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Hitch
More of The Cult Master's Fan Dance -

This fellow likes his kool-aid in big tall, extra flavoring added, cool glasses. [www.youtube.com].

With free refills [www.youtube.com] / [www.youtube.com].

(Sorry, but LMAO!!)

CULT!!

Seriously, however, these kinds of people are invariably of the high pressure, overbearing, ultra-manipulative type who can potentially make the life of their "members" hell as they try to meet their own high expectations, activity and practice requirements, while demanding the very same of others around them. When they fall short, they just become more intense, or eventually (slowly) burn out.

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The Anticult
Have known some people who are in SGI who have some "issues" in the mental health area, and some of them really went overboard with the SGI-chanting.
One person was chanting, and not getting what they want out of life, and things were getting worse.
So this person was getting more and more anxious, and started to chant longer, and faster and faster.
Eventually the person had a mental-breakdown.

Now obviously chanting by itself won't trigger a mental-breakdown, but if someone is vulnerable, and obsessive perhaps with some OCD, they can get into a SGI chanting-loop like that person, and there is no way out.
Think about it.
You are having mental health issues, and you are a SGI true believer. Instead of seeking help from a mental health provider, SGI tells you that chanting more and harder will cure your problems.

So instead of getting diagnosed with OCD, or anxiety disorder, instead you start chanting morning to night, and at night, and everytime you get anxious.
Of course it doesn't work, so you chant longer, harder and faster.

There is no way out of that, probably other than a mental breakdown.
You are caught like a gerbil in a wheel.

Meanwhile a mental health provider, would probably tell you that "chanting" is obviously not going to solve your problems, that you need to figure out how to manage your life.
And Anxiety, chanting would probably be the WORST thing for it! Because as soon as you stop chanting, you get more anxious, and have to start again.
.

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tsukimoto

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The Anticult
Have known some people who are in SGI who have some "issues" in the mental health area, and some of them really went overboard with the SGI-chanting.
One person was chanting, and not getting what they want out of life, and things were getting worse.
So this person was getting more and more anxious, and started to chant longer, and faster and faster.
Eventually the person had a mental-breakdown.

Now obviously chanting by itself won't trigger a mental-breakdown, but if someone is vulnerable, and obsessive perhaps with some OCD, they can get into a SGI chanting-loop like that person, and there is no way out.
Think about it.
You are having mental health issues, and you are a SGI true believer. Instead of seeking help from a mental health provider, SGI tells you that chanting more and harder will cure your problems.

So instead of getting diagnosed with OCD, or anxiety disorder, instead you start chanting morning to night, and at night, and everytime you get anxious.
Of course it doesn't work, so you chant longer, harder and faster.

There is no way out of that, probably other than a mental breakdown.
You are caught like a gerbil in a wheel.

Meanwhile a mental health provider, would probably tell you that "chanting" is obviously not going to solve your problems, that you need to figure out how to manage your life.
And Anxiety, chanting would probably be the WORST thing for it! Because as soon as you stop chanting, you get more anxious, and have to start again.
.

On top of that, there was also a strong bias against taking medication for anxiety or depression, or seeking counseling from a mental-health professional. Leaders constantly gave members guidance not to do these things -- that medication or counseling would not change the root of the problem, your karma. Only chanting or working for SGI would do that -- according to SGI.

I think that part of it is the Japanese culture, where mental illness is seen as a shameful weakness, to be denied, and seeing a counselor is almost unheard of. The mentality seems to be, "Life's hard, just work harder and tough it out." How is that working for the Japanese? They seem to have very high rates of suicide and alcoholism.

And of course, for SGI, if you are spending money and time going to a psychiatrist, that's less money and time you have for SGI. Not to mention that a professional counselor will probably get you questioning your involvement in SGI. It is simply not in SGI's interest for members to become happier, calmer, and clearer-thinking. Unhappy, fearful people are so much easier to control.

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Hitch
Re: The Cult Master's Fan Dance

"Dance of the Disciples
Elementary School Division
This is an instructional video of the "Dance of the Disciples." It is our reply to SGI President Ikeda's Ifu Dodo fan dance that he does to encourage members. We would like all ESD members to learn this dance. More information is forthcoming.

Elementary School Division Encouragement
Instructional Video"

(The above taken from the official $oka Gakkai U.S.A. Cult Org. website [www.sgi-usa.org].)

Bolded emphasis, added by me.

