We had this over here too. At what used to be called shakubuku meeting (now guest meeting) one would count the number of "members" present according to the divisons and the number of guests being there.
I know that in some countries the number of subsriptions for the various publication plunged - it was then when suddenly ALL monthly study material was part of the publictaions - having all volumes of the gosho was not good enough anymore as it was more important what the mentor had to say about the gosho or the sutra. In a way a normal marketing meassure.
Today I think SGI was far more keen on numbers that on the individual, how they come up with the number of "members" beats me. On the other hand if they would have kept records on their so called members they at least in europe would have gone against some data protection acts. To take it one step further having records of members attending, number of subscriptions etc one can make a fair judgement on current and future income too. In a company you would want to know how much you have produced and what amount of produced goods have been sold or simply sit on the shelves - and you want to have empty shelves :-)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/05/2009 04:39PM by Rothaus.

These posts are bringing back memories! I remember having to do publications paperwork -- it always fell to the women's division and young women's division. We were delighted when SGI moved to a more centralized accounting system for World Tribune and Living Buddhism subscriptions. We finally had Saturdays free!

SGI also moved quickly to centralized zaimu, or financial contributions. As Anticult said, SGI is very efficient about the things that they care about. We'd get our green envelopes at meetings -- you were encouraged to just directly mail your contribution to the headquarters in another city. The address, conveniently, was printed on the envelope, and if I'm remembering right, the postage was also paid.

Now, SGI is going to credit card contributions or direct-banking contributions. You can just set up a "giving plan" where SGI can deduct money directly from your account or just bill your credit card on a regular basis. Super efficient. SGI actually began the direct banking in Japan, in 1985, if mombu.com is accurate. Seems that when members brought cash to meetings and handed it over to leaders....too many leaders were keeping their own cut! I guess when they were told to be like Ikeda...some took it quite seriously -- that they too could help themselves to members' donations!

I've practiced in several cities...and in most of them, paperwork/filing were done haphazardly, with paperwork missing, coffee-stained, crayoned on. I was talking with a nonBuddhist friend once, trying to get her to come to a meeting. She said, "I don't like organized religion."

"That's okay," I replied. "We're actually pretty disorganized." Most of our local leaders meant well. They were just kept so busy by their own senior leaders, and then also had their own work and family responsibilities. Unless you're one of these super-organized, obsessive-compulsive types, who had the time or interest in doing, and maintaining all this paperwork?

And numbers, yes, I remember taking attendance also, and I remember my group chief having to call his own senior with numbers of guests, and new shakabukus. If the numbers weren't good, the poor group chief would get a stinging lecture from the boss. Very military...the corporal reports to the sergeant, and if Sarge is not pleased with the report, the corporal gets chewed out.

I've always wanted to be a fly on the wall when Danny Nagashima has to call Ikeda with less-than-stellar numbers. I'm sure Ikeda's true Buddha nature is revealed during those conversations!

Did any of you ever attend those monthly Ikeda video meetings that started a few years ago? The way Danny Nagashima and that vice president guy (Wada?) would kow-tow in Ikeda's presence always bothered me. Ikeda was especially bad with Wada, always making him the butt of some light joking or treating him as if he were a little child. It will be interesting to see if some of these leaders reveal how they really feel about Ikeda once he's gone.

Ikeda and his associates are very smart about human nature. They know if local SGI leaders find themselves dealing with envelopes with large amounts of cash, some of them are going to get sticky fingers. That kind of thing would drive Ikeda insane.

SGI does not trust anyone, not even their own local "leaders", never mind the regular members. So they would have the money mailed to other cities where there would be trusted SGI loyalists.

Its surprising that SGI has not openly used direct-bank-withdrawal in the US before, most likely they have been using it with certain people done on a one on one basis, but not openly advertising it?

But of course, SGI does not deserve one dollar from anyone, as SGI-USA chooses to conceal and hide where all the money goes. SGI has consciously chosen to conceal where members donations go.
So SGI does not deserve one dollar in donations.

