$GI = The CULT on steroids.

"Forever $ensei" (aka: The Dear Leader) on steroids, [www.youtube.com]. From just a few weeks ago. "Ikeda Youth Ensemble" competition @ Cult U.

The manic version. The new "hardcore" cult org. generation.



- Hitch

On a positive note, that crap is so culturally inappropriate in the US that their continued insistence upon placing it front and center will ensure that ever fewer Americans want to join. Notice the preponderance of people of Japanese ethnicity regardless of where in the world we're talking about. There's a reason for that...

TaP, I agree with you on the poor cultural fit for the music may be a deterrent. I've heard a number of American members complain about it, some even make fun of it. It's military tone is off-putting, and completely out of context with the allegedly peaceful nature of the organization. I was stunned when I first heard it - I mentioned awhile back that it made we want to start singing the Internationale ( [www.youtube.com] ). Maybe someone should write sgi-ish lyrics to go to that catchy melody!

Those wild and crazy sgi-youth-bots. I used to dread having them lead gongyo at krg - I always felt like my tongue was going to wind up in a sling trying to keep up. I am looking forward to seeing a Riverdance version of the fan dance.

I just discovered that there are more sgi members (12 mil) than there are scientologists (10 mil); these numbers, of course, are based on the inflated numbers reported by the respective organizations. I'm not sure why I find that interesting, other than so many more people seem to be aware of the latter as a cult organization. Maybe because so many high profile Hollywood-types are scientologists . . . Orlando Bloom and Patrick Duffy aren't exactly Tom Cruise or John Travolta.

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I am looking forward to seeing a Riverdance version of the fan dance.

Yes! YES!! I would attend that KRG just to see that!!!

Of course, I would be there to have a good laff, and I think they'd rather frown on that attitude. Taiten and Proud - No Longer Advancing in the Wrong Direction!

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I just discovered that there are more sgi members (12 mil) than there are scientologists (10 mil); these numbers, of course, are based on the inflated numbers reported by the respective organizations. I'm not sure why I find that interesting, other than so many more people seem to be aware of the latter as a cult organization. Maybe because so many high profile Hollywood-types are scientologists . . . Orlando Bloom and Patrick Duffy aren't exactly Tom Cruise or John Travolta.

Oh, I dunno - Orlando Bloom was definitely A-list for a while there, though he hasn't done anything for several years, not since the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie, I don't think. Patrick Duffy never seemed to graduate from TV, which makes him C-list at best. Oh, darn - the Mystic Law isn't working!! At least he still gets work, even if it is in pathetic sit-coms with Suzanne Somers [en.wikipedia.org] It's all good, right?????

Even though there are NMRK references in several products:

"Inner Space" [www.imdb.com]

"The Guru" [www.imdb.com]

"The Simpsons" [en.wikipedia.org]

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Homer attempts to read the notes for Mindy that he wrote on his hand, but they have smeared out because of sweat. In his attempt, Homer unknowingly babbles the Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, a Buddhist chant in Nichiren Buddhism and SGI. This is a reference to an Akbar and Jeff cartoon, written by Matt Groening, in which the same mantra is used.

Grosse Pointe Blank: The Out-Of-Towners

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"A 1997 film, starring John Cusack and Minnie Driver, is called 'Grosse Pointe Blank'. John is a hitman, named Martin Blank, who is sent to do a job in Grosse Pointe where, as it turns out, his 10-year high school reunion is taking place. At one point fairly early in the film, Minnie says to John: 'You know what you need? Shaka buku.'

He replies something like, 'What's that?'

Her answer (not verbatim) goes something like: 'It's a swift kick in your karmic butt.'."

[Web Goddes Note: the screenplay has this as 'It's a swift spiritual kick to the head that alters your reality forever.']

"The new re-make of 'The Out-of-Towners' with Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn also has a scene where Steve overhears people chanting."

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"The most famous of all is the film by Hal Ashby, 'The Last Detail' starring Jack Nicholson and featuring the young Randy Quaid as the unfortunate sailor sent to seven years hard labor for trying to steal a few dollars from a charity collect box. On the way to prison, he, Nicholson and another sailor attend a (then) NSA) meeting. I swear that one of the young ladies leading a Gakkai song is Gilda Radner. It is almost embarrassing to see how hokey the meeting was. But Randy starts chanting and does so devotedly for the rest of the film.

"Another film stars Martin Short and Dennis Quaid involving a machine which shrinks Quaid for him to be implanted in somebody's body. The film is "Innerspace". He chants vigorously as he is about to take a dangerous leap.

"Another film: 'Atlantic City', starring Burt Lancaster and Susan Sarandon. The pregnant "hippie chick" friend of Sarandon chants Nam Myoho Renge Kyo. Very brief occurrence you might overlook."

Revenge of the Nerds II
Evil fraternity boys have trapped the nerds, in their underwear, facing crocodiles. They burst into a group chant of "Nam-Myo-Ho-Renge-Kyo" in a desperate effort to invoke a miraculous escape.

