Siderella

Siderella, originally Iso-Zen, also known as Galacteus among many other names, was a French UFO religion. It was founded and led by Jean-Paul Appel, who founded the group in 1966 in Paris, France. The views of the group involved ufological and New Age themes, and took elements of Buddhism and Tantrism. They believed an apocalypse was imminent and that members of the group would be saved by aliens and taken to Alpha Centauri.

Members of Siderella lived communally, and preached consciousness expansion and preparing for contact with aliens, which involved group sex. They worshipped aliens. It counted two notable comic book artists among its membership, Jean Giraud and Sergio Macedo. Their advertisements involved science fiction, and in 1982 they published a comic book, Timeless Voyage, which was based on their beliefs. Guery claimed he had been conceived through alien intervention and that at the age of 12 he had been contacted by extraterrestrials.

Most active in France, though also present in other European countries, they moved to Tahiti in the 1980s. They eventually returned to Europe. The group went by several different names, often simultaneously or in combination and which changed several times. They received criticism from ex-members, other ufology groups, and journalists for their sexual practices, which were said to be abusive. It was often described as a cult by media outlets, and it was listed as a cult in the 1995 report of the Parliamentary Commission on Cults in France. It was one of the only groups ever officially classified as a "UFO cult" in France.