Timesuck with Dan Cummins - 269 - Japan's Deadliest Doomsday Cult: Aum Shinrikyo

Episode Date: November 8, 2021

Aum Shinrikyo was a Japanese doomsday cult led by psychotic madman Shoko Asahara, a man who claimed to be Jesus who was nicknamed the Japanese Charles Manson. He was actually a much more dangerous cult leader than Manson was. He pulled tens of thousands into his dark insanity, instead of just a handful. He had thousands of followers willing to help him violently bring about the end times. Aum started in the 1980s as a small spiritual group based on tenets of Buddhism. And then he soon incorporated elements of Hinduism, Nostradamus doomsday prophecies, Christian apocalyptic prophecies and more - all woven into a message focused largely on bringing about Armageddon. And this cult would try and bring about Armageddon by carrying out large scale chemical warfare attacks in Japan, hoping to have Japan blame the US, and then kick off WW3. The story of this cult is wild - machine gun and chemical weapons manufacturing, strange rituals involving LSD, attempted nuclear bomb creation and acquisition, having dissident cult members executing, assassinating critics, and more. The Bad Magic Productions charity of the month is IAVA - Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America- thanks to you we are able to give $15,800 to this very deserving cause. IAVA serves and empowers the post-9/11 veterans' community. They offer guidance and support, such as helping vets get and use their GI bill, helping them with housing, directing them towards mental health support, and more.For additional information, please go to https://iava.org/Watch the Suck on YouTube:  https://youtu.be/w-yv28aO6HsMerch - https://badmagicmerch.com/  Discord! https://discord.gg/tqzH89vWant to join the Cult of the Curious private Facebook Group? Go directly to Facebook and search for "Cult of the Curious" in order to locate whatever current page hasn't been put in FB Jail :)For all merch related questions/problems: [e-mail] (copy and paste)Please rate and subscribe on iTunes and elsewhere and follow the suck on social media!! @timesuckpodcast on IG and http://www.facebook.com/timesuckpodcastWanna become a Space Lizard? We're over 10,000 strong! Click here: https://www.patreon.com/timesuckpodcastSign up through Patreon and for $5 a month you get to listen to the Secret Suck, which will drop Thursdays at Noon, PST. You'll also get 20% off of all regular Timesuck merch PLUS access to exclusive Space Lizard merch. You get to vote on two Monday topics each month via the app. And you get the download link for my new comedy album, Feel the Heat. Check the Patreon posts to find out how to download the new album and take advantage of other benefits.

Om Shunriko, a Japanese doomsday cult led by a psychotic madman, Shoko Asahara, a man who's been nicknamed the Japanese Charles Manson. But a much more dangerous cult leader than Manson ever was actually. He pulled tens of thousands into his dark insanity, not just a handful. He had thousands of followers willing to help him violently bring about the end times. This doomsday cult's name means supreme truth, but Asahara preached nothing but lies. Om started in the 1980s as a small spiritual group based on tenets of Buddhism. And then he soon incorporated elements of Hinduism, Nostradamus, Doomsday prophecies, Christian

apocalyptic prophecies, and more all woven into a message focused largely on bringing about Armageddon. Asahara claimed to be both Christ and the first enlightened once since Buddha to walk the earth. He claimed his purpose was to help rid the earth of its most wicked people. So Shiva could then bring forth a utopian society, the fabled Tibetan kingdom of Shambhala, or something like that. Like a lot of cult leaders, his overall message and theological focus is hard to explain,

because he kept changing and it never made a lot of sense. Despite a crazy, syncretic message that meshed together teachings from multiple religions, with his own made up gibberish, Asahara gained a global following, spoke universities and wrote numerous books. At the peak of the cult's power, Om had close to 50,000 members worldwide. But the last five or six years of his cult leadership,

Asahara predicted and preached about how the US would start World War III with Japan, bringing about the end of civilization. The only survivors would be on members. And unlike most cults, he don't want to wait around for the end. Also, our encouraged his followers to start the war themselves, speeding up their own salvation. The ordered his followers to launch biological and chemical warfare on various targets in major cities in Japan, and they did.

