Quoteholly_golightly QuoteTheVoidIkeda ghandi King nonsense I found this which may or may not be the edited version as they strung this out for a full day. Yes, that's the one that used to make me go all teary eyed - it seems so lame now. This reminds me: Did you all ever notice how the cult org. conditions you to automatically revere certain tier levels of "leaders"? W
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Quotemeh I sort of went to my first sgi meeting in 2002 or 2003. I say "sort of," because I didn't even get past the lobby area of the community center; I got a weird vibe the minute I heard the chanting . . . it just didn't feel good - I couldn't get out of there fast enough. Three or four years later, I talked myself into not only staying in a meeting but joining. It di
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuotemehAnd how ikeda has the cajones to equate himself with either of those two men is bewildering. Nichiren buddhist humility!? Of course, if really pressed on the issue, the cult org. will spin it that it was others who bestowed the unsought "honor" on Ikeda, who only graciously accepted, but in no way really encourages it all. Ikeda = narcissist (all cult guru leaders are), w
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

On a humorous note: This was pretty much me as a little "hitchy", growing up in the $oka Gakkai Cult Org., as a misfortune baby, in the (then so-called) "Jr. Pioneers" (now, "ESD - Elementary School Division"). - Hitch
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuotesixtysevenQuotesleepy skunkI was wondering for those who have actually been to the IKG exhibit, what kind of crap do they have in there? Is it artifacts like a real museum but just peppered with Ikeda crap or more like a creation museum (with the same bunch of crap with altered facts) to make the false association with Gandhi and King? Yellowness - crap. I'd like to know too. Incid
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I was out of the cult org. by the time the Gandhi-King-Ikeda exhibit was rolled out. I heard about it thru the grapevine. My first and only reaction to it, then and now, was to laugh out loud. Evidence that the delusional cult org. has gone fully off the rails. If I were still in and had attended that exhibit, I think I wouldn't have been able to suppress the eye rolls, under the breath
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Quotemeh Are you people sure that there isn't a secret handshake? If I had seen or encountered something like this, , I'm pretty sure I would have left the gakkai cult org. much, much sooner (and faster) than I did. (Clip is hidden footage inside the Mormon Celestial Room, which requires a bizarre secret handshake ritual to enter. The handshake footage starts in around the 6 minu
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Quotesixtyseven @ Hitch and @T&P: have you ever heard of that ranch in Cali? Another property of the SGI. Is it hidden or is it open to the public? At least you can donate money and safe it before it's lost... As if ikeda wouldn't have any money to safe it??? Soka/ King ranch If this is the same place that the original $oka-Univ.-USA used to be, and it looks like it is, then yes
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteSpartacus I know for a fact that both the Dallas culture center and the Seattle culture center (what culture?) had an unaccessable "Presidential Office" hidden away upstairs. I am not a gambling man, but I would bet money that those secretive and off-limits-to-unimportant-members (except the privileged lackeys that do the cleaning) are still there. They are a stock feature with S
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

(Apologies for the consecutive posts. I can only add a couple of attachments per post.) Finally, these last few examples are YouTube clips. The Dear Leader performing his fan dance, and the cult members emulating it in behavior and dress style, , including the "Elementary School Division" kids, . When I was in, there were all kinds of different uniforms for each division (Wom
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

This is a summer version (first photo) of the same type of gakkai cult org. meeting, but with everyone sporting the more "relaxed" look (minus the ties, and with short-sleeves). The Dear Leader may also appear wearing the same relaxed look. In the second photo, you will see the hyper-feigned mandatory enthusiasm that all foreign gakkai cult members are coached in when they attend meet
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

More on the Soka Gakkai Cult, specifically (with photo examples of each category), the kind of dress & behavior in Japan, which becomes the standard by default in all of its subsidiary groups abroad: When their "President" (aka: The Dear Leader) wears a necktie, so do the members. If Ikeda happens to be wearing a suit coat, but removes it, then everyone else (the men) will quick
Forum: "Cults," Sects, and "New Religious Movements"

QuoteTaitenAndProud . . . . in order to advance to a certain level of adult-division leadership, you had to be married. Just one more way the organization structured your life for you. Case in point: Ethan Gelbaum (current Cult Org. "VP" in NYC). Dorky, lanky, balding, socially inept, not too intelligent, hormone raging YMD, asian-o-phile (who lusted after other - older - marr
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

As per the discussion earlier about the "$GI Chameleon", these are some recent clips from the cult org.'s NYCC (New York Culture Center), catering to the Indian and Chinese cult member communities, respectively: . Now I know that some cult members are going to say, this is only an innocent sharing of cultures, cultural education, etc.. I disagree. This is the chameleon
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

