5 New Religious Movements as
Transnational Providers of
Social Support
The Case of Sukyo Mahikari
Wendy Smith
INTRODUCTION
Analysis of the functioning of new religious movements (NRMs) as transnational organisations is a relatively new academic field of enquiry (Smith 2008a). Indeed, many NRMs operate in the same way as transnational corporations (TNCs),1 with the same scale of personnel (members), property holding (centres, headquarters, pilgrimage shrines), staffing issues (posting qualified administrators internationally), budget (donations and sales of spiritual literature and artefacts), and the same transnational, cross-cultural management issues, minus the profit motive. But while the focus of organisational life in TNCs is the maximisation of monetary profit, the focus of NRMs is a spiritual one and their aim is to provide tools, here designated ‘spiritual technologies,’ for the spiritual development of individuals and the good of the wider society through an ethos of service. It is therefore meaningful to re-examine the research on NRMs for insights into the way they function as providers of social support to their members and others. This chapter will examine the institutions and practices of a transnational NRM, Sukyo Mahikari (henceforth Mahikari), based in Japan, which provides care and support to its members.
After outlining the concept of NRMs and the sense in which they may be considered to be transnational organisations, I will give a brief overview of the movement. Then I will discuss the notion of ‘care’ and social support in a spiritual context and describe the mechanisms of care in the organisation.
NRMS—THE PHENOMENON
New religious movements are defined as innovative religious and spiritual movements “characterised by their unconventional symbols of the sacred, their novel understanding of the relationship between the religious and/or the spiritual, and the psychological, their new interpretations of the transcendent, and the new principles of belonging to and/or membership of a religion or spiritual movement which they exposed” (Clarke 2006: 413). The term itself came into use in the 1960s as a way of avoiding the negative connotations of authoritarianism and secrecy associated with the terms ‘cult’ and ‘sect’ and, in the West, is generally applied to organisations manifesting in the post-World War II era but may also be applied to movements originating much earlier, for instance, Tenrikyo, founded in pre-modern Japan in 1838, and Brahmo Samaj, founded in 1828 in India (Clarke 2006). Today's mainstream religions such as Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam were new religious movements in their early days, viewed as highly revolutionary by the status quo.
Members of NRMs usually join as individuals who are experiencing hardship in their personal lives, disenchantment with mainstream religious institutions, or economic and social upheaval, such as occurred after the end of World War II or the dissolution of the Soviet Union, where they have mushroomed in its aftermath. Many prominent transnational NRMs have attracted negative media publicity, such as Soka Gakkai, described as using coercive methods to recruit members,2 and there are some such as Aum Shinrikyo (Tokyo subway sarin gas attack), the People's Temple (Jonestown massacre), Order of the Solar Temple (mass murder/suicide), which fulfill the worst stereotypes attributed to ‘cults.’
On the other hand there are those which have a genuine philanthropic agenda in their activities, as well as doctrinal teachings and spiritual practices which aim to strengthen individual well-being within the stress and alienation which many experience in modern urban industrial social life. Institutional arrangements for supporting members in all aspects of personal and social life are often built into their structures and programmes. Indeed, the intense personal help and friendship received in the early stages of contact with the organisation, sometimes termed ‘love bombing’ (Singer 2003) can be one of the factors in a newcomer's decision to become a member. Once inside the organisation, members may perceive it to be a ‘family’ which replaces (Ramsay and Smith 2008) or strengthens (Smith 2007a) their existing family relationships.
NRMS AS TRANSNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS
Transnational NRMs are to varying degrees examined within the literature on transnationalism focusing on diaspora and migration (Levitt 2001; Hirschman 2007), and that of social movement theory, all of which have a potential focus on social support mechanisms at the macro level of analysis. Beyer (1994: 98) notes that social movement theory was a basis for the analysis of emerging NRMs in the 1960s and 1970s. In comparing NRMs with ‘new social movements’ it is helpful to consider the definition of transnational social movement organisations as akin to international NGOs “who seek to change the status quo on a variety of levels” (Vertovec 2009: 10) focusing on issues which are “transboundary in character, and [ . . . ] draw upon a ‘planetization’ of people's understandings” (Vertovec 2009: 10, citing Cohen, 1998). Typically NRMs with a transnational presence concern themselves with environmental and health issues and world peace, and have doctrinal elements such as “All humanity is one” (Mahikari), exemplifying the process which Robertson calls “global humanization” (1992).