Their most devastating attack occurred on March 20th, 1995, when they planted sawring gas in the Tokyo subways, killing 13 and injuring thousands. The Tokyo Act, excuse me, the Tokyo attack was not arms only act of violence. They were responsible for many more attempted and successful attacks, murders, and for so much illegal weapons production. Ossahara was very much a, if you're not with this, you're against this. Kind of guy and he ordered anyone who opposed him to be destroyed. And many were.

Today, we suck the crazy ass life of Shoko Asahara, a partially blind man who rose from poor and humble beginnings to found and lead one of the most powerful doomsday cults of all time. It's another cult, cult, cult, apocalyptic addition of time suck. This is Michael McDonald and you're listening to time suck. You're listening to time suck. Happy Monday once again, meet Sacks. I'm Dan Cummins, Suck Nasty, the master's sucker, mother goose ghost writer, cult consultant. And'm Dan Cummins, Suck Nasty, the master sucker, mother goose ghost

writer, cult consultant. And you are a listing two times. Hail, name, Ron, Hail, Lucis, Fena, praiseable jangles and triple M key puts from falling for the lies of a cult leader like Shoko, a Sahara. Hoping I had fun and Cincinnati this last weekend, guess, and I did recording this just before I fly out for those shows. I'll be just outside Seattle this weekend, but that show has been sold out for a while. Tickets are still available to some shows in Denver and Lovlin, Colorado, coming up later this month and Tampa and to come in next month. And that's it for 2021.

I just waiting for a few more ticket links to come online before announcing all the spring 2022 dates. I'll be going to lots of extra cities on the east and west coast in the store at badmagicmerch.com, the 2021 bad magic challenge coin is now here. This year, we did it a little differently. Doodle a high demand for bad magician gear. We thought this would be the perfect fit, available now in the bad magic stores, a two inch antique nickel double sided challenge coin featuring all three of your favorite bad

magic cornerstones, cornerstones, limited quantities available. So snatch yours up while you can. The bad magic productions charity the month, talk about that real quick, IAVA, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans of America, proud to be given them $15,800 on behalf of spaces, there's increase in peepers over on scared to death. Annabels and Roberts, actually, the ones helping us over there. This organization here to serve and empower the post 9-11 veterans community,

offering them guidance, support, and resources, things like assisting veterans with using their GI bills, helping with housing, mental health support, and so much more. And for more information, you can go to iava.org. One more announcement, free stuff. Who's nice and free stuff announcing the 2021 bad magic gathering virtual and free Sunday, December 19th, 6 p.m. Pacific time. If you

can log in, go and real big in 2022 with an adult summer camp in August. We'll share more details later, but Lindsey in particular, I've been working a lot recently on getting that planned out, meeting weekly with an event planner. For this, you're going to keep it easy and low key. You're going to have a Christmas movie watch party and a studio tour. If you want to check out the studio, you know, a virtual tour, we'll watch a Christmas story. You should dry out, kid. You can watch that with me and some of the gang and then we'll have a little Q and A.

We test these watch parties with our Annabelle's over on Scared of Death and they are a lot of fun. You'll go to cener.com, sc, ENER, cener.com slash a Christmas story, then click follow, and then you'll enter your name, email address, age, click next, enter, you know, a username, password, if you're like, you then go back to that follow button, click it again, make sure it says following. And then that way when we go live with our 2021 virtual gathering, the watch party, you'll be notified and can easily link in. And again, this Sunday night, December 19, 6 PM Pacific time log in. I'll give you a tour of the bad magic production studios.

Watch a movie together. You can hop in the chat room, talk to your bad magic friends from scared of death as we dumb and time suck. Then after the movie, a Q and a and again, it's free. Just to thank you for being a fan of what we do here. Now, you do have to be an Amazon prime member to watch this particular movie and either buy it or rent it through Prime for $3.99. We make nothing off of this. It's just the way a sceneer works. So somebody isn't just, you know, paying for a movie and then just showcasing it for a

bunch of people in charge and never something. When it gets closer to the dates, I'll put the link, ciner.com, a Christmas or ciner.com slash a Christmas story in the episode description. So early happy holidays and hail, Nimrod. Now let's get weird meets, tax. This is a cult unlike any other we have covered here before. Man, they became so much more powerful and dangerous than any cult we've looked at so far, committee more murders, overall acts of violence against non-cult members, truly a terrifying organization as a

