I was a member of Soka Gakkai International (SGI) for seven years. It's a so-called Buddhist cult, headed by Daisaku Ikeda, a Japanese billionaire with possible Yakuza connections.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

You've hit the nail on the head, corboy. That list is pretty much interchangeable, whether you're talking about a cult or a crime organization. If you can meet all of those "qualifications," you are capable of being unquestioningly loyal to the "family."
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

While this article focuses on Scientology and Landmark Education, it speaks universally to how intelligent, thinking people can be drawn into a cult. . . . In fact, indoctrination is tantamount to slow, methodical abuse. And just like other forms of abuse, often by the time you realize what what’s happening, it’s too late. Cults like Scientology initially seem to share universal values. T
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Buried under that happy-happy layer is a level of sinister manipulation. These are the same people we all practiced with - completely average and composed people in their daily life, but once under the thrall, subject to shedding of inhibitions to a hypnotic drum-beat, there's very little hesitation to get up in front of a group of people and act in a way they never would under any other cir
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

"As an eternal principle, the Soka Gakkai will never ask for even the tiniest contribution of offering from the members." - Daisaku Ikeda - from the Seikyo Shinbun, 6/16/1962. Not the first lie, and certainly not the last.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

It's almost as if there's something "wrong" about examining a religious or self-transformation group; they only want to help you! How dare you want to look a gift-guru in the mouth!! And, if you told the person trying to recruit you that you just wanted to check things out, there would be a ready reply. "Well, by all means, gather as much info as you can! I do want you
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

So well put, corboy! A friend used to say "my gut never ever lied to me - it was when I started thinking with my brain that I got into trouble." We have those instincts (or whatever you want to call them) for a reason . . . to protect ourselves. It's all very well and good to analyze the data when you're buying a car or a toaster, but for non-data decisions, the tummy doesn�
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

You certainly were led on! SGI cultivates all of its members to be recruiters, and their success springs from the fact that it's very easy for them to recognize vulnerability in others. They can see it, because they experienced it themselves. The promise that the disconnectedness, loneliness or general dissatisfaction with one's life can be "cured" by chanting and becoming a m
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hi, SamR – Well, first of all, welcome to freedom. It does feel like a burden has been lifted, doesn’t it? So many things to say, but if you’ve been hanging out here for a while, you’ve already read a lot; realizing that SGI was more about Ikeda than anything else was one of my deciding factors, too. I was also seeing members being treated badly and disrespectfully, just as you were. Of
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I'd still love to get one of their krg dvd's into the hands of someone who could analyze it to determine if they're using subliminal messaging to further lock in the programming! There's so much security around how the dvd's are handled; I was always told that it was because of concerns that NST would get hold of one and tamper with it. That never made any sense to me - w
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Re: Hitch's reference to Ikeda being anywhere, I was in from 2006-2013 and it seems to me that there was less focus on him earlier on (don't get me wrong, it was a matter of him just not being QUITE everywhere). The last couple of years, though, it was clear that every gosho or lotus sutra reference was only there to support Ikeda's lecture content. It became the All-Ikeda-All-The-
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Speaking of being shat upon, I came across this letter from Phil Orenstein, dated 11/18/99. While he was still obviously a member when this was written, he had just been dismissed as the Nassau MD Chapter Chief. In his own words, he was dismissed for standing up to injustice and spoke out for change:
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

The toilet reference is spot on! The downside is that cult members really cannot rise above the sensibility of toilets, no matter how much crap they process. What we readily see (now) as shite, they see as wisdom; too much "wisdom"? They just get a leader to plunger them a few times so that the shite starts going into the system as it should. They'll swallow as much as they can
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That's a really good analogy, Corboy. And as cult-members, we do tend to feel like property; "I am SGI." That loss of identity and individuality de-persons you; your concerns are only relevant in how they relate to the cult, your decisions are based on how they affect your functions in the cult. From 2006 through 2013, every single time I moved (and that was five times), one of
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I've heard that before, Hitch, but I can't find any documentation on it. Let's face it, though, it changes your perceptions of what's going on around you. While I'm not blaming the victim here, if he was in command of himself, he would have realized that the last thing you do when confronted by two police officers with their guns drawn is to reach into your pocket. Sa
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

