Quotewakatta1Education of children is quite a quandry isn't it? - I recall all the time I was in primary school and those teachers just kept on shoving things at me *they* felt I needed to know. Writing, civics, geography, mathematics, etc. It was horrible! All I wanted to do was just to play and they *forced* me to sit for 8 hours a day in school. Looking back now, a lot of the things I
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteNichijewHi Hitch. All those who ascribe to an ends justify the means worldview have no compunction about lying, deceiving, backstabbing, manipulating. It is greed and animality that propels such men . They don't really believe in the Law of cause and effect that they purport to embrace, they couldn't. Since what goes around does indeed come around, they are in for a very very hard
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteRothaus@ commongirl gosh it makes me so angry what you just wrote. talk to a leader? just read what tsukimoto said - a leader who may be an ex-convict that some SGI people put trust in? And if it woks out wrong? S..t happens? thats one of the big flaws of SGI, people giving out "guidance" on urgent issues that they have by no means been trained for. How many dsifunctional
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuotegingermarieThat was another reason why I bailed. I could not see myself giving "guidance" to anyone. I just knew I wasn't qualified. Period. Who is qualified? Those who went to school to be a minister, psychiatrist, psychologist, or social worker; are sought after through the proper channels and are compensated accordingly, not an SGI leader. Most SGI leaders work for fr
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Another great and insightful post that I'd like to respond to. QuotetsukimotoSo they say....SGI supports the members. My question is, how? What do you feel that you gained from participating in SGI activities? I don't mean from chanting Nam Myoho Renge Kyo, or from the practice of Buddhism -- I'm asking about being in SGI itself. Do you feel that you have gained anythi
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoterattyboyPicturing these moments of probing by members reminds me of a confrontation years ago that I had with some sort of christian group that was using cult-like tactics in our brief sidewalk encounter. At the time I'm sure I had been mulling over my involvement with SGI and had already been doing cult research. It seems like I had been for years. I was in an unfamiliar part of a cit
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

PS, I forgot to add that at the end of that HQ protest clip ( ~ 9:10 - 9:15), the REAL police show up, the gakkai elderly leader tells the police officer that it's too dangerous for the protesters to be standing in the road near the gate and wants them moved down the street away from the immediate area. The police officer (very eager to cooperate) then gestures to stop the filming and the c
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Quotebobze39Well, Hitch, all Russians are partly asians, partly because of location (huge part of the country is located in asia), partly because from 1237 till 1480 Russia was occupied by Mongolo-Tatars. That's why all Russians, even though caucasoids/whites, but also have some mongoloid facial features (wider jaws, eyes little narrower and so on). As for the lady I got mixed up with, sh
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Bobze39 - For some reason, I thought you were an Asian-American (getting mixed up with a senior asian leaders' daughter). Danny's "story" doesn't sound like such a big deal to me. If he wants to believe it was some sort of miraculous benefit, more power to him. I think that's just stupid confirmation bias nonsense for the deluded. (Being a man of "faith"
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Just wanted to add a couple more interesting tidbits from the "Interfaith Forum" conference clips (in case some may miss it). 1) In part VIII . All of the participants have been asked to give an answer to the same question. Around the ~ 1:00 mark, the gakkai youth "leader" is called upon, he has a snide smirk on his face as he gets ready to stand up, he then has the ne
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Shavoy - All the "guidance" about getting rid of "slanderous" items in your household or personal possessions also flies in the face of their so-called interfaith tolerance lie. I know very well exactly what you are talking about here. I've seen some of the more kooky gakkai members get psychosomatically ill from just having a christian bible around them. Some of the m
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteShavoyIf the shoe went to the other foot, and SGI die-harders were asked to bow their heads and say the Lord's Prayer, uhh, r-i-i-ght. That would go down in flames. Because hard-driven circuitry SGI-style says, Major Slander! Cause to have head split into 7 pieces! That they encourage the minute-long daimoku, is so typical, knowing that most of them would be too frightened to return
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I always appreciate your thoughts wakatta1. I think all cultures have their good and bad and that of course applies to America and Japan. We can learn a lot from each other. Not all Japanese fit the mold of my remarks, but many (if not most) do. IMO, the key to understanding the gakkai is to understand the Japanese mentality/culture as a whole. Americans like to operate in a straightforw
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteNichijewI 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 posted on Y
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

SGI Senior Leader: AAO! Washoi!! Shishifunjin!!! RRRAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!! (PS - I've never really liked matcha ice cream (Watsamatfu's or Anibodierusezu's), anyway.)
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuotecyclopsEven today if a YD makes the statement “Ikeda is my mentor” I will always ask them why – and so far none have given me a good answer! I get foolish responses like – He the president – or because he been practicing for a long time! So I try to fight the good fight when I can. But the Ikedanization will go on until the end of his reign! I fear after that he will be enshrined as a B
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

