile journalist for the Autopop Magazine had a first meeting with an extraterrestrial humanoid, an Eloha (plural: Elohim), who landed a UFO within an inactive volcano called Puy de Lassolas near the capital of Auvergne, France (Clermont-Ferrand).

Two days later, in a third meeting, an Eloha referred to similar insignias: one engraved on his spaceship and one on his spacesuit.
 Both formed by interlocked triangles which, according to the Eloha, means "as above, so below", enclosing a swastika which means "all is cyclic in infinite time".
In Raëlism, the swastika symbolizes "The choice between paradise, which the peaceful use of science makes possible, and the hell of returning to the primitive stage where humanity submits to nature instead of dominating and benefiting from it."
This is the original emblem of the Raëlian Movement which is used primarily in the African and Asian continents.

Three days later, Claude Vorilhon met Yahweh Elohim for the last time that year on a Tuesday.
On that day, Vorilhon was given the name for the religious movement which he was to establish.
The six-letter name is "MADECH", which stands for "mouvement pour l‘accueil des Elohim créateurs de l’humanité" or "movement for welcoming the Elohim, creators of humanity".
It also stands for "Moise a devancé Elie et le Christ" meaning "Moses preceded Elijah and the Christ".
 The "New Commandments" presented to him on that Tuesday concerned the establishment of Geniocracy, Economic Humanitarianism, World Government, and his mission to catalyze these endeavors and to hasten the return of the Elohim to Earth.

On 19 September 1974, Claude Vorilhon held his first public conference in Paris, France which attracted more than 2000 people.
 Soon after, Raël founded and began to establish MADECH.
 On 13 December, this was brought into fruition as 170 MADECH members gathered at Puy de Lassolas and formed an organization of "a president, a treasurer, and a secretary" who each signed a 10,000 franc check payable toward the publication of the first Raëlian book.

Susan J. Palmer commented that in UFO platform societies like the MADECH organization, there was no obligation of membership and commitment like those found in cults, but rather an open place where people could freely exchange their views and relate their experiences on the subject of UFOs.
 Only the first Raëlian book had surfaced at the time, and Palmer says it had consisted largely of a "creation myth and eschatology" but it had "no rituals, no priesthood, no experiential dimension, and no coherent system of ethics" which would lead to an organized movement that had any chance of committing to large projects guided by a leader.

At the Place de la République in March 1975, Claude Vorhilon staged a purging of leaders which hampered his own creativity.
In the following month, Claude Vorhilon called for a meeting of the MADECH organization, which held its headquarters in Paris, and as its president, he conducted it with the intention to rid the organization from the kind of occultism and pseudoscience which contradicted his physicalist point of view.
In addition to this, the MADECH officials had an increasing desire to blend in with the rest of the ufologists and trekkies and were becoming less interested in the Raëlian view of Elohim extraterrestrials.
 A schism was becoming more apparent among the officials, and subsequently Vorilhon dismissed all of them.
 Their positions were replaced by an inner circle of seven people whose mission was to inform the public of the Raëlian messages and to raise funds for building an embassy for extraterrestrials.
 Vorilhon says he resigned as president of MADECH by that June, because it seemed to him that MADECH could survive on its own and that he had made a mistake by structuring it into a form that he likened to a "petanque club or a war veterans' association."
 Then he speaks of a personal desire to settle in the countryside and write
On the morning of 13 December 1973 (Julian Date 2442029), Claude Vorilhon — who was at the time a professional test driver and automobile journalist for the Autopop Magazine had a first meeting with an extraterrestrial humanoid, an Eloha (plural: Elohim), who landed a UFO within an inactive volcano called Puy de Lassolas near the capital of Auvergne, France (Clermont-Ferrand).
Two days later, in a third meeting, an Eloha referred to similar insignias: one engraved on his spaceship and one on his spacesuit.  Both formed by interlocked triangles which, according to the Eloha, means "as above, so below", enclosing a swastika which means "all is cyclic in infinite time". In Raëlism, the swastika symbolizes "The choice between paradise, which the peaceful use of science makes possible, and the hell of returning to the primitive stage where humanity submits to nature instead of dominating and benefiting from it." This is the original emblem of the Raëlian Movement which is used primarily in the African and Asian continents. 
Three days later, Claude Vorilhon met Yahweh Elohim for the last time that year on a Tuesday. On that day, Vorilhon was given the name for the religious movement which he was to establish. The six-letter name is "MADECH", which stands for "mouvement pour l‘accueil des Elohim créateurs de l’humanité" or "movement for welcoming the Elohim, creators of humanity". It also stands for "Moise a devancé Elie et le Christ" meaning "Moses preceded Elijah and the Christ".  The "New Commandments" presented to him on that Tuesday concerned the establishment of Geniocracy, Economic Humanitarianism, World Government, and his mission to catalyze these endeavors and to hasten the return of the Elohim to Earth.
On 19 September 1974, Claude Vorilhon held his first public conference in Paris, France which attracted more than 2000 people.  Soon after, Raël founded and began to establish MADECH.  On 13 December, this was brought into fruition as 170 MADECH members gathered at Puy de Lassolas and formed an organization of "a president, a treasurer, and a secretary" who each signed a 10,000 franc check payable toward the publication of the first Raëlian book.
Susan J. Palmer commented that in UFO platform societies like the MADECH organization, there was no obligation of membership and commitment like those found in cults, but rather an open place where people could freely exchange their views and relate their experiences on the subject of UFOs.  Only the first Raëlian book had surfaced at the time, and Palmer says it had consisted largely of a "creation myth and eschatology" but it had "no rituals, no priesthood, no experiential dimension, and no coherent system of ethics" which would lead to an organized movement that had any chance of committing to large projects guided by a leader.
At the Place de la République in March 1975, Claude Vorhilon staged a purging of leaders which hampered his own creativity. In the following month, Claude Vorhilon called for a meeting of the MADECH organization, which held its headquarters in Paris, and as its president, he conducted it with the intention to rid the organization from the kind of occultism and pseudoscience which contradicted his physicalist point of view. In addition to this, the MADECH officials had an increasing desire to blend in with the rest of the ufologists and trekkies and were becoming less interested in the Raëlian view of Elohim extraterrestrials.  A schism was becoming more apparent among the officials, and subsequently Vorilhon dismissed all of them.  Their positions were replaced by an inner circle of seven people whose mission was to inform the public of the Raëlian messages and to raise funds for building an embassy for extraterrestrials.  Vorilhon says he resigned as president of MADECH by that June, because it seemed to him that MADECH could survive on its own and that he had made a mistake by structuring it into a form that he likened to a "petanque club or a war veterans' association."  Then he speaks of a personal desire to settle in the countryside and write 
History of Raëlism