Why SGI is a cult (according to Steven Hassan’s criteria)

The word ‘cult’ tends to carry a negative connotation, but what exactly does it mean? In his excellent book 'Combatting Cult Mind Control,' deprogrammer Steven Hassan singles out what he refers to as ‘destructive cults’. He defines a destructive cult as an organization with a pyramidical authoritarian regime headed up by a person or group of people who have dictatorial control. New members are recruited by means of deception i.e. people are not told up front what the true aims of the group are or what will be expected of them if they become members. In addition, mind control techniques are employed, first of all to lure unsuspecting people into the cult and then, to keep them in it. In a nutshell, the main ingredients of a cult are authoritarian leadership, deception and destructive mind control. SGI has all of them.

Steven Hassan developed the BITE acronym as a way of describing the components employed by destructive cults using mind control. BITE covers the following areas of control:

Behaviour Control: An individual’s associations, living arrangements, food, clothing, sleeping habits, finances, etc., are strictly controlled.

Membership of the SGI does not require that cult members live in communities separate from the rest of society. Therefore, not all these factors come into play. However, the SGI seeks very much to exert control over an individual’s associations. The notion of being hyper-vigilant about who one associates with pervades both the writings of Nichiren and those of the SGI. Nichiren wrote: ‘Evil friends are those who, speaking sweetly, deceiving, flattering and making skilful use of words, win the hearts of the ignorant and destroy their goodness of mind.’ More recently, Daisaku Ikeda has written: ‘Having good friends is like being equipped with a powerful auxiliary engine. When we encounter a steep hill or an obstacle, we can encourage each other and find the strength to keep pressing forward.’ The coded message is: ‘Steer clear of those people who might cause you to lose faith in the Gohonzon and therefore make you think about leaving the SGI.’

Information Control: Cult leaders deliberately withhold or distort information, lie, propagandize, and limit access to other sources of information.

The SGI makes certain that its members are bombarded with propaganda that promotes its dubious agenda – hence the endless newsletters that are spewed out of Soka Gakkai HQ in Shinanomachi in Tokyo. Information is given out as if the SGI were of some significance on the world stage whereas, in reality, most people have never even heard of it. Most of Ikeda's speeches follow the same pattern and say mostly the same thing, time after time. That is how indoctrination works.

To provide an example of the manipulative use of language employed by Ikeda and the SGI, here is an extract from a speech that was published in the February 27, 2004, World Tribune as a ‘special insert’. It's SGI President Ikeda's address at a nationwide executive leaders conference held in Tokyo, November 25, 2003. He says: ‘Allow me to deeply commend and thank all of you for your tremendous efforts this year. Our repeated triumphs in 2003, the Year of Glory and Great Victory, have indeed been significant.’ No examples of what has been accomplished are cited, yet he goes on to say, ‘We have never before received such a flood of praise and congratulations from our friends, supporters and leading figures around the world.’ Exactly who are these people who have been heaping praise on the SGI? We may never know, probably because they don’t exist.

Thought Control: Cult leaders use loaded words and language, discourage critical thinking, bar any speech critical of cult leaders or policies, and teach an 'us vs. them' doctrine.

The power that the SGI’s propaganda machine wields over members to refrain from saying or thinking anything negative about the organization is so strong that even the idea of doing an innocuous internet search for ‘alternative’ views about the SGI is enough to fill them with fear.

Nichiren used a great deal of combative language, and SGI has followed suit. He said: ‘Buddhism primarily concerns itself with victory or defeat, while secular authority is based on the principle of reward and punishment.’ (from ‘The Hero of the World, WND I: 102, pp.835–841). Ikeda says: 'Buddhism concerns itself with winning. When we battle a powerful enemy, either we will triumph or we will be defeated – there is no middle ground. Battling against life’s negative functions is an integral part of Buddhism. It is through victory in this struggle that we become Buddhas.' Interesting how different this is from the Buddhism of the philosophy’s founder, Shakyamuni: ‘Winning gives birth to hostility. Losing, one lies down in pain. The calmed lie down with ease, having set winning and losing aside.’ (Dhammapada, 15)

Emotional Control: Leaders manipulate their followers via fear (including the fear of losing salvation, fear of shunning, etc.), guilt, and indoctrination.

SGI’s literature is filled with admonitions to believers not to abandon their faith. Nichiren threatened his followers with ‘the hell of incessant suffering’ and said: ‘Be diligent in developing your faith until the last moment of your life. Otherwise you will have regrets. For example, the journey from Kamakura to Kyoto takes twelve days. If you travel for eleven but stop with only one day remaining, how can you admire the moon over the capital?’ And in one of his many execrable poems, Ikeda says: ‘Slanderers of the Law! / Having corrupted the Daishonin's teachings /And veered from the eternal truth, /Are you prepared / To drift along forever in a state of life / Of agonized defeat?'.

The following quotation sums up perfectly the kind of dilemma that may confront someone unfortunate enough to be enmeshed in the SGI. It is from the book ‘Seductive Poison’ by Deborah Layton, a survivor of the People’s Temple massacre that took place in Guyana in 1978:

‘When our own thoughts are forbidden, when our questions are not allowed and our doubts are punished, when contacts and friendships outside of the organization are censored, we are being abused for an end that never justifies its means. When our heart aches knowing we have made friendships and secret attachments that will be forever forbidden if we leave, we are in danger. When we consider staying in a group because we cannot bear the loss, disappointment, and sorrow our leaving will cause for ourselves and those we have come to love, we are in a cult.’