Embrace the oneness of mentor and disciple??? My God, what IS that concept? What does that concept mean? Someone help me out here! I say it and say it, but to me the only reason this concept is being rammed into members' heads with no let-up is to cement Ikeda's Fabulous-ness and Greatness and The Only One Who Matters-ness.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Nichijew's experience leaving SGI with his wife at a very critical juncture in their lives speaks volumes. They continued to chant, and their prayers were answered in a life-and-death situation. Plus, the huge medical bills were taken care of. To the SGI Frame, how could this be?? Dr. and Mrs. Rogow LEFT. They chant Namu-Myoho-Rengo-Kyo! This equals hellacious slander! NO benefits f
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteHitchSome more random posts that I'd kind of like to comment on: Quotedragon14Somehow I didn't make many friends in the Gakkai after 17 years as a member. There were a couple that I had some interest in pursuing after my departure, but they've all gone cold and I don't really miss them. To be honest, the whole time I felt like an outsider in the group even though I wa
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hey, Nichijew...I know this question is posed to Hitch, but I wanted to comment, too. SGI members are encouraged to accept the The Human Revolutions, new and old, as the best and most correct blueprint for achieving Kosen-rufu. Of course, "written" by Yamamoto/Ikeda. Who is the Wisest Dude in the Universe. Shakyamuni? Who dat??!! The Lotus Sutra really hasn't seemed to matt
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteSGByeI had gotten access to the latest issue of the World Tribune today. Since next month is their all-important May contribution campaign, it was full of reminders about how the members should feel appreciation towards the organization (hint, hint). Most disgusting was the propaganda aimed towards children. Following a 2-page comic strip about giving a contribution was a “How To Make a W
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Reading the posts of the last few days....what a scary tract the SGI barrels towards. I mean, it's already here and has been, but, and I apologize for being on 'repeat', it has to be all for Daisaku Ikeda's Ego and his power and his control. A story as old as time. He got drunk on those big rallies very early on, saw the power that Toda had and knew he had the charisma to t
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

This is truly great "dialogue"!!! I mean, seriously...this is true, great stuff! The stuff you can never get in the SGI! Reading the "guidances" from Tariq Hassan, Linda J., Danny N. and Youth Disciples Extraordinaire Gauer and Shaw, was like seeing Twilight Zone episodes....not good ones. I am convinced more than ever that Mentor/Disciple is for the ego of Daisaku I
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteHitchQuoteShavoyHitch, you are right on again with your explanation of the leader's behavior with ScoobyDooby. The whole purpose of shakabuku is to help others become happy/change poison into medicine/double and triple the shakabuku-ers' fortune and benefits. That's what we were told, right? Double and triple the benefits....that's a huge dangling carrot right there.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

All I have to say is.....Wow. These last posts have summed so much up. It is like an addiction! And when you are in the throws of addiction, all affairs, painful and not, are thrown to the curb. So family karma stays...family karma. Complicated personal issues tend not to get tended to. You are in a whirlwind which seems so fantastic and full of promise---the better life, and an even better
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hitch, you are right on again with your explanation of the leader's behavior with ScoobyDooby. The whole purpose of shakabuku is to help others become happy/change poison into medicine/double and triple the shakabuku-ers' fortune and benefits. That's what we were told, right? Double and triple the benefits....that's a huge dangling carrot right there. Because leaders are
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoterattyboyQuoteHitchI have a general question that I would like to throw out there to see if any you former members can relate: Did you ever notice how hardcore gakkai members (I've seen it in both Japan and The U.S.) would treat fellow member encounters entirely differently than they would your average non-member out the street, in the real world? They would put on these fake Disneyl
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteHitchExcellent post corboy. I especially enjoyed the "Yes Set" discussion. This mb really has a lot of critical information that people need to educate themselves about and be aware of. QuoteShavoyReading the other posts in the last few days brings up another question, well, I've asked it before methinks, but here goes: It fascinates me that Japanese culture and mindset
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteHitchQuotesimplifyQuoteRattyboy"How many times did we have to hear some guest leader at a local meeting tell us how they started with the group and how their friends and family thought they had "joined a cult". It sounds like a risky thing for them to say, but it is a neurolinguistic technique that allows the listener to relate to the experience and the discomfort about the po
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteNichijewHi Shavoy. The short answer is, they recognize only their NST Gosho in modern Japanese and its translation into English, French, Spanish.. ...etc. The original Gosho, virtually a photograph of the original manuscripts by Nichiren, is the Showa Tehon Collection. The Nichiren Shu also uses their own Gosho Zenshu as well as the Showa Tehon but the scholars and scholar priests only use
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteNichijewRight Shavoy, we need our questions answered about how to live our life and how to overcome our sufferings by SGI actresses, clarinet players, neurosurgeons, principles, pie makers, fisherman, unemployed car salesmen, state district attorneys, congressmen, authors, soccer stars.....because they know so much more than we. Nichijew Ab-so-lute-ly, Nichijew! Mark, I know we talked
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteHitchCorboy, the sg is the most militaristic "peace" organization I've ever seen. The more tired, sweaty, wild-eyed, unthinking, obedient and out of your senses you were, the more you "bonded" and were accepted in the ymd. The goal of the ymd leaders in my day was to make their members into bigger mirror images of their own numbskull selves. QuoteShavoyHow
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteFindingmywaytodayOne common reaction I have gotten when they (the SGI people) talk about Mentor and Disciple is that the idea of M-D gets lost in translation, or they say something like they don't worship Ikeda. I have heard this often. I can't buy it. I have looked up what a mentor means, and I have l looked up what disciple means. To me, I agree with Shavoy in that it is one thin
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Maybe it's from my Christian background, but I'm far more willing to understand that Jesus had his disciples and that people have forever sung the praises of Jesus in church....that does not bother me in the least. What bothers me is children dancing for their Mentor (who they have little clue about, let's face it), and having Sensei always with you on a phone ap... I would
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteHitchQuestion for all old time ex-members: Does anybody remember the "We Love America" rally in Washington D.C in the early 80's.? Was it part of a bigger mainstream (non nsa) event being held at the same time? Huge parade with American flags, flags, flags and more flags. Massive, EPIC disorganization, too. What year and month was it and what exactly was it? Hitch....I
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

