> “Your chanting-addict friend reminds me of a > former friend of mine who’s heavily involved in > SGI. I went on vacation once with her, and another > friend of ours who isn’t an SGI member. My SGI > friend just became extremely anxious, perhaps from > being away from home and in a strange place. We > were at this beautiful beach — and all she > wanted to do was si
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

StillTaitenAndProud Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Hate to interrupt your witty (weedy?) repartee, > but I stumbled upon this site, by a "Rev. Greg." > The short article up top is interesting, but the > discussion down below is even MORE interesting - > it deals with Lisa Jones, of Buddhajones (in)fame. > Her website was taken
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Quoteevergreentsuki you still out there? Evergreen and Meh, Thanks for asking... I'm still around. Not sure what our local SGI-ers are up to. They don't try to contact me, I don't try to contact them. I'm guessing that the group is shrinking. I've heard rumors of certain former members going off and practicing on their own, joining other religions, and/or
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

The World Poet Laureate bit was also lost with our last 300+ pages. It's an interesting story. There was a great deal of hoopla, a few years back, about how Ikeda had been chosen World Poet Laureate by the United Poets Laureate International, parent organization of the World Congress of Poets. He was also so honored by the World Poetry Society Intercontinental, which is now out of bu
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Quotemeh. I never did get to the part where Tsukimoto's dog received that award; I had no idea that Oxford had canine obedience courses ;-) ! . I wish Oxford had dog obedience classes, maybe I'd finally break my little furry friend of jumping on the sofa. For a Friend of the Bodleian Library, she certainly doesn't behave well, though she is friendly. Where this bit about
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Quotemeh This seems to be pretty factual (although, of course, I have doubts about the veracity of a lot of things at this point); first and foremost that the temple actually belonged to nichiren shoshu. One of the big issues was the expense of operating the facility - because of how the windows were installed, it was necessary to keep the a/c running at all times to reduce mold growth; this was
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

In 2004, the Soka Gakkai-sponsored New Komeito Party voted to send the Japanese Self Defense Force to Iraq, despite the protests of many Japanese Soka Gakkai members. Basically, the larger and more powerful Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) asked them to -- and the New Komeito Party wanted to curry favor with them. Japan Times/March 2, 2004 
By Tetsushi Kajimoto When New Komei
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Taiten and Proud, your account of your missionary grandparents' neglect of their children is heartbreaking. A parent sending a sick child off to die with strangers -- so that the parent could preach to strangers? Horrible. It reminded me about something I had read about the women's division, doing shakabuku in Hokkaido. This was a statement from Nobuhiro Nobuko, an SGI-Jap
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteTaitenAndProudHi, kyrl. What you said below brought a memory to mind. "I wondered if this YMD leader ever thought about the consequence if someone passed out or died." One of my fellow YWD, who'd been "in" somewhat longer than I had, once told me about how, at some big YWD activity in Chicago (our Jt. Territory - a several-hour drive from our home base of Minn
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Byrd's post from April 14, 2008. At this point, SGI has apparently contacted her, by e-mail, with objections to her blog. -------------------------Beginning of Quote------------------------------------------------------------------- April 14, 2008 See For Yourself! The Amazing Talking Building! Last week, I discussed how happy I was to receive some written response, however sco
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Another post of Wendy Byrd Ehlmann's, from www.fraughtwithperil.com ------------------------Beginning of Quote--------------------------------------------------------------------- April 06, 2008 Apology to the Members...? Well, according to the staff member who wrote to me last week, with copies to various other staff and area leaders, I owe an apology: To all SGI member
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

One of Wendy Byrd Ehlmann's posts that SGI objected to, from www.fraughtwithperil.com ----------------------------Beginning of Quote------------------------------------------------------------- Byrd's Eye View, Fraught With Peril October 06, 2007 Lost in Translation I've really been thinking about the strange situation which has developed in the SGI-USA in the Ante
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteShavoysleepy, I can't be 100% sure, but I believe Byrd's blogs were removed because she was a polarizing figure for the SGI. She was a sincere person who wanted to open up the SGI, she saw wrong and wanted it make it more right for the members. From what I've read, SGI leadership make it difficult for her and when she passed away, didn't show much sympathy. One more
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteTaitenAndProud A Nero playing upon his harp, in view of a city in flames, is a less frightful picture than that of the solitary philosopher basking in the serenity of his own speculations, but indifferent to the ignorance he could remove, the error he could correct, or the misery he could relieve. The problem is, when I was in SGI and trying to do shakabuku -- I really believed that I WAS
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteHitchBack in America, the Japanese leadership was livid over the way the priesthood treated the USA gakkai cult members. They basically did the bare minimum, and begrudgingly so. It was all washed under the rug and kept hush-hush from the English-only speaking members. The official spin was that our "faith" had gotten us in and blah-blah-blah. The reality was, it was just anoth
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteTaitenAndProudOMG - I never saw this - the Ikeda Adonis!! Look at MEEEE!! Who here went on tozan? Did you see this at Taiseki-ji? WTF??? I went on Tozan, and I did NOT see this. The Nichiren Shoshu priests would not allow Ikeda to put this up at Taiseki-ji. No wonder Ikeda hated them and wanted SGI to break with Nichiren Shoshu as soon as SGI had the numbers and money to do so.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteHitch Anybody who criticizes or does not show proper deference to The Dear Leader Ikeda, shall always be attacked by hardcore brainwashed gakkai cultie members. I've mentioned before how when Mandela met with Ikeda in Japan, the grapevine was burning up members' ears with how insolent, disrespectful and rude Mandela was for having the gall to be tired and sleepy (head bobbing st
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

