These are just 20 of the weird shit things that Mahikari members often believe and do. Not all of these are official teachings, but most are, and most of the group does these, so if you want to be a part of team, you do them too.

I am not making these up.

1. Very cold and frozen foods will solidify the toxins in your body, so you should avoid them (actual teaching). This includes ice cream.

2. Microwaves destroy the spiritual aspect of food, so you should avoid them. You can’t offer microwaved food to your ancestors.

3. If you leave the cult, you or your loved ones will suffer all manner of various accidents, illnesses, including just plain old dying. Classic cult manipulation by fear.

4. As a mark of respect, it’s good to iron your dollars when offering them as a donation to God. Doesn't work with plastic-based notes though! Also, it's rude to offer coins. Notes are so much more polite.

5. Charities are only delaying your negative karmic 'payback'. If a charity helps ease your suffering, you're no longer erasing negative karma for yourself and your family. Well fuck. So they don’t support charities.

6. Is is better if women wear skirts and dresses, which isn’t official teaching, but certainly the female Doshis (priests) have this enforced. They aren’t allowed to wear sleeveless tops, or to show their underarms. Black isn’t a suitable colour for women to wear, either. Female Doshis' hair should be cut short, or tied back in a ponytail.

7. As you get more purified and spiritually elevated, you won’t need much sleep. Maybe three or four hours a night? If you need more ... well, you’re not very elevated, are you?

8. If you’re serious, you’d only take holidays with a Mahikari focus, or spend your holiday time offering divine service. Ceaseless efforts, bitches!

9. You have to pay a monthly “spiritual line maintenance donation” to keep your connection with God going. Yes, a monthly subscription to God. He'll cut you off otherwise!

10. Attaching spirits can make you think, hear and see anything. So they can make you see a green traffic light, when the light is actually red, for example, and cause a bad car accident.

11. Homosexuality is seen as spirit disturbance 😡

12. You have to wash your ‘top’ clothes (things worn above the waist, which have your omitama pocket in it) have to be washed separately from ‘bottoms’ (underwear, socks, pants etc).

13. Offering cigarettes to ancestors. Unlit. But still ... 🤢

14. Don’t point your feet or sit with your back towards the ancestor’s altar, or the holy altar. So rude!

15. Vaccinations and medications are poison. Of course 🙄. More on this over here.

16. Cars and plants and machines and food and everything has a spiritual aspect, and you should talk to them, and purify them with True Light.

17. Don't put your hands flat on the floor when you're in the process of giving 'True Light' as this is impure.

18. Purify your groceries for at least 20 minutes with 'True Light', before putting them away, also chanting the dodgy af 'Ancient Japanese prayer' the whole time.

19. Keep all your Mahikari books, notebooks, journals and such in a special place, and don't let them touch the floor (man, they love those purity rituals).

20. They love numerology. The same day as the number of the month was a major deal. 1 January, 2 February, 3 March, and so on. If you were going to have a really shit day, it would be one of these days.

#Mahikari #purity #rituals #weirdshit

Spirits and ancestors are a big deal in Mahikari. Spirits attach to your body, and cause diseases or other ailments. But that’s another blog post.

What I want to talk about today is the obsession with a special sort of spirits — your ancestors. In Shinto tradition, ancestors are revered. A great deal of Mahikari is based on Shinto.

In Mahikari, if you’re really devout, you have an ancestor’s altar, and then a second one for your maiden line, so both parts of your family are covered and you have twice as much to do.

The altar sits on a high shelf in your living room, usually. There are all kinds of rules about where in the house it's allowed to be located. Can't have any beds with their feet pointing towards it, for instance.

The alter contains name tablets. There’s a main one for all ancestors who died more than 30 years ago. Those who have died more recently get their own name tablet, inscribed with a new name, to help them give up attachment to their past life. There should always be a tiny vase with some scented flowers in it, too. There is also a Japanese-style bell.

Ancestors require constant attention. Their altar has to be opened every morning, the light turned on, with a good morning greeting. If you go out, you need to tell them. And tell them when you’re back home too. Introduce them to any visitors to the house. Inform them of any major events. Close it at night, turning off its light, and wishing your ancestors a pleasant evening. So civilised.