Mahikari, the transnational NRM discussed here, has a membership of over one million (Inoue et al. 1991) and centres in every continent. In general, all members of NRMs, from every nationality, participate in an organisational culture which often overrides their culture of socialisation or national culture and may, to different degrees depending on the organisation, determine their diet, dress, speech patterns, daily, weekly, monthly, and annual schedules, setting them apart from the mainstream community but linking them in a unique lifestyle which operates transnationally (Smith 2002, 2007b). Members’ identification with the NRM as a transnational entity is reinforced by the annual pilgrimages they make to the headquarters of the movement, often an expensive overseas trip.
In the case of Mahikari, unlike some other transnational Japanese NRMs such as PL Kyodan (Nakamaki 2003), the international membership is not at all dependent on the presence of a Japanese diaspora (Japanese members, say, in an Australian Mahikari centre would number around the same percentage as their percentage in the total Australian population; that is, very few).
SOCIAL SUPPORT IN A SPIRITUAL CONTEXT
In this chapter, I discuss the notion of social support mainly in the sense of the care individuals receive as members of the organisation, but also in the sense of how the organisation cares for humanity and the environment in general. The other context in which NRMs can potentially provide social support is in a diaspora where members use religious organisations as providers of social capital (Vertovec 2000). This phenomenon is typically found in NRMs which proliferate overseas through the migration of their members, which is not the case for Mahikari.
In this perspective I understand social support as “the mechanisms through which a social environment protects its individual members from threatening and impairing events and experiences, and which, in case the latter come to pass and take their course, can support them in their coping efforts” (Nestmann 2005). A NRM can be a total social world for the individual member, providing social institutional frameworks regulating not only ritual and beliefs of a religious nature but also prescriptions for marriage, gender relationships, and wider social relationships, education, health care, economic activities, and the regulation of community affairs normally provided by political institutions. Often the state is in contestation with some of these aspects, for instance, that of medical treatment in the case of the Jehovah's Witnesses,3 or the education of children in the case of the Brethren,4 or polygamous marriage in the case of the Mormons.5 However, when the form these social institutions take does not conflict with wider societal norms regulated by the state, NRMs work within state regulations to provide educational services, health care, counselling, organic food farms, and so on, in other words, a total social environment designed to support members and even outsiders.
The notion of ‘community’ is used in the special sense of the NRM as a spiritual community, sometimes even designated as a non-kin ‘family.’ Academic debates on the notion of social support or care have hitherto developed in relation to a need to understand how it takes place at the level of care institutions provided by the state (Daly and Lewis 2000), where the institutional contexts under examination are the family, the community, the market, and the state.6 The notion of social support also includes ‘help’ in terms of other voluntary networks (friends, informal networks of association). This chapter contributes a new category to the analysis, that of ‘new religious movements,’ which can be equated to communities, in the sense of voluntary associations which may or may not have a geographic community aspect in terms of members’ proximity to each other, and which, due to lifestyles imposed by the movement, may replace the institution of the family, or the ethnic community, as in a multicultural or diasporic situation, as the group of primary affiliation and loyalty. Certainly it can be seen from the data in this study7 that membership in these movements can modify the need for members to access state institutions of social support. In that sense, they are an important new institution emerging in the debates on public and private care within the welfare state and on the prominent role of the family as a caregiver. For the purpose of structuring the ethnographic data, Thomas's typology of seven dimensions of care (1993: 656–57)—social identity of the carer, social identity of the care recipient, interpersonal relationship between carer and recipient, nature of care, social domain, economic relationship, institutional setting—is a useful one. The added factor here is that of the spiritual realm, where a transcendent entity may be seen as the ultimate carer, interceding in the relationship between earthly carer and recipient, in the sense that the NRM member as carer is seen as a bodily agent of the transcendent entity, performing the care as ‘service’ in accordance with the ethos of the organisation. For instance, in the Brahma Kumaris NRM (Ramsay and Smith 2008), if one says ‘Thank you’ to one of the centre residents for a nicely cooked group meal or other service to members, the person will reply, “Thank Baba” (the Supreme Soul). The idea of a transcendental carer also influences economic relationships and other institutional processes within the organisation. And the fact that the organisation is transnational in its organisational structure and membership means that these mechanisms of social support transcend national cultures and institutions of the nation-state, and are available and accessible to all members from whatever national or ethnic backgrounds, whether at home or while visiting centres overseas or migrating. These dimensions will be exemplified in the case material presented ahead.
