Corboy & Mey (and for the record here) - here's an excerpt from a post I made at reddit (link) that is related to the subject of abusive spouses/cults:

"Leaving the Sgcult is strikingly similar to breaking up with a psychopathic spouse. In both cases, one must summon great courage and overcome each and every fear that keeps one locked into a harmful and destructive relationship, while deluding oneself into believing there is no other choice that can be made to alleviate the pain and suffering that life may bring. Friends and family (or cult.org members), usually resort to "blame the victim" tactics rather than admit the ugly truth, thereby protecting the abusive oppressor and their "good reputations". Even worse, we may self-delude into playing the victim role all by ourselves, and do all of the defending the abuser stuff ourselves as well. But no matter if its a spouse or a cult.org, the problem remains the same - we have conceded control (submission) to some dominating figure or authority outside of being, thereby giving up the freedom to chose for ourselves.

Psychopaths, be they abusive spouses or religious organizations, are adept at hiding their evil control-obsessed nature, while simultaneously presenting a beautiful and perfect picture of themselves to the world. They fake-smile while driving their straws deep, hoping to suck their victim's energy dry without them even noticing the drain. If you do begin to notice something and make overt objections, or try to re-establish self-autonomy, they quickly reach into their bag of psychological tricks to help misdirect and use your own words and thoughts against you, keeping you off balance, enslaved, easily manipulated, and led to believe there is no other choice but the one being presented to you by your abuser/user.

Completely dominating members through "guidance" is an SGcult leadership power trip and cult control mechanism. The cult understands that by appointing "leaders" they gain a very powerful and useful tool of control over the members. Even the good people that know better than to get sucked in by the slick cult propaganda become easily coerced into cult.org obedience by their surprise induction into the leadership hierarchy. Little by little (or sometimes in great leaps) cult.org members surrender themselves to the will and authority of higher positioned leaders, until they have become an empty shell of themselves (to use their own terminology - manifesting the world of "animalism"). " (end quote)


Mey, my second wife was a full blown psychopath, so I know first hand about abusive spouses. She played me like a string on the guitar (or better yet, she beat me like a drum). Her ability to project guilt and blame was superb. Friends we knew often told me the exact same thing after I finally broke off from her control, "But she was always so nice and friendly!" Abusive spouses and religious cults both exhibit the same well-honed ability to project a false face to their potential victims/detractors - to effectively sell their lies without letting the mark realize that they are being sold a bill of goods.

Corboy, let me repeat some golden words of your own:

"I chewed the guy out and walked out on him. know why I finally knew what to do?
Because I had had ten years writing stuff on this website and had been validated by you guys, thats why. So..thank you.

Internalizing a community of support is the real healing.

Until we get that, we are all alone, even when we sense something is indeed wrong."


"Internalizing a community of support is the real healing" - what an amazing insight, Corboy! In one sentence you have deftly summed up the essence of our purpose and mission, as we give and receive with a harmonious balance of interaction that adds so much enrichment and real value to our lives. I see "internalizing community support" as being real mystic law protection, as opposed to the phoney-baloney buddhist gods myth some of us were previously indoctrinated with. Even though contributors here on this forum may have never met face to face, the precious friendships we have forged and the confidence/wisdom that we've gained from each others warm support EXPANDS OUR LIVES exponentially. I was indeed, "standing alone" for many, many years until I found this forum and you guys. I hold each of you Buddha-ka in the highest of regards. Once again, THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

I am an unenslaved spirit

A slave that has freed himself

I AM SPARTACUS

One of the fundamentals of Buddhism is that all beings have Buddha-nature, and perhaps that is simply the essence of who we are. One of the leaders (one that actually came up with some pretty good guidance from time to time) once told me that if you allow someone to treat you badly in any way, it's not just you but your Buddha-nature that is being demeaned as well. She continued by saying that if one doesn't stand up in defense of themselves, they must stand up for their Buddha-nature. Maybe that's what we've actually done by leaving sgi - recognized that essence of ourselves that was being so brutally assaulted and realized that it was our responsibility to shield ourselves from it.

Now THAT is taking personal responsibility.