height of their powers. Amshin Riko was an especially dangerous doomsday cult slash militarized terrorist group. It formed in the 80s, has thankfully been a shadow of its former self since the mid-late 90s. The rise of the strange religious movement made possible by of all things, Japan's capitalistic prosperity. A generation of questioners, the disillusioned with the corporate and consumerism driven life of their parents found what they thought were

divine answers, but really we're nothing more than insanity and one power hungry man's insatiable appetite for world domination and destruction. Shortly after it formed, Am Shinrico was initially classified as just another of the world's new religious movements. This is the label commonly given to cults, and I guess all cults do fall under this big umbrella NRM classification as do many other spiritual movements, not deemed to be cults. The classification for what a cult is, as opposed to a new religion, as we've covered multiple times before, is a little bit subjective. To remind everyone with the

main tenants of a cult are real quick and how they differ from a religion. Let me go over a list of, oh shit, you're in a cult, wake up and run for your fucking life, red flags. Finding the perfect definition is tough. Some so-called religions do have cultish tendencies, or were once ran as cults and then softened when a little more mainstream now is technically a religion. The line between religion and cult, you know, often a moving target. Here's a list I like the most today of 10 cult trade slash red flag warning signs that you are probably in a cult. One absolute authoritarianism without meaningful accountability.

Two, no tolerance for questions or critical inquiry. Three, no meaningful financial disclosure regarding budget expenses, such as independently audited financial statements. Four unreasonable fear about the outside world, such as impending catastrophe, evil conspiracies. Oh, that's a fucking big one today. And persecutions. Five, there is no legitimate reason to leave. Former followers are always wrong in leaving, negative or even evil for leaving. Six former members often relate to same stories of abuse and reflect a similar pattern of grievances. Seven, there are records, books, news articles,

or television programs that document the abuses of the group or leader. Followers, eight, followers feel they can never be good enough. Nine, the group, you know, slash leader is always right. And ten, the group slash leader is the exclusive means of knowing truth or receiving validation. No other process of discovery is acceptable or credible. Well the Supreme Truth, led by Shoko Asahara, checked all 10 of these boxes, checked them with multiple exclamation points behind each check, underlined, highlighted. Amshin Rika was a blade, no doubt about it.

If he is not, you know, if this is not a cult, nothing is kind of cult. Whatever Shoko said was right, was right. Regardless of what laws or moral codes, his advice or orders broke, the question, criticize him could lead directly to death and towards the end did for some members. Shoko sure as shit did not divulge any financial information to his followers, his financial dealings with his followers. Pretty straightforward and abusive. You give him everything. If you want into the inner circle, then he owes you only the promise of salvation. And if you keep doing what inner circle then he owes you only the promise of salvation if you keep doing what he says he for sure pushed fear of the outside world hard and absolutely

forbid you from leaving the cold he was researched by many different people who suspect him of abuse including members of the Japanese media you know he had some who looked into him actually killed had others you know tried to assassinate them as followers were straight up told that they could never be as good as he was, just in slightly more appealing words. And he made it clear he was the only guy with all the answers. You could not know more than him. He knew the most.

He made it clear that that was impossible to know more than him. He was Jesus, Buddha, and more. Just all rolled into one supremely confident and ruthless dude. He was Charles Manson, if Manson was Japanese, and a lot better at both business and parceling out his crazy.

Pivoting back to new religious movements, again, was one of them, and also, again, not all new religious movements are cults. And NRM is a term for all the new religions that have come about across the world. And, you know, like in the recent, last few centuries, these are most often offshoots

of the big five ancient religions, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Onward borrow theology from several of these religions. He'd incorporate tenets of Indian Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity. Weven principles taught in yoga, which derives from Hinduism. Nostradamus predictions and more. Through and published science fiction plotlines even, all kinds of wild shit into his messias.

If there was an idea floating out there that he felt he could steal and use to manipulate his followers and do, and you know, this or that, he would take it. Didn't seem to care where it came from. All NRMs have shared traits. They're new, innovative religions that tend to start as a reaction to something going on in the modern world.

They're at least a small segment of society does not care for. Maybe the times, they are a change in a way that some people don't like, which is how things always are for some people, or maybe the times, they're not a change in, and moving away from ways that some people don't like, which also occurs constantly.