So much for the protection of the Magic Law, I guess. I'm surprised das org isn't trying to blame the temple or enemies of the lotus sutra.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

He could have been a member of sgi, although all followers of Nichiren chant. SGI is the likely candidate in my mind, just because they are so accessible. I would suspect that Mr. Nieto probably had some mental health issues prior to joining the cult; they are highly predatory and have an uncanny knack for identifying those who are susceptible. That being said, rather than dealing with his pro
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Just a little insight into how sgi invests its money in Japan. Since they own 10% of the Disney theme park there, they're probably thinking of re-naming it "The Magical Thinking Kingdom."
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

It sounds like you're doing all the right things, Doubtful. If your spiritual practice lifts you up instead of making you feel small, helpless and inconsequential, then it sounds like you're on the right path for you. That's all that matters.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Great discussion! I don't think that anyone still in the thrall of a cult is capable of a discussion about it in those terms. "Cult" is such a highly-charged word that members have a strong response to it. They've been so strongly programmed that anyone who would suggest such a thing is an enemy, not to be trusted or believed and either brought back into the flock or fled f
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Haha! I am glad that I never invested much money on that piece of shit; after I left, I tried to figure out something practical to do with the magic box. I thought a spice cabinet would've been nice, but the investment of time on something that represented such an unpleasant part of my life? I figured it would serve best in a dumpster, and that's where it went, with everything else sgi-
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

The only disagreement I have with your last three posts, corboy, is that the only item for my altar that I actually purchased from sgi was the gohonzon itself. While I had a very simple butsudan - a very plain wooden box that sat on a chest of drawers - some members had extremely expensive and ornate ones though. We jokingly called them walk-ins. I actually bought mine online from a place called
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Let's put an even harder edge on this, Anti - sgi tells you that you CANNOT achieve your goals without chanting and, if you do chant, your goals will be achieved (unless you don't chant enough, yadda-yadda). It can't possibly be because the practice is a load of bushwah, it's because YOU are deficient. And you're absolutely right; if we had spent as much time actually
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Thanks for mentioning the reddit sub, Anticult. Since we set it up in mid-March, we've helped four people (that we know of) make the decision to leave.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Maybe you're muttering, but you're making a lot of sense corboy. We've already discussed how expertly cults identify their targets; they spot someone whose life has given them a burden that has become too heavy for them to carry on their own, and they offer to help. It may be a kindly stranger (or even someone you've known for years) who says "Here . . . let me help yo
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Corboy, you most certainly are on the team, and you're a key player! Between all of the incredible information you supply and the support you offer, you should be one of the coaches. Mud or blood come from the same sources (lies, deception, abuse and that interminable list), and you've earned your share.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Rocking the boat, creating disharmony - both unwelcome. Within sgi, creating disharmony is considered fairly serious . . . you can certainly see why. Disharmony might start people questioning things, and we can't have that!
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

It's hard to step away from that feeling of being foolish; what really helps me is to realize how many intelligent, articulate kind people there are here who got suckered in just as I did. Doubtful, you list some of the reasons I left; I would add that I saw mistreatment of other members because they didn't "measure up" to certain expectations that leadership had of them.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hitch, was it you that supplied the link to that demented YWD girl's ranting and raving performance? If so (and if you can find it with a minimum of effort), could you please provide it again? Thanks!
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

The public tends to take a rather nonchalant view of cults that aren't murderous, suicidal or publicly crazy. They have no idea of the deep psychological damage that done to members of the quieter groups. I've mentioned that a couple of us are running anti-sgi subreddits. An sgi member joined a conversation over there a couple of weeks ago. Initially, his posts were articulate and in
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families