I think a lucid moment hit that half-off-his-rocker priest when we wrote: "Never seek the Buddha (enlightenment) outside of your own five foot body." I have to agree with that premise.

IMO the SGcult has completely failed its members as a Buddhist organization. Their dogmatic practices encourage members to "seek outside of oneself", and effectively sever any real connection to one's own Buddha nature. Members are unable to develop their Buddhahood due to:

1. Worshiping any honzon detours one from the path. Irrespective of how many times the above quote is studied, an irresistible tendency to regard a piece of paper as god prevails.
2, Worshiping any person derails one from the path. An ever-increasing level of mentor worship serves to blind practitioners, the opposite of "opening of the eyes."
3. Following guidance (with a hidden objective of reinforcing cult behavior) detracts from the path. Constant pressure for members to blindly look outward and accept mostly unqualified self-opinionated guidance develops an unhealthy dependence on cult leaders (and their approval) while diminishing self-reliance and intuitive problem solving abilities.

Once we leave the sgcult and all that looking outside ourselves behind, we actually have an exceedingly better chance to enjoy making unimpeded progress on our own path to enlightenment.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/2014 05:27PM by Spartacus.

You go to the heart of the matter there. While the org teaches more and more surrender and dependence to itself, when questioned it points to teachings that contradict their true actions and say, "no . . . look! See this is what we believe! Self-responsibility! Self-reliance!" The distance between the reality and how they perceive themselves produces a chasm of dissonance. When you're told repeatedly that what you're seeing isn't really what you're seeing, you either comply with the group-think and go a little mad or you have to leave.

Sgi and other cults have learned to leverage the quirks and tics of human psychology to their own advantage, and they've done so through observation rather than design. I know that as a parent, I've manipulated my children into more socially acceptable behavior, and it wasn't done consciously. If you don't manipulate your child by making them think about how they made someone else feel, they don't learn compassion, for example. Most human relationships are managed through a kind of benign manipulation; the whole theory behind productive arguing is not to launch a tirade of you-do-this-and-you-do-that, but instead to make a point by saying when-you-do-this-I-feel-that.

At some distant point in history, it became apparent that under the right circumstances, a person with a specific set of tics and quirks would be easily manipulated into becoming a grateful lackey. Their belief-system (about anything, including their view of themselves) could be tweaked and groomed into something could be managed and guided. It probably wasn't even a conscious realization and, for the most part, people use it for productive purposes. Every once in a while, though, a despot will come along who realizes just how powerful a tool manipulation can be, and uses it to his or her advantage to gain power over others. That pattern gets taught to the next generation, and the next generation, and before you know it you have a dynasty of very powerful people. And those under their thrall teach their children that THIS is who is in charge, and that gets passed along as well. Whether that's good or bad depends upon whether you're talking about Charlemagne or Kim Jong Un.

Manipulation takes as many forms as cults do. Someone who inspires us has engaged in a form of manipulation, even if you never lay eyes on them. It's a matter of degree and whether that inspiration is positive or negative, and that latter is largely a matter of personal perspective.

We get manipulated every day of our lives, whether it's our kid who knows he'll get an extra cookie if he looks at you that special way or the advertising that we're exposed to constantly. It's all designed to shift our thinking in a different direction to serve the other's agenda. We just need to be careful to decide which agendas serve us the best.

Once you get sucked into a cult like sgi, you give up a huge chunk of that ability to discern what serves you. They've learned how to manipulate a specific subset of people and to keep most of them on the hook. They've refined to an art the ability to deny reality and capture thought-processes.

Yes, this forum is a community of support which illuminates the true nature of the sgicult with many individual floodlights, mine is affixed to the watchtower. Sgicult will suck your money and your life engery out of you. Strip away the phoney window dressings of senseless's phoney world peace verbage and his phoney college degrees and what do you have: a cult leader/dictator who has abused and harmed many people for a long time. A $3,000 Italian suit can be put on a pig, but behind the suit he is still a pig.

Meh said (in reference to mind control), "They've refined to an art the ability to deny reality and capture thought-processes." You have described the essence of modern mind control. Abusers, be they governments, cult.orgs, or individuals, all depend on mind control to keep hidden and further their self-serving agendas. Just the mere mention of mind control instantly drives abusers and their victims to impose insanely irrational denials of the incredibly obvious. Mind control techniques provide the easiest and most effective method to compel people to behave in a desired manner.