THE CASE OF SUKYO MAHIKARI: TRANSNATIONAL SOCIAL SUPPORT AND CARE
Origins of Mahikari
Mahikari, often classified as one of Japan's ‘new New religions’ (shinshin shukyo) (Shimazono 1992),8 that is, established in the post–World War II era, was founded by Okada Kotama (1901–74), respectfully referred to in the organisation as Great Saviour (Sukuinushisama).9 In 1959, Okada received revelations from God commanding him thus: “The time of heaven has come. Rise. Thy name shall be Kotama. Exercise the art of purification. The world shall encounter severe times” (Okada 1967). Okada, formerly a member of the Church of World Messianity (Sekai Kyuseikyo), adapted its central practice, Johrei—channelling God's healing light into the body of another—into Mahikari teachings as its main ritual practice, the transmission of Divine Light (Okiyome). When the founder died, conflict arose over who would succeed him. The movement split into two: one group renamed itself Sukyo Mahikari, with headquarters in Takayama, where the Main World Shrine (Suza) has been constructed as a focal point of pilgrimage. This branch of Mahikari is led by Okada's adopted daughter, Okada Keishu, respectfully referred to as Great Teacher (Oshienushisama). The second group, Sekai Mahikari Bunmei Kyodan (World True Light Civilization Religious Organization), retained the original name of the organisation, (note its conceptualisation at the global level of the ‘world’), and set up its headquarters in the Izu peninsula. It was initially led by Okada's trusted male associate, Sekiguchi Sakae. Today Sukyo Mahikari has the larger international presence and is the focus of this chapter.
Beliefs and Rituals
Mahikari beliefs, similar to Buddhism and Hinduism, incorporate the idea of rebirth and the impact of deeds in former lifetimes upon the individual in this lifetime. Mahikari teachings explain that misfortune is caused by malevolent spirits who attach themselves to the sufferer due to karmic relationships created by themselves or their ancestors. The process of purification with the Divine Light pacifies these spirits and causes them to leave the person alone. The result is then a healing on the physical, emotional, or social plane. The bad deeds of oneself (in this or former lives) or of one's ancestors are what attracts the resentment of the spirits of those who have been harmed or their descendents and thus they attach themselves to a victim and cause his or her suffering. Rather than driving these spirits away, in the conventional understanding of exorcism, the process of purification with Divine Light heals them as well and they leave voluntarily.
In Japanese, Mahikari means ‘True Light,’ signifying the central focus of this NRM, spiritual and purifying energy. It can be partially conceptualised in terms of the concept of psychic energy, Japanese ‘ki’ or the Chinese ‘chi’ (McVeigh 1992), but is distinguished by its divine aspect, as the Divine Light of the Creator, Su God. People become members of Mahikari, or kamikumite (those who go ‘hand-in-hand with God’), after attending the three-day training course (Primary Kenshu), a kind of initiation (Hurbon 1991). On completion they receive a Divine Locket (Omitama), which enables them to act as a channel through which they project the Divine or True Light to other members, their families, members of the public, or even animals, food, and localities.
