What makes them different than us?
It sounds strange too but I read a book about cults because someone tried to convince me to join a Buddist cult. I went to a "meeting" it was just meditating and had a huge photo of the leader in the front for 7-8 hours. Like how the leader would solve all their problems in life but you know donating money to a stranger isn't what I call enlightening. It wasn't about Buddism as much it was some psuedo-religion that made members donate money and time for it.
Most of the people looked average like the people who stand next to the pamphlets on the subway. I always avoided them since they were always creepy. I feel like cult gave them a hobby or common interest than I guess going to tennis lessons. The entire experience made me avoid groups in particular since I really want to avoid cults in the future.
I understand what you mean about avoiding groups. About a year ago, a friend of mine asked me to accompany him to a 'meeting' at someone's apartment [complete stranger, I had no idea who these people were] and that is where I met his friend, who was a very faithful S0ka.Gakkai member. She was trying to recruit us. I was somewhat familiar with what the organization was about, I attended a temple in Flushing (Nichiren Buddhist, but perhaps an offshoot) some months before sort of on a whim, and I remember then that the whole thing just seemed off.
ReplyDeleteAfter that experience, I did a lot of research on cults and read several books from experts (themselves former cult members). Anyway, I was a little cautious. They weren't a cult in the Jim Jones or Aum sense, but they did have a reputation for emotionally abusing members, and other kinds of exploitation. Actually, the more I learned, the more repulsed I was. I didn't want to be rude, but I didn't want to encourage my friend in any way to get involved. I thought his friend was perfectly nice, as were the people at the meeting, cramped together in the living room of this apartment in Harlem, but it seemed like there was a sort of expectation to share intensely personal stories about what "brought them" to S G.I, and people certainly did share some very traumatic and sad stories. I wasn't comfortable. It wasn't so much the oversharing itself, I was just concerned that their vulnerability could easily be taken advantage of. I was polite but very guarded. I just wanted to leave. For months, his friend continued to invite us to meetings even though I was pretty clear that I wasn't really interested. There wasn't really much I could do to change the subject either - we couldn't talk about much else besides her role in the organization, the teachings of the President, etc. Her mission was clear. All I could really do was ignore her, which seemed to work finally.
That chant is burned into my brain though!
This is interesting, Stephanie. A common strategy of cults is to get personal info from potential members. That way they can bribe people if they're wavering about joining or thinking about leaving.
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