Many years ago, when my son was around 8 yrs old and had been sent to his room for misbehaving, I was trying to help my ex-wife to become aware of our child's very effective ability to frequently manipulate her. During our "discussion" in the living room, I heard his small voice from down the hall say, "I am not manipulating". I stopped talking and went into my son's room, and had him repeat to me what he had just said. I could hardly believe my ears. I asked him if he understood what the word "manipulating" meant, and he replied that he did not know. But I can assure you, he certainly did know how to keep his mother effectively wrapped around his finger. He had already become adept at using manipulation/mind control on his mother, without needing to know what it was called.

Oh, and speaking of the Un dynasty in NK, I see the NK propagandist team constantly referring to "the eternal president". So I am going to make a prediction here. When daisucku's kicks the bucket and his son takes over the SGI presidency, the SGI propagandist team will borrow that NK term and begin to refer to IKee-da as "the eternal president" as well.

Apologies for the double post. Once again, the site wont allow me to edit my post, so I am re-posting it with the new edits and additional text.

Meh said (in reference to mind control), "They've refined to an art the ability to deny reality and capture thought-processes." You have described the essence of modern mind control. Abusers, be they governments, cult.orgs, or individuals, all depend on mind control to keep hidden and further their self-serving agendas. Just the mere mention of mind control instantly drives abusers and their victims to impose insanely irrational denials of the incredibly obvious. Mind control techniques provide the easiest and most effective method to compel people to behave in a desired manner.

Many years ago, when my son was around 8 yrs old and had been sent to his room for misbehaving, I was trying to help my ex-wife to become aware of our child's very effective ability to frequently manipulate her. During our "discussion" in the living room, I heard his small voice from down the hall say, "I am not manipulating". I stopped talking and went into my son's room, and had him repeat to me what he had just said. I could hardly believe my ears. I asked him if he understood what the word "manipulating" meant, and he replied that he did not know. But I can assure you, he certainly did know how to keep his mother effectively wrapped around his finger. He had already become adept at using manipulation/mind control on his mother, without needing to know what it was called.

Even after going through extensive family counseling, my ex absolutely could not recognize or admit to having been manipulated by our children. Our family counselors and all their textual scientific sources could not turn her from her immovable stance, "All our family problems were 100% MY (the father's) fault." 100%!!! Talk about shifting blame! That was the straw that broke the camel's back for me. I finally had an epiphany from those counseling sessions - it was time for me to walk away from our marriage. It didn't matter what was said or who said it, she obviously was never, ever going to break away from her mind-numbing irrationality and come to her senses. It was a heartbreaking decision for me, but at that point, I could no longer see any reason to keep struggling to save our 20 year relationship. But there were sound reasons to leave, for instance the need to protect my own sanity and well-being. Its not easy for victims to come to grips and begin dealing with an abusive situation/behavior, especially when so much time and energy was previously expended on the denial of being abused, and of shielding the abuser from any blame.

Oh, and speaking of the Un dynasty in NK, I see the NK propagandist team constantly referring to "the eternal president". So I am going to make a prediction here. When daisucku's kicks the bucket and his son takes over the SGI presidency, the SGI propagandist team will borrow that NK term and begin to refer to IKee-da as "the eternal president" as well.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/19/2014 07:53AM by Spartacus.

The only thing that makes me wonder if suck-u jr. is going to inherit the earth is that, to my recollection, he has never been front and center during any of the videos we were subjected to during krg meetings. I am really bad at id-ing any of those schmoes (other than senseless and his lovely wife), but it seems that the usual emcee was someone not related to him. Once again, I come from an American mentality, but it just seems like there would be a period of transition before any mortal coils get cast off. Or maybe that's happening in secrecy? Maybe, since senseless is such a massive pile of sh . . . excuse me, benefits and good fortune, they're figuring that he'll never really die?

