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Buddhism American style
cloaking itself in super-patriotism, Nicherin Shoshu Of America is part of an evangelical buddhist secty gaining adherents worldwide with a guarantee of happiness through chanting. Sounds pretty harmless, right? Cult-watchers and ex-members don’t think so.
Date: Sunday, October 15, 1989
Section: Boston Globe Sunday Magazine
Page: 18 ff.
By Daniel Golden, Globe Staff
Florence Hadley, principal of the David A. Ellis School in Roxbury, had never heard of the New Freedom Bell. Nor was she familiar with the organization that was exhibiting the bell in schools across the country. But when her school was offered a chance to host the facsimile of Philadelphia’s famed Liberty Bell, she responded the way any patriotic American would.
“I just thought it was a super idea to have the children see a replica of the Liberty Bell,” she says. “The Ellis needs all the positive things it can get.”
As it happens, the offer came one day this past spring from Tamara McClinton, an Ellis parent who dropped in at the school office to tell Hadley about the bell. Hadley felt a bit bewildered that McClinton kept referring to the group sponsoring the tour by the abbreviation NSA, as if the principal should have known what it stood for. McClinton herself was an NSA member. Hadley finally asked what the letters meant, but the answer was a jumble of words that made no sense to her. Still, she was impressed by the documents McClinton showed her: letters from school administrators and elected officials thanking NSA for bringing its bell to their districts. What better opportunity could there be for children to learn about the Constitution?
So Hadley invited pupils from five other elementary schools and prepared for a star-spangled celebration. All of the schools were provided with copies of a pamphlet that teachers could use in their classrooms or children could bring home. Entitled The New Common Sense, after Thomas Paine’s plea for American independence, the pamphlet urged children to buy American products and listed a California phone number and publisher, the World Tribune Press. It did not mention NSA, whatever that was.
The bell arrived at the grounds of the Ellis School at 9 on the misty morning of June 13. It sat on a flatbed truck in a makeshift enclosure decorated with mayoral proclamations, the NSA insignia, the “We the People” logo of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the US Constitution, and red, white, and blue bunting. Accompanying it were dozens of people, blacks and whites, with neat haircuts and glowing smiles. The men were dressed as Minutemen and carried American flags; the women wore frilly Betsy Ross petticoats and caps. Clean-cut and all-American, they looked like a group George Bush could embrace.
Local television stations and newspapers were on hand to cover what was the perfect media event: colorful, punctual, well-organized, and uplifting. State Rep. Gloria Fox made a rousing speech, and 800 children rang the bell, 30 of them at a time tugging the rope. Boston School Superintendent Laval Wilson rang it, too, with a perplexed look. He was later spotted asking several Minutemen what NSA was.
“I really don’t know anything about that group. I was just in the bell- ringing ceremony,” he says.
Had Wilson pursued his inquiries, he would have uncovered a sobering irony and a lesson in how any group can co-opt American patriotic symbols. He and other guests were helping a controversial Japanese religious organization in its quest to seem familiar to Americans. NSA stands for Nichiren Shoshu of America, the United States affiliate of an evangelical Buddhist sect that is gaining adherents worldwide with a sunny, simplistic guarantee of peace and prosperity through chanting a Japanese phrase. By cloaking itself in Old Glory, NSA may have become the fastest-growing religious group in this country. Yet cult-watchers denounce it, and ex-members distribute newsletters warning that its practices and all-absorbing lifestyle can amount to brainwashing.
The New Freedom Bell is one of many patriotic devices that NSA uses to establish credibility as an American organization and solicit endorsements from politicians and civic leaders. That strategy seems to be succeeding. NSA literature displays congratulatory letters from then-Vice President George Bush, Sen. Edward Kennedy, Mayor Raymond Flynn, and Gov. Mario Cuomo of New York, among other potentates, and Sen. John Kerry was a featured speaker at NSA’s convention in New York City in 1986.
NSA stole the show at Bush’s inauguration in January by displaying on the Washington Mall the world’s largest chair — a 39-foot-high model of the chair that George Washington sat in as he presided over the Continental Congress. The Guinness Book of World Records has twice cited NSA for assembling the most American flags ever in a parade, although in one mention it misidentified the group as “Nissan Shoshu,” confusing the religious organization with the automaker.
“NSA is one of the largest destructive cults in the country,” says Steven Hassan, a former member of the Unification Church and the author of Combating Cult Mind Control. “They like to talk about peace and democracy, but their beliefs at the core are antithetical to that. Like all other cults, they espouse wonderful ideas and worthy goals. The question is, what are they doing to meet those goals? Are they just espousing them to recruit people, to gain money and power? The difference between a cult like NSA and an aggressive religion is that the religion tells people up front who they are and what they want.”
NSA’s parent organization is Soka Gakkai (“Value-Creating Society”), a lay religious group dedicated to spreading the teachings of Nichiren, a 13th- century Buddhist monk. One of several groups that filled the void left by the discrediting of the traditional Shinto faith after World War II, Soka Gakkai has an estimated 10 million members in Japan and collects more than $1 billion in donations annually. It also founded Japan’s third-largest political party: Komeito, or “Clean Government.” Although charges of violating the separation of church and state led Soka Gakkai to cut formal ties with the party, it still remains the power behind Komeito.
The price of Soka Gakkai’s political prominence has been recurrent scandal. Its leader, Daisaku Ikeda, stepped down as its president in 1979 after being accused of everything from wire-tapping the home telephone of a Japanese Communist Party official to arranging for his mistress to be nominated by Komeito for a seat in the Diet. He remains president of Soka Gakkai’s international wing. Recently, Komeito members have been linked to a bribery scandal plaguing the Liberal Democrats, Japan’s ruling party. This past July, workers pried open an old safe in a Yokohama waste dump and discovered $1.2 million in yen notes. The money belonged to Soka Gakkai.
Beleaguered at home, Soka Gakkai has looked abroad, establishing chapters in 110 countries. Wherever it goes, it identifies with local traditions. For example, its wing in England bought a country estate that includes among its attractions a cedar tree planted by Winston Churchill, as well as a statue of King George III — one man who presumably would have declined to ring the New Freedom Bell. At Taplow Court, members of NSUK (Nichiren Shoshu of United Kingdom) regularly put on Elizabethan plays and traditional country fairs.
NSA was Soka Gakkai’s first overseas chapter, and it remains the largest. Established in 1960 by a Japanese immigrant who changed his name to George Williams, NSA at first appealed mainly to Japanese-Americans. Today, Williams remains the head, and most of his top aides are of Japanese descent, but the rank-and-file membership is diverse. According to a 1983 NSA study of its members, 45 percent are white, 24 percent are Asian, and 19 percent are black. Only 16 percent of members who joined in the 1980s were Asian-Americans. (According to the study, 60 percent of members are female.)
Kevin O’Neil, president of the American Buddhist Movement, says NSA has been more successful than any other Buddhist sect in attracting Americans who are not of Asian descent. O’Neil’s organization includes all of the 366 Buddhist sects in America except NSA, which refuses to join on the grounds that it alone preaches the true faith. “When people get very involved in NSA, they won’t associate with people who are Buddhists but not in their sect,” O’Neil says. “Then they talk about world peace and coming together. That, I find, is a little culty.”
NSA claims a membership of 500,000, which is almost certainly an exaggeration; O’Neil believes the actual figure is about 150,000. Based in Southern California, NSA has gained a reputation as a Hollywood religion because of celebrity members such as singer Tina Turner, actor Patrick Duffy, and jazz keyboardist Herbie Hancock. But it boasts an East Coast following as well, including about 4,000 people in New England.
“Obviously, we’re growing in terms of numbers,” says Gerry Hall, an aide to Williams. “And it’s pretty solid. There’s a second generation. What’s great is to see that it’s not just the baby boomers did this thing and faded away and their kids won’t follow in their footsteps. It’s genuinely a family religion.”
The Ellis School parents who belong to NSA include not only McClinton, a news editor at WGBH-TV, but also Roslyn Parks. Parks is executive director of the Black Cultural Exposition, which is scheduled for the Hynes Auditorium later this month. Among other events, it will feature a film, The Contemporary Gladiator, written and produced by a karate expert who belongs to NSA. It is the story of a karate champion who chants for victory.
Parks credits her chanting with curing a heart ailment that she says would otherwise have required open-heart surgery. She sings in an NSA chorus at parades and festivals. “As a black American, I thought I wasn’t from this country,” she says. “I was from Africa, and they forced me here. It wasn’t until I joined NSA that I developed a sense of patriotism. Some of my friends who are into blackness are saying, ‘What’s with you, girl?’ I say, ‘This is our country. There are things to be proud of.’ ”
Howard Hunter, who teaches Asian religion at Tufts University, opens a desk drawer and pulls out a photograph of a young man with his scalp and eyebrows shaven, sitting cross-legged before a hut in Thailand. Not so long ago, Hunter says, that young man was a Tufts student and fraternity brother.
“That’s the fear of Americans, that their children will wind up looking like that,” Hunter says. “And it’s manifestly clear that nobody who joins NSA will end up looking like that. They don’t renounce the world.”
Not only does NSA outdo the Daughters of the American Revolution in patriotic fervor, but it also bears a message tailored to the American dream. Most Eastern sects seeking a foothold here urge renunciation of earthly pleasures, but NSA preaches that material gain is a pathway to spiritual enlightenment. Whether its materialism derives from Nichiren, which NSA’s critics dispute, it sounds conveniently like Horatio Alger. “They’re linking into the deepest cultural themes, economic gain and patriotism,” says sociologist David Bromley of Virginia Commonwealth University. Then, too, many aspects of NSA — the revivalist fervor, the use of testimony to sway doubters, faith healing, and disdain for other sects — bear less resemblance to traditional Buddhism than to Protestant fundamentalism.
Recognizing that NSA’s future depends on avoiding bad publicity, its officials have learned from the mistakes of the Unification Church, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, and other groups stereotyped in the public mind as cults. For example, NSA recruiting methods are persistent but discreet. Although members occasionally hand out cards in airports or outside restaurants, they mainly proselytize friends, neighbors, and co-workers. And, unlike some groups viewed as cults, NSA does not abduct members from their families, deprive them of food and sleep, seize their possessions, or prevent them from quitting. Nor does it avenge itself on its opponents, like a California group that put a snake in the mailbox of a critic.
“I haven’t heard a suggestion of high-pressure tactics that remotely resemble some tactics we’ve seen in other groups,” says James White, a professor of political science at the University of North Carolina and author of a book about Soka Gakkai. “They are just as entitled to have a place in the American religious spectrum as anything else. If it gets you through the night, and it’s not personally or socially pathological, I don’t see anything wrong with it.”
Yet, to ex-members and anticult groups, NSA’s flag-waving smacks of Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s “God Bless America” tour in 1972. They say NSA achieves the same goals as more notorious groups but with greater subtlety. Rather than kidnap members from relatives, NSA instills a hostile attitude toward nonbelievers, they say, and schedules so many group activities that family ties fade. While it does not coerce contributions from members, it encourages donations with the philosophy that the gift will be repaid tenfold in their own lives. And its fundamental credo — that chanting brings good luck — conveys a psychological threat, according to former members: If you stop, bad things will happen to you.
“You don’t go to an ashram, you don’t wear different clothes, you aren’t a vegetarian,” says one former NSA member who asked not to be identified. ”It’s all an internal mind-set. Once you’ve got that, you can be anywhere on earth and still be a dedicated believer. That’s why I think the telltale signs of mind control should be taught in the schools.
“A lot of people say, ‘Well, they joined because they had personal problems.’ It’s blame the victim. Everyone has personal problems. The key is, they wouldn’t get involved if they knew the danger signs. I could kick myself. How come I didn’t see it? But I didn’t know what to look for.”
Few of the hundreds of schools where NSA sought to bring its bell in the past school year knew what to look for, either. And only two — a public junior high in a New York City suburb and the United Nations School in New York City — spurned the offer.
“It’s very seductive,” says Sylvia Fuhrman, the secretary-general’s special representative for the UN school. “All these glorious photographs. Their brochures are as polished and beautiful as National Geographic. But the more we checked into it, the less we liked it. Nowhere can you find who is footing the bill. That’s what alerted me. I thought of poor souls being enticed into it.”
Arhythmic, high-pitched wail emanates one summer evening from a large conference room on the ground floor of an inconspicuous two-story South End building, the NSA center in Boston. Inside, the room is mostly bare of decoration, with white walls and white track lighting. At the front stands a wooden altar encasing a sacred scroll, called a gohonzon. It contains passages and characters from the Lotus Sutra, a holy Buddhist text, in the handwriting of the high priest of Nichiren Shoshu in Japan. Nichiren himself carved the first gohonzon in a block of camphor wood. On the left of the altar is a framed photo of the controversial Ikeda, who remains president of Soka Gakkai International. On the right is an American flag.
Led by Robert Eppsteiner, NSA’s only salaried staff member in Boston, about 150 people sit facing the gohonzon, chanting passages from the Lotus Sutra. Many of them follow the passages in booklets, and some wind beads around their fingers. It is a multiracial group, and there is no conformity as to dress: Some members are in T-shirts, while others have come straight from work in their suits and ties. A large proportion are mothers with babies, awaiting a meeting of the young mothers’ group later. Such subgroupings characterize NSA’s structure. Not only is it organized into units of increasing size, from districts to headquarters and joint territories, but members are also aligned by age and sex. The men’s and women’s divisions are for adults over 35, while adults under that age are placed in young men’s and young women’s divisions.
After they finish reciting the Lotus Sutra chapters, the members chant the phrase that is the bedrock of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism: “Nam myoho renge kyo,” or “Devotion to the Lotus Sutra.” By repeating this phrase for a minimum of an hour a day, members claim to reach harmony with the universe. Fortune comes their way: a job, good health, a spouse, even a parking space. You can’t doubt their sincerity, although a nonbeliever might suggest other explanations for their success: coincidence or new-found self-confidence. Members may become better employees — and win raises and promotions — simply because they absorb the Japanese values of punctuality, loyalty, and teamwork.
“Nichiren taught devotion to the Lotus Sutra with monolithic firmness . . . ,” according to Religious and Spiritual Groups in Modern America, by Robert Ellwood and Harry Partin. “This radical simplicity and unity, focusing all down to a single intense point, is the secret of Nichiren: one scripture, one man, one country, one object of worship, one practice, all potentialities realized in one moment which is the present.”
The NSA center contains a music room, where members practice for bell- ringings and concerts, and a bookstore, where they buy everything from candlesticks and NSA baseball caps to books by Ikeda. Members venerate Ikeda as a crusader for peace, and their devotion has made him one of the world’s best-selling authors.
Eppsteiner ushers a reporter upstairs, past a framed letter from Sen. Edward Kennedy praising a recent NSA peace festival, and into his office. Raised as a Reform Jew, Eppsteiner joined NSA in 1969, when he was a student at Boston University. A Brookline neighbor introduced him to NSA, and he soon found that chanting made him feel good and improved his grades. He has made eight pilgrimages to the Nichiren Shoshu head temple, near Mount Fuji.
“It’s rare for someone to start practicing who’s seeking Buddhism. They’re not. They’re seeking a way to improve their lives,” he says. “If you set yourself up as different from society, that creates more barriers. Unlike some other groups, we don’t hang out our shingle as Buddhists.”
Politely, Eppsteiner controls the reporter’s access. He picks members to be interviewed and sits in on the conversations. Later, he calls frequently to check on the progress of the article and to request that members’ last names not be used.
The members selected by Eppsteiner to be interviewed include a former child psychologist, who now chants three hours a day for guidance because she is in the midst of a career change; a Boston College instructor who teaches a course in Buddhism and says that every year a couple of her students join NSA; and a fourth-year medical student who is an intern at Boston City Hospital.
Katherine, the medical student, glows with enthusiasm as she talks about NSA, which she joined six years ago, after dropping out of medical school. “I was practicing chanting for a year before I went back,” she says. “I was told I had a snowball’s chance in hell of getting back in. But I chanted and I got in. I was a different type of student. I had been critical. I didn’t like the courses, I didn’t like the professors, I didn’t like my fellow students. When I got back, I applied the Buddhist concept that your environment is a reflection of you. What I learned is that, if they say 99 things that are worthless and one that’s important, wouldn’t it be a shame if you missed that one thing? Wouldn’t it be great if everyone lived by that rule?”
At BCH, Katherine sometimes must work 24-hour or 36-hour shifts in surgery without sleep. After 18 hours, while other interns eat dinner, she slips into a bathroom to chant. “You know the burnout syndrome,” she says. “You give and give and give, and you’re on empty. Chanting is a way to build up your tank.” Asked if she could ever be so exhausted that chanting could not revive her, she says, “I believe it’s limitless.”
Besides young mothers, a newly formed group of 40 teen-age girls is meeting tonight, and their session is like a pep rally. After singing an NSA ditty, ”The Renaissance of Peace,” they applaud and shout, “Hip, hip, hooray!” Then they quiet down to hear testimonials from several of their peers.
A 14-year-old from Quincy says she was depressed by petty jealousies among her schoolmates until she marched in the NSA contingent in the Bunker Hill Day parade this past April. “I was higher than the sky,” she says. “I no longer needed my friends’ attention as a source of happiness. I relied on President Ikeda’s words to challenge the obstacles of friendship.”
A high school senior from Dorchester chanted for a close friend who used to deal drugs. “Gradually he’s given up selling drugs and now works at an honest job,” she says.
Her ambition is to go to college and have a happy family. She concludes, ”I know, if I keep chanting, I can’t miss.”
Talking over lunch at a Manhattan restaurant, every so often Mary still refers to NSA as “we.” And, on request, she can shift into her old recruiting voice: “Do you know the benefits of chanting ‘Nam myoho renge kyo?’ ” But it’s been a year now since she quit NSA and underwent four days of deprogramming. Now, she says, she knows that it’s just another cult.
At the urging of a friend, Mary attended her first NSA meeting in 1982, when she was studying to be a classical musician. She felt right at home. ”After the first meeting I felt that the people were ones I would have chosen as friends. And there was no racism or social class discrimination. Nobody cared. To this day I’m still impressed by that.”
Her commitment strengthened when she chanted for a job to support her violin studies — and was hired at her first interview. But for Mary the ultimate proof was spiritual rather than financial. The young women’s division of NSA to which she belonged was giving a concert, and the division leader asked her to join the chorus. She was reluctant — “I didn’t see what joining an amateur chorus had to do with Beethoven” — but she agreed.
Rehearsals were grueling, and the singers chanted during breaks to replenish their energy. When the great day arrived, all of the other divisions showed up to help with lighting and to hand out programs. And then, on stage, Mary had what she thought was a religious experience. Now she believes it was the result of fatigue and sensory overload.
“Here I am singing,” she says. “I was transformed by the atmosphere. At that moment I thought that was what Buddhism was all about. I had no doubts.”
From then on, Mary threw herself into NSA activities and advanced in the organization. She was chosen to attend a youth division meeting with Ikeda in San Diego, and for weeks she awoke at 5 every morning to go to the New York community center and chant to prepare herself for the trip.
Rising in NSA meant more responsibility to contribute money and recruit members. Her initial investment had been meager: $17 for a gohonzon, and subscriptions to two publications of NSA’s World Tribune Press: the weekly World Tribune ($4 per month) and the Seikyo Times ($4.50 per month). Soon she was buying candles, incense, and Ikeda’s books. Then she was honored with an invitation to join a committee of people who gave a minimum of $15 a month to NSA. By the time she left, she was contributing $50 a month.
NSA dedicates February and August to “shakubuku,” or recruiting. In those months Mary scrambled to meet recruiting goals posted on the community-center altar for new members and subscribers. Desperate, she bought extra subscriptions herself and invited complete strangers to meetings in her home.
“It makes you so uncomfortable and anxiety-ridden,” she says. “You chant your butt off. If you think you won’t make a target, you sweat it out in front of the gohonzon.”
Immersed in NSA, Mary neglected the rest of her life. She quit practicing the violin because she had no time for it. She rarely saw her parents and forgot their birthdays. She lost a six-year relationship with a man she loved — and felt no pain. “For me, it was like a leaf falling off a tree in the fall.”
The frantic pace undermined her health, and she began having dizzy spells on the subway early in 1988. Assured that they were trivial by her NSA leader, she redoubled her shakubuku efforts that February. On March 1 she collapsed, with what was later diagnosed as low blood sugar and a depleted adrenal gland. Her parents brought her home and invited former NSA members to talk to her. She is grateful for the counseling, she says, because members who walk out on their own and don’t receive any support often remain confused and depressed.
Today she is healthy and studying music in graduate school. “You feel, while you’re in NSA, that people on the outside have a boring life,” she says. “You have a consuming passion. If you do great chanting, and then go in to work, it’s a great feeling. It seemed very heroic.
“But what is the trade-off? You go in at 20, and if you get out at 30 you see what you missed. The hardest part about being out is realizing, ‘I could have done this five years ago.’
“NSA gives people hope,” Mary says. “For people who have no other hope, that’s something. But you have to decide, would you rather have hope or truth? Maybe, if I had a terminal illness and there was nothing to lose, I might chant myself. But it’s a false hope.”
Like Laval Wilson, James Conway admits knowing little about NSA’s beliefs and practices. But the chairman of Charlestown’s Bunker Hill Day parade has done more for NSA’s public relations than just ringing a bell.
At Conway’s invitation, NSA began sending its contingents of brass bands and fife and drum corps to the Bunker Hill Day parade in 1973. In 1975, NSA gave Conway and his wife and two children an all-expenses-paid trip to its convention in Hawaii — an extravaganza featuring a historical drama about the Revolutionary War and a tribute to George M. Cohan, all on an artificial island built for the occasion. “It was, like, a quid pro quo,” Conway says.
Conway has repaid that quid with more quos. When NSA officials needed approval for a bicentennial parade against the traffic from the Prudential Center to City Hall in 1976, Conway introduced them not only to the traffic commissioner, who okayed it, but also to several city councilors. NSA members gave leis and pineapples to the councilors, including Albert (Dapper) O’Neil. O’Neil brought the delegation into Mayor Kevin White’s office, where they posed for a photograph with the mayor.
“They may have some kind of a religion there, but that doesn’t faze me,” O’Neil says. “I think there’s some Buddhism there, I think. They’re very patriotic people. There’s a lot of people in this country, I don’t see them honoring the flag, I see them burning the flag.”
NSA’s relationships with Conway and O’Neil typify its assiduous courting of civic leaders. “It doesn’t run front groups like the Moonies,” says Cynthia Kisser, executive director of the Chicago-based Cult Awareness Network, a nonprofit group dedicated to informing the public about cults. “You don’t see a concerted effort to interfere in the political process by running candidates. What you see is a tremendous public relations attempt with these parades and the bell, going around to the schools, and getting the keys to the city from the mayor.”
This strategy appears to have been handed down from President Ikeda, who rivals the pope for pictures taken with world leaders. Ikeda has met with the late Chou En-lai, Henry Kissinger, Edward Kennedy, Margaret Thatcher, and Manuel Noriega, who was an honored guest at an NSA convention before his drug connections were widely known. Ikeda also burnished his image by giving $500,000 to the United Nations, which awarded him a peace medal and granted consultative status to Soka Gakkai, NSA’s parent organization.
According to NSA’s Gerry Hall, the purpose of NSA’s pursuit of politicians is twofold: to encourage members by showing them that important people sympathize with their aims, and to induce the politicians themselves to try chanting. NSA is usually too tactful to proselytize dignitaries directly, although a Boston School Committee member at the Ellis bell-ringing was invited to an NSA meeting. But NSA officials hope that their patriotism — and swelling ranks of voting-age members — speak for them.
So far, no politicians on the national scene belong to NSA, but some local ones have converted. State Sen. William Owens (D-Roxbury) admits to chanting and owning a gohonzon, although he says he remains a member of New Hope Baptist Church.
NSA officials say that the group stays out of American politics. It does not endorse candidates or hold candidates’ nights. Yet it intruded on the electoral process from 1984 to 1986, when it gave a total of $13,700 to the gubernatorial and mayoral campaigns of Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley — in violation of a California statute prohibiting tax-exempt religious groups such as NSA from making political contributions. After the Los Angeles Herald Examiner reported this past spring on one of the contributions, Bradley’s campaign committee returned the money at NSA’s request.
Bradley and another Californian, US Rep. Mervyn Dymally, have taken junkets financed by NSA and Soka Gakkai. Bradley and his wife attended NSA’s 1985 convention in Hawaii. Soka University in Japan, which was founded by Soka Gakkai in 1971, paid for recent trips by Dymally to Tokyo and Seoul. Last year, Dymally read a statement into the Congressional Record praising Ikeda as ”a man whose life has been completely devoted to youth and world peace.”
When NSA receives an endorsement, it makes the most of it — sometimes too much. For example, the Commission on the Bicentennial of the US Constitution sanctioned the New Freedom Bell in 1987 with the understanding that NSA would give the bell to the city of Philadelphia. When it turned out that Philadelphia did not have a site ready for the bell, NSA decided to exhibit it in schools where a teacher, aide, or parent was a member and could arrange an entree. Disturbed by this unexpected use of its logo by a religious group, the commission considered revoking recognition of the bell but found no legal grounds for the action.
“NSA is using that as a shoehorn to get in the schools,” a commission official says. “Any project taken into the schools has a captive audience. There’s a potential for using schools as a recruiting ground for their movement.”
Although Soka Gakkai and NSA don’t seek scholarly attention as assiduously as political endorsements, they know how to woo academics. Again, they are following the example of Ikeda, who has published several books of conversations with eminent scholars, such as the late historian Arnold Toynbee, and frequently donates books to European universities. Under Ikeda, Soka Gakkai has also published several antiwar books containing reminiscences of Japanese survivors of World War II.
When Daniel Metraux began researching his doctoral thesis on Soka Gakkai, he agreed to let its officials read the manuscript for factual errors. In return, the organization gave him interviews and access. The thesis portrayed Soka Gakkai as harmless and peace-loving, and when Metraux expanded it into a book, Soka Gakkai found him a Japanese publisher. Now Metraux, who is a professor at Mary Baldwin College in Virginia, works as a consultant for Soka Gakkai. “They make you feel very important,” he says.
Celebrity entertainers, too, enhance NSA’s image. Patrick Duffy, who plays Bobby Ewing on Dallas, was introduced to NSA in 1972, at the age of 22, by his future wife. At the time, he had recently ruptured both vocal cords, and his dream of an acting career seemed unattainable. Chanting as best he could, he regained his voice. Marriage, children, and stardom followed. “As of yet, to this day, I still don’t know how it works,” marvels Duffy, sitting in the Culver City office of his production company, Montana Power Inc.
Duffy, a midlevel leader in the NSA organization, has chanted all but eight days in the past 17 years. The benefits are guaranteed, he says, and any members who fail to experience them either do not chant enough or don’t count their blessings. “I can understand, but not with complete sympathy, someone leaving NSA,” he says.
Back in Charlestown, Conway is still smoothing NSA’s path. When the group considered buying a former school building in Allston-Brighton recently, he wrote a letter of support to the neighborhood council. He also invited NSA director Williams to be the featured speaker at the Bunker Hill Day exercises this past April, an honor traditionally reserved for Massachusetts politicians.
Williams couldn’t come — his fill-in was state Rep. Richard Voke, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee — but NSA sent the New Freedom Bell and 200 flag-waving members to the exercises. The next day, NSA participated in the Bunker Hill Day parade for the first time since 1975. NSA’s contingent, which was paid expenses only, included a brass band, a fife and drum corps, 80 dancers dressed as sunflowers, a 40-member drill dance team, and 300 gymnasts, who formed a human pyramid five stories high.
“God, it was impressive,” Conway says.
As for NSA’s Eppsteiner, he was pleased, too: “There are members who say, ‘You know, my first experience of NSA was seeing it in the Bunker Hill Day parade.’ ”
When District 15 of the Machinists Union decided to put its headquarters in New York City’s Union Square on the market last year, it had trouble finding a buyer. The highest bid was $2.5 million — half what the union believed the building was worth. Then, one day, NSA officials visited district president Hans Wedekin. Not only did they agree immediately to his $5 million price, but they paid for the entire amount by check. Now the attractive five-story brownstone is an NSA community center.
“It was the fastest deal I ever made,” Wedekin says.
In the past two years, NSA has pumped tens of millions of dollars into buying properties in more than a dozen American cities ranging in size from New York and Baltimore to Eugene, Oregon, and Colorado Springs, Colorado. By its own count, NSA now has 55 community centers, five cultural centers, six temples, and three training centers. The most expensive purchase this year may have been a $3.2 million property in San Francisco. The school in Allston- Brighton that NSA recently looked into is assessed at more than $2.2 million. Few of NSA’s properties are mortgaged: It usually pays the whole sum up front.
Where does the money come from? According to NSA, these purchases are financed by its regular income — subscriptions, bookstore sales, and the like — and special campaigns. Although members are not required to contribute to these campaigns, they are encouraged to improve their self-discipline by setting a substantial donation as a target and then meeting it. “It may be suggested to challenge yourself, see if you can give,” says Al Albergate, a former Los Angeles Herald Examiner reporter who is NSA’s public relations spokesman. “In this practice, you do get back more than you give.”
Jean, the former child psychologist in Boston, says she decided to use last year’s campaign to raise money for the New York center as a challenge to live within a budget. So she took a second job as a waitress and donated the income from it to the campaign.
Cult-watchers and ex-members argue that NSA exploits Jean and others like her. What makes matters worse, they say, is that members think NSA’s expansion depends on their sacrifices, when it is actually subsidized by Soka Gakkai in Japan. Not only does Soka Gakkai collect huge sums from donations and bequests, but it also owns rapidly appreciating Tokyo real estate and an art museum. Its extravagant bids for Western art have helped fuel the spectacular rise in art prices in recent years.
Eager to preserve NSA’s all-American image, its officials deny that it is funded from Japan. But they do not dispute that Soka University in Tokyo, an offshoot of Soka Gakkai, has made one expensive investment here that should benefit NSA. In 1986 the university bought a 248-acre estate in Calabasas, California, from the Church Universal and Triumphant, a religious cult, for $15.5 million. It far outbid the federal government, which wanted to turn the site into the centerpiece of a national recreation area. The location is intended for a four-year, liberal arts university. So far, Soka University/Los Angeles offers only English classes for visiting Japanese students.
A short walk from the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica, California, this modern four-story office building has the air of a bustling corporate headquarters. Nowhere in the lobby of NSA’s national headquarters do you see the word Buddhism; instead, visitors are greeted by a large map of the United States, with yellow lights marking where the New Freedom Bell has visited. Upstairs are offices of the World Tribune, which has a national circulation of 120,000 — more than the better-known Washington Times, controlled by the Unification Church. An eight-page weekly, the Tribune covers Ikeda’s ”history-making” meetings and reprints his speeches. It also contains testimony about the benefits of chanting from NSA members around the United States. To reach new immigrants, the last page is printed in a foreign language, with Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Spanish alternating from week to week.
Just down the street is a storefront office that houses NSA’s spin-off companies, including Freedom Music. Its musical, This Is America, the New World, was performed on September 6 in the 2,605-seat Boston Opera House.
Sixty miles east of Santa Monica, among vineyards and fields in the shadow of the San Gabriel Mountains, is a more serene place. It is one of the six temples of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism in the United States. There are no bells, flags, or photos of Ikeda in the chapel here, just a gohonzon on an altar, surrounded by candles, an incense burner, gold lotus flowers, and a drum to accompany the chanting.
Nor are there any visitors this morning, only the chief priest, Yosei Yamada, and his assistant. Yamada is one of NSA’s 11 priests in the United States; next year the number is planned to increase to 13. He officiates at weddings and funerals, and new members come to the temple three times a week to receive their scrolls. But he also has plenty of time alone to study Buddhist doctrine and the English language.
Asked if he marches in NSA parades, Yamada smiles and says, “The priests are on another kind of mission.”
The contrast between the busy headquarters and the isolated temple perhaps explains how a legitimate Buddhist sect can be so deeply into patriotism and public relations. Simply put, the lay organizations have as much power as the priests. It is as if the Knights of Columbus determined the policies of the Catholic Church. Although Soka Gakkai and NSA are lay groups, they instruct members and spread the faith. But the priests, the guardians of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism, do not proselytize and have little contact with members. Some members never see a priest after they receive their scrolls.
Over coffee in his sitting room, Yamada explains that this unusual situation has its roots in the writings of Nichiren, who believed that all other Buddhist sects were heretical and urged his followers to evangelize nonbelievers. Since the Nichiren priesthood was never numerous enough to propagate the word, it relied for centuries on a lay group, Hokaiko, which acknowledged its subordinate role. But Hokaiko was weak. Today it has perhaps 100,000 members worldwide. Despite practicing the same religion as Soka Gakkai members, they have become second-class citizens in Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism.
Soka Gakkai did not start as a religious group. It was founded in 1930 by T. Makiguchi, an educational theorist. Soon Makiguchi’s interests shifted to religion, and he offered to associate his group with Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism. Recognizing that Soka Gakkai was more energetic than Hokaiko, the high priest agreed. When Soka Gakkai’s membership skyrocketed in the 1945-52 period, known in Japan as the “Rush Hour of the Gods” because of the proliferation of religions, the priesthood found itself overwhelmed by the size and wealth of its lay organization.
Financially, the arrangement between the priesthood and Soka Gakkai benefits both sides. Every new member must pay a donation for a scroll, and the money goes to the upkeep of the temples. Even so, many priests have been unable to tolerate Soka Gakkai. In the late 1970s, 180 Nichiren Shoshu priests in Japan — a third of the priesthood there — as well as the chief priest in New York City protested what they viewed as glorification of Ikeda and a misrepresentation of Nichiren’s teachings to emphasize materialism. The priests in Japan were excommunicated, and they sued for reinstatement. According to Yamada, a Japanese appeals court recently ruled against them.
Rev. Kando Tono, the New York priest, was recalled to Japan under pressure from NSA. He says he was not excommunicated because Soka Gakkai did not want to test the issue in United States courts. He now takes care of Hokaiko members in London and New York. “If you start criticizing Soka Gakkai, you jeopardize your situation as a priest,” he says. “But they distorted the teachings of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism so it would appeal to nonbelievers.”
Yamada and other priests became concerned last year that NSA was recruiting people indiscriminately, without regard to whether they were truly committed to Buddhism. He could tell this was happening, he says, because not only were more people coming to the temple to receive their scrolls, but more were coming to give them back. In a typical week he would give out 300 gohonzons, but 20 would be returned. After consulting with the high priest in Japan, the priests met with NSA leaders, who agreed to be more careful. Now, Yamada says, he distributes only 200 gohonzons a week, and hardly any are returned.
Listening to Yamada, one is struck by the thought that perhaps the interplay between priests and lay leaders may underlie NSA’s back-and-forth history. NSA went from frantic flag-waving in the mid-1970s to a period of retreat and study, and now it’s back to glitz again. When lay leaders go too far, the priests rein them in; but if recruitment then falters, the laity reassumes control. One might even say that NSA shifts back and forth from religion to cult, depending on who’s in charge.
As his visitor leaves, Yamada says that he will soon devote his afternoons to studying Christianity. “Right now, I can’t understand the people’s mind, especially Western people,” he says. “I don’t understand the God which is taught in Christianity, the creator.”
If Tom Wolfe saw this spectacle of affluent professionals chanting to a Japanese scroll, he might call it Buddhist chic. Shoeless and sweaty on a sticky summer night, 25 people are crammed into a living room on the top floor of a fashionable Cambridge three-decker. The room is decorated with Oriental art and the inevitable Ikeda photo, but furniture is sparse, and most guests sit on the floor. The focus of their worship hangs in a wooden altar in one corner, against a background of pink paper and silk cloth, illuminated by a spotlight.
Like any of the dozens of weekly NSA meetings in the Boston area, this one is not primarily an opportunity for members to practice their religion. They have their own gohonzons at home. Its main purpose is recruitment. Several members have brought friends along, and everything is arranged for their comfort. You can spot the newcomers: the shy woman in the back of the room; the fellow staring intently at the group leaders explaining the evening’s agenda; and the man on the couch who lets the woman next to him wind beads around his fingers and trace the words of the chant for him in her prayer book. Reluctantly, he mumbles the words.
When the chanting ends, a member stands up to talk about “The Nine Levels of Consciousness,” an aspect of Buddhist doctrine. His lecture soon segues into a plea to the newcomers to try chanting. As a professor for 25 years, he says, he had the “unmitigated arrogance” to reject anything that seemed irrational. But he was wrong. “The only way to understand it is to chant yourself,” he says. “After a while, as ludicrous as it seems, you can’t deny the power and the influence.”
A patriotic song follows his discourse. Members hold up posters on which lyrics are printed so first-timers can follow along. For the baby boomers here, the words carry overtones of President Kennedy’s inaugural address. ”What can I do, America, to make you proud you gave me birth?” they sing. ”I’ll be the one to say, ‘America, what can I do for you?’ ”
Next come the testimonials. Bill, a computer software manager, tells the group that he wasn’t sure whether he could finish an important job on time, so he got up early every day and chanted at the Boston community center. As it turned out, the software was ready on schedule for the first time in the history of his company, and Bill was promoted.
Nancy confesses that chanting helped her through the emotional anxiety of her engagement and the discovery of a malignancy in her mother’s colon. “I realized, no matter what happened to my mom, I was still going to be tremendously happy on my wedding day,” she says. Everything turned out for the best: The weather was perfect for the wedding, and an operation revealed that her mother’s tumor was not spreading.
Now an NSA leader asks if anyone at the meeting is a guest. Since the man on the couch slipped out during Nancy’s talk, there are only two left: the shy woman and Mike, who is attending his third meeting. The leader tells them that the real purpose of the meeting is to introduce them to Buddhism. Do they have any questions?
The woman is silent. Mike, a hard-headed type, wants to know how long he must chant before getting results. The leader says it depends on the intensity of Mike’s chanting. “Whether you believe in it or not is not critical,” he says. “Faith is not initially required.”
Mike doesn’t seem satisfied, and the leader recounts his own conversion to Buddhism. He hated his boss, but two days of chanting led to a reconciliation. Mike perks up. “So it happens really quick,” he says.
Mike has a final question: How does NSA improve chances for world peace? The leader says that NSA members in Argentina and England chanted to end the Falklands War. As more members join, he says, their chanting will be powerful enough to stop any war.
The newcomers are encouraged to receive their scrolls at the Boston community center the following Sunday, and the meeting breaks up. Members surround Mike to ask if he will join NSA.