Any group that does not have 100% open audited accounting of donations, doesn't deserve one dollar in donations.
And SGI is really the worst, as they literally HIDE EVERYTHING, and do not give out any actual information about how the money is being used, or where it is going.
If SGI had nothing to hide, they would publish their financials, but they conceal them, as SGI has plenty to hide, as in billions of dollars.
No one knows where that money is, or what its used for, or where it went.

Perhaps SGI delayed using direct bank transfers in the US, as when SGI gets CASH donations, then no one can ever prove they received that cash.

Quote
tsukimoto
...
SGI also moved quickly to centralized zaimu, or financial contributions. As Anticult said, SGI is very efficient about the things that they care about. We'd get our green envelopes at meetings -- you were encouraged to just directly mail your contribution to the headquarters in another city. The address, conveniently, was printed on the envelope, and if I'm remembering right, the postage was also paid.

Now, SGI is going to credit card contributions or direct-banking contributions. You can just set up a "giving plan" where SGI can deduct money directly from your account or just bill your credit card on a regular basis. Super efficient. SGI actually began the direct banking in Japan, in 1985, if mombu.com is accurate. Seems that when members brought cash to meetings and handed it over to leaders....too many leaders were keeping their own cut!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/2009 05:01AM by The Anticult.

I don't even know where to begin. Am I allowed to say "LMAO? "
This are some links that just came out:


[www.youtube.com]



[www.youtube.com]




is it just me or does Ikeda have tentacles that reach every corner of the earth? Is there anything sacred anymore? I know he has had childrens books out for years. It makes me what to scream!

Evergreen, thanks for posting those Youtube links! To anyone else reading this -- if you haven't looked at those two links, please do! They're commercials for a children's cartoon series on Malaysia's ntv7 television station. Each one shows little clips from two stories --"The Prince and the Coral Sea," "Rainbow Mountain," "The Princess of the Desert Kingdom," and "Kanto and the Deer." You see these adorable, little cartoon images, looking like the anime style that's so popular with kids and you hear the voice over for the series: "Like you, like me, the world in your heart -- from Dr. Daisaku Ikeda!"

Quote
The Anticult
SGI is using techniques very similar to Sai Baba, in the sense of deliberately injecting the image/imago of the Guru deep into the psyche of the followers, with massive repetition, visual images, and anything else they can think of.
SGI is also trying to "fuse" Ikeda right into the core identity of the SGI follower, and to do it for life, and make SGI-Ikeda the center of their life.

So whoever is doing this, knows that whether Ikeda is alive or dead is not even relevant to that method. As to the average SGI person, they are never going to meet Ikeda of course, but just create a mental contruct of "Ikeda" in their minds, which they then organize their lives around.

I'm sure that the cartoons are charming...and what a diabolically clever way to get "Dr. Daisaku" into the minds of the little Malaysian kids who see these cartoon series! The series appears to have so many of the elements that kids love -- fairy tale plots, anime cartoons, bright colors, cute little animals. And the caption: "LIKE you, LIKE me, the world in your heart..." Liking! Similarity! My heart, the world, we're all one....that line just flows, it sticks in your mind. And who's bringing all this cuteness and fun and messages of love and hope to you? Why, our dearest Dr. Daisaku! The little kids in front of the TV may have no clue who or what SGI or Nichiren Buddhism is....but they're thinking, "Oh, he's such a nice doctor!" Just like Dr. Seuss!

Is there anything that Ikeda hasn't gotten his tentacles into? Good question! On page 65 of this thread, there's a list copied from a website antisgiblog124. It has a long list of businesses that SGI has either invested in or a large percentage of managers are SGI members. According to this site, SGI holds 10% of the stock in Tokyo Disneyland and also is connected with a video production company -- did this company produce those children's shows for Malaysian TV?

The companies themselves are extremely varied: tourism, booksellers and publishers, Kirin Brewery, construction, banking, real estate, antiques, a baseball team, ramen shop, coffee, a woodshop.

