The Raëlian Church holds week-long summer seminars called "Stages of Awakening."[149][169] These involve daily lectures by Raël, sensual meditation sessions, periods of fasting and feasting, testimonials, and various alternative therapies.[8] Activities that have attracted press attention have include dressing in the clothes of the opposite gender as part of an exercise to play with the fluidity of gender expression,[161][170] and observing one's own genitals and masturbating.[171]
Raëlians use these seminars as an opportunity to form friendships or sexual relationships.[172] Attendees wear white togas with name tags;[8] they have also used colored bracelets to indicate whether they wanted to be alone, be in a couple, or simply meet people.[173] In 1991, a French journalist attended a seminar and taped couples having sexual intercourse in tents, something then much-publicised.[112] Following these seminars, a second seminar, this time restricted to members of the Structure, takes place.[172]