Televison
Sakyamuni Buddha Guest Stars on 'South Park'


In the "Super Best Friends" episode of 'South Park', Sakyamuni Buddha is one of the Super Best Friends, along with Jesus, Mohammed, and Krishna, who band together to fight an evil cult. BONUS - In another episode of "South Park", God admits to being a Buddhist. [ftworthbuddhas.tripod.com]

I'm sure you can think of others, but regardless, Scientology is still more high profile. In the end, they've just got the better stars - suck on that, SGI!

Maybe we could remind the guys at South Park just what a whack-o group sgi is and they could give Senseless the Cruise-treatment?

Interesting - I'm not a consistent watcher of South Park or the Simpsons, and of the movies you mentioned that I have seen, I haven't seen them since before I started practicing and I have absolutely no recollection of those references! The only sgi/nsa reference that stands out for me from a movie is the famous scene where Tina starts chanting in "What's Love Got to Do with It?" I have to say honestly that if I thought for a moment that chanting was the reason she looks so amazing at her age, I would probably start again ;-)

I wish sgi had a public nut-bag like Cruise - I think his pompous confrontation with Matt Lauer and the demented behavior on Oprah (when he and Katy first hooked up) did more to deter people from becoming scientologists than its cultish, whack-a-doo image.

Future slaves to superstition (temporary or permanent, remains to be seen).

Don't pass the mind meme virus, on down to future generations - [www.youtube.com].

Learn how to recognize CULTS.




- Hitch

long time lurker, but had to jump in here to say you guys have been cracking me up!!! took posted advice to heart and started reading this thread from the beginning, and it's been wonderful, and hilarious, as well as gut wrenching and tearful. practiced for 28 years before I forced myself to "de-program" in 2007, and I've never looked back, and have never been happier!

T&P, hitch, meh, nichijew... all of you... thanks for posting and reaching out to any and all who are breaking free.

Wow. Twenty eight years is a long time.

Welcome.

Did you find anything especially helpful when you deprogrammed?

Anything that did not help at all, and that you'd advise others to avoid?

hey corboy, thanks for the welcome :o)

yeah, 28 years is a long time, more than half of my life practicing, studying, taking care of my group, district and chapter members, so many conventions, so many trips to Shinanomachi... definitely a true believer. but finally waking up and walking away was very easy. I mourned, and moved on.

anything especially helpful? honestly, a good long vacation, some good books, and not looking back. it doesn't help that my stepmom still practices (she's a hardcore Japanese pioneer member), but at the same time it brings me endless grins and giggles (never to her face) getting her spitting mad at my absolute disinterest in all things gakkai. of course she breaks down in crocodile tears, "but what about your vow to sensei", only to immediately return to spitting mad when she sees that I could not care less. never thought I'd see hatred in her eyes, but there's no mistaking her Jekyl & Hyde nature.

I can't really avoid family, but I definitely avoid other members who feel it's their 'mission' to save me from myself (I never pick up their phone calls or return messages, emails, texts, and never open my gate to let them on my property). they eventually just stopped and went away.

I no longer chant, I don't do gongyo, and I don't do guilt. it's a part of my life that's simply over.

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I no longer chant, I don't do gongyo, and I don't do guilt. it's a part of my life that's simply over.

I'm with you, nuevo. While I have no family connection to the gak-eye, I do have a pseudo-friend who's still in whom I have lunch with every once in a while, if only to get the fly-on-the-wall update on what's going on.

Let's see...some of the highlights:

Jt. Terr. Japanese WD leader told me to take down my artwork because it consisted of large (5 foot tall) Nichiren Shu antique gohonzons. She couldn't explain why it was wrong for me to have them, and ended up telling me I should chant until I agreed with her. Two weeks later, she dropped dead.

Former WD District leader met the love of her life, another woman, and in just a year, lovergirl dropped dead. Brain stem blood clot - very ugly. They both practiced. And then that former District leader's young son was crushed under a heavy gate - he's crippled for life. But at least they got a fat settlement - that counts as a benefit, right? Even though it's acknowledgment that your son will never walk again?

My latest WD District leader is now dead - I don't think she was even 50 when she died (it was after I stopped attending activities) - and now her husband is preparing to marry his cousin. Yay!

My pseudo-friend was chanting balls-to-the-wall for her convicted felon ex-jailbird husband to go straight when he was released from prison; 6 months after their son was born, he participated in two notorious jewelry store robberies with a gang and is now in prison for the rest of his life.

That's just those people I knew personally. We can look at Study Dept. leader Shin Yatomi, dead young from cancer; and Culture Department leader Pascual Olivera, dead young-ish from cancer; and David Aoyama, dead in one of the planes that hit the World Trade Center (so much for Fatman Ikeda's hypothesis that, if there had been ONE person who chanted on the Titanic, it wouldn't have sunk); and Guy McCloskey's son, dead at, what, age 29?? Where's this "protection" we're supposed to believe is "activated" when people chant? Why is Fatty McFatFat Ikeda's eldest son dead at only age 27 or so?? Isn't Ikeda supposed to be the one who knows best how to practice yadda yadda yadda?

So much for the "actual proof of the Mystic Law", huh? With THAT as "inspiration", I think I'll just continue to NOT chant, thank you very much.