Spartacus, I'll respond to your thoughtful post in a bit, but one thing I find myself coming back to - a valuable lesson learned through the SGI, if you will - is cause and effect. Are you scrubbing toilets for free at the kaikan? Congratulations! You are making cause to be taken advantage of and to be in a position where others manipulate you into working for nothing. You are demonstrating - with your life! - that you do not deserve proper compensation. Your time and efforts have no value! YOU are worthless, and, thus, it is only right that you work for free.

If you are going to meetings you aren't enjoying or getting anything out of, congratulations! You are making the cause to waste your life trying to please others who will never be satisfied (if they even care at all - they may not even notice your efforts). You are demonstrating with your life that what YOU want, what YOU like, don't matter - all that matters is what others expect of you. Congratulations. You will always take a back seat to everyone else in the world. Congratulations, doormat.

If you are spending your time around people you don't really enjoy, you are making the cause to continue to be surrounded by people you don't like. You will have little, if any, time to meet people you might be more compatible with, because you're spending all your time around people you don't like. Congratulations - you will always feel lonely and frustrated.

[www.ehow.com]

Quote

The Symptoms of Excess Dopamine

In amounts normally produced by the body, dopamine functions as a minor brain stimulant that primarily controls movement, and to a lesser degree blood circulation and metabolism. Dopamine also acts as a stimulant to the pleasure center of the brain. Symptoms of excess dopamine are similar to the effects of the chemicals itself, only more severe. These symptoms include increased movement/jittery feelings, dangerously increased rate of metabolism and recklessness caused by overstimulation of the pleasure center of the brain.

Read more: Symptoms of Excess Dopamine or Taurine | eHow.com [www.ehow.com]

These first two points describe the exact thought process that I went thru, slowly, on my way out of the cult org..

Quote
TaitenAndProud
Are you scrubbing toilets for free at the kaikan? Congratulations! You are making cause to be taken advantage of and to be in a position where others manipulate you into working for nothing. You are demonstrating - with your life! - that you do not deserve proper compensation. Your time and efforts have no value! YOU are worthless, and, thus, it is only right that you work for free.

When they tried to make my cult activities take precedence and more importance than the rest of my life, I started to push back, becoming gradually more defiant in small steps. I even walked out of and away from $oka-han & gajokai duties when the manipulation crossed a line with me. Doing those things and standing up for myself, allowed me to acknowledge my freedom of choice, not lose sight of the FACT that I was volunteering to do certain things (but only up to a point) and that my time is just that - my time, to spend and do with it, how I chose. The cult org. will try to make you feel guilty for this kind of attitude and one should NOT give in to it.

Quote
TaitenAndProud
If you are going to meetings you aren't enjoying or getting anything out of, congratulations! You are making the cause to waste your life trying to please others who will never be satisfied (if they even care at all - they may not even notice your efforts). You are demonstrating with your life that what YOU want, what YOU like, don't matter - all that matters is what others expect of you. Congratulations. You will always take a back seat to everyone else in the world. Congratulations, doormat.

That was a turning point for me. I gradually realized that no matter how much I gave (which was much, much more than I wanted to), they always wanted and asked for more. It would never be enough to satisfy them - never. The cult org. will suck every last drop of energy out of you and leave you a collapsed shell on the floor, if you let it. The more you try to please them, the more they will literally use and abuse you. It's like a giant snowballing effect. I reached a point where I just said, "enough is enough." Either they (the cult org.) had to go, or I had to collapse and my life be a mess; I chose to preserve myself.

A funny thing I've mentioned before, is that once I was gone, even years later, I got notes, messages and letters from people who never even knew of my existence or gave me the time of day when I was busting my butt to serve Cousin Rufus. By then, I could clearly see what they and the cult org. were all about and I just laughed as I tossed all of their cult messages in the garbage.

Quote
TaitenAndProud
If you are spending your time around people you don't really enjoy, you are making the cause to continue to be surrounded by people you don't like. You will have little, if any, time to meet people you might be more compatible with, because you're spending all your time around people you don't like. Congratulations - you will always feel lonely and frustrated.