And they need dinner every day. They have a tiny set of dishes, glasses and cutlery, all bought new (second-hand is not acceptable, not pure enough). These are all put on a small tray. Mahikari members are forever seeking out cute tiny crockery and cutlery. Liqueur glasses are popular as wine glasses. Miniature cutlery sets are the best. All sorts of tiny things, like this ...

For dinner, they should be served a small part of your meal, and the best part of it, too. Don't forget the wine. And don't cook anything with a microwave oven, because that destroys the spiritual aspect of the food, which, after all, is what your ancestors are 'eating'. And they should be served before you eat. The bell is struck to get the ancestors’ attention, to call them for dinner.

When cleaning up after dinner, don't use your usual dishwashing things, either. Special washing up cloths for the special ancestors' crockery and cutlery 🙄

Their altar also needs to be cleaned regularly. With special purified altar cleaning cloths (Mahikari has a lot of purity rituals!). And they need to have Mahikari prayers and teachings read to them regularly. Don't ever sit with your feet pointing towards the altar, either. So rude.

Ancestors send warnings too. If you get headaches, or head injuries, or eye problems, or anything like that, it’s your ancestors telling you to ‘look up’ and pay heed to them. Aren’t you glad you know that now? Feeling guilty yet?

Looking after an ancestors altar or two is a shitload of work, and keeps you very involved in daily ‘cult tasks’, all the time. I still get nightmares about the fucking thing. But maybe that’s my just my poor imaginary ancestor spirits having a bit of a grizzle about my neglect?

Aaaw, diddums.

Quite a responsibility, really. I'd rather have a dog.

#Mahikari #cult #ancestors #rituals #warnings #karma

I’ve been thinking of writing about Mahikari for some time now. I was in Mahikari for just over a decade, and got out many years ago. I’m surprised at the recent lack of public discussion or revelation about this group. Are ex-members too scared to say anything? You can write your experiences anonymously in many places, like here … telling people your story helps to educate and protect. It helps other ex-members to understand what they went through. It helps people avoid joining up in the first place. While it is classified by scholars as a ‘Japanese New Religion’, it is in reality a religious cult, and a damaging one at that.

I joined Mahikari when I was really young, only 19. I had some chronic health problems, and a very friendly neighbour a few doors down the street introduced me. He was so nice. Sucked me right in 🤦🏻‍♀️

Mahikari practices ‘spiritual purification’, where ‘Divine Light’ (okiyome or True Light) is ‘radiated’ from the palm of the hand. I became convinced that this Light could cure my health problems (spoiler alert, it couldn’t). True Light is supposed to heal all kinds of conditions, and it could also be radiated at your groceries to purify them of the ubiquitous ‘toxins’, and purify accident sites (to release the suffering earth-bound spirits), and could even make radioactivity poisoning an environment disappear! MAGIC. Fucking magic 🙄

To radiate True Light, the Mahikari member (kumite) has to wear their special Divine Pendant (omitama) around their neck. They are told that this pendant is more precious than their own life. This does a bit of a number on you.

The pendant must never touch the ground, a bed, or a seat, get wet, be put on back-to-front, or touch your body below the waist (pure body is above the waist, impure body is below the waist, where all that sex and poop and yucky things happen, and feet touching the dirty ground. Dirty dirty dirty.). The omitama has to be kept wrapped up in multiple layers (plastic, cloth etc), and pinned into a pocket in your bra or singlet. Members often had nightmares about their omitama getting wet, or broken, or damaged, or dropping onto a bed, or some other 'omitama accident'.

If, horror of horrors, an omitama accident actually happened, it was a reflection on the state of your soul, and a negative reflection at that. A warning. Although sometimes in unusual situations it could be deemed a sacrifice, sacrificing your omitama in place of your LIFE — so maybe if it got wet while you were in the process of nearly drowning, the Mahikari staff would say it had been sacrificed in place of your life. Not so much shame associated in that case.

But usually it was a warning. Because we all had a lot of negative karma. It was time to reflect on your sins. It would have to be sent away to be specially re-purified. You had to make special donations, of grovelling apology and significant funds. The other members would whisper about you. It was all quite humiliating.

I actually never had an omitama accident, yeah bitches, that's how 'pure' I was (what a fucking joke). But even now I still get the occasional 'omitama accident nightmare', and I haven't had one of the bloody things in my house, let alone strangling me around my neck, for years.

More to come. I need to get this shit out of my head.

#Mahikari #cult #omitama #pendant #warning #purity #rituals #JapaneseNewReligion