Hello beautiful shiny people

[slobeck]

I'm slobeck. While I was never in Scientology I did spend quite a few years in a different cult called the SGI and left after learning about Scientology and damage it was doing. I realized that while the SGI is far less extreme in it's control mechanisms than scn there were far too many things in common for me not to take a look at my involvement.

Having come to know and be friends with a few ex's and many critics old and new, I found a group of people that I admired a great deal. So here I am after becoming a bit disillusioned with another web site that shall go unnamed. I hope I'm welcome.

so, Hi everyone!

 

[Ogsonofgroo]

SloB! Enjoy your visits and reading, there's a lot of learnin's a-happening You've been lurking long?
Just curious, you have long been 'slobeck', old Anon?

 

[Anonycat]

I'm slobeck. While I was never in Scientology I did spend quite a few years in a different cult called the SGI and left after learning about Scientology and damage it was doing. I realized that while the SGI is far less extreme in it's control mechanisms than scn there were far too many things in common for me not to take a look at my involvement.

Having come to know and be friends with a few ex's and many critics old and new, I found a group of people that I admired a great deal. So here I am after becoming a bit disillusioned with another web site that shall go unnamed. I hope I'm welcome.

so, Hi everyone!

Hi there! Glad to see you made it!

 

[Panda Termint]

Great to see you here. Thanks muchly for the info about SGI in chat.

 

[ClearEyed]

I'm slobeck. While I was never in Scientology I did spend quite a few years in a different cult called the SGI and left after learning about Scientology and damage it was doing. I realized that while the SGI is far less extreme in it's control mechanisms than scn there were far too many things in common for me not to take a look at my involvement.

Having come to know and be friends with a few ex's and many critics old and new, I found a group of people that I admired a great deal. So here I am after becoming a bit disillusioned with another web site that shall go unnamed. I hope I'm welcome.

so, Hi everyone!

Hi to you, too, glad you found this board.

Prior to your post, the only SGI I'd ever heard of was Silicon Graphics (once a mfg of cutting edge computer graphics). So I just did a search, and guess your SGI is Soka Gakkai which, forgive me, sounds like it could be a great dish from a Thai restaurant. Sorry to learn about yet another cult masquerading as a path to enlightenment.

I used to think of Buddhism and meditation as an individual practice done to one's own inner-direction. I'm learning that the possibilities for cult-ish behavior are pretty much never ending. Seems where ever you have a group of people with a penchant for idealism and self-improvement, they are ripe for exploitation.

Looking forward to seeing more from you and learning from your experiences.

How did Scientology come to your attention, and what are some of the cult-ish practices you see in common between SGI and Scientology?

 

[Purple Rain]

Hello!!!

Edit: Now I have that song stuck in my head! Lol!

 

[Free Being Me]

to ESMB slobeck!

 

[slobeck]

Hi to you, too, glad you found this board.

Prior to your post, the only SGI I'd ever heard of was Silicon Graphics (once a mfg of cutting edge computer graphics). So I just did a search, and guess your SGI is Soka Gakkai which, forgive me, sounds like it could be a great dish from a Thai restaurant. Sorry to learn about yet another cult masquerading as a path to enlightenment.

I used to think of Buddhism and meditation as an individual practice done to one's own inner-direction. I'm learning that the possibilities for cult-ish behavior are pretty much never ending. Seems where ever you have a group of people with a penchant for idealism and self-improvement, they are ripe for exploitation.

Looking forward to seeing more from you and learning from your experiences.

How did Scientology come to your attention, and what are some of the cult-ish practices you see in common between SGI and Scientology?

Thanks for the warm welcome! I heard about scientology in 2008 during Chanology but at the time was still an SGI member in good standing. As i dove more deeply into scientology's abuses and after meeting a few exes (most notably Tommy and Jennifer Gorman) I really began to have doubts about the SGI. It began around something called "may contributions." Every member is expected to tithe in May more extravagantly than at other times of the year. This is like getting hit up for IAS donations during a pledge period. All discussion groups are directed to guide their discussions to the benefits gained from donation. So usually stories go something like "I gave my last $200 and chanted extra hard and gained such karma that 6 weeks later I finally landed a $100k a year job and got a $20k signing bonus. So my donation came back hundred-fold!" Then there's the phone calls every day from group/district/area/region leaders asking if you've given yet.

More similarities are BOOKS. whole overpriced cult run bookstores full of authorized Buddhist literature of all kinds. I have shelves of the stuff.

Then you are expected to attend activities in your area at people's homes and at the culture center. If you're not seen at these things they pressure you for a while. These activities are seen as "cultural" in nature and fulfill one of the orgs stated goals the "advancement of culture"
chanting is done twice a day in front of an altar in every buddhist home. These can be relatively cheap (a few hundred dollars) to very extravagant I know of one over $100k in a small 2 br apartment. no kidding. takes up a whole room. Installed within these altars are "sacred" scrolls called a gohonzon that must be obtained from the leadership during special ceremonies. I still have mine. members are expected to chant for some length of time in 2 daily rituals called Gongyo (i still have it memorized -32 pages of classical japanese) All this ads up to a lot of time spent solely among other Buddhists and it gets insular, like Scn.

