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sixtyseven
I would add THE SINGING NMRK CULT on its cultural downfall.

Edit: my advice: better change the refrain into " Tonight we will run away"...

Agreed, 100%. [www.youtube.com]


- Hitch

The avatar wanna be is weird. I guess, a lot of young people are attracted by this and become curious about the magic chant and end up in the shakabuku catch.

You have already heard about the Brooklyn attack? I have got this comment on fb about shakabuku strategy to share:

"I am so sorry to hear of your misfortunate experience but we know that as practictioners of Nichiren buddhism you now have an opportunity to shakubuku the world with this experience, I will chant for your recovery and success on all levels of your life, do not let this deter you.

Here is the news linkhttp://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local/Arrest-Brooklyn-Attack-Man-Lost-Eye-Hammer-Bedford-Stuyvesant-216245841.html?fb_comment_id=fbc_379864765468768_1876587_380298048758773#f30366f990ab014]www.nbcnewyork.com[/url]

The criminal attack is used as a shakabuku the world catch? Weird too.

Typical. I guess the shoten zenjin don't patrol Bed-Stuy at that hour. I hadn't heard about this sixtyseven, so thanks for the info.

In my former district, there were very few youth members. Out of a total of 50+/- members in the box, there were maybe seven or eight in the 18-35 age range, most of whom were signed up by optimistic parents. There was only one each from YWD and YMD who attended meetings on a regular basis. I know this fluctuates wildly from district to district, but during my last months with the org, there were desperate tosos to bring young people in. The YMD leader at the chapter level (or however they have things organized these days) was a pretty rabid member, the type who would have put me right off had he been my first contact with the org - typical, white-shirted ick-eda-bot. He was born too late . . . I can definitely picture him standing on a street corner fervently spreading the word and handing out pamphlets and nmrk card. Give him a different vocabulary, and he could be going door-to-door like a JW or Mormon. His father is one of the leaders I had my final run-in with.

The History channel had some interesting programming yesterday; a two-hour documentary on cults (the more dramatic ones that the public is aware of), and then another two programs, one each on the last couple of days in the Manson family and Jim Jones' People's Temple. From the new perspective of being an ex-cult member, I could see how easily all of those seductions took place. I heard comments like "I felt accepted and safe," "we thought we were working towards great things for the world," so much more that was equally chilling, because those are things I thought as a member of sgi. I have to wonder how far sgi zombies would go for Senseless . . . kind of frightening to think about.

These groups really don't seem to attract attention from the public unless they do something horrendous or are publicly weird (Tom Cruise) . . . people who haven't been directly affected by cult membership; in fact, I'd bet that most people don't really think of scientology as a cult so much as a crack-pot religion. Freedom of religion and separation of church and state are real two-edged swords.

Does anybody know through the pipeline about how many newbies the SGI has been attracting lately? Reason I'm curious is...reading the most recent great posts (Welcome!) about the gatherings at FNCC and the totally-out-and-not going-back-obviously "Reply to my/our mentor" stuff....I've said it more than once, but if I, in 2013, was invited to attend these soirees and saw/heard the emphasis on said mentor-stuff, welllllll, back out the door I go. Where is the mass appeal in that, especially in the Western World? Can't imagine the SGI population is having any kind of significant growth spurt here in the USA.

I've never been in an area where SGI had YOUTH! in droves during my practice.

As for the poor musician in Brooklyn who sustained that pretty horrific beating==yes, meh, don't think the shoten zenjin were on duty for the gentleman. He certainly did not deserve that, but misfortune hits us all in myriad ways. Chanting or not chanting. Believing in the Mentor or not believing at all.

I hope I didn't sound snarky about the young man in Brooklyn - I should have completed my thought by saying it just amazes me how the members go on and on about "oh, I was so protected . . . rather than losing my life, I only lost my house/car/job." And of course they wouldn't have had that misfortune if they'd only chanted/practiced hard enough. Cultish BS to not recognize that they don't have any more special protection than any one else.

In my district over the past three years, probably four or five new members, with only two continuing to attend meeting. Two of those were YWD, and one of those left the org earlier this year. It seems to me that, overall, there were maybe one or two gohonzons handed out at nearly every krg since I've been here, but I have no idea how many of those continue to practice. This is a fairly large and population-dense area (eastern PA, NJ and DE). Lots of colleges and universities, although no students within the district.

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sixtyseven
"I am so sorry to hear of your misfortunate experience but we know that as practictioners of Nichiren buddhism you now have an opportunity to shakubuku the world with this experience, I will chant for your recovery and success on all levels of your life, do not let this deter you.

