IMO, "a voice of good sense" is precisely one that is able to identify pseudoscience and fairy tales.

Earlier on this thread, some links to "Official" Soka Gakkai commercials running in Japan were posted (which have since been made "private"). Here is an article discussing some of them.

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"Soka Gakkai boosts advertising on TV
KUCHIKOMI OCT. 24, 2008"

Soka Gakkai, a religious organization that originated from Nichiren Buddhism in 1930 and is closely associated with the coalition New Komeito party, is now boosting its TV advertising.

Soka Gakkai has sponsored programs on local TV and radio stations as well as advertised itself in magazines for a long time. On Oct 4, a TV commercial of Soka University, Soka Gakkai’s affiliated organization, was aired as a sponsor for Fuji TV’s news and sports program “Live 2008 News & Sports!” One of the program’s production staff said, “It was the first time that Soka Gakkai’s TV commercial appeared on a nationwide major TV network and appeared as a sponsor for a news program. It was good timing for them at a time when the general election was expected to be held that week.”

The ad for Soka University is not just being aired during programs that Soka Gakkai sponsors but also during programs on other networks, such as NTV, for example.

A politician of the Demcratic Party of Japan said, “For the Liberal Democratic Party and New Komeito, which form the government, support from Soka Gakkai members is essential. I think the TV ad campaign is aimed at bringing them together for the next election.”

A spokesperson for Soka Gakkai said, “In general, students tend to decide which universities to apply to in the autumn. That’s why we broadcast the TV commercial in early October. It had nothing to do with any election strategy.”

A spokesperson for Fuji explained that Soka University is officially approved as an educational institution by the government. “There’s no problem with broadcasting their TV commercial.” Meanwhile, an NTV spokesperson said: “We screen TV commercials based on the guidelines shared by other commercial broadcasters.” One insider speculated that Soka University possibly paid 100 million yen to Fuji TV for the commercial.

Although Fuji TV and NTV say there is nothing wrong with broadcasting Soka University’s TV commercials, media professor Takaaki Hattori at Rikkyo University pointed out: “It’s not problematic at all for the university to have TV commercials. But being a sponsor for a news program is questionable. While TV stations are currently suffering from decline in advertising revenue, they should remember they are news organizations and be careful about accepting sponsorships from political parties. Otherwise, their stance toward politics will be called into question by viewers.” (Translated by Taro Fujimoto)"

[www.japantoday.com]

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¥100,000,000.00 = 1.2 Million USD (approx.)

A walk down cult memory lane for some of you Chicago members:

[www.chicagonorthgang.com] (Looks like circa 1970's to me.)

Came across this gem of an experience:

"When I was 19 I was living in an abusive relationship with a real gem of a guy, working a lousy job at Dunkin' Donuts, and generally a miserable little git.

I was raised basically religion-free, my parents both having left the Catholic church when I was a year old and they divorced. At the age of 12, I had decided to become an active member of the Church, and was excommunicated two years later because my priest wouldn't absolve me for having had an abortion (I later learned that he could not refuse me that absolution, he broke canon law). This left me floundering around for a faith path that made sense to me.

First I tried the whole born again fundamentalist Christian route, but when my pastor told me I was going to burn in Hell because I had had an abortion, and that my father was burning in Hell already because he had never professed Jesus as Lord and Savior, I decided that I had trouble following a faith which judged others so readily. So I turned away from Christianity in general and started looking east.

By the time that I found the Soka Gakkai (or they found me?), I was ripe for the picking.

Back then, I was doing phone sex for a living, working out of my apartment. One night a really freaky guy kept calling and holding my line hostage, but not actually ordering a call, and I got pissed off and threw the phone at the wall, breaking it. Oops. This resulted in my having to borrow a phone set from the neighbor down the hall, who only loaned it on condition that I attend a "world peace" meeting with her.

The next night I was at a meeting in a house in Cambridge. "You should really join, the Gohonzon can do amazing things for you!" "It healed my cancer!" "Chanting saved my marriage!" and so on and so forth.

I joined. $20 fee to "rent" a Gohonzon for life. $35 for a butsudan (a box to hang the Gohonzon in). $75 for an altar set of candlesticks, incense burner, water cup, small plate, bowl shaped bell and small vase - all plastic. This was in 1985. I was earning about $200 a week at the time, after taxes.

