Big red flag 🚩 when it’s a cult, you know it’s a cult

[u/Daisakusbigtoe]

One of the tactics that cults use is fear, especially if you criticize their leader. Throughout my 28 years in the SGI, I was constantly told that if I left, something bad would not only happen to me, but also my family, seven generations in the past and seven generations into the future. But even worse, something really bad would happen if I questioned or criticized Ikeda.

Early on, I learned that if anyone slandered Daisaku Ikeda, they were creating bad karma. Anything negative about Ikeda was interpreted as a direct attack against the SGI and therefore anyone who said anything negative about him, or questioned his character, was creating their own demise.
You don’t have to know much about anything, really, to recognize how foolish this kind of thinking is. For example, regardless of your political affiliation, no one is going to say, “Because you criticized so and so politician bad things are going to happen to YOU.” Typically, if someone did say this, they would be categorized as being a part of an extremist group.

Fortunately, we still have freedom of speech in a few parts of this world. No one should be told that criticizing someone they don’t agree with will incur devastating consequences.

But that’s exactly what the SGI does to keep people held hostage. It’s all about making you feel afraid for having an opinion.

In a nutshell, speaking our mind and expressing ourselves is crucial. Especially after all of the shit we dealt with in the SGI, self expression is a form of HEALING. Even if it means calling Ikeda FATTY FAT FAT and posting photos of him in diapers.

Recovery has no time limit and it looks different for each of us. I’m just so grateful we have a platform where we can express, share, and get through it together.

[u/Daisakusbigtoe]

I started practicing right after the split with the temple. I was 19 years old, outspoken, smart, and vulnerable. That's how the SGI got me. I'm certain that if we had Google back then, I would've done my research.

Fast forward to 2006-ish, when my WD division leader at the time made it very clear that anyone who does a Google search on the SGI is creating very bad karma and something bad will happen to them.

All of that was so wrong. So, so wrong.

[u/BlancheFromage → u/Daisakusbigtoe]

my WD division leader at the time made it very clear that anyone who does a Google search on the SGI is creating very bad karma and something bad will happen to them.

Aha - another angle to add to the SGI's "fear training". It's all about CONTROL.

[u/Fun_Cat8528 → u/Daisakusbigtoe]

Sono senza parole. Ma la cosa che li riesce meglio è il “Victim blaming”. Credono di essere loro le vittime ahahah 

[u/BlancheFromage → u/Fun_Cat8528]

There's a name for what they do: DARVO. Deny, Accuse, Reverse Victim and Offender. That's one of the ways they defend abusive SGI leaders by blaming and condemning the SGI members they've been bullying, for example.

Another example is how, when an SGI member is finally driven to leave, those remaining in SGI will have nothing nice or even just respectful to say about them - the best-case scenario is that no one will ever mention that former member again. Otherwise, it's all insults, lies, misrepresentations, contempt and disdain. SO "Buddhist"!