Here is the news link [www.nbcnewyork.com]

Blood in the water (literally or metaphorically / physically or emotionally - in this case, it appears to be both), is a signal for the cults to begin to circle like sharks looking for a part of the action. Prime "attack" opportunity, the best time to move in for exploitation and manipulation. As "meh" pointed out earlier, this is the most sinister part of it all - a wolf in sheep's clothing to the rescue, offering temporary palliatives and band-aids, but later on . . . .

Confirmation bias galore in the members' illogical justifications for such events. I'm also of the opinion that the $GI CULT Org. numbers spiked in the NY area post 9-11. Same theme. Same modus operandi. Same manipulation. Same results (unfortunately).

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Shavoy
Does anybody know through the pipeline about how many newbies the SGI has been attracting lately? Reason I'm curious is...reading the most recent great posts (Welcome!) about the gatherings at FNCC and the totally-out-and-not going-back-obviously "Reply to my/our mentor" stuff....I've said it more than once, but if I, in 2013, was invited to attend these soirees and saw/heard the emphasis on said mentor-stuff, welllllll, back out the door I go. Where is the mass appeal in that, especially in the Western World? Can't imagine the SGI population is having any kind of significant growth spurt here in the USA.

IMO, those who stay (or cult hop), generally speaking, have a higher susceptibility to trance-like mind states (the magic chant), a low tolerance level for ambiguity in life, and / or have other needs that are being met (or in some way having the void filled) by belonging to the cultic group.



- Hitch

This is terribly sad about the attacked member. I pray to *whatever*, that an org leader has the decency NOT to say, "Something deep in your life caused this to happen".
That's the heart of darkness in this programming. You've nailed it with the word "exploitation" This poor guy will come out braver and stronger, simply because he has to, but the org. will take all the credit for it. I'm glad he feels surrounded by love and prayers which can provide a palliative/strengthening effect, but ultimately, at what cost? His pain is being used to advance an agenda.

On another note, I couldn't quite exude over Tina's nuptuals...she got me into this hot mess! ; }

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Cultish BS to not recognize that they don't have any more special protection than any one else.

That's right. A short list of just a few of the events I personally witnessed:
- Two of the members of the district I was in in North Carolina were married. One night, he chased her down and shot her to death in a 7-11 parking lot.
- A devout WD District leader was married to a MD District leader (same district). He stopped attending district meetings with her at one point. Why? Oh, he decided it would be more fun to stay home and rape her 11-year-old daughter. He spend a few years in prison for that. Then that WD District leader's morbidly obese father started raping that same daughter. Yep, that's some proof of the protection of the mystic law!
- A Jt. Terr. WD leader I was quite connected with dropped dead in her late 50s. My last WD District leader dropped dead at about 48, after her unwed daughter had 3 babies by at least two different young and irresponsible men who then wanted nothing to do with her. PROTECTION!!
- Another devout WD member, former district leader, finally found her soul mate in another woman. WHO dropped dead less than a year after they started dating/sleeping together. During the "honeymoon phase," in other words. Before she announced she'd found someone she felt was much more "soul matey" than that former district leader. So she'll never get over it. Ever. The woman was only, like, 38.
- Same WD member as just above, 8-yr-old son was in a freak accident where 6 ribs and two low vertebrae were crushed. He'll never walk again. PROTECTION!!!
- Devout member got stomach cancer. Not sure of the details, except that she eschewed modern medicine in favor of "homeopathy". She died within a year.
- National leader David Aoyama killed in 9-11 attack on WTC - he was a passenger on one of the planes. PROTECTION!!
- National Culture Dept. leader Pascual Olivera got cancer - decided to quit chemo as he was completely confident that he'd beaten it. Said his doctors had announced "There is not a single cancer cell left in your entire body." Well, if they said that, they were *idiots*. Cancer comes from WITHIN your own body; it's not something you catch like strep throat. So Pascual and his wife danced the flamenco for President Ikeda to celebrate his "victory" over cancer. He was dead - of cancer - within 8 or 9 months. PROTECTION!!
- Study Department Chief and writer of the SGI's favorite book about how rotten the NS priesthood is/was, Shin Yatomi, dead within *months* of being diagnosed with cancer. Yippee!! Hooray for the protection of the Gohonzon!!
- Guy McCloskey, National-level MD leader, had a son who was a drug addict/dropout/gang member/all around shit-for-brains. Dead at, like, age 29 from a motorcycle accident after "finally getting his life turned around." Thanks for that second chance, Gohonzon! NOT!!!
And on and on AND ON it goes. Where is this marvelous protection? Oh, yeah, I know - it's in stories about some Japanese member who is never named, who had this or that "miraculous" whatever, details of which can never possibly be verified. Or some unspecified "Mr. X" had this or that, or I heard about a Japanese member who...go ahead and make up any details you like. Here are a couple of my favorites:

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This Japanese man moved to Canada and needed to get a job, but he only spoke Japanese! He went all over town handing over resumes and filling out job applications. Finally, he spent his last $3 on candles and determined to chant until they'd burned away. When the last flame went out, the phone rang - it was a job offer from one of the companies he'd contacted, and they were hiring a personal translator for him, too! AMAZING - AMIRITE??