Back then, the organization was called NSA (Nichiren Shoshu of America). The SGI (Soka Gakkai International) was the umbrella organization that NSA lived under.

Being an NSA Buddhist meant doing shakubuku (proselytizing) on a regular and aggressive basis. It meant frequent "special gokaihi" (fundraising) campaigns that could last six months or more, where we were told to set a goal for our donation that was as high as we could possibly afford, and take out a loan if you have to in order to meet your pledge. Attending meetings multiple times weekly, and larger special (costly) convention meetings whenever held.

It meant being called at 5 AM by different levels of leaders to remind us about the meeting that night. It meant having leaders and other members knocking on our door every single day. It meant paying for subscriptions to the different publications (published by a publishing house owned by the SGI President, Daisaku Ikeda) every month. It meant buying very expensive but shoddily constructed books on a regular basis that needed replacing every year or so if you read them very often. It meant purchasing every single volume of President Ikeda's (pretty lousy) poetry.

It meant having President Ikeda's face plastered in the place of honor on the living room wall. It meant not having a life outside of the organization, except in the workplace. It meant massive shakubuku (proseletyzing and conversion) campaigns twice a year, in which if you didn't get a new member or twenty for the organization you found yourself receiving guidance from a senior leader on strengthening your faith enough to gain new recruits.

It meant that mentally ill and even physically ill members, of whom I saw more than a few (including myself) were told that the answer to their problems wasn't medication or therapy, it was chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo more. "Go on a million Daimoku campaign (chant Nam Myoho Renge Kyo one million times. It takes an hour a day for a couple of months), that will make it all better!"

SGI/NSA became your friends, it became your family, it became your entertainment and your reason for living.

Among the many teachings I got from NSA was that "Earthly desires equal enlightenment". Strange form of "Buddhism", this was. Another very major teaching was how important unity was between all believers in Nichiren Daishonin's Buddhism. Chant for each other. Chant for the priesthood. Make a pilgrimage to Taiseki-ji (the head temple) if at all possible.

I met my first husband in SGI. About a year later, he and I moved to San Francisco, where we continued being good little SGI lemmings.

In late 1990 there was a major schism between Nichiren Shoshu and Soka Gakkai. When SGI President Daisaku Ikeda was asked to turn over financial documents to the priesthood, he refused. When the temple raised the issue that he had been accused of rape and of political double dealing (Japan's third largest political party is the Komeito, founded by SGI), he then began a campaign in the Seikyo Shimbun (the Japanese SGI newspaper) and the US paper, World Tribune, discrediting the priesthood, and accusing the high priest of all manner of improprieties. My husband and I watched, aghast, as all lay believers who did not leave SGI and swear fealty to the temple were excommunicated. NST (Nichiren Shoshu Temple) and SGI were officially separated.

At this point, I came to my senses. For six years I had sat and listened to preaching about how important unity with the temple was. For six years I had been told that if you feel that somebody is doing things wrong, look at your own self and find out why your karma has led you to this place. For six years I was basically told "Own your own shit", and now both the lay leaders and the spiritual leaders of my religion were doing the exact opposite of these things. They were squabbling like toddlers.

I told my husband that I was finished with the whole thing. He was also sick of it. He continued to chant privately at home, but no more membership. I dumped it completely and tried paganism for a while, then (Heaven help me!) the Jehovah's Witnesses and other faiths before returning to my Catholic roots. All of the "friends" we had made (and my husband had been a member for his entire life, originally coming from San Francisco and we moved back there when he finished college) disappeared. When we ran into them on the street they would ask when we were coming back, and when told that we weren't, they would turn and walk away.

Make no mistake about it, Soka Gakkai is a cult. For that matter, so is NST. Both groups fit the cult criteria outlined at freedomofmind.com.

The only difference is that instead of living in their dormitory and selling flowers, we paid our own bills, paid the organization's bills, and gave up our lives."

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From July, 2005. [everything2.com]

Fascinating.

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Hitch
This resulted in my having to borrow a phone set from the neighbor down the hall, who only loaned it on condition that I attend a "world peace" meeting with her.

