Transcript Lecture 11: Aum Shinrikyo - Albright College Faculty

Cults and New
Religious Movements
Case Study #3: Aum
Shinrikyo
The Violence
• Subway gas attacks on
March 20, 1995
– 12 died, over 5,000 injured
• Other gas attacks in 1993
and 1994
• Violence against members
• The murder of Sakamoto
and his family
• Yasuda and Ochida
• Many other examples as
well
The Biography of Shoko Asahara
• Born on March 2, 1955
• Original name was Chizuo
Matsumoto
• 4th of 7 children
• Parents were very poor
• Was totally blind in one eye and had
30% vision in the other
– Was sent to a boarding school for the
blind where he became a leader
• Wanted to go to medical and law
school but was not able to
• Became a masseur, acupuncturist, and
seller of herbal medicines
• Became a member of Agonshu, a
Japanese new religion, in 1981
• Studied Buddhism, Chinese divination
and asceticism, new age philosophies,
yoga, and the prophecies of
Nostradamus
• Left Agonshu in 1984 with 15 followers
• Changed his name to Shoko Asahara
in 1987
Attributes of Aum Shinrikyo
• Aum = “powers of destruction and creation in the
universe; Shinrikyo = “teaching of the supreme truth”
• Became legally registered in 1989 in Japan
– Had about 4,000 members
• By 1995 it had about 10,000 members in Japan and 30,000 in Russia
– About 1,247 were shukkesha (renunciants)
• 75% of shukkesha were in their 20s and 30s in Japan
• Around 40% of the shukkesha were women
• Many were well educated and from middle and middle
upper class families
Beliefs of the Group
• Ultimate concern: The creation of the Buddhist
millennial kingdom, Shambhala
• Major beliefs include
–
–
–
–
–
Transmigration and rebirth
Better rebirths and enlightenment through meditation
Pursuit of mystical experiences
Dualistic worldview
Asceticism
• Believed that 30,000 had to become shukkesha to save
the world from mass destruction
• By 1990 Asahara’s theory of prevention shifted to a focus on mere
survival
• Everyone must submit to the guru (Asahara) who was
the incarnation of Shiva, to gain good karma and
achieve salvation
The Persecution
• The Sunday Mainichi & other major
newspapers
• The Aum Shinrikyo Victims’ Society
• The backlash to Shinrito (p. 139)
• Perceived threat of “the evil forces”
– A supposed alliance of Jews, Freemasons, Soka
Gakkai and the U.S. & Japanese Govts.
• Conflicts with neighbors
The Response
• Members felt:
– An increase in persecution
– Felt they were failing to achieve the ultimate goal
• Recruitment was far short of the necessary 30,000 shukkesha
• A definite increase in
– Apocalyptic belief
• Doctrine changed from preventing the apocalypse to surviving, to
bringing it
– Increase on reliance on charismatic leadership
• The leader was viewed as infallible
– Social Encapsulation
The Decision to Commit Violence
• Why did the group commit the subway gas
attacks?
– These responses along with their dualistic worldview
and belief that Asaharas’ prophecies could never be
in error motivated the group to commit the subway
gas attacks to bring about the beginning of the
prophesied apocalypse and millennial kingdom