Btw, that weird dear leader fan dance is something that even Japanese people (non-members) would see and say "what the hell is that!?" It's a unique and bizarre gakkai cult thing. Women use the fans in traditional dance, but not like that. The $GI USA branch also had a bizarro YWD version of girls/women swinging their open palms back-n-forth, while leading cult songs, while yelling out "HAI!" in annoying high pitched voices. Again, this kind of stuff causes ordinary Japanese people (non-members) to just scratch their heads, maybe laugh, and think "WTF!?"

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Shavoy
Oh, man. How creepy it's all become. All the more reason why SGI will not get the numbers for KR they say they aspire to in the USA. If anything, it causes people to run for the hills in creep-out. What? More Rev. Moon stuff? No thank you!

As it's been stated on this thread, they must not really care at all if KR ever actualizes. They truly must not.

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The Anticult
By the way, one could spend many hours carefully analyzing the SGI-USA website. It is very very cleverly put together, to lure people in.
For example..they target brand new people here, who's minds are full of doubt's about SGI and religion in general.

Is it OK to try the practice even if I’m not sure I believe in it?
[www.sgi-usa.org]

I hope people can see how brilliant that is. This is modern advanced persuasion.
They have targeted the doubting mind.
They turn everything upside down and inside out. They reframe so-called "blind faith", and tell you to listen to their Testimonials to start, which is the same thing!
SGI is deliberately setting out to create a Confirmation Bias [www.skepdic.com] in peoples minds, its deliberate.

SGI then sets out their program for CHANGING YOUR BELIEFS. Its right there in the text.
"documentary proof, theoretical proof and actual proof.".
The "documentary" are the Testimonials and stories, like an infomerical.
Theoretical, that is meant to bamboozle people with the twisted SGI ideas. (beliefs are theories in the mind)
And the so-called actual proof, is at best the confirmation bias [www.skepdic.com] and often self-delusion.

But guess what, that is exactly how you change human beliefs.
Change expectations, change the stories in their minds, change their philosophies and theories, and change their perception of their experiences.
Modern SGI has carefully studied these methods, and just on one page for the SGI newbie, its jam packed with their techniques of completely changing your belief systems.

They target a skeptical mind, and lure in those people who don't have extensive experience in critical thinking.
The SGI alleged documentary Stories are bogus, many of them are fabricated, they are contrived advertising testimonials.
The SGI Theories are false, and go against actual logic and reason, and against real Buddhism!!
The SGI experiences (so-called actual proof) are the confirmation bias, and often severe distortions of reality, and more fabrications.

Real "proof" would be real university backed studies, that studied "chanting" with a double-blind control group, with placebo controls, done in many different ways. That could measure life results, or the lack thereof.
SGI offers nothing, just their own Stories, false SGI theories, and distorted perceptions of reality.
Guess what, its all intentional by SGI. They know that.

SGI doesn't chant with its billions in investments and wealth, SGI pays professional (non-SGI) money managers millions a year to manage the money for Ikeda. And they watch them like hawks.

The material below shows how there are those in SGI who have carefully studied the most current advanced methods of belief re-engineering, and have inserted them into the SGI system. That is what SGI is doing.
That is far less than 1% of the tip of the SGI iceberg.
SGI makes all these other sects and cults look like mom and pop operations.



_____________QUOTE_______________________
[www.sgi-usa.org]
Is it OK to try the practice even if I’m not sure I believe in it?

Many people are wary of how some religions tend to emphasize belief without any evidence of how they work. They basically ask for your blind faith. Nichiren Buddhism is different. It is a philosophy and practice of actual proof—belief, or faith, arises from the positive impact the practice has on people’s lives, from how it leads to happiness here and now.

Of course, if you are very new to chanting Nam-myoho-rengekyo, you might not have experienced any conspicuous actual proof yet. But at SGI-USA activities, you have no doubt heard members’ experiences of having received benefit as well as explanations of how the practice works. This can be your starting point—instead of blind faith, you can begin with an expectation that the practice works and therefore be willing to try it.

Nichiren Daishonin established the criteria of “three proofs” that people should apply to determine the validity of a religious practice: documentary proof, theoretical proof and actual proof. Documentary proof means that the teaching should accord with the Buddhist sutras, considered the collective and comprehensive body of wisdom at the time. Nichiren explains in his writings how chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo and sharing it with others actualizes the Lotus Sutra, the highest teaching of Shakyamuni Buddha.

Theoretical proof means that the teaching must accord with reason and logic. Nichiren Buddhism is profoundly based on the principle of cause and effect, of which all phenomena in the universe are an expression. We are not expected to believe in anything that cannot ultimately be explained in light of this principle.