The only thing I can add to this is, gakkai members are not really your friends. You may think they are, so long as you are perceived to be one of them, but if you go against anything or any of their belief systems, they will quickly reveal their true colors. And that "niceness" only goes as far as you go along with all the manipulation and learn your proper place & role - to be a model Ikeda-bot (i.e., mental & physical slave to the Ikeda pseudo-buddhist cult org.).

****

Having grown up in the cult, I was never fully taken in with the magic chanting stuff. There were times that I did try desperately to believe, I really wanted to, but it never really completely took with me. The twice daily gongyo slowly became a burdensome ritual for me, as I got older. Excessive daimoku, torture. From having been to so many cult meetings, I always thought that the "experiences" were much ado about nothing and could be explained in other ways that everyone else seemed to ignore or didn't want to hear. As I learned to think critically, I actually tested and experimented with stopping the prayer rituals to see what would happen. Absolutely nothing. Of course, the cult org. had their explanations to explain it off, but I wasn't buying what they were shoveling.

The gakkai cult org. was a social thing for me as a kid. As normal as going to church activities and doing things within that same community. As I got older, the manipulation, mind games, use & abuse and the negatives slowly began to outweigh the perceived positives of being a part of that "community." So, I left.

Life kept going on and things only got better and better. Hmmm, go figure, indeed.

The gakkai cult org. wants you to think that *you* need it, but in reality, it's the other way around - the cult org. needs its members.

The crystal clear lesson that I've learned, is that it is all a mind and con-game. Learn to think critically and inoculate yourself against charlatans and swindlers.


- Hitch

"Free people can say “no”. Free people can refuse demands for their money, time, and children. Slaves cannot. There is no freedom without the freedom to say “no”. If someone demands that you do something and you can say “no” and refuse to do it, then you are a free human being. If you can be forced to do something or surrender something that you do not wish to, then you are a slave. No other test need be applied" Michael Rivero

Once you feel that you must say yes, and you can not choose to say no, you have already been enslaved.

Tricking slaves into mistakenly believing they are free insures they won't try to escape or throw off their oppressors. Alrighty then, let's get down to some real explotation. Baaa!

Spartacus

There are various states in which one cannot say no.

* One still has stamina, is being treated well and its all still stimulating and rewarding.

So one says yes to everything. Its honeymoon stage. No doesnt even appear on the horizon.

* Fear of pain/social consequences

One is afraid to refuse (for fear of being shamed, gossiped about, losing rank, etc)

* Too tired to take a stand.

One is too tired to deal with the known repercussions of saying no, so one complies, instead. Its like going to a movie you dont want to see, but your domineering partner wants to see it, so you're too tired to argue, and go see the movie you would never see or spend money for if up to you.

* Sense of self has become muted.

One cannot imagine that one can say no. The option of refusal doesnt even appear in one's mental or emtional horizon. Your discontent is a secret you are keeping--even from yourself.

Quote

One cannot imagine that one can say no. The option of refusal doesnt even appear in one's mental or emtional horizon. Your discontent is a secret you are keeping--even from yourself.

Ha. That reminds me - I'm sure I've told of it before, but posts get buried so quickly on this thread! While I was still a new YWD - hadn't even gotten my gohonzon yet! - our Minneapolis HQ was preparing for a bus trip (remember those?) out to Philadelphia for the Liberty Bell anniversary celebration. The kotekitai would be marching in the parade, along with the brass band, and there were no doubt going to be some YMD human pyramids *snork* Mr. Williams and Patrick Duffy were going to be there.

So all our weekends meant driving down to the Chicago Jt. Terr (8 hour drive or so) to practice with them. I went on two of these weekends, and then, while ironing something for work the following Monday, I burned the inside of my elbow. This was in the heat of the summer, mind you. Between our local practices during the week and sweat and sunscreen etc., by the end of the week rolled around, it was looking infected. So I informed my HQ YWD leader that, out of concern for my injury, I wasn't going to go down to Chicago for that weekend. After all, *I* was the only YWD with marching band experience, so I certainly didn't "need" the practice! And I'd already gone on TWO weekend practices.

She sighed, and said, "Well, perhaps someday you'll develop the never-give-up spirit."

I immediately bristled at that and pointed out that, of all the YWD, I was the most prepared AND the most capable when it came to marching in a parade! AND I'd already gone TWO weekends!