Thus, the Omitama, a spiritual technology in the form of a sacred object, allows ordinary people to perform miracles (Smith 2008b). It is worn on the upper body of members and is treated with great respect. It must not be allowed to become wet or touch the ground. That is why children do not become members until around the age of ten, when they are deemed able to take proper care of the Omitama locket. Members who have received the initial training and have been given an Omitama then have the ability to transmit the True Light following a detailed ritual procedure of praying to the Creator God, which involves bowing to the sacred scroll containing the Chon, symbol of Su God in Japanese calligraphy, enshrined in the Goshintai Shrine, the central feature of each centre, and then to their partner as an act of politeness. Then, with their backs to the Goshintai, they recite in a loud voice, in archaic Japanese, the prayer of purification—Amatsu Norigoto—and Divine Light is transmitted to the forehead of the other person through the raised palm of the hand. Light may then be transmitted to the back of the head and other parts of the body, a complete session taking about fifty minutes.
Giving and receiving Divine Light daily and attending group ceremonies, which are explained as very important to attend as they magnify the transmission of Light from Su God, are the fundamental activities of Mahikari members. Many new members come to Mahikari through being offered Light by an existing member in response to a problem with their health, relationships, or finances. Conversion and care are intimately connected in the case of NRMs as the conversion is usually an individual choice, and individuals entering the organisation are initially impressed by the help and support they receive from members in a very one-to-one sense. In Mahikari, the miraculous healing of incurable diseases such as cancer and the change for the better in relationships and careers, is extensively documented in observably true case histories in the books by Dr. Andris Tebecis (1982 and 2004) (the head of Mahikari's Australia/Oceania division), and in the monthly journals10 published by the movement. Tales of miraculous reversals of bad fortune abound in the personal testimonies of members which feature in the monthly and annual ceremonies.
Mahikari Lifestyle
Membership in Sukyo Mahikari organises the lives of its followers quite distinctly on a daily, monthly, and annual basis. In daily terms, as well as giving Light, they are required to offer small receptacles of food and drink to the patrilineal ancestors at their home's ancestral altar, a small traditionally shaped Japanese cabinet situated at head height on a suitable wall. Caring for the ancestors in this way, a practice commonly found in the former rice growing communities of north Asia, as the ancestors provided the grain on which the current generation's food supply is based, is seen as a way of protecting the present generation from harm, in order that ancestors will look kindly on the current generation and not affect the living family or others through becoming attaching spirits with grudges, revenge agendas, etc. Such practices strengthen the cohesion of the family unit. If the Mahikari couple has had the much larger Goshintai shrine, containing a sacred scroll with the Chon, inaugurated in their home, this requires even more care, since it cannot be left unattended for long periods.
There are no dietary codes or dress codes for members, but interaction patterns tend to follow Japanese standards of politeness and respect, and especially in the dojo, removing shoes, washing hands, bowing when passing in front of the centrally placed Goshintai, necessitate mental and behavioural adjustment away from prevailing cultural norms in most non-Japanese societies (Cornille 1991). Gradually one's social interactions tend to revolve around other Mahikari members and membership becomes a total life path. When visiting the Main World Shrine on pilgrimage or other centres overseas, the organisational culture is such that members feel no social or cultural distance between themselves and members of other nationalities. Members from all over the world can be seen giving Light to each other in the universally prescribed ritual style. Thus Mahikari can be said to provide its members with a truly global cultural system (Hexham and Poewe 1997; Smith 2007b). Members have no difficulty in moving transnationally and continuing their supportive involvement with Mahikari as any centre in the locality would be completely familiar to them in terms of its architecture and interior design, its rituals, and the behaviour of its members.