There is a charismatic leader named Daisaku Ikeda (claims to hold a word record for honorary degrees from Universities >120 the last time i heard) People call him "sensei" and display crazy adoration for him. People claim for the Buddhism to really work you need to "develop a personal relationship" with sensei. I've never had it explained to my satisfaction how one does this without meeting him. I'm told it's a matter of faith.

Celebrities. A few: Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Orlando Bloom and Tina Turner [video=youtube;MOsr_ZOi-Jo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOsr_ZOi-Jo[/video] <- video of her talking about it and actually chanting one of the prayers that I had memorized

they're not nearly the destructive animal that Scn is but they are a cult. Granted it has a high happiness factor that is really genuine and chanting really helps for some people but I found it to be taking over my life in a very negative way. I may experiment with other Nichiren Buddhist traditions like the NSA (Nichiren Shoshu) for one. One that lacks the cult aspects of the SGI.

 

[TrevAnon]

Welcome!

Your thread title made me think of...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCQ0vDAbF7s

 

[Lurker5]

Welcome , slobeck - MOAR !

 

[Telepathetic]

Welcome friend, have fun here, and may we learn, new and exciting things, from each other

Namaste,

TP

 

[Loohan]

Looking up pix of Soka Gakkai International cultists, i sense they all have this same freaky black-magic vibe, complete with demons.
Somehow these non-physical entities are conspiring to mind-control the flock.
A handful of people at the top summon these demons to do this.

I think LRH did the same thing.

 

[PTS]

Welcome. I did not know that Soka Gakkai was so big here. I always thought it was mainly in Asia. A friend I made in university was an adherent. We used to compare notes between $cientology and Soka Gakkai. My sense at the time was that SG prmomoted nationalism, pride of country and all that. Just today I noticed the SGI Vancouver centre while on the train home from the airport. I look forward to learning more.

 

[Anonycat]

Looking up pix of Soka Gakkai International cultists, i sense they all have this same freaky black-magic vibe, complete with demons.
Somehow these non-physical entities are conspiring to mind-control the flock.
A handful of people at the top summon these demons to do this.

I think LRH did the same thing.

His reply should be good; s/he knows all about this stuff!

 

[Loohan]

His reply should be good; s/he knows all about this stuff!

The good news is, demons can be jailed and destroyed. This is what i excel at.
It's called Having the correct technology. Knowing the correct technology. Correctly applying the correct technology, etc.
The correct technology being Loohanology.
I will be putting together a status/fee schedule for the IAL.

Seriously, right after i posted i got jumped by zillions of this cult's demons. Luckily they are not very strong at causing physical symptoms
Soon they will be eradicated, leaving this cult with much less power.

 

[Telepathetic]

The good news is, demons can be jailed and destroyed. This is what i excel at.
It's called Having the correct technology. Knowing the correct technology. Correctly applying the correct technology, etc.
The correct technology being Loohanology.
I will be putting together a status/fee schedule for the IAL.

Seriously, right after i posted i got jumped by zillions of this cult's demons. Luckily they are not very strong at causing physical symptoms
Soon they will be eradicated, leaving this cult with much less power.

These little voices talking in my head, could they be, you think, Demons?
If so, I shall need you're expertise, in exorcising these, PLEASE! For I'm stressed, perplex and utterly exhausted, by these unsolicited conversations, that are occurring daily, inside my head!

I am incensed, as well, at the fact, that I lose every goddamn argument I have with them, these...the voices I mean..!

TP

 

[Good twin]

These little voices talking in my head, could they be, you think, Demons?
If so, I shall need you're expertise, in exorcising these, PLEASE! For I'm stressed, perplex and utterly exhausted, by these unsolicited conversations, that are occurring daily, inside my head!

I am incensed, as well, at the fact, that I lose every goddamn argument I have with them, these...the voices I mean..!

TP

For a few bucks more you could get the good stuff.

 

[Telepathetic]

For a few bucks more you could get the good stuff.

I've already spent those bucks baby, and I must admit that, you, my foxy femme fatale, are, without a doubt, absolutely right! And, I just happen to be flying - no, I mean riding - on that train! You know, the one they call, THE GOODSTUFF EXPRESS!

Hey, it's nice to see you though, I'm not really... But, you know what I mean?

So, what's new, niña?

TP

 

[Good twin]

I've already spent those bucks baby, and I must admit that, you, my foxy femme fatale, are, without a doubt, absolutely right! And, I just happen to be flying - no, I mean riding - on that train! You know, the one they call, THE GOODSTUFF EXPRESS!

Hey, it's nice to see you though, I'm not really... But, you know what I mean?

So, what's new, niña?

TP

Everything, Chico. My life is changing faster than I can keep up. I like it that way. No longer chewing on questions and pretending to find answers leaves me comfortably enjoying the mysteries that may never be solved.

 

[Telepathetic]

Everything, Chico. My life is changing faster than I can keep up. I like it that way. No longer chewing on questions and pretending to find answers leaves me comfortably enjoying the mysteries that may never be solved.

Those are very wise and beautiful words and they re-resonate with me! May I copy and add, your beautiful thought, to my "tag": brief quotation used in a discourse to give it an air of erudition or authority.
Honestly, this quote should be immortalized!

If you approve, I shall add then it, to my tag.

Well girl I'll be seeing you around, oh, and whether you give me permission or not...I'll be coping and pasting.