In 1973, a French automotive journalist and pop singer named Claude Vorilhon began espousing a new religious belief. He changed his name to Raël and alleged he had been visited by the Elohim, a race of aliens who took him to their home planet and revealed that not only had they created humans in their space laboratories, but had tasked Raël with guiding humanity. The religious group now claims a membership of about 65,000.
In 1997, the Raëlian movement launched Clonaid, a company with the stated purpose of cloning humans. In 2002, Clonaid claimed it had created the first human clone, a female baby named Eve, but refused to provide any proof of its claim, according to CNN. When pushed, the company claimed Eve and her family had moved to Israel and gone into hiding. Clonaid later claimed on its website the company had created several more human clones. As with Eve, Clonaid provided no proof. Most scientists believe it was just a hoax.