With regard to the discussion on cult org. properties: The Top Secret Dear Leader rooms are still there and exist in the Gakkai Cult Org.. What happened to the Malibu Training Center? Most older members have conveniently forgotten about it and how many new members even know that it once existed. It's fate was never discussed, as far as I know, then and now. A quick google map search
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Original "article", . ($GI Canada News, re: FNCC Cult Retreat Attendees) Reproduced below, with some bolded reality tweaks to it by me (otherwise, everything else is exactly as it appears in the original article). **** BEGIN ARTICLE **** (Photo in background of "America Master and Slave Hall", with a quorum of smiling cult members in special attendance from Canada.)
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Most of the cult org. kaikans that I saw, with the exception of the big "Cultural Centers" in some of the main cities, were run down, ugly, nondescript buildings in some sketchy area of town, a strip mall, or some industrial type of business office area. There was also one particular cult kaikan that stood out that I distinctly remember, as a young YMD. It used to literally be a churc
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Quotemeh . . . when I sent my original resignation letter just to the leaders, she really didn't understand what was going on. Her English isn't very good, and I often have to explain things to her in a simpler way, . . . . . You've just pretty much described almost every Japanese pioneering WD "leader" that I've ever known. Quotemeh I received an email from
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Quotemeh That confirmation bias is powerful stuff, and is a linchpin for the success of the org. I was trying to explain this whole mess to my son over the weekend, and I used a metaphor of a baseball player who wears his cap backwards during one game and his team wins. They play another game, he has his cap on properly, and the team loses. An association is made. He starts wearing his cap backwa
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Quotemeh If you're like me, you set aside little niggling doubts you might have; you're surrounded by people who appear to be happy and are good at solving the problems they have in their lives, and if they don't solve those problems, they face them with smiles on their feverishly glowing little faces. Who doesn't want to be like that? And you start swallowing that Kool-Aid, a
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Watch out Atlanta, Georgia U.S.A. members, the Gakkai Cult Org. is coming, especially for you. "Published on Jun 4, 2013 Atlanta Buddhist Culture Center - Construction - 5/31/13 Silverman CPM was selected to represent Soka Gakkai International- USA and manage the design and construction of their new Atlanta Buddhist Culture Center located on approximately 1.3 acre site within the Atla
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Quotemeh It's the smarmy control that makes my bile rise . . . that soft, eldering . . . nothing said directly, all "oh, you might be . . . " or "people might misunderstand." So non-committal, and when they are confronted, they put the onus back on you - you interpreted things wrong blah-di-blah-di-blah. What a pack of weasels. Yes! That's a knockout (K.O.) punc
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

HAHA! Perfect description meh. The clip is about 7 minutes long and she slowly works herself up into a frenzy, where toward the end she is practically shouting certain points out, snapping at the members like a shark, and then . . . . suddenly, inexplicably, bizarrely, like the flip of a switch, at the 6 minute mark, starts to cry (presumably because the members need to really grasp, underst
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuotecorboyTwo features that, IMO are the mark of a hurtful group or relationship Too much purpose, not enough time for play, real play. Ever hungry groups and partners are insatiable and want your attention all the time and want your attention all the time. Any hint that you are playing or just plain having fun in a way that has zero to do with the group or relationship is resented A s
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Quotemeh I began practicing as a Quaker in a small town in VA . . . I often considered the parallels between my original Quaker practice and sgi - "fungible," indeed. The similarities between RSF and sgi hit me between the eyes . . . peace, tolerance, Buddha-nature . . . in many ways, they were much the same. I think that's one of the reasons I'm so angry with the orga
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I saw the signs with Hiromasa, way, way back (as on the 1980's) and I never failed to mention it to fellow members, regular and senior "leaders" alike. Always, and I mean always, it was brushed aside with "he's just helping his daddy out", "it doesn't mean anything, there are many 'vice-presidents'", "he's representing his father,
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Quotemeh The reason I mention that is because sgi is a chameleon. It takes on the identity of the community it disservices to make the atmosphere welcoming, accessible and above all familiar. Initially, the jargon and information being presented might be kind of unsettling, but you're generally the guest of someone you know the first few times you go who will happily explain everything to yo
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

"AmusedKY", I second everyone's welcome to you. Although I always knew that there were lots of ex-gakkai-cult-org. members out there, because I've seen tons of people fade away and disappear over the decades I grew up in it, . . . . I never knew just how eerily similar all of our stories really were. I used to think it was just me. Seeing other (mis)-fortune babies posti
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Quotemeh Hitch, seriously . . . there are older members here who just might need to put on their Depends before we watch this stuff. Warn me next time. Jeez. (Warning . . . . ) I think this photo (compliments of fellow forum member "sixtyseven", thanks 67!), should be placed in golden frames at all Gakkai Cult Org. Kaikans and somebody should be holding it when they sing the song
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

A song for Cousin Rufus' Mother Perhaps the result of a wee bit of Gakkai Cult Org. brainwashing / thought reform . . . . you be the judge. You just can't make this stuff up, nobody would believe you . . . . but, here it is in reality. - Hitch
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families