THIS was what the senior leadership of SGI were doing while we general members and lower-ranking leaders were putting on our big conventions, going to endless rounds of meetings, making roller-skating pyramids, filling out those dumb forms for the publications, approaching strangers on the street and asking them if they'd ever heard of "Nam-myoho-renge-kyo, doing toso after toso that the High Priest Nikken would step down. We were kept pumped up and busy and distracted while Ikeda was quietly taking our donations and building his empire. One of the oldest tricks in the world, create a distraction and then pick someone's pocket while they're focused on the distraction you created.

Quote
Rothaus
I remeber those meetings were we got cake or biscuist from "Sensei" .... hmm come on fat chance, I doubt he even knew the meeting was held. Ot the rumour that he erads every letter from the members. Here the Santa comparisson soemone made earlier fits perfect.

Good lord, our leaders did that to us in the U.S. too -- telling us that some packaged biscuits or rice cakes came from Ikeda, when in fact the man probably had NO idea who we were or that we were meeting! And yet otherwise intelligent, educated adults actually seemed to believe this -- Sensei sent us biscuits!

HOW is it that anyone over ten years of age believes this? When you're little, maybe Mommy and Daddy buy some Christmas presents and tell you that the gifts are from Santa -- but soon enough, the child realizes that he's seen that toy on sale at Walmart.

In the eighties, some of my SGI acquaintances had been to someplace where Ikeda and his entourage were...a convention? Anyway, she and her friends wanted to go into an area, and Ikeda's security guys turned them back. As they were leaving, some employee of Ikeda's ran out with some little gifts for them. The employee told the women that Sensei was sorry he couldn't meet with them; he had an appointment and he wanted them to have something from him. The gifts were trifles, red, blue and gold SGI stickers, SGI notepads, SGI pens, xeroxed copies of Ikeda's poems! Nothing at all special, but they carried on like Ikeda had personally handed each lady a box of diamonds! Sensei gave us stickers! He didn't want us to feel slighted!

In the nineties, some local members went to the Florida Nature and Culture Center -- Ikeda's "gift" to the American members. It's a center in Florida where members can go for various SGI programs. They just bubbled on and on about how wonderful Ikeda was to "give" us this beautiful center to relax and refresh ourselves. Yes, and whose donations paid for the center...not to mention that if you go to a conference, YOU have to pay for it! If you're paying for something -- how exactly is that a "gift" to you?

Over and over again, Ikeda is portrayed as knowing and being interested in even the tiniest details of members' lives -- like God, Santa Claus or the most caring of parents. SGI wants you to think that he knows that the Victory Rising Sun Group in Anytown, California is having a meeting on Saturday, October 2 -- and that he wants you to have a nice snack at the meeting! SGI wants you to think that Sensei is so very sorry that he cannot speak with you on this terribly busy day, but he wants to give you some little gift to make up for it. Sensei wants you American members to have a beautiful nature center to relax in. He wants Malaysian kids to have a heartwarming TV series to watch. See what a sweetheart our Sensei is! Why, he just wants to make people happy! Snacks, stickers, TV shows...things that children like. Aren't we just his good little children?

Anticult talked about how gurus like Ikeda, Sai Baba, and Byron Katie try to inject the guru's image deeply into a follower's psyche with repetition, imagery and manipulation. With Ikeda, SGI is pushing this image of Sensei as Santa Claus, the giver who just wants to make everyone happy.

Josei Toda, the previous president of the Soka Gakkai, described the Gohonzon as a "happiness machine-- that idea that you could chant to the Gohonzon and get whatever you wanted. This was how he tried to sell SGI Buddhism back in the 1950's. It seems that SGI is now trying to present Ikeda as the "happiness machine" instead of the Gohonzon -- that following him is what gives you happiness, not chanting to the Gohonzon.