She then backed off and said, "Yeah, I guess that sounded kind of snarky." And I stayed home AND marched in the parade. She, though, was never one of the "top" YWD HQ leaders. She was always regarded somewhat disdainfully, that she wasn't "good enough", which is kind of sad, but then again, she took over from one of those YWD HQ leaders who served in the YWD up into her 40s, long after getting married. Those were the days.

I remember that some YWD leaders were famous, like "Miss Inoashi". She was replaced by Eiko Hirota, but she only served a year or two and then disappeared into oblivion. She was nice - I met and talked with her. I never met Miss Inoashi.

Quote
corboy
There are various states in which one cannot say no.

* One still has stamina, is being treated well and its all still stimulating and rewarding.

So one says yes to everything. Its honeymoon stage. No doesnt even appear on the horizon.

* Fear of pain/social consequences

One is afraid to refuse (for fear of being shamed, gossiped about, losing rank, etc)

* Too tired to take a stand.

One is too tired to deal with the known repercussions of saying no, so one complies, instead. Its like going to a movie you dont want to see, but your domineering partner wants to see it, so you're too tired to argue, and go see the movie you would never see or spend money for if up to you.

* Sense of self has become muted.

One cannot imagine that one can say no. The option of refusal doesnt even appear in one's mental or emtional horizon. Your discontent is a secret you are keeping--even from yourself.

I may be able to add one to that second category ("Fear of pain/social consequences").

I think the gakkai cult org. really tries to utilize the second category most to manipulate its members. Lots of people seemed immediately and acutely susceptible to this. I definitely wasn't. I couldn't have cared less what anybody in the cult org. thought about me. If this angle or approach doesn't work, they then try the related fear tactic of last resort:

Fear of the metaphysical and self-deception (This is also related to the fallacious appeal to adverse consequences.)

Members living under the delusion / belief of fake "karma", the "mystic law" (don't get me started on this asinine doublespeak, cult gobbledygook), creating "fortune", not making "bad causes", which the cult org. makes all hinge on doing as one is told, no questions asked, etc..


- Hitch

One of the reasons that people gravitate toward a cult is because they are lonely and the cult offers an instant community.

So this "plus" didn't work for you, Hitch, which isn't surprising, since you were born into the cult there was obviously a different dynamic from someone who joined up as an adult. That may be why the "Fear of pain/social consequences" was ineffective at keeping you hooked. But for someone like me, who joined in order to hold on to a distant and withdrawing boyfriend, in the wake of my divorce from my first husband at which point all my friends fled as if I'd had the plague, there was something entirely different going on. On the first page of this thread, there is a post from tsukimoto about how bad her life was going at the point where she joined. That's the reality for many of us.

You typically find dysfunctional people in church, because that's the community of last resort for the socially dysfunctional. They figure the church *has* to accept them. So in that vein, I would suggest that the membership of cults is far more dysfunctional than average for that society, and the same goes for churches. Any group that puts a blind-faith premium on "Believe as we do" will only reliably attract and keep the fanatics, the mentally unstable, and the desperate.

Been there, done that! :P DONE with that!!

People with decent social skills and a healthy self-image/psyche are able to make friends and maintain a social circle without the weirdness of religion.

Isn't Sgcult a consumer cult religion? Chanting is (the name) of money. Chanting buys absolute happiness. Chant for anything you desire. Isn’t it magic!

As I have previously pointed out, I see an ongoing convergence of cults in today’s society. The mass cults of celebrity, self, consumerism, religion, militarism, and war all merge and morph together before the sheeple’s exceptionalist trinket-blinded eyes.

The following quotes from a 2010 Chris Hedges speech given in Chicago on the subject of the Cult of Celebrity is IMO a perfect description of life inside the SGcult’s leadership hierarchy, and another good example of merging cults as well. When reading the following, just substitute the phrase “SGI senior leader” for “celebrity”.

“When you spend your life as a celebrity, you have no idea who you are, and yet we measure our lives by these celebrities. We seek to be like them. We emulate their looks and behavior. We escape the messiness of real life through the fantasy of their stardom. We too, seek to attract admiring audiences for our grand life movie. We have learned ways of speaking and thinking that grossly disfigure the way we relate to the world and those around us.”

“Neo Gabler, who has written wisely about this argues that, ‘celebrity culture is not a convergence of consumer culture and religion, so much as a hostile takeover of religion by consumer culture’.”