“I’m still investigating it,” he says. “But I’ve started chanting.”
RABELL;09/18 LDRISC;10/20,23:29 NSA2
All content herein is © 1996 the Globe Newspaper Company and may not be republished without permission.
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Buddhism American style
cloaking itself in super-patriotism, Nicherin Shoshu Of America is part of an evangelical buddhist secty gaining adherents worldwide with a guarantee of happiness through chanting. Sounds pretty harmless, right? Cult-watchers and ex-members don’t think so.
Date: Sunday, October 15, 1989
Section: Boston Globe Sunday Magazine
Page: 18 ff.
By Daniel Golden, Globe Staff
Florence Hadley, principal of the David A. Ellis School in Roxbury, had never heard of the New Freedom Bell. Nor was she familiar with the organization that was exhibiting the bell in schools across the country. But when her school was offered a chance to host the facsimile of Philadelphia’s famed Liberty Bell, she responded the way any patriotic American would.
“I just thought it was a super idea to have the children see a replica of the Liberty Bell,” she says. “The Ellis needs all the positive things it can get.”
As it happens, the offer came one day this past spring from Tamara McClinton, an Ellis parent who dropped in at the school office to tell Hadley about the bell. Hadley felt a bit bewildered that McClinton kept referring to the group sponsoring the tour by the abbreviation NSA, as if the principal should have known what it stood for. McClinton herself was an NSA member. Hadley finally asked what the letters meant, but the answer was a jumble of words that made no sense to her. Still, she was impressed by the documents McClinton showed her: letters from school administrators and elected officials thanking NSA for bringing its bell to their districts. What better opportunity could there be for children to learn about the Constitution?
So Hadley invited pupils from five other elementary schools and prepared for a star-spangled celebration. All of the schools were provided with copies of a pamphlet that teachers could use in their classrooms or children could bring home. Entitled The New Common Sense, after Thomas Paine’s plea for American independence, the pamphlet urged children to buy American products and listed a California phone number and publisher, the World Tribune Press. It did not mention NSA, whatever that was.
The bell arrived at the grounds of the Ellis School at 9 on the misty morning of June 13. It sat on a flatbed truck in a makeshift enclosure decorated with mayoral proclamations, the NSA insignia, the “We the People” logo of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the US Constitution, and red, white, and blue bunting. Accompanying it were dozens of people, blacks and whites, with neat haircuts and glowing smiles. The men were dressed as Minutemen and carried American flags; the women wore frilly Betsy Ross petticoats and caps. Clean-cut and all-American, they looked like a group George Bush could embrace.
Local television stations and newspapers were on hand to cover what was the perfect media event: colorful, punctual, well-organized, and uplifting. State Rep. Gloria Fox made a rousing speech, and 800 children rang the bell, 30 of them at a time tugging the rope. Boston School Superintendent Laval Wilson rang it, too, with a perplexed look. He was later spotted asking several Minutemen what NSA was.
“I really don’t know anything about that group. I was just in the bell- ringing ceremony,” he says.
Had Wilson pursued his inquiries, he would have uncovered a sobering irony and a lesson in how any group can co-opt American patriotic symbols. He and other guests were helping a controversial Japanese religious organization in its quest to seem familiar to Americans. NSA stands for Nichiren Shoshu of America, the United States affiliate of an evangelical Buddhist sect that is gaining adherents worldwide with a sunny, simplistic guarantee of peace and prosperity through chanting a Japanese phrase. By cloaking itself in Old Glory, NSA may have become the fastest-growing religious group in this country. Yet cult-watchers denounce it, and ex-members distribute newsletters warning that its practices and all-absorbing lifestyle can amount to brainwashing.
The New Freedom Bell is one of many patriotic devices that NSA uses to establish credibility as an American organization and solicit endorsements from politicians and civic leaders. That strategy seems to be succeeding. NSA literature displays congratulatory letters from then-Vice President George Bush, Sen. Edward Kennedy, Mayor Raymond Flynn, and Gov. Mario Cuomo of New York, among other potentates, and Sen. John Kerry was a featured speaker at NSA’s convention in New York City in 1986.
NSA stole the show at Bush’s inauguration in January by displaying on the Washington Mall the world’s largest chair — a 39-foot-high model of the chair that George Washington sat in as he presided over the Continental Congress. The Guinness Book of World Records has twice cited NSA for assembling the most American flags ever in a parade, although in one mention it misidentified the group as “Nissan Shoshu,” confusing the religious organization with the automaker.
“NSA is one of the largest destructive cults in the country,” says Steven Hassan, a former member of the Unification Church and the author of Combating Cult Mind Control. “They like to talk about peace and democracy, but their beliefs at the core are antithetical to that. Like all other cults, they espouse wonderful ideas and worthy goals. The question is, what are they doing to meet those goals? Are they just espousing them to recruit people, to gain money and power? The difference between a cult like NSA and an aggressive religion is that the religion tells people up front who they are and what they want.”
NSA’s parent organization is Soka Gakkai (“Value-Creating Society”), a lay religious group dedicated to spreading the teachings of Nichiren, a 13th- century Buddhist monk. One of several groups that filled the void left by the discrediting of the traditional Shinto faith after World War II, Soka Gakkai has an estimated 10 million members in Japan and collects more than $1 billion in donations annually. It also founded Japan’s third-largest political party: Komeito, or “Clean Government.” Although charges of violating the separation of church and state led Soka Gakkai to cut formal ties with the party, it still remains the power behind Komeito.
The price of Soka Gakkai’s political prominence has been recurrent scandal. Its leader, Daisaku Ikeda, stepped down as its president in 1979 after being accused of everything from wire-tapping the home telephone of a Japanese Communist Party official to arranging for his mistress to be nominated by Komeito for a seat in the Diet. He remains president of Soka Gakkai’s international wing. Recently, Komeito members have been linked to a bribery scandal plaguing the Liberal Democrats, Japan’s ruling party. This past July, workers pried open an old safe in a Yokohama waste dump and discovered $1.2 million in yen notes. The money belonged to Soka Gakkai.
Beleaguered at home, Soka Gakkai has looked abroad, establishing chapters in 110 countries. Wherever it goes, it identifies with local traditions. For example, its wing in England bought a country estate that includes among its attractions a cedar tree planted by Winston Churchill, as well as a statue of King George III — one man who presumably would have declined to ring the New Freedom Bell. At Taplow Court, members of NSUK (Nichiren Shoshu of United Kingdom) regularly put on Elizabethan plays and traditional country fairs.
NSA was Soka Gakkai’s first overseas chapter, and it remains the largest. Established in 1960 by a Japanese immigrant who changed his name to George Williams, NSA at first appealed mainly to Japanese-Americans. Today, Williams remains the head, and most of his top aides are of Japanese descent, but the rank-and-file membership is diverse. According to a 1983 NSA study of its members, 45 percent are white, 24 percent are Asian, and 19 percent are black. Only 16 percent of members who joined in the 1980s were Asian-Americans. (According to the study, 60 percent of members are female.)
Kevin O’Neil, president of the American Buddhist Movement, says NSA has been more successful than any other Buddhist sect in attracting Americans who are not of Asian descent. O’Neil’s organization includes all of the 366 Buddhist sects in America except NSA, which refuses to join on the grounds that it alone preaches the true faith. “When people get very involved in NSA, they won’t associate with people who are Buddhists but not in their sect,” O’Neil says. “Then they talk about world peace and coming together. That, I find, is a little culty.”
NSA claims a membership of 500,000, which is almost certainly an exaggeration; O’Neil believes the actual figure is about 150,000. Based in Southern California, NSA has gained a reputation as a Hollywood religion because of celebrity members such as singer Tina Turner, actor Patrick Duffy, and jazz keyboardist Herbie Hancock. But it boasts an East Coast following as well, including about 4,000 people in New England.
“Obviously, we’re growing in terms of numbers,” says Gerry Hall, an aide to Williams. “And it’s pretty solid. There’s a second generation. What’s great is to see that it’s not just the baby boomers did this thing and faded away and their kids won’t follow in their footsteps. It’s genuinely a family religion.”
The Ellis School parents who belong to NSA include not only McClinton, a news editor at WGBH-TV, but also Roslyn Parks. Parks is executive director of the Black Cultural Exposition, which is scheduled for the Hynes Auditorium later this month. Among other events, it will feature a film, The Contemporary Gladiator, written and produced by a karate expert who belongs to NSA. It is the story of a karate champion who chants for victory.
Parks credits her chanting with curing a heart ailment that she says would otherwise have required open-heart surgery. She sings in an NSA chorus at parades and festivals. “As a black American, I thought I wasn’t from this country,” she says. “I was from Africa, and they forced me here. It wasn’t until I joined NSA that I developed a sense of patriotism. Some of my friends who are into blackness are saying, ‘What’s with you, girl?’ I say, ‘This is our country. There are things to be proud of.’ ”
Howard Hunter, who teaches Asian religion at Tufts University, opens a desk drawer and pulls out a photograph of a young man with his scalp and eyebrows shaven, sitting cross-legged before a hut in Thailand. Not so long ago, Hunter says, that young man was a Tufts student and fraternity brother.
“That’s the fear of Americans, that their children will wind up looking like that,” Hunter says. “And it’s manifestly clear that nobody who joins NSA will end up looking like that. They don’t renounce the world.”
Not only does NSA outdo the Daughters of the American Revolution in patriotic fervor, but it also bears a message tailored to the American dream. Most Eastern sects seeking a foothold here urge renunciation of earthly pleasures, but NSA preaches that material gain is a pathway to spiritual enlightenment. Whether its materialism derives from Nichiren, which NSA’s critics dispute, it sounds conveniently like Horatio Alger. “They’re linking into the deepest cultural themes, economic gain and patriotism,” says sociologist David Bromley of Virginia Commonwealth University. Then, too, many aspects of NSA — the revivalist fervor, the use of testimony to sway doubters, faith healing, and disdain for other sects — bear less resemblance to traditional Buddhism than to Protestant fundamentalism.
Recognizing that NSA’s future depends on avoiding bad publicity, its officials have learned from the mistakes of the Unification Church, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, and other groups stereotyped in the public mind as cults. For example, NSA recruiting methods are persistent but discreet. Although members occasionally hand out cards in airports or outside restaurants, they mainly proselytize friends, neighbors, and co-workers. And, unlike some groups viewed as cults, NSA does not abduct members from their families, deprive them of food and sleep, seize their possessions, or prevent them from quitting. Nor does it avenge itself on its opponents, like a California group that put a snake in the mailbox of a critic.
“I haven’t heard a suggestion of high-pressure tactics that remotely resemble some tactics we’ve seen in other groups,” says James White, a professor of political science at the University of North Carolina and author of a book about Soka Gakkai. “They are just as entitled to have a place in the American religious spectrum as anything else. If it gets you through the night, and it’s not personally or socially pathological, I don’t see anything wrong with it.”
Yet, to ex-members and anticult groups, NSA’s flag-waving smacks of Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s “God Bless America” tour in 1972. They say NSA achieves the same goals as more notorious groups but with greater subtlety. Rather than kidnap members from relatives, NSA instills a hostile attitude toward nonbelievers, they say, and schedules so many group activities that family ties fade. While it does not coerce contributions from members, it encourages donations with the philosophy that the gift will be repaid tenfold in their own lives. And its fundamental credo — that chanting brings good luck — conveys a psychological threat, according to former members: If you stop, bad things will happen to you.
“You don’t go to an ashram, you don’t wear different clothes, you aren’t a vegetarian,” says one former NSA member who asked not to be identified. ”It’s all an internal mind-set. Once you’ve got that, you can be anywhere on earth and still be a dedicated believer. That’s why I think the telltale signs of mind control should be taught in the schools.
“A lot of people say, ‘Well, they joined because they had personal problems.’ It’s blame the victim. Everyone has personal problems. The key is, they wouldn’t get involved if they knew the danger signs. I could kick myself. How come I didn’t see it? But I didn’t know what to look for.”
Few of the hundreds of schools where NSA sought to bring its bell in the past school year knew what to look for, either. And only two — a public junior high in a New York City suburb and the United Nations School in New York City — spurned the offer.
“It’s very seductive,” says Sylvia Fuhrman, the secretary-general’s special representative for the UN school. “All these glorious photographs. Their brochures are as polished and beautiful as National Geographic. But the more we checked into it, the less we liked it. Nowhere can you find who is footing the bill. That’s what alerted me. I thought of poor souls being enticed into it.”
Arhythmic, high-pitched wail emanates one summer evening from a large conference room on the ground floor of an inconspicuous two-story South End building, the NSA center in Boston. Inside, the room is mostly bare of decoration, with white walls and white track lighting. At the front stands a wooden altar encasing a sacred scroll, called a gohonzon. It contains passages and characters from the Lotus Sutra, a holy Buddhist text, in the handwriting of the high priest of Nichiren Shoshu in Japan. Nichiren himself carved the first gohonzon in a block of camphor wood. On the left of the altar is a framed photo of the controversial Ikeda, who remains president of Soka Gakkai International. On the right is an American flag.
Led by Robert Eppsteiner, NSA’s only salaried staff member in Boston, about 150 people sit facing the gohonzon, chanting passages from the Lotus Sutra. Many of them follow the passages in booklets, and some wind beads around their fingers. It is a multiracial group, and there is no conformity as to dress: Some members are in T-shirts, while others have come straight from work in their suits and ties. A large proportion are mothers with babies, awaiting a meeting of the young mothers’ group later. Such subgroupings characterize NSA’s structure. Not only is it organized into units of increasing size, from districts to headquarters and joint territories, but members are also aligned by age and sex. The men’s and women’s divisions are for adults over 35, while adults under that age are placed in young men’s and young women’s divisions.
After they finish reciting the Lotus Sutra chapters, the members chant the phrase that is the bedrock of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism: “Nam myoho renge kyo,” or “Devotion to the Lotus Sutra.” By repeating this phrase for a minimum of an hour a day, members claim to reach harmony with the universe. Fortune comes their way: a job, good health, a spouse, even a parking space. You can’t doubt their sincerity, although a nonbeliever might suggest other explanations for their success: coincidence or new-found self-confidence. Members may become better employees — and win raises and promotions — simply because they absorb the Japanese values of punctuality, loyalty, and teamwork.
“Nichiren taught devotion to the Lotus Sutra with monolithic firmness . . . ,” according to Religious and Spiritual Groups in Modern America, by Robert Ellwood and Harry Partin. “This radical simplicity and unity, focusing all down to a single intense point, is the secret of Nichiren: one scripture, one man, one country, one object of worship, one practice, all potentialities realized in one moment which is the present.”
The NSA center contains a music room, where members practice for bell- ringings and concerts, and a bookstore, where they buy everything from candlesticks and NSA baseball caps to books by Ikeda. Members venerate Ikeda as a crusader for peace, and their devotion has made him one of the world’s best-selling authors.
Eppsteiner ushers a reporter upstairs, past a framed letter from Sen. Edward Kennedy praising a recent NSA peace festival, and into his office. Raised as a Reform Jew, Eppsteiner joined NSA in 1969, when he was a student at Boston University. A Brookline neighbor introduced him to NSA, and he soon found that chanting made him feel good and improved his grades. He has made eight pilgrimages to the Nichiren Shoshu head temple, near Mount Fuji.
“It’s rare for someone to start practicing who’s seeking Buddhism. They’re not. They’re seeking a way to improve their lives,” he says. “If you set yourself up as different from society, that creates more barriers. Unlike some other groups, we don’t hang out our shingle as Buddhists.”
Politely, Eppsteiner controls the reporter’s access. He picks members to be interviewed and sits in on the conversations. Later, he calls frequently to check on the progress of the article and to request that members’ last names not be used.
The members selected by Eppsteiner to be interviewed include a former child psychologist, who now chants three hours a day for guidance because she is in the midst of a career change; a Boston College instructor who teaches a course in Buddhism and says that every year a couple of her students join NSA; and a fourth-year medical student who is an intern at Boston City Hospital.
Katherine, the medical student, glows with enthusiasm as she talks about NSA, which she joined six years ago, after dropping out of medical school. “I was practicing chanting for a year before I went back,” she says. “I was told I had a snowball’s chance in hell of getting back in. But I chanted and I got in. I was a different type of student. I had been critical. I didn’t like the courses, I didn’t like the professors, I didn’t like my fellow students. When I got back, I applied the Buddhist concept that your environment is a reflection of you. What I learned is that, if they say 99 things that are worthless and one that’s important, wouldn’t it be a shame if you missed that one thing? Wouldn’t it be great if everyone lived by that rule?”
At BCH, Katherine sometimes must work 24-hour or 36-hour shifts in surgery without sleep. After 18 hours, while other interns eat dinner, she slips into a bathroom to chant. “You know the burnout syndrome,” she says. “You give and give and give, and you’re on empty. Chanting is a way to build up your tank.” Asked if she could ever be so exhausted that chanting could not revive her, she says, “I believe it’s limitless.”
Besides young mothers, a newly formed group of 40 teen-age girls is meeting tonight, and their session is like a pep rally. After singing an NSA ditty, ”The Renaissance of Peace,” they applaud and shout, “Hip, hip, hooray!” Then they quiet down to hear testimonials from several of their peers.
A 14-year-old from Quincy says she was depressed by petty jealousies among her schoolmates until she marched in the NSA contingent in the Bunker Hill Day parade this past April. “I was higher than the sky,” she says. “I no longer needed my friends’ attention as a source of happiness. I relied on President Ikeda’s words to challenge the obstacles of friendship.”
A high school senior from Dorchester chanted for a close friend who used to deal drugs. “Gradually he’s given up selling drugs and now works at an honest job,” she says.
Her ambition is to go to college and have a happy family. She concludes, ”I know, if I keep chanting, I can’t miss.”
Talking over lunch at a Manhattan restaurant, every so often Mary still refers to NSA as “we.” And, on request, she can shift into her old recruiting voice: “Do you know the benefits of chanting ‘Nam myoho renge kyo?’ ” But it’s been a year now since she quit NSA and underwent four days of deprogramming. Now, she says, she knows that it’s just another cult.
At the urging of a friend, Mary attended her first NSA meeting in 1982, when she was studying to be a classical musician. She felt right at home. ”After the first meeting I felt that the people were ones I would have chosen as friends. And there was no racism or social class discrimination. Nobody cared. To this day I’m still impressed by that.”
Her commitment strengthened when she chanted for a job to support her violin studies — and was hired at her first interview. But for Mary the ultimate proof was spiritual rather than financial. The young women’s division of NSA to which she belonged was giving a concert, and the division leader asked her to join the chorus. She was reluctant — “I didn’t see what joining an amateur chorus had to do with Beethoven” — but she agreed.
Rehearsals were grueling, and the singers chanted during breaks to replenish their energy. When the great day arrived, all of the other divisions showed up to help with lighting and to hand out programs. And then, on stage, Mary had what she thought was a religious experience. Now she believes it was the result of fatigue and sensory overload.
“Here I am singing,” she says. “I was transformed by the atmosphere. At that moment I thought that was what Buddhism was all about. I had no doubts.”
From then on, Mary threw herself into NSA activities and advanced in the organization. She was chosen to attend a youth division meeting with Ikeda in San Diego, and for weeks she awoke at 5 every morning to go to the New York community center and chant to prepare herself for the trip.
Rising in NSA meant more responsibility to contribute money and recruit members. Her initial investment had been meager: $17 for a gohonzon, and subscriptions to two publications of NSA’s World Tribune Press: the weekly World Tribune ($4 per month) and the Seikyo Times ($4.50 per month). Soon she was buying candles, incense, and Ikeda’s books. Then she was honored with an invitation to join a committee of people who gave a minimum of $15 a month to NSA. By the time she left, she was contributing $50 a month.
NSA dedicates February and August to “shakubuku,” or recruiting. In those months Mary scrambled to meet recruiting goals posted on the community-center altar for new members and subscribers. Desperate, she bought extra subscriptions herself and invited complete strangers to meetings in her home.
“It makes you so uncomfortable and anxiety-ridden,” she says. “You chant your butt off. If you think you won’t make a target, you sweat it out in front of the gohonzon.”
Immersed in NSA, Mary neglected the rest of her life. She quit practicing the violin because she had no time for it. She rarely saw her parents and forgot their birthdays. She lost a six-year relationship with a man she loved — and felt no pain. “For me, it was like a leaf falling off a tree in the fall.”
The frantic pace undermined her health, and she began having dizzy spells on the subway early in 1988. Assured that they were trivial by her NSA leader, she redoubled her shakubuku efforts that February. On March 1 she collapsed, with what was later diagnosed as low blood sugar and a depleted adrenal gland. Her parents brought her home and invited former NSA members to talk to her. She is grateful for the counseling, she says, because members who walk out on their own and don’t receive any support often remain confused and depressed.
Today she is healthy and studying music in graduate school. “You feel, while you’re in NSA, that people on the outside have a boring life,” she says. “You have a consuming passion. If you do great chanting, and then go in to work, it’s a great feeling. It seemed very heroic.
“But what is the trade-off? You go in at 20, and if you get out at 30 you see what you missed. The hardest part about being out is realizing, ‘I could have done this five years ago.’
“NSA gives people hope,” Mary says. “For people who have no other hope, that’s something. But you have to decide, would you rather have hope or truth? Maybe, if I had a terminal illness and there was nothing to lose, I might chant myself. But it’s a false hope.”
Like Laval Wilson, James Conway admits knowing little about NSA’s beliefs and practices. But the chairman of Charlestown’s Bunker Hill Day parade has done more for NSA’s public relations than just ringing a bell.
At Conway’s invitation, NSA began sending its contingents of brass bands and fife and drum corps to the Bunker Hill Day parade in 1973. In 1975, NSA gave Conway and his wife and two children an all-expenses-paid trip to its convention in Hawaii — an extravaganza featuring a historical drama about the Revolutionary War and a tribute to George M. Cohan, all on an artificial island built for the occasion. “It was, like, a quid pro quo,” Conway says.
Conway has repaid that quid with more quos. When NSA officials needed approval for a bicentennial parade against the traffic from the Prudential Center to City Hall in 1976, Conway introduced them not only to the traffic commissioner, who okayed it, but also to several city councilors. NSA members gave leis and pineapples to the councilors, including Albert (Dapper) O’Neil. O’Neil brought the delegation into Mayor Kevin White’s office, where they posed for a photograph with the mayor.
“They may have some kind of a religion there, but that doesn’t faze me,” O’Neil says. “I think there’s some Buddhism there, I think. They’re very patriotic people. There’s a lot of people in this country, I don’t see them honoring the flag, I see them burning the flag.”
NSA’s relationships with Conway and O’Neil typify its assiduous courting of civic leaders. “It doesn’t run front groups like the Moonies,” says Cynthia Kisser, executive director of the Chicago-based Cult Awareness Network, a nonprofit group dedicated to informing the public about cults. “You don’t see a concerted effort to interfere in the political process by running candidates. What you see is a tremendous public relations attempt with these parades and the bell, going around to the schools, and getting the keys to the city from the mayor.”
This strategy appears to have been handed down from President Ikeda, who rivals the pope for pictures taken with world leaders. Ikeda has met with the late Chou En-lai, Henry Kissinger, Edward Kennedy, Margaret Thatcher, and Manuel Noriega, who was an honored guest at an NSA convention before his drug connections were widely known. Ikeda also burnished his image by giving $500,000 to the United Nations, which awarded him a peace medal and granted consultative status to Soka Gakkai, NSA’s parent organization.
According to NSA’s Gerry Hall, the purpose of NSA’s pursuit of politicians is twofold: to encourage members by showing them that important people sympathize with their aims, and to induce the politicians themselves to try chanting. NSA is usually too tactful to proselytize dignitaries directly, although a Boston School Committee member at the Ellis bell-ringing was invited to an NSA meeting. But NSA officials hope that their patriotism — and swelling ranks of voting-age members — speak for them.
So far, no politicians on the national scene belong to NSA, but some local ones have converted. State Sen. William Owens (D-Roxbury) admits to chanting and owning a gohonzon, although he says he remains a member of New Hope Baptist Church.
NSA officials say that the group stays out of American politics. It does not endorse candidates or hold candidates’ nights. Yet it intruded on the electoral process from 1984 to 1986, when it gave a total of $13,700 to the gubernatorial and mayoral campaigns of Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley — in violation of a California statute prohibiting tax-exempt religious groups such as NSA from making political contributions. After the Los Angeles Herald Examiner reported this past spring on one of the contributions, Bradley’s campaign committee returned the money at NSA’s request.
Bradley and another Californian, US Rep. Mervyn Dymally, have taken junkets financed by NSA and Soka Gakkai. Bradley and his wife attended NSA’s 1985 convention in Hawaii. Soka University in Japan, which was founded by Soka Gakkai in 1971, paid for recent trips by Dymally to Tokyo and Seoul. Last year, Dymally read a statement into the Congressional Record praising Ikeda as ”a man whose life has been completely devoted to youth and world peace.”
When NSA receives an endorsement, it makes the most of it — sometimes too much. For example, the Commission on the Bicentennial of the US Constitution sanctioned the New Freedom Bell in 1987 with the understanding that NSA would give the bell to the city of Philadelphia. When it turned out that Philadelphia did not have a site ready for the bell, NSA decided to exhibit it in schools where a teacher, aide, or parent was a member and could arrange an entree. Disturbed by this unexpected use of its logo by a religious group, the commission considered revoking recognition of the bell but found no legal grounds for the action.
“NSA is using that as a shoehorn to get in the schools,” a commission official says. “Any project taken into the schools has a captive audience. There’s a potential for using schools as a recruiting ground for their movement.”
Although Soka Gakkai and NSA don’t seek scholarly attention as assiduously as political endorsements, they know how to woo academics. Again, they are following the example of Ikeda, who has published several books of conversations with eminent scholars, such as the late historian Arnold Toynbee, and frequently donates books to European universities. Under Ikeda, Soka Gakkai has also published several antiwar books containing reminiscences of Japanese survivors of World War II.
When Daniel Metraux began researching his doctoral thesis on Soka Gakkai, he agreed to let its officials read the manuscript for factual errors. In return, the organization gave him interviews and access. The thesis portrayed Soka Gakkai as harmless and peace-loving, and when Metraux expanded it into a book, Soka Gakkai found him a Japanese publisher. Now Metraux, who is a professor at Mary Baldwin College in Virginia, works as a consultant for Soka Gakkai. “They make you feel very important,” he says.
Celebrity entertainers, too, enhance NSA’s image. Patrick Duffy, who plays Bobby Ewing on Dallas, was introduced to NSA in 1972, at the age of 22, by his future wife. At the time, he had recently ruptured both vocal cords, and his dream of an acting career seemed unattainable. Chanting as best he could, he regained his voice. Marriage, children, and stardom followed. “As of yet, to this day, I still don’t know how it works,” marvels Duffy, sitting in the Culver City office of his production company, Montana Power Inc.
Duffy, a midlevel leader in the NSA organization, has chanted all but eight days in the past 17 years. The benefits are guaranteed, he says, and any members who fail to experience them either do not chant enough or don’t count their blessings. “I can understand, but not with complete sympathy, someone leaving NSA,” he says.
Back in Charlestown, Conway is still smoothing NSA’s path. When the group considered buying a former school building in Allston-Brighton recently, he wrote a letter of support to the neighborhood council. He also invited NSA director Williams to be the featured speaker at the Bunker Hill Day exercises this past April, an honor traditionally reserved for Massachusetts politicians.
Williams couldn’t come — his fill-in was state Rep. Richard Voke, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee — but NSA sent the New Freedom Bell and 200 flag-waving members to the exercises. The next day, NSA participated in the Bunker Hill Day parade for the first time since 1975. NSA’s contingent, which was paid expenses only, included a brass band, a fife and drum corps, 80 dancers dressed as sunflowers, a 40-member drill dance team, and 300 gymnasts, who formed a human pyramid five stories high.
“God, it was impressive,” Conway says.
As for NSA’s Eppsteiner, he was pleased, too: “There are members who say, ‘You know, my first experience of NSA was seeing it in the Bunker Hill Day parade.’ ”
When District 15 of the Machinists Union decided to put its headquarters in New York City’s Union Square on the market last year, it had trouble finding a buyer. The highest bid was $2.5 million — half what the union believed the building was worth. Then, one day, NSA officials visited district president Hans Wedekin. Not only did they agree immediately to his $5 million price, but they paid for the entire amount by check. Now the attractive five-story brownstone is an NSA community center.
“It was the fastest deal I ever made,” Wedekin says.
In the past two years, NSA has pumped tens of millions of dollars into buying properties in more than a dozen American cities ranging in size from New York and Baltimore to Eugene, Oregon, and Colorado Springs, Colorado. By its own count, NSA now has 55 community centers, five cultural centers, six temples, and three training centers. The most expensive purchase this year may have been a $3.2 million property in San Francisco. The school in Allston- Brighton that NSA recently looked into is assessed at more than $2.2 million. Few of NSA’s properties are mortgaged: It usually pays the whole sum up front.
Where does the money come from? According to NSA, these purchases are financed by its regular income — subscriptions, bookstore sales, and the like — and special campaigns. Although members are not required to contribute to these campaigns, they are encouraged to improve their self-discipline by setting a substantial donation as a target and then meeting it. “It may be suggested to challenge yourself, see if you can give,” says Al Albergate, a former Los Angeles Herald Examiner reporter who is NSA’s public relations spokesman. “In this practice, you do get back more than you give.”
Jean, the former child psychologist in Boston, says she decided to use last year’s campaign to raise money for the New York center as a challenge to live within a budget. So she took a second job as a waitress and donated the income from it to the campaign.
Cult-watchers and ex-members argue that NSA exploits Jean and others like her. What makes matters worse, they say, is that members think NSA’s expansion depends on their sacrifices, when it is actually subsidized by Soka Gakkai in Japan. Not only does Soka Gakkai collect huge sums from donations and bequests, but it also owns rapidly appreciating Tokyo real estate and an art museum. Its extravagant bids for Western art have helped fuel the spectacular rise in art prices in recent years.
Eager to preserve NSA’s all-American image, its officials deny that it is funded from Japan. But they do not dispute that Soka University in Tokyo, an offshoot of Soka Gakkai, has made one expensive investment here that should benefit NSA. In 1986 the university bought a 248-acre estate in Calabasas, California, from the Church Universal and Triumphant, a religious cult, for $15.5 million. It far outbid the federal government, which wanted to turn the site into the centerpiece of a national recreation area. The location is intended for a four-year, liberal arts university. So far, Soka University/Los Angeles offers only English classes for visiting Japanese students.
A short walk from the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica, California, this modern four-story office building has the air of a bustling corporate headquarters. Nowhere in the lobby of NSA’s national headquarters do you see the word Buddhism; instead, visitors are greeted by a large map of the United States, with yellow lights marking where the New Freedom Bell has visited. Upstairs are offices of the World Tribune, which has a national circulation of 120,000 — more than the better-known Washington Times, controlled by the Unification Church. An eight-page weekly, the Tribune covers Ikeda’s ”history-making” meetings and reprints his speeches. It also contains testimony about the benefits of chanting from NSA members around the United States. To reach new immigrants, the last page is printed in a foreign language, with Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Spanish alternating from week to week.
Just down the street is a storefront office that houses NSA’s spin-off companies, including Freedom Music. Its musical, This Is America, the New World, was performed on September 6 in the 2,605-seat Boston Opera House.
Sixty miles east of Santa Monica, among vineyards and fields in the shadow of the San Gabriel Mountains, is a more serene place. It is one of the six temples of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism in the United States. There are no bells, flags, or photos of Ikeda in the chapel here, just a gohonzon on an altar, surrounded by candles, an incense burner, gold lotus flowers, and a drum to accompany the chanting.
Nor are there any visitors this morning, only the chief priest, Yosei Yamada, and his assistant. Yamada is one of NSA’s 11 priests in the United States; next year the number is planned to increase to 13. He officiates at weddings and funerals, and new members come to the temple three times a week to receive their scrolls. But he also has plenty of time alone to study Buddhist doctrine and the English language.
Asked if he marches in NSA parades, Yamada smiles and says, “The priests are on another kind of mission.”
The contrast between the busy headquarters and the isolated temple perhaps explains how a legitimate Buddhist sect can be so deeply into patriotism and public relations. Simply put, the lay organizations have as much power as the priests. It is as if the Knights of Columbus determined the policies of the Catholic Church. Although Soka Gakkai and NSA are lay groups, they instruct members and spread the faith. But the priests, the guardians of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism, do not proselytize and have little contact with members. Some members never see a priest after they receive their scrolls.
Over coffee in his sitting room, Yamada explains that this unusual situation has its roots in the writings of Nichiren, who believed that all other Buddhist sects were heretical and urged his followers to evangelize nonbelievers. Since the Nichiren priesthood was never numerous enough to propagate the word, it relied for centuries on a lay group, Hokaiko, which acknowledged its subordinate role. But Hokaiko was weak. Today it has perhaps 100,000 members worldwide. Despite practicing the same religion as Soka Gakkai members, they have become second-class citizens in Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism.
Soka Gakkai did not start as a religious group. It was founded in 1930 by T. Makiguchi, an educational theorist. Soon Makiguchi’s interests shifted to religion, and he offered to associate his group with Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism. Recognizing that Soka Gakkai was more energetic than Hokaiko, the high priest agreed. When Soka Gakkai’s membership skyrocketed in the 1945-52 period, known in Japan as the “Rush Hour of the Gods” because of the proliferation of religions, the priesthood found itself overwhelmed by the size and wealth of its lay organization.
Financially, the arrangement between the priesthood and Soka Gakkai benefits both sides. Every new member must pay a donation for a scroll, and the money goes to the upkeep of the temples. Even so, many priests have been unable to tolerate Soka Gakkai. In the late 1970s, 180 Nichiren Shoshu priests in Japan — a third of the priesthood there — as well as the chief priest in New York City protested what they viewed as glorification of Ikeda and a misrepresentation of Nichiren’s teachings to emphasize materialism. The priests in Japan were excommunicated, and they sued for reinstatement. According to Yamada, a Japanese appeals court recently ruled against them.
Rev. Kando Tono, the New York priest, was recalled to Japan under pressure from NSA. He says he was not excommunicated because Soka Gakkai did not want to test the issue in United States courts. He now takes care of Hokaiko members in London and New York. “If you start criticizing Soka Gakkai, you jeopardize your situation as a priest,” he says. “But they distorted the teachings of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism so it would appeal to nonbelievers.”
Yamada and other priests became concerned last year that NSA was recruiting people indiscriminately, without regard to whether they were truly committed to Buddhism. He could tell this was happening, he says, because not only were more people coming to the temple to receive their scrolls, but more were coming to give them back. In a typical week he would give out 300 gohonzons, but 20 would be returned. After consulting with the high priest in Japan, the priests met with NSA leaders, who agreed to be more careful. Now, Yamada says, he distributes only 200 gohonzons a week, and hardly any are returned.
Listening to Yamada, one is struck by the thought that perhaps the interplay between priests and lay leaders may underlie NSA’s back-and-forth history. NSA went from frantic flag-waving in the mid-1970s to a period of retreat and study, and now it’s back to glitz again. When lay leaders go too far, the priests rein them in; but if recruitment then falters, the laity reassumes control. One might even say that NSA shifts back and forth from religion to cult, depending on who’s in charge.
As his visitor leaves, Yamada says that he will soon devote his afternoons to studying Christianity. “Right now, I can’t understand the people’s mind, especially Western people,” he says. “I don’t understand the God which is taught in Christianity, the creator.”
If Tom Wolfe saw this spectacle of affluent professionals chanting to a Japanese scroll, he might call it Buddhist chic. Shoeless and sweaty on a sticky summer night, 25 people are crammed into a living room on the top floor of a fashionable Cambridge three-decker. The room is decorated with Oriental art and the inevitable Ikeda photo, but furniture is sparse, and most guests sit on the floor. The focus of their worship hangs in a wooden altar in one corner, against a background of pink paper and silk cloth, illuminated by a spotlight.
Like any of the dozens of weekly NSA meetings in the Boston area, this one is not primarily an opportunity for members to practice their religion. They have their own gohonzons at home. Its main purpose is recruitment. Several members have brought friends along, and everything is arranged for their comfort. You can spot the newcomers: the shy woman in the back of the room; the fellow staring intently at the group leaders explaining the evening’s agenda; and the man on the couch who lets the woman next to him wind beads around his fingers and trace the words of the chant for him in her prayer book. Reluctantly, he mumbles the words.
When the chanting ends, a member stands up to talk about “The Nine Levels of Consciousness,” an aspect of Buddhist doctrine. His lecture soon segues into a plea to the newcomers to try chanting. As a professor for 25 years, he says, he had the “unmitigated arrogance” to reject anything that seemed irrational. But he was wrong. “The only way to understand it is to chant yourself,” he says. “After a while, as ludicrous as it seems, you can’t deny the power and the influence.”
A patriotic song follows his discourse. Members hold up posters on which lyrics are printed so first-timers can follow along. For the baby boomers here, the words carry overtones of President Kennedy’s inaugural address. ”What can I do, America, to make you proud you gave me birth?” they sing. ”I’ll be the one to say, ‘America, what can I do for you?’ ”
Next come the testimonials. Bill, a computer software manager, tells the group that he wasn’t sure whether he could finish an important job on time, so he got up early every day and chanted at the Boston community center. As it turned out, the software was ready on schedule for the first time in the history of his company, and Bill was promoted.
Nancy confesses that chanting helped her through the emotional anxiety of her engagement and the discovery of a malignancy in her mother’s colon. “I realized, no matter what happened to my mom, I was still going to be tremendously happy on my wedding day,” she says. Everything turned out for the best: The weather was perfect for the wedding, and an operation revealed that her mother’s tumor was not spreading.
Now an NSA leader asks if anyone at the meeting is a guest. Since the man on the couch slipped out during Nancy’s talk, there are only two left: the shy woman and Mike, who is attending his third meeting. The leader tells them that the real purpose of the meeting is to introduce them to Buddhism. Do they have any questions?
The woman is silent. Mike, a hard-headed type, wants to know how long he must chant before getting results. The leader says it depends on the intensity of Mike’s chanting. “Whether you believe in it or not is not critical,” he says. “Faith is not initially required.”
Mike doesn’t seem satisfied, and the leader recounts his own conversion to Buddhism. He hated his boss, but two days of chanting led to a reconciliation. Mike perks up. “So it happens really quick,” he says.