And some shyster like Shoko Asahara is like, hey, over here. It doesn't have to be the way that you don't like. Come over here with me. We're gonna live the way you want to. We have the better way that you like. We have a better way to live. That's gonna fill that empty hole you feel inside of you

yourself with so much meaning and purpose. NRMs represent countercultural alternatives to mainstream society and existing religious movements since they've formed a continued to form in an age when they are already, or when there are already, excuse me, a lot of existing religions and schools of spiritual thought, they tend to be eclectic, pluralistic, synchronicistic,

pulling a little bit of this, a little bit of that from various ideologies. NRM leaders like Shoko Asahara, typically combined doctrines from yet different ancient religions. NRM's are often almost always founded by charismatic and authoritarian leader like Shoko Asahara. He would be more charismatic and authoritarian than most, but almost all the leaders have some degree of, you know, charisma and authoritarianism. I mean, you got to have a strong leader, likable leader, at least some people. If you want to get a new religion

off the ground, hard to pull in dedicated followers. If you have no charisma and no authoritarianism, most people looking for enlightenment. I didn't want to deal with maybe. They don't want, I don't know, shoulder shrugs. And I think so. You can't be like, hey, everyone, thanks for coming to today's service. I'm Bobby Jenkins, pastor and founder of the church of Boischer.

How's your hope so? Is there a divine being who created us and cares for us and will reward our pain here on earth with eternal pleasure in the afterlife? Bois your hope so Has an omnipotence less you'll be in chosen me's it's profit to share it's eternal truth with you Bois your hope so I mean, I'm definitely hearing a voice in my head. It was not God We're all in a heap of trouble Do I think I can fearlessly lead you into the promised land?

What? Wash your hopes. I definitely have my doubts though. No. A tough way to convince a group of strangers to dedicate their fucking life to your teachings. Now you gotta, you gotta speak with charismatic certainty. You know, which means in the spiritual realm,

you gotta lie. You gotta act like you know more than you know. You gotta give people some of that, I found the truth. And I cannot wait to share it with you. Oh, you have come to the right place. God loves you and God has chosen me to give you the answers that you seek. Oh, you're showing up here today with no accident.

Oh, no boy, I got to send you to me for your salvation. No fucking doubt about it. Fuck yeah, bro. You got to have, you know, you got to have some power in there Followers of NRM's tend to believe their charismatic leader slash founder has special powers or insights, you know, cuz that's fun to believe Now it's fun to think that your leader is some kind of a vanger or some shit. I mean who doesn't like a powerful seemie leader Think about all the dictators in world history, right? They projected strength You know fucking pounded their fists, spoke with authority,

so they must know what they're talking about. They're yelling it. It's such a base caveman instinct to crave that, you know, primal strength, powerful voice, solid posture, the appearance of good health, not too many sickly soft spoken people that become dictators or cult leaders, right? Like I literally can't think of one like fucking anemic, just spindly little guy, little tiny guy, with like a, hey guys, let's just go get him. Come on. Come on, let's go and follow me. Like, like they're, right?

It's like a primal to crave that strength. So they have that use. NRMs are often highly organized, you know, it's competitive. It's a competitive religious market out there now, much more than it used to be, harder than ever to be a market disruptor in the world of religion. And their leaders often demand a large amount of loyalty from their followers. Gotta stay away from their brands.

On the second half, the 20th century, many merging NRM shot up and thrived around the globe in a direct response to a surge in capitalism and the pressures of materialism that can accompany such a surge. That struck me as strange when I first read it. I was like, is that right? But then I made total sense, the more I thought about it. Think about all the compound loving counter culture, counter culture, cults. That was an unintentional tongue twister there that we've stuck to here before.

The people's temple with Jim Jones, the branched of Indians with David Karech, the source family with father, yo, Mans's and family, so many others. Followers were not in those cults for the money. They weren't in it for the fancy cars and Lakefront homes. Their leaders often were, but not the followers. The followers went in for spiritual riches, often at odds, at least in their minds, with material wealth around them.