Organisational Structure and Roles
From its beginnings in war-torn Japan, Sukyo Mahikari has made the transition to a transnational organisation with a clearly defined hierarchy of authority and a sophisticated communication system. Its organisational structure mirrors that of a modern Japanese company, with a Planning Section, Ceremony Department, International Department, etc. At the national level, Mahikari is represented by centres (dojo), which are graded according to their size and importance, from large, medium, small, and associate centres (dai-, chu-, sho-, and jun-dojo), followed by the smaller and more informal ‘purification places’ (okiyome-sho) and ‘communication places’ (renraku-sho). This graded system of centres is common both to Japan and overseas. Overseeing the centres are the Regional Headquarters (shidobu), one for each prefecture in Japan, and one each for Europe/Africa, North America, Latin America, Asia, and Australia/Oceania. A shidobu is headed by the division head (Bucho) (a term used for a senior manager in a Japanese corporation) on behalf of Oshienushisama and his role11 includes both spiritual and managerial aspects; in fact he serves as a major caretaker in the organisation, regionally, and for its members on a one-to-one basis. The Bucho visits centres in all the countries in his region regularly, conducting the Primary Training and bestowing the symbol of membership and the spiritual technology for mutual caring, the Omitama, on new members. He gives Light to members constantly. He also administers the region, overseeing and recommending staff transfers and promotions in rank, and conducts the regional monthly ceremony as the spiritual representative of Oshienushisama.
Below Oshienushisama herself are a few very senior members of Sukyo Mahikari Headquarters. In general the main ranks are Ministers (Doshi) and Centre Chiefs (Dojocho). Centre Chiefs, the status below Bucho, are spiritually in charge of the centre, are usually from the locality and, unlike Ministers, are rarely transferred away from their city of residence and employment. Hence they get to know the local members very well and also perform supportive roles, combining spiritual and secular counselling elements.
Mechanisms of Care and Support in Mahikari
Ministers are the movement's professional caregivers, although all members are encouraged to give care and support to each other and to outsiders through the practice of giving Divine Light. They are the disciples of Oshienushisama who have undertaken a three-year training course. There are from thirty to fifty new trainees in every annual intake, selected from hundreds of applicants.
Being of all nationalities, Ministers play an important linking role in promoting the transnationality of the organisation and may be transferred, often at intervals of about three years across national boundaries. For instance, a former Minister at the Melbourne centre was South African, there have been two Japanese Ministers serving in the Canberra Regional Headquarters and Australian Ministers have been posted to the International Division in Takayama and to a centre in India.
Within the centre there are different group leaders, coordinators, and other personnel who coordinate such groups as the Parents’ Group, Educators’ Group, Older Youth Group, Primary Students’ Group, Kindergarten Group, and so on. All of these groups are designed to give support with practical daily life issues reinforced with spiritual support to members. As it is believed that the spirit world influences the circumstances of life in the everyday world, spiritual and practical support for problems are intertwined. This organisational ethos of support is reinforced by the ritual exchange of Divine Light between members whenever these groups, and indeed individuals, meet formally or informally. There are also various leadership roles relating to the Yoko agriculture (a horticultural project based on organic and spiritual principles) and medical care facilities run by the organisation. In these systems, spiritual elements and modern bureaucratic principles are combined.
A key social support institution in the movement is the formal role of ‘Group Carer.’ Created after the membership drop-out rate became a concern, Group Carers, relatively senior members of a centre who have been permitted to install a Goshintai in their homes, look after a small group of members and their families, around ten, acting as counsellors for any problems they might be having and keeping in touch with them on a regular basis. Group Carers are busy giving Light to their members as often as they can. The Group Carer would be the first person to approach a member whose attendance at the centre had diminished, to check if there were any major problems contributing to the decrease in his or her active participation. If a member wished to leave the movement, however, he or she would be free to do so.