Leave it to an SGI member to entrap a potential shakubuku in exchange for doing something neighborly. If I had to pick the biggest turn-off regarding SGI folks it's the fact that they can't meet anyone without sizing them up as a possible future member. My sibling, a hardcore SGI-er, does this all the time - can't just be friends with someone, relentlessly inviting them to meetings until the person either gives in and comes to one or just severs ties altogether.

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SGBye

Quote
Hitch
This resulted in my having to borrow a phone set from the neighbor down the hall, who only loaned it on condition that I attend a "world peace" meeting with her.

Leave it to an SGI member to entrap a potential shakubuku in exchange for doing something neighborly. If I had to pick the biggest turn-off regarding SGI folks it's the fact that they can't meet anyone without sizing them up as a possible future member. My sibling, a hardcore SGI-er, does this all the time - can't just be friends with someone, relentlessly inviting them to meetings until the person either gives in and comes to one or just severs ties altogether.

I loved that part. It aptly demonstrates how the manipulation starts right from the get-go. Very common gakkai cult behavior that I, too, have seen often. "I'll be your 'friend', if you do what I want you to, otherwise, 'I'm not interested in getting to know you any further'."

If she had stopped going and not joined after ONE meeting, the response would have been, "BUT I loaned you my phone, you CAN'T do that! HOW RUDE!"

Typical gakkai warped "bodhisattva of the Earth" behavior.

One of the most obnoxious things about SGI, which is part of the cult, is that members constantly badger and bother everyone with their SGI propaganda.
They do it in the workplace, they do it to "friends" who finally get to the point of ending the friendship and having to BLOCK their email, as they keep sending SGI email spam.
Some SGI people will even hand out a SGI brochure on a date!

But it gets worse.
When you quiz the SGI member, they are not trying to convert you to SGI to save your soul, like some other evangelicals.
They are trying to convert you to SGI to supposedly improve their OWN KARMA. That is, to improve their own life, and get more money and success and fame and a big house and fancy car...etc.

They are trying to convert you, as they have been SGI-brainwashed that by doing so, they improve their own Karma, and thus make their own lives better.
Total selfishness and self-centeredness.
This is not a theory, carefully question SGI people who are handing you their SGI crap in a non-judgemental way, and you will find out they are doing it for selfish reasons.

Of course, its more SGI recruiting propaganda, appealing to the self-centeredness of self-obsessed SGI members.
Hate to be blunt, but some SGI members are clearly narcissists, who's entire life is about me me me, and converting you to SGI, is just more me me me. And they seem to get attracted to SGI partly, as the SGI salespitch is all me me me.
Of course, the irony is Ikeda-SGI is pandering to that impulse, and then they use it against the person.

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SGBye
Leave it to an SGI member to entrap a potential shakubuku in exchange for doing something neighborly. If I had to pick the biggest turn-off regarding SGI folks it's the fact that they can't meet anyone without sizing them up as a possible future member. My sibling, a hardcore SGI-er, does this all the time - can't just be friends with someone, relentlessly inviting them to meetings until the person either gives in and comes to one or just severs ties altogether.

Anticult...once again u have struck a cord. To b perfectly honest I have not even considered that chanting itself was at fault! I've always loved how it made me feel. It seemed to raise my life condition. There r many religions & spiritual practices that use sound for various reasons. It is interesting to consider.

tks

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The Anticult
One of the most obnoxious things about SGI, which is part of the cult, is that members constantly badger and bother everyone with their SGI propaganda.
They do it in the workplace, they do it to "friends" who finally get to the point of ending the friendship and having to BLOCK their email, as they keep sending SGI email spam.
Some SGI people will even hand out a SGI brochure on a date!

But it gets worse.
When you quiz the SGI member, they are not trying to convert you to SGI to save your soul, like some other evangelicals.
They are trying to convert you to SGI to supposedly improve their OWN KARMA. That is, to improve their own life, and get more money and success and fame and a big house and fancy car...etc.

They are trying to convert you, as they have been SGI-brainwashed that by doing so, they improve their own Karma, and thus make their own lives better.
Total selfishness and self-centeredness.
This is not a theory, carefully question SGI people who are handing you their SGI crap in a non-judgemental way, and you will find out they are doing it for selfish reasons.

