QuoteThe AnticultIsn't the bottom line that the priests didn't want to follow orders from the General "Dr." Ikeda? Like King Henry VIII and the Pope. The Pope would not follow orders, so the King fired the Pope, and made himself the Pope/Head of the Church of England. Gen. Ikeda did the same thing. Fire those who won't take orders and submit, and then declare your
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

If you look at the history of SGI, Ikeda and Toda had conflicts with the priests at Taiseki-ji even as far back in the 1950's. By the 1970's, the conflict had gotten much worse. Ikeda briefly stepped down and Hiroshi Hojo became Soka Gakkai president briefly (1979-ish) I think that SGI planned to initiate a split with the priesthood all along, at least as far back as the 1970
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

From an e-mail from a friend who is still in SGI: "This is my "no rest for the wicked" week. The Chapter has a big leader in the zone coming Friday/Saturday so we have been having several planning meetings trying to get everything ready. We have our final planning meeting tonight. Then I meet with a member to work on writing out a faith experience tomorrow night (okay, tha
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Sorry, in the previous post, I really meant to say: "I'm not necessarily saying, reject Buddhism either." Bad proofreading!
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I don't think that people should necessarily avoid "gakkai talk." Maybe we should be talking about it more. Those of us who were members for years, were immersed in it -- well, as a fish is in water. What I want to do is look at the gakkai language, all those phrases, and buzzwords that I used for years without really thinking about them -- and think about them. What d
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

This is a great discussion, and I've enjoyed reading these posts. My feeling is that Morgaine, Doubtful, and Backnforth have spoken from a caring heart, feeling that chanting is valuable, and beneficial. They may be concerned that I'll have regrets if I give it up permanently. Some posters are saying, then, okay, maybe you really won't get "stuff," "benefi
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Morgaine: "We all have our own path to take and I am sure you will/have found yours, however please make sure you keep that laminated picture of Mr. Ikeda around your neck just in case." Yeah, life's been so much better since I took off that picture of Mr. Williams and replaced it with Sensei! :-) Backnforth: "But I personally, don't expect that you will conti
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Here I am, not having chanted in months. Two situations came up. One was a problem that could have caused me a great deal of trouble and inconvenience if I had not been very lucky. I called up one person that I thought might be able to help -- and the timing was interesting. I caught him just as he'd come into his office to pick up a folder that he needed. If I'd called a fe
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Quotedoubtful@tsukimoto, you wrote to Morgaine, "I'm in a skeptical mood these days, and maybe it is because I was too trusting when I was in SGI. At this point, I think that chanting seems to work because we expect it to, and because chanting anything causes neurological changes in the brain. But like Morgaine I do believe in the power of chanting NMRK to the Gohonzon and the idea
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Morgaine, I remember car-pooling to another city to go see the simulcast, and I remember all the excitement over Ikeda's visit....I remember nothing of the simulcast itself. I don't remember any of our leaders reacting to Ikeda's ridicule of George Williams. In other videos, I remember him ridiculing Eichi Wada, another senior leader. I thought that was mean; my fellow gro
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

veoh.com has three videos that show footage from Ikeda's visit to the United States in 1993. They show him at a meeting. He's sitting onstage at a table. Fred Zaitsu, the then-director of SGI USA stands at the podium, struggling to read a speech in his halting English -- while Ikeda interrupts him and pounds on the table. When it's Ikeda's turn to speak, he doesn
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

On the subject of leaders behaving badly -- this is from the "Cults, Sex and New Religious Movements" Board, "Sex/Sexuality Within Cults" thread. -----------------------------------Beginning of Quote---------------------------------------------------------------- Let us look at Professor Deborah Gruenfeld's experiment--what I term the Stanford Cookie Experiment.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuotebacknforthSince we are talking about the craziness of recruitment i.e. shakabuku campaigns, I'll share an experience I had in the 1980's. It was street shakubuku time one evening at the kaikon and I was fairly new and not really on-board with the whole shakubuku thing, afterall I was brought up to 'not talk to strangers'. The Japanese woman in charge was the Chapter or
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteThe Anticult Its not fiction that there are some SGI members, who will repeatedly and constantly try to get people to join SGI, for months and even years. They never quit. And its also not speculation that some members will use flirting/sex to attract attention, or REPEATEDLY give invites to "meet someone" in the dating sense at their home, when in fact that is a SGI meeting.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteThe Anticult SGI New Zealand What happened to that guy, does not sound in the least amusing, as its obviously more about emotional manipulation around "true love", not simply sex. His comment that she bolted right after he "joined SGI" is believable. She got her new member number. But obviously that guy felt a lot of pain over that, as he went to the trouble of searc
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteThe AnticultIt probably depends which local SGI "clique" a person is in, as they do recruit their friends, and chant together, have meetings... But using the lure of relationships/dating/sex is certainly very very common in certain SGI cliques. Some can personally attest to having constant invites of "come to my house to meet person ______ this weekend" Then in turns
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I agree that there is manipulation, cruelty, magical thinking, and denial in the SGI. I'm concerned though, at how the term "mentally ill" is being thrown around. What exactly does it mean? People who have serious mental health issues, like schizophrenia? Or people who believe in things that don't seem to make sense -- but who can function well in other areas of th
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteThe AnticultA question about SGI New Zealand at this link, and sexual manipulation. Have noticed some manipulative sexual behavior around SGI recruiting. But it may not have come from SGI, but SGI just served as a "green light" for certain people to act-out without guilt? The explanation seemed to be, that anything goes to recruit new members to SGI, as then that person bel
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteStoicIt was not my intention to cause division amongst you but simply to point out that conclusions based on emotion rather than logic have long been used to hoodwink people who have little understanding of probability theory. Just because it feels right it doesn't necessarily follow that it is right. Our feelings are changeable and easily manipulated. On the subject of "If it
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

