QuoteRothausWell I am not sure myself if it was okay to mention the people's names, but they were official high ranking leaders I guess, so their tragic deaths must have been known already. I remember that a few years back (and, no, I will not mention the name) a quite high leader here got tragically killed in a car accident. As I recall he came back from an activity late at night. People
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteMiss66SGI leaders are brainwashed to feel superior over other members and anyone who doesn't practice,almost like they're more knowledgable, and able to handle life's problems better than others in life.They act like superior therapists sometimes. It's annoying! The japanese leaders always give you that INSINCERE ,poor pathetic you look! They're so ignorant ,and p
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Corboy, you have a way making me see things in a different light. I had never really thought about it much before. QuotecorboyThe other day, I was leaning over to get a newspaper. Someone came right up behind me and I got spooked. Definite invasion of space. The poor lady was doing outreach for a church. I was so spooked that I screamed "NO!" --and then felt awful when I saw the
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I forgot to add - QuoteredroseI never ever saw Ikeda as a great leader or writer. One of my first experiences with the obsession with Ikeda's lame writing was back in the early 80's when they were pushing REALLY HARD for the ymd to memorize the poem "To My Young American Friends." I never did, simply because I couldn't stand the thing. I never understood how others
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Redrose, I was a kid when I started getting dragged along for many a street shakubuku campaign. I still remember some of those earliest ones at the local university area, where all I wanted to go do was hide under a bush. Later on, when I was older and they were doing it in the downtown (i.e. rougher) areas, I remember how uneasy I was at their stupidity of doing it under such dangerous circums
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Nammy, the sg is most definitely a pseudo-buddhist-cult. Corboy, outstanding posts, as usual. I've come to realize that probably just about everyone is in some way vulnerable and potentially susceptible to cult influences as some point in their lives. My experience was a bit different though. Having grown up in one, it was completely "normal" for me; it took getting out and l
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

On the topic of "leaders" (especially ymd leaders) - QuotePathetiquestSo, I'm being driven to my first meeting in over a year and a member we picked up is complaining that her son, who was supposed to MC, wasn't coming. The other member, a leader of some district or area or something, says "Oh, well....I'll have to talk to him." in a very authoritative voice.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Nichijew, this is my first time seeing this post by you: QuoteNichijewDear All" First, welcome Void. I see you posted a couple of comments on my blog. I need all the help I can get, if you know what I mean and your comments are quite welcome there too. I was a District Chief and my wife was a Group Chief. One day my ten year old son and me opened a large storage closet that we ha
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

A very interesting post I just came across from "TheVoid." QuoteTheVoidOther things i found wrong were those people who insisted that 'they' were Soka Gakkai, Soka Gakkai is my life! I think this is another Cult trait making you think you are the organisation, so if you are it, how can it be wrong, because you are it! there was this one guy, a total failure, except in SGI
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Some more posts to comment on: QuotesushigrlA can of coke and a pen and pencil set does not alleviate the pain of 14 hours on one's feet for a "mentor" who has luxury digs. We were taught to be so appreciative of those tokens. President Ikeda probably has a sense of failure when it comes to the U.S, because few of us really bought into that hype for long. Japan and the asian
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I came across this post from back on page #304 in response to another individual, but I would like to comment on it. QuoteShavoyHello, doubtful. "All the Ikeda worship will not play anywhere but Japan, in any meaningful sort of way. Do they really believe that what the world really needs is to know how special Ikeda is?" I am trying to wrap my head around why people's minds g
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QuoteShavoyThe proof is in the pudding, Hitch...I feel very strongly about what I had expressed in a previous post. If you will not, cannot, (or both) accept and come to terms with issues you are facing in your life, well...ya get what ya get. Just chanting for hours and hours won't do a heck of a lot. It falls into magical thinking. Everything will be just fine if I chant and do activit
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteSGByeIt seems that you had a rebellious streak in you and I was the same. I would go along with the SGI shenanigans, but I'd be rolling my eyes at the same time and thinking, "Are these people for real?" But children are taught to listen to their elders and authority figures - in our case, gakkai leaders - and so I did what I was told. I ran across a few individuals of like
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Some 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 was heavily
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteNichijewHi Hitch. Being that the Lotus Sutra "is an important literary, historical, moral and ethical document." and the Human Revolution "is simplisticaly transparent, amateurish, and just plain stupid.", why do you think SGI members assiduously study and covet the Human Revolution at the expense of the Lotus Sutra? Nichijew Hi Nichijew, the HR novel has always stru
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hi Nichijew, yes I have. I never could stand the "human revolution" and found it simplistically transparent, amateurish and just plain stupid. The lotus sutra, to me, is an important literary, historical, moral and ethical document, but a manufactured document from early human history, nonetheless. If its meaning and significance go beyond that for some people, then more power to the
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuotecorboyHowever, once you've gotten free from this, you will have an insider's perspective on the dangers of celebrity culture. Definitely agreed. QuoteSGByeIf I could go back and re-do everything with my current knowledge, I'd send some YMD leaders off a cliff. I can’t believe I spent the first 30+ years of my life in a cult, but then again, I'm glad I realized it and
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteevergreenI think I've written before on this forum about fortune babies, about being told we were special. I think this was manipulastive. Some people actually thought we were special. Almost like we had a gift or had super powers. However, it alienated members who were not born into the practice. It gave some fortune babies the idea that they were special and they then became trul
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