This was discussed around December 2009 on this thread, about page 87. Anticult found an entry on www.gakkaionline -- Soka Gakkai members strongly criticized Polly Toynbee for daring to criticize the Dear Mentor. -----------------------------------Beginning of Quote------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Quote:
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

I'd like to add: who ARE these leaders that we feel we have to please or obey them? We're not children and they're not our parents. They are not employers who are paying us a salary that we need to support ourselves. Quite the opposite! They're trying to get money and free labor out of us. They are nobody special. Most are not particularly wise, or knowle
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Daishastro, Have you checked out the SGI thread on this forum? Hundreds of pages of various people's experiences with SGI. I'd recommend actually starting with the last, most recent page, and working backwards. I was an SGI member and leader for 18 years, and have been out for six. Overally, I would have to say that SGI leaders tend to be domineering and unsupportive.
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoterattyboyWhen "the rhythym began to change" after Ikeda's visit in 1990(?) , I thought to myself that they are just going to be more insidious with the control. I thought this yet kept on. The group's process had become linked with my life. I wasn't in some ashram in some foreign country eating a different diet, what have you. I think it might be more challenging to e
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Has my life improved after leaving SGI? From the perspective of having been out over six years -- absolutely! I did have very mixed feelings when I left. I had that superstitious fear that SGI implants in people -- that I was inviting disaster into my life by leaving. There were also some things about SGI that I had enjoyed -- interacting with certain members, some of the activitie
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Findingmywaytoday, As far as chanting is concerned -- some people who've posted here, still chant, some don't. People were chanting long before the Soka Gakkai ever existed. Nam myoho renge kyo does not belong to Ikeda or SGI -- no matter what they tell you. Some posters have joined other Buddhist groups, some have become Christian, some don't practice any formal relig
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteThe AnticultHave known some people who are in SGI who have some "issues" in the mental health area, and some of them really went overboard with the SGI-chanting. One person was chanting, and not getting what they want out of life, and things were getting worse. So this person was getting more and more anxious, and started to chant longer, and faster and faster. Eventually the pe
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

There is an interesting thread on this forum about the Falun Gong group, led by Li Hongzhi. When I read the former member's account of his experiences....they sounded suspiciously like former members' experiences with SGI. ------------------------Beginning of quote---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I used to practice Falun Gon
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Recovering Yogi's experience with being shakabuku'ed is also interesting: --------------------beginning of quote-------------------------------------------------------- Things weren’t adding up. Mostly I wondered why Nichiren Buddhists chant for things. I attended one more meeting to find out. The opportunity presented itself perfectly. They asked me what topics they sh
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Paul Marantz;s link is interesting. It's an account of how a good-looking woman (and her sister) took advantage of his attraction to her to pressure him to join SGI. ----------------------Beginning of Quote---------------------------------------------- It all begin and ended with Linda. To my joy, Linda accepted a date with me for that night. So I came back from the beach enc
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

QuoteShavoyWow, great last few posts from Upgrayed and Hitch.... @Hitch, I must of missed something again---Sensei is trying to trademark NMRK??? Yes -- page 252 of this thread. ----------------------------------Beginning of Quote----------------------------------------------------------------- Posted by Tibbs: Did anyone else see this on fraughtwithperil.com? Maybe it's old
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Quoterattyboy It was the most enthusiastic YWD (Young women's division member) in our group who the leader chose to get up and speak. This leader was not explicitly introduced as a leader. She was, seemingly, just a part of our group of 10 - 15 people. All these group mouthpieces had nothing but good things to say. "That was Great!" shouted even louder instead of "Wasn&#
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families

Levi McLaughlin, a Princeton PhD scholar in religious studies, has written about how the Aum subway sarin gas attack in 1995 affected the Soka Gakkai. He argues that though SGI and Aum were totally different groups, the attacks made the Japanese even more suspicious of SGI. The Japanese public became concerned that these cultish groups were capable of anything. The Aum leader also spoke
Forum: Former Cult Members and Affected Families