In eighteen years with SGI, I never heard any leader recommend that female SGI members flirt with, or have sex with guys in order to convert them to SGI. We were taught that we needed to recruit other people to be members of SGI, but we were never taught any specifics of how we should go about converting them. As someone, maybe Anticult, said maybe this was a deliberate choice on SGI�
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

K1W1, (and anyone else who is interested in this topic), there is a 239 page thread on SGI in the "Former Cult Members and Affected Families" Forum. I've practiced with SGI-USA, and I haven't seen anti-male attitudes in the organization as a whole. Individual women, maybe, but not the overall organization. I have seen many SGI members who will pretend to be
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

Quotedoubtful@SecretSquirrel, You wrote, "just letting you all know that I won't continue on this board because I see some things in the messages here which are truly negative and even disturbing. ........... 3. Finally, most disturbing to me is the recent discussion of misfortune of SGI members citing names and with editorial description - this is the exact same behavior people have d
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteBeingAdagio In all fairness, there are different levels of teacher, and I do believe that for many, a teacher who brings the light of genuine spirituality into one's personal darkness may deserve a bit more reverence and remembrance than the one who interpreted Keats or taught you cursive writing. However, I think that what so many people object to about Ikeda is that he sets himself u
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteBeingAdagio @doubtful, "charisma" is a trait shared by both con artists and genuinely great, truly wise individuals.  According to dictionary.com, the word "charisma" (as used above) is defined as, "a spiritual power or personal quality that gives an individual influence or authority over large numbers of people." It's neither positive nor negative in i
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

From the Fraught With Peril Website, Kempon Hokke blog, August 21, 2010, Mark Rogow Further misfortunes of Soka Gakkai leaders. ----------------------Beginning of Quote---------------------------------------------- Guy McCloskey’s first born son died in a motorcycle accident. NY pioneer members first born son died when he accidentally strangled on a tree branch. One top New Y
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Quotedoubtful@v3rsus You wrote, "The more I talk, the more things come back to me about shit SGI folks told ME about MY LIFE. And I just went on, letting 'em do it! I sucked it all in like some kind of psycho-sponge for such a long time." This is something that came to bother me as l learned more and more about "advice" or "guidance" given to members. How
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteMashkadov There is in fact already a charter school founded and still operated -following the spirit- of the SGI. It is called the Rennaisance Charter School located in [...] Jackson Heights.Their website is renaissancecharter.org. Although not explained on their website, it was founded by a certain Dr. Montee Joffee in the 1990s. It was only recently that he stepped down as detailed in the
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteMorgaine This above distortion about M/D and thoughts like it , I have been questioning in my previous district for the last five years. A very senior leader was at a meeting and we were told was bought there to address my concerns in front of everyone, I was made to see how this M/D thing was in fact correct and I was "misguided", The "dialogue" turned quite nasty wit
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteThe AnticultCertainly Ikeda is behind everything, in that he created the entire SGI structure, with Ikeda at the top. One can look back decades into SGI, and see Ikeda using crude Stalinist-style persuasion techniques on the SGI followers. If you look back into the Soka Gakkai's history, it's clear how SGI became the organization it is today. At the end of World War II, the Sok
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

quiet one, I know! All this meaningless word salad is nauseating! QuoteNichijew “The ultimate doctrine contains little that is specific, beyond AN APPEAL TO ENERGY AND ACTION”: -- Scruton Here are a few more of the the SGI cult's Ikadaisms: “Victory or defeat”; “ever victorious”; “life condition”; “take action today”; “It is essential for our members to raise their voices and t
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families