Mike has a final question: How does NSA improve chances for world peace? The leader says that NSA members in Argentina and England chanted to end the Falklands War. As more members join, he says, their chanting will be powerful enough to stop any war.
The newcomers are encouraged to receive their scrolls at the Boston community center the following Sunday, and the meeting breaks up. Members surround Mike to ask if he will join NSA.
“I’m still investigating it,” he says. “But I’ve started chanting.”
RABELL;09/18 LDRISC;10/20,23:29 NSA2
All content herein is © 1996 the Globe Newspaper Company and may not be republished without permission.
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Spotting Teens Who Are Into Cults
Prompted by the Pamela Vitale murder, and its rumored cult connection, CBS dedicated a news segment to the signs parents can spot when their child joins a cult.
Co-anchor Rene Syler spoke with cult expert Steve Hassan on The Early Show.
[...] there’s no evidence that there’s a specific cult or any undue influence of some other person on him.
[...] I don’t believe that the Goth look is, in any way, a destructive cult.
[...] But I can definitely tell you families need to be alert, (get) preventive education, letting young people know, especially, that there’s no instant friends. Become a researcher. Understand that destructive cults are out there. They don’t tell you what they believe and what they want from you.
Video: Steve Hassan on The Early Show
Gerry Armstrong’s extreme restriction of Freedom of Speech continues
[1] On Wednesday, Oct. 19 2005, the California Court of Appeal’s granted the Scientology organization’s petition to reinflict the punishment of jail sentences and fines against Gerry Armstrong, Hubbard’s former official biography researcher, that Marin County Judge Lynn Duryee had discharged in April 2004.
Scientology’s appeals court success in its religious war against Armstrong begins with his punishment of twenty-eight days in jail and $4600 in fines, but the potential exists for Scientology to keep him jailed forever. What is Armstrong’s crime? Nothing more than discussing the Scientology religion. Not lying, not libeling Scientology, but telling the truth about this religion and organization as he believes the truth to be.
For every mention Armstrong makes of his sincere beliefs about the Scientology religion, or even about his own religion and his own church (the Church of Wogs (CoW) Scientology wants him jailed, fined and forced to pay the organization $50,000 in damages. Unimaginable but true, and extensively documented on his Scientology v. Armstrong legal archive.
Armstrong’s position is that it is no more lawful for the U.S. Courts to jail and financially crush him for discussing his beliefs about Scientology than it would be lawful to jail and ruin a person for discussing his beliefs about God and Jesus in the Christian religion [2].
[1]: This entry contains portions of Suppresive Person’s press release on the matter. The Suppresive Person site is named after the Scientology definition of a suppresive: “A SUPPRESSIVE PERSON or GROUP is one that actively seeks to suppress or damage Scientology or a Scientologist by suppressive acts.
[2]: In a number of countries, Scientology is not considered a religion at all, but a commercial and totalitarian cult with a goal of world domination.
Cult expert Steve Hassan on Montel
Monday, October 24, Steve Hassan appeared on the Montel Williams Show titled Sex Abuse and Mind Control: Raised in a Cult.
The show featured survivors of a controversial religious cult who risked their lives to tell their story publicly for the first time.
Caryn, a young woman who was born and raised in “The Family” and suffered years of abuse, claims that this organization formerly known as the Children of God (now renamed to The Family International) has doctrines that allow their adult members to literally “beat the devil” out of misbehaving children.
Don, another former member, also shares in Caryn’s recollections. He says they beat and molested his sister and then published her battered image in the cult’s magazine to display an example of what acceptable punishment is.
Steve talked with the guests and offered them free counseling after the show.
Judge denies Amway arbitration
Sep. 21, 2005 – U.S. District Judge Richard Dorr refused arbitration in a suit filed two years ago.
Amway had argued that the disputes arose under rules of conduct for Amway product distributors that were subject to arbitration.
Judge Richard Dorr made short with argument, calling those rules of conduct agreements “unconscionable” because they were offered on a “take it or leave it” basis and because Amway hand-picked the arbitrators and trained them.
As if that wasn’t enough he also pointed out that the agreements weren’t signed by the parties, did not form valid contracts or weren’t applicable to the suit.
The suit, which describes Amway as a pyramid-type scheme, charges that a few Amway “kingpins” — those who bought into Amway early on — control thousands of down-line distributors and make most of their money by selling them motivational materials, known at Amway as the “tool and function” business.
The suit says that Amway helped the few big players monopolize and restrain trade in the motivational arena, using it to subsidize the rest of its business.
The denial of arbitration is a big deal. Former Emerald distributor Eric Scheibeler, author of Merchants of Deception, describes it as “the legal equivalent of the Titanic hitting the iceberg”.
The full legal ruling is available from Freedom of Mind‘s Amway Quixtar resources.
See also:
Amway/Alticor Court Case Newstracker
BITE analysis of Amway/Quixtar by cult expert Steve Hassan
Open letter by Fawn Holm, FLDS escapee
The Fawn twins, who left the abusiveFundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints cult to escape polygamy, haven’t left the news after cult expert Steve Hassan was called in for his counseling expertise and did follow up pro bono counseling with them and the family who took them in, since their taping of the Dr. Phil Show.
Their strength shows through in Fawn Holm’s open letter, sent to the editor of the Arizona Republic.
To all ex-Creekers:
Those who judge me for being on TV, for standing up and doing something about the crimes and abuses at the “Creek,” who say I am “hurting my family” or “ratting on the Creek” – I have something to say to you.
I, at least, am not sitting around pretending it never happened.
I am not trying to run away from the pain by working myself to death or partying with drugs and alcohol.
You can only run for so long.
People say I hurt my parents. What did they do to me? I asked them nicely if I could leave. Do you think they said, “OK, let us find you a safe place to go?” No! My parents got a restraining order on my brothers who had left, and had me placed under house arrest.
Since I left, I am no longer welcome in their house. Why? Because I will bring “evil spirits” with me, and they would have to “rededicate” their house.
Our families talk about having to stand before God and atone for our sins. How do you think our loving God is going to react to parents who say, “We could not let our kids into our house because they might bring in evil spirits”?
Our families tell us that they “hurt for us” and wish we would come home. But they only say that until they realize how strong and free we have become. They then say there is no hope for us.
I think my parents’ should be proud of me! I stood up and fought for the freedom I believe in. I stood up, and I am not sitting until this job is done.
I am the youngest of my mom’s 18 kids. I was born three months early and nearly died. My mom said the reason I lived was because I had a big mission.
Standing up is my mission.
To all of you who wonder if you should go back to the Creek, because you are going to “burn in the fire of the last days if you don’t,” let me get this straight: You are afraid that our God, a loving, caring God, is going to make you choose between happiness, love, success and heaven? I don’t think so.
Our families, the ones who won’t let us visit them, say living at the Creek is the only way to have happiness, love, success and heaven. I have witnessed love at the Creek. For example:
· A wife leaves a husband whom she “loves” to go and suddenly “love” another man, because the “prophet” told her to.
· Little kids (or big ones) “love” their father, then turn around and say he’s a bad man because the “prophet” said so.
· Families turn their backs on “apostate” children because “prophet” Warren Jeffs told them to. Ten minutes earlier they were begging those same children to return because they “love” them.
I understand that you miss your family and friends at the Creek. But if you go back, the people at the Creek will make you choose them only. You will not be allowed to speak to those “inside.” You do not have to make that choice out here. That is love and happiness to me.
I’m fed up with ex-Creekers judging me for speaking out. We need to stand up together and take a position. You are in or you are out – there is no middle.
Stop running and stand up. Let’s stop this abuse together.
Recently the Fawn twins returned to Boston for some follow-up counseling with Steve Hassan.
Oprah Magazine quotes Steve Hassan
The Last 10 Pounds is a feature article in the August issue of O, The Oprah Magazine.
The Last 10 Pound wonders if those pounds really should stand between you and happiness. Is it worth the misery? Is it worth the self-loathing?
A team of experts provides a long over-due reality check.
Feeling that our culture indoctrinates women to believe they need to be thin to be beautiful, O, The Oprah Magazine spoke with cult expert Steve Hassan. He showed the women the Asch conformity study and talked with them about positive ethical ways to control their thoughts, feelings and behavior.
The web site quotes Steve Hassan under the heading “Good advice: mind set”:
If you’re losing weight to please a partner or follow some ideal, you will rebel. You must be your own authority figure to succeed.
Dr.Zimbardo’s Discovering Psychology video course online
The entire Psychology 101 Course done by Dr. Zimbardo is online and free for viewing.
Cult expert Steve Hassan was interviewed for the 20th segment, “Constructing Social Reality“1.
Despite pressure from Scientologists to pull the five minutes on cults that Steve Hassan was speaking on (including Scientology, the Moonies, the krishnas), Annenberg and Zimbardo said no to their pressure.
Highlighting major new developments in the field, this updated edition of Discovering Psychology offers high school and college students, and teachers of psychology at all levels, an overview of historic and current theories of human behavior. Stanford University professor and author Philip Zimbardo narrates as leading researchers, practitioners, and theorists probe the mysteries of the mind and body. Based on extensive investigation and authoritative scholarship, this introductory course in psychology features demonstrations, classic experiments and simulations, current research, documentary footage, and computer animation. This series is also valuable for teachers seeking to review the subject matter.
: 20. Constructing Social Reality
Many factors contribute to our interpretation of reality. This program demonstrates how understanding the psychological processes that govern our behavior may help us to become more empathetic and independent members of society. With Steven Hassan, M.Ed., of the Freedom of Mind Resource Center and Dr. Robert Cialdini of Arizona State University. Updated.
William Kamm court case
William Kamm, a.k.a. “Little Pebble”, leader of the Australian Catholic cul tOrder of St. Charbel, has recently been convicted of four counts of aggravated indecent assault and one of aggravated sexual intercourse. The five charges involve a then 15 year old girl.
William Kamm claims to receive revelations from Jesus and the Virgin Mary. At times these revelations included doomsday prophecies, which so far have failed to come true.
One of these end-of-the-world prophecies included the advice that William Kamm should choose 12 queens and 72 princesses who would become his mystical wives to spawn an immaculate race after the world ended.
According to William Kamm, at that time, the sexual abuse victim was one of these queens and pricesses.
A good but not always up to date resource page on the court case is Australia’s Greatest Cult, The Order of Saint Charbel: Kamm in Court.
Additional news can be found via this pre-defined Google News search, and on Religion News Blog.
Archived items
Other cult news sources
Religion News Blog:
Factnet.org’s cult news
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Spotting Teens Who Are Into Cults
Prompted by the Pamela Vitale murder, and its rumored cult connection, CBS dedicated a news segment to the signs parents can spot when their child joins a cult.
Co-anchor Rene Syler spoke with cult expert Steve Hassan on The Early Show.
[...] there’s no evidence that there’s a specific cult or any undue influence of some other person on him.
[...] I don’t believe that the Goth look is, in any way, a destructive cult.
[...] But I can definitely tell you families need to be alert, (get) preventive education, letting young people know, especially, that there’s no instant friends. Become a researcher. Understand that destructive cults are out there. They don’t tell you what they believe and what they want from you.
Video: Steve Hassan on The Early Show
Gerry Armstrong’s extreme restriction of Freedom of Speech continues
[1] On Wednesday, Oct. 19 2005, the California Court of Appeal’s granted the Scientology organization’s petition to reinflict the punishment of jail sentences and fines against Gerry Armstrong, Hubbard’s former official biography researcher, that Marin County Judge Lynn Duryee had discharged in April 2004.
Scientology’s appeals court success in its religious war against Armstrong begins with his punishment of twenty-eight days in jail and $4600 in fines, but the potential exists for Scientology to keep him jailed forever. What is Armstrong’s crime? Nothing more than discussing the Scientology religion. Not lying, not libeling Scientology, but telling the truth about this religion and organization as he believes the truth to be.
For every mention Armstrong makes of his sincere beliefs about the Scientology religion, or even about his own religion and his own church (the Church of Wogs (CoW) Scientology wants him jailed, fined and forced to pay the organization $50,000 in damages. Unimaginable but true, and extensively documented on his Scientology v. Armstrong legal archive.
Armstrong’s position is that it is no more lawful for the U.S. Courts to jail and financially crush him for discussing his beliefs about Scientology than it would be lawful to jail and ruin a person for discussing his beliefs about God and Jesus in the Christian religion [2].
[1]: This entry contains portions of Suppresive Person’s press release on the matter. The Suppresive Person site is named after the Scientology definition of a suppresive: “A SUPPRESSIVE PERSON or GROUP is one that actively seeks to suppress or damage Scientology or a Scientologist by suppressive acts.
[2]: In a number of countries, Scientology is not considered a religion at all, but a commercial and totalitarian cult with a goal of world domination.
Cult expert Steve Hassan on Montel
Monday, October 24, Steve Hassan appeared on the Montel Williams Show titled Sex Abuse and Mind Control: Raised in a Cult.
The show featured survivors of a controversial religious cult who risked their lives to tell their story publicly for the first time.
Caryn, a young woman who was born and raised in “The Family” and suffered years of abuse, claims that this organization formerly known as the Children of God (now renamed to The Family International) has doctrines that allow their adult members to literally “beat the devil” out of misbehaving children.
Don, another former member, also shares in Caryn’s recollections. He says they beat and molested his sister and then published her battered image in the cult’s magazine to display an example of what acceptable punishment is.
Steve talked with the guests and offered them free counseling after the show.
Judge denies Amway arbitration
Sep. 21, 2005 – U.S. District Judge Richard Dorr refused arbitration in a suit filed two years ago.
Amway had argued that the disputes arose under rules of conduct for Amway product distributors that were subject to arbitration.
Judge Richard Dorr made short with argument, calling those rules of conduct agreements “unconscionable” because they were offered on a “take it or leave it” basis and because Amway hand-picked the arbitrators and trained them.
As if that wasn’t enough he also pointed out that the agreements weren’t signed by the parties, did not form valid contracts or weren’t applicable to the suit.
The suit, which describes Amway as a pyramid-type scheme, charges that a few Amway “kingpins” — those who bought into Amway early on — control thousands of down-line distributors and make most of their money by selling them motivational materials, known at Amway as the “tool and function” business.
The suit says that Amway helped the few big players monopolize and restrain trade in the motivational arena, using it to subsidize the rest of its business.
The denial of arbitration is a big deal. Former Emerald distributor Eric Scheibeler, author of Merchants of Deception, describes it as “the legal equivalent of the Titanic hitting the iceberg”.
The full legal ruling is available from Freedom of Mind‘s Amway Quixtar resources.
See also:
Amway/Alticor Court Case Newstracker
BITE analysis of Amway/Quixtar by cult expert Steve Hassan
Open letter by Fawn Holm, FLDS escapee
The Fawn twins, who left the abusiveFundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints cult to escape polygamy, haven’t left the news after cult expert Steve Hassan was called in for his counseling expertise and did follow up pro bono counseling with them and the family who took them in, since their taping of the Dr. Phil Show.
Their strength shows through in Fawn Holm’s open letter, sent to the editor of the Arizona Republic.
To all ex-Creekers:
Those who judge me for being on TV, for standing up and doing something about the crimes and abuses at the “Creek,” who say I am “hurting my family” or “ratting on the Creek” – I have something to say to you.
I, at least, am not sitting around pretending it never happened.
I am not trying to run away from the pain by working myself to death or partying with drugs and alcohol.
You can only run for so long.
People say I hurt my parents. What did they do to me? I asked them nicely if I could leave. Do you think they said, “OK, let us find you a safe place to go?” No! My parents got a restraining order on my brothers who had left, and had me placed under house arrest.
Since I left, I am no longer welcome in their house. Why? Because I will bring “evil spirits” with me, and they would have to “rededicate” their house.
Our families talk about having to stand before God and atone for our sins. How do you think our loving God is going to react to parents who say, “We could not let our kids into our house because they might bring in evil spirits”?
Our families tell us that they “hurt for us” and wish we would come home. But they only say that until they realize how strong and free we have become. They then say there is no hope for us.
I think my parents’ should be proud of me! I stood up and fought for the freedom I believe in. I stood up, and I am not sitting until this job is done.
I am the youngest of my mom’s 18 kids. I was born three months early and nearly died. My mom said the reason I lived was because I had a big mission.
Standing up is my mission.
To all of you who wonder if you should go back to the Creek, because you are going to “burn in the fire of the last days if you don’t,” let me get this straight: You are afraid that our God, a loving, caring God, is going to make you choose between happiness, love, success and heaven? I don’t think so.
Our families, the ones who won’t let us visit them, say living at the Creek is the only way to have happiness, love, success and heaven. I have witnessed love at the Creek. For example:
· A wife leaves a husband whom she “loves” to go and suddenly “love” another man, because the “prophet” told her to.
· Little kids (or big ones) “love” their father, then turn around and say he’s a bad man because the “prophet” said so.
· Families turn their backs on “apostate” children because “prophet” Warren Jeffs told them to. Ten minutes earlier they were begging those same children to return because they “love” them.
I understand that you miss your family and friends at the Creek. But if you go back, the people at the Creek will make you choose them only. You will not be allowed to speak to those “inside.” You do not have to make that choice out here. That is love and happiness to me.
I’m fed up with ex-Creekers judging me for speaking out. We need to stand up together and take a position. You are in or you are out – there is no middle.
Stop running and stand up. Let’s stop this abuse together.
Recently the Fawn twins returned to Boston for some follow-up counseling with Steve Hassan.
Oprah Magazine quotes Steve Hassan
The Last 10 Pounds is a feature article in the August issue of O, The Oprah Magazine.
The Last 10 Pound wonders if those pounds really should stand between you and happiness. Is it worth the misery? Is it worth the self-loathing?
A team of experts provides a long over-due reality check.
Feeling that our culture indoctrinates women to believe they need to be thin to be beautiful, O, The Oprah Magazine spoke with cult expert Steve Hassan. He showed the women the Asch conformity study and talked with them about positive ethical ways to control their thoughts, feelings and behavior.
The web site quotes Steve Hassan under the heading “Good advice: mind set”:
If you’re losing weight to please a partner or follow some ideal, you will rebel. You must be your own authority figure to succeed.
Dr.Zimbardo’s Discovering Psychology video course online
The entire Psychology 101 Course done by Dr. Zimbardo is online and free for viewing.
Cult expert Steve Hassan was interviewed for the 20th segment, “Constructing Social Reality“1.
Despite pressure from Scientologists to pull the five minutes on cults that Steve Hassan was speaking on (including Scientology, the Moonies, the krishnas), Annenberg and Zimbardo said no to their pressure.
Highlighting major new developments in the field, this updated edition of Discovering Psychology offers high school and college students, and teachers of psychology at all levels, an overview of historic and current theories of human behavior. Stanford University professor and author Philip Zimbardo narrates as leading researchers, practitioners, and theorists probe the mysteries of the mind and body. Based on extensive investigation and authoritative scholarship, this introductory course in psychology features demonstrations, classic experiments and simulations, current research, documentary footage, and computer animation. This series is also valuable for teachers seeking to review the subject matter.
: 20. Constructing Social Reality
Many factors contribute to our interpretation of reality. This program demonstrates how understanding the psychological processes that govern our behavior may help us to become more empathetic and independent members of society. With Steven Hassan, M.Ed., of the Freedom of Mind Resource Center and Dr. Robert Cialdini of Arizona State University. Updated.
William Kamm court case
William Kamm, a.k.a. “Little Pebble”, leader of the Australian Catholic cul tOrder of St. Charbel, has recently been convicted of four counts of aggravated indecent assault and one of aggravated sexual intercourse. The five charges involve a then 15 year old girl.
William Kamm claims to receive revelations from Jesus and the Virgin Mary. At times these revelations included doomsday prophecies, which so far have failed to come true.
One of these end-of-the-world prophecies included the advice that William Kamm should choose 12 queens and 72 princesses who would become his mystical wives to spawn an immaculate race after the world ended.
According to William Kamm, at that time, the sexual abuse victim was one of these queens and pricesses.
A good but not always up to date resource page on the court case is Australia’s Greatest Cult, The Order of Saint Charbel: Kamm in Court.
Additional news can be found via this pre-defined Google News search, and on Religion News Blog.
Archived items
Other cult news sources
Religion News Blog:
Factnet.org’s cult news
HOME
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The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power
The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power
by Joel Kramer and Diana Alstad
Frog, Ltd., Berkeley, California; 1993
The following quotes are taken from Part One of the Guru Papers
and are deemed by ex-members to be strikingly accurate in describing
the dynamics of a cult guru.
“If an authority not only expects to be obeyed without
question, but either punishes or refuses to deal with those who
do not, that authority is authoritarian.” (p.15)
“Gurus can arouse intense emotions as there is extraordinary
passion in surrendering to what one perceives as a living God.”
(p.33)
“In ‘spiritual’ realms fear and desire can become
as extreme as they get. When a living person becomes the focus
of such emotions, the possibility of manipulation is correspondingly
extreme.” (p.41)
“In the East a guru is more than a teacher. He is a doorway
that supposedly allows one to enter into a more profound relationship
with the spiritual. A necessary step becomes acknowledging the
guru’s specialness and mastery over that which one wishes
to attain. The message is that to be a really serious student,
spiritual realization must be the primary concern. Therefore,
one’s relationship with the guru must, in time, become one’s
prime emotional bond, with all others viewed as secondary. In
fact, typically other relationships are pejoratively referred
to as ‘attachments.’” (p.49)
“So although most gurus preach detachment, disciples become
attached to having the guru as their center, whereas the guru
becomes attached to having the power of being others’ center.”
(p.50)
“When abuses are publicly exposed, the leader either denies
or justifies the behaviors by saying that ‘enemies of the
truth’ or ‘the forces of evil’ are trying to
subvert his true message. Core members of the group have a huge
vested interest in believing him, as their identity is wrapped
up in believing in his righteousness. Those who begin to doubt
him at first become confused and depressed, and later feel betrayed
and angry. The ways people deny and justify are similar: Since
supposedly no one who is not enlightened can truly understand
the motives of one who is, any criticism can be discounted as
a limited perspective. Also, any behavior on the part of the guru,
no matter how base, can be imputed to be some secret teaching
or message that needs deciphering.”
By holding gurus as perfect and thus beyond ordinary explanations,
their presumed specialness can be used to justify anything. Some
deeper, occult reason can always be ascribed to anything a guru
does: The guru is said to take on the karma of others, and that
is why his body has whatever problems it has. The guru is obese
or unhealthy because he is too kind to turn down offerings: besides,
he gives so much that a little excess is understandable. He punishes
those who disobey him not out of anger but out of necessity, as
a good father would. He uses sex to teach about energy and detachment.
He lives an opulent life to break people’s simplistic preconceptions
of what ego-loss should look like; it also shows how detached
and unconcerned he is about what others think. For after all,
‘Once enlightened, one can do anything.’ Believing
this dictum makes any action justifiable.
People justify and rationalize in gurus what in others would
be considered unacceptable because they have a huge emotional
investment in believing their guru is both pure and right.”
(p.52)
“That interest in one’s own salvation is totally
self-centered is a conundrum rarely explored.” (p.54)
“So disciples believe they are loved unconditionally, even
though this love is conditional on continued surrender. Disciples
in the throes of surrender feel they have given up their past,
and do not, consciously at least, fear the future. . . Feeling
totally cared for and accepted, at the universe’s center,
powerful, and seemingly unafraid of the future are all achieved
at the price of giving one’s power to another, thus remaining
essentially a child.” (p56)
“It is not at all unusual to be in an authoritarian relationship
and not know it. In fact, knowing it can interfere with surrender.
Any of the following are strong indications of belonging to an
authoritarian group:
1. No deviation from the party line is allowed. Anyone who has
thoughts or feelings contrary to the accepted perspective is made
to feel wrong or bad for having them.
2. Whatever the authority does is regarded as perfect or right.
Thus behaviors that would be questioned in others are made to
seem different and proper.
3. One trusts that the leader or others in the group know what’s
best.
4. It is difficult to communicate with anyone not in the group.
5. One finds oneself defending actions of the leader (or other
members) without having firsthand knowledge of what occurred.
6. At times one is confused and fearful without knowing why. This
is a sign that doubts are being repressed.” (p.57)
“Traditional gurus teach what they were taught. Most gurus’
training in dealing with disciples is through example –
watching their own guru. They learn to recognize, reinforce, and
reward surrender, and to negate non-surrender. Aside from the
more tangible rewards, they reinforce devotion with attention
and approval, and punish its lack by withdrawing them. Though
some gurus say that doubts are healthy, they subtly punish them.
Doubt is not the way to get into the inner circle. Believing surrender
is essential for transmitting their teachings, some gurus could
be aware they are manipulating people to surrender, but think
they are doing so ‘for their own good.’ (If this were
in fact true, it would mean that deep truths are only accessible
via an authoritarian mode.) This can not only justify manipulation,
but also justify dissembling in order to eliminate people’s
doubts – all this being done in the name of fostering spiritual
growth.” (p.62)
“The power of conversion experiences lies in the psychological
shift from confusion to certainty.” (p.65)
“People whose power is based on the surrender of others
develop a repertoire of techniques for deflecting and undermining
anything that questions or challenges their status, behavior,
or beliefs. They ridicule or try to confuse people who ask challenging
questions.” (p.66)
“Is experiencing intense energy a sign of spirituality,
or is the experience in the same vein as young ladies who swoon
in the presence of rock stars?” (p.68)
“To be thought enlightened, one must appear not only certain
that one is, but certain about most everything else, too.”
(p.70)
“Gurus undercut reason as a path to understanding. When
they do allow discursive inquiry, they often place the highest
value on paradox. Paradox easily lends itself to mental manipulation.
No matter what position you take, you are always shown to be missing
the point; the point being that the guru knows something you do
not.” (p.74)
“Their stance toward outsiders is of benign superiority.”
(p77)
“As long as the guru still sees the possibility of realizing
his ambitions, the way he exercises power is through rewarding
the enthusiasms of his followers with praise and positions in
his hierarchy. He also whets and manipulates desire by offering
‘carrots,’ and promising that through him the disciples’
desires will be realized, possibly even in this lifetime. The
group itself becomes an echo of the guru, with the members filling
each other’s needs. Within the community there is a sense
of both intimacy and potency, and a celebratory, party-like atmosphere
often reigns. Everything seems perfect; everyone is moving along
the appropriate spiritual path. The guru is relatively accessible,
charming, even fun. All dreams are realizable-even wonderful possibilities
beyond one’s ken.” (p.78)
“A particular form of seduction that the group participates
in with those flirting with joining is similar to sexual conquest.
The group pours an enormous amount of focused energy and attention
into potential recruits until they surrender to the group’s
authority, which of course has the guru and his belief system
at its center. When someone does surrender, everyone celebrates
the new bonding. This is a bit like a new marriage, and for the
recruit, it is the honeymoon phase. This lasts as long as it does,
and then the focus of the group shifts elsewhere. (This also happens
in romantic love, for after the conquest the wooer’s interest
and focus often move somewhere else.) When the honeymoon is over,
the new converts must shift roles – from being the wooed
to being the wooer.” (p.79)
“But a cult in decline has more trouble selling itself.
. . Members and the guru become withdrawn and the focus gets more
internal, insular, and isolating. . . The fun is over. The rewards
are now put into the distant future (including future lives) and
are achievable only through hard work. This not only keeps disciples
busy and distracted, but it is necessary because the flow of resources
that came with expansion has greatly diminished. This glorification
of work always involves improving the leader’s property
(the commune or ashram), increasing his wealth, or some other
grandiose project.” (p82)
“People are especially vulnerable to charismatic leaders
during times of crisis or major life change.” (p.87)
“People don’t want a second-rate guru; they want the
one who seems the best. Since purity is the standard measurement
– the gold or Greenwich meridian time of the guru world
– each guru has to claim the most superlative traits. This
is naturally a breeding ground for hypocrisy, lies, and the cultivation
of false images of purity. Gurus are thus forced to assume the
role of the highest, best, the most enlightened, the most loving,
the most selfless, the purest representative of the most profound
truths; for if they did not, people would go to one who does.
Consequently, it is largely impossible for a guru to permit himself
real intimacy, which in adults requires a context of equality.
All his relationships must be hierarchical, since that is the
foundation of his attraction and power.” (p.88)
“Since adulation from any one person eventually becomes
boring, gurus do not need any specific disciple – they need
lots of them. Gurus do give special attention to those with wealth
and power.” (p.89)
“Gurus likewise do many things to ensure that their disciples’
prime emotional allegiance is toward them. In the realm of sexuality,
the two prevalent ways control is exerted are through promulgating
either celibacy or promiscuity. Although seemingly opposite, both
serve the same function: they minimize the possibilities of people
bonding deeply with each other, thus reducing factors that compete
with the guru for attention.” (p.92)
“. . . sex scandals go with the occupation of the guru because
of its [the position’s] emotional isolation and eventual
boredom. Disciples are just there to serve and amuse the guru
who, after all, gives them so much. The guru’s temptation
is exacerbated by the deep conditioning in many women to be attracted
to men in power.” (p.93)
“Gurus, like fathers, are in a context that gives them enormous
power because of their disciples’ needs, trust, and dependency.
One reason incest is a betrayal of trust is what a daughter needs
from her father is a sense of self-worth not specifically linked
to her sexuality. Sex with the guru is similarly incestuous because
a guru ostensibly functions as a spiritual father to whom one’s
growth is entrusted. Having sex with a parental figure reinforces
using sex for power. This is not what young women (or men) need
for their development. When the guru drops them, which eventually
he does, feelings of shame and betrayal usually result that leave
deep scars.” (p.94)
“Fostering promiscuity, impersonal sex, and interchangeable
sexual partners accomplishes the same agenda as celibacy. It trivializes
sexual attraction and undermines coupling. Casual, disconnected,
modular sex eventually leaves people satiated, jaded, and often
hurt. They become fearful of forming deep relationships, which
fits neatly into the guru’s need to have disciples detached
from everything but him.” (p.99)
“Many gurus and spiritual authorities negate, make light
of, or even ridicule the use and value of Western psychotherapy
because its concepts of the unconscious undermine their authority
and power. To acknowledge that unconscious factors may be operative
in oneself means that one cannot be totally sure one is selfless.”
(p.102)
“A primary goal in therapy is to free clients from their
need to transfer unresolved issues onto others. This need makes
people particularly susceptible to authoritarian control. Good
therapists aim at being very conscious of how they deal with transference.
Because of the nature of the relationship which demands total
surrender, gurus do exactly the opposite. They cultivate and reward
transference, for a parental type of authority is at the very
core of the guru’s power over disciples. The power to name,
arrange marriages, and dictate duties and behavior are ultimates
in parental authority, especially in traditional societies like
the East. To give someone the power to name or marry you is to
profoundly accept their parental role in defining who you are.
The ostensible motivation behind this has to do with an attempt
to break the ties of the past so the person can become ‘new.’
A deeper reason is that this aids the guru in becoming the center
of the person’s emotional life, which facilitates surrender.”
(p.105)
“The person most at risk of being strangled by the images
demanded by the role of the guru is the guru. This includes the
great danger of emotional isolation. . . At the heart of the ultimate
trap is building and becoming attached to the image of oneself
as having arrived at a state where self-delusion is no longer
possible. This is the most treacherous form of self-delusion and
a veritable breeding ground of hypocrisy and deception. It creates
a feedback-proof system where the guru always needs to be right
and cannot be open to being shown wrong – which is where
learning comes from.” (p.107)
“Successful gurus, rock stars, charismatic leaders of any
sort, experience the intensity of adulation amplified beyond most
people’s ken. This can make ordinary relationships pale
by comparison. Being the recipient of such adulation and devotion
is exceedingly addictive. Here addiction is used in its loose
sense to mean mechanically needing an on-going ‘fix’
of adulation to where it becomes the central focus of one’s
life. Adulation has powerful emotions for the sender as well,
and can be easily mistaken for love. It is likewise addicting
for the sender, as it is an easy route to feelings of passion.
Since adulation is totally a function of image, should the images
crack, adulation disappears, demonstrating that it is essentially
empty of real care.” (p.112)
“As long as &91;people&93; have unlivable ideals, they are manipulable.”
(p.156)
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The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power
The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power
by Joel Kramer and Diana Alstad
Frog, Ltd., Berkeley, California; 1993
The following quotes are taken from Part One of the Guru Papers
and are deemed by ex-members to be strikingly accurate in describing
the dynamics of a cult guru.
“If an authority not only expects to be obeyed without
question, but either punishes or refuses to deal with those who
do not, that authority is authoritarian.” (p.15)
“Gurus can arouse intense emotions as there is extraordinary
passion in surrendering to what one perceives as a living God.”
(p.33)
“In ‘spiritual’ realms fear and desire can become
as extreme as they get. When a living person becomes the focus
of such emotions, the possibility of manipulation is correspondingly
extreme.” (p.41)
“In the East a guru is more than a teacher. He is a doorway
that supposedly allows one to enter into a more profound relationship
with the spiritual. A necessary step becomes acknowledging the
guru’s specialness and mastery over that which one wishes
to attain. The message is that to be a really serious student,
spiritual realization must be the primary concern. Therefore,
one’s relationship with the guru must, in time, become one’s
prime emotional bond, with all others viewed as secondary. In
fact, typically other relationships are pejoratively referred
to as ‘attachments.’” (p.49)
“So although most gurus preach detachment, disciples become
attached to having the guru as their center, whereas the guru
becomes attached to having the power of being others’ center.”
(p.50)
“When abuses are publicly exposed, the leader either denies
or justifies the behaviors by saying that ‘enemies of the
truth’ or ‘the forces of evil’ are trying to
subvert his true message. Core members of the group have a huge
vested interest in believing him, as their identity is wrapped
up in believing in his righteousness. Those who begin to doubt
him at first become confused and depressed, and later feel betrayed
and angry. The ways people deny and justify are similar: Since
supposedly no one who is not enlightened can truly understand
the motives of one who is, any criticism can be discounted as
a limited perspective. Also, any behavior on the part of the guru,
no matter how base, can be imputed to be some secret teaching
or message that needs deciphering.”
By holding gurus as perfect and thus beyond ordinary explanations,
their presumed specialness can be used to justify anything. Some
deeper, occult reason can always be ascribed to anything a guru
does: The guru is said to take on the karma of others, and that
is why his body has whatever problems it has. The guru is obese
or unhealthy because he is too kind to turn down offerings: besides,
he gives so much that a little excess is understandable. He punishes
those who disobey him not out of anger but out of necessity, as
a good father would. He uses sex to teach about energy and detachment.
He lives an opulent life to break people’s simplistic preconceptions
of what ego-loss should look like; it also shows how detached
and unconcerned he is about what others think. For after all,
‘Once enlightened, one can do anything.’ Believing
this dictum makes any action justifiable.
People justify and rationalize in gurus what in others would
be considered unacceptable because they have a huge emotional
investment in believing their guru is both pure and right.”
(p.52)
“That interest in one’s own salvation is totally
self-centered is a conundrum rarely explored.” (p.54)
“So disciples believe they are loved unconditionally, even
though this love is conditional on continued surrender. Disciples
in the throes of surrender feel they have given up their past,
and do not, consciously at least, fear the future. . . Feeling
totally cared for and accepted, at the universe’s center,
powerful, and seemingly unafraid of the future are all achieved
at the price of giving one’s power to another, thus remaining
essentially a child.” (p56)
“It is not at all unusual to be in an authoritarian relationship
and not know it. In fact, knowing it can interfere with surrender.
Any of the following are strong indications of belonging to an
authoritarian group:
1. No deviation from the party line is allowed. Anyone who has
thoughts or feelings contrary to the accepted perspective is made
to feel wrong or bad for having them.
2. Whatever the authority does is regarded as perfect or right.
Thus behaviors that would be questioned in others are made to
seem different and proper.
3. One trusts that the leader or others in the group know what’s
best.
4. It is difficult to communicate with anyone not in the group.
5. One finds oneself defending actions of the leader (or other
members) without having firsthand knowledge of what occurred.
6. At times one is confused and fearful without knowing why. This
is a sign that doubts are being repressed.” (p.57)
“Traditional gurus teach what they were taught. Most gurus’
training in dealing with disciples is through example –
watching their own guru. They learn to recognize, reinforce, and
reward surrender, and to negate non-surrender. Aside from the
more tangible rewards, they reinforce devotion with attention
and approval, and punish its lack by withdrawing them. Though
some gurus say that doubts are healthy, they subtly punish them.
Doubt is not the way to get into the inner circle. Believing surrender
is essential for transmitting their teachings, some gurus could
be aware they are manipulating people to surrender, but think
they are doing so ‘for their own good.’ (If this were
in fact true, it would mean that deep truths are only accessible
via an authoritarian mode.) This can not only justify manipulation,
but also justify dissembling in order to eliminate people’s
doubts – all this being done in the name of fostering spiritual
growth.” (p.62)
“The power of conversion experiences lies in the psychological
shift from confusion to certainty.” (p.65)
“People whose power is based on the surrender of others
develop a repertoire of techniques for deflecting and undermining
anything that questions or challenges their status, behavior,
or beliefs. They ridicule or try to confuse people who ask challenging
questions.” (p.66)
“Is experiencing intense energy a sign of spirituality,
or is the experience in the same vein as young ladies who swoon
in the presence of rock stars?” (p.68)
“To be thought enlightened, one must appear not only certain
that one is, but certain about most everything else, too.”
(p.70)
“Gurus undercut reason as a path to understanding. When
they do allow discursive inquiry, they often place the highest
value on paradox. Paradox easily lends itself to mental manipulation.
No matter what position you take, you are always shown to be missing
the point; the point being that the guru knows something you do
not.” (p.74)
“Their stance toward outsiders is of benign superiority.”
(p77)
“As long as the guru still sees the possibility of realizing
his ambitions, the way he exercises power is through rewarding
the enthusiasms of his followers with praise and positions in
his hierarchy. He also whets and manipulates desire by offering
‘carrots,’ and promising that through him the disciples’
desires will be realized, possibly even in this lifetime. The
group itself becomes an echo of the guru, with the members filling
each other’s needs. Within the community there is a sense
of both intimacy and potency, and a celebratory, party-like atmosphere
often reigns. Everything seems perfect; everyone is moving along
the appropriate spiritual path. The guru is relatively accessible,
charming, even fun. All dreams are realizable-even wonderful possibilities
beyond one’s ken.” (p.78)
“A particular form of seduction that the group participates
in with those flirting with joining is similar to sexual conquest.