A YWD in Japan determined that she was going to marry a millionaire. No - a billionaire. So she practiced hard and devoted herself to activities and the organization for 20 years - and she married a billionaire! YAY!!

Oops - I rolled my eyes so hard they fell right out of my head!

Did I tell you about the time that I ran across an old YWD information sheet about the kotekitai? This was in about 1988, mind you. Anyhow, it said that, in honor of the creation of the kotekitai, President Ikeda INVENTED a brand new instrument, called a "FIFE"!!! AMAZING!!! Yeah, just forget all that crap you've heard about fifes having been around at the time of the Revolutionary War and all that other nonsense. The Great and Powerful Daisucky INVENTED FIFES!!! Yep - that's just how illustrious and buddhist he is. He invents brand new musical instruments despite not playing any and having no knowledge or training in any relevant related field.

And a more recent example: [chantforabetterlife.wordpress.com]

David, huh? Annie? RIGHT!!! SURE!!! Can we verify any of these details independently? No? Oh, right - "faith" *eye roll*

Look at this "example" that apparently comes from the SGI to try and scare people into willing their estates to the cult:

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Here is another fictionalized example. Mrs. Night was born in Japan and became an SGI member at an early age. After practicing for a few years, she married an American Air Force master sergeant. Sergeant and Mrs. Night moved to the United States, where Mrs. Night remained a devoted SGI-USA member. They had no children. Mr. Night retired from the Air Force and became a police officer. Later, he also retired from the police force. Mr. Night died at the age of 70. He had an old will from the Air Force which left everything to Mrs. Night. Mrs. Night lived a comfortable life and lovingly raised valuable exotic dogs. Unfortunately, Mrs. Night died suddenly, at the age of 80. Like many Japanese people of her era, she had no will.

The Public Administrator, the County official who takes care of the property of people dying without a will, inventoried Mrs. Night's property and found that she had a mortgage-free house, a Lincoln Town car, substantial cash savings, twenty samurai swords collected by Mr. Night and, of course, her dogs. The Public Administrator found that Mrs. Night's closest living heir was a cousin living in Japan.

The estate lawyer liquidated (sold-off) all Mrs. Night's property, including the dogs. The cousin-heir flew into town for one day and left with the estate proceeds of $529,607 the next day. The cousin said she had met Mrs. Night for fifteen minutes, forty years ago. According to the cousin, Mrs. Night had been shunned by her family in Japan for marrying an American and going against the family religion.

If Mrs. Night had proper advice from a lawyer of her own choosing, she might have made other choices about the distribution of her property. Would she have wanted her dogs to live out their lives in the home of a friend rather than the puppy mill? Would she have left something for the education of her best friend's children? After all, Mrs. Night often said that they were her real family. Would she have left her Town Car to the young man who drove her countless times to medical appointments and activities? Would she have made a gift to SGI, the organization she devoted thousands of hours to in life, where most of her friends practice, which conducted her marriage and funeral? [americangongyo.org]

Get those official letters of resignation sent, people!

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The criminal attack is used as a shakabuku the world catch? Weird too.

Weird? Try "shameless and shallow appeal to a person's presumed desire for that 15 minutes of fame and a national spotlight and a Lifetime movie made about his life! It's obscene! "Look, this will make you a superstar!! That makes it THE BEST THING THAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED TO YOU!! Right...?"

Like when my exboyfriend, when I found out that he'd been cheating on me, said that I should regard his cheating as "the best thing that could have happened to us," because "it gave us an opportunity to work on our relationship." Neat, huh? That means that I would be expected to regard every future time he cheated as "the best thing that could have happened to us"! Sorry, but that was just a little too much opportunity for work for me. I never liked work THAT much. So why put myself in that sort of bizarro situation? It's like how the SGI tells you that interacting with the people who annoy/irritate/upset you the most brings you the most benefit and the most opportunity for "human revolution." No, it doesn't. It simply means that you're going to be spending ever more of your limited time around people who annoy/irritate/upset you. Is that what you REALLY want?? Cause and effect, people.