They didn't want their parents nine to fives and houses in the suburbs. They wanted something new, something, you know, more socialist. A lot of the followers, those cults, intentionally walked away from what they felt were the trapping to the nine to five rat race. You know, you get married, you get a quote unquote real job, you know, you get the house with the white picket fence, two cars on a boat. You have two kids. They don't want to be a slave to a 30 year mortgage. They want to live free, man. Come on, man, I'm living free.

No more enslavement to a consumerism. You know, that eventually they had to fucking pay the bills and suck for them. In the 1980s, a lot of people in Japan were loving the trappings of the corporate world and getting materialistically wealthy. Japan's economy had become one of the biggest on earth. It had grown at a preposterous and unprecedented rate since the end of World War II. World War II had left Japan devastated. They'd lost the war, been fire bombed, had atomic bombs, devastated two of their major cities,

between 2.6 million and 3.1 million people died. But because, in part, they are an extremely proud culture. They did not let that break them. They pushed on, they reinvented their country following the war. Their economic recovery was so rapid and sustained sustained it was called the Japanese miracle. The economy expanded rapidly from 1946 all the way until 1992 and it finally cooled off for a bit. More jobs, better jobs, more goods, better goods.

And with a lot of economic prosperity came a lot of consumerism. You know, wealth became more important to many than spirituality, working long hours at the office. That was a badge of honor. You were making Japan strong. And you were, Japanese national pride, you know, had been based largely on military might in the first half of the 20th century. And when World War II defeat Delta Nation, a huge morale blow, like really a hard punch

in the gut. Cultural focus shifted to industrialization before the war, Japan had expanded rapidly from 1895 till 1942 with, you know, conquest with various colonial acquisitions taken in numerous military conquest. The Empire of Japan, one of the largest empires in history, it included colonies in Manchuria, China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Papandugini, Indochina, Burma, many Pacific islands, and then they lost it all. They only retain their original pre- 1895 national boundaries following the war.

I mean, World War II, they fucking lost their asses. You know, then came massive disarmament sanctions. From 1945 to 1952, the whole nation was basically on probation. Roughly a million allied soldiers led by the US would essentially babysit Japan. I'm sure they love that, right? Made sure they didn't rebuild their military or try think funny.

They were supervised. 1947, they were pressured into drafting a constitution that included clause article nine, where Japan formally renounces its sovereign right of belligerency and aims at an international peace based on justice and order. This article also states that to accomplish this aim armed forces with war potential not allowed to be maintained. Japan now only allowed to maintain a defensive security force. Right.

This has been slightly amended in recent years when the constitution was amended in 2014, but still they don't have a big military. Back in the 1980s without a chance in hell at making another go is a military powerhouse, the nation decided to throw its collective energy into becoming an industrial titan. And holy shit, did they do a fucking amazing job? Like an unprecedented job. By the 80s, Japan was exporting a shit ton of tech all around the world, incredibly popular vehicles like Toyota's and Honda's, semi-conductors, so many different consumer electronics. Like, you know, so many different video recorders and tendos, Sony Walkman. The walkin' was a huge deal.

That was my most prized possession in sixth grade. Holy shit, I was proud to have a Walkman. Maybe tied with my Nintendo. You know, the disc men that followed another prized Japanese possession, Toshiba, Toshiba, Panasonic, Fujitsu, and more, so much awesome tech was flying out of Japan. Just like now, how I can feel like everything is made in China back in the 80s. To me, it felt like everything, everything cool at least was made in Japan. By the 1980s, Japan utterly devastated less than 40 years earlier, now ranked as the world's second largest economic power after the U.S. I mean, that's a crazy trajectory to go from being utterly gutted to second, you know, largest economic power in the world.

And just, you know, a few decades. So where the hell am I going with all this? Fucking nowhere. I just wanted you to know that Japan's economy was fucking lit. And I liked having an Nintendo in it. Walkman. No, because of this sustained period of economic development, many young Japanese men and women, whose parents and grandparents had worked long hours and built out comfortable lives

for themselves. Well, they got a little soft, they got a little spoiled, as people do when things have been too easy for a while. It had been a long time since her family had struggled, and now they took having a nice place to live, a nice car, a food on the table, they took her for granted. Forgot about how hard you had to work for it, and they started to question the older generation's emphasis on materialism. Ironically they had time to question it because their lives were pretty fucking cushy thanks to their parents and grandparents emphasis on hard work and consumerism.

