"As you read through, you'll find the big reveal as to how s-u draws in non-member students; anyone whose family has a less-than $50k annual income gets free tuition. Brilliant! Let's bring in all those low-income kids, encourage them to believe that their fortune lies in chanting, and that sgi is the only thing that loves you!" Yeah, but that's stupid. First of all,
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hi, freeyourmind! You're in good company here :) "Just wondering...how do other former members feel about those who remain in the org and insist that it benefits them? Do you have a to each his own mindset or something else?" Well, since I can see how deluded I myself was and how I damaged my own life thereby while a member of SGI-USA, I can talk about that. And I can talk
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hey, there's an interesting review of Soka U here: Do a search on "Tate from mission viejo, CA". It's always sketchy to read reviews, as I'm sure the business in question has a full-time staff position that does nothing but write up glowing reviews and posting them on various review sites.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Wow. That's horrid! Do you have these dissociative events often? Is that a "normal" thing for you? Sometimes I wish *I* could have them! But I remember... I'm glad you had a decent mother figure. So it's not working out with her daughter, but it sounds like she's being punished enough. Hell, my sister married money and turned into a complete turd, so even t
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I have to tell you something - I was in Soka Spirit, the anti-Temple arm of the SGI-USA, until right about the time I left. It was a really fun group - our meetings were hilarious! I don't know why, but the Soka Spirit function seemed to attract really interesting, unique, independent people. Most of them were really attractive and articulate, too. ] Well, it became apparent to me tha
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

heh heh heh - "wall o' text" - just another reason to dismiss facts without feeling obligated to consider the content. Bite me. Say, I know I've told you, but since the post disappeared in the changeover, I'll repeat it. When I was a new YWD leader (and of course in Kotekitai - the Fife and Drum Corps - because that was a given), I was going through a crate of some o
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Okay, here we go - part II, which is...wait for it...PHASE II!!! QuoteThere were some incidents in the 1970's which should have warned us that all was not well between two organizations, but maybe I was dense and I believed the leaders and priests when they made their assurances of mutual love and fidelity. We later found out that both the priests and the leadership of NSA were trying to sh
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

And let's not forget, Spartacus, that no matter how hard and tirelessly the leaders anywhere in the world have worked for kosen rufu, no matter how many decades they have toiled and how much they have sacrificed, when the time comes for the NEW International President to be named, it's going to be the pasty, frog-faced, incompetent, useless fruit of Senseless's loins. I now exc
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Corboy - UGH!! Oh, and happy new year! :D Meh, I just ran across a page over at "the endless further", you know, the "Nichiren the original face of Buddhist terror" site that betrays the site owner's deep fondness for Das Org: - its a eulogy for Mr. Williams, who apparently died last month, and you will see that it is unabashedly and openly flattering toward Das
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Spartacus, have you had several posts deleted from your reddit thread?
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

"When viewed from within the cult, most praiseworthy. But from outside, we now see they were highly victimized - maybe more so that any other group considering the extreme sacrifices they were willing to make for the sake of the cult.org. " We only had one pioneer where I started practicing, as I've mentioned, and boy, did she ever rule the roost! She was brought up Catholic, f
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

"Cult.org madness possesses and deceives a person to WANT to be pissed on over and over, even past the point of saturation" My leaders and fellow members used to say, "It's the most difficult members who help you grow the most." So you're supposed to spend your limited time around people you DON'T like, because that will "help you grow" (and, of co
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

OMG! A mod over at reddit removed this post! "Hi, Spartacus! I, too, was an SGI-USA member and leader. In fact, I went as high as a YWD Headquarters leader. What I want to add is that it was emphasized to me that anyone who takes on leadership positions gets proportionally more benefit than members who remain members. So that's what I focused on. I did whatever it took to gain leade
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