The group pours an enormous amount of focused energy and attention
into potential recruits until they surrender to the group’s
authority, which of course has the guru and his belief system
at its center. When someone does surrender, everyone celebrates
the new bonding. This is a bit like a new marriage, and for the
recruit, it is the honeymoon phase. This lasts as long as it does,
and then the focus of the group shifts elsewhere. (This also happens
in romantic love, for after the conquest the wooer’s interest
and focus often move somewhere else.) When the honeymoon is over,
the new converts must shift roles – from being the wooed
to being the wooer.” (p.79)
“But a cult in decline has more trouble selling itself.
. . Members and the guru become withdrawn and the focus gets more
internal, insular, and isolating. . . The fun is over. The rewards
are now put into the distant future (including future lives) and
are achievable only through hard work. This not only keeps disciples
busy and distracted, but it is necessary because the flow of resources
that came with expansion has greatly diminished. This glorification
of work always involves improving the leader’s property
(the commune or ashram), increasing his wealth, or some other
grandiose project.” (p82)
“People are especially vulnerable to charismatic leaders
during times of crisis or major life change.” (p.87)
“People don’t want a second-rate guru; they want the
one who seems the best. Since purity is the standard measurement
– the gold or Greenwich meridian time of the guru world
– each guru has to claim the most superlative traits. This
is naturally a breeding ground for hypocrisy, lies, and the cultivation
of false images of purity. Gurus are thus forced to assume the
role of the highest, best, the most enlightened, the most loving,
the most selfless, the purest representative of the most profound
truths; for if they did not, people would go to one who does.
Consequently, it is largely impossible for a guru to permit himself
real intimacy, which in adults requires a context of equality.
All his relationships must be hierarchical, since that is the
foundation of his attraction and power.” (p.88)
“Since adulation from any one person eventually becomes
boring, gurus do not need any specific disciple – they need
lots of them. Gurus do give special attention to those with wealth
and power.” (p.89)
“Gurus likewise do many things to ensure that their disciples’
prime emotional allegiance is toward them. In the realm of sexuality,
the two prevalent ways control is exerted are through promulgating
either celibacy or promiscuity. Although seemingly opposite, both
serve the same function: they minimize the possibilities of people
bonding deeply with each other, thus reducing factors that compete
with the guru for attention.” (p.92)
“. . . sex scandals go with the occupation of the guru because
of its [the position’s] emotional isolation and eventual
boredom. Disciples are just there to serve and amuse the guru
who, after all, gives them so much. The guru’s temptation
is exacerbated by the deep conditioning in many women to be attracted
to men in power.” (p.93)
“Gurus, like fathers, are in a context that gives them enormous
power because of their disciples’ needs, trust, and dependency.
One reason incest is a betrayal of trust is what a daughter needs
from her father is a sense of self-worth not specifically linked
to her sexuality. Sex with the guru is similarly incestuous because
a guru ostensibly functions as a spiritual father to whom one’s
growth is entrusted. Having sex with a parental figure reinforces
using sex for power. This is not what young women (or men) need
for their development. When the guru drops them, which eventually
he does, feelings of shame and betrayal usually result that leave
deep scars.” (p.94)
“Fostering promiscuity, impersonal sex, and interchangeable
sexual partners accomplishes the same agenda as celibacy. It trivializes
sexual attraction and undermines coupling. Casual, disconnected,
modular sex eventually leaves people satiated, jaded, and often
hurt. They become fearful of forming deep relationships, which
fits neatly into the guru’s need to have disciples detached
from everything but him.” (p.99)
“Many gurus and spiritual authorities negate, make light
of, or even ridicule the use and value of Western psychotherapy
because its concepts of the unconscious undermine their authority
and power. To acknowledge that unconscious factors may be operative
in oneself means that one cannot be totally sure one is selfless.”
(p.102)
“A primary goal in therapy is to free clients from their
need to transfer unresolved issues onto others. This need makes
people particularly susceptible to authoritarian control. Good
therapists aim at being very conscious of how they deal with transference.
Because of the nature of the relationship which demands total
surrender, gurus do exactly the opposite. They cultivate and reward
transference, for a parental type of authority is at the very
core of the guru’s power over disciples. The power to name,
arrange marriages, and dictate duties and behavior are ultimates
in parental authority, especially in traditional societies like
the East. To give someone the power to name or marry you is to
profoundly accept their parental role in defining who you are.
The ostensible motivation behind this has to do with an attempt
to break the ties of the past so the person can become ‘new.’
A deeper reason is that this aids the guru in becoming the center
of the person’s emotional life, which facilitates surrender.”
(p.105)
“The person most at risk of being strangled by the images
demanded by the role of the guru is the guru. This includes the
great danger of emotional isolation. . . At the heart of the ultimate
trap is building and becoming attached to the image of oneself
as having arrived at a state where self-delusion is no longer
possible. This is the most treacherous form of self-delusion and
a veritable breeding ground of hypocrisy and deception. It creates
a feedback-proof system where the guru always needs to be right
and cannot be open to being shown wrong – which is where
learning comes from.” (p.107)
“Successful gurus, rock stars, charismatic leaders of any
sort, experience the intensity of adulation amplified beyond most
people’s ken. This can make ordinary relationships pale
by comparison. Being the recipient of such adulation and devotion
is exceedingly addictive. Here addiction is used in its loose
sense to mean mechanically needing an on-going ‘fix’
of adulation to where it becomes the central focus of one’s
life. Adulation has powerful emotions for the sender as well,
and can be easily mistaken for love. It is likewise addicting
for the sender, as it is an easy route to feelings of passion.
Since adulation is totally a function of image, should the images
crack, adulation disappears, demonstrating that it is essentially
empty of real care.” (p.112)
“As long as &91;people&93; have unlivable ideals, they are manipulable.”
(p.156)
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Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which appears in the following pages. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and “to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories.”
PREAMBLE
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world, Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the commonpeople, Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law, Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations, Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed theirfaith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promotesocial progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms, Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,
Now, Therefore,
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
proclaims
THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive byteaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and byprogressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.
Article 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
Article 3.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 4.
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
Article 5.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 6.
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
Article 7.
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
Article 8.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Article 9.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Article 10.
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
Article 11.
(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.
Article 12.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
Article 13.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
Article 14.
(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum
from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 15.
(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
Article 16.
(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
Article 17.
(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
Article 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Article 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Article 20.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
Article 21.
(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
Article 22.
Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
Article 23.
(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration
ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity,
and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
Article 24.
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
Article 25.
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance.
All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
Article 26.
(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages Elementary education shall be compulsory Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
Article 27.
(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
Article 28.
Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
Article 29.
(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 30.
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.
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Mental Health Bill of Rights Project
Mental Health Bill of Rights Project
A Joint Initiative of Mental Health Professional Organizations
Principles for the Provision of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment Services: A Bill of Rights
Our commitment is to provide quality mental health and substance abuse services to all individuals without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, sexual orientation, or disabilities.
Right to Know:
Benefits
Individuals have the right to be provided information from the purchasing entity (such as employer or union or public purchaser) and the insurance/third party payer describing the nature and extent of their mental health and substance abuse treatment benefits. This information should include details on procedures to obtain access to services, on utilization management procedures, and on appeal rights. The information should be presented clearly in writing with language that the individual can understand.
Professional Expertise
Individuals have the right to receive full information from the potential treating professional about that professional’s knowledge, skills, preparation, experience, and credentials. Individuals have the right to be informed about the options available for treatment interventions and the effectiveness of the recommended treatment.
Contractual Limitations
Individuals have the right to be informed by the treating professional of any arrangements, restrictions, and/or covenants established between third party payer and the treating professional that could interfere with or influence treatment recommendations. Individuals have the right to be informed of the nature of information that may be disclosed for the purposes of paying benefits.
Appeals and Grievances
Individuals have the right to receive information about the methods they can use to submit complaints or grievances regarding provision of care by the treating professional to that profession’s regulatory board and to the professional association. Individuals have the right to be provided information about the procedures they can use to appeal benefit utilization decisions to the third party payer systems, to the employer or purchasing entity, and to external regulatory entities.
Confidentiality
Individuals have the right to be guaranteed the protection of the confidentiality of their relationship with their mental health and substance abuse professional, except when laws or ethics dictate otherwise. Any disclosure to another party will be time limited and made with the full written, informed consent of the individuals. Individuals shall not be required to disclose confidential, privileged or other information other than: diagnosis, prognosis, type of treatment, time and length of treatment, and cost. Entities receiving information for the purposes of benefits determination, public agencies receiving information for health care planning, or any other organization with legitimate right to information will maintain clinical information in confidence with the same rigor and be subject to the same penalties for violation as is the direct provider of care. Information technology will be used for transmission, storage, or data management only with methodologies that remove individual identifying information and assure the protection of the individual’s privacy. Information should not be transferred, sold or otherwise utilized.
Choice
Individuals have the right to choose any duly licensed/certified professional for mental health and substance abuse services. Individuals have the right to receive full information regarding the education and training of professionals, treatment options (including risks and benefits), and cost implications to make an informed choice regarding the selection of care deemed appropriate by individual and professional.
Determination of Treatment
Recommendations regarding mental health and substance abuse treatment shall be made only by a duly licensed/certified professional in conjunction with the individual and his or her family as appropriate. Treatment decisions should not be made by third party payers. The individual has the right to make final decisions regarding treatment.
Parity
Individuals have the right to receive benefits for mental health and substance abuse treatment on the same basis as they do for any other illnesses, with the same provisions, co-payments, lifetime benefits, and catastrophic coverage in both insurance and self-funded/self-insured health plans.
Discrimination
Individuals who use mental health and substance abuse benefits shall not be penalized when seeking other health insurance or disability, life or any other insurance benefit.
Benefit Usage and Design
The individual is entitled to the entire scope of the benefits within the benefit plan that will address his or her clinical needs. Whenever both federal and state law and/or regulations are applicable, the professional and all payers shall use whichever affords the individual the greatest level of protection and access.
Treatment Review
To assure that treatment review processes are fair and valid, individuals have the right to be guaranteed that any review of their mental health and substance abuse treatment shall involve a professional having the training, credentials and licensure required to provide the treatment in the jurisdiction in which it will be provided. The reviewer should have no financial interest in the decision and is subject to the section on confidentiality.
Accountability
Treating professionals may be held accountable and liable to individuals for any injury caused by gross incompetence or negligence on the part of the professional. The treating professional has the obligation to advocate for and document necessity of care and to advise the individual of options if payment authorization is denied. Payers and other third parties may be held accountable and liable to individuals for any injury caused by gross incompetence or negligence or by their clinically unjustified decisions.
Participating Groups:
American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
American Counseling Association
American Family Therapy Academy
American Nurses Association
American Psychological Association
American Psychiatric Association
American Psychiatric Nurses Association
National Association of Social Workers
National Federation of Societies for Clinical Social Work
Supporting Organizations:
National Mental Health Association
National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association
American Group Psychotherapy Association
American Psychoanalytic Association
National Association of Drug and Alcohol Abuse Counselors.
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Mental Health Bill of Rights Project
Mental Health Bill of Rights Project
A Joint Initiative of Mental Health Professional Organizations
Principles for the Provision of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment Services: A Bill of Rights
Our commitment is to provide quality mental health and substance abuse services to all individuals without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, sexual orientation, or disabilities.
Right to Know:
Benefits
Individuals have the right to be provided information from the purchasing entity (such as employer or union or public purchaser) and the insurance/third party payer describing the nature and extent of their mental health and substance abuse treatment benefits. This information should include details on procedures to obtain access to services, on utilization management procedures, and on appeal rights. The information should be presented clearly in writing with language that the individual can understand.
Professional Expertise
Individuals have the right to receive full information from the potential treating professional about that professional’s knowledge, skills, preparation, experience, and credentials. Individuals have the right to be informed about the options available for treatment interventions and the effectiveness of the recommended treatment.
Contractual Limitations
Individuals have the right to be informed by the treating professional of any arrangements, restrictions, and/or covenants established between third party payer and the treating professional that could interfere with or influence treatment recommendations. Individuals have the right to be informed of the nature of information that may be disclosed for the purposes of paying benefits.
Appeals and Grievances
Individuals have the right to receive information about the methods they can use to submit complaints or grievances regarding provision of care by the treating professional to that profession’s regulatory board and to the professional association. Individuals have the right to be provided information about the procedures they can use to appeal benefit utilization decisions to the third party payer systems, to the employer or purchasing entity, and to external regulatory entities.
Confidentiality
Individuals have the right to be guaranteed the protection of the confidentiality of their relationship with their mental health and substance abuse professional, except when laws or ethics dictate otherwise. Any disclosure to another party will be time limited and made with the full written, informed consent of the individuals. Individuals shall not be required to disclose confidential, privileged or other information other than: diagnosis, prognosis, type of treatment, time and length of treatment, and cost. Entities receiving information for the purposes of benefits determination, public agencies receiving information for health care planning, or any other organization with legitimate right to information will maintain clinical information in confidence with the same rigor and be subject to the same penalties for violation as is the direct provider of care. Information technology will be used for transmission, storage, or data management only with methodologies that remove individual identifying information and assure the protection of the individual’s privacy. Information should not be transferred, sold or otherwise utilized.
Choice
Individuals have the right to choose any duly licensed/certified professional for mental health and substance abuse services. Individuals have the right to receive full information regarding the education and training of professionals, treatment options (including risks and benefits), and cost implications to make an informed choice regarding the selection of care deemed appropriate by individual and professional.
Determination of Treatment
Recommendations regarding mental health and substance abuse treatment shall be made only by a duly licensed/certified professional in conjunction with the individual and his or her family as appropriate. Treatment decisions should not be made by third party payers. The individual has the right to make final decisions regarding treatment.
Parity
Individuals have the right to receive benefits for mental health and substance abuse treatment on the same basis as they do for any other illnesses, with the same provisions, co-payments, lifetime benefits, and catastrophic coverage in both insurance and self-funded/self-insured health plans.
Discrimination
Individuals who use mental health and substance abuse benefits shall not be penalized when seeking other health insurance or disability, life or any other insurance benefit.
Benefit Usage and Design
The individual is entitled to the entire scope of the benefits within the benefit plan that will address his or her clinical needs. Whenever both federal and state law and/or regulations are applicable, the professional and all payers shall use whichever affords the individual the greatest level of protection and access.
Treatment Review
To assure that treatment review processes are fair and valid, individuals have the right to be guaranteed that any review of their mental health and substance abuse treatment shall involve a professional having the training, credentials and licensure required to provide the treatment in the jurisdiction in which it will be provided. The reviewer should have no financial interest in the decision and is subject to the section on confidentiality.
Accountability
Treating professionals may be held accountable and liable to individuals for any injury caused by gross incompetence or negligence on the part of the professional. The treating professional has the obligation to advocate for and document necessity of care and to advise the individual of options if payment authorization is denied. Payers and other third parties may be held accountable and liable to individuals for any injury caused by gross incompetence or negligence or by their clinically unjustified decisions.
Participating Groups:
American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
American Counseling Association
American Family Therapy Academy
American Nurses Association
American Psychological Association
American Psychiatric Association
American Psychiatric Nurses Association
National Association of Social Workers
National Federation of Societies for Clinical Social Work
Supporting Organizations:
National Mental Health Association
National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association
American Group Psychotherapy Association
American Psychoanalytic Association
National Association of Drug and Alcohol Abuse Counselors.
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Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which appears in the following pages. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and “to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories.”
PREAMBLE
Whereas recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family is the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world, Whereas disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the commonpeople, Whereas it is essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse, as a last resort, to rebellion against tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law, Whereas it is essential to promote the development of friendly relations between nations, Whereas the peoples of the United Nations have in the Charter reaffirmed theirfaith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women and have determined to promotesocial progress and better standards of life in larger freedom, Whereas Member States have pledged themselves to achieve, in co-operation with the United Nations, the promotion of universal respect for and observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms, Whereas a common understanding of these rights and freedoms is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge,
Now, Therefore,
THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY
proclaims
THIS UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the end that every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly in mind, shall strive byteaching and education to promote respect for these rights and freedoms and byprogressive measures, national and international, to secure their universal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of Member States themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.
Article 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.
Article 2.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.
Article 3.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
Article 4.
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.
Article 5.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Article 6.
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.
Article 7.
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.
Article 8.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
Article 9.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.
Article 10.
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.
Article 11.
(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.
Article 12.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.
Article 13.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.
Article 14.
(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum
from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 15.
(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.
Article 16.
(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.
Article 17.
(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.
Article 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Article 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
Article 20.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.
Article 21.
(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.
Article 22.
Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.
Article 23.
(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration
ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity,
and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.
Article 24.
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.
Article 25.
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance.
All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.
Article 26.
(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages Elementary education shall be compulsory Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.
Article 27.
(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
Article 28.
Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.
Article 29.
(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.
Article 30.
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.
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Title Heaven's Gate - Son of Heaven’s Gate
Description Heaven's Gate - Son of Heaven’s Gate
by Noah Robischon
January 7, 1998
Ever since the Heaven’s Gate suicides, The Netly News has been tracking all sorts of freakish cults, most of which don’t even have web sites, let alone anything especially interesting to say. Then along came Chen Tao, a Taiwanese group in Garland, Texas.
Observers fear that members of the Chen Tao (“True Way”) will off themselves on March 31 at 10 am. That’s when, the followers believe, God will appear in the body of their leader, a fortysomething sociology professor named Hon-Ming Chen.
Terry Walker, an American living in Taiwan, is using the Net to head off what he fears will be another mass suicide. The Net, says Walker in an e-mail, “can be used to help prevent an accident before it happens on March 31, rather than wait and then gloat and laugh at it all.”
Although Walker’s Taiwan UFO Cult Suicide Watch! web site makes another mass suicide seem like a foregone conclusion, the group’s commitment to self-immolation remains unclear. While very similar to the Heaven’s Gate group — trading black Nikes for all-white uniforms — members of Chen Tao said in a press conference that they had no intention of pulling the plug. Chi-Chia Chen, a spokesman for the Taipei economic and cultural office in Houston who visited the group last week, said he didn’t “see any sign that they intend to committ mass suicide” and that “after March 31 if they don’t see a flying disc appear they will just go back to Taiwan and continue normal life.”
Then again, Heaven’s Gate members showed few outward signs of their intended departure, in part because they didn’t believe they were dying so much as moving to a “level above human.” And despite the claims made by the church’s leader, Taiwanese officials have been reporting that the 150-odd members are being encouraged to kill themselves in anticipation of a visit from a flying saucer that will transport them to the heavens.
Sounds a bit silly, but “don’t be so fast to just call these people stupid or weak or kooks,” says Steve Hassan, author of “Combating Cult Mind Control.” Anytime a cult leader sets deadlines it’s to be taken very seriously: “Some very powerful social psychological mechanisms are being put to the fore here.”
A leading theory explaining the magnetism of cults is known as cognitive dissonance. Originally developed by Leon Festinger in a renowned study of the inner workings of a 1950s UFO cult, the theory posits that people naturally seek consistency within their thoughts, feelings and actions. When an inconsistency or dissonance occurs, especially between thought and action, the tendency is for people to change their thoughts to accommodate their new behavior.
In the case of Chen Tao, also known as the God’s Salvation Church, group members traveled to Alaska, Colorado and Las Vegas performing rituals meant to “change the spiritual environment,” according to Chi-Chia. Repeat rituals enough and participants will begin to believe they are working.
It certainly seems to be having that effect on Chen’s followers, who apparently believe his claims that he fathered Christ and that two of the 40 children in group are reincarnations of the Buddha and Jesus. During the press conference on December 23, Chen attempted to prove his claims by exhibiting photographs of airplane vapor trails, one of which formed a cross and another the numbers “007.” Chen has also told reporters that failing God’s arrival via flying saucer he will offer himself up in penance and submit to death by stoning or crucifixion.
Although Chen’s claims seem batty, he is not a tyrannical leader. Cult members are apparently allowed to come and go at will and are in communication with their families. Chen’s teachings are a mix of Buddhism, Christianity and millennarianism, and include the predictions that God will make a televised appearance on channel 18 six days prior to being incarnated and that the world faces nuclear cataclysm in 1999.
Apocalyptic cultism “proliferates around the millennium, and we’ve been seeing this gravitational pull of the millennial date since the end of the ’80s,” notes Dr. Richard Landes of the Center for Millennial studies. “The millennial idea is that human beings are, if not perfectable, capable of a whole lot better than we are now doing. At some point in the near future a radical change of lifestyle is in the making.”
For the 150 members of Chen Tao, a radical lifestyle change has already occurred. Most of the group is in the U.S. with work-exempt visas and is surviving on money left over from selling their homes in Taiwan, says Chi-Chia. But they’re certainly not saving for the trip back, and followers are are rumored to have paid handsomely for their cult memberships. Add to that the expenses incurred in moving around the country — after originally settling in San Dimas, Calif., the group relocated to Garland, Texas, because it sounded like “God Land” to their leader. Rather than establishing headquarters there, the group has simply taken up residence in 21 homes in the same neighborhood. Although Taiwanese and American authorities are investigating Chen Tao, so far there has been no proof that members are being monetarily defrauded by Chen, and thus no legal basis for busting up the cult.
Los Angeles police did, however, return a 16-year-old follower to her mother last month shortly before the move to Texas, but the girl was evidently not coerced into joining the cult. This incident more than anything else put Chen Tao in the public spotlight, and some speculate that increased media pressure could spur the group to act irrationally. Then again, only a few of the group’s members have any fluency in English.
Perhaps they could take lessons from 38-year-old Walker, who is teaching English in Taiwan. His Internet crusade began after reading an editorial ridiculing the cult in the China Post. “Maybe it’s a bit of the Drudge [Matt ,that is] in me,” says Walker. “That editorial pissed me off so much that I decided to publicize the callousness of it and then realized that maybe I could do my little bit to help stave off a potential tragedy. So far, Time and Newsweek have not touched the story. Why? They are yellow orientals, so who cares? I hope not.”
COPYRIGHT © 2011 FREEDOM OF MIND RESOURCE CENTER INC.
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Title Heaven's Gate - Son of Heaven’s Gate
Description Heaven's Gate - Son of Heaven’s Gate
by Noah Robischon
January 7, 1998
Ever since the Heaven’s Gate suicides, The Netly News has been tracking all sorts of freakish cults, most of which don’t even have web sites, let alone anything especially interesting to say. Then along came Chen Tao, a Taiwanese group in Garland, Texas.
Observers fear that members of the Chen Tao (“True Way”) will off themselves on March 31 at 10 am. That’s when, the followers believe, God will appear in the body of their leader, a fortysomething sociology professor named Hon-Ming Chen.
Terry Walker, an American living in Taiwan, is using the Net to head off what he fears will be another mass suicide. The Net, says Walker in an e-mail, “can be used to help prevent an accident before it happens on March 31, rather than wait and then gloat and laugh at it all.”
Although Walker’s Taiwan UFO Cult Suicide Watch! web site makes another mass suicide seem like a foregone conclusion, the group’s commitment to self-immolation remains unclear. While very similar to the Heaven’s Gate group — trading black Nikes for all-white uniforms — members of Chen Tao said in a press conference that they had no intention of pulling the plug. Chi-Chia Chen, a spokesman for the Taipei economic and cultural office in Houston who visited the group last week, said he didn’t “see any sign that they intend to committ mass suicide” and that “after March 31 if they don’t see a flying disc appear they will just go back to Taiwan and continue normal life.”
Then again, Heaven’s Gate members showed few outward signs of their intended departure, in part because they didn’t believe they were dying so much as moving to a “level above human.” And despite the claims made by the church’s leader, Taiwanese officials have been reporting that the 150-odd members are being encouraged to kill themselves in anticipation of a visit from a flying saucer that will transport them to the heavens.
Sounds a bit silly, but “don’t be so fast to just call these people stupid or weak or kooks,” says Steve Hassan, author of “Combating Cult Mind Control.” Anytime a cult leader sets deadlines it’s to be taken very seriously: “Some very powerful social psychological mechanisms are being put to the fore here.”
A leading theory explaining the magnetism of cults is known as cognitive dissonance. Originally developed by Leon Festinger in a renowned study of the inner workings of a 1950s UFO cult, the theory posits that people naturally seek consistency within their thoughts, feelings and actions. When an inconsistency or dissonance occurs, especially between thought and action, the tendency is for people to change their thoughts to accommodate their new behavior.
In the case of Chen Tao, also known as the God’s Salvation Church, group members traveled to Alaska, Colorado and Las Vegas performing rituals meant to “change the spiritual environment,” according to Chi-Chia. Repeat rituals enough and participants will begin to believe they are working.
It certainly seems to be having that effect on Chen’s followers, who apparently believe his claims that he fathered Christ and that two of the 40 children in group are reincarnations of the Buddha and Jesus. During the press conference on December 23, Chen attempted to prove his claims by exhibiting photographs of airplane vapor trails, one of which formed a cross and another the numbers “007.” Chen has also told reporters that failing God’s arrival via flying saucer he will offer himself up in penance and submit to death by stoning or crucifixion.
Although Chen’s claims seem batty, he is not a tyrannical leader. Cult members are apparently allowed to come and go at will and are in communication with their families. Chen’s teachings are a mix of Buddhism, Christianity and millennarianism, and include the predictions that God will make a televised appearance on channel 18 six days prior to being incarnated and that the world faces nuclear cataclysm in 1999.
Apocalyptic cultism “proliferates around the millennium, and we’ve been seeing this gravitational pull of the millennial date since the end of the ’80s,” notes Dr. Richard Landes of the Center for Millennial studies. “The millennial idea is that human beings are, if not perfectable, capable of a whole lot better than we are now doing. At some point in the near future a radical change of lifestyle is in the making.”
For the 150 members of Chen Tao, a radical lifestyle change has already occurred. Most of the group is in the U.S. with work-exempt visas and is surviving on money left over from selling their homes in Taiwan, says Chi-Chia. But they’re certainly not saving for the trip back, and followers are are rumored to have paid handsomely for their cult memberships. Add to that the expenses incurred in moving around the country — after originally settling in San Dimas, Calif., the group relocated to Garland, Texas, because it sounded like “God Land” to their leader. Rather than establishing headquarters there, the group has simply taken up residence in 21 homes in the same neighborhood. Although Taiwanese and American authorities are investigating Chen Tao, so far there has been no proof that members are being monetarily defrauded by Chen, and thus no legal basis for busting up the cult.
Los Angeles police did, however, return a 16-year-old follower to her mother last month shortly before the move to Texas, but the girl was evidently not coerced into joining the cult. This incident more than anything else put Chen Tao in the public spotlight, and some speculate that increased media pressure could spur the group to act irrationally. Then again, only a few of the group’s members have any fluency in English.
Perhaps they could take lessons from 38-year-old Walker, who is teaching English in Taiwan. His Internet crusade began after reading an editorial ridiculing the cult in the China Post. “Maybe it’s a bit of the Drudge [Matt ,that is] in me,” says Walker. “That editorial pissed me off so much that I decided to publicize the callousness of it and then realized that maybe I could do my little bit to help stave off a potential tragedy. So far, Time and Newsweek have not touched the story. Why? They are yellow orientals, so who cares? I hope not.”
COPYRIGHT © 2011 FREEDOM OF MIND RESOURCE CENTER INC.
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Evaluating Concerns
If you are concerned about a friend or loved one, here are some of the major warning signs of a potentially destructive situation. Review these points and see if there are a number of troubling changes. Please keep in mind that an individual can exercise undue influence over another person. It doesn’t have to be an organization. Please also realize that “mind controllers” can operate within many different and sometimes overlapping contexts: religious; political; therapy; education; business.
Don’t get hung up with the word “cult”. Focus on the issue of undue influence. Is the person making his or her own choices? Are there “artful and designing” individuals using deception, manipulation, hypnosis or unethical meditation, to indoctrinate and program the person with a new identity, beliefs, values, and behaviors?
EVALUATION CHECKLIST
Change of prior commitments
1. Education.
“He had one term to complete to get his college diploma and he walked away. We can’t believe it! No amount of rational argument will convince him to finish.”
2. Career / Goals
“She was planning to become a doctor. Now she stands on street corners recruiting new members.”
3. Significant relationships
“They were going to be married and he broke off the engagement.”
Financial
1.Surrendering Assets
“She gave all her money to the group and her stereo and her car!”
“He is using his life savings on cult sponsored classes and events.”
2. Dependency Issues
“He has to ask the group for bus fare. He has no money of his own even though he works twenty hours a day.”
Radical Personality Change
1. Physical appearance
Change in clothes, hair, weight, diet
Spaced out expression, glassy stare
2. Personality
Change in speech patterns, facial expressions, or mannerisms
Decreased sense of humor
Secretive, evasive, or defensive behavior
Judgmental attitude towards family members
Fanatical always proselytizing
Change from extrovert to introvert or vice versa
Change from analytical to magical-thinking
Change from lazy to industrious
Change in level of honesty
Lack of interest in former hobbies
3. Personal habits
Change from irresponsible to responsible (and vice versa)
Change from sloppy to clean (and vice versa)
Change from tardy to punctual (and vice versa)
4. Communication style
Evasiveness
Defensiveness
Difficulty in communication
Use of “buzzwords,” canned speeches, “tape-loops”
5. Relationships
Change in key relationships
Family and friends preached to as though they need to be saved
Pressure for money for personal reasons or group donations
Loss of contact with family and friends (in person, via telephone, mail)
Decreased physical contact fewer or no hugs and kisses
Self imposed isolation
Family events (unattended or unacknowledged births, birthdays, baptisms, Confirmations, Bar/ Bas Mitzvahs, engagements, weddings, anniversaries, illnesses, deaths)
Majority of time spent with new group or organization
6. Philosophy
Change in political beliefs
Change in religious beliefs
Change in current education (changed from full to part time, changed major, dropped out of school)
7. Career
Abruptly ends career
Gives away money
Spends large sums of money
Radical change of goals
8. Medical
Ignores symptoms
Doesn’t go to doctor
Ignores advice of doctors
Goes to free clinics
9. Change in living conditions
Move to new residence (group house, commune)
Move to new location
Move in with “strangers”
Health
1. Is (s)he eating properly?
2. Is (s)he getting enough sleep?
3. Does (s)he have health insurance?
4. Would (s)he receive good medical care if sick or injured?
From Chapter 4 EVALUATING THE SITUATION, RELEASING THE BONDS
Empowering People to Think for Themselves! By Steven Hassan
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Evaluating Concerns
If you are concerned about a friend or loved one, here are some of the major warning signs of a potentially destructive situation. Review these points and see if there are a number of troubling changes. Please keep in mind that an individual can exercise undue influence over another person. It doesn’t have to be an organization. Please also realize that “mind controllers” can operate within many different and sometimes overlapping contexts: religious; political; therapy; education; business.
Don’t get hung up with the word “cult”. Focus on the issue of undue influence. Is the person making his or her own choices? Are there “artful and designing” individuals using deception, manipulation, hypnosis or unethical meditation, to indoctrinate and program the person with a new identity, beliefs, values, and behaviors?
EVALUATION CHECKLIST
Change of prior commitments
1. Education.
“He had one term to complete to get his college diploma and he walked away. We can’t believe it! No amount of rational argument will convince him to finish.”
2. Career / Goals
“She was planning to become a doctor. Now she stands on street corners recruiting new members.”
3. Significant relationships
“They were going to be married and he broke off the engagement.”
Financial
1.Surrendering Assets
“She gave all her money to the group and her stereo and her car!”
“He is using his life savings on cult sponsored classes and events.”
2. Dependency Issues
“He has to ask the group for bus fare. He has no money of his own even though he works twenty hours a day.”
Radical Personality Change
1. Physical appearance
Change in clothes, hair, weight, diet
Spaced out expression, glassy stare
2. Personality
Change in speech patterns, facial expressions, or mannerisms
Decreased sense of humor
Secretive, evasive, or defensive behavior
Judgmental attitude towards family members
Fanatical always proselytizing
Change from extrovert to introvert or vice versa
Change from analytical to magical-thinking
Change from lazy to industrious
Change in level of honesty
Lack of interest in former hobbies
3. Personal habits
Change from irresponsible to responsible (and vice versa)
Change from sloppy to clean (and vice versa)
Change from tardy to punctual (and vice versa)
4. Communication style
Evasiveness
Defensiveness
Difficulty in communication
Use of “buzzwords,” canned speeches, “tape-loops”
5. Relationships
Change in key relationships
Family and friends preached to as though they need to be saved
Pressure for money for personal reasons or group donations
Loss of contact with family and friends (in person, via telephone, mail)
Decreased physical contact fewer or no hugs and kisses
Self imposed isolation
Family events (unattended or unacknowledged births, birthdays, baptisms, Confirmations, Bar/ Bas Mitzvahs, engagements, weddings, anniversaries, illnesses, deaths)
Majority of time spent with new group or organization
6. Philosophy
Change in political beliefs
Change in religious beliefs
Change in current education (changed from full to part time, changed major, dropped out of school)
7. Career
Abruptly ends career
Gives away money
Spends large sums of money
Radical change of goals
8. Medical
Ignores symptoms
Doesn’t go to doctor
Ignores advice of doctors
Goes to free clinics
9. Change in living conditions
Move to new residence (group house, commune)
Move to new location
Move in with “strangers”
Health
1. Is (s)he eating properly?
2. Is (s)he getting enough sleep?
3. Does (s)he have health insurance?
4. Would (s)he receive good medical care if sick or injured?
From Chapter 4 EVALUATING THE SITUATION, RELEASING THE BONDS
Empowering People to Think for Themselves! By Steven Hassan
HOME
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Letter from Steve Hassan to John J. Dilulio Jr.
Letter from Steve Hassan to John J. Dilulio Jr., of the Office of Faith-Based & Community Initiatives at the White House
The Freedom of Mind Resource Center Inc.
P.O. Box 45223
Somerville, MA 02145-0002
Phone: (617) 628-9918 Fax: (617) 628-8153
hassan@freedomofmind.com
freedomofmind.com
February 23, 2001
John J. DiIulio Jr.
Office of Faith-Based & Community Initiatives
The White House
Washington, DC 20502
Dear Mr DiIulio,
I am deeply interested in the faith-based initiative that your office is undertaking. One of your most serious challenges will be to distinguish authentic faith-based organizations from fraudulent and destructive ones. The task is serious because you and your colleagues will be called upon to account for the spending of tax-payers’ money. Support of questionable groups could inspire enormous controversy. Already my local paper the Boston Globe has run several stories questioning the support of destructive groups such as Scientology and the Moonies. Even more serious, a decision to fund a destructive group could do enormous damage to those who seek the services of such organizations.
Faith is a powerful tool for behavioral change and many of these organizations use this to their own advantage. Such groups often recruit members through such “helping initiatives.” I know this first hand. I was recruited into the Moonies in 1974 through such a front group. During my two and half years of slavish devotion to the “Messiah Moon” I personally recruited many people through a variety of front groups promising to help alleviate the suffering of humanity. I have a long list of Moonie fronts on my web site. Since leaving the group in 1976, I have devoted my life to fighting the threat of destructive groups as an author and activist, as well as a mental health counselor. My mission has been to help families get their loved ones out of destructive groups and also to get the word out. I have appeared on hundreds of TV and radio programs–Nightline, 60 Minutes etc.. My message? Mind control and social influence techniques exist and can be used unethically by totalitarian figures and institutions to undermine free will. People who are in great need or are in transition are the most vulnerable to destructive cult recruitment.
It is precisely those who seek help from faith-based initiatives that are at greatest risk of being recruited into such groups. Again, I speak as a former recruiter of such individuals. The good news is that it is possible to identify a destructive group based on its behaviors, and not beliefs. I have developed a model of destructive mind control. It can be found online at my web site by clicking here. It is a practical model that can be applied to any relationship or organization, not just one with a religious orientation. I would like to emphasize that it is not a group’s beliefs that are the criteria for deciding whether or not a group is destructive but, instead, its practices.
I am enclosing copies of my two books and a few related materials. I would also like to request a meeting with you to more fully express my concerns and to offer my expertise. I believe that I have much to offer you and your colleagues.
In fact, I know many other respected academic and clinical researchers who have been working on the subject of destructive group practices. Among them are Dr. Robert Jay Lifton, Dr. Margaret Singer, Dr. Louis Jolyon West and Dr. Philip Zimbardo, the President Elect of the American Psychological Association. The military as well as intelligence agencies are well aware of mind control techniques and practices used by such groups. Your office should be able to draw upon vast resources to protect and preserve religious freedom as well as civil liberty for all citizens.
I look forward to the possibility of assisting you.
Sincerely,
Steven Hassan
HOME
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Letter from Steve Hassan to John J. Dilulio Jr.
Letter from Steve Hassan to John J. Dilulio Jr., of the Office of Faith-Based & Community Initiatives at the White House
The Freedom of Mind Resource Center Inc.
P.O. Box 45223
Somerville, MA 02145-0002
Phone: (617) 628-9918 Fax: (617) 628-8153
hassan@freedomofmind.com
freedomofmind.com
February 23, 2001
John J. DiIulio Jr.
Office of Faith-Based & Community Initiatives
The White House
Washington, DC 20502
Dear Mr DiIulio,
I am deeply interested in the faith-based initiative that your office is undertaking. One of your most serious challenges will be to distinguish authentic faith-based organizations from fraudulent and destructive ones. The task is serious because you and your colleagues will be called upon to account for the spending of tax-payers’ money. Support of questionable groups could inspire enormous controversy. Already my local paper the Boston Globe has run several stories questioning the support of destructive groups such as Scientology and the Moonies. Even more serious, a decision to fund a destructive group could do enormous damage to those who seek the services of such organizations.
Faith is a powerful tool for behavioral change and many of these organizations use this to their own advantage. Such groups often recruit members through such “helping initiatives.” I know this first hand. I was recruited into the Moonies in 1974 through such a front group. During my two and half years of slavish devotion to the “Messiah Moon” I personally recruited many people through a variety of front groups promising to help alleviate the suffering of humanity. I have a long list of Moonie fronts on my web site. Since leaving the group in 1976, I have devoted my life to fighting the threat of destructive groups as an author and activist, as well as a mental health counselor. My mission has been to help families get their loved ones out of destructive groups and also to get the word out. I have appeared on hundreds of TV and radio programs–Nightline, 60 Minutes etc.. My message? Mind control and social influence techniques exist and can be used unethically by totalitarian figures and institutions to undermine free will. People who are in great need or are in transition are the most vulnerable to destructive cult recruitment.
