Hitch, I note that there's not a number on your list for studying anything other than ikeda-ism. I think it's important to be aware that there is no real Buddhism within sgi; the only thing that's studied are ikeda's interpretations of nichiren's goshos. And the whole "practicing for others" is utter BS; there is no selflessness in sgi except, perhaps, among ide
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hitch, I note that there's not a number on your list for studying anything other than ikeda-ism. I think it's important to be aware that there is no real Buddhism within sgi; the only thing that's studied are ikeda's interpretations of nichiren's goshos. And the whole "practicing for others" is utter BS; there is no selflessness in sgi except, perhaps, among ide
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I can't remember if I mentioned it here, but there were a lot of pioneer members in the Las Cruces/El Paso/Alamogordo area; all of them were Japanese women, of course. I realized that many of them were rapidly aging, and I thought it would be a wonderful thing for them to be able to tell their stories. Some of them had married kind and loving men, and they had had good lives. Others, not so
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Look up, STAP, look up! Hitch at 12 o'clock!! Hitch - so good to see you! We've missed you around here . . . you're one of my favorite "voices." I think postings here have been lean because of a perceived instability; we were all burned when all of that data was lost. Hopefully, now that it's been restored (I can't even imagine how much work that was, and
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Oh. My. Gosh. Congratulations and a huge thank-you to everyone who must've worked so hard to get everything restored! Hopefully, we'll start hearing from some of the people who've been missing for a while. Hitch? Hitch?
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Thanks for all the advice, corboy! My daughter and son-in-law have lived in the area for more than a decade - he's a volunteer fireman/emt and my daughter is the Queen of Safety, so I've already been made aware. Plus, I'm originally a mid-Atlantic girl; we had nearly seven feet of snow in the Philadelphia area last year. While I don't enjoy it, I have total respect for snow, b
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Today is the first anniversary of my own personal Independence Day - I left sgi just one short year ago! Thanks to all of you for your support, kindness and humor. I'm not sure I could have done it if y'all hadn't been there. And, since my move to upstate NY was successfully completed last weekend, I should probably be a little more careful with that "y'all" t
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

The array of tools these charlatans have at their disposal is kind of amazing. It makes me wonder if some people just intuitively know how to manipulate their intended victims vs how many have actually studied the methods. Years ago, I worked for a small s/w firm, reporting to the cfo. He asked me to do a couple of things that were highly questionable; I went to HR, and they did some after-hou
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Great observations, corboy, and spot-on. There's one scene where the cult-leader is trying to re-bond with his son; he was imprisoned when the kid was a baby, and he's now about 10. Daddy comes into the kitchen to make s'mores, his "favorite food ever." He clumsily makes a botch of it and asks his son to help him . . . poor guy hasn't made them for so long that he
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Once again, not directly relevant to sgi, but to cults in general. I've been watching a TV program called "The Following." It's general theme is that a lit professor was charged and convicted for the murder of 14 young women; as happens with some of these criminals (especially handsome, articulate ones) he rapidly develops a fan base. Over the course of several years, he�
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Although this isn't directly related to sgi, this was a huge step forward for cult members everywhere: Ex-scientologists stepping out of the shadows of fear is huge - they're bringing cult-awareness out into the open. This is a big deal, too: Although lawsuits against that particular cult have taken place before, I understand from a friend (and former scientologist) that M
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

One of the things that drew me to sgi was their declaration that they were the only form of Buddhism that supported the idea that a woman did not have to be reincarnated as a man to become enlightened. For some reason this afternoon, it got into my head that I couldn't remember the colors of the primary Taras - fortunately Wikipedia is always there: Of particular interest (to me,
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I've said it before (which won't prevent me from saying it again), if you want to understand sgis true agenda, look to Japan. We are most who we are when we're at home. I don't care if they aren't like that where you are - something we often hear - the only reason they aren't is because they haven't been able to get away with it. Yet. I think that we're
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I mentioned in a post long ago that I had become a minister a couple of years ago. With no degree, with no training whatsoever, I was able to go online and get ordained in less than two minutes. I could actually perform marriages in my county. I did it so that I would have the ability to tell a pushy ass-hat Christian that I was ordained and exactly how meaningless that was. So, ha-ha - I got
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

When I was a member, I always hoped jh's would come ringing my door-bell and I'd stuff a bunch of sgi crap into their sweaty little paws. Now I like to think I'd treat them as untimely trick-or-treaters, costumed as sgi ymd or Mormons and give them a lecture of some sort. Perhaps with a demented gleam in my eye (kind of natural to me these days) and make them a little afraid of rin
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

