"ManProng" heh heh heh
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hey, y'all! That's right, I'm *still* taiten and proud - "No longer advancing in the wrong direction!" When this board went off line in early 2013, a couple of people I'd met here and I created our own reddit site - Drusilla linked to it, but here it is again: ...and you're all *invited!* Please feel free to stop on by and see what's going on!
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

"I AM focused on SGI being the topic of the thread. I am not discussing other organizations, just mentioning them. What does making money "fair and square" mean exactly? Even if SGI tried to be the most virtuous religious organization in the world (and stock market) it would only be a matter of time before some critic would attack them for some investment practice he didn't ag
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

"I think in my early days it was really helpful being part of something." When I joined SGI-USA (then going by "NSA" - Nichiren Shoshu Academy/Nichiren Shoshu of America), we genuinely believed that we were going to convert the whole world within 20 years! That was when "kosen-rufu" would be realized! Within just 20 years! With something that huge at stake, you
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

"There was some problem in a temple in Brazil -- maybe the priest accused of embezzling money?" Just to clarify, the problem that SGI-USA General Director George M. Williams and his entourage (which included Steve Gore) were sent to deal with was the embezzlement of $2 million by the Brazil General Director, Roberto Saito, from the Sho-Hondo Construction Campaign funds that were coll
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

"I do have to ask everyone, why are you all demanding that SGI be poor? That's what the message appears to be." >>Toda Sensei said, 'The Gakkai will eternally advance in poverty.' >>Ikeda Sensei said, 'As an eternal principle, the Soka Gakkai will never ask for even the tiniest contribution of offering from the members.'
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

"SUA. For a school with less than two thousand students" The actual student body size is only around 450, though the stated goal was to have 1,200 students total. SUA has been open for, what, 16 years now, and STILL isn't able to meet its own goals, despite its BILLION DOLLAR endowment?? Ridiculous. Also, a high proportion of its graduates go on to master's degree pr
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hey, Clarity7! Yeah, I was in for just over 20 years, and I know what you're talking about. At first, they love-bomb the hell out of you - it seems like they've never met someone so interesting, insightful, intelligent, fascinating, or likable! They'll immediately want to exchange phone numbers, invite you to other activities, try and make plans to get together to chant, etc.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hiya, Corboy! Wow - so you finally got hit upon by the SGI! That's *hilarious*!! Interesting to see the persuasion tactics being used - clever clever. I went ahead and put up your comments over at - I'm sure it will get some comments in the next few days.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Glad to hear from you! I'll be checking back here now that a few people have trickled back.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hi, corboy - across the years! meh and I were just talking about you earlier today - we hope you are well! If you'd like to come visit where we hang out now, just put "reddit sgiwhistleblowers" into your search engine and it will bring you right to us.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hi, lostmyway! I started practicing in 1987, and got my Nikken gohonzon later that year - back then, if you didn't live in a city where there was a Nichiren Shoshu temple, you had to wait for the priests to schedule a visit to your outlying area, and they typically waited until a certain number of recipients were scheduled, to make the visit more cost-effective. So that August, I had my goj
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Here's that picture of "Sensei" standing on his Malibu lawn - the old link's gone dead:
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Here's that picture of "Sensei" standing on his Malibu lawn - the old link's gone dead:
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I mentioned TWO attacks from noble Nichiren Bodhisattvas of the Earth - here's the second. First of all, this person seems to be a Nichiren Shoshu member (that's the intolerant cult that provided the Soka Gakkai with its original religious legitimacy), and second, I think you'll see that they're WAY more similar than they are different! We'll start with this person'
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hey, corboy! I have an old friend who was in the US Yogi Bhajan yoga cult for, like, 7 years! She was even *married* within that cult! Over at our anti-cult anti-SGI activist site that we've been running for a coupla years now, I just got a couple of responses from SGI members, and I can't resist sharing! Here we go: Hey you there! SGI member Over here, I have something to say
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

That was a masterful handling of the cult recruiter, jtaylormade. Truly impressive how you immediately detected the "private language" terminology and the manipulative techniques. I'm going to borrow this post over to another anticult site I contribute to - it's a perfect demonstration of how to address these underhanded techniques (which we, over there, as cult apostates ou
Forum: Large Group Awareness Training, "Human Potential"

We can add Soka University in So. CA and all the Soka schools over in Japan (including kindergartens and elementary schools), as well as the (failed) attempt to sneak a Soka charter school under the radar - the "Spirit of Knowledge Academy" in Massachusetts. Notice the initials O_O It closed - read all about it here:
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Fascinating analysis, corboy - thanks for bringing that to the board! Here is an example that illustrates the following points: - None of the twenty were able to enjoy intimate relationships with adult equals. They needed to be top dog in relation to admiring underlings. - The ability to both charm and fear - Instill just enough fear that people will be afraid to leave or inform on you.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hi, everybody! I've been gone a really long time from here, but I thought I'd pop back in and see if anybody was around. I was doing some research and ran across an article about yakuza culture, and I was stunned at how Ikeda's early relationship with Toda (per what's written in Ikeda's self-serving hagiography, "The Human Revolution") matches traditional yaku
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

The only down side is that the old IDs are still gone. For us to reach Hitch, he's going to have to come back on his own and set up a new ID :(
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Here's the quote: " Well, as I say, Alexander made predictions and gave oracles, employing great shrewdness in it and combining guesswork with his trickery. He gave responses that were sometimes obscure and am­biguous, sometimes downright unintelligible, for this seemed to him in the oracular manner. Some people he dissuaded or encouraged as seemed best to him at a guess. To others h
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

>>chows down on popcorn<< One of my closest friends and I have a difference of opinion. When the Jehovah's Witnesses come to his door - and knock until someone answers - he is polite and kindly toward them, as they mean no harm (as he puts it). When those asswipes come to MY door, I may take what they hand me until I realize what it is, and then I call them back and give it
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

"No copywright on Tartuffe, so we can do all sorts of things to stage it. " Life imitates art...
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Yeah, you can chant for anything you want, but you SHOULDN'T want to chant to win the lottery! People have to work hard in life - what would life be like if people could just chant to get stuff without having to work for it?? ^ I actually heard leaders explain it like that.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Spartacus, back in the day, I chanted desperately and determinedly for the Taliban to change its collective mind about blowing up the Bamiyan Buddha statues and leave them alone instead. Guess I had weak faith, right??
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

In reading critical reveiws of the Secret, it becomes painfully obvious to me just how similar spiritual scams are. The Secret reminds me so much of chanting. Both are nothing but a "recipe for a frontal lobotomy. This is not high spiritual truth passed down through the ages, it's narcissistic delusion, bordering on the psychotic... a complete abdication of depth in favor of a supremely
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Terrific book review, corboy! Me likey!
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

OMG!! So THAT's why people don't have mail slots in their front doors any more!! I always thought it was because the cat or the dog tended to lurk just inside to bite the mailman's hand if it strayed inside... I don't think I'd step on ANY fire, no matter how small, unless it were, say, right in the middle of a big field of dry wheat straw or something. Just sayin&#
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I never understood that prank. Who would *stomp* on some burny thing?? I'd go get a cup of water to throw on it!
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families