See, Spartacus, YOU and your magical chant should have been in the Garden of Eden that time. Just sayin'... - Daisaku Ikeda

That cognitive dissonance is the ultimate betrayal that we can pull on ourselves. I pulled this from Wikipedia:

Belief disconfirmation paradigm[edit]

Dissonance is aroused when people are confronted with information that is inconsistent with their beliefs. If the dissonance is not reduced by changing one's belief, the dissonance can result in restoring consonance through misperception, rejection or refutation of the information, seeking support from others who share the beliefs, and attempting to persuade others.[4]

An early version of cognitive dissonance theory appeared in Leon Festinger's 1956 book, When Prophecy Fails. This book gives an account of the deepening of cult members' faith following the failure of a cult's prophecy that a UFO landing was imminent. The believers met at a pre-determined place and time, believing they alone would survive the Earth's destruction. The appointed time came and passed without incident. They faced acute cognitive dissonance: had they been the victim of a hoax? Had they donated their worldly possessions in vain? Most members chose to believe something less dissonant to resolve reality not meeting their expectations: they believed that the aliens had given Earth a second chance, and the group was now empowered to spread the word that earth-spoiling must stop. The group dramatically increased their proselytism despite the failed prophecy.[5]

Fascinating (to me, anyway) that the failure of a predicted miracle to occur sounds like it causes almost deeper faith in some of the culties. It's very easy to apply to myself when I was practicing; if I chanted for something and I didn't get it, I often believed that there was something negative about that desired outcome that only the Magic Law knew about, and I was being protected.

You better not shout
You better not cry
You better not pout
I'm telling you why

Magic Law is coming - to town

It knows when you are sleeping
It knows when you're awake
It knows when you've been bad or good
So be good for Senseless' sake



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/30/2014 11:58PM by Spartacus.

Through the expert usage of cult propaganda, failure of a predicted miracle DOES indeed deepen the cult member's faith and conviction.

I recall how the SGcult used to constantly pressure the members to "chant for your own impossible dream". Members were being set up to fail by being programmed to pick an "impossible" goal. A genuinely impossible goal equals a miracle. Chanting for miracles would be instantly dismissed as a waste of time and effort to a healthy, well-balanced mind.

Yet in Cultworld, brainwashing people to chase miracles becomes desirable, since the cult members' gobbledygook minds are going to be easier to condition by an assured failure. After practicing harder and harder to avail, the dismayed member will be encouraged to "seek guidance from senior leaders" to help understand and correct their failure to attain the chosen miracle. Unscrupulous leaders can then take advantage of the opportunity to twist the member's confused and tormented minds even further than before, strengthening the stranglehold the cult has on it's victim.

After completely abandoning reason and embracing cognitive dissonance, the cult member can now be hooked even heavier than before - by failing to attain the impossible miracle! What a sick and evil strategy!



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2014 01:06AM by Spartacus.

Great, Spartacus - now I'm scared of Santa. With that red suit and long beard 'n' long hair, you know he's a communist and pacifist on top of being in cahoots with senseless.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2014 01:32AM by meh.

Well Meh, as you may already know, xmas was ripped off from the pagans, and as a matter of fact, the red and white colors of santa's outfit originally represented the red and white psychedelic magic mushrooms traditionally used to celebrate the winter solstice. Yep, magic mushroom santa - no wonder he thought those reindeer were flying!

There's always that promise that once you chant enough, if your practice is strong enough, once you've connected with senseless strongly enough and once you've donated enough, your dreams will come true. But what is "enough"? If you're chanting to have your teeth grow back, there is no "enough," unless you're one of those highly unusual people who might have an extra set of choppers lurking around . . . not "impossible," but highly unlikely. As you wrote, Spartacus, the failure always belongs to the member - they aren't doing enough to overcome that nasty karma, so they're screwed. And das org benefits. The member just keeps getting smaller and smaller, in his own mind's eye, and hearing about all the victories that other members get just makes them feel worse.

funny - the last new year's gongyo I went to, the young woman who shared the great-big-experience was one whom I knew by reputation (not great), and what she shared was so close to some of my own life situations that I sat there almost slack-jawed listening to her tell one outrageous lie after another. I can cite an example from her presentation; after having been in her job for a couple of years and thinking that she was set for life, she was suddenly relieved of her position because she was pregnant. According to her, she was denied unemployment. Anyone who has ever had to collect unemployment knows that unless you're fired for some sort of blatant misconduct, you will receive those benefits. Secondly, no employer in his right mind is going to fire an employee because she's pregnant - that is flat-out against the law, and she could have headed her tail over to EOC and gotten that straightened out in a big hurry, along with either getting her job back or having grounds for a lawsuit to recover her salary (at the very least). In other words, her "experience" was blatant fiction. Of the couple hundred people sitting in that room, I think I was the only one not sitting there in a trance, hanging on her every word. That might just have been the beginning of the end for me, now that I think about it. The community center is in Philadelphia, and you can't tell me that there weren't people in that room who weren't on unemployment or had been on food stamps for a while (another part of her tale of woe).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2014 02:03AM by meh.