The Rick Ross Former SGI-Member Baseball Team takes the field. 1st up to bat is "SGBye", "fortune baby." Swings, nice hit and runs to 1st base. QuoteSGByeI just came across an experience in the 10/23/09 issue of the World Tribune that is so ridiculous that I have to post about it. It's by a woman in California talking about how she and her daughter, named Destiny
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteZhinichi llamamotoIndeed, while at the ymd FNCC confrence I sat through one of Steve Sapersteins "choose faith over family speaches". My head was spinning, did he just...oh ya he did say "so we were in the hospital room and this guy was getting really close(lung cancer), he could hardly breath but all he wanted to do was chant" then after this guy being alienated from his
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I'm just now realizing, SGBye, that we have walked very similar paths. QuoteSGByeEven if this stuff is beaten into your head from childhood, there's still hope of getting away relatively unscathed. I officially joined the SGI around 6 months old, learned gongyo (prayers) at 7, and can remember having a photo of Ikeda in my room around that same age. In fact, my first name was act
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteNichijewThese shallow leaders aren’t really into home visits. Almost any excuse, immediately after Gongyo will do. However, if they bring a junior leader along, they may feel constrained to make a show of caring and compassion. If you don’t mind touching them, you can gently grab the arm of the junior leader and briskly walk him to the door. Since he has no way of getting home without his se
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteThe AnticultIts simply a very crude template to try to encourage deep SGI fanatics to brainwash their children into SGI at the youngest age. The fact SGI tries to put-over on the reader that a 4 year can understand these advanced concepts, seem to be playing into the supernatural aspects they are trying to sell with SGI. As in, get your baby to chant, and you can have a SGI Chanting Baby Ge
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

SGBye, the cult retreats (tozan of past and FNCC of present) can really do a number on you and roto-rooter your brain (removing all your critical faculties). They still send their most promising prospective leaders and new salaried ones to The Father Land to encounter The Dear Leader in person at one of his monthly satellite meetings in Tokyo. These kinds of training meetings/trips are similar,
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteYzak One time, when I was organizing a SGI club in my college, I meet this Japanese girl who is a "Fortune Baby" (being born and raised in this Buddhism) to talk about how to organize the club. I suggested for the final meeting we were going to have, that we should discuss about how this Buddhism thinks about problems in society in general. Example: Poverty, Violence, Race, Sexual
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

SGBye, it was Nichijew who brought the video here and also reposted the Williams-Ikeda video links. I agree, much thanks! QuoteSGByeBack in the 80’s and 90’s, May 3rd 2001 was the magical date that we were all gung-ho about. Looking back now, the only thing I remember about that date was being fed some nonsense about the closing of the 7 bells or something (?!)…. I can’t really properly reca
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I was kind of hoping that that boy at ~2:50 min. mark was going to say, "STOP! DON'T LISTEN TO HIM, DON'T BE BRAINWASHED! RUN FOR YOUR LIFE!" Poor kids, they know not what is being done to them. Reminds me of the horror genre film director, Alfred Hitchcock's remarks: "One day when Alfred Hitchcock was still a churchgoing Catholic, he was driving through a S
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

And I've found some more: Quotedragon14I swear once we went through Higher Than the Sky about 25 times. I played trumpet in brass band, and my chops felt like they were lying on the floor. And I remember thinking, "WHAT ARE WE DOING??" This post jarred open a long forgotten memory. I don't even remember exactly when we played it (before a big meeting, during the intermis
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

This thread/mb is a veritable treasure trove of things that ex-members can relate to. I've just found a bundle of some more random things. QuoteSongshand ...... sounds like you were a good leader because you knew exactly when you were qualified to give guidance and when you were not. Also I think it is common sense that if someone comes to you who is an abusive situation to tell them or
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Speaking of chanting: QuoteHitchWhen you have the "disciples" deceiving the "master" and the "master" screaming at the "disciples", is it any wonder that the organization/cult is as dysfunctional as it is? Why all the deception, number paddings, yelling and manipulation? Wasn't everyone chanting enough?!? Quotequiet oneA long time ago, back in
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families