So much more incredible stuff from everyone.....@Hitch...what you said about "slanderous items" reminded me of what The Anticult has stated many times: Human beings can believe just about anything and it becomes reality. Looking back now on the needless fear that was (
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

That's very interesting to me, the fact that so many Japanese view the Gakkai with contempt. Why I say this is because the whole Master/Disciple thing seems to go down very well with the Japanese SGI-ers, because of the mind-set about this in Japanese culture. That's also incredible about the cab drivers in Tokyo! P.I. Frame: So what if I'm hated in my native country. Nayy
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteHitchQuoteNichijewI have had senior leaders admit to me that interfaith is nothing more than a ruse to allow SGI greater access to a particular location and to avoid persecution. Not only are they delusional but too cowardly to openly practice according to the teachings. For Nichijew and fellow board members - There is an "Interfaith Forum" series of clips (9 parts) that was p
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

To add to corboy's post, I also remember in the mid 80-s when people with advanced HIV would come to shakabuku meetings. The look of desperate, last-minute hope on their faces, their bodies in the condition that corboy described. Their sponsor and leaders would be sooo encouraging, telling them that yes, the Gohonzon will turn this bad karma around. To think it was only 20+ years ago
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuotecorboyI have never been in SG but have met so many people in my part of the US who were chanters that this information is a shocker. It makes me sad that so very many nice people I met were, without knowing it, supporting a personality driven dictatorship. Worse, one that manages to be tax exempt due to its claim to be a religion. The other day, I visited a local cemetary and wandered
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Incredible posts from Nichijew, Hitch, KR, bobze39, corboy, wakatta1. I will add another life situation where die-hard SGI-ers stumble: When a member commits suicide. There was a post back in this thread about a young gentleman who did just that, after his gohonzon accidently suffered damage. If I remember, they were came down hard on him for that, and the poor guy was overwhelmed. I h
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

It just seems to me that aggressive shakabuku comes across as the antithesis of respect and tolerance for the various spiritual beliefs in this world. Especially in not-taking-no! for an answer. It also falls in with the SGI frames of 'I am going all-out with SGI propagation, because I am promised that my evil karma will be eradicated, if not in this lifetime, of course, then definetely th
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Quoteholly_golightlyQuoteShavoy @holly_golightly...still spinning over reading that whole Human Revolution stuff you went through. When it came up that it was more than likely ghost-written, he still had approval over the final product. So that he, as the Hero, comes across, like you said, 'incredibly boastful and false', doesn't seem to bother him one iota. Did anyone ever try
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteHitchI believe this is the FNCC clip . I must say, going thru some of the videos under the same theme leaves me just shaking my head. It looks like commune behavior with everyone under the same chemical influence (endorphins, serotonin, dopamine, etc.) tenderizing their minds to be more receptive to the core brainwashing that takes place in the conferences/discussions. On that note:
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

bobze39, thanks for bringing out how defamation works, how it's more subtle than banging someone over the head outright. That SGI did/does that, gives the creeps. So much for respecting the dignity of every human being. @Nichijew. Your post made me think about the sincere long-time members I know, who truly believe that they have benefitted from following Ikeda. They believe he is a w
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

@The Anticult.....so in a way, too, this fusion, this One with Ikeda, means in essence that followers will lose their individual identities, and become mini-Ikedas? Is this also a end result desired by the Masters?
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families