One can never, ever chant enough, according to the SGcult. Just when you begin to think your practice is making you happy, the cult leaders provide you with some arbitrary or unattainable benefit to chant for (just in case you can't come up with something stupid or impossible yourself). Then they "guarantee results" if you to spend 3-4 hours minimum time chanting everyday until you reach the goal of one million daimoku (its a magic number). When one million repetitions doesn't produce the desired magical effect, you are "guided" to chant yet another one million times. Still no magic? Rinse and repeat ad nauseam.

Still no magical results, or maybe just getting tired of playing the numbers game? Save face by distorting reality (brainwashing yourself). Lie to yourself and everyone else by bending reality to fit your unrealistic expectations. Create a false reality to show "actual proof", then let your own lies enslave you completely. There - dissonance reduction accomplished. When every cultie in the room wholeheartedly accepts and encourages your self-delusional fantasies/lies, it reinforces your fabricated illusions and allows you to deepen your misguided belief in your own lies and distortions of reality. A,A,O! A,A,O! A,A,O! (okay now, everybody clap and smile, and mutter obligatory word - "congratulations")

Abracadabra! Look Rocky, nothing up my sleeve - the magic words work every time for everybody! Forget the Law of cause and effect - its a MAGIC LAW!

But wait, you can't stop chanting yet - its still not enough! The leaders say that now its time to find a new "benefit" to chant for, and to start up a new million daimoku campaign. Their mind controlling entrapment rolls on and on, and the SGcult enjoys the real benefits - cause now they own your befuddled mind completely. Harvesting your energy, time, and money becomes even easier than ever for the cult.

Stupid Slave, you're still not doing enough - now get on your knees and service the cult.org with everything you have, and don't forget to redo your Last Will & Testament, so we can legally take your entire estate away from your family when you die.

SGcult's hellish idea of the path to "World Peace".

Spartacus



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2014 12:36PM by Spartacus.

Quote: "See, Spartacus, YOU and your magical chant should have been in the Garden of Eden that time. Just sayin'... - Daisaku Ikeda".

Wow ST&P! The great powerful OZ, umm I meant Daisucku, addressed me directly right here on this forum. What an awesome benefit from the gohonzon! Just how did he know I was chanting millions of NMRK repetitions for his majesty to "connect" with me? Must be magic! (Don't pay attention to that man behind the curtain!)

I'm starting a new million daimucku campaign to make him come on here again and enlighten us with some more of his brilliant modern day true-inheritor buddha-channeling words of wisdom. Maybe this time, my sincere prayers offered to the "Master" will work better than the untold millions, maybe even billions of daimucku that mind-slaves have already chanted over the last forty years to have senseless move to America (propaganda alert) and "lead world wide cousin-rufus."

OR, maybe I should just stick to chanting for the Sun to rise in the West and set in the East. At least that would be a more realistic goal.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2014 01:15PM by Spartacus.

I wanted to share this wisdom-filled piece of poetry written by Mark Amend:

"Be strong enough to stand alone,
be yourself enough to stand apart,
but be wise enough to stand together
when the time comes"

These sparse lines contain so much more richness and beauty, and rings so much truer than Daisucku's shallow presentation of his "stand alone" concept. Mr. Ikee's feeble and boring attempts at poetry and writing always sucked air anyway IMHO.

I'm trying to imagine the SGcult promoting Mr. Amend's preceding poetic ideals. HAWW-HAW!!! Guess I just needed a good laugh.

Oh yeah, did I ever mention that every time I listened to Daisucku delivering a live speech in Japanese, the guttural sound of his voice (I can still hear it in my head - get out! get out!) put me into a deep head-nodding sleep. Yep, dear leader's spell-binding speeches literally knocked me right out! O__O



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 01/31/2014 03:48PM by Spartacus.