SGI has members believing that Ikeda gives the members everything. The truth is -- it's exactly the opposite. The members are giving Ikeda everything. The members are Ikeda's "happiness machine."



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/06/2009 12:05PM by tsukimoto.

From SGI-USA's website, programs at SGI's Florida Nature and Culture Center (FNCC):

-------------Beginning of Quote-----------------------------------------------------------------

Participant Package Pricing
Member Resources | FNCC
The package price of the conference is $435.
(Ground arrangements only; airfare not included).
Package includes:
Sleeping accommodations for 3 nights at the FNCC (double occupancy).
All meals from Friday (dinner) through Monday (lunch).
Ground transportation to and from the Fort Lauderdale or Miami International Airports. It is recommended that you use the Ft. Lauderdale Airport since there is an hourly shuttle from 12noon to 6pm and it is only 30 min. away from FNCC. (Extra ground transportation charge may apply for late arrival.)
Bus tour (admission fees not included).
Conference instructions & materials.
---------------------End of Quote---------------------------------------------------------------------

The programs are generally three days long (you'd stay for three nights), and on a variety of topics related to practicing Buddhism. Guests stay in a dormitory room, double occupancy. Acquaintances who went several years ago said that the food is very good, but served cafeteria style. Apparently, SGI members who are chefs or caterers sometimes volunteer their services -- that volunteer labor again! It makes me wonder how much paid staff there actually is at the FNCC. Do members cut the grass, and clean the buildings as unpaid, volunteer service? Have members with construction or landscaping skills worked without pay? Do presenters run programs for free?

$435 for one person for three days. You arrive Friday afternoon, so you get dinner, you have three meals on Saturday and Sunday, and you get breakfast and lunch on Monday -- nine meals, a conference and three nights' room and board.

As a comparison, the Kripalu Center in Massachusetts offers new age and yoga weekend programs (as well as longer ones). As with FNCC, Kripalu's guests also stay in a dormitory and eat cafeteria-style. Prices vary, depending on how popular the instructor is, the time of year, and what kind of room you choose. I'm looking at Kripalu's January 2010 offerings -- their cheapest weekend programs (just the program) run from $210 -- $265. For room and board (three nights, plus your meals), the cheapest dormitory room is $274.

So it's $435 for your three days at the FNCC, and $484 for your three days at the Kripalu Center in Massachusetts. So yes, SGI's price is a bit lower -- but still, it's no gift! Now, Kripalu used to be a yoga ashram with a guru, and they relied heavily on volunteer labor. Now the guru is gone, a board and a director run the place -- and they have to pay people to do jobs that the volunteers once did for free. As you'd expect, Kripalu's prices have risen over the past few years.

This makes me wonder how much of the work at FNCC is actually done by SGI members for free. I'm not a business person, I have no idea of the costs of running a place like SGI's FNCC. With those fees, and some volunteer labor, CAN it be profitable, or at least self-sustaining? Any accountants or business managers reading this -- do you know?

SGI is very skilled at using these mass group persuasion techniques.

The technique of making tens of thousands of people feel "intimate" with the guru, is a common one.
Its a similar effect as done with TV. For example, many people feel intimate with a TV talk show host they see on TV everyday, but they don't realize to the TV star, they are a complete utter stranger, just part of the mass of people out there.

That is what SGI members are to Ikeda, just an anonymous seething mass of humanity.
But the technique is to try and exploit the false intimacy created by media/video/books to try to make people feel Ikeda is intimate with them, as they feel to him.

When in fact, SGI members are just numbers on a balance sheet to Ikeda.
And one can see how SGI consciously and carefully exploits that false-intimacy.

They do even consciously expoit the Santa Clause impulse in many people, trying to make people believe Ikeda is aware of what they are doing at their meetings!
That works with some adults, as these types of groups can be regressive psychologically.

SGI uses the bogus Ikeda biscuits as a give away, like Sai Baba uses fake Vibhuti ash which he lies and pretends he manifests out of thin air. When people are indoctrinated, they really start to believe these things came from the Guru, and they become a sacred object, like a communion wafer.

