I met a very friendly Japanese woman a couple of weeks ago at a cafe. I live in NYC.
We agreed to meet again today. Her friend joined us as well. It was an opportunity for both her and her friend to practice their English, and for me to practice my Japanese.
The conversation took a weird when they started taking about a spiritual phenomena called ochikara or お力. This is supposedly a universal power that gives them wellness and success. They also mentioned they are vegan, and their prioritization of bodily health.
When I asked who introduced them to this idea, if there are gurus or leaders, or backgrounding philosophies they were reluctant to answer my question directly. They both said they were introduced to the idea by a friend.
They then asked me to join them in a moment of meditation. About three minutes with my eyes closed.
Okay, so what cult is this? What’s going on?
It was totally bizarre. Because it was an incredibly pleasant and normal conversation otherwise.
by bloop1990
11 comments
They prioritize bodily health but they’re vegan?
The only Japanese cult I know of, or at least the most infamous, is Aum Shinrikyo or Aleph. I doubt it’s related to them, though.
She was very friendly because she’s a recruiter. It’s their job to be friendly and engaging.
Japan is lousy with cults, and most of them are fucked up beneath the surface in one way or another.
Best just to politely decline, no matter how harmless it seems at first.
It doesn’t seem to be related to anything actually active in Japan, although it does seem inspired by [woo-woo Reiki nonsense](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reiki).
I hope you kept one eye open while you were meditating lol 🤣
There are a lot of weird cults in Japan – and many times if someone is bizarrely kind and generous that’s the reason. A parent of a kid in the same class as our youngest has taken a keen interest in us, maybe because we’re an international couple. She keeps gifting very expensive kids’ clothes and will not take no for an answer. And then every now and again, stones. Yes, stones. Not particularly remarkable stones, just regular looking rocks. She even sends emojis of rocks to my wife in the middle of conversation. Very, very weird. So far we have steadfastly refused to acknowledge these granular oddities in any shape or form, as she is surely waiting for us to ask about them.
She will ruin your life emotionally and financially. Decline, and move on.
This reminds me when I was approached by a recruiter of the ‘kenshokai’ organization. They’re a religious Buddhist group in Saitama ward area. I ended up in a room with 300 cult members, but they were all pretty nice people. Got some prayer beads to bring home with me.
>お力
I think they’re Jedi.
as a resident of Japan all I have to say,
RUN BARRY RUN. Cut off contacts and never look back.
there are many cults here and I can assure you 99.99% of them are loonies.
standing outside train stations/ bus stations/ going door to door/ can’t even do grocery shopping in peace they are trying to recruit anyone they can. it’ll end up you being financially screwed.
have friend that married a woman in those cults and his life is ruined.
I didn’t knew they are spreading outside Japan too. just be careful, not worth it hanging out with these people.
From the sounds of it it reminds me of Happy Science (幸福の科学 Kofuku no Kagaku), or Mahikari (真光). Wacky people either way and on recent news the tokyo district court just ordered the moonies to dissolute and basically stop their activities. The internet is chanting to do Souka-gakkai （創価学会) next.