It'll be interesting to see how the whole thing plays out once that fat spider kicks it. Since I joined in 2006, the org has been pretty insistent that there will be no president after ick's death, and that the org will be run by the "youth." It kind of defies my logic that there wouldn't be at least a titular head. though, With senseless being promoted as the "eternal mentor," maybe the members can look forward to a long future in which "previously undisclosed" writings by dear old ick will be found with astonishing frequency. If they don't appoint another pres, the org will inevitably break down into little sgi fiefdoms. As bad as it is now, if those petty little tyrants are in charge, it will get oh-so-much worse - maybe that will lead to mass defections among those who don't have those precious pioneer certificates.

Who knows? Maybe he's dead already, and they'll just put off the announcement forever. Hard to imagine that they could keep it a secret for long, though, as much as those people love drama and gossip.

I've been hearing the bovine-covered claim that the "youth" are going to take over for 42 years. 42 years!!! We have clearly seen that "youth" are never allowed any sort of significant leadership or control by the cult.org. The SGI HQ overlords' jealously guarded control over all facets of the organization is extremely unlikely to relent, now or ever. Considering their propensity for deception and wealth, how could anyone seriously believe the SGcult is going to hand the reigns of their billion dollar a year enterprise over to "youth".

When the presidential death announcement is finally given, the traumatic shock will be crafted for maximum effect upon the membership's collective psyche. The shock will provide the big cheese leaders with a free pass to do whatever they please behind closed doors without any question or opposition from the general membership. They will most certainly take advantage of the traumatic shock factor to further consolidate and strengthen their own positions, profits, and control. Like the good disaster capitalists they are, the corrupt SGI HQ leaders will probably devise multiple ways to garner big profits for the cult.org and for themselves from the devastated members suffering from the loss of their great cult hero.

Ikee-da would have crushed and destroyed any real contenders for his power long ago. Due to his super-inflated ego and paranoia, HQ doesn't have anyone with a strong leadership presence in the wings to present. But they probably don't want an actual leader in place anyway, as a weakling would be so much more preferable. That's what makes Ikee-da JR such a desirable candidate for office - they can easily control him - just like the neocons did with the bumbling and stumbling moron, George Bush II.

Whoever is named and whatever title given, any newly appointed SGIcult international leader will likely be nothing more that a figurehead stooge that can be easily manipulated and controlled by the elite inner circle of power-mongers already imbedded within the cult.org. If the cult elite don't pull together and agree to name a puppet to the helm, the cult.org will implode into warring factions. Then the splinter groups will continue fighting each other for dominance and control of the golden goose until their greed and hatred sap the last drop of life from the cooked bird members.

I had no idea that the handing-it-over-to-the-youth was such aged claim! That puts in a completely different perspective.

That makes me think about the "rock the era" (a more appropriate title would be "rook the era") efforts. We've often mentioned here and on reddit that there were good times. Obviously, I'm a little long in the tooth to have participated, but I did go to the event here in philly had counted it among those positive experiences, until just recently. I had a great time there, and the high point for me was the taiko drum performance at the beginning; in retrospect, I see it now as a device to get everyone in a frame of mind to swallow yet more Kool-Aid. Is there anything more hypnotic than taiko drums? From that point forward, it was edutainment geared to whip everyone into a frenzy of "we love our mentor and we love our organization."

I'm sure that when the time comes and senseless bites the dust, you'll be proven right, Spartacus. And I don't think that anyone will notice or remember that the youth were supposed to inherit the earth. I can't even begin to imagine the plans that are in place for that event; I'm sure they'll make Machiavelli look like an amateur.

And it makes me wonder, too, about the krg videos (stick with me, I have a point). I understand that there was always a certain amount of security around maintaining custody of the tapes/dvd's - I was told that was because they were afraid the temple would get their hands on them and manipulate them somehow. I wonder now if there was something on those recordings that they didn't want anyone to know about, like subliminal messaging. Wouldn't that be perfect? What an opportunity to expose a community-center full of gullible and primed people to further indoctrination? The reason I mention it in this context is because I can't remember whether or not they showed a video of fat-boy at the RTE event or not, and I'm suddenly struck by how little I remember after the taiko drum performance. And I realize how little I actually remember about the ick-eda videos, other than his fat, smug face and him getting lots of undeserved awards. I'd love to get one of those dvd's into the hands of someone who could analyze it properly.

We need a mole in the organization.