ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the issues of death and the afterlife within the Raelian religion, a religious group claiming over 90,000 members worldwide. Ideas relating to the fact of death and to possibilities of an afterlife existence are intimately tied to notions of what constitutes a person. The history of religious ideas and systems of thought are teeming with notions of special substances, be they labeled souls or spirits, that somehow are able to make the transition into an existence in another realm after death. The Raelian religion offers a self-image of being not only an atheistic religion, but, further, a scientific religion. In March 1997 Rael announced the purchase of a Bahamian offshore company entitled Valiant Ventures, through which the services of human cloning would be offered. Notions of eternal life through cloning and memory transfer lend it well to discussions on the classical philosophical problem of personal identity.