"Let me relate an old experience of mine. Back around 1972-73 after I had first joined NSA, an NST priest from the NST Myoho-ji Temple in California was scheduled for a local (Texas) Gojukai ceremony. It was my job as a new TCD chief to pick up the priest at the airport and transport him to a hotel and the meeting site. I asked my senior leader if could request "guidance" from the
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I didn't realize you were on reddit at that time. I thought it was just me and meh. "In retrospect, I beleive that I would not have been as quick to join NSA without the cult.org's pretext of legitimacy lent to it by the priesthood." Ditto. That's why it was such a kick in the teeth when I heard about the excommunication. Our leaders had always made such a poin
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Watchtower, why did you choose that name? Is there a personal significance to it? For any who aren't familiar, "The Watchtower" is the Jehovah's Witnesses publication that Jehovah's Witnesses try to unload onto complete strangers, often hoping to get money for it.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Now, something I recently ran across - can't remember if it was in one of the posts that went bye-bye during the change-over, the SGI had to change its basic doctrines and tenets in the wake of the excommunication in 1/1991. I'd been a member since 1987, and I was a leader when the excommunication happened. When we were told of the mass excommunication during a HQ leaders' me
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hey, Spartacus! Yeah, some chicken-poop a hole who is a mod on a poetry forum over at reddit used his influence to get me "shadow-banned." That means I can post and it looks to ME like everything is normal, but no one else can see my posts. Guess the taiten was too much for him... His knee-jerk response was the equivalent of "Nuh-UH!!!" and, when asked, he'd never prov
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

"I used to marvel at the diversity you would see at almost any meeting, but now realize that most of those folks are people that I had nothing but sgi in common with, and wouldn't really choose to socialize with outside of the group." I'm glad you brought that up - I'd never heard of "granfalloon" before. From your link: A more general and oft-cited quote
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hi, guys! Happy New Year! I got away from this forum because *nothing* was happening here for so long. Nice to see you both posting again!
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Some valuable information originally posted at a reddit board, with the lead-in comments for context:QuoteThey have a very active political wing, and they pressure their members to get involved on the political side of things, thus creating a conflation of politics and religion that historically Japan hasn't liked too much. QuoteNot in the USA they do quite the opposite. Any proof of this?
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

If any of you want to see cultie behavior in action, take a look at the content of these two sites: As you can see, if someone tells of negative experiences from having been an SGI member, the response is "Untrue.This is nothing more than a smear and you are lying." When I provide sources from SGI's own publications that show I was telling the truth, I am met with whi
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

BTW, at that reddit site, there are Ikedabots claiming that "chant for what you want" is a "bad interpretation." Here's what went down: "That something you head is called daimoku "Nam myoho renge kyo" which is not a mantra but rather the title of the Lotus Sutra and yes, it is a very "Buddhisty" thing. That it fulfills wishes or whatnot is mat
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Wow - really? Maybe *I* should become a minister! No telling how useful THAT might turn out to be, especially if I start a church or something! The SGI, though, at one point was saying that its members were more priests than the Nichiren Shoshu priests, as it was the SGI members who went out to home-visit the members and recruit new members. So I think there's a possibility that it mi
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

"At this point, I've lost nearly every friend I've made over the past seven years (in fact, it's about seven years ago today that I received my gohonzon)" That's another key feature of both intolerant belief systems and cults. Especially when it's both together. They isolate their members by setting up an "us against them" mentality that gradually
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Wow, the trust fund discussion was a real eye-opener. Can't argue with any of it, though! Wanna talk partial truths? Here are a couple: 1) With so many people practicing Buddhism within the SGI organization for so many decades, multiple generations in some cases, where are the enlightened results? Who in the world *RIGHT NOW* is actually, verifiably "enlightened"? There s
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

"So many comments beg the question - if you're so unhappy in the group, why the hell are you still in it? " In all fairness, I think that was the list from the EX-SGI members!
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I just ran across this site: There is an article on the main page titled "What would Ex-SGI members/leaders change about the SGI? (2008)" There are comments from several different contributors, but the most popular changes appear to be: introduce democratic elections, get rid of Ikeda, more focus on the sutras and REAL Buddhism, less focus on Ikeda and commentaries. It's go
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Whither enlightenment? The SGI promotes Toadface Icky-da as the most knowledgeable Buddhist scholar/sage in the world and likes to say that HE understands best of all how to practice correctly. WHICH is why everyone should strive to be more like Dai-sucky. But is Daisaku Ikeda *enlightened*? No one will say! If he's the best Buddhist on the planet and even HE isn't enlightene
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I just made this post over somewhere on Reddit, so I'm going to post the same information here - it's important: Re: "Nichiren says follow the Law, SGI follows the person!" When the Nichiren Shoshu excommunicated the Soka Gakkai back in, what was it, 1990 or 1991, I was already a leader in the organization. I left in 2008 or 2009. Anyhow, what I didn't realize unt
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families