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Freeheartandmind
During my cult time here in Chicago, we were always preparing to be in some parade or another, even traveling to the Kentucky Derby to march for cousin rufus. I wrote earlier in the MB about practicing in the scary old national guard armory, hours and hours of making costumes and props, staying up at the community center until all hours of the night, with school and work the next day! All this mindless activity is part of the cult indoctrination process, you just are too tired to resist the manipulation! One of the best things about getting out was having unencumbered free time, without feeling like I "should" be chanting, doing home visits or recruitment. Just time to enjoy life as a normal young person.
I've walked the same path, freeheartandmind, the same cult path and the same parade paths, just in another city and another place. The cult will literally steal your youthful years from you, if you let them. They took a number of mine, before I started to say, enough was enough. Believe me, it was a very hard exit ramp and I had to go thru hell in the process.
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Freeheartandmind
I was only 16 when I joined, so I forgive myself for being part of a cult. No one says "I guess I'll join a cult today", people get ensnared because they want to work for "world peace", or some other admirable goal, or maybe just to have a sense of community. Skepticism of religious organizations is always a good thing, in my humble opinion. I have no use for any of them now, all are manipulative.
Same goes for me, too.
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Continuing on the theme of the cult using parades to manipulate and gain new recruits:
1. Here are the ultra-fake cult plastic smiles/masks (say "cheese" for the Seikyo Shimbun/SGI Graphic cult propaganda publication photographers) on display [
www.youtube.com].
2. Here the cult is performing for the new Sky Tree celebrations in Tokyo [
en.wikipedia.org], the dear leader's song "Forever Sensei", followed by "The Human Revolution" song (all hardcore gakkai cult members are familiar with these cult tunes). [
www.youtube.com]
3. This one is especially for SGBye, another Sky Tree performance, this time with the special cult colored clown uniforms, sporting a huge red emblazoned "V" on the their left breast area (V = Victory, of course!) [
www.youtube.com]
4. And one more for freeheartandmind, featuring the Yokohama ywd marching group, kotekitai and cheerleaders [
www.youtube.com].
Keep in mind, there are months & months of intense preparation and practices leading up to these kinds of events. It is drilled into you that "sensei" is watching and counting on you to give a
perfect performance and not let him, the cult org. or Cousin Rufus down. To do so will invite the wrath of your psycho leaders, who will push and push you until you are able to mindlessly perform on automatic pilot flawlessly in service of the dear leader. Then, when you are done and successful, you might get a can of coca-cola and a congratulatory speech by some some "senior leader." Rest maybe a day or two, then the replay button get pressed again for the next campaign, and the next, and the next ....
Give us your naive and impressionable "YOUTH!" MARCH for Cousin Rufus!!
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Freeheartandmind
UU (universalist unitarian) may not be a manipulative org, but some would argue that it is not really a religion.
I don't know anything about the UU, but the name itself is enough to make me skeptical.
In fact, one thing that always bothered me about the gakkai cult was their very name. The "Soka Gakkai" = "Value Creation Society." What a meaninglessly nebulous label (can mean anything you are they want it to mean). The very first sign of manipulation is in glaring lights right on the marquee, before you enter. It
always set my skeptical alarm bells going off, until I finally decided to heed the warning, listen to them, investigate, think for myself and get the hell out. I hope others wise up and do the same.