When I was a member, I always hoped jh's would come ringing my door-bell and I'd stuff a bunch of sgi crap into their sweaty little paws. Now I like to think I'd treat them as untimely trick-or-treaters, costumed as sgi ymd or Mormons and give them a lecture of some sort. Perhaps with a demented gleam in my eye (kind of natural to me these days) and make them a little afraid of rin
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Seriously, I can't think of a single circumstance under which anyone would EVER say "nice ass" to Ikeda. I never thought about it until corboy mentioned it (earning my eternal gratitude, btw), but I can only imagine it as pimply and cheesy looking. Maybe he could be used to haze new prisoners? "Yo, newbie, you gotta do that, or it gets to do you . . ."
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Brilliant corboy! Didn't Ikeda write Tartuffe? Don Quixote would be another good one - with shinichi filling the role of Sancho Panza! I think the musical version would be appropriate - I can't wait to hear ikeda belting out "The Impossible Dream." And, of course, we have to incorporate a fan dance so that we can see him strut his stuff. All. That. Stuff. It's perfect
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

ST&P, I'm sure your faith was strong enough, but I suspect that why your chanting was so completely ineffectual was because you didn't get that snuggly "ooh, Daddy, I want to be your disciple" feeling towards the venerable Senseless. Remember that four-legged stool (?) - faith, practice, contributions and mindless devotion to himself.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

As a kid, I loved the "Little Rascal" comedies, and every once in a while, something I hear or read triggers a memory. For those unfamiliar, these were the adventures of a pack of poor kids during the depression. They were always making the best of what they had, while wishing for a little bit more. In one episode, the kids find a magic lamp - in one scene, one little boy crouches ne
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I think I'd probably stomp on a small fire rather than take the time to run indoors, get water and put it out that way. The idea of a troop of earnest sokahan jumping up and down in dog poop is pretty funny, with their little ties flapping in the breeze! It would make a nice change for them from the bull's shit that they're so blind to.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Seriously, not to worry . . . I'm only a vandal in my heart.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

We tend to focus on so many of the lies and deceptions that we experienced on an individual level; I'm not sure how this can be swept under the rug as "slander" and "lies by temple members." These run 180 degrees from the peaceful, humanitarian public agenda that sgi likes to present. Once again, the temptation to run off a bazillion copies of this information, sneak
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Wow - it's been quiet around here! Nothing much to post, other than I had a terrific phone interview for a company about 15 minutes from my new place. There didn't seem to be an awful lot of concern about me not being able to start until after Memorial Day (impossible to move it up). The woman in HR that I was speaking to seemed kind of impressed when I said that if they really neede
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

It is easier, corboy, and we reveal ourselves as easy pickings by just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Who else, other than someone who's looking to have some pretty specific questions answered, is going to show up at the kaikan or ask someone to get in touch with them via a "religious" website? I don't think anyone just randomly makes themselves accessible by rand
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Ok, thanks corboy! It's still 68 days out (who's counting?), but I'm starting to switch stuff around, throw some stuff out and donate other stuff. I'm going to start packing up stuff that I'm not going to be needing until after the move and cleaning things (like the oven) that will I won't have to re-clean before moving. The management company is so schmuck-y that I&
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I know, corboy - placement of posts gets kind of squirrely here. No, we were staying in London - we'd taken a day-trip to my mother's home town and did a little preliminary research at the registrar's office. We met up with a woman who remembered my mother's family and told me that I had a cousin that was just up the street; we met with him, and he took me to his mother
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Nothing like your scenario, corboy, but my mother and father met on V-E day in a pub in London. Dear old dad was married back in the US but had conveniently gone off to war as a separation from the first wife (too bad he didn't tell her that). When mom met him, she told him that she was catholic, when in fact, she was protestant; she was from Wales, though, where catholics like protestants a
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I came across an interesting term the other evening - "Occam's Broom." I knew he had a razor, but wasn't aware that he had housecleaning implements as well. Ockham’s broom is an implement conceived by Sydney Brenner as the device whereby inconvenient facts are swept under the carpet. This is common practice in biological research where the facts often cannot be explained al
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I had gorgeous ragdoll cat that my son rescued from the side of the highway; he was an un-neutered male, so that had to be attended to. He was fine taking him to the vet without a carrier, but when I was bringing him home, he decided to repay my kindness by pissing (gallons, I think) all over the back seat of my car. Oh, and since it takes a while for the testosterone to drain down, my car was st
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families