Meanwhile, Ikeda is in a board meeting discussing investing in Tokyo Disney, and various other corporate and political schemes for global domination.

The use of cartoons to target children is common as well. It can work on the kids, and through the kids the parents, and reinforce the SGI family.
We have seen in this thread how SGI creates terrible family tension, if some members of the family want to leave SGI. SGI does that also on purpose, as internal family pressure is the ultimate in social influence. If you leave SGI, you can lose your family.
Same thing when SGI people's only "friends" are SGI people.
Then people find it terrible to leave SGI, as they lose all their "friends".
Powerful stuff.


The $435 FNCC Florida Nature and Culture Center weekend is very interesting. Of course, many LGAT seminars charge much more, but SGI knows they can't charge too much for this, and they don't need to.
Getting their SGI members together for group indocrination techniques for 3 days straight is priceless for SGI. Very deep programming can occur in just a few days, and it leads to more donations, and lifetime involvement with SGI.

Who owns the Florida Nature and Culture Center 125 acres?
It looks like they try to rent it out.

Even before looking up who owns FNCC, just look at the name.
FNCC Florida Nature and Culture Center.
It sounds like a nature preserve until you hit that word CULTURE. That sounds like SGI, and their "culture" department.
Culture is a code word in SGI for ideological indocrination, that is, human BELIEFS. That is what all these groups do, engineer beliefs into their followers.
But again, even before looking it up, the FNCC screams being owned by SGI.
It appears at first glance its owned by some wing of SGI, perhaps as part of their vast real estate portfolio, where they invest their SGI billions.
If it does turn out SGI-USA owns that 125 acres, rest assured its all volunteer.

Now its time to look up who owns the FNCC Florida Nature and Culture Center and see what the facts say.

Wow, imagine that.
FNCC Florida Nature and Culture Center is owned and run by SGI.

"Soka Gakkai International USA, an American Buddhist association that runs the Florida Nature and Culture Center in Weston...center moved to the 125-acre property after SGI-USA closed a smaller location in what is now Aventura."
[news.fjnet.com]


Notice how the website for the FNCC [www.floridanaturecc.org] does not mention SGI owns it and runs it, no mention of Soka, Ikeda.
More deception.

But their FNCC application, has references to SGI, for those who are in SGI, it collects all of that personal information, which goes into the SGI computer database.
For example, the YPG, which appears to be the SGI-USA Youth Performing Group, SGI loves to target "youth".
SGI-USA Youth [www.sgi-usa.org]

SGI-USA is a very complex and comprehensive organization, top to bottom, incredibly well financed and organized, using every technique in the book.

Perhaps an SGI member can point out the SGI references below.

__________________________FNCC application_____________
Today’s Date: Previous Participation:
Conference Title:

First Name:
Last Name:

Address:
City:

State: ZIP:
Country:

Email address
Home phone:

Work phone:
Cell Phone:

Age:Gender: Minor Consent Filed:

Health condition:

Division:
Leadership:
Language:

Dietary request:
Roommate request:

Select the transportation mode you plan to use to reach FNCC:
by car by plane by bus/train

How would you like to receive your confirmation?
EmailPhoneLetter

Emergency Contact Information:
Name:
Relationship:
Telephone numbers:



Region:
Area:
Chapter:
District:

Arrival date: Arrival time:EST
Arrival airline: Flight#:
Airport:
Depart date: Depart time: EST
Depart airline:Flight#:
Airport:

Yes, please arrange early transportation shuttle (extra cost).
No, I will wait until the noon shuttle.
I wish to meet and catch the FNCC shuttle at the airport.
I'd like to be dropped off at the airport.

Credit Card Expiration
Comments:

YPG Group:
Band instrument:


SUA JHHS Requirements
DOB Grade (after summer):
Primary physician information
Name
Contact


FNCC Application 9-2007
_____________________________



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/07/2009 01:45AM by The Anticult.