“…in America most human beings rich or poor, famous or obscure, have been conditioned to view themselves as marketable commodities. They are objects, like consumer products. They have no intrinsic value. They must look fabulous and live on fabulous sets. They must remain young. They must achieve notoriety and money or the illusion of it to be a success, and it does not matter how they get there.”

‘Celebrity culture licenses a dark voyeurism into other people’s humiliation, pain, weakness and betrayal. Education, building community, honesty, transparency, and sharing are qualities that will see you ridiculed and voted off any reality show. Fellow competitors for prize money and a chance for fleeting fame elect to disappear the unwanted. In the final credits of the reality show, America’s Top Model, a picture of the woman expelled during the episode vanishes from the group portrait on the screen. Those cast aside become, at least to the television audience, non-persons. Celebrities that can no longer generate publicity good or bad vanish.

Life, these shows teach, is a brutal world of unadulterated competition, and a constant quest for notoriety and attention. Our self-exaltation permits the humiliation of those who oppose us. Those who lose deserve to be erased. Those who fail, those who are deemed ugly, ignorant, or poor, are belittled and mocked. Human beings are used, betrayed, and discarded in a commodity culture…”

“The cult of self… dominates our culture. This cult has within it, the classic trait of psychopaths: superficial charm, grandiosity and superficial importance, a need for constant stimulation, a penchant for lying deception and manipulation, and the incapacity for remorse or guilt. …it is the celebration of image over substance.”

“We have a right, in the cult of the self, to get whatever we desire. We can do anything, even belittle and destroy those around us, including our friends, to make money, to be happy, and to become famous. Once fame and wealth are achieved, they become their own justification, their own morality. How one gets there becomes irrelevant.”

“Mass culture assures us, that if we close our eyes, if we visualize what we want, if we have faith in ourselves, if we tell god that we believe in miracles, if we tap into our inner strength, if we grasp that we are truly exceptional, if we focus on happiness, our lives will be harmonious and complete. This cultural retreat into illusion, whether peddled by positive psychologists, Hollywood, Oprah, or Christian preachers, is a form of magical thinking.”

“As long as the mass of bewildered and frightened people are fed images and skillfully manipulated, as long as they perpetually hallucinate, they will exist in this state of corporate barbarism.”

As we sink into this (economic and political) morass, we remain controlled, manipulated, and distracted by the celluloid shadows on the wall of Plato’s cave. The fantasy of celebrity culture is not designed only to entertain. It is designed to drain us emotionally, confuse about our identity, blame ourselves for predicament, condition us to chase illusions of unachievable fame and happiness, and keep us from fighting back.”

Don't keep consuming the mass cult kool-aid.

Spartacus

Brilliant insight Spartacus. A perfect summation.

Gakkai cult "senior leaders" are nothing more than cult org. goons who are living a lie and excel at manipulating others (who happen to fall under their spell) without conscience.

For a perfect example, go to the "Eccentric Ikeda" video clips hiding out there on the web (the same videos that the cult org. keeps getting removed every time the can find them). On it, you'll see Kazue Elliot ("pioneering" dysfunctional $oka drama queen of over simplification) sitting off on the side of the stage, to Ikeda's left. When Ikeda makes jokes at the expense of Williams-Sadanaga, Nikken and other human beings, Elliot can be seen whooping it up, big, big smile, clapping her hands together in excitement and can hardly remain in her seat, laughing and enjoying it all --> The Dear Leader, acting and ranting like a petulant over indulged man-child. (Elliot sat under the spell of Ikeda The Dear Leader, and trust me, lots of Japanese WD sat under her spell of bull-sh**, right on down the cult org. ladder).

What you see in that brief instance, is a true glimpse into the true nature of a typical $oka Gakkai Cult Org. "senior leader." Just as described in Spartacus' article.

Btw, Elliot is now a willing cult senior citizen poster victim for the Gakkai's "Golden Stage" master manipulators and BS'ers club at the cult retreat indoctrination program at FNCC, [sgi-usa.net]:

There is no retirement age in the gakkai cult org., "the benefits of faith include perennial youth and eternal life." (Kazue Elliot, cult org., cult retreat, "facilitator" of the cult kool-aid.)

What a crock of sh**! Still playing the con-game, to the very end.


- Hitch