It is precisely those who seek help from faith-based initiatives that are at greatest risk of being recruited into such groups. Again, I speak as a former recruiter of such individuals. The good news is that it is possible to identify a destructive group based on its behaviors, and not beliefs. I have developed a model of destructive mind control. It can be found online at my web site by clicking here. It is a practical model that can be applied to any relationship or organization, not just one with a religious orientation. I would like to emphasize that it is not a group’s beliefs that are the criteria for deciding whether or not a group is destructive but, instead, its practices.
I am enclosing copies of my two books and a few related materials. I would also like to request a meeting with you to more fully express my concerns and to offer my expertise. I believe that I have much to offer you and your colleagues.
In fact, I know many other respected academic and clinical researchers who have been working on the subject of destructive group practices. Among them are Dr. Robert Jay Lifton, Dr. Margaret Singer, Dr. Louis Jolyon West and Dr. Philip Zimbardo, the President Elect of the American Psychological Association. The military as well as intelligence agencies are well aware of mind control techniques and practices used by such groups. Your office should be able to draw upon vast resources to protect and preserve religious freedom as well as civil liberty for all citizens.
I look forward to the possibility of assisting you.
Sincerely,
Steven Hassan
HOME
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#590443
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Phone: 617 396-4638
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Common Psychological Problems of Victims of Cult Mind Control
Common Psychological Problems of Victims of Cult Mind Control
Counseling for Ex-Members
1. Extreme identity confusion
2. Dissociative states – “floating” (getting triggered back into cult mode)
3. Panic and anxiety attacks
4. Depression
5. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.)
6. Psychosomatic symptoms (headaches, backaches, asthma, skin problems)
7. Problems with decision-making- dependency
8. Retarded psychological development- loss of psychological power
9. Guilt
10. Fear
11. Sleep disorders/ nightmares
12. Eating disorders
13. Sexual problems / Sexuality Issues
14. Lack of trust/ fear of intimacy and commitment- personal & work
15. Harassment and threats from group
16. Grieving loss of friends, family
17. Spiritual “rape” of the soul
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https://freedomofmind.com/Info/articles/commonPsychologogical.php
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Common Psychological Problems of Victims of Cult Mind Control
Common Psychological Problems of Victims of Cult Mind Control
Counseling for Ex-Members
1. Extreme identity confusion
2. Dissociative states – “floating” (getting triggered back into cult mode)
3. Panic and anxiety attacks
4. Depression
5. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.)
6. Psychosomatic symptoms (headaches, backaches, asthma, skin problems)
7. Problems with decision-making- dependency
8. Retarded psychological development- loss of psychological power
9. Guilt
10. Fear
11. Sleep disorders/ nightmares
12. Eating disorders
13. Sexual problems / Sexuality Issues
14. Lack of trust/ fear of intimacy and commitment- personal & work
15. Harassment and threats from group
16. Grieving loss of friends, family
17. Spiritual “rape” of the soul
HOME
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CONTACT
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#590443
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Phone: 617 396-4638
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COPYRIGHT © 2014 FREEDOM OF MIND RESOURCE CENTER INC.
https://freedomofmind.com/Info/articles/commonPsychologogical.php
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Symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.)
Symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.)
1. Vigilance and scanning
2. Elevated startle response
3. Blunted affect or psychic numbing
4. Aggressive, controlling behavior
5. Interruption of memory and concentration
6. Depression
7. Generalized anxiety
8. Episodes of rage
9. Substance abuse
10. Intrusive recall
11. Dissociative “flashback”experiences
12. Insomnia
13. Suicidal ideation
14. Survivor guilt
Taken from: How to Survive Trauma by Benjamin Colodziin
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Symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.)
Symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.)
1. Vigilance and scanning
2. Elevated startle response
3. Blunted affect or psychic numbing
4. Aggressive, controlling behavior
5. Interruption of memory and concentration
6. Depression
7. Generalized anxiety
8. Episodes of rage
9. Substance abuse
10. Intrusive recall
11. Dissociative “flashback”experiences
12. Insomnia
13. Suicidal ideation
14. Survivor guilt
Taken from: How to Survive Trauma by Benjamin Colodziin
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Freedom of Mind Group Database Search
Search:
Alphabetical Group Listing
About Groups Listed in Freedom of Mind Resource Center
The fact that these groups appear on this list does not necessarily mean they are a destructive mind control group. They appear because we have received inquiries and have established a file on the group.
Please click here to submit information about a group.
We also provide links for organizations even though we don't necessarily agree with all of their viewpoints, or can verify that all of their information is true. We have even included links to sites that we strongly disagree with, but feel that they offer information and another point of view which could prove useful. We invite you to use critical and independent judgment to evaluate the merits and weaknesses of each one on this list.
Recently Updated Group Information
LaRouche Political Action Committee
Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr.
Freedomain Radio
Stefan Molyneux
MLM - Multi-level Marketing/Network marketing
(Various)
AA (Alcoholics Anonymous)
Bill Wilson
World Mission Society Church of God - WMSCOG
Ahnsahnghong (1918-1985)/Leader(s): Chang Gil Cha aka Mother Jerusalem
General Articles
Spiritual Responsibility
Avoiding Abuses and Pitfalls Along the Spiritual Path Copyright © 1995, All Rights Reserved by Steven Hassan and Lama Surya Das [...]
Evaluating Concerns/Warning Signs
If you are concerned about a friend or loved one, here are some of the major warning signs of a potentially destructive situation. Review these points and see if there are a number of troubling changes. Please keep in mind that an individual can exercise undue influence over another [...]
Net Firm Will Drop Jews for Jesus Ad
By Sara Neufeld, Globe Correspondent 08/11/99 In a case pitting free expression against user protest in the new world of on-line advertising, Waltham-based Lycos Inc., a major Internet search engine, will not renew an advertisement placed by Jews for Jesus after a flood of complaints from the Jewish community. Jews for Jesus paid $1,700 for [...]
Son of Heaven’s Gate
by Noah Robischon January 7, 1998 Ever since the Heaven’s Gate suicides, The Netly News has been tracking all sorts of freakish cults, most of which don’t even have web sites, let alone anything especially interesting to say. Then along came Chen Tao, a Taiwanese group in Garland, Texas. Observers fear that members of the [...]
12 Rules Of The Community Leading Con-Man
By Peter Forde 1. What you’ve got is mine, and what I’ve got is mine too. (This is forcedly rule one because the world expects to see this, and is why they stay away in droves). 2. I own you too, and you don’t own yourself, since you have vowed yourself into being my obedient [...]
What Messages are Behind Today’s Cults?
Cults are coming. Are they crazy or bearing critical messages? By Philip Zimbardo, PhD How do we make sense of the mass suicide of 21 female and 18 male members of the Heaven’s Gate extra-terrestrial ‘cult’ on March 23? Typical explanations of all such strange, unexpected behavior involve a ‘rush to the dispositional,’ locating the [...]
Mental Health Bill of Rights Project
A Joint Initiative of Mental Health Professional Organizations Principles for the Provision of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment Services: A Bill of Rights Our commitment is to provide quality mental health and substance abuse services to all individuals without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, sexual orientation, or disabilities. Right to [...]
Letter from Steve Hassan to John J. Dilulio Jr., of the Office of Faith-Based & Community Initiatives at the White House
The Freedom of Mind Resource Center Inc. 716 Beacon Street, #590443, Newton, MA 02459 Phone: (617) 396-4638 Fax: (617) 628-8153 hassan@freedomofmind.com freedomofmind.com February 23, 2001 John J. DiIulio Jr. Office of Faith-Based & Community Initiatives The White House Washington, DC 20502 Dear Mr DiIulio, I am deeply interested in the faith-based initiative that your office is [...]
Common Psychological Problems of Victims of Cult Mind Control
Counseling for Ex-Members 1. Extreme identity confusion 2. Dissociative states – “floating” (getting triggered back into cult mode) 3. Panic and anxiety attacks 4. Depression 5. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.) 6. Psychosomatic symptoms (headaches, backaches, asthma, skin problems) 7. Problems with decision-making- dependency 8. Retarded psychological development- loss of psychological power 9. Guilt 10. Fear [...]
Symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.)
1. Vigilance and scanning 2. Elevated startle response 3. Blunted affect or psychic numbing 4. Aggressive, controlling behavior 5. Interruption of memory and concentration 6. Depression 7. Generalized anxiety 8. Episodes of rage 9. Substance abuse 10. Intrusive recall 11. Dissociative “flashback”experiences 12. Insomnia 13. Suicidal ideation 14. Survivor guilt Taken from: How to Survive [...]
Millennial Fears in the Year 1000: Apocalypse Forever
By PETER STEINFELS New York Times July 17th 1999 When Patricia Bernstein, a Houston writer long fascinated by the Middle Ages, began research for an article about the year 1000, she was under an impression shared by many educated Americans. The turn of the last millennium, she believed, was a time of apocalyptic panic, fevered [...]
I Was Trapped in a Therapy Cult
Mademoiselle By Brittany Morgan as told to Laura Billings I saw Mary and Margaret for the last time at a fast-food place on the outskirts of town. They told me that meeting at their office as we usually did would put them and everyone I loved in jeopardy, and in the state I was in, [...]
Credentialing: It May Not Be the Cat’s Meow
Steve K. Dubrow Eichel, Ph.D., ABPP Copyright © 2002 Published on the Freedom of Mind web site with author’s permission The cat is out of the bag. After many months, I’ve finally been pushed to finish this article on questionable credentialing in hypnosis and “psychotherapy.” A reporter from a major magazine wrote to “Dr. Zoe [...]
About Kerry Noble
Born in 1952 in Abilene, Texas, Kerry Noble grew up in a positive, optimistic, idealistic world, always following after knowledge, understanding and purpose. His world was Christian-based (stressing the Golden Rule and love for God) and was community-minded and family-oriented. “I began participating in community service at the age of 6, in the first grade, [...]
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which appears in the following pages. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and “to cause it to be disseminated, [...]
An Independent Research Project
by Ilona C. Cuddy to Farah Maniei, Ed.D. Professional Seminar Leader in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Mental Health Counseling at Cambridge College Cambridge, Massachusetts This is dedicated to the many people who have become lost in trying to find themselves. Their painful stories have pierced my heart. I [...]
Understanding false charges by destructive groups, by Steve Hassan
For the record, I believe in freedom of religion. I am Jewish and an active member of Temple Beth Zion in Brookline, Massachusetts since 1998. Healthy religious involvement encourages people to question. It encourages people read whatever they want to read. It encourages people to seek out other’s [...]
The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power
by Joel Kramer and Diana Alstad Frog, Ltd., Berkeley, California; 1993 The following quotes are taken from Part One of the Guru Papers and are deemed by ex-members to be strikingly accurate in describing the dynamics of a cult guru. “If an authority not only expects to be obeyed without question, but either punishes or [...]
Latest News
NEW: Human Trafficking Information Now Available!
State of Israel, The Ministry of Welfare and Social Services, An Examination of the Phenomenon of Cults in Israel
Here is a link to an article by Steve Hassan talking about some of the false charges leveled against him by groups that are accused of exerting destructive influence on their members. These groups, sometimes working through seemingly unconnected individuals, try to poison people’s thinking toward those who object to their techniques. Read Steve’s thoughts by reading Understanding false charges by destructive groups
People Resources:
David Christopher Lane, Ph.D. , Professor of Philosophy, Mt. San Antonio College and Lecturer in Religious Studies, CSULB
Stephen A. Kent, Ph.D researches new and alternative religions, combining perspectives from sociology with religious studies
Robert Jay Lifton, author of 20 books, including Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, Destroying the World to Save it, The Nazi Doctors, Home from the War, and Death in Life to name just a few of the most important volumes.
Philip G. Zimbardo, Ph.D. Stanford Emeritus Professor, Former president of the American Psychological Association 2002
Larry Zilliox has been a private investigator specializing in investigating abusive relationships for over 30 years.
HOME
SERVICES
INFORMATION
MEDIA
CONTACT
ADDRESS
716 Beacon Street
#590443
Newton, MA 02459
Phone: 617 396-4638
Fax: (617) 628-8153 FOLLOW US
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YouTube
COPYRIGHT © 2014 FREEDOM OF MIND RESOURCE CENTER INC.
https://freedomofmind.com/Info/
HOME
About Us
Mission Statement
SERVICES
Help for Ex-Member of Group
Help for Someone in Group
Help With Estranged Family Member
Help With A Controlling Relationship
Our Team
Steve Hassan, M.Ed. LMHC, NCC, Director
Rachel Bernstein, LMFT, MSED
INFORMATION
About Us
Mission Statement
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BITE Model of Unethical Influence
Blogs
Books
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Friends of FOM Resoruce Center
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Submit Info About A Group
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Send Us An Email
Join Our Contact List
Submit Information On A Group
Facebook (Cult Expert)
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Freedom of Mind Group Database Search
Search:
Alphabetical Group Listing
About Groups Listed in Freedom of Mind Resource Center
The fact that these groups appear on this list does not necessarily mean they are a destructive mind control group. They appear because we have received inquiries and have established a file on the group.
Please click here to submit information about a group.
We also provide links for organizations even though we don't necessarily agree with all of their viewpoints, or can verify that all of their information is true. We have even included links to sites that we strongly disagree with, but feel that they offer information and another point of view which could prove useful. We invite you to use critical and independent judgment to evaluate the merits and weaknesses of each one on this list.
Recently Updated Group Information
LaRouche Political Action Committee
Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr.
Freedomain Radio
Stefan Molyneux
MLM - Multi-level Marketing/Network marketing
(Various)
AA (Alcoholics Anonymous)
Bill Wilson
World Mission Society Church of God - WMSCOG
Ahnsahnghong (1918-1985)/Leader(s): Chang Gil Cha aka Mother Jerusalem
General Articles
Spiritual Responsibility
Avoiding Abuses and Pitfalls Along the Spiritual Path Copyright © 1995, All Rights Reserved by Steven Hassan and Lama Surya Das [...]
Evaluating Concerns/Warning Signs
If you are concerned about a friend or loved one, here are some of the major warning signs of a potentially destructive situation. Review these points and see if there are a number of troubling changes. Please keep in mind that an individual can exercise undue influence over another [...]
Net Firm Will Drop Jews for Jesus Ad
By Sara Neufeld, Globe Correspondent 08/11/99 In a case pitting free expression against user protest in the new world of on-line advertising, Waltham-based Lycos Inc., a major Internet search engine, will not renew an advertisement placed by Jews for Jesus after a flood of complaints from the Jewish community. Jews for Jesus paid $1,700 for [...]
Son of Heaven’s Gate
by Noah Robischon January 7, 1998 Ever since the Heaven’s Gate suicides, The Netly News has been tracking all sorts of freakish cults, most of which don’t even have web sites, let alone anything especially interesting to say. Then along came Chen Tao, a Taiwanese group in Garland, Texas. Observers fear that members of the [...]
12 Rules Of The Community Leading Con-Man
By Peter Forde 1. What you’ve got is mine, and what I’ve got is mine too. (This is forcedly rule one because the world expects to see this, and is why they stay away in droves). 2. I own you too, and you don’t own yourself, since you have vowed yourself into being my obedient [...]
What Messages are Behind Today’s Cults?
Cults are coming. Are they crazy or bearing critical messages? By Philip Zimbardo, PhD How do we make sense of the mass suicide of 21 female and 18 male members of the Heaven’s Gate extra-terrestrial ‘cult’ on March 23? Typical explanations of all such strange, unexpected behavior involve a ‘rush to the dispositional,’ locating the [...]
Mental Health Bill of Rights Project
A Joint Initiative of Mental Health Professional Organizations Principles for the Provision of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment Services: A Bill of Rights Our commitment is to provide quality mental health and substance abuse services to all individuals without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender, age, sexual orientation, or disabilities. Right to [...]
Letter from Steve Hassan to John J. Dilulio Jr., of the Office of Faith-Based & Community Initiatives at the White House
The Freedom of Mind Resource Center Inc. 716 Beacon Street, #590443, Newton, MA 02459 Phone: (617) 396-4638 Fax: (617) 628-8153 hassan@freedomofmind.com freedomofmind.com February 23, 2001 John J. DiIulio Jr. Office of Faith-Based & Community Initiatives The White House Washington, DC 20502 Dear Mr DiIulio, I am deeply interested in the faith-based initiative that your office is [...]
Common Psychological Problems of Victims of Cult Mind Control
Counseling for Ex-Members 1. Extreme identity confusion 2. Dissociative states – “floating” (getting triggered back into cult mode) 3. Panic and anxiety attacks 4. Depression 5. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.) 6. Psychosomatic symptoms (headaches, backaches, asthma, skin problems) 7. Problems with decision-making- dependency 8. Retarded psychological development- loss of psychological power 9. Guilt 10. Fear [...]
Symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.)
1. Vigilance and scanning 2. Elevated startle response 3. Blunted affect or psychic numbing 4. Aggressive, controlling behavior 5. Interruption of memory and concentration 6. Depression 7. Generalized anxiety 8. Episodes of rage 9. Substance abuse 10. Intrusive recall 11. Dissociative “flashback”experiences 12. Insomnia 13. Suicidal ideation 14. Survivor guilt Taken from: How to Survive [...]
Millennial Fears in the Year 1000: Apocalypse Forever
By PETER STEINFELS New York Times July 17th 1999 When Patricia Bernstein, a Houston writer long fascinated by the Middle Ages, began research for an article about the year 1000, she was under an impression shared by many educated Americans. The turn of the last millennium, she believed, was a time of apocalyptic panic, fevered [...]
I Was Trapped in a Therapy Cult
Mademoiselle By Brittany Morgan as told to Laura Billings I saw Mary and Margaret for the last time at a fast-food place on the outskirts of town. They told me that meeting at their office as we usually did would put them and everyone I loved in jeopardy, and in the state I was in, [...]
Credentialing: It May Not Be the Cat’s Meow
Steve K. Dubrow Eichel, Ph.D., ABPP Copyright © 2002 Published on the Freedom of Mind web site with author’s permission The cat is out of the bag. After many months, I’ve finally been pushed to finish this article on questionable credentialing in hypnosis and “psychotherapy.” A reporter from a major magazine wrote to “Dr. Zoe [...]
About Kerry Noble
Born in 1952 in Abilene, Texas, Kerry Noble grew up in a positive, optimistic, idealistic world, always following after knowledge, understanding and purpose. His world was Christian-based (stressing the Golden Rule and love for God) and was community-minded and family-oriented. “I began participating in community service at the age of 6, in the first grade, [...]
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted and proclaimed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights the full text of which appears in the following pages. Following this historic act the Assembly called upon all Member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and “to cause it to be disseminated, [...]
An Independent Research Project
by Ilona C. Cuddy to Farah Maniei, Ed.D. Professional Seminar Leader in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Mental Health Counseling at Cambridge College Cambridge, Massachusetts This is dedicated to the many people who have become lost in trying to find themselves. Their painful stories have pierced my heart. I [...]
Understanding false charges by destructive groups, by Steve Hassan
For the record, I believe in freedom of religion. I am Jewish and an active member of Temple Beth Zion in Brookline, Massachusetts since 1998. Healthy religious involvement encourages people to question. It encourages people read whatever they want to read. It encourages people to seek out other’s [...]
The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power
by Joel Kramer and Diana Alstad Frog, Ltd., Berkeley, California; 1993 The following quotes are taken from Part One of the Guru Papers and are deemed by ex-members to be strikingly accurate in describing the dynamics of a cult guru. “If an authority not only expects to be obeyed without question, but either punishes or [...]
Latest News
NEW: Human Trafficking Information Now Available!
State of Israel, The Ministry of Welfare and Social Services, An Examination of the Phenomenon of Cults in Israel
Here is a link to an article by Steve Hassan talking about some of the false charges leveled against him by groups that are accused of exerting destructive influence on their members. These groups, sometimes working through seemingly unconnected individuals, try to poison people’s thinking toward those who object to their techniques. Read Steve’s thoughts by reading Understanding false charges by destructive groups
People Resources:
David Christopher Lane, Ph.D. , Professor of Philosophy, Mt. San Antonio College and Lecturer in Religious Studies, CSULB
Stephen A. Kent, Ph.D researches new and alternative religions, combining perspectives from sociology with religious studies
Robert Jay Lifton, author of 20 books, including Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, Destroying the World to Save it, The Nazi Doctors, Home from the War, and Death in Life to name just a few of the most important volumes.
Philip G. Zimbardo, Ph.D. Stanford Emeritus Professor, Former president of the American Psychological Association 2002
Larry Zilliox has been a private investigator specializing in investigating abusive relationships for over 30 years.
HOME
SERVICES
INFORMATION
MEDIA
CONTACT
ADDRESS
716 Beacon Street
#590443
Newton, MA 02459
Phone: 617 396-4638
Fax: (617) 628-8153 FOLLOW US
Vimeo
YouTube
COPYRIGHT © 2014 FREEDOM OF MIND RESOURCE CENTER INC.
https://freedomofmind.com/Info/
HOME
About Us
Mission Statement
SERVICES
Help for Ex-Member of Group
Help for Someone in Group
Help With Estranged Family Member
Help With A Controlling Relationship
Our Team
Steve Hassan, M.Ed. LMHC, NCC, Director
Rachel Bernstein, LMFT, MSED
INFORMATION
About Us
Mission Statement
Privacy Policy
Articles
BITE Model of Unethical Influence
Blogs
Books
FAQ
Friends of FOM Resoruce Center
Groups
Group Database
Submit Info About A Group
Human Trafficking
Recent News
Terrorism
MEDIA
Steve Hassan Press Kit Resources
Video Archives
CONTACT
Send Us An Email
Join Our Contact List
Submit Information On A Group
Facebook (Cult Expert)
Facebook (FOM)
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Vimeo
Louis Jolyon West
Psychiatry & Biobehaviorial Sciences: Los Angeles
1924-1999
Professor
1999, University of California: In Memoriam
On January 2, 1999, Louis Jolyon “Jolly” West, the former chairman of the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, died of a rapidly advancing, malignant tumor.
Born in 1924 in Brooklyn, New York, of immigrant Russian-Jewish parents, he grew up in poverty in Madison, Wisconsin. Like many children of recent immigrants, he was bent on obtaining an education. Entering the University of Wisconsin at the age of 17, he determined to fight in World War II against fascism. He enlisted in the U.S. Army and was sent to the University of Iowa in the Army Specialized Training Program, and then to the University of Minnesota School of Medicine from which he graduated in 1948. After a year of internship in internal medicine, he served a three-year residency in psychiatry at the Payne Whitney Clinic of New York Hospital and Cornell University School of Medicine. In 1948 he had transferred to the U.S. Air Force Medical Corps, and in 1952 was appointed Chief of Psychiatry Service at the Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas. While holding this position, he had also been appointed Professor and Head of the Department of Psychiatry, Neurology and Biobehavioral Sciences at the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine–the youngest person ever to have held a chairmanship in psychiatry in the United States until, or since, that time. In 1969, he moved to UCLA to head its department and direct the Neuropsychiatry Institute.
Implicit in the foregoing are the outlines of an American success story–the poor immigrant son, who by dint of his intelligence and energy, makes the best of freedom and the opportunity offered to him to realize himself. What is not so usual in this familiar American story is that from an early age and throughout his life, West fought for the equal rights of others so that they might have similar opportunities for self-realization. Always larger than life, he was bold and courageous. He led the way toward the integration of medical fraternities, and the civil right changes in the South. He battled actively and ceaselessly for individual freedom and dignity, opposing prejudice, bias, bigotry, violence, torture, and the subjugation, punishment and mistreatment of others by governments, the judiciary, the military, kidnappers, cult, leaders, and phony prophets. He took the side of the poor, minorities, children, the disenfranchised, the mentally ill, the ignorant and the weak.
It should come as no surprise that his own clinical and research contributions focused on the effects of man’s inhumanity to man, of sleep deprivation, of mind-altering and hallucinogenic drugs. He studied the psychophysiology of hypnosis and suggestibility (including their effects on pain perception), meditation, and of the emotions. He published theories of dissociative reactions, hallucinations and dreams. And throughout his career he concerned himself with alcoholism and its treatment. Later he extensively studied the social phenomena of the 1960′s–the civil rights movement, the hippie culture and the green rebellion–and the pervasive violence in our society.
Through his interest in social pathologies, their origins and consequences, West extended the vista of psychiatry beyond its usual concerns. Following his retirement from the chairmanship of the department, he thought deeply and developed programs in the prevention of mental illness, addiction and crime.
His interests and his vision led him to create two departments–of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences–at the time when the two predominant underpinnings of American academic psychiatry were psychoanalytic concepts, or the treatment of the seriously mentally ill by lobotomy, metrazol or insulin injections, and ECT.
He defined the biobehavioral sciences in a multidisciplinary and multifunctional manner as the basic sciences of psychiatry, spanning the spectrum from epidemiology to cultural anthropology, to the study of primate behavior, pharmacology, neurochemistry, neuropsychology, psychophysiology, psychoendocrinology, psychoneuro-immunology, cognitive neurophysiology, neuroanatomy, and computer modeling of psychotherapy, and human brain development.
Jolly West served his country and his profession well. He was a consultant of the U.S. Air Force, the VA, the USIA, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Peace Corps, the NIMH, the Department of HHS, the AMA, the APA, the American Specialty Boards, and private foundations. He served on the editorial board of 12 publications and on many medical school committees.
He received many honors and awards, including an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Hebrew Union College. During his career, he gave numerous prestigious, endowed lectures, both here and abroad.
The egalitarian principles that guided Jolly West’s life were exercised in the way he ran his department. He had a fierce loyalty to it and its members, and to UCLA; he supported and promoted both. He ran the department with a light hand, encouraging and supporting his young colleagues, attracting many senior, distinguished colleagues, and allowing its members the optimal degree of freedom to pursue their interests.
He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Kathryn, a distinguished clinical psychologist; two daughters, Anne and Mary; and a son, John.
Herbert Weiner
Joe Yamamoto
HOME
SERVICES
INFORMATION
MEDIA
CONTACT
ADDRESS
716 Beacon Street
#590443
Newton, MA 02459
Phone: 617 396-4638
Fax: (617) 628-8153 FOLLOW US
Vimeo
YouTube
COPYRIGHT © 2014 FREEDOM OF MIND RESOURCE CENTER INC.
https://freedomofmind.com/Media/pressKit/articles/in_memoriam.php
HOME
About Us
Mission Statement
SERVICES
Help for Ex-Member of Group
Help for Someone in Group
Help With Estranged Family Member
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Steve Hassan, M.Ed. LMHC, NCC, Director
Rachel Bernstein, LMFT, MSED
INFORMATION
About Us
Mission Statement
Privacy Policy
Articles
BITE Model of Unethical Influence
Blogs
Books
FAQ
Friends of FOM Resoruce Center
Groups
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Submit Info About A Group
Human Trafficking
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Louis Jolyon West
Psychiatry & Biobehaviorial Sciences: Los Angeles
1924-1999
Professor
1999, University of California: In Memoriam
On January 2, 1999, Louis Jolyon “Jolly” West, the former chairman of the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, died of a rapidly advancing, malignant tumor.
Born in 1924 in Brooklyn, New York, of immigrant Russian-Jewish parents, he grew up in poverty in Madison, Wisconsin. Like many children of recent immigrants, he was bent on obtaining an education. Entering the University of Wisconsin at the age of 17, he determined to fight in World War II against fascism. He enlisted in the U.S. Army and was sent to the University of Iowa in the Army Specialized Training Program, and then to the University of Minnesota School of Medicine from which he graduated in 1948. After a year of internship in internal medicine, he served a three-year residency in psychiatry at the Payne Whitney Clinic of New York Hospital and Cornell University School of Medicine. In 1948 he had transferred to the U.S. Air Force Medical Corps, and in 1952 was appointed Chief of Psychiatry Service at the Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio, Texas. While holding this position, he had also been appointed Professor and Head of the Department of Psychiatry, Neurology and Biobehavioral Sciences at the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine–the youngest person ever to have held a chairmanship in psychiatry in the United States until, or since, that time. In 1969, he moved to UCLA to head its department and direct the Neuropsychiatry Institute.
Implicit in the foregoing are the outlines of an American success story–the poor immigrant son, who by dint of his intelligence and energy, makes the best of freedom and the opportunity offered to him to realize himself. What is not so usual in this familiar American story is that from an early age and throughout his life, West fought for the equal rights of others so that they might have similar opportunities for self-realization. Always larger than life, he was bold and courageous. He led the way toward the integration of medical fraternities, and the civil right changes in the South. He battled actively and ceaselessly for individual freedom and dignity, opposing prejudice, bias, bigotry, violence, torture, and the subjugation, punishment and mistreatment of others by governments, the judiciary, the military, kidnappers, cult, leaders, and phony prophets. He took the side of the poor, minorities, children, the disenfranchised, the mentally ill, the ignorant and the weak.
It should come as no surprise that his own clinical and research contributions focused on the effects of man’s inhumanity to man, of sleep deprivation, of mind-altering and hallucinogenic drugs. He studied the psychophysiology of hypnosis and suggestibility (including their effects on pain perception), meditation, and of the emotions. He published theories of dissociative reactions, hallucinations and dreams. And throughout his career he concerned himself with alcoholism and its treatment. Later he extensively studied the social phenomena of the 1960′s–the civil rights movement, the hippie culture and the green rebellion–and the pervasive violence in our society.
Through his interest in social pathologies, their origins and consequences, West extended the vista of psychiatry beyond its usual concerns. Following his retirement from the chairmanship of the department, he thought deeply and developed programs in the prevention of mental illness, addiction and crime.
His interests and his vision led him to create two departments–of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences–at the time when the two predominant underpinnings of American academic psychiatry were psychoanalytic concepts, or the treatment of the seriously mentally ill by lobotomy, metrazol or insulin injections, and ECT.
He defined the biobehavioral sciences in a multidisciplinary and multifunctional manner as the basic sciences of psychiatry, spanning the spectrum from epidemiology to cultural anthropology, to the study of primate behavior, pharmacology, neurochemistry, neuropsychology, psychophysiology, psychoendocrinology, psychoneuro-immunology, cognitive neurophysiology, neuroanatomy, and computer modeling of psychotherapy, and human brain development.
Jolly West served his country and his profession well. He was a consultant of the U.S. Air Force, the VA, the USIA, the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Peace Corps, the NIMH, the Department of HHS, the AMA, the APA, the American Specialty Boards, and private foundations. He served on the editorial board of 12 publications and on many medical school committees.
He received many honors and awards, including an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Hebrew Union College. During his career, he gave numerous prestigious, endowed lectures, both here and abroad.
The egalitarian principles that guided Jolly West’s life were exercised in the way he ran his department. He had a fierce loyalty to it and its members, and to UCLA; he supported and promoted both. He ran the department with a light hand, encouraging and supporting his young colleagues, attracting many senior, distinguished colleagues, and allowing its members the optimal degree of freedom to pursue their interests.
He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Kathryn, a distinguished clinical psychologist; two daughters, Anne and Mary; and a son, John.
Herbert Weiner
Joe Yamamoto
HOME
SERVICES
INFORMATION
MEDIA
CONTACT
ADDRESS
716 Beacon Street
#590443
Newton, MA 02459
Phone: 617 396-4638
Fax: (617) 628-8153 FOLLOW US
Vimeo
YouTube
COPYRIGHT © 2014 FREEDOM OF MIND RESOURCE CENTER INC.
https://freedomofmind.com/Media/pressKit/articles/in_memoriam.php
HOME
About Us
Mission Statement
SERVICES
Help for Ex-Member of Group
Help for Someone in Group
Help With Estranged Family Member
Help With A Controlling Relationship
Our Team
Steve Hassan, M.Ed. LMHC, NCC, Director
Rachel Bernstein, LMFT, MSED
INFORMATION
About Us
Mission Statement
Privacy Policy
Articles
BITE Model of Unethical Influence
Blogs
Books
FAQ
Friends of FOM Resoruce Center
Groups
Group Database
Submit Info About A Group
Human Trafficking
Recent News
Terrorism
MEDIA
Steve Hassan Press Kit Resources
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CONTACT
Send Us An Email
Join Our Contact List
Submit Information On A Group
Facebook (Cult Expert)
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Youtube
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Buddhism American style
cloaking itself in super-patriotism, Nicherin Shoshu Of America is part of an evangelical buddhist secty gaining adherents worldwide with a guarantee of happiness through chanting. Sounds pretty harmless, right? Cult-watchers and ex-members don’t think so.
Date: Sunday, October 15, 1989
Section: Boston Globe Sunday Magazine
Page: 18 ff.
By Daniel Golden, Globe Staff
Florence Hadley, principal of the David A. Ellis School in Roxbury, had never heard of the New Freedom Bell. Nor was she familiar with the organization that was exhibiting the bell in schools across the country. But when her school was offered a chance to host the facsimile of Philadelphia’s famed Liberty Bell, she responded the way any patriotic American would.
“I just thought it was a super idea to have the children see a replica of the Liberty Bell,” she says. “The Ellis needs all the positive things it can get.”
As it happens, the offer came one day this past spring from Tamara McClinton, an Ellis parent who dropped in at the school office to tell Hadley about the bell. Hadley felt a bit bewildered that McClinton kept referring to the group sponsoring the tour by the abbreviation NSA, as if the principal should have known what it stood for. McClinton herself was an NSA member. Hadley finally asked what the letters meant, but the answer was a jumble of words that made no sense to her. Still, she was impressed by the documents McClinton showed her: letters from school administrators and elected officials thanking NSA for bringing its bell to their districts. What better opportunity could there be for children to learn about the Constitution?
So Hadley invited pupils from five other elementary schools and prepared for a star-spangled celebration. All of the schools were provided with copies of a pamphlet that teachers could use in their classrooms or children could bring home. Entitled The New Common Sense, after Thomas Paine’s plea for American independence, the pamphlet urged children to buy American products and listed a California phone number and publisher, the World Tribune Press. It did not mention NSA, whatever that was.
The bell arrived at the grounds of the Ellis School at 9 on the misty morning of June 13. It sat on a flatbed truck in a makeshift enclosure decorated with mayoral proclamations, the NSA insignia, the “We the People” logo of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the US Constitution, and red, white, and blue bunting. Accompanying it were dozens of people, blacks and whites, with neat haircuts and glowing smiles. The men were dressed as Minutemen and carried American flags; the women wore frilly Betsy Ross petticoats and caps. Clean-cut and all-American, they looked like a group George Bush could embrace.
Local television stations and newspapers were on hand to cover what was the perfect media event: colorful, punctual, well-organized, and uplifting. State Rep. Gloria Fox made a rousing speech, and 800 children rang the bell, 30 of them at a time tugging the rope. Boston School Superintendent Laval Wilson rang it, too, with a perplexed look. He was later spotted asking several Minutemen what NSA was.
“I really don’t know anything about that group. I was just in the bell- ringing ceremony,” he says.
Had Wilson pursued his inquiries, he would have uncovered a sobering irony and a lesson in how any group can co-opt American patriotic symbols. He and other guests were helping a controversial Japanese religious organization in its quest to seem familiar to Americans. NSA stands for Nichiren Shoshu of America, the United States affiliate of an evangelical Buddhist sect that is gaining adherents worldwide with a sunny, simplistic guarantee of peace and prosperity through chanting a Japanese phrase. By cloaking itself in Old Glory, NSA may have become the fastest-growing religious group in this country. Yet cult-watchers denounce it, and ex-members distribute newsletters warning that its practices and all-absorbing lifestyle can amount to brainwashing.
The New Freedom Bell is one of many patriotic devices that NSA uses to establish credibility as an American organization and solicit endorsements from politicians and civic leaders. That strategy seems to be succeeding. NSA literature displays congratulatory letters from then-Vice President George Bush, Sen. Edward Kennedy, Mayor Raymond Flynn, and Gov. Mario Cuomo of New York, among other potentates, and Sen. John Kerry was a featured speaker at NSA’s convention in New York City in 1986.
NSA stole the show at Bush’s inauguration in January by displaying on the Washington Mall the world’s largest chair — a 39-foot-high model of the chair that George Washington sat in as he presided over the Continental Congress. The Guinness Book of World Records has twice cited NSA for assembling the most American flags ever in a parade, although in one mention it misidentified the group as “Nissan Shoshu,” confusing the religious organization with the automaker.
“NSA is one of the largest destructive cults in the country,” says Steven Hassan, a former member of the Unification Church and the author of Combating Cult Mind Control. “They like to talk about peace and democracy, but their beliefs at the core are antithetical to that. Like all other cults, they espouse wonderful ideas and worthy goals. The question is, what are they doing to meet those goals? Are they just espousing them to recruit people, to gain money and power? The difference between a cult like NSA and an aggressive religion is that the religion tells people up front who they are and what they want.”
NSA’s parent organization is Soka Gakkai (“Value-Creating Society”), a lay religious group dedicated to spreading the teachings of Nichiren, a 13th- century Buddhist monk. One of several groups that filled the void left by the discrediting of the traditional Shinto faith after World War II, Soka Gakkai has an estimated 10 million members in Japan and collects more than $1 billion in donations annually. It also founded Japan’s third-largest political party: Komeito, or “Clean Government.” Although charges of violating the separation of church and state led Soka Gakkai to cut formal ties with the party, it still remains the power behind Komeito.
The price of Soka Gakkai’s political prominence has been recurrent scandal. Its leader, Daisaku Ikeda, stepped down as its president in 1979 after being accused of everything from wire-tapping the home telephone of a Japanese Communist Party official to arranging for his mistress to be nominated by Komeito for a seat in the Diet. He remains president of Soka Gakkai’s international wing. Recently, Komeito members have been linked to a bribery scandal plaguing the Liberal Democrats, Japan’s ruling party. This past July, workers pried open an old safe in a Yokohama waste dump and discovered $1.2 million in yen notes. The money belonged to Soka Gakkai.
Beleaguered at home, Soka Gakkai has looked abroad, establishing chapters in 110 countries. Wherever it goes, it identifies with local traditions. For example, its wing in England bought a country estate that includes among its attractions a cedar tree planted by Winston Churchill, as well as a statue of King George III — one man who presumably would have declined to ring the New Freedom Bell. At Taplow Court, members of NSUK (Nichiren Shoshu of United Kingdom) regularly put on Elizabethan plays and traditional country fairs.
NSA was Soka Gakkai’s first overseas chapter, and it remains the largest. Established in 1960 by a Japanese immigrant who changed his name to George Williams, NSA at first appealed mainly to Japanese-Americans. Today, Williams remains the head, and most of his top aides are of Japanese descent, but the rank-and-file membership is diverse. According to a 1983 NSA study of its members, 45 percent are white, 24 percent are Asian, and 19 percent are black. Only 16 percent of members who joined in the 1980s were Asian-Americans. (According to the study, 60 percent of members are female.)