The members of a Group Carer's circle usually attend the monthly ‘Goshintai appreciation ceremony’ conducted for the Goshintai at his or her home. This involves the giving of Light, formal prayers and rituals associated with the Goshintai, then a tea party, to which all have brought contributions of food. Members make offerings to the Group Carer's Goshintai offering box, which will later be conveyed to the main centre. The group centring around a Group Carer provides a very accessible daily life support mechanism for mothers with young families, youth working in a city away from home, divorced or aged members living alone. The mixture of human friendship, social events, and personal counselling found in a Group Carer's group is reinforced with the background of commonly understood spiritual principles which are a frame of reference for advice or interaction, plus the powerful purifying impact of the ritual exchange of Divine Light. It is important to note that giving Light is not an elitist one-way process (members give and receive in turn) but a spiritual act which all who possess an Omitama can perform equally and hence all can potentially serve as agents for positive change in the recipient's health, emotional state, relationships, career, or business success, etc. And the act of giving Light is beneficial to the giver as well. Even in social psychological terms, the opportunity to play the role of benefactor to someone else could be seen as strengthening to the identity and emotional state of that person. Thus through the simple process of attending a three-day training seminar, obtaining an Omitama, and learning the simple ritual of claps and bows, and memorising the ritual prayer Amatsu Norigoto, proclaimed in Japanese by members of all nationalities while giving Light, all members can and do care for each other on a regular basis—potentially and in reality effecting miracles of healing and transformation upon their co-members, and also upon people outside the organisation if they agree to receive the Light.12
As well as the community of members clustering residentially around a centre, and the sub-groups focused around Group Carers, Mahikari celebrates and supports the nuclear family as a social institution. The function of the nuclear family as a source of social support is rapidly declining in modern and post-modern society as marriage rates decline and single parent households increase,13 but Mahikari celebrates members’ social identities as members of patrilineal families, in a way very similar to the emphasis on family roles in Confucian societies such as Japan. A feature of all large centres is the provision of a family room where parents can be with small children while receiving the Divine Light or listening to lectures through the installed sound or video system. Members of a family possessing Omitama are encouraged to give and receive Light, to each other daily and also give Light to children and non-members in the family. The focus on the family is further reinforced by the daily food offerings to the ancestors reminiscent of, but not identical to, Buddhist practices in the traditional Japanese household. Mahikari Youth group activities give a role to the children of members within the organisation, and the Youth, in striking uniforms, have key roles in major ceremonies. In NRMs initial membership is by individual conversion. In this way, the organisation attempts to solve the problem of establishing a pattern of intergenerational membership when no wider community traditions are in place, as in the case of Christianity, Islam, or Buddhism, for example, to ensure that children will follow the faith of their parents.
Significantly, this NRM is providing support services which professionals provide in a secular world, that of counselling and psychological support. Financial support is usually not needed by Mahikari members who are mainly working in mainstream occupations and are able to give substantial donations to the movement. If anyone falls on hard times, there would be various spiritual technologies to reverse the situation, giving Divine Light to the business premises, changing one's innermost attitude (sonen), and so on. Converts relate various stories of the miraculous recovery of their financial circumstances after joining Mahikari. If, however, misfortune befalls someone after joining, this is explained as a ‘cleansing’ in the same way as those receiving the Divine Light may experience strong episodes of vomiting, diarrhoea, or fever, as a cleansing. Many relate how the smell of medicines consumed over decades permeates these bodily incidents, so that they can easily relate the phenomenon of misfortune to that of cleansing.
Care Beyond Mahikari Membership
Mahikari rituals and practices are also conducted for the good of the wider community and ultimately all humanity. For instance, a basic element in the daily opening ceremony of each centre is for all present to revolve slowly around 360 degrees, reciting the prayer of purification, the Amatsu Norigoto, while radiating Light with raised hands, and thus purifying the neighbouring buildings and environment. Food prepared at home, merchandise, cars, etc. are also purified with the aim of benefiting those who use them. The organisation provides medical care for members and the wider community at its Yoko Clinic at its headquarters in Takayama, where modern medical treatment is combined with the transmission of Divine Light if the patient wishes to receive it. The hospital has a Mahikari practice centre on the top floor and staff are Mahikari members.
In terms of service to the environment, Mahikari operates a system of ecological farming, in its Yoko Farm movement, where no pesticides are used, and the movement mirrors the holistic farming established by Findhorn. Indeed when one visits the Yoko farms, there are stories of miraculously large vegetables and bumper crops, and also the phenomenon of how pests and predators migrate from neighbouring farms because of the absence of traditional pest repulsion methods.
