NSA seemed pretty homophobic, I recall no openly gay members. I understand that has changed with SGI, not because they think it is OK to be gay but because the american society's views toward gays has become much more accepting. SGI is a chameleon with no real core values, but will go whichever way the wind is blowing to keep the money rolling in. I don't think that SGI cares that much
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hitch: "the journey from ignorance to knowledge ..." LOVE IT! This sums up the cult-deprogramming process. I wouldn't put anything past cult NSA/SGI, arranged marriages, whatever. Anything to further the perpetuation of the org and cousin rufus, right?. Although regional practices varied back in the 70's (there was a poster who talked about sexual repression in Texas whi
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Upgrayed: "Remember, SGI cult members used to be matched up together for marriage during the NSA days. They would use women and leadership positions as carrots for members to chase through working hard for the cult. Today, the matchmaking isn't up in your face but it still goes on. Many of those members who got matched ended up in divorce. Some children out of those marriages en
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

A little ways upthread I asked why people have stayed in NSA/SGI for 40 years. I was questioning my inability to drink kool-aid for extended periods as perhaps being a flaw. Shortly thereafter, I came across an article that addressed this question quite well. Just replace the term "abusive churches" with "cult NSA/SGI" and the resemblance is uncanny. I have included the link
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hitch: "Oh, hell yeah! The broken grammatical sentences, the inhaling air thru the teeth habit, the bowing (even when talking on the phone), the chop-chop hand gesture to excuse yourself when cutting thru a crowd of people, the change in pronunciation of certain words, etc., all coming from caucasian native speakers, too. It was a combination of bizarre, hilarious and disturbing to witness.&
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Why do you think some people have stayed in the cult for 40 years? I was looking at pictures of Dave Grilly, a YMD brass band leader in Chicago who joined NSA around the same time, and same age that I did, 1971. He is still a loyal ikeabot. Sometimes I envy people who stick no matter what. I know folks who have been in their church for decades too. I guess I just have a skeptical nature, but it
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Wakatta 1: "SGI never valued leadership unless it was the brain-washed kool-aid drinking type." Hitch: "You guys are definitely right in that they don't really value intelligence as a requisite quality in their senior leadership." True and true. Thus the mediocre "leadership" that has landed the cult where it is today, a splintered ineffective delusiona
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Wakatta 1-"I had always regarded him as just a "lay leader" back in Japan" Me too. Ikea worship was not a part of my practice back in the day. I obtained Mel Wright info from the Taiten Yahoo group, and the Proud Black Buddhist site.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

"Regarding whether we knew one another, we probably did. After I returned from Japan I bought a house on the south side of the city and attended meetings at the Jeffery district for a couple years. I knew several leaders in that neck of the woods - but that was a long time ago indeed. After that I moved to the western suburbs and rarely got involved with the "city" activities excep
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

"I recall asking about some related detail during toban at the Foster avenue Kaikan..." Wakatta1, I am sure we practiced during the same time in Chicago. I remember when the Foster Ave. CC was opened, the CC was on Lawrence Ave before that, an extremely tiny location. Even though it took 90 minutes on buses and trains to get to the far north side from the far south side where I liv
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

"Kathleen H. Dockett, Ed.D., is professor of psychology and former Chairpersonof the Department of Psychology and Counseling at the University of the Districtof Columbia. She is author of Resources for Stress Resistance: Parallels in Psychology and Buddhism (1993). A community psychologist, her research and numerous presentations focus on Buddhism as a resource for the promotion of personal
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

"I can also see examples of these manipulative behaviors in families, in the workplace, and in groups like SGI." In the workplace, I knew it was BS, a game. Some families are cults (anybody familiar with 19 Kids and Counting?). In NSA, I had no clue I was being manipulated until I was long out of the org. That's the difference with workplace and family manipulation, you can sen
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

"Experiences.....the sorrow someone has about some difficult problem in their life, to the frustration that they feel as they try to solve it, and nothing is working --- to the elation that they feel when, through lots of chanting and dedication to SGI -- THE BREAKTHROUGH!!!!!!! They've got their benefit -- and you can too! Hooray for SGI!!!" Confirmation bias in one of its fine
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