Kevin O’Neil, president of the American Buddhist Movement, says NSA has been more successful than any other Buddhist sect in attracting Americans who are not of Asian descent. O’Neil’s organization includes all of the 366 Buddhist sects in America except NSA, which refuses to join on the grounds that it alone preaches the true faith. “When people get very involved in NSA, they won’t associate with people who are Buddhists but not in their sect,” O’Neil says. “Then they talk about world peace and coming together. That, I find, is a little culty.”
NSA claims a membership of 500,000, which is almost certainly an exaggeration; O’Neil believes the actual figure is about 150,000. Based in Southern California, NSA has gained a reputation as a Hollywood religion because of celebrity members such as singer Tina Turner, actor Patrick Duffy, and jazz keyboardist Herbie Hancock. But it boasts an East Coast following as well, including about 4,000 people in New England.
“Obviously, we’re growing in terms of numbers,” says Gerry Hall, an aide to Williams. “And it’s pretty solid. There’s a second generation. What’s great is to see that it’s not just the baby boomers did this thing and faded away and their kids won’t follow in their footsteps. It’s genuinely a family religion.”
The Ellis School parents who belong to NSA include not only McClinton, a news editor at WGBH-TV, but also Roslyn Parks. Parks is executive director of the Black Cultural Exposition, which is scheduled for the Hynes Auditorium later this month. Among other events, it will feature a film, The Contemporary Gladiator, written and produced by a karate expert who belongs to NSA. It is the story of a karate champion who chants for victory.
Parks credits her chanting with curing a heart ailment that she says would otherwise have required open-heart surgery. She sings in an NSA chorus at parades and festivals. “As a black American, I thought I wasn’t from this country,” she says. “I was from Africa, and they forced me here. It wasn’t until I joined NSA that I developed a sense of patriotism. Some of my friends who are into blackness are saying, ‘What’s with you, girl?’ I say, ‘This is our country. There are things to be proud of.’ ”
Howard Hunter, who teaches Asian religion at Tufts University, opens a desk drawer and pulls out a photograph of a young man with his scalp and eyebrows shaven, sitting cross-legged before a hut in Thailand. Not so long ago, Hunter says, that young man was a Tufts student and fraternity brother.
“That’s the fear of Americans, that their children will wind up looking like that,” Hunter says. “And it’s manifestly clear that nobody who joins NSA will end up looking like that. They don’t renounce the world.”
Not only does NSA outdo the Daughters of the American Revolution in patriotic fervor, but it also bears a message tailored to the American dream. Most Eastern sects seeking a foothold here urge renunciation of earthly pleasures, but NSA preaches that material gain is a pathway to spiritual enlightenment. Whether its materialism derives from Nichiren, which NSA’s critics dispute, it sounds conveniently like Horatio Alger. “They’re linking into the deepest cultural themes, economic gain and patriotism,” says sociologist David Bromley of Virginia Commonwealth University. Then, too, many aspects of NSA — the revivalist fervor, the use of testimony to sway doubters, faith healing, and disdain for other sects — bear less resemblance to traditional Buddhism than to Protestant fundamentalism.
Recognizing that NSA’s future depends on avoiding bad publicity, its officials have learned from the mistakes of the Unification Church, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, and other groups stereotyped in the public mind as cults. For example, NSA recruiting methods are persistent but discreet. Although members occasionally hand out cards in airports or outside restaurants, they mainly proselytize friends, neighbors, and co-workers. And, unlike some groups viewed as cults, NSA does not abduct members from their families, deprive them of food and sleep, seize their possessions, or prevent them from quitting. Nor does it avenge itself on its opponents, like a California group that put a snake in the mailbox of a critic.
“I haven’t heard a suggestion of high-pressure tactics that remotely resemble some tactics we’ve seen in other groups,” says James White, a professor of political science at the University of North Carolina and author of a book about Soka Gakkai. “They are just as entitled to have a place in the American religious spectrum as anything else. If it gets you through the night, and it’s not personally or socially pathological, I don’t see anything wrong with it.”
Yet, to ex-members and anticult groups, NSA’s flag-waving smacks of Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s “God Bless America” tour in 1972. They say NSA achieves the same goals as more notorious groups but with greater subtlety. Rather than kidnap members from relatives, NSA instills a hostile attitude toward nonbelievers, they say, and schedules so many group activities that family ties fade. While it does not coerce contributions from members, it encourages donations with the philosophy that the gift will be repaid tenfold in their own lives. And its fundamental credo — that chanting brings good luck — conveys a psychological threat, according to former members: If you stop, bad things will happen to you.
“You don’t go to an ashram, you don’t wear different clothes, you aren’t a vegetarian,” says one former NSA member who asked not to be identified. ”It’s all an internal mind-set. Once you’ve got that, you can be anywhere on earth and still be a dedicated believer. That’s why I think the telltale signs of mind control should be taught in the schools.
“A lot of people say, ‘Well, they joined because they had personal problems.’ It’s blame the victim. Everyone has personal problems. The key is, they wouldn’t get involved if they knew the danger signs. I could kick myself. How come I didn’t see it? But I didn’t know what to look for.”
Few of the hundreds of schools where NSA sought to bring its bell in the past school year knew what to look for, either. And only two — a public junior high in a New York City suburb and the United Nations School in New York City — spurned the offer.
“It’s very seductive,” says Sylvia Fuhrman, the secretary-general’s special representative for the UN school. “All these glorious photographs. Their brochures are as polished and beautiful as National Geographic. But the more we checked into it, the less we liked it. Nowhere can you find who is footing the bill. That’s what alerted me. I thought of poor souls being enticed into it.”
Arhythmic, high-pitched wail emanates one summer evening from a large conference room on the ground floor of an inconspicuous two-story South End building, the NSA center in Boston. Inside, the room is mostly bare of decoration, with white walls and white track lighting. At the front stands a wooden altar encasing a sacred scroll, called a gohonzon. It contains passages and characters from the Lotus Sutra, a holy Buddhist text, in the handwriting of the high priest of Nichiren Shoshu in Japan. Nichiren himself carved the first gohonzon in a block of camphor wood. On the left of the altar is a framed photo of the controversial Ikeda, who remains president of Soka Gakkai International. On the right is an American flag.
Led by Robert Eppsteiner, NSA’s only salaried staff member in Boston, about 150 people sit facing the gohonzon, chanting passages from the Lotus Sutra. Many of them follow the passages in booklets, and some wind beads around their fingers. It is a multiracial group, and there is no conformity as to dress: Some members are in T-shirts, while others have come straight from work in their suits and ties. A large proportion are mothers with babies, awaiting a meeting of the young mothers’ group later. Such subgroupings characterize NSA’s structure. Not only is it organized into units of increasing size, from districts to headquarters and joint territories, but members are also aligned by age and sex. The men’s and women’s divisions are for adults over 35, while adults under that age are placed in young men’s and young women’s divisions.
After they finish reciting the Lotus Sutra chapters, the members chant the phrase that is the bedrock of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism: “Nam myoho renge kyo,” or “Devotion to the Lotus Sutra.” By repeating this phrase for a minimum of an hour a day, members claim to reach harmony with the universe. Fortune comes their way: a job, good health, a spouse, even a parking space. You can’t doubt their sincerity, although a nonbeliever might suggest other explanations for their success: coincidence or new-found self-confidence. Members may become better employees — and win raises and promotions — simply because they absorb the Japanese values of punctuality, loyalty, and teamwork.
“Nichiren taught devotion to the Lotus Sutra with monolithic firmness . . . ,” according to Religious and Spiritual Groups in Modern America, by Robert Ellwood and Harry Partin. “This radical simplicity and unity, focusing all down to a single intense point, is the secret of Nichiren: one scripture, one man, one country, one object of worship, one practice, all potentialities realized in one moment which is the present.”
The NSA center contains a music room, where members practice for bell- ringings and concerts, and a bookstore, where they buy everything from candlesticks and NSA baseball caps to books by Ikeda. Members venerate Ikeda as a crusader for peace, and their devotion has made him one of the world’s best-selling authors.
Eppsteiner ushers a reporter upstairs, past a framed letter from Sen. Edward Kennedy praising a recent NSA peace festival, and into his office. Raised as a Reform Jew, Eppsteiner joined NSA in 1969, when he was a student at Boston University. A Brookline neighbor introduced him to NSA, and he soon found that chanting made him feel good and improved his grades. He has made eight pilgrimages to the Nichiren Shoshu head temple, near Mount Fuji.
“It’s rare for someone to start practicing who’s seeking Buddhism. They’re not. They’re seeking a way to improve their lives,” he says. “If you set yourself up as different from society, that creates more barriers. Unlike some other groups, we don’t hang out our shingle as Buddhists.”
Politely, Eppsteiner controls the reporter’s access. He picks members to be interviewed and sits in on the conversations. Later, he calls frequently to check on the progress of the article and to request that members’ last names not be used.
The members selected by Eppsteiner to be interviewed include a former child psychologist, who now chants three hours a day for guidance because she is in the midst of a career change; a Boston College instructor who teaches a course in Buddhism and says that every year a couple of her students join NSA; and a fourth-year medical student who is an intern at Boston City Hospital.
Katherine, the medical student, glows with enthusiasm as she talks about NSA, which she joined six years ago, after dropping out of medical school. “I was practicing chanting for a year before I went back,” she says. “I was told I had a snowball’s chance in hell of getting back in. But I chanted and I got in. I was a different type of student. I had been critical. I didn’t like the courses, I didn’t like the professors, I didn’t like my fellow students. When I got back, I applied the Buddhist concept that your environment is a reflection of you. What I learned is that, if they say 99 things that are worthless and one that’s important, wouldn’t it be a shame if you missed that one thing? Wouldn’t it be great if everyone lived by that rule?”
At BCH, Katherine sometimes must work 24-hour or 36-hour shifts in surgery without sleep. After 18 hours, while other interns eat dinner, she slips into a bathroom to chant. “You know the burnout syndrome,” she says. “You give and give and give, and you’re on empty. Chanting is a way to build up your tank.” Asked if she could ever be so exhausted that chanting could not revive her, she says, “I believe it’s limitless.”
Besides young mothers, a newly formed group of 40 teen-age girls is meeting tonight, and their session is like a pep rally. After singing an NSA ditty, ”The Renaissance of Peace,” they applaud and shout, “Hip, hip, hooray!” Then they quiet down to hear testimonials from several of their peers.
A 14-year-old from Quincy says she was depressed by petty jealousies among her schoolmates until she marched in the NSA contingent in the Bunker Hill Day parade this past April. “I was higher than the sky,” she says. “I no longer needed my friends’ attention as a source of happiness. I relied on President Ikeda’s words to challenge the obstacles of friendship.”
A high school senior from Dorchester chanted for a close friend who used to deal drugs. “Gradually he’s given up selling drugs and now works at an honest job,” she says.
Her ambition is to go to college and have a happy family. She concludes, ”I know, if I keep chanting, I can’t miss.”
Talking over lunch at a Manhattan restaurant, every so often Mary still refers to NSA as “we.” And, on request, she can shift into her old recruiting voice: “Do you know the benefits of chanting ‘Nam myoho renge kyo?’ ” But it’s been a year now since she quit NSA and underwent four days of deprogramming. Now, she says, she knows that it’s just another cult.
At the urging of a friend, Mary attended her first NSA meeting in 1982, when she was studying to be a classical musician. She felt right at home. ”After the first meeting I felt that the people were ones I would have chosen as friends. And there was no racism or social class discrimination. Nobody cared. To this day I’m still impressed by that.”
Her commitment strengthened when she chanted for a job to support her violin studies — and was hired at her first interview. But for Mary the ultimate proof was spiritual rather than financial. The young women’s division of NSA to which she belonged was giving a concert, and the division leader asked her to join the chorus. She was reluctant — “I didn’t see what joining an amateur chorus had to do with Beethoven” — but she agreed.
Rehearsals were grueling, and the singers chanted during breaks to replenish their energy. When the great day arrived, all of the other divisions showed up to help with lighting and to hand out programs. And then, on stage, Mary had what she thought was a religious experience. Now she believes it was the result of fatigue and sensory overload.
“Here I am singing,” she says. “I was transformed by the atmosphere. At that moment I thought that was what Buddhism was all about. I had no doubts.”
From then on, Mary threw herself into NSA activities and advanced in the organization. She was chosen to attend a youth division meeting with Ikeda in San Diego, and for weeks she awoke at 5 every morning to go to the New York community center and chant to prepare herself for the trip.
Rising in NSA meant more responsibility to contribute money and recruit members. Her initial investment had been meager: $17 for a gohonzon, and subscriptions to two publications of NSA’s World Tribune Press: the weekly World Tribune ($4 per month) and the Seikyo Times ($4.50 per month). Soon she was buying candles, incense, and Ikeda’s books. Then she was honored with an invitation to join a committee of people who gave a minimum of $15 a month to NSA. By the time she left, she was contributing $50 a month.
NSA dedicates February and August to “shakubuku,” or recruiting. In those months Mary scrambled to meet recruiting goals posted on the community-center altar for new members and subscribers. Desperate, she bought extra subscriptions herself and invited complete strangers to meetings in her home.
“It makes you so uncomfortable and anxiety-ridden,” she says. “You chant your butt off. If you think you won’t make a target, you sweat it out in front of the gohonzon.”
Immersed in NSA, Mary neglected the rest of her life. She quit practicing the violin because she had no time for it. She rarely saw her parents and forgot their birthdays. She lost a six-year relationship with a man she loved — and felt no pain. “For me, it was like a leaf falling off a tree in the fall.”
The frantic pace undermined her health, and she began having dizzy spells on the subway early in 1988. Assured that they were trivial by her NSA leader, she redoubled her shakubuku efforts that February. On March 1 she collapsed, with what was later diagnosed as low blood sugar and a depleted adrenal gland. Her parents brought her home and invited former NSA members to talk to her. She is grateful for the counseling, she says, because members who walk out on their own and don’t receive any support often remain confused and depressed.
Today she is healthy and studying music in graduate school. “You feel, while you’re in NSA, that people on the outside have a boring life,” she says. “You have a consuming passion. If you do great chanting, and then go in to work, it’s a great feeling. It seemed very heroic.
“But what is the trade-off? You go in at 20, and if you get out at 30 you see what you missed. The hardest part about being out is realizing, ‘I could have done this five years ago.’
“NSA gives people hope,” Mary says. “For people who have no other hope, that’s something. But you have to decide, would you rather have hope or truth? Maybe, if I had a terminal illness and there was nothing to lose, I might chant myself. But it’s a false hope.”
Like Laval Wilson, James Conway admits knowing little about NSA’s beliefs and practices. But the chairman of Charlestown’s Bunker Hill Day parade has done more for NSA’s public relations than just ringing a bell.
At Conway’s invitation, NSA began sending its contingents of brass bands and fife and drum corps to the Bunker Hill Day parade in 1973. In 1975, NSA gave Conway and his wife and two children an all-expenses-paid trip to its convention in Hawaii — an extravaganza featuring a historical drama about the Revolutionary War and a tribute to George M. Cohan, all on an artificial island built for the occasion. “It was, like, a quid pro quo,” Conway says.
Conway has repaid that quid with more quos. When NSA officials needed approval for a bicentennial parade against the traffic from the Prudential Center to City Hall in 1976, Conway introduced them not only to the traffic commissioner, who okayed it, but also to several city councilors. NSA members gave leis and pineapples to the councilors, including Albert (Dapper) O’Neil. O’Neil brought the delegation into Mayor Kevin White’s office, where they posed for a photograph with the mayor.
“They may have some kind of a religion there, but that doesn’t faze me,” O’Neil says. “I think there’s some Buddhism there, I think. They’re very patriotic people. There’s a lot of people in this country, I don’t see them honoring the flag, I see them burning the flag.”
NSA’s relationships with Conway and O’Neil typify its assiduous courting of civic leaders. “It doesn’t run front groups like the Moonies,” says Cynthia Kisser, executive director of the Chicago-based Cult Awareness Network, a nonprofit group dedicated to informing the public about cults. “You don’t see a concerted effort to interfere in the political process by running candidates. What you see is a tremendous public relations attempt with these parades and the bell, going around to the schools, and getting the keys to the city from the mayor.”
This strategy appears to have been handed down from President Ikeda, who rivals the pope for pictures taken with world leaders. Ikeda has met with the late Chou En-lai, Henry Kissinger, Edward Kennedy, Margaret Thatcher, and Manuel Noriega, who was an honored guest at an NSA convention before his drug connections were widely known. Ikeda also burnished his image by giving $500,000 to the United Nations, which awarded him a peace medal and granted consultative status to Soka Gakkai, NSA’s parent organization.
According to NSA’s Gerry Hall, the purpose of NSA’s pursuit of politicians is twofold: to encourage members by showing them that important people sympathize with their aims, and to induce the politicians themselves to try chanting. NSA is usually too tactful to proselytize dignitaries directly, although a Boston School Committee member at the Ellis bell-ringing was invited to an NSA meeting. But NSA officials hope that their patriotism — and swelling ranks of voting-age members — speak for them.
So far, no politicians on the national scene belong to NSA, but some local ones have converted. State Sen. William Owens (D-Roxbury) admits to chanting and owning a gohonzon, although he says he remains a member of New Hope Baptist Church.
NSA officials say that the group stays out of American politics. It does not endorse candidates or hold candidates’ nights. Yet it intruded on the electoral process from 1984 to 1986, when it gave a total of $13,700 to the gubernatorial and mayoral campaigns of Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley — in violation of a California statute prohibiting tax-exempt religious groups such as NSA from making political contributions. After the Los Angeles Herald Examiner reported this past spring on one of the contributions, Bradley’s campaign committee returned the money at NSA’s request.
Bradley and another Californian, US Rep. Mervyn Dymally, have taken junkets financed by NSA and Soka Gakkai. Bradley and his wife attended NSA’s 1985 convention in Hawaii. Soka University in Japan, which was founded by Soka Gakkai in 1971, paid for recent trips by Dymally to Tokyo and Seoul. Last year, Dymally read a statement into the Congressional Record praising Ikeda as ”a man whose life has been completely devoted to youth and world peace.”
When NSA receives an endorsement, it makes the most of it — sometimes too much. For example, the Commission on the Bicentennial of the US Constitution sanctioned the New Freedom Bell in 1987 with the understanding that NSA would give the bell to the city of Philadelphia. When it turned out that Philadelphia did not have a site ready for the bell, NSA decided to exhibit it in schools where a teacher, aide, or parent was a member and could arrange an entree. Disturbed by this unexpected use of its logo by a religious group, the commission considered revoking recognition of the bell but found no legal grounds for the action.
“NSA is using that as a shoehorn to get in the schools,” a commission official says. “Any project taken into the schools has a captive audience. There’s a potential for using schools as a recruiting ground for their movement.”
Although Soka Gakkai and NSA don’t seek scholarly attention as assiduously as political endorsements, they know how to woo academics. Again, they are following the example of Ikeda, who has published several books of conversations with eminent scholars, such as the late historian Arnold Toynbee, and frequently donates books to European universities. Under Ikeda, Soka Gakkai has also published several antiwar books containing reminiscences of Japanese survivors of World War II.
When Daniel Metraux began researching his doctoral thesis on Soka Gakkai, he agreed to let its officials read the manuscript for factual errors. In return, the organization gave him interviews and access. The thesis portrayed Soka Gakkai as harmless and peace-loving, and when Metraux expanded it into a book, Soka Gakkai found him a Japanese publisher. Now Metraux, who is a professor at Mary Baldwin College in Virginia, works as a consultant for Soka Gakkai. “They make you feel very important,” he says.
Celebrity entertainers, too, enhance NSA’s image. Patrick Duffy, who plays Bobby Ewing on Dallas, was introduced to NSA in 1972, at the age of 22, by his future wife. At the time, he had recently ruptured both vocal cords, and his dream of an acting career seemed unattainable. Chanting as best he could, he regained his voice. Marriage, children, and stardom followed. “As of yet, to this day, I still don’t know how it works,” marvels Duffy, sitting in the Culver City office of his production company, Montana Power Inc.
Duffy, a midlevel leader in the NSA organization, has chanted all but eight days in the past 17 years. The benefits are guaranteed, he says, and any members who fail to experience them either do not chant enough or don’t count their blessings. “I can understand, but not with complete sympathy, someone leaving NSA,” he says.
Back in Charlestown, Conway is still smoothing NSA’s path. When the group considered buying a former school building in Allston-Brighton recently, he wrote a letter of support to the neighborhood council. He also invited NSA director Williams to be the featured speaker at the Bunker Hill Day exercises this past April, an honor traditionally reserved for Massachusetts politicians.
Williams couldn’t come — his fill-in was state Rep. Richard Voke, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee — but NSA sent the New Freedom Bell and 200 flag-waving members to the exercises. The next day, NSA participated in the Bunker Hill Day parade for the first time since 1975. NSA’s contingent, which was paid expenses only, included a brass band, a fife and drum corps, 80 dancers dressed as sunflowers, a 40-member drill dance team, and 300 gymnasts, who formed a human pyramid five stories high.
“God, it was impressive,” Conway says.
As for NSA’s Eppsteiner, he was pleased, too: “There are members who say, ‘You know, my first experience of NSA was seeing it in the Bunker Hill Day parade.’ ”
When District 15 of the Machinists Union decided to put its headquarters in New York City’s Union Square on the market last year, it had trouble finding a buyer. The highest bid was $2.5 million — half what the union believed the building was worth. Then, one day, NSA officials visited district president Hans Wedekin. Not only did they agree immediately to his $5 million price, but they paid for the entire amount by check. Now the attractive five-story brownstone is an NSA community center.
“It was the fastest deal I ever made,” Wedekin says.
In the past two years, NSA has pumped tens of millions of dollars into buying properties in more than a dozen American cities ranging in size from New York and Baltimore to Eugene, Oregon, and Colorado Springs, Colorado. By its own count, NSA now has 55 community centers, five cultural centers, six temples, and three training centers. The most expensive purchase this year may have been a $3.2 million property in San Francisco. The school in Allston- Brighton that NSA recently looked into is assessed at more than $2.2 million. Few of NSA’s properties are mortgaged: It usually pays the whole sum up front.
Where does the money come from? According to NSA, these purchases are financed by its regular income — subscriptions, bookstore sales, and the like — and special campaigns. Although members are not required to contribute to these campaigns, they are encouraged to improve their self-discipline by setting a substantial donation as a target and then meeting it. “It may be suggested to challenge yourself, see if you can give,” says Al Albergate, a former Los Angeles Herald Examiner reporter who is NSA’s public relations spokesman. “In this practice, you do get back more than you give.”
Jean, the former child psychologist in Boston, says she decided to use last year’s campaign to raise money for the New York center as a challenge to live within a budget. So she took a second job as a waitress and donated the income from it to the campaign.
Cult-watchers and ex-members argue that NSA exploits Jean and others like her. What makes matters worse, they say, is that members think NSA’s expansion depends on their sacrifices, when it is actually subsidized by Soka Gakkai in Japan. Not only does Soka Gakkai collect huge sums from donations and bequests, but it also owns rapidly appreciating Tokyo real estate and an art museum. Its extravagant bids for Western art have helped fuel the spectacular rise in art prices in recent years.
Eager to preserve NSA’s all-American image, its officials deny that it is funded from Japan. But they do not dispute that Soka University in Tokyo, an offshoot of Soka Gakkai, has made one expensive investment here that should benefit NSA. In 1986 the university bought a 248-acre estate in Calabasas, California, from the Church Universal and Triumphant, a religious cult, for $15.5 million. It far outbid the federal government, which wanted to turn the site into the centerpiece of a national recreation area. The location is intended for a four-year, liberal arts university. So far, Soka University/Los Angeles offers only English classes for visiting Japanese students.
A short walk from the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica, California, this modern four-story office building has the air of a bustling corporate headquarters. Nowhere in the lobby of NSA’s national headquarters do you see the word Buddhism; instead, visitors are greeted by a large map of the United States, with yellow lights marking where the New Freedom Bell has visited. Upstairs are offices of the World Tribune, which has a national circulation of 120,000 — more than the better-known Washington Times, controlled by the Unification Church. An eight-page weekly, the Tribune covers Ikeda’s ”history-making” meetings and reprints his speeches. It also contains testimony about the benefits of chanting from NSA members around the United States. To reach new immigrants, the last page is printed in a foreign language, with Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Spanish alternating from week to week.
Just down the street is a storefront office that houses NSA’s spin-off companies, including Freedom Music. Its musical, This Is America, the New World, was performed on September 6 in the 2,605-seat Boston Opera House.
Sixty miles east of Santa Monica, among vineyards and fields in the shadow of the San Gabriel Mountains, is a more serene place. It is one of the six temples of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism in the United States. There are no bells, flags, or photos of Ikeda in the chapel here, just a gohonzon on an altar, surrounded by candles, an incense burner, gold lotus flowers, and a drum to accompany the chanting.
Nor are there any visitors this morning, only the chief priest, Yosei Yamada, and his assistant. Yamada is one of NSA’s 11 priests in the United States; next year the number is planned to increase to 13. He officiates at weddings and funerals, and new members come to the temple three times a week to receive their scrolls. But he also has plenty of time alone to study Buddhist doctrine and the English language.
Asked if he marches in NSA parades, Yamada smiles and says, “The priests are on another kind of mission.”
The contrast between the busy headquarters and the isolated temple perhaps explains how a legitimate Buddhist sect can be so deeply into patriotism and public relations. Simply put, the lay organizations have as much power as the priests. It is as if the Knights of Columbus determined the policies of the Catholic Church. Although Soka Gakkai and NSA are lay groups, they instruct members and spread the faith. But the priests, the guardians of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism, do not proselytize and have little contact with members. Some members never see a priest after they receive their scrolls.
Over coffee in his sitting room, Yamada explains that this unusual situation has its roots in the writings of Nichiren, who believed that all other Buddhist sects were heretical and urged his followers to evangelize nonbelievers. Since the Nichiren priesthood was never numerous enough to propagate the word, it relied for centuries on a lay group, Hokaiko, which acknowledged its subordinate role. But Hokaiko was weak. Today it has perhaps 100,000 members worldwide. Despite practicing the same religion as Soka Gakkai members, they have become second-class citizens in Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism.
Soka Gakkai did not start as a religious group. It was founded in 1930 by T. Makiguchi, an educational theorist. Soon Makiguchi’s interests shifted to religion, and he offered to associate his group with Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism. Recognizing that Soka Gakkai was more energetic than Hokaiko, the high priest agreed. When Soka Gakkai’s membership skyrocketed in the 1945-52 period, known in Japan as the “Rush Hour of the Gods” because of the proliferation of religions, the priesthood found itself overwhelmed by the size and wealth of its lay organization.
Financially, the arrangement between the priesthood and Soka Gakkai benefits both sides. Every new member must pay a donation for a scroll, and the money goes to the upkeep of the temples. Even so, many priests have been unable to tolerate Soka Gakkai. In the late 1970s, 180 Nichiren Shoshu priests in Japan — a third of the priesthood there — as well as the chief priest in New York City protested what they viewed as glorification of Ikeda and a misrepresentation of Nichiren’s teachings to emphasize materialism. The priests in Japan were excommunicated, and they sued for reinstatement. According to Yamada, a Japanese appeals court recently ruled against them.
Rev. Kando Tono, the New York priest, was recalled to Japan under pressure from NSA. He says he was not excommunicated because Soka Gakkai did not want to test the issue in United States courts. He now takes care of Hokaiko members in London and New York. “If you start criticizing Soka Gakkai, you jeopardize your situation as a priest,” he says. “But they distorted the teachings of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism so it would appeal to nonbelievers.”
Yamada and other priests became concerned last year that NSA was recruiting people indiscriminately, without regard to whether they were truly committed to Buddhism. He could tell this was happening, he says, because not only were more people coming to the temple to receive their scrolls, but more were coming to give them back. In a typical week he would give out 300 gohonzons, but 20 would be returned. After consulting with the high priest in Japan, the priests met with NSA leaders, who agreed to be more careful. Now, Yamada says, he distributes only 200 gohonzons a week, and hardly any are returned.
Listening to Yamada, one is struck by the thought that perhaps the interplay between priests and lay leaders may underlie NSA’s back-and-forth history. NSA went from frantic flag-waving in the mid-1970s to a period of retreat and study, and now it’s back to glitz again. When lay leaders go too far, the priests rein them in; but if recruitment then falters, the laity reassumes control. One might even say that NSA shifts back and forth from religion to cult, depending on who’s in charge.
As his visitor leaves, Yamada says that he will soon devote his afternoons to studying Christianity. “Right now, I can’t understand the people’s mind, especially Western people,” he says. “I don’t understand the God which is taught in Christianity, the creator.”
If Tom Wolfe saw this spectacle of affluent professionals chanting to a Japanese scroll, he might call it Buddhist chic. Shoeless and sweaty on a sticky summer night, 25 people are crammed into a living room on the top floor of a fashionable Cambridge three-decker. The room is decorated with Oriental art and the inevitable Ikeda photo, but furniture is sparse, and most guests sit on the floor. The focus of their worship hangs in a wooden altar in one corner, against a background of pink paper and silk cloth, illuminated by a spotlight.
Like any of the dozens of weekly NSA meetings in the Boston area, this one is not primarily an opportunity for members to practice their religion. They have their own gohonzons at home. Its main purpose is recruitment. Several members have brought friends along, and everything is arranged for their comfort. You can spot the newcomers: the shy woman in the back of the room; the fellow staring intently at the group leaders explaining the evening’s agenda; and the man on the couch who lets the woman next to him wind beads around his fingers and trace the words of the chant for him in her prayer book. Reluctantly, he mumbles the words.
When the chanting ends, a member stands up to talk about “The Nine Levels of Consciousness,” an aspect of Buddhist doctrine. His lecture soon segues into a plea to the newcomers to try chanting. As a professor for 25 years, he says, he had the “unmitigated arrogance” to reject anything that seemed irrational. But he was wrong. “The only way to understand it is to chant yourself,” he says. “After a while, as ludicrous as it seems, you can’t deny the power and the influence.”
A patriotic song follows his discourse. Members hold up posters on which lyrics are printed so first-timers can follow along. For the baby boomers here, the words carry overtones of President Kennedy’s inaugural address. ”What can I do, America, to make you proud you gave me birth?” they sing. ”I’ll be the one to say, ‘America, what can I do for you?’ ”
Next come the testimonials. Bill, a computer software manager, tells the group that he wasn’t sure whether he could finish an important job on time, so he got up early every day and chanted at the Boston community center. As it turned out, the software was ready on schedule for the first time in the history of his company, and Bill was promoted.
Nancy confesses that chanting helped her through the emotional anxiety of her engagement and the discovery of a malignancy in her mother’s colon. “I realized, no matter what happened to my mom, I was still going to be tremendously happy on my wedding day,” she says. Everything turned out for the best: The weather was perfect for the wedding, and an operation revealed that her mother’s tumor was not spreading.
Now an NSA leader asks if anyone at the meeting is a guest. Since the man on the couch slipped out during Nancy’s talk, there are only two left: the shy woman and Mike, who is attending his third meeting. The leader tells them that the real purpose of the meeting is to introduce them to Buddhism. Do they have any questions?
The woman is silent. Mike, a hard-headed type, wants to know how long he must chant before getting results. The leader says it depends on the intensity of Mike’s chanting. “Whether you believe in it or not is not critical,” he says. “Faith is not initially required.”
Mike doesn’t seem satisfied, and the leader recounts his own conversion to Buddhism. He hated his boss, but two days of chanting led to a reconciliation. Mike perks up. “So it happens really quick,” he says.
Mike has a final question: How does NSA improve chances for world peace? The leader says that NSA members in Argentina and England chanted to end the Falklands War. As more members join, he says, their chanting will be powerful enough to stop any war.
The newcomers are encouraged to receive their scrolls at the Boston community center the following Sunday, and the meeting breaks up. Members surround Mike to ask if he will join NSA.
“I’m still investigating it,” he says. “But I’ve started chanting.”
RABELL;09/18 LDRISC;10/20,23:29 NSA2
All content herein is © 1996 the Globe Newspaper Company and may not be republished without permission.
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Buddhism American style
cloaking itself in super-patriotism, Nicherin Shoshu Of America is part of an evangelical buddhist secty gaining adherents worldwide with a guarantee of happiness through chanting. Sounds pretty harmless, right? Cult-watchers and ex-members don’t think so.
Date: Sunday, October 15, 1989
Section: Boston Globe Sunday Magazine
Page: 18 ff.
By Daniel Golden, Globe Staff
Florence Hadley, principal of the David A. Ellis School in Roxbury, had never heard of the New Freedom Bell. Nor was she familiar with the organization that was exhibiting the bell in schools across the country. But when her school was offered a chance to host the facsimile of Philadelphia’s famed Liberty Bell, she responded the way any patriotic American would.
“I just thought it was a super idea to have the children see a replica of the Liberty Bell,” she says. “The Ellis needs all the positive things it can get.”
As it happens, the offer came one day this past spring from Tamara McClinton, an Ellis parent who dropped in at the school office to tell Hadley about the bell. Hadley felt a bit bewildered that McClinton kept referring to the group sponsoring the tour by the abbreviation NSA, as if the principal should have known what it stood for. McClinton herself was an NSA member. Hadley finally asked what the letters meant, but the answer was a jumble of words that made no sense to her. Still, she was impressed by the documents McClinton showed her: letters from school administrators and elected officials thanking NSA for bringing its bell to their districts. What better opportunity could there be for children to learn about the Constitution?
So Hadley invited pupils from five other elementary schools and prepared for a star-spangled celebration. All of the schools were provided with copies of a pamphlet that teachers could use in their classrooms or children could bring home. Entitled The New Common Sense, after Thomas Paine’s plea for American independence, the pamphlet urged children to buy American products and listed a California phone number and publisher, the World Tribune Press. It did not mention NSA, whatever that was.
The bell arrived at the grounds of the Ellis School at 9 on the misty morning of June 13. It sat on a flatbed truck in a makeshift enclosure decorated with mayoral proclamations, the NSA insignia, the “We the People” logo of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the US Constitution, and red, white, and blue bunting. Accompanying it were dozens of people, blacks and whites, with neat haircuts and glowing smiles. The men were dressed as Minutemen and carried American flags; the women wore frilly Betsy Ross petticoats and caps. Clean-cut and all-American, they looked like a group George Bush could embrace.
Local television stations and newspapers were on hand to cover what was the perfect media event: colorful, punctual, well-organized, and uplifting. State Rep. Gloria Fox made a rousing speech, and 800 children rang the bell, 30 of them at a time tugging the rope. Boston School Superintendent Laval Wilson rang it, too, with a perplexed look. He was later spotted asking several Minutemen what NSA was.
“I really don’t know anything about that group. I was just in the bell- ringing ceremony,” he says.
Had Wilson pursued his inquiries, he would have uncovered a sobering irony and a lesson in how any group can co-opt American patriotic symbols. He and other guests were helping a controversial Japanese religious organization in its quest to seem familiar to Americans. NSA stands for Nichiren Shoshu of America, the United States affiliate of an evangelical Buddhist sect that is gaining adherents worldwide with a sunny, simplistic guarantee of peace and prosperity through chanting a Japanese phrase. By cloaking itself in Old Glory, NSA may have become the fastest-growing religious group in this country. Yet cult-watchers denounce it, and ex-members distribute newsletters warning that its practices and all-absorbing lifestyle can amount to brainwashing.
The New Freedom Bell is one of many patriotic devices that NSA uses to establish credibility as an American organization and solicit endorsements from politicians and civic leaders. That strategy seems to be succeeding. NSA literature displays congratulatory letters from then-Vice President George Bush, Sen. Edward Kennedy, Mayor Raymond Flynn, and Gov. Mario Cuomo of New York, among other potentates, and Sen. John Kerry was a featured speaker at NSA’s convention in New York City in 1986.
NSA stole the show at Bush’s inauguration in January by displaying on the Washington Mall the world’s largest chair — a 39-foot-high model of the chair that George Washington sat in as he presided over the Continental Congress. The Guinness Book of World Records has twice cited NSA for assembling the most American flags ever in a parade, although in one mention it misidentified the group as “Nissan Shoshu,” confusing the religious organization with the automaker.
“NSA is one of the largest destructive cults in the country,” says Steven Hassan, a former member of the Unification Church and the author of Combating Cult Mind Control. “They like to talk about peace and democracy, but their beliefs at the core are antithetical to that. Like all other cults, they espouse wonderful ideas and worthy goals. The question is, what are they doing to meet those goals? Are they just espousing them to recruit people, to gain money and power? The difference between a cult like NSA and an aggressive religion is that the religion tells people up front who they are and what they want.”
NSA’s parent organization is Soka Gakkai (“Value-Creating Society”), a lay religious group dedicated to spreading the teachings of Nichiren, a 13th- century Buddhist monk. One of several groups that filled the void left by the discrediting of the traditional Shinto faith after World War II, Soka Gakkai has an estimated 10 million members in Japan and collects more than $1 billion in donations annually. It also founded Japan’s third-largest political party: Komeito, or “Clean Government.” Although charges of violating the separation of church and state led Soka Gakkai to cut formal ties with the party, it still remains the power behind Komeito.
The price of Soka Gakkai’s political prominence has been recurrent scandal. Its leader, Daisaku Ikeda, stepped down as its president in 1979 after being accused of everything from wire-tapping the home telephone of a Japanese Communist Party official to arranging for his mistress to be nominated by Komeito for a seat in the Diet. He remains president of Soka Gakkai’s international wing. Recently, Komeito members have been linked to a bribery scandal plaguing the Liberal Democrats, Japan’s ruling party. This past July, workers pried open an old safe in a Yokohama waste dump and discovered $1.2 million in yen notes. The money belonged to Soka Gakkai.
Beleaguered at home, Soka Gakkai has looked abroad, establishing chapters in 110 countries. Wherever it goes, it identifies with local traditions. For example, its wing in England bought a country estate that includes among its attractions a cedar tree planted by Winston Churchill, as well as a statue of King George III — one man who presumably would have declined to ring the New Freedom Bell. At Taplow Court, members of NSUK (Nichiren Shoshu of United Kingdom) regularly put on Elizabethan plays and traditional country fairs.