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Confirmation bias galore in the members' illogical justifications for such events. I'm also of the opinion that the $GI CULT Org. numbers spiked in the NY area post 9-11. Same theme. Same modus operandi. Same manipulation. Same results (unfortunately).

So what? Christian churches likewise saw a surge of attendance increase - for just a few months. Then their attendance numbers dropped to below pre-9/11 levels.

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In the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks, millions of Americans flocked to churches and houses of worship. But, for most, the shift in spiritual behavior was short lived.Fluctuation in church attendance after the 9-11 terrorist attacks:

There was a surge in church attendance after the terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington on 2001-SEP-11. Some religious leaders predicted that the phenomenon would be short lived. Others saw it as the start of a major revival in the U.S. According to the New York Times, Franklin Graham, son of the well known Christian evangelist, Rev. Billy Graham, hailed it as an enduring turn toward God. On NOV-20, Fundamentalist Christian Pat Robertson said that the attack was "bringing about one of the greatest spiritual revivals in the history of America...People are turning to God. The churches are full." 8

It appears that, with the exception of the New York City area, the increase lasted only about two months. By 2001-NOV-26, attendance had returned to normal. The New York Times cites data from the Gallup Organization, which shows that religious attendance rose from 41% in 2001-MAY to 47% by 2001-SEP-21. By early November, attendance had sunk back to 42%.

The director of the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University, Robert Wuthnow, said that the terrorists' attacks have not changed the basic makeup of the U.S.:

About one in four of American adults is devoutly religious;
one in four is secular, and
the remaining half is mildly interested about religion.

Wuthnow said:

"We are in some ways a very religious country, especially compared to Western Europe. But we're of two minds, and the other mind is that we really are pretty secular. We are very much a country of consumers and shoppers, and we're quite materialistic. And as long as we can kind of paste together a sense of control through our ordinary work and our ordinary purchases, we're pretty happy to do that." 8

Rabbi Ronald S. Roth of West End Synagogue in Nashville, TN, said:

"We did see a larger influx for the holidays, and the mood was very intense. I can't say, however, that this increased interest in services has been sustained...When people face such a tragic and horrible event, they need comfort, they need community, they need to relate to their God and their traditions, and try to find a way to get through the pain. Once I think people got past some of the initial shock and difficulties, they started to get back to how it was before."

A poll conducted by Barna Research Group showed no increase in 11 of the 13 key measures of religiosity due to the terrorist attacks.
[www.religioustolerance.org]

Keep in mind the "halo effect," where people exaggerate what they perceive as positive attributes that they believe will increase their status in others' eyes, while they minimize characteristics they regard as negative.

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Presser and Stinson found that many Americans were not at church when they claimed to be. Their best estimates are that the percentage of adults who actually attended religious services during the previous weekend dropped from 42% in 1965 to 26% in 1994.

Presser said:

"We asked people, tell us everything you did in the last 24 hours so we can know what chemicals you might have been exposed to. If somebody went to church, they ought to tell us, but if they didn't go, they shouldn't manufacture it. We didn't do what most polls of religious belief do, and ask, 'Did you go to church in the last seven days?,' which some might interpret as being asked whether they were good people and good Christians."

The Washington Post reported that the analysis

"reveals a discrepancy between the diaries and the polls, and suggests that many Americans have been misreporting how they spend their Sunday mornings, inflating estimates of church attendance by perhaps as much as a third."

American Atheists commented:

"The researchers also found that the percentage of Americans who lie about their attendance is increasing. Presser and Stinson described the 16-point drop off in church attendance 'really very striking'..."

If this study by Presser and Stinson is accurate, it would indicate a substantial drop in actual church attendance from the mid 1960s to the mid 1990s. Since the reported attendance has remained stuck at the magical 40% figure for decades, one might conclude that the rate of exaggeration of church attendance is increasing. Also, it would appear that polls are to be mistrusted. Nobody really knows what the percentage attendance is. To obtain accurate data, pollsters will have to abandon the comfortable task of polling opinion by phone and camp out in church, synagogue, and mosque parking lots so that they can count noses.

For example, no one really expects that they can get an accurate count of pedophiles and junkies by just asking people if they routinely diddle children or shoot up, do they?

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I pray to *whatever*, that an org leader has the decency NOT to say, "Something deep in your life caused this to happen".

Ho ho ho! Welcome to the board, PollyAnna! Of COURSE he will be told that, per Vice President Tsuji's timeless "guidance," "My karma FORCED THEM TO BEHAVE THAT WAY" O_O

Want to read it for yourself?