"To my husband Richard, my daughter Megan,my parents George, Gertrude, and Ariel,and my Sensei, Daisaku Ikeda, for their support" BARF!!! How can she pretend to have a valid academic publication when she is an ikedabot? Oh, the blindness of the kool-aid drinkers.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

"This drove me crazy when I was in SGI -- all the manufactured emotion. Leaders would mention some upcoming big meeting -- and everyone would start cheering. It was as if they'd pushed a button. All this excitement -- for what?" AAO! AAO! AAO! We didn't even know what AAO meant, but it didn't stop us from screaming it with fanatic fervor. I HATED AAO, so fake for Ameri
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Hitch, back in NSA days we were never told what Soka Gaikkai meant, it was rarely talked about. Full disclosure was not (and apparently is not) the norm.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Remember how when somebody went taiten, it was whispered like they had a dread disease or something. Certainly they would be hit by a freight train! Chant for them! What absolute silliness.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Does anybody know what happened to the "Taiten" group on Yahoo?
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

UU (universalist unitarian) may not be a manipulative org, but some would argue that it is not really a religion.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

"In the motherland, they have the brass band (ymd) and kotekitai (ywd) (notice the cult flag colors) go out and participate in prefectural public parades...." During my cult time here in Chicago, we were always preparing to be in some parade or another, even traveling to the Kentucky Derby to march for cousin rufus. I wrote earlier in the MB about practicing in the scary old nationa
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Speaking of PTSD....just last night I had another cult dream, complete with meeting and chanting. Ugh. I haven't set foot in a meeting or chanted since 1976! Yet, I still have these disturbing dreams (they are never happy, I'm always in some sort of conflict with the true believers). This forum is invaluable, because I would not share this experience with friends and family lest I be th
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Welcome Upgrayed! Enjoyed your post. Please keep coming back, there really isn't much handslapping here because most of us agree that NSA/SGI is a toxic organization.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuotesimplifyQuoteHitchAlthough I consider myself to be immunized to just about anything in the gakkai cult org., I'll admit, that clip is like a bad car accident that you can't help to get a feeling of revulsion from after sneaking a glance at. It's so blatant that you want to tell yourself its got to be a parody, but it isn't. It just screams out C-U-L-T-! You are literal
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteHitchQuotesimplify Simplify (still shaken by finding out that SGI is a cult) My alarm bells started gently chiming in my teenage years, but it took until I was an adult, to figure out exactly why. Being "shaken" is a good thing; some people never even reach that point and wind up devoting their entire lives, as well as, unfortunately, getting future family generations ensla
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Thanks for responding to infowars, I was like "WTF" when I saw that post.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Check this out!
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuotecoolshyoneAs the official emcee at many a district meetings, I had the dubious distinction of explaining to any newbies in attendance what the supposed meaning of NMRK was. Well I think it means this. No it actually means that. All joking aside it can mean whatever they want it to mean to suit their own agenda.Hitch's comment about being tattooed into your brain is an understatement. A
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I just read on the soka gakkai wikipedia page that "Nam-Myôhô-Renge-Kyô" means "Devotion to the Mystic/Wonderful Dharma/Law of the Lotus Flower Sutra". As a member of NSA, we were told many time that NMRK meant devotion to the mystic law of cause and effect through sound. So what is the real translation of NMRK? The more I read this MB, the more I feel bamboozeled by NSA/S
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

When I was participating in large events, I was a true believer for cousin rufus. So wanting non-believers to become part of this noble effort. Never really bought the ikea worship, kind of faked that part a little bit. I never really expressed my doubts about NSA, I knew they would not be well received. Large events generated ecstatic feelings, akin to pentacostals in the spirit. Eventually I
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteHitchFrom the 80's, a full (7 part series) broadcast of one of the soka gakkai cult's peace cultural festivals: (Part 1) (Follow other playlist links for remainder.) You can see many of the NSA members in full uniform whites, arriving at venues, marching around and performing in the festival. Other clips have people in tears after it is all finished. The dear leader makes
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families