You know, they now had the luxury of been able to do a lot of soul searching. They started thinking a lot more than their parents or grandparents had about, you know, what's the true meaning of life? Why am I doing this? And because their parents' generation was not very religious or spiritually focused, they didn't know a lot about spirituality and religion. And they ended up becoming a prime target for cults. And this all makes me think about an old college roommate I had lived with him in Gonzaga's

good old Catherine Monaco dorm, old CM, our freshman year of college, Sugey. Can't remember Sugey's last name. Sugey was older, somewhere around 24 or 25 when I was 18. He was a ESL English as a secondary language student, transferred in, he quickly became our go-to alcohol perchedter. Thank you, Suzuki. He had a friend about the same age, Tetsuya. And I hung around with those two dudes

who fair him out my freshman year, along with some of their other Japanese friends. They were cool as shit. They both transferred over to Gonzaga directly from Japan. They both snowboarded and skateboarded, which was impressive to a little small town fucking derbag like me. They both always had weed and listened to cool music or always taking trips, check out bands, you know, do fun stuff.

Oh man, I wanna fucking be these guys. Neither one of them had to work. You know, they lived pretty cushy lives, they always had money. They both told me they had hard work in parents or at least corporate minded fathers. To be honest, they didn't really talk about their moms's but they said they had you know hard-ass dads. And I remember both of them alluding to their dads being not very happy with them because I shared a dorm room, a little tiny dorm room with Sugey or a fucking bunk bed roommates when he spoke with his dad on the phone I was sometimes you know in the room and that

conversation it seemed pretty tense. I don't understand a word Japanese with the tone not jovial. Talking to Sugey and Tetsuya they both explained how they were really going to enjoy. You know, their time at Gonzaga in the next few years because after that, the fun was fucking over. They were totally serious. They were going to have fun. I guess they let them have fun for a few more years.

Then they had to return to Japan, jump into the corporate world, work a ton of hours, etc. There was a heavy expectation of getting your shit together and join the corporate workforce. They would do what their fathers expected them. I remember Ted so you're not surprised, and they'd be a little bummed out about this. One night after doing some knife hits, I have some cheap weed in his apartment.

You know, I remember telling him, you know, you don't have to do some job. You don't wanna do. And he, I just remember him kind of like, like you don't know what you're talking about. Like this is a cultural difference, like just kind of laughing it off. He's like, yeah, I do.

You know, he knew or he felt that he had to do that unless he wanted his family to be deeply ashamed of him for the rest of their lives. It would be a huge insult to his father's honor to not do what his dad told him, even though he's a fucking grown ass man. And I just remember thinking about how much pressure he must have felt.

My dad never expected me to follow him into construction. Actually, he didn't want me to do something else. He felt like a busted up your body. If you like, you have to climb the corporate ladder, work long hours for years, or you're literally an embarrassment to your family and have broken your dad's heart. That's a lot of fucking pressure.

That's a lot to put on your shoulders. And most of a generation in Japan felt this pressure. Most of a few generations felt it. Actually, then the generation of the 80s decided to do a little more about it. Most cave, like Tetriya, but some, they rebelled. They eventually pushed back and they decided, the nine to five or the damn near all day

at the office life, not for them. And these were the people who arm targeted. People disillusioned with the corporate world. And that's generally who calls target, but this is a little different slant on it. They look for the dissolution. Usually they look for people with dissolution with not being able to get a good job, not be able to get certain things in life.

And the poor and the downtrodden, these were people who were doing well, but dissolution with kind of the hamster will in their minds, at least, of the corporate world. And yes, on recruited, unusually disillusioned people who are often highly educated. People with degrees in medicine, biochemistry, architecture, biology, genetic engineering, most of their initial core members, the people who built out the well-structured cult leadership hierarchy would have later on, educated people in the 20s and 30s who wanted to remove themselves from traditional Japanese society. One parent of a cult member said these recruits were often book smart, but not worldly.

They knew a lot about their field of expertise, but due to how many hours they'd been studying year after year, nose and the books throughout their childhoods, due to how many hours they started working at their jobs, they weren't worldly, they weren't street smart. They didn't know much else other than their area of expertise. I'm guessing you probably know someone like that, right?