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Selfrealisation
> > - realise anew that for any external cause (nyoze-en) there is
> > first an internal cause (nyoze-in)
> > - any pain, anger, frustration, irritation or painful situation
> > that arises, is my responsability
> > - my karma forced that to happen or forced them to behave in
> > that way
> > - hendoku iyaku: I can change poison into medicine
> > - become aware of your 'internal' hooks that pulled such an
> > experience to you
> > - I alone am responsible for elevating my lifecondition
> >
> > Apology
> > - for my present slander in thought, word and deed
> > - that I no longer wish to do it
> > - daimoku of altruism: chant for the health and wellbeing of the
> > persons involved and that they can deepen their faith.
> > Ask the Gohonzon: 'What can I do to correct the situation?' [groups.yahoo.com]

[______That&]

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Shavoy
Does anybody know through the pipeline about how many newbies the SGI has been attracting lately? Reason I'm curious is...reading the most recent great posts (Welcome!) about the gatherings at FNCC and the totally-out-and-not going-back-obviously "Reply to my/our mentor" stuff....I've said it more than once, but if I, in 2013, was invited to attend these soirees and saw/heard the emphasis on said mentor-stuff, welllllll, back out the door I go. Where is the mass appeal in that, especially in the Western World? Can't imagine the SGI population is having any kind of significant growth spurt here in the USA.

I've never been in an area where SGI had YOUTH! in droves during my practice.

As for the poor musician in Brooklyn who sustained that pretty horrific beating==yes, meh, don't think the shoten zenjin were on duty for the gentleman. He certainly did not deserve that, but misfortune hits us all in myriad ways. Chanting or not chanting. Believing in the Mentor or not believing at all.

The Weird Tribune subscription circulation numbers would give one a very rough estimate of membership, barring those who buy multiple subscriptions, like one for their taiten uncle Fester. Even when they were claiming a USA membership of 300,000, the circulation of Weird Tribunes was around 40,000, so probably they had an active membership of 30,000. When confronted with the facts, Guy McCloskey had to admit that the 300,000 number was quite inflated.

Intuitively, from watching the videos and from my own experience with the cult, my sense is that the numbers of youths joining the cult must be way down [because recently you see more and more Japanese Americans featured in the cult videos rather than Caucasians and African-Americans]. It could also be that the more diehard Ikedabots are Japanese Americans. Anyway, my thoughts.

nichijew



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/22/2013 02:14PM by Nichijew.

I mentioned earlier on that I was the subscription coordinator in my district; I attended a number of area meetings, and the average percentage of members having subscriptions ran around 27% for each district. That being said, once weird tribune and lying Buddhism were combined under one subscription, quite a few families in which one partner received one sub and the other partner got the other, didn't renew with each partner getting their own sub. We were actively discouraged from buying gift subscriptions for other members (they needed to make that cause!), but a lot of members bought them for non-member friends and family members. As everyone is aware, though, district numbers are wildly inflated.

The so-called empowerment aspect of sgi is so twisted. You have control over your life! As long as you chant enough, practice enough, take Senseless as your personal savior, um, mentor . . . and that all leads to contributing enough. I do believe in karma, but the sgi view of expiation of it is an awful lot like Catholicism; if you're naughty, all you have to do is go to confession (chant/practice/contribute enough) and voila! You can wipe your slate clean!

The manipulation never ends. One of the most offensive little sgi events was that stupid freaking exam. One of the many cracks started to form when I saw how seriously other district members took it . . . they would agonize over, spending hours and hours studying. For what? I have to admit that I never studied and always did well when taking it - it just wasn't that hard. I dodged it this year, fed up with the BS surrounding it. And once they switched to the bubble answer sheets, I became extremely uncomfortable about it; since the answer sheets were machine-scanned where did that data go and what was being done with it? There was one MD member (for 20+ years) who had severe after-effects from many years of substance abuse; he didn't want to take the exam, explaining that he simply couldn't remember things. One of the other members started putting pressure on him, and he didn't attend a meeting for months afterwards.

I always felt really sorry for him - he struggled so hard with the simplest things, and when we had a little sharing session about what we were most grateful for he said that he was happiest about was that his son wasn't a worthless drunk like him. After more than 20 years of practicing, his self-worth was still so low that he couldn't think of anything else? I'm not criticizing him, but it was another WTF moment for me. I saw so many long-time members beating themselves up for insufficient practices, chanting and chanting and chanting to change their lives and things only getting worse . . . if they'd gotten off their arses and DONE something about their situations rather than sitting gloomily in front of their altars, they could have started changing things decades ago. That cultivated helplessness . . . you can do nothing without the help of the magic law. Ugh.