Of course, its more SGI recruiting propaganda, appealing to the self-centeredness of self-obsessed SGI members.
Hate to be blunt, but some SGI members are clearly narcissists, who's entire life is about me me me, and converting you to SGI, is just more me me me. And they seem to get attracted to SGI partly, as the SGI salespitch is all me me me.
Of course, the irony is Ikeda-SGI is pandering to that impulse, and then they use it against the person.

This post is sizzling hot spot-on the money.

The biggest narcissist members, leaders and salaried leaders are hands down the most annoying kind.

If its a member, all they want to do is shakubuku you and move on to the next. If its a regular (unsalaried) leader, all they want is the numbers (attendance, subscriptions, participation) to make themselves look good for their higher ups. If its a salaried leader, they always have all the right answers and KNOW what you and everyone else should be doing. With all three categories, there is never any genuine RESPECT for the members below them, who are viewed only as instruments to serve their own needs/goals. These kinds of people can be downright rude, inconsiderate and forcefully manipulative.

On a personal note, the only way that I've ever been able to handle these types of people, unfortunately, is to blow up at them after they pushed me up to a line that I would not allow them to cross. Don't worry though, their egos are unscathed, because the only real effect that it has ever had, is to cause them to react just like a bumper car hitting a wall, bouncing off, changing directions and heading off elsewhere without so much as a care in the world. Thereafter, they just avoid/ignore you. Bizarre behavior the first time I encountered, but as I later learned - a very common one with hardcore self-absorbed brainwashed gakkai cult members.

Anti-Cult, for someone who was never on the "inside" of the gakkai cult, you sure as hell have it nailed to a "T" from the outside looking in.

One could make an argument that generic "chanting" can be a type of deep breathing control that creates relaxation, etc.
Observe yourself chanting, and you will see its a deep breath, with a very slow release of air.
Try it without chanting, and it also creates relaxation.
Or make up some random syllables...do-pah-rah-sym-bo-tah...
Its a physiological relaxation response.


But SGI-chanting, using the SGI syllables, in front of SGI altars, thinking SGI thoughts, about SGI goals, and SGI fake-karma, repeating SGI leaders and Ikeda's thoughts in your head as the person chants, chanting to clear their SGI fake alleged "karma", with a bookshelf full of SGI propaganda, surrounded by SGI "friends" and recruits...

This is all serious brainwashing.
SGI uses chanting as a brainwashing tool.
Some people may not want to see that, but its as plain and obvious as anything gets.

And SGI uses SGI-chanting as a doggie-biscuit to dangle in front of people, that SGI chanting will clear your SGI-karma, and then you will live in perfect happiness of health, love, riches, sex, joy, Rolex watches, and blah blah...
Hey, life is easy. You don't need to plan and work, and deal with failure and the human condition, and your partner dying from cancer...just chant, and everything will be ok. Chant chant chant.
But what if chanting is just a fiction, that does nothing?
Of course, that is a scary thought for those who believe in chanting.


When you have been propagandized by SGI members for years on end, you tend to observe what they are doing.

Anyone can get recruited by someone into SGI chanting, and it all starts very nice.
Then they want you to go to the meetings...so you go.
And you see some wacky accountant dude chanting for a Mercedes and a Rolex, and if you have actually had an interest in real Buddhism previously, you instantly see these folks have gone off the deep end, to be chanting at a picture of a Mercedes.
You don't need to be a cult expert to realize that is completely absurd.

Then you decide not to go to any more "meetings" at the accountants house, and your recruiter starts to bug you daily about going to more meetings, and of course PAYING YOUR DUES.
After all, by paying your dues you are going to bring big BENEFITS to yourself! Its an investment...give SGI $100 and you will get back $1000 from the universe! Its a law of the universe!

So you avoid the hallway of the SGI recruiter, and enter the building through the backdoor for weeks, to avoid the SGI member, just to escape.

If you want a Mercedes, you buy or lease one, you don't chant for it. A Mercedes is not a sacred object, except to Ikeda perhaps, if its a white Mercedes, or a "Brand" which many people in the East have been brainwashed to think makes them a bigshot success to their relatives.


So you don't need to be an expert in cults to see SGI is wacky.
But knowing about cults makes it more clear, and you can see that SGI is very carefully planned out, with the techniques they use on people.
SGI is a rabbit hole.
Easy to fall into, hard to get out of.