PS - To my previous post above - Forgot to add that the MD & WD were always on the real tour type luxury buses (with a bathroom), us YD were often relegated to the long (not short) yellow school buses (no AC) with malfunctioning windows, rock hard ripped upholstery seats, flattened cushions and bad shocks bouncing up and down all the way to and from the venue. Quotebobze39Japan has the hig
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Quotewakatta1That aspect alone is probably the most despicable element in having to deal with SGI "overlords". Endless meetings to get people's feelings on a topic and then the actual decision is made behind closed doors and always in the favor of the Japanese "clique". You're right, in business the same thing happens. First the underlings arrive to do "nem
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuotecorboyThe other day, I visited a local cemetary and wandered to one area that housed niches for people's urns and ashes. The modern niches commemorated very many who had perished in the grim years of the AIDS pandemic. I was floored to see one glass fronted niche with a smiling portrait of a handsome nice looking man, and on the glass, the words of the Nichiren chant. If that you
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Nichijew - Rigging the game is part of the Japanese psyche/mentality when functioning in groups. It's better to create an illusion of group harmony rather than risk ill feelings and disharmony. It's done all the time in Japan. They just want to go through the motions for formality sake and a tie is always the best possible and preferred outcome to any game of competition in their min
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

PS for KR - QuoteKRSo I will be celebrating a full year since I left SGI. The greatest joy from such an unpleasurable experience came when I found out that 3 members, one you could call a fortune baby who had just given birth to a child and going through issues of her own had given SGI the shaft. I meant to say, but forgot to add, . . . . . congratulations on your one-year anniversary of no
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteNichijewAs an aside, NEVER share intimate personal information when you are receiving guidance because sooner or later, everyone in your circle will know your business and some WILL use it against you. This happened to my wife and even though I was a "good ikedabot" at the time, I was livid when I found out. Oh YES, most DEFINITELY! The Japanese WD's existence is made all
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Thank you, excellent additions, fellow survivors. 11. Surrogate Family cult. (I can also add that when the chips are down, they will not be around, either. I've seen it a number of times and it's a harsh realization for the people that experience it.) 12. It's an autocratic cult with lower level hierarchies that pits even its own leaders against each other, playing off of
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

The Soka Gakkai incorporates varied and multi-levels of cultism into their overall structure. A partial list: 1. First and foremost, it is a cult that hides under the general banner of a mainstream eastern religion. A buddhist cult. 2. It incorporates elements of a political cult (Komeito) which manipulates to gain power for the very top (Japan) leadership. 3. It's a "peac
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

You guys just reminded me. We used to have an additional slogan that we shouted after "AAO." It went like this: AAO! AAO! AAO! SHISHI FUNJIN! SHISHI FUNJIN! SHISHI FUNJIN! RRRRAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! (That last "RAAAH!" was supposed to be like the roar of the lion). (For those that may not know, Shishi Funjin = the fury of a lion). Some really, really stupid
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Quotebobze39People in a relaxed state of mind are not going to run to execute someone's orders, that's why you need to wind them up first - then they will get up and start running around following your orders. The ymd, at least when I was in it, were programmed to run at full throttle from the minute you went into activity mode. You even had to go the bathroom and relieve yourself qu
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Quoteholly_golightlyWell I think the older members were quite bored of the human and new human revolution, and didn't really bother with the books unless they were leaders. Anyone who did express boredom with the books were advised that they weren't 'reading them with their hearts' and they 'needed to look beyond the words, to truly understand the heart of our mentor&#
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Wakkata1 - I couldn't check the Ikeda room, because that was the chief gajokai's job. But, he really couldn't check it either (he could only jiggle the locked doorknob to confirm that Ikeda didn't unlock it) because the key was controlled by a "top" Japanese WD who I think was always nearby and could be called if there were a real Ikeda materialization. His picture
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

"Power and control" is exactly right. This is at the core of what disturbs me most about the organization-cult. A supposedly "humanistic" organization that champions democracy and human rights, yet goes on to deprive its very membership of those same things by dehumanizing them (incorporating them into a single collective group think), demanding unthinking obedience without
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

An interesting conversation re: gajokai (kaikan-HQ baby sitting) - QuoteMav QuoteYzak And like you mentioned Awaken7, when people come to you saying that their philosophy is the ultimate experience you will have, it is because something not quite right is happening. The last time I had to do Gajokai, there was a technical issue, but it was rather no big deal, the meeting continued smoothly. We
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families