NSA was Soka Gakkai’s first overseas chapter, and it remains the largest. Established in 1960 by a Japanese immigrant who changed his name to George Williams, NSA at first appealed mainly to Japanese-Americans. Today, Williams remains the head, and most of his top aides are of Japanese descent, but the rank-and-file membership is diverse. According to a 1983 NSA study of its members, 45 percent are white, 24 percent are Asian, and 19 percent are black. Only 16 percent of members who joined in the 1980s were Asian-Americans. (According to the study, 60 percent of members are female.)
Kevin O’Neil, president of the American Buddhist Movement, says NSA has been more successful than any other Buddhist sect in attracting Americans who are not of Asian descent. O’Neil’s organization includes all of the 366 Buddhist sects in America except NSA, which refuses to join on the grounds that it alone preaches the true faith. “When people get very involved in NSA, they won’t associate with people who are Buddhists but not in their sect,” O’Neil says. “Then they talk about world peace and coming together. That, I find, is a little culty.”
NSA claims a membership of 500,000, which is almost certainly an exaggeration; O’Neil believes the actual figure is about 150,000. Based in Southern California, NSA has gained a reputation as a Hollywood religion because of celebrity members such as singer Tina Turner, actor Patrick Duffy, and jazz keyboardist Herbie Hancock. But it boasts an East Coast following as well, including about 4,000 people in New England.
“Obviously, we’re growing in terms of numbers,” says Gerry Hall, an aide to Williams. “And it’s pretty solid. There’s a second generation. What’s great is to see that it’s not just the baby boomers did this thing and faded away and their kids won’t follow in their footsteps. It’s genuinely a family religion.”
The Ellis School parents who belong to NSA include not only McClinton, a news editor at WGBH-TV, but also Roslyn Parks. Parks is executive director of the Black Cultural Exposition, which is scheduled for the Hynes Auditorium later this month. Among other events, it will feature a film, The Contemporary Gladiator, written and produced by a karate expert who belongs to NSA. It is the story of a karate champion who chants for victory.
Parks credits her chanting with curing a heart ailment that she says would otherwise have required open-heart surgery. She sings in an NSA chorus at parades and festivals. “As a black American, I thought I wasn’t from this country,” she says. “I was from Africa, and they forced me here. It wasn’t until I joined NSA that I developed a sense of patriotism. Some of my friends who are into blackness are saying, ‘What’s with you, girl?’ I say, ‘This is our country. There are things to be proud of.’ ”
Howard Hunter, who teaches Asian religion at Tufts University, opens a desk drawer and pulls out a photograph of a young man with his scalp and eyebrows shaven, sitting cross-legged before a hut in Thailand. Not so long ago, Hunter says, that young man was a Tufts student and fraternity brother.
“That’s the fear of Americans, that their children will wind up looking like that,” Hunter says. “And it’s manifestly clear that nobody who joins NSA will end up looking like that. They don’t renounce the world.”
Not only does NSA outdo the Daughters of the American Revolution in patriotic fervor, but it also bears a message tailored to the American dream. Most Eastern sects seeking a foothold here urge renunciation of earthly pleasures, but NSA preaches that material gain is a pathway to spiritual enlightenment. Whether its materialism derives from Nichiren, which NSA’s critics dispute, it sounds conveniently like Horatio Alger. “They’re linking into the deepest cultural themes, economic gain and patriotism,” says sociologist David Bromley of Virginia Commonwealth University. Then, too, many aspects of NSA — the revivalist fervor, the use of testimony to sway doubters, faith healing, and disdain for other sects — bear less resemblance to traditional Buddhism than to Protestant fundamentalism.
Recognizing that NSA’s future depends on avoiding bad publicity, its officials have learned from the mistakes of the Unification Church, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness, and other groups stereotyped in the public mind as cults. For example, NSA recruiting methods are persistent but discreet. Although members occasionally hand out cards in airports or outside restaurants, they mainly proselytize friends, neighbors, and co-workers. And, unlike some groups viewed as cults, NSA does not abduct members from their families, deprive them of food and sleep, seize their possessions, or prevent them from quitting. Nor does it avenge itself on its opponents, like a California group that put a snake in the mailbox of a critic.
“I haven’t heard a suggestion of high-pressure tactics that remotely resemble some tactics we’ve seen in other groups,” says James White, a professor of political science at the University of North Carolina and author of a book about Soka Gakkai. “They are just as entitled to have a place in the American religious spectrum as anything else. If it gets you through the night, and it’s not personally or socially pathological, I don’t see anything wrong with it.”
Yet, to ex-members and anticult groups, NSA’s flag-waving smacks of Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s “God Bless America” tour in 1972. They say NSA achieves the same goals as more notorious groups but with greater subtlety. Rather than kidnap members from relatives, NSA instills a hostile attitude toward nonbelievers, they say, and schedules so many group activities that family ties fade. While it does not coerce contributions from members, it encourages donations with the philosophy that the gift will be repaid tenfold in their own lives. And its fundamental credo — that chanting brings good luck — conveys a psychological threat, according to former members: If you stop, bad things will happen to you.
“You don’t go to an ashram, you don’t wear different clothes, you aren’t a vegetarian,” says one former NSA member who asked not to be identified. ”It’s all an internal mind-set. Once you’ve got that, you can be anywhere on earth and still be a dedicated believer. That’s why I think the telltale signs of mind control should be taught in the schools.
“A lot of people say, ‘Well, they joined because they had personal problems.’ It’s blame the victim. Everyone has personal problems. The key is, they wouldn’t get involved if they knew the danger signs. I could kick myself. How come I didn’t see it? But I didn’t know what to look for.”
Few of the hundreds of schools where NSA sought to bring its bell in the past school year knew what to look for, either. And only two — a public junior high in a New York City suburb and the United Nations School in New York City — spurned the offer.
“It’s very seductive,” says Sylvia Fuhrman, the secretary-general’s special representative for the UN school. “All these glorious photographs. Their brochures are as polished and beautiful as National Geographic. But the more we checked into it, the less we liked it. Nowhere can you find who is footing the bill. That’s what alerted me. I thought of poor souls being enticed into it.”
Arhythmic, high-pitched wail emanates one summer evening from a large conference room on the ground floor of an inconspicuous two-story South End building, the NSA center in Boston. Inside, the room is mostly bare of decoration, with white walls and white track lighting. At the front stands a wooden altar encasing a sacred scroll, called a gohonzon. It contains passages and characters from the Lotus Sutra, a holy Buddhist text, in the handwriting of the high priest of Nichiren Shoshu in Japan. Nichiren himself carved the first gohonzon in a block of camphor wood. On the left of the altar is a framed photo of the controversial Ikeda, who remains president of Soka Gakkai International. On the right is an American flag.
Led by Robert Eppsteiner, NSA’s only salaried staff member in Boston, about 150 people sit facing the gohonzon, chanting passages from the Lotus Sutra. Many of them follow the passages in booklets, and some wind beads around their fingers. It is a multiracial group, and there is no conformity as to dress: Some members are in T-shirts, while others have come straight from work in their suits and ties. A large proportion are mothers with babies, awaiting a meeting of the young mothers’ group later. Such subgroupings characterize NSA’s structure. Not only is it organized into units of increasing size, from districts to headquarters and joint territories, but members are also aligned by age and sex. The men’s and women’s divisions are for adults over 35, while adults under that age are placed in young men’s and young women’s divisions.
After they finish reciting the Lotus Sutra chapters, the members chant the phrase that is the bedrock of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism: “Nam myoho renge kyo,” or “Devotion to the Lotus Sutra.” By repeating this phrase for a minimum of an hour a day, members claim to reach harmony with the universe. Fortune comes their way: a job, good health, a spouse, even a parking space. You can’t doubt their sincerity, although a nonbeliever might suggest other explanations for their success: coincidence or new-found self-confidence. Members may become better employees — and win raises and promotions — simply because they absorb the Japanese values of punctuality, loyalty, and teamwork.
“Nichiren taught devotion to the Lotus Sutra with monolithic firmness . . . ,” according to Religious and Spiritual Groups in Modern America, by Robert Ellwood and Harry Partin. “This radical simplicity and unity, focusing all down to a single intense point, is the secret of Nichiren: one scripture, one man, one country, one object of worship, one practice, all potentialities realized in one moment which is the present.”
The NSA center contains a music room, where members practice for bell- ringings and concerts, and a bookstore, where they buy everything from candlesticks and NSA baseball caps to books by Ikeda. Members venerate Ikeda as a crusader for peace, and their devotion has made him one of the world’s best-selling authors.
Eppsteiner ushers a reporter upstairs, past a framed letter from Sen. Edward Kennedy praising a recent NSA peace festival, and into his office. Raised as a Reform Jew, Eppsteiner joined NSA in 1969, when he was a student at Boston University. A Brookline neighbor introduced him to NSA, and he soon found that chanting made him feel good and improved his grades. He has made eight pilgrimages to the Nichiren Shoshu head temple, near Mount Fuji.
“It’s rare for someone to start practicing who’s seeking Buddhism. They’re not. They’re seeking a way to improve their lives,” he says. “If you set yourself up as different from society, that creates more barriers. Unlike some other groups, we don’t hang out our shingle as Buddhists.”
Politely, Eppsteiner controls the reporter’s access. He picks members to be interviewed and sits in on the conversations. Later, he calls frequently to check on the progress of the article and to request that members’ last names not be used.
The members selected by Eppsteiner to be interviewed include a former child psychologist, who now chants three hours a day for guidance because she is in the midst of a career change; a Boston College instructor who teaches a course in Buddhism and says that every year a couple of her students join NSA; and a fourth-year medical student who is an intern at Boston City Hospital.
Katherine, the medical student, glows with enthusiasm as she talks about NSA, which she joined six years ago, after dropping out of medical school. “I was practicing chanting for a year before I went back,” she says. “I was told I had a snowball’s chance in hell of getting back in. But I chanted and I got in. I was a different type of student. I had been critical. I didn’t like the courses, I didn’t like the professors, I didn’t like my fellow students. When I got back, I applied the Buddhist concept that your environment is a reflection of you. What I learned is that, if they say 99 things that are worthless and one that’s important, wouldn’t it be a shame if you missed that one thing? Wouldn’t it be great if everyone lived by that rule?”
At BCH, Katherine sometimes must work 24-hour or 36-hour shifts in surgery without sleep. After 18 hours, while other interns eat dinner, she slips into a bathroom to chant. “You know the burnout syndrome,” she says. “You give and give and give, and you’re on empty. Chanting is a way to build up your tank.” Asked if she could ever be so exhausted that chanting could not revive her, she says, “I believe it’s limitless.”
Besides young mothers, a newly formed group of 40 teen-age girls is meeting tonight, and their session is like a pep rally. After singing an NSA ditty, ”The Renaissance of Peace,” they applaud and shout, “Hip, hip, hooray!” Then they quiet down to hear testimonials from several of their peers.
A 14-year-old from Quincy says she was depressed by petty jealousies among her schoolmates until she marched in the NSA contingent in the Bunker Hill Day parade this past April. “I was higher than the sky,” she says. “I no longer needed my friends’ attention as a source of happiness. I relied on President Ikeda’s words to challenge the obstacles of friendship.”
A high school senior from Dorchester chanted for a close friend who used to deal drugs. “Gradually he’s given up selling drugs and now works at an honest job,” she says.
Her ambition is to go to college and have a happy family. She concludes, ”I know, if I keep chanting, I can’t miss.”
Talking over lunch at a Manhattan restaurant, every so often Mary still refers to NSA as “we.” And, on request, she can shift into her old recruiting voice: “Do you know the benefits of chanting ‘Nam myoho renge kyo?’ ” But it’s been a year now since she quit NSA and underwent four days of deprogramming. Now, she says, she knows that it’s just another cult.
At the urging of a friend, Mary attended her first NSA meeting in 1982, when she was studying to be a classical musician. She felt right at home. ”After the first meeting I felt that the people were ones I would have chosen as friends. And there was no racism or social class discrimination. Nobody cared. To this day I’m still impressed by that.”
Her commitment strengthened when she chanted for a job to support her violin studies — and was hired at her first interview. But for Mary the ultimate proof was spiritual rather than financial. The young women’s division of NSA to which she belonged was giving a concert, and the division leader asked her to join the chorus. She was reluctant — “I didn’t see what joining an amateur chorus had to do with Beethoven” — but she agreed.
Rehearsals were grueling, and the singers chanted during breaks to replenish their energy. When the great day arrived, all of the other divisions showed up to help with lighting and to hand out programs. And then, on stage, Mary had what she thought was a religious experience. Now she believes it was the result of fatigue and sensory overload.
“Here I am singing,” she says. “I was transformed by the atmosphere. At that moment I thought that was what Buddhism was all about. I had no doubts.”
From then on, Mary threw herself into NSA activities and advanced in the organization. She was chosen to attend a youth division meeting with Ikeda in San Diego, and for weeks she awoke at 5 every morning to go to the New York community center and chant to prepare herself for the trip.
Rising in NSA meant more responsibility to contribute money and recruit members. Her initial investment had been meager: $17 for a gohonzon, and subscriptions to two publications of NSA’s World Tribune Press: the weekly World Tribune ($4 per month) and the Seikyo Times ($4.50 per month). Soon she was buying candles, incense, and Ikeda’s books. Then she was honored with an invitation to join a committee of people who gave a minimum of $15 a month to NSA. By the time she left, she was contributing $50 a month.
NSA dedicates February and August to “shakubuku,” or recruiting. In those months Mary scrambled to meet recruiting goals posted on the community-center altar for new members and subscribers. Desperate, she bought extra subscriptions herself and invited complete strangers to meetings in her home.
“It makes you so uncomfortable and anxiety-ridden,” she says. “You chant your butt off. If you think you won’t make a target, you sweat it out in front of the gohonzon.”
Immersed in NSA, Mary neglected the rest of her life. She quit practicing the violin because she had no time for it. She rarely saw her parents and forgot their birthdays. She lost a six-year relationship with a man she loved — and felt no pain. “For me, it was like a leaf falling off a tree in the fall.”
The frantic pace undermined her health, and she began having dizzy spells on the subway early in 1988. Assured that they were trivial by her NSA leader, she redoubled her shakubuku efforts that February. On March 1 she collapsed, with what was later diagnosed as low blood sugar and a depleted adrenal gland. Her parents brought her home and invited former NSA members to talk to her. She is grateful for the counseling, she says, because members who walk out on their own and don’t receive any support often remain confused and depressed.
Today she is healthy and studying music in graduate school. “You feel, while you’re in NSA, that people on the outside have a boring life,” she says. “You have a consuming passion. If you do great chanting, and then go in to work, it’s a great feeling. It seemed very heroic.
“But what is the trade-off? You go in at 20, and if you get out at 30 you see what you missed. The hardest part about being out is realizing, ‘I could have done this five years ago.’
“NSA gives people hope,” Mary says. “For people who have no other hope, that’s something. But you have to decide, would you rather have hope or truth? Maybe, if I had a terminal illness and there was nothing to lose, I might chant myself. But it’s a false hope.”
Like Laval Wilson, James Conway admits knowing little about NSA’s beliefs and practices. But the chairman of Charlestown’s Bunker Hill Day parade has done more for NSA’s public relations than just ringing a bell.
At Conway’s invitation, NSA began sending its contingents of brass bands and fife and drum corps to the Bunker Hill Day parade in 1973. In 1975, NSA gave Conway and his wife and two children an all-expenses-paid trip to its convention in Hawaii — an extravaganza featuring a historical drama about the Revolutionary War and a tribute to George M. Cohan, all on an artificial island built for the occasion. “It was, like, a quid pro quo,” Conway says.
Conway has repaid that quid with more quos. When NSA officials needed approval for a bicentennial parade against the traffic from the Prudential Center to City Hall in 1976, Conway introduced them not only to the traffic commissioner, who okayed it, but also to several city councilors. NSA members gave leis and pineapples to the councilors, including Albert (Dapper) O’Neil. O’Neil brought the delegation into Mayor Kevin White’s office, where they posed for a photograph with the mayor.
“They may have some kind of a religion there, but that doesn’t faze me,” O’Neil says. “I think there’s some Buddhism there, I think. They’re very patriotic people. There’s a lot of people in this country, I don’t see them honoring the flag, I see them burning the flag.”
NSA’s relationships with Conway and O’Neil typify its assiduous courting of civic leaders. “It doesn’t run front groups like the Moonies,” says Cynthia Kisser, executive director of the Chicago-based Cult Awareness Network, a nonprofit group dedicated to informing the public about cults. “You don’t see a concerted effort to interfere in the political process by running candidates. What you see is a tremendous public relations attempt with these parades and the bell, going around to the schools, and getting the keys to the city from the mayor.”
This strategy appears to have been handed down from President Ikeda, who rivals the pope for pictures taken with world leaders. Ikeda has met with the late Chou En-lai, Henry Kissinger, Edward Kennedy, Margaret Thatcher, and Manuel Noriega, who was an honored guest at an NSA convention before his drug connections were widely known. Ikeda also burnished his image by giving $500,000 to the United Nations, which awarded him a peace medal and granted consultative status to Soka Gakkai, NSA’s parent organization.
According to NSA’s Gerry Hall, the purpose of NSA’s pursuit of politicians is twofold: to encourage members by showing them that important people sympathize with their aims, and to induce the politicians themselves to try chanting. NSA is usually too tactful to proselytize dignitaries directly, although a Boston School Committee member at the Ellis bell-ringing was invited to an NSA meeting. But NSA officials hope that their patriotism — and swelling ranks of voting-age members — speak for them.
So far, no politicians on the national scene belong to NSA, but some local ones have converted. State Sen. William Owens (D-Roxbury) admits to chanting and owning a gohonzon, although he says he remains a member of New Hope Baptist Church.
NSA officials say that the group stays out of American politics. It does not endorse candidates or hold candidates’ nights. Yet it intruded on the electoral process from 1984 to 1986, when it gave a total of $13,700 to the gubernatorial and mayoral campaigns of Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley — in violation of a California statute prohibiting tax-exempt religious groups such as NSA from making political contributions. After the Los Angeles Herald Examiner reported this past spring on one of the contributions, Bradley’s campaign committee returned the money at NSA’s request.
Bradley and another Californian, US Rep. Mervyn Dymally, have taken junkets financed by NSA and Soka Gakkai. Bradley and his wife attended NSA’s 1985 convention in Hawaii. Soka University in Japan, which was founded by Soka Gakkai in 1971, paid for recent trips by Dymally to Tokyo and Seoul. Last year, Dymally read a statement into the Congressional Record praising Ikeda as ”a man whose life has been completely devoted to youth and world peace.”
When NSA receives an endorsement, it makes the most of it — sometimes too much. For example, the Commission on the Bicentennial of the US Constitution sanctioned the New Freedom Bell in 1987 with the understanding that NSA would give the bell to the city of Philadelphia. When it turned out that Philadelphia did not have a site ready for the bell, NSA decided to exhibit it in schools where a teacher, aide, or parent was a member and could arrange an entree. Disturbed by this unexpected use of its logo by a religious group, the commission considered revoking recognition of the bell but found no legal grounds for the action.
“NSA is using that as a shoehorn to get in the schools,” a commission official says. “Any project taken into the schools has a captive audience. There’s a potential for using schools as a recruiting ground for their movement.”
Although Soka Gakkai and NSA don’t seek scholarly attention as assiduously as political endorsements, they know how to woo academics. Again, they are following the example of Ikeda, who has published several books of conversations with eminent scholars, such as the late historian Arnold Toynbee, and frequently donates books to European universities. Under Ikeda, Soka Gakkai has also published several antiwar books containing reminiscences of Japanese survivors of World War II.
When Daniel Metraux began researching his doctoral thesis on Soka Gakkai, he agreed to let its officials read the manuscript for factual errors. In return, the organization gave him interviews and access. The thesis portrayed Soka Gakkai as harmless and peace-loving, and when Metraux expanded it into a book, Soka Gakkai found him a Japanese publisher. Now Metraux, who is a professor at Mary Baldwin College in Virginia, works as a consultant for Soka Gakkai. “They make you feel very important,” he says.
Celebrity entertainers, too, enhance NSA’s image. Patrick Duffy, who plays Bobby Ewing on Dallas, was introduced to NSA in 1972, at the age of 22, by his future wife. At the time, he had recently ruptured both vocal cords, and his dream of an acting career seemed unattainable. Chanting as best he could, he regained his voice. Marriage, children, and stardom followed. “As of yet, to this day, I still don’t know how it works,” marvels Duffy, sitting in the Culver City office of his production company, Montana Power Inc.
Duffy, a midlevel leader in the NSA organization, has chanted all but eight days in the past 17 years. The benefits are guaranteed, he says, and any members who fail to experience them either do not chant enough or don’t count their blessings. “I can understand, but not with complete sympathy, someone leaving NSA,” he says.
Back in Charlestown, Conway is still smoothing NSA’s path. When the group considered buying a former school building in Allston-Brighton recently, he wrote a letter of support to the neighborhood council. He also invited NSA director Williams to be the featured speaker at the Bunker Hill Day exercises this past April, an honor traditionally reserved for Massachusetts politicians.
Williams couldn’t come — his fill-in was state Rep. Richard Voke, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee — but NSA sent the New Freedom Bell and 200 flag-waving members to the exercises. The next day, NSA participated in the Bunker Hill Day parade for the first time since 1975. NSA’s contingent, which was paid expenses only, included a brass band, a fife and drum corps, 80 dancers dressed as sunflowers, a 40-member drill dance team, and 300 gymnasts, who formed a human pyramid five stories high.
“God, it was impressive,” Conway says.
As for NSA’s Eppsteiner, he was pleased, too: “There are members who say, ‘You know, my first experience of NSA was seeing it in the Bunker Hill Day parade.’ ”
When District 15 of the Machinists Union decided to put its headquarters in New York City’s Union Square on the market last year, it had trouble finding a buyer. The highest bid was $2.5 million — half what the union believed the building was worth. Then, one day, NSA officials visited district president Hans Wedekin. Not only did they agree immediately to his $5 million price, but they paid for the entire amount by check. Now the attractive five-story brownstone is an NSA community center.
“It was the fastest deal I ever made,” Wedekin says.
In the past two years, NSA has pumped tens of millions of dollars into buying properties in more than a dozen American cities ranging in size from New York and Baltimore to Eugene, Oregon, and Colorado Springs, Colorado. By its own count, NSA now has 55 community centers, five cultural centers, six temples, and three training centers. The most expensive purchase this year may have been a $3.2 million property in San Francisco. The school in Allston- Brighton that NSA recently looked into is assessed at more than $2.2 million. Few of NSA’s properties are mortgaged: It usually pays the whole sum up front.
Where does the money come from? According to NSA, these purchases are financed by its regular income — subscriptions, bookstore sales, and the like — and special campaigns. Although members are not required to contribute to these campaigns, they are encouraged to improve their self-discipline by setting a substantial donation as a target and then meeting it. “It may be suggested to challenge yourself, see if you can give,” says Al Albergate, a former Los Angeles Herald Examiner reporter who is NSA’s public relations spokesman. “In this practice, you do get back more than you give.”
Jean, the former child psychologist in Boston, says she decided to use last year’s campaign to raise money for the New York center as a challenge to live within a budget. So she took a second job as a waitress and donated the income from it to the campaign.
Cult-watchers and ex-members argue that NSA exploits Jean and others like her. What makes matters worse, they say, is that members think NSA’s expansion depends on their sacrifices, when it is actually subsidized by Soka Gakkai in Japan. Not only does Soka Gakkai collect huge sums from donations and bequests, but it also owns rapidly appreciating Tokyo real estate and an art museum. Its extravagant bids for Western art have helped fuel the spectacular rise in art prices in recent years.
Eager to preserve NSA’s all-American image, its officials deny that it is funded from Japan. But they do not dispute that Soka University in Tokyo, an offshoot of Soka Gakkai, has made one expensive investment here that should benefit NSA. In 1986 the university bought a 248-acre estate in Calabasas, California, from the Church Universal and Triumphant, a religious cult, for $15.5 million. It far outbid the federal government, which wanted to turn the site into the centerpiece of a national recreation area. The location is intended for a four-year, liberal arts university. So far, Soka University/Los Angeles offers only English classes for visiting Japanese students.
A short walk from the Pacific Ocean in Santa Monica, California, this modern four-story office building has the air of a bustling corporate headquarters. Nowhere in the lobby of NSA’s national headquarters do you see the word Buddhism; instead, visitors are greeted by a large map of the United States, with yellow lights marking where the New Freedom Bell has visited. Upstairs are offices of the World Tribune, which has a national circulation of 120,000 — more than the better-known Washington Times, controlled by the Unification Church. An eight-page weekly, the Tribune covers Ikeda’s ”history-making” meetings and reprints his speeches. It also contains testimony about the benefits of chanting from NSA members around the United States. To reach new immigrants, the last page is printed in a foreign language, with Japanese, Korean, Chinese, and Spanish alternating from week to week.
Just down the street is a storefront office that houses NSA’s spin-off companies, including Freedom Music. Its musical, This Is America, the New World, was performed on September 6 in the 2,605-seat Boston Opera House.
Sixty miles east of Santa Monica, among vineyards and fields in the shadow of the San Gabriel Mountains, is a more serene place. It is one of the six temples of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism in the United States. There are no bells, flags, or photos of Ikeda in the chapel here, just a gohonzon on an altar, surrounded by candles, an incense burner, gold lotus flowers, and a drum to accompany the chanting.
Nor are there any visitors this morning, only the chief priest, Yosei Yamada, and his assistant. Yamada is one of NSA’s 11 priests in the United States; next year the number is planned to increase to 13. He officiates at weddings and funerals, and new members come to the temple three times a week to receive their scrolls. But he also has plenty of time alone to study Buddhist doctrine and the English language.
Asked if he marches in NSA parades, Yamada smiles and says, “The priests are on another kind of mission.”
The contrast between the busy headquarters and the isolated temple perhaps explains how a legitimate Buddhist sect can be so deeply into patriotism and public relations. Simply put, the lay organizations have as much power as the priests. It is as if the Knights of Columbus determined the policies of the Catholic Church. Although Soka Gakkai and NSA are lay groups, they instruct members and spread the faith. But the priests, the guardians of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism, do not proselytize and have little contact with members. Some members never see a priest after they receive their scrolls.
Over coffee in his sitting room, Yamada explains that this unusual situation has its roots in the writings of Nichiren, who believed that all other Buddhist sects were heretical and urged his followers to evangelize nonbelievers. Since the Nichiren priesthood was never numerous enough to propagate the word, it relied for centuries on a lay group, Hokaiko, which acknowledged its subordinate role. But Hokaiko was weak. Today it has perhaps 100,000 members worldwide. Despite practicing the same religion as Soka Gakkai members, they have become second-class citizens in Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism.
Soka Gakkai did not start as a religious group. It was founded in 1930 by T. Makiguchi, an educational theorist. Soon Makiguchi’s interests shifted to religion, and he offered to associate his group with Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism. Recognizing that Soka Gakkai was more energetic than Hokaiko, the high priest agreed. When Soka Gakkai’s membership skyrocketed in the 1945-52 period, known in Japan as the “Rush Hour of the Gods” because of the proliferation of religions, the priesthood found itself overwhelmed by the size and wealth of its lay organization.
Financially, the arrangement between the priesthood and Soka Gakkai benefits both sides. Every new member must pay a donation for a scroll, and the money goes to the upkeep of the temples. Even so, many priests have been unable to tolerate Soka Gakkai. In the late 1970s, 180 Nichiren Shoshu priests in Japan — a third of the priesthood there — as well as the chief priest in New York City protested what they viewed as glorification of Ikeda and a misrepresentation of Nichiren’s teachings to emphasize materialism. The priests in Japan were excommunicated, and they sued for reinstatement. According to Yamada, a Japanese appeals court recently ruled against them.
Rev. Kando Tono, the New York priest, was recalled to Japan under pressure from NSA. He says he was not excommunicated because Soka Gakkai did not want to test the issue in United States courts. He now takes care of Hokaiko members in London and New York. “If you start criticizing Soka Gakkai, you jeopardize your situation as a priest,” he says. “But they distorted the teachings of Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism so it would appeal to nonbelievers.”
Yamada and other priests became concerned last year that NSA was recruiting people indiscriminately, without regard to whether they were truly committed to Buddhism. He could tell this was happening, he says, because not only were more people coming to the temple to receive their scrolls, but more were coming to give them back. In a typical week he would give out 300 gohonzons, but 20 would be returned. After consulting with the high priest in Japan, the priests met with NSA leaders, who agreed to be more careful. Now, Yamada says, he distributes only 200 gohonzons a week, and hardly any are returned.
Listening to Yamada, one is struck by the thought that perhaps the interplay between priests and lay leaders may underlie NSA’s back-and-forth history. NSA went from frantic flag-waving in the mid-1970s to a period of retreat and study, and now it’s back to glitz again. When lay leaders go too far, the priests rein them in; but if recruitment then falters, the laity reassumes control. One might even say that NSA shifts back and forth from religion to cult, depending on who’s in charge.
As his visitor leaves, Yamada says that he will soon devote his afternoons to studying Christianity. “Right now, I can’t understand the people’s mind, especially Western people,” he says. “I don’t understand the God which is taught in Christianity, the creator.”
If Tom Wolfe saw this spectacle of affluent professionals chanting to a Japanese scroll, he might call it Buddhist chic. Shoeless and sweaty on a sticky summer night, 25 people are crammed into a living room on the top floor of a fashionable Cambridge three-decker. The room is decorated with Oriental art and the inevitable Ikeda photo, but furniture is sparse, and most guests sit on the floor. The focus of their worship hangs in a wooden altar in one corner, against a background of pink paper and silk cloth, illuminated by a spotlight.
Like any of the dozens of weekly NSA meetings in the Boston area, this one is not primarily an opportunity for members to practice their religion. They have their own gohonzons at home. Its main purpose is recruitment. Several members have brought friends along, and everything is arranged for their comfort. You can spot the newcomers: the shy woman in the back of the room; the fellow staring intently at the group leaders explaining the evening’s agenda; and the man on the couch who lets the woman next to him wind beads around his fingers and trace the words of the chant for him in her prayer book. Reluctantly, he mumbles the words.
When the chanting ends, a member stands up to talk about “The Nine Levels of Consciousness,” an aspect of Buddhist doctrine. His lecture soon segues into a plea to the newcomers to try chanting. As a professor for 25 years, he says, he had the “unmitigated arrogance” to reject anything that seemed irrational. But he was wrong. “The only way to understand it is to chant yourself,” he says. “After a while, as ludicrous as it seems, you can’t deny the power and the influence.”
A patriotic song follows his discourse. Members hold up posters on which lyrics are printed so first-timers can follow along. For the baby boomers here, the words carry overtones of President Kennedy’s inaugural address. ”What can I do, America, to make you proud you gave me birth?” they sing. ”I’ll be the one to say, ‘America, what can I do for you?’ ”
Next come the testimonials. Bill, a computer software manager, tells the group that he wasn’t sure whether he could finish an important job on time, so he got up early every day and chanted at the Boston community center. As it turned out, the software was ready on schedule for the first time in the history of his company, and Bill was promoted.
Nancy confesses that chanting helped her through the emotional anxiety of her engagement and the discovery of a malignancy in her mother’s colon. “I realized, no matter what happened to my mom, I was still going to be tremendously happy on my wedding day,” she says. Everything turned out for the best: The weather was perfect for the wedding, and an operation revealed that her mother’s tumor was not spreading.
Now an NSA leader asks if anyone at the meeting is a guest. Since the man on the couch slipped out during Nancy’s talk, there are only two left: the shy woman and Mike, who is attending his third meeting. The leader tells them that the real purpose of the meeting is to introduce them to Buddhism. Do they have any questions?
The woman is silent. Mike, a hard-headed type, wants to know how long he must chant before getting results. The leader says it depends on the intensity of Mike’s chanting. “Whether you believe in it or not is not critical,” he says. “Faith is not initially required.”
Mike doesn’t seem satisfied, and the leader recounts his own conversion to Buddhism. He hated his boss, but two days of chanting led to a reconciliation. Mike perks up. “So it happens really quick,” he says.
Mike has a final question: How does NSA improve chances for world peace? The leader says that NSA members in Argentina and England chanted to end the Falklands War. As more members join, he says, their chanting will be powerful enough to stop any war.
The newcomers are encouraged to receive their scrolls at the Boston community center the following Sunday, and the meeting breaks up. Members surround Mike to ask if he will join NSA.
“I’m still investigating it,” he says. “But I’ve started chanting.”
RABELL;09/18 LDRISC;10/20,23:29 NSA2
All content herein is © 1996 the Globe Newspaper Company and may not be republished without permission.
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Avoiding Abuses and Pitfalls Along the Spiritual Path Copyright © 1995, All Rights Reserved by Steven Hassan and Lama Surya Das. This article offers some vital "consumer" guidlines and specific questions that should be asked when considering any involvement with a spiritual group. I asked my friend, lama Surya Das, the first officially ordained western Tibetan buddhist lama to give his perspective [...]
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By Thomas Farragher, Boston Globe Staff, 03/21/99 WORCESTER – To his church, he is the sinless child of the ”True Parents,” a scion of an apostle of peace. But his business card could say something else: Justin Moon, gun maker. At the end of a gritty industrial strip here, sandwiched between a highway and a [...]
On the Rebound
The Rev. Sun Myung Moon has been down, but never out. Now he’s focusing on family values with conferences and big-name speakers such as George Bush. But is he just trying to buy credibility? By MEREDITH FERGUSON, Special to The Times WASHINGTON, D.C.–Amid the grandeur of giant Corinthian columns and the soaring archways of the [...]
Celebrities Pulled Into Moon’s Orbit Speakers Unaware of Conclave’s Cult Speakers
By Marc Fisher Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, July 30 1996; Page E01 The Washington Post Gerald Ford is going because Rosalynn Carter, Mikhail Gorbachev and Coretta Scott King went before him. Bill Cosby is going because George Bush is going, too. George Bush is going because he believes in world peace. When the Family [...]
A Church at a Crucial Stage
Date: Friday, June 27, 1980 Section: RUN OF PAPER Page: ? By James L. Franklin Globe Staff Recent purchases of property in Gloucester by the Unification Church mark a crucial stage in development for the small but highly publicized organization led by Rev. Sun Myung Moon. The purchases expand the fishing business of the controversial [...]
At RFK, Moon Presides Over Mass Wedding; Whitney Houston Is a No-Show
By Caryle Murphy and Linda Wheeler Washington Post Staff Writers Sunday, November 30, 1997 Page B01 The Washington Post Wearing crowns and identical gold-trimmed white robes, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his wife, better known to their followers as the “True Parents” of the world, presided yesterday over a mass wedding and marriage rededication [...]
Ex-Moonie Meets Resistance
Salem News 12/2/97 By Kelly Shaw News staff BEVERLY – Steven Hassan might have left the Moonies earlier. But other cult members had warned him about what happened to those who abandoned the Unification Church. They developed cancer, had stillborn children or were hit by cars. So he stayed. The former Queens College student didn’t [...]
Ex-Moonie Says Cult Groups Are Preying on Russians; Analyst Sees Ex-communists as Easy Targets
Date: Sunday, November 22, 1992 Section: CITY WEEKLY Page: 9 By Ric Kahn, Globe Staff SOMERVILLE — Ex-Moonie Steven Hassan just returned from a mind-altering trip to Russia. An internationally recognized expert on counseling people out of destructive cults, Hassan was invited to Russia by Farida Asadullina, a Moscow State University professor concerned about the [...]
$20 Florida Excursion: A Brainwashing Effort?
Date: Monday, December 31, 1979 Section: RUN OF PAPER Page: ? By Gayle Pollard Globe Staff A 19-year-old Medfield woman thought that for $20 she was buying a bus trip to Florida and a week of fun in the sun. But her parents claim that Deborah Block instead was kept at “brainwashing” sessions over the [...]
Louis Jolyon West
Psychiatry & Biobehaviorial Sciences: Los Angeles 1924-1999 Professor 1999, University of California: In Memoriam On January 2, 1999, Louis Jolyon “Jolly” West, the former chairman of the UCLA Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, died of a rapidly advancing, malignant tumor. Born in 1924 in Brooklyn, New York, of immigrant Russian-Jewish parents, he grew up [...]
Buddhism American style
cloaking itself in super-patriotism, Nicherin Shoshu Of America is part of an evangelical buddhist secty gaining adherents worldwide with a guarantee of happiness through chanting. Sounds pretty harmless, right? Cult-watchers and ex-members don’t think so. Date: Sunday, October 15, 1989 Section: Boston Globe Sunday Magazine Page: 18 ff. By Daniel Golden, Globe Staff Florence Hadley, principal [...]
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Spotting Teens Who Are Into Cults
Prompted by the Pamela Vitale murder, and its rumored cult connection, CBS dedicated a news segment to the signs parents can spot when their child joins a cult.
Co-anchor Rene Syler spoke with cult expert Steve Hassan on The Early Show.
[...] there’s no evidence that there’s a specific cult or any undue influence of some other person on him.
[...] I don’t believe that the Goth look is, in any way, a destructive cult.
[...] But I can definitely tell you families need to be alert, (get) preventive education, letting young people know, especially, that there’s no instant friends. Become a researcher. Understand that destructive cults are out there. They don’t tell you what they believe and what they want from you.
Video: Steve Hassan on The Early Show
Gerry Armstrong’s extreme restriction of Freedom of Speech continues
[1] On Wednesday, Oct. 19 2005, the California Court of Appeal’s granted the Scientology organization’s petition to reinflict the punishment of jail sentences and fines against Gerry Armstrong, Hubbard’s former official biography researcher, that Marin County Judge Lynn Duryee had discharged in April 2004.
Scientology’s appeals court success in its religious war against Armstrong begins with his punishment of twenty-eight days in jail and $4600 in fines, but the potential exists for Scientology to keep him jailed forever. What is Armstrong’s crime? Nothing more than discussing the Scientology religion. Not lying, not libeling Scientology, but telling the truth about this religion and organization as he believes the truth to be.
For every mention Armstrong makes of his sincere beliefs about the Scientology religion, or even about his own religion and his own church (the Church of Wogs (CoW) Scientology wants him jailed, fined and forced to pay the organization $50,000 in damages. Unimaginable but true, and extensively documented on his Scientology v. Armstrong legal archive.
Armstrong’s position is that it is no more lawful for the U.S. Courts to jail and financially crush him for discussing his beliefs about Scientology than it would be lawful to jail and ruin a person for discussing his beliefs about God and Jesus in the Christian religion [2].