THE DARK SIDE OF NRMS IN RELATIONS TO ISSUES OF CARE
In all large organisations, there is the possibility of some members’ behaviour being less than ideal in terms of their intentions or practice of the principles. A few individuals may even join spiritual organisations to obtain personal power, or other self-oriented benefits. Usually the lifestyle and practices of NRMs screen out such members and they leave, but when large numbers in the hundreds of thousands are involved, there is always the possibility that some members will be problematic. Indeed many NRMs show evidence of such phenomena and websites of disenchanted members can be found. The Internet has proved to be a powerful tool for former members to air their grievances.
In the case of Mahikari, some disenchanted former members set up a website which has had damaging results for the organisation. Their claims related to financial matters which may have been in a secular business context. Conversion to a new religious movement involves changes in lifestyle, relationships, and voluntary financial outlays in the form of donations, which may be quite considerable in the initial enthusiasm of joining and experiencing new phenomena. When the individual subsequently does not achieve what he or she expected, it may lead to disenchantment. This cycle is well documented in the literature on membership in NRMs.14 In relation to Mahikari, speaking from my knowledge of the centre administrators, Doshi, and ordinary members whom I met in my research in Mahikari centres in five countries, the impression I received is of dedicated and good-hearted individuals who are living a lifestyle of daily spiritual awareness and gratitude, with the sincere aim of helping other members, society, and humankind in general. The living circumstances of members and Centre and regional administrators are modest and there is no evidence of the opulent display or desire for personal gain, power, and status associated with leadership roles in some NRMs. In fact, the Doshi, who live in centres with very few personal possessions, demonstrate a high level of personal self-sacrifice.
Conclusion
Mahikari, like many other Japanese NRMs, arose in the 1950s in the context of the devastation of material and economic life in Japan after her defeat in World War II. Individuals were able to obtain help with their health, relationships, and even economic problems through receiving the Divine Light. Hence, in Mahikari, care is primarily in terms of the practice of giving Divine Light, a daily obligation, towards one's family members, at the centre to other members and visitors, and even on the street, if someone is in trouble.
Using the case of Sukyo Mahikari, this chapter applies the notion of transnational social support to a new area, that of new religious movements, and investigates them as providers of a universal system of social support and care to individuals both inside and outside the organisation, in a spiritual way through spiritual means, and in a secular way through their secular, albeit spiritually enhanced, institutions.
In Mahikari, this transnationality is facilitated by the main element of its spiritual culture and also its main mechanism of caring, the ritual practice of radiating Divine Light. This has been a powerful factor in establishing uniformity in the value systems and behaviour of Mahikari members in diverse cultures. This is strengthened through the doctrinal emphasis on purification, especially the process of purification of members’ innermost attitude (sonen). Moreover the occurrence of miracles associated with the Divine Light has been a compelling reason behind members’ conversion and the main reason for its global spread. Purity and miracles are concepts which transcend different cultures.
The care and support taking place in NRMs such as Mahikari are transnational in two senses: firstly because the care mechanisms are embedded in the organisational culture, which is transnational and uniform throughout the organisation, they can be accessed by any member anywhere in the globe; and secondly, because the organisation actively posts its senior members around the globe to introduce, support, or enhance the service and hence the care practices in the local national centres. These postings are very strategic, with the aim of benefiting humanity in both the spiritual and secular realms—enhancing the spiritual development of members and providing service to the wider society through secular programmes, campaigns with both practical and spiritual effects, and through trying to make inroads into secular institutions through educating public figures about their ideals.
NOTES
1. Transnational corporations (TNCs), or multinational corporations (MNCs), or enterprises (MNEs) are firms which own or control production facilities or deliver services in more than one country, with headquarters in a home country and subsidiaries or operating units in host countries. TNCs are distinguished by the fact that they have a more global emphasis in their corporate culture and operations.