Actual proof means that the teaching actually changes people’s lives for the better, that there is undeniable improvement that anyone can see. Nichiren argued that actual proof is the most important of the three: “In judging the relative merit of Buddhist doctrines, I, Nichiren, believe that the best standards are those of reason and documentary proof. And even more valuable than reason and documentary proof is the proof of actual fact” (“Three Tripitaka Masters Pray for Rain,” The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, p. 599).

As Nichiren Buddhists, we develop ever-deepening faith through our own experience rather than simply accepting our beliefs from others. Ours is a philosophy of proof, and new members can expect to see actual proof from their practice soon after starting.
____________________________

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The Anticult
There is some incredible information coming out in this thread.
The Ex-SGI folks are helping hundreds of people right now who are reading this thread, and reflecting carefully and thoughtfully on the techniques used by SGI-USA and SGI.

Not enough time right now to summarize everything, but a HUGE CHUNK of the SGI system has been exposed in the last few pages. That is the kind of key information we need, the SPECIFIC tasks and behaviors SGI people are assigned and told to do.
All of those things, like staying up all night "guarding" signs, and the rest of it are part of the SGI system.

As well, there is important information at how incredibly intense SGI us at getting new bodies into the SGI meetings. (other groups call that fresh-meat).

About the SGI songs, those are part of the larger SGI system of indoctrination of course. They create emotional group cohesion, and groupthink. The fact the lyrics are infantile is good for SGI. It regresses people to a school-age mentality, they are easy to remember, and they become like a mind-virus in the brain, they keep playing over and over. And the "message" of a song like Forever Sensei is very powerful, when repeated thousands of times over a few years.
Every organization of group control and persuasion (modern brainwashing) uses SONGS as part of their program.

Ikeda is diabolically brilliant in this area of mass persuasion. The part where he is telling SGI people they might only get a little rice out of a bowl if they are lucky, and have to learn to live in the wilderness like a guerrilla fighter is a very clever psychological tactic by Ikeda. Ikeda of course knows this is utter nonsense, as he has billions and billions of dollars invested all over the world.
Ikeda is sending a message, an old school propaganda message to his ground troops, that they have to SACRIFICE EVERYTHING for Ikeda and SGI.
You have to sacrifice everything for him, even your life, and starve yourself and live on wild rice and beetles. The message is to sacrfice your life for Ikeda and SGI.

The utter laughability of this is beyond absurdity.
Again, President Ikeda has billions and billions and billions of real dollars, invested all over the world, and billions in real estate globally. The guys who run SGI literally live like feudal kings and popes.
And they are telling the SGI serfs that they are lucky to be allowed to eat bugs and grass.
That exposes the SGI mentality of Ikeda and his cronies at the top.

Ikeda gives himself away with his comment of how SGI members may have to eat and live off GRASS as they will be persecuted.
That reminds one of the phrase...let them eat cake.

But for SGI and Ikeda its..."let them eat grass".

Ikeda knows that humans CANNOT digest grass. Cows can, as they have various stomachs, but humans cannot digest or live off grass, of course. So Ikeda knows some of his more indoctrinated are going to probably try to live off the land like a guerrilla fighter, and eat grass and bugs, for the sake of SGI.
But again, Ikeda knows 100% that humans cannot do that.
Its another deliberately impossible task, that is designed to make people fail, like so much of SGI.
Its also meant to create the extreme psychology of a guerrilla and group paranoia. To organize people under a leader you need to make them AFRAID. These SGI leaders use FEAR to organize people under them.

The most important thing said a few pages back is about the SGI "training".
That is it.
When SGI says "training" that is code for the specific SGI tactics designed to influence and control your emotions, thinking, and behaviors. That is the SGI Thought Reform, and behavior reform system.
The SGI Training, is literally the various aspects of the SGI group persuasion, mass influence, cultic mind control, and "modern brainwashing". That is what brainwashing is, its an advanced form of directed "training" with covert methods and objectives. Its not some bizarre process, like on a bad TV show. So brainwashing is a bad word as it has false images attached to it, yet its a powerful word that carries a clear message.

SGI Training = SGI brainwashing.
Again, some of it is very advanced and appears to be Voluntary, much of it is crude and old-school and very effective.
But whenever someone in SGI talks about TRAINING, that means SGI-brainwashing, mass influence, or whatever you want to call it.
Perhaps, SGI-Programming.
SGI is programming people very carefully with their deliberate systems of "training".
Its not training, its programming, its SGI brainwashing. That's what is going on.