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Hitch
Was perusing some of the older posts on this thread and came across this interesting one from AntiCult:

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The Anticult
Well that is interesting, some sects give very specific instruction on how to do street pick-ups.
It would take an Ex-SGI Leader to come forward and tell about how they were trained to manage the SGI streeters, as SGI has a system of how to deal with new people who get brought in.

But again, SGI is very smart. They keep it simple.
The SGI Leader orders people to go out and pick-up some people off the street.
One would assume the SGI leader praises those who bring back the bacon, and shames those who don't.

So then SGI members start to lie to people, to get them to come back with them.
There are posts in this thread, of how a group of SGI people would DECEIVE someone, by telling them they are going somewhere else, and then take that person to an SGI recruitment meeting.

Its very interesting how dishonesty becomes commonplace in these sects like SGI. Many of the average members would think lying is wrong, yet they lie lie lie to get people to attend a meeting. Or they distort, misrepresent, manipulate.

What is very interesting, is some SGI people who have tried to recruit others, when asked about this, don't even say they are doing for the other person's good. They have openly said they are doing it for THEIR OWN KARMA. The first time I heard that, I was floored by the selfishness of that statement. They literally said they recruit people to SGI for their OWN Karma, that is, so they can have more of what they want in their lives.
SGI just panders to that level of human self-centeredness.

But again, SGI is very diabolically smart. They know its a numbers game, its a meat market. Bring in the numbers, and a certain % of those people will join.
That is how SGI makes the millions and billions. Pump and dump, they just churn people through.

There have to be former SGI Leaders who have quit, who can go into the great detail of the advanced training they take on how to recruit new people brought in.
The SGI-USA website is full of techniques and strategies.
It looks like SGI uses "modeling" (which is an NLP term) to show others how to do things. That is, you copy those who are higher up the food chain than you are.
That way, you only know what SGI wants you to know at each level.

SGI is very very smart how they run their operation.

Once again, just wanted to state as fact that AntiCult is, yet again, correct, regarding how street shakubuku was done.

New or reluctant members were placed into little groups that always had at least a couple of bold front leaders with a proven track record for getting "guests." You hit the streets, the corners, in neighborhoods - door to door, and went right up to strangers in a very confident, happy (feigned) and direct manner. You learned by watching them repeat the process and then were eventually pushed forward to do it yourself, with them falling back to support you. If things started to go bad, then they took over again. It was definitely done by modeling.

The cult organization that I remember and grew up in was essentially obsessed with shakubuku. Every meeting, every speech, and just about every other word out of Williams' (Sandanaga) mouth was "shakubuku, shakubuku, shakubuku." It was pushed constantly, way too much and way over the top for my tastes. I never bought into it and was sick of hearing about it all the time, too. Some of the darkest manipulation that I ever had the misfortune to witness in the cult also occurred when people were forced to do random shakubuku, were reluctant, or didn't want to. It always reeked of desperation to me and went completely against what I thought a genuine religion should be about.

This is all strictly from the members' side/perspective. Just think about much worse it was from the "target." Feigned attention for your happiness and welfare one minute, then you are almost completely forgotten and neglected then next minute (right after you join). It was painfully obvious that it was all purely a numbers game.

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SGBye
I constantly butted heads with leaders towards the end of my time in the SGI .......

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The Anticult
This goes back to things near the beginning of this long thread.
I knew a person in the past, who called themselves a "Buddhist" from SGI. The first time this person told me they were a Buddhist, I assumed they were joking and being ironic and sarcastic, like someone eating a burger saying they were a Vegan.
This person was not a "Buddhist" in the sense of how most people think of it.
They drank excessively, got drunk regularly, smoked, had promiscuous sex often with strangers, and spent most of their day focussed on their career, money, trying to get famous and rich, and the rest of it.
So the person was like some reality show contestant acting out on TV, as in Greed is Good.

So that lead to some research into this so-called Buddhism sold by SGI in the west.
Within minutes, literally, I asked this person..didn't Buddha say the origin of suffering is desire?
They had never heard that one. Whoops.

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Nichijew
I knew this fellow, Kevin O'Neil. He was a 7th degree blackbelt and had a Master's degree in Asian philosophy. He was also a strong District Leader. One day he took the SGI up on their exortation to ask as many questions as you like. He gave Mr. Kasahara a notebook with 3000 questions. After several months and not receiving a single answer to even one question, he confronted Mr. Kasahara. Mr Kasahara excommunicated him.

Nichijew

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SGBye
Also, I once did street shakubuku when I was around 16 with another guy who was 17. It was just the two of us walking up to people. Looking back on it now, I can’t believe the two of us, who weren’t even of adult age yet, were sent out to approach random strangers on the street. Crazy.

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Hitch
Some of the darkest manipulation that I ever had the misfortune to witness in the cult also occurred when people were forced to do random shakubuku, were reluctant, or didn't want to. It always reeked of desperation to me and went completely against what I thought a genuine religion should be about.