2. Shakubuku is a controversial method of propagating Nichiren Buddhism using dialogue to refute another's heretical views. Sometimes translated as ‘break and subdue,’ it also has the sense of cutting through delusion. However, the methods used by zealous members of Soka Gakkai were sometimes seen as too strident and coercive.
3. Jehovah's Witnesses are not allowed to accept blood transfusions for themselves or their children, believing that this is the same as eating blood and is forbidden in the Bible. Many Jehovah's Witnesses have died because of this restriction the Watchtower Society has placed upon its members. In the past the Watchtower Society has forbade them to get vaccinations or accept organ transplants; many people died needlessly before the Watchtower Society changed its rules and allowed these procedures. They still hold fast to the prohibition against receiving blood transfusions (http://www.towerwatch.com/Witnesses/Beliefs/their_beliefs.htm. Retrieved 27 March 2011).
4. Wilson, B. (2000) ‘‘‘The Brethren’: A Current Sociological Appraisal.” www.theexclusivebrethren.com/documents/academicstudy.pdf. Retrieved 27 March 2011.
5. Hardy, B. C. (1992) Solemn Covenant: the Mormon Polygamous Passage. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.
6. In developed economies such as Australia, the state supports the family as an institution of care by providing, for instance, ‘carer allowances’ for children to look after elderly parents at home, child support allowances, ‘in the home’ domestic helpers, rent relief for the unemployed, etc. In relation to the workplace, there is legislation requiring employers to grant maternity leave, paternity leave, carer's leave, etc. indicating support funded by the market. From a community perspective, for instance, there are church or other religious or secular charities providing accommodation for the homeless, food, clothing, furniture for low-income groups, etc.
7. The author is a social anthropologist who carried out research on Sukyo Mahikari from 1995 to 2001 in Australia (Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney, Canberra), Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), Singapore, the Philippines (Manila), and Japan (Takayama, Kyoto, Tokyo, Nagoya) using participant observation, structured and unstructured interviews, and documentary data collection methods.
8. According to Shimazono (1992, as outlined in Reader 1993: 235) the ‘new New Religions,’ which emerged after World War II and particularly those which have showed dynamic growth in the 1970s and 1980s, are distinguished by a focus on immediate benefit in the here and now in their practices and beliefs and on the abilities demonstrated by the charismatic leaders of the movements. Thus the new New Religions offer tangible benefits and salvation in this world, as opposed to the other-worldly focus of Buddhism. Importantly, in new New Religions such as Mahikari, belief in the purifying power of God's light is linked to ethical systems in a very this-worldly context. New Religions teach that one's fate is not solely determined by the power of God or other transcendent beings, but that one can achieve salvation and happiness in this life by one's own efforts, such as changing one's attitude and daily behaviour (Shimazono 1993: 293). Shimazono also emphasises the importance of the spiritual status of the individual, as opposed to that of the family or the community as in the established religions or folk religion in Japan. In Mahikari this is represented by the belief in an individual's guardian spirit and in individual spiritual advancement.
9. This section is derived from Smith (2007a).
10. For instance, the MAAJ—Mahikari Australia and Asia Journal, published by Sukyo Mahikari Australia Ltd.
11. In Sukyo Mahikari, Bucho are usually male, as are senior managers in Japanese corporations.
12. See many accounts of these miracles in the two books by Tebecis (1982, 2004). I conducted this research over a number of years as an anthropologist using the methodology of participant observation. It was a condition of my research on Mahikari that I receive the Light every time I visited the dojo before beginning interviews. In the course of conducting research in this way, I personally experienced the ‘miracle’ of painful gallstones, visible on an ultrasound scan and which the doctor said needed surgical removal, disappearing after a session in which I received the Light during a fieldwork visit to the Melbourne dojo.
13. http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2011/tables/11s1335.pdf. Retrieved 29 March 2011.
14. See, for instance Bromley, D., ed. (1988) Falling from the Faith: The Causes and Consequences of Religious Apostasy. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications.
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