[1]: This entry contains portions of Suppresive Person’s press release on the matter. The Suppresive Person site is named after the Scientology definition of a suppresive: “A SUPPRESSIVE PERSON or GROUP is one that actively seeks to suppress or damage Scientology or a Scientologist by suppressive acts.
[2]: In a number of countries, Scientology is not considered a religion at all, but a commercial and totalitarian cult with a goal of world domination.
Cult expert Steve Hassan on Montel
Monday, October 24, Steve Hassan appeared on the Montel Williams Show titled Sex Abuse and Mind Control: Raised in a Cult.
The show featured survivors of a controversial religious cult who risked their lives to tell their story publicly for the first time.
Caryn, a young woman who was born and raised in “The Family” and suffered years of abuse, claims that this organization formerly known as the Children of God (now renamed to The Family International) has doctrines that allow their adult members to literally “beat the devil” out of misbehaving children.
Don, another former member, also shares in Caryn’s recollections. He says they beat and molested his sister and then published her battered image in the cult’s magazine to display an example of what acceptable punishment is.
Steve talked with the guests and offered them free counseling after the show.
Judge denies Amway arbitration
Sep. 21, 2005 – U.S. District Judge Richard Dorr refused arbitration in a suit filed two years ago.
Amway had argued that the disputes arose under rules of conduct for Amway product distributors that were subject to arbitration.
Judge Richard Dorr made short with argument, calling those rules of conduct agreements “unconscionable” because they were offered on a “take it or leave it” basis and because Amway hand-picked the arbitrators and trained them.
As if that wasn’t enough he also pointed out that the agreements weren’t signed by the parties, did not form valid contracts or weren’t applicable to the suit.
The suit, which describes Amway as a pyramid-type scheme, charges that a few Amway “kingpins” — those who bought into Amway early on — control thousands of down-line distributors and make most of their money by selling them motivational materials, known at Amway as the “tool and function” business.
The suit says that Amway helped the few big players monopolize and restrain trade in the motivational arena, using it to subsidize the rest of its business.
The denial of arbitration is a big deal. Former Emerald distributor Eric Scheibeler, author of Merchants of Deception, describes it as “the legal equivalent of the Titanic hitting the iceberg”.
The full legal ruling is available from Freedom of Mind‘s Amway Quixtar resources.
See also:
Amway/Alticor Court Case Newstracker
BITE analysis of Amway/Quixtar by cult expert Steve Hassan
Open letter by Fawn Holm, FLDS escapee
The Fawn twins, who left the abusiveFundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints cult to escape polygamy, haven’t left the news after cult expert Steve Hassan was called in for his counseling expertise and did follow up pro bono counseling with them and the family who took them in, since their taping of the Dr. Phil Show.
Their strength shows through in Fawn Holm’s open letter, sent to the editor of the Arizona Republic.
To all ex-Creekers:
Those who judge me for being on TV, for standing up and doing something about the crimes and abuses at the “Creek,” who say I am “hurting my family” or “ratting on the Creek” – I have something to say to you.
I, at least, am not sitting around pretending it never happened.
I am not trying to run away from the pain by working myself to death or partying with drugs and alcohol.
You can only run for so long.
People say I hurt my parents. What did they do to me? I asked them nicely if I could leave. Do you think they said, “OK, let us find you a safe place to go?” No! My parents got a restraining order on my brothers who had left, and had me placed under house arrest.
Since I left, I am no longer welcome in their house. Why? Because I will bring “evil spirits” with me, and they would have to “rededicate” their house.
Our families talk about having to stand before God and atone for our sins. How do you think our loving God is going to react to parents who say, “We could not let our kids into our house because they might bring in evil spirits”?
Our families tell us that they “hurt for us” and wish we would come home. But they only say that until they realize how strong and free we have become. They then say there is no hope for us.
I think my parents’ should be proud of me! I stood up and fought for the freedom I believe in. I stood up, and I am not sitting until this job is done.
I am the youngest of my mom’s 18 kids. I was born three months early and nearly died. My mom said the reason I lived was because I had a big mission.
Standing up is my mission.
To all of you who wonder if you should go back to the Creek, because you are going to “burn in the fire of the last days if you don’t,” let me get this straight: You are afraid that our God, a loving, caring God, is going to make you choose between happiness, love, success and heaven? I don’t think so.
Our families, the ones who won’t let us visit them, say living at the Creek is the only way to have happiness, love, success and heaven. I have witnessed love at the Creek. For example:
· A wife leaves a husband whom she “loves” to go and suddenly “love” another man, because the “prophet” told her to.
· Little kids (or big ones) “love” their father, then turn around and say he’s a bad man because the “prophet” said so.
· Families turn their backs on “apostate” children because “prophet” Warren Jeffs told them to. Ten minutes earlier they were begging those same children to return because they “love” them.
I understand that you miss your family and friends at the Creek. But if you go back, the people at the Creek will make you choose them only. You will not be allowed to speak to those “inside.” You do not have to make that choice out here. That is love and happiness to me.
I’m fed up with ex-Creekers judging me for speaking out. We need to stand up together and take a position. You are in or you are out – there is no middle.
Stop running and stand up. Let’s stop this abuse together.
Recently the Fawn twins returned to Boston for some follow-up counseling with Steve Hassan.
Oprah Magazine quotes Steve Hassan
The Last 10 Pounds is a feature article in the August issue of O, The Oprah Magazine.
The Last 10 Pound wonders if those pounds really should stand between you and happiness. Is it worth the misery? Is it worth the self-loathing?
A team of experts provides a long over-due reality check.
Feeling that our culture indoctrinates women to believe they need to be thin to be beautiful, O, The Oprah Magazine spoke with cult expert Steve Hassan. He showed the women the Asch conformity study and talked with them about positive ethical ways to control their thoughts, feelings and behavior.
The web site quotes Steve Hassan under the heading “Good advice: mind set”:
If you’re losing weight to please a partner or follow some ideal, you will rebel. You must be your own authority figure to succeed.
Dr.Zimbardo’s Discovering Psychology video course online
The entire Psychology 101 Course done by Dr. Zimbardo is online and free for viewing.
Cult expert Steve Hassan was interviewed for the 20th segment, “Constructing Social Reality“1.
Despite pressure from Scientologists to pull the five minutes on cults that Steve Hassan was speaking on (including Scientology, the Moonies, the krishnas), Annenberg and Zimbardo said no to their pressure.
Highlighting major new developments in the field, this updated edition of Discovering Psychology offers high school and college students, and teachers of psychology at all levels, an overview of historic and current theories of human behavior. Stanford University professor and author Philip Zimbardo narrates as leading researchers, practitioners, and theorists probe the mysteries of the mind and body. Based on extensive investigation and authoritative scholarship, this introductory course in psychology features demonstrations, classic experiments and simulations, current research, documentary footage, and computer animation. This series is also valuable for teachers seeking to review the subject matter.
: 20. Constructing Social Reality
Many factors contribute to our interpretation of reality. This program demonstrates how understanding the psychological processes that govern our behavior may help us to become more empathetic and independent members of society. With Steven Hassan, M.Ed., of the Freedom of Mind Resource Center and Dr. Robert Cialdini of Arizona State University. Updated.
William Kamm court case
William Kamm, a.k.a. “Little Pebble”, leader of the Australian Catholic cul tOrder of St. Charbel, has recently been convicted of four counts of aggravated indecent assault and one of aggravated sexual intercourse. The five charges involve a then 15 year old girl.
William Kamm claims to receive revelations from Jesus and the Virgin Mary. At times these revelations included doomsday prophecies, which so far have failed to come true.
One of these end-of-the-world prophecies included the advice that William Kamm should choose 12 queens and 72 princesses who would become his mystical wives to spawn an immaculate race after the world ended.
According to William Kamm, at that time, the sexual abuse victim was one of these queens and pricesses.
A good but not always up to date resource page on the court case is Australia’s Greatest Cult, The Order of Saint Charbel: Kamm in Court.
Additional news can be found via this pre-defined Google News search, and on Religion News Blog.
Archived items
Other cult news sources
Religion News Blog:
Factnet.org’s cult news
HOME
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#590443
Newton, MA 02459
Phone: 617 396-4638
Fax: (617) 628-8153 FOLLOW US
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COPYRIGHT © 2014 FREEDOM OF MIND RESOURCE CENTER INC.
https://freedomofmind.com/Media/News/
HOME
About Us
Mission Statement
SERVICES
Help for Ex-Member of Group
Help for Someone in Group
Help With Estranged Family Member
Help With A Controlling Relationship
Our Team
Steve Hassan, M.Ed. LMHC, NCC, Director
Rachel Bernstein, LMFT, MSED
INFORMATION
About Us
Mission Statement
Privacy Policy
Articles
BITE Model of Unethical Influence
Blogs
Books
FAQ
Friends of FOM Resoruce Center
Groups
Group Database
Submit Info About A Group
Human Trafficking
Recent News
Terrorism
MEDIA
Steve Hassan Press Kit Resources
Video Archives
CONTACT
Send Us An Email
Join Our Contact List
Submit Information On A Group
Facebook (Cult Expert)
Facebook (FOM)
Youtube
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News
Spotting Teens Who Are Into Cults
Prompted by the Pamela Vitale murder, and its rumored cult connection, CBS dedicated a news segment to the signs parents can spot when their child joins a cult.
Co-anchor Rene Syler spoke with cult expert Steve Hassan on The Early Show.
[...] there’s no evidence that there’s a specific cult or any undue influence of some other person on him.
[...] I don’t believe that the Goth look is, in any way, a destructive cult.
[...] But I can definitely tell you families need to be alert, (get) preventive education, letting young people know, especially, that there’s no instant friends. Become a researcher. Understand that destructive cults are out there. They don’t tell you what they believe and what they want from you.
Video: Steve Hassan on The Early Show
Gerry Armstrong’s extreme restriction of Freedom of Speech continues
[1] On Wednesday, Oct. 19 2005, the California Court of Appeal’s granted the Scientology organization’s petition to reinflict the punishment of jail sentences and fines against Gerry Armstrong, Hubbard’s former official biography researcher, that Marin County Judge Lynn Duryee had discharged in April 2004.
Scientology’s appeals court success in its religious war against Armstrong begins with his punishment of twenty-eight days in jail and $4600 in fines, but the potential exists for Scientology to keep him jailed forever. What is Armstrong’s crime? Nothing more than discussing the Scientology religion. Not lying, not libeling Scientology, but telling the truth about this religion and organization as he believes the truth to be.
For every mention Armstrong makes of his sincere beliefs about the Scientology religion, or even about his own religion and his own church (the Church of Wogs (CoW) Scientology wants him jailed, fined and forced to pay the organization $50,000 in damages. Unimaginable but true, and extensively documented on his Scientology v. Armstrong legal archive.
Armstrong’s position is that it is no more lawful for the U.S. Courts to jail and financially crush him for discussing his beliefs about Scientology than it would be lawful to jail and ruin a person for discussing his beliefs about God and Jesus in the Christian religion [2].
[1]: This entry contains portions of Suppresive Person’s press release on the matter. The Suppresive Person site is named after the Scientology definition of a suppresive: “A SUPPRESSIVE PERSON or GROUP is one that actively seeks to suppress or damage Scientology or a Scientologist by suppressive acts.
[2]: In a number of countries, Scientology is not considered a religion at all, but a commercial and totalitarian cult with a goal of world domination.
Cult expert Steve Hassan on Montel
Monday, October 24, Steve Hassan appeared on the Montel Williams Show titled Sex Abuse and Mind Control: Raised in a Cult.
The show featured survivors of a controversial religious cult who risked their lives to tell their story publicly for the first time.
Caryn, a young woman who was born and raised in “The Family” and suffered years of abuse, claims that this organization formerly known as the Children of God (now renamed to The Family International) has doctrines that allow their adult members to literally “beat the devil” out of misbehaving children.
Don, another former member, also shares in Caryn’s recollections. He says they beat and molested his sister and then published her battered image in the cult’s magazine to display an example of what acceptable punishment is.
Steve talked with the guests and offered them free counseling after the show.
Judge denies Amway arbitration
Sep. 21, 2005 – U.S. District Judge Richard Dorr refused arbitration in a suit filed two years ago.
Amway had argued that the disputes arose under rules of conduct for Amway product distributors that were subject to arbitration.
Judge Richard Dorr made short with argument, calling those rules of conduct agreements “unconscionable” because they were offered on a “take it or leave it” basis and because Amway hand-picked the arbitrators and trained them.
As if that wasn’t enough he also pointed out that the agreements weren’t signed by the parties, did not form valid contracts or weren’t applicable to the suit.
The suit, which describes Amway as a pyramid-type scheme, charges that a few Amway “kingpins” — those who bought into Amway early on — control thousands of down-line distributors and make most of their money by selling them motivational materials, known at Amway as the “tool and function” business.
The suit says that Amway helped the few big players monopolize and restrain trade in the motivational arena, using it to subsidize the rest of its business.
The denial of arbitration is a big deal. Former Emerald distributor Eric Scheibeler, author of Merchants of Deception, describes it as “the legal equivalent of the Titanic hitting the iceberg”.
The full legal ruling is available from Freedom of Mind‘s Amway Quixtar resources.
See also:
Amway/Alticor Court Case Newstracker
BITE analysis of Amway/Quixtar by cult expert Steve Hassan
Open letter by Fawn Holm, FLDS escapee
The Fawn twins, who left the abusiveFundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints cult to escape polygamy, haven’t left the news after cult expert Steve Hassan was called in for his counseling expertise and did follow up pro bono counseling with them and the family who took them in, since their taping of the Dr. Phil Show.
Their strength shows through in Fawn Holm’s open letter, sent to the editor of the Arizona Republic.
To all ex-Creekers:
Those who judge me for being on TV, for standing up and doing something about the crimes and abuses at the “Creek,” who say I am “hurting my family” or “ratting on the Creek” – I have something to say to you.
I, at least, am not sitting around pretending it never happened.
I am not trying to run away from the pain by working myself to death or partying with drugs and alcohol.
You can only run for so long.
People say I hurt my parents. What did they do to me? I asked them nicely if I could leave. Do you think they said, “OK, let us find you a safe place to go?” No! My parents got a restraining order on my brothers who had left, and had me placed under house arrest.
Since I left, I am no longer welcome in their house. Why? Because I will bring “evil spirits” with me, and they would have to “rededicate” their house.
Our families talk about having to stand before God and atone for our sins. How do you think our loving God is going to react to parents who say, “We could not let our kids into our house because they might bring in evil spirits”?
Our families tell us that they “hurt for us” and wish we would come home. But they only say that until they realize how strong and free we have become. They then say there is no hope for us.
I think my parents’ should be proud of me! I stood up and fought for the freedom I believe in. I stood up, and I am not sitting until this job is done.
I am the youngest of my mom’s 18 kids. I was born three months early and nearly died. My mom said the reason I lived was because I had a big mission.
Standing up is my mission.
To all of you who wonder if you should go back to the Creek, because you are going to “burn in the fire of the last days if you don’t,” let me get this straight: You are afraid that our God, a loving, caring God, is going to make you choose between happiness, love, success and heaven? I don’t think so.
Our families, the ones who won’t let us visit them, say living at the Creek is the only way to have happiness, love, success and heaven. I have witnessed love at the Creek. For example:
· A wife leaves a husband whom she “loves” to go and suddenly “love” another man, because the “prophet” told her to.
· Little kids (or big ones) “love” their father, then turn around and say he’s a bad man because the “prophet” said so.
· Families turn their backs on “apostate” children because “prophet” Warren Jeffs told them to. Ten minutes earlier they were begging those same children to return because they “love” them.
I understand that you miss your family and friends at the Creek. But if you go back, the people at the Creek will make you choose them only. You will not be allowed to speak to those “inside.” You do not have to make that choice out here. That is love and happiness to me.
I’m fed up with ex-Creekers judging me for speaking out. We need to stand up together and take a position. You are in or you are out – there is no middle.
Stop running and stand up. Let’s stop this abuse together.
Recently the Fawn twins returned to Boston for some follow-up counseling with Steve Hassan.
Oprah Magazine quotes Steve Hassan
The Last 10 Pounds is a feature article in the August issue of O, The Oprah Magazine.
The Last 10 Pound wonders if those pounds really should stand between you and happiness. Is it worth the misery? Is it worth the self-loathing?
A team of experts provides a long over-due reality check.
Feeling that our culture indoctrinates women to believe they need to be thin to be beautiful, O, The Oprah Magazine spoke with cult expert Steve Hassan. He showed the women the Asch conformity study and talked with them about positive ethical ways to control their thoughts, feelings and behavior.
The web site quotes Steve Hassan under the heading “Good advice: mind set”:
If you’re losing weight to please a partner or follow some ideal, you will rebel. You must be your own authority figure to succeed.
Dr.Zimbardo’s Discovering Psychology video course online
The entire Psychology 101 Course done by Dr. Zimbardo is online and free for viewing.
Cult expert Steve Hassan was interviewed for the 20th segment, “Constructing Social Reality“1.
Despite pressure from Scientologists to pull the five minutes on cults that Steve Hassan was speaking on (including Scientology, the Moonies, the krishnas), Annenberg and Zimbardo said no to their pressure.
Highlighting major new developments in the field, this updated edition of Discovering Psychology offers high school and college students, and teachers of psychology at all levels, an overview of historic and current theories of human behavior. Stanford University professor and author Philip Zimbardo narrates as leading researchers, practitioners, and theorists probe the mysteries of the mind and body. Based on extensive investigation and authoritative scholarship, this introductory course in psychology features demonstrations, classic experiments and simulations, current research, documentary footage, and computer animation. This series is also valuable for teachers seeking to review the subject matter.
: 20. Constructing Social Reality
Many factors contribute to our interpretation of reality. This program demonstrates how understanding the psychological processes that govern our behavior may help us to become more empathetic and independent members of society. With Steven Hassan, M.Ed., of the Freedom of Mind Resource Center and Dr. Robert Cialdini of Arizona State University. Updated.
William Kamm court case
William Kamm, a.k.a. “Little Pebble”, leader of the Australian Catholic cul tOrder of St. Charbel, has recently been convicted of four counts of aggravated indecent assault and one of aggravated sexual intercourse. The five charges involve a then 15 year old girl.
William Kamm claims to receive revelations from Jesus and the Virgin Mary. At times these revelations included doomsday prophecies, which so far have failed to come true.
One of these end-of-the-world prophecies included the advice that William Kamm should choose 12 queens and 72 princesses who would become his mystical wives to spawn an immaculate race after the world ended.
According to William Kamm, at that time, the sexual abuse victim was one of these queens and pricesses.
A good but not always up to date resource page on the court case is Australia’s Greatest Cult, The Order of Saint Charbel: Kamm in Court.
Additional news can be found via this pre-defined Google News search, and on Religion News Blog.
Archived items
Other cult news sources
Religion News Blog:
Factnet.org’s cult news
HOME
SERVICES
INFORMATION
MEDIA
CONTACT
ADDRESS
716 Beacon Street
#590443
Newton, MA 02459
Phone: 617 396-4638
Fax: (617) 628-8153 FOLLOW US
Vimeo
YouTube
COPYRIGHT © 2014 FREEDOM OF MIND RESOURCE CENTER INC.
https://freedomofmind.com/Media/News/
HOME
About Us
Mission Statement
SERVICES
Help for Ex-Member of Group
Help for Someone in Group
Help With Estranged Family Member
Help With A Controlling Relationship
Our Team
Steve Hassan, M.Ed. LMHC, NCC, Director
Rachel Bernstein, LMFT, MSED
INFORMATION
About Us
Mission Statement
Privacy Policy
Articles
BITE Model of Unethical Influence
Blogs
Books
FAQ
Friends of FOM Resoruce Center
Groups
Group Database
Submit Info About A Group
Human Trafficking
Recent News
Terrorism
MEDIA
Steve Hassan Press Kit Resources
Video Archives
CONTACT
Send Us An Email
Join Our Contact List
Submit Information On A Group
Facebook (Cult Expert)
Facebook (FOM)
Youtube
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
See and hear Steven Hassan talk about the Strategic Interaction Approach in this video.
(From Chapter 3 of Steven Hassan’s Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves. FOM Press, 2000, Copyrighted, all rights reserved. Permission to use or reprint must be granted in writing.)
1. What is the goal?
The goal of the SIA is to help the loved one recover his full faculties; to restore the creative, interdependent adult who fully understands what has happened to him; who has digested and integrated the experience and is better and stronger from the experience.
2. Who is in control?
You are! In all ethical counseling, the locus of control remains within the client. Strategic Interaction models a non-authoritarian, flexible, and open process. When you engage a therapist, he is there to help as the expert on family systems. He is not there to assume control and make all the decisions. Likewise, a cult expert may provide information and advice, but will not give orders. Family and friends are empowered to understand the issues clearly. In this way, Strategic Interaction can be considered self-help. Each person contributes as best he can, creating a synergy that ensures the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts.
3. Who is the client?
In the SIA, each person has issues that should be addressed. One focus is on the growth and development of healthy relationships within the family. The safe and nurturing environment created by the SIA offers many opportunities to heal old wounds. As an integral part of the family system, the cult member is automatically included in the process.
4. When is the best time to act?
The best time to act is now. Get active and get professional advice. It is always a good idea to prepare, and your case might require immediate intervention. Of course, counseling a cult member is particularly effective when a cult member is questioning his involvement, is disillusioned, or burned out — or simply wants to leave. Mini-interactions are designed to help the cult member question his situation, reality-test, and accept help from family and friends. The SIA is an ongoing process that makes each telephone call, letter, and visit more effective. Every time we interact with the cult member, questions are asked and answered, and information is gathered and delivered. Strategies are formulated, and opportunities to develop rapport and trust unfold. Positive experiences accumulate.
There might be a need for a formal three-day intervention. It is planned when we believe it will be successful. The time is right when we know that we have established trust and rapport with the cult member and we have information that indicates the conditions are right. Many times, mini-interactions may even make a formal intervention unnecessary.
5. Will our loved one be treated as an individual?
The Strategic Interaction is a customized approach that encourages everyone to develop positive, constructive patterns of communication. Family members, relatives and friends learn techniques to remove blocks and phobias. The goal is to restore the creative, flexible, interdependent adult. We want the cult member to understand what happened to him by helping him fully digest and integrate the cult experience. As the Strategic Interaction moves into the recovery phase, we want everyone to be stronger from the experience.
6. Does this approach integrate our loved one’s personality?
In my first book that I wrote in 1988, Combatting Cult Mind Control, I described only a “dual identity” model: the cult identity and the pre-cult identity. The Strategic Interaction Approach liberates and then integrates the parts of the pre-cult identity that were co-opted by the cult identity. In addition, we draw out the individual’s “authentic,” or higher, self and enlist its help to make new associations with the cult self. For example, we recognize that idealism is an integral part of our loved one’s authentic identity. By pointing out discrepancies between cult doctrine and hypocritical cult policies, the idealistic component of the cult identity can be encouraged to begin the questioning process. Eventually, the cult member becomes disillusioned with the group and feels motivated to walk out or ask for help.
The Strategic Interaction Approach provides in-depth counseling that promotes healing. By honoring the authentic self, the pre-cult self, and the core of the cult self, we help your loved one to integrate valuable parts of his identity into a healthy post-cult self.
7. Does the method include flexible strategies?
By taking an oppositional, “I’m right, you’re wrong” approach, deprogrammers and exit-counselors often unwittingly create a win-lose mentality. Strategic Interaction encourages adaptability and creativity by widening one’s experiential base, which results in a win-win environment. For instance, if family members have never meditated and their loved one is in a meditation cult, then I encourage them to experience meditation.
8. Is the method concerned with our loved one’s spiritual life?
With both deprogramming and exit-counseling, content reigns supreme. This approach can have hidden dangers. The ideological or spiritual perspective of the deprogrammer or exit-counselor could be anything from atheist, to agnostic, to orthodox Christian or Jew. I urge you to scrutinize the beliefs and affiliations of people who offer to rescue your loved one from a destructive cult. Many of these people will seek to impose their own ideological perspective. The ethical approach is to avoid imposing any ideological or theological viewpoint on a mind control subject.
The SIA allows for a spiritual orientation, but does not promote a rigid ideological viewpoint. I personally am Jewish and belong to Temple Beth Zion led by Rabbi Moshe Waldoks, co-author with William Novak, of The Big Book of Jewish Humor (Harper Collins, 1981 which promotes an inclusive approach to spirituality. The Temple’s web site is www.templebethzion.org. My starting point with a client is always the individual’s and family’s spiritual “roots”, if any. If the person is Catholic, I encourage them to rediscover their roots at the appropriate time. Likewise, if they are Protestant, Buddhist, or anything else, I would do the same. At the beginning of every Strategic Interaction, I have family members and friends fill out Background Information Forms. Often, I find that the cult member had a strong spiritual orientation before they were recruited into a religious cult. I encourage family and friends to support their loved one’s full recovery — spiritual as well as psychological.
9. How will we learn the content issues?
The family members, relatives, and friends must understand the seriousness, scope and depth of the cult experience. I want them to become familiar enough with the material to be capable of articulating information about mind control, their loved one’s group, and other cults. This may seem like a daunting task, but the step-by-step, goal-oriented approach we take will make the work more manageable. After they have been adequately prepared, family members and friends can begin to attend cult lectures and read cult literature. These activities demonstrate that they are “open-minded,” and help to encourage rapport and trust.
Before any discussions about the belief system, indoctrination, or the leader, we deal with the cult member’s phobias about leaving the group. Otherwise, your loved one will be under a great deal of unnecessary emotional stress.
10. How does the SIA handle recovery issues?
Deprogramming is over as soon as the person is out of the group. People are often left without trained people to follow-up. Consequently, family and friends are typically not prepared to know how to act as a support system. After an exit-counseling, former members may try to provide some support.
Cults use fear and guilt to program their members to believe that their lives are worthless outside of the group. It is hard to imagine the pain these buried psychic land mines cause when the person manages to leave. Cult experiences and indoctrination have to be worked through during an essential soul-searching recovery period, which usually takes months and sometimes years.
If the person participated in distasteful behavior — if they recruited people, were raped, became a prostitute, or stole money — it is helpful that they get ongoing counseling. Otherwise, they will spend the rest of their lives traumatized by what happened to them, or feeling guilty for what they did while a member of the group.
During the recovery period, your loved one needs to learn how to use recovery techniques in order to visualize and work with his cult identity to reclaim personal history, power, and integrity. He must acknowledge that he was doing the best he could at the time with the information that was available to him.
The SIA provides a long-term recovery process for both the cult member and members of the family. Everyone is traumatized by the cult involvement, even those who are not directly involved. Feelings get hurt. Belief systems are assaulted or shifted. People lose sleep. They get depressed. Anger, frustration, and resentment are repressed. Each person who has been involved in the traumatic experience of having a loved one in a destructive cult needs support on psychological and emotional levels.
The heightened sense of urgency that arises when a loved one joins a destructive cult provides the catalyst for truly remarkable growth, change and development. Family members, relatives, siblings and friends are willing to work hard on their own issues for the sake of their loved one. They are willing to make commitments that seem impossible under less trying circumstances. Their rewards are the many positive changes that take place as a result of working together to bring back a family member or friend lost to a cult.
Even in those circumstances where an individual does not immediately decide to leave the cult, there is basis for hope. Many key issues will have been communicated, especially those dealing with phobias, information control, and the broader issues of cult mind control. The gentleness of the repeated mini-interactions will help the relationship to become more honest, caring and compassionate setting the foundation for future interactions.
11. How effective is the Strategic Interaction Approach?
The Strategic Interaction Approach has an excellent record of helping people leave destructive groups. Each case is different and presents new challenges. Every set of family resources is unique. The Strategic Interaction Approach draws its strength from love, commitment, and flexibility. It provides encouragement, momentum, and practical knowledge.
Even when your loved one participates for only three days and decides to return to the group (which rarely happens), the seeds have already been planted. In such cases, the cult member usually walks out at a later date. When a cult member wants to leave the group, he should know that his family and friends will open their arms with love and support.
Since SIA is therapy, and therefore cannot be compared with making cookies or some other kind of rote operation, it is impossible to use meaningful statistics, since every situation is unique. Be wary of non-licensed, untrained individuals who quote high success rates. Consumer beware!
12. What is the therapist’s role?
A Strategic Interaction Therapist, by definition, is a cult expert and mental health professional. Over the years, I have shared my approach with several individuals, taking them with me on cases and training them in SIA. I hope to encourage more people to learn my approach and plan to offer more training seminars and subsequent supervision. Former cult members with counseling training make ideal candidates for SIA training. During the SIA, the role of a therapist is to facilitate communication between the cult member and the Team by encouraging growth within each person. Although it is possible to empower a cult member to leave without the help of a formally trained counselor, I recommend that you contact a professional counselor to discuss your situation and plan an approach.
(From Chapter 3 of Steven Hassan’s Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves. FOM Press, 2000, Copyrighted, all rights reserved. Permission to use or reprint must be granted in writing. Edited in February, 2002 by Steve Hassan.)
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See and hear Steven Hassan talk about the Strategic Interaction Approach in this video.
(From Chapter 3 of Steven Hassan’s Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves. FOM Press, 2000, Copyrighted, all rights reserved. Permission to use or reprint must be granted in writing.)
1. What is the goal?
The goal of the SIA is to help the loved one recover his full faculties; to restore the creative, interdependent adult who fully understands what has happened to him; who has digested and integrated the experience and is better and stronger from the experience.
2. Who is in control?
You are! In all ethical counseling, the locus of control remains within the client. Strategic Interaction models a non-authoritarian, flexible, and open process. When you engage a therapist, he is there to help as the expert on family systems. He is not there to assume control and make all the decisions. Likewise, a cult expert may provide information and advice, but will not give orders. Family and friends are empowered to understand the issues clearly. In this way, Strategic Interaction can be considered self-help. Each person contributes as best he can, creating a synergy that ensures the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts.
3. Who is the client?
In the SIA, each person has issues that should be addressed. One focus is on the growth and development of healthy relationships within the family. The safe and nurturing environment created by the SIA offers many opportunities to heal old wounds. As an integral part of the family system, the cult member is automatically included in the process.
4. When is the best time to act?
The best time to act is now. Get active and get professional advice. It is always a good idea to prepare, and your case might require immediate intervention. Of course, counseling a cult member is particularly effective when a cult member is questioning his involvement, is disillusioned, or burned out — or simply wants to leave. Mini-interactions are designed to help the cult member question his situation, reality-test, and accept help from family and friends. The SIA is an ongoing process that makes each telephone call, letter, and visit more effective. Every time we interact with the cult member, questions are asked and answered, and information is gathered and delivered. Strategies are formulated, and opportunities to develop rapport and trust unfold. Positive experiences accumulate.
There might be a need for a formal three-day intervention. It is planned when we believe it will be successful. The time is right when we know that we have established trust and rapport with the cult member and we have information that indicates the conditions are right. Many times, mini-interactions may even make a formal intervention unnecessary.
5. Will our loved one be treated as an individual?
The Strategic Interaction is a customized approach that encourages everyone to develop positive, constructive patterns of communication. Family members, relatives and friends learn techniques to remove blocks and phobias. The goal is to restore the creative, flexible, interdependent adult. We want the cult member to understand what happened to him by helping him fully digest and integrate the cult experience. As the Strategic Interaction moves into the recovery phase, we want everyone to be stronger from the experience.
6. Does this approach integrate our loved one’s personality?
In my first book that I wrote in 1988, Combatting Cult Mind Control, I described only a “dual identity” model: the cult identity and the pre-cult identity. The Strategic Interaction Approach liberates and then integrates the parts of the pre-cult identity that were co-opted by the cult identity. In addition, we draw out the individual’s “authentic,” or higher, self and enlist its help to make new associations with the cult self. For example, we recognize that idealism is an integral part of our loved one’s authentic identity. By pointing out discrepancies between cult doctrine and hypocritical cult policies, the idealistic component of the cult identity can be encouraged to begin the questioning process. Eventually, the cult member becomes disillusioned with the group and feels motivated to walk out or ask for help.
The Strategic Interaction Approach provides in-depth counseling that promotes healing. By honoring the authentic self, the pre-cult self, and the core of the cult self, we help your loved one to integrate valuable parts of his identity into a healthy post-cult self.
7. Does the method include flexible strategies?
By taking an oppositional, “I’m right, you’re wrong” approach, deprogrammers and exit-counselors often unwittingly create a win-lose mentality. Strategic Interaction encourages adaptability and creativity by widening one’s experiential base, which results in a win-win environment. For instance, if family members have never meditated and their loved one is in a meditation cult, then I encourage them to experience meditation.
8. Is the method concerned with our loved one’s spiritual life?
With both deprogramming and exit-counseling, content reigns supreme. This approach can have hidden dangers. The ideological or spiritual perspective of the deprogrammer or exit-counselor could be anything from atheist, to agnostic, to orthodox Christian or Jew. I urge you to scrutinize the beliefs and affiliations of people who offer to rescue your loved one from a destructive cult. Many of these people will seek to impose their own ideological perspective. The ethical approach is to avoid imposing any ideological or theological viewpoint on a mind control subject.
The SIA allows for a spiritual orientation, but does not promote a rigid ideological viewpoint. I personally am Jewish and belong to Temple Beth Zion led by Rabbi Moshe Waldoks, co-author with William Novak, of The Big Book of Jewish Humor (Harper Collins, 1981 which promotes an inclusive approach to spirituality. The Temple’s web site is www.templebethzion.org. My starting point with a client is always the individual’s and family’s spiritual “roots”, if any. If the person is Catholic, I encourage them to rediscover their roots at the appropriate time. Likewise, if they are Protestant, Buddhist, or anything else, I would do the same. At the beginning of every Strategic Interaction, I have family members and friends fill out Background Information Forms. Often, I find that the cult member had a strong spiritual orientation before they were recruited into a religious cult. I encourage family and friends to support their loved one’s full recovery — spiritual as well as psychological.
9. How will we learn the content issues?
The family members, relatives, and friends must understand the seriousness, scope and depth of the cult experience. I want them to become familiar enough with the material to be capable of articulating information about mind control, their loved one’s group, and other cults. This may seem like a daunting task, but the step-by-step, goal-oriented approach we take will make the work more manageable. After they have been adequately prepared, family members and friends can begin to attend cult lectures and read cult literature. These activities demonstrate that they are “open-minded,” and help to encourage rapport and trust.
Before any discussions about the belief system, indoctrination, or the leader, we deal with the cult member’s phobias about leaving the group. Otherwise, your loved one will be under a great deal of unnecessary emotional stress.
10. How does the SIA handle recovery issues?
Deprogramming is over as soon as the person is out of the group. People are often left without trained people to follow-up. Consequently, family and friends are typically not prepared to know how to act as a support system. After an exit-counseling, former members may try to provide some support.
Cults use fear and guilt to program their members to believe that their lives are worthless outside of the group. It is hard to imagine the pain these buried psychic land mines cause when the person manages to leave. Cult experiences and indoctrination have to be worked through during an essential soul-searching recovery period, which usually takes months and sometimes years.
If the person participated in distasteful behavior — if they recruited people, were raped, became a prostitute, or stole money — it is helpful that they get ongoing counseling. Otherwise, they will spend the rest of their lives traumatized by what happened to them, or feeling guilty for what they did while a member of the group.
During the recovery period, your loved one needs to learn how to use recovery techniques in order to visualize and work with his cult identity to reclaim personal history, power, and integrity. He must acknowledge that he was doing the best he could at the time with the information that was available to him.
The SIA provides a long-term recovery process for both the cult member and members of the family. Everyone is traumatized by the cult involvement, even those who are not directly involved. Feelings get hurt. Belief systems are assaulted or shifted. People lose sleep. They get depressed. Anger, frustration, and resentment are repressed. Each person who has been involved in the traumatic experience of having a loved one in a destructive cult needs support on psychological and emotional levels.
The heightened sense of urgency that arises when a loved one joins a destructive cult provides the catalyst for truly remarkable growth, change and development. Family members, relatives, siblings and friends are willing to work hard on their own issues for the sake of their loved one. They are willing to make commitments that seem impossible under less trying circumstances. Their rewards are the many positive changes that take place as a result of working together to bring back a family member or friend lost to a cult.
Even in those circumstances where an individual does not immediately decide to leave the cult, there is basis for hope. Many key issues will have been communicated, especially those dealing with phobias, information control, and the broader issues of cult mind control. The gentleness of the repeated mini-interactions will help the relationship to become more honest, caring and compassionate setting the foundation for future interactions.
11. How effective is the Strategic Interaction Approach?
The Strategic Interaction Approach has an excellent record of helping people leave destructive groups. Each case is different and presents new challenges. Every set of family resources is unique. The Strategic Interaction Approach draws its strength from love, commitment, and flexibility. It provides encouragement, momentum, and practical knowledge.
Even when your loved one participates for only three days and decides to return to the group (which rarely happens), the seeds have already been planted. In such cases, the cult member usually walks out at a later date. When a cult member wants to leave the group, he should know that his family and friends will open their arms with love and support.
Since SIA is therapy, and therefore cannot be compared with making cookies or some other kind of rote operation, it is impossible to use meaningful statistics, since every situation is unique. Be wary of non-licensed, untrained individuals who quote high success rates. Consumer beware!
12. What is the therapist’s role?
A Strategic Interaction Therapist, by definition, is a cult expert and mental health professional. Over the years, I have shared my approach with several individuals, taking them with me on cases and training them in SIA. I hope to encourage more people to learn my approach and plan to offer more training seminars and subsequent supervision. Former cult members with counseling training make ideal candidates for SIA training. During the SIA, the role of a therapist is to facilitate communication between the cult member and the Team by encouraging growth within each person. Although it is possible to empower a cult member to leave without the help of a formally trained counselor, I recommend that you contact a professional counselor to discuss your situation and plan an approach.
(From Chapter 3 of Steven Hassan’s Releasing the Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves. FOM Press, 2000, Copyrighted, all rights reserved. Permission to use or reprint must be granted in writing. Edited in February, 2002 by Steve Hassan.)
To Schedule an appointment, please click here
Order the Book Online
HOME
SERVICES
INFORMATION
MEDIA
CONTACT
ADDRESS
716 Beacon Street
#590443
Newton, MA 02459
Phone: 617 396-4638
Fax: (617) 628-8153 FOLLOW US
Vimeo
YouTube
COPYRIGHT © 2014 FREEDOM OF MIND RESOURCE CENTER INC.
https://freedomofmind.com/Info/faq.php
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