The world's full of those people. They didn't know much else other than their area of expertise. I'm guessing you probably know someone like that, right? The world's full of those people. They didn't have good bullshit detectors to help them avoid falling for the lies, like someone like Sahara would sell to them. All members were people who were desperate for spiritual answers, of course, that's how you get into a cult, to know the true meaning of life.

And the charismatic of Sahara promised them real happiness, what did I say? Real happiness and salvation. Yeah, you gotta, and of course, you promised it to him. Again, you can't be like, ah, boy, I sure hope so. No, he was like, oh, fuck, fuck yeah. Yeah, do this, follow me. I know all the answers.

Oh my God, they're, get me. We're all gonna live forever. It's gonna be great. He built trust with them. He convinced them that he was all knowing, had mystical powers and they bought it. They wanted to believe something like that could be true. And then most of them wouldn't hesitate when he eventually turned his followers into a formidable

army and they did become an army. Robert J. Lichten, author of a book on the cult we leaned on a bit titled, Destroying the World to Save It, Omshinriko, Apocalyptic Violence and the New Global Terrorism writes, for the first time in history and time religious fanaticism allied itself with weapons capable of destroying the world and a group embarked on the mad project of doing just that well said Bobby J that is what made us are and his arm shenry kio doomsday called so dangerous they were religious fanatic to didn't just pray for the world and they took action action. And now weak delusional action.

They actually figured out how to manufacture mass quantities of weapons of mass destruction did that and then used them on the public. Some kind of cult versus cult cage match. Ah, Amshin Rikia would fuck up any other cult we've covered this far like easily. All right, now they've been primed on who these psychos were and what cultural shift they emerged from. Let's get into the dirty details of it all. We're going to dive now into their timeline.

Beginning with Asahara's birth, we'll follow him until death. We'll cover his humble beginnings, early taste of power, an initial religious epiphany before continuing on into how he founded on how Al M soon shifted from a cult to a full on terrorist organization. We'll cover all the attempted and successful attacks, Al M launched on innocent citizens of Japan, and how insanely powerful Asahar became, as fucking its bonkers, before his inevitable fall from grace into ruin. All that after today's sponsor break.

Thanks for listening, and now we jump into the promised arm Shantarikyo timeline. On March 2, 1955, Shoko Asahara, future coal leader and mass murderer born in the small city of Yatsushiro, Kumamoto, prefecture. Prefecture there is similar to a state in the US or province in Canada, a political district, directly under the national government with its own governor, other elected officials. Today Yatsushiro has over 120,000 people. Back in 2005, it merged with two other cities and three villages. When Yatsushiro was born there, while I can't find any in the back in 2005, it merged with two other cities and three villages. When us Sahara was born there,

while I can't find any 1955 population data, it's described in sources as a small village. Just a three hour drive, less than 60 miles away by air from Nagasaki, where the fat man Atomic Bomb was dropped just 10 years before his birth in 1945. Located on Kyushu, the southernmost, and the third largest of Japan's four main islands.

Shoku Asahara, born Chizu, Matsumoto. He legally would change his name later as an adult for cult-related purposes. You gotta have a cool name if you want to run a cult. It definitely helps. Definitely helps. Now, maybe with the Heavens Gate, maybe a martial apple white would have changed his name to like Johnny Rocket. I don't know. So I'm more excited than you would have had more people to take to the spaceship.

Harder to give people to follow you if your name is like the Japanese equivalent to, you know, a dingle drip, sweet nips or some weird shit. You got to have something strong, something more reminiscent of like samurai Viking hammer. Some powerful. Shoko Astahar. It does have a nice strong feel to it. That's coming from someone who doesn't speak word Japanese. Astahar was the sixth of seven children and the fourth of five boys.

He grew up in a very poor family. His father was to Tommy Weaver. Tommy being a rush-covered straw mat, former in a traditional Japanese floor covering. You're not familiar with the term. You've probably seen them. This was not a good pain job. One store stated that you barely made enough to cover your own bills as a matweaver, not nearly enough to provide for a family of nine.

Sounds like Asahar's mother did not work outside the home. I guess she was a little busy raising kids. Asahar became partially blind as an infant, suffering from infantile glaucoma, a recognition that may be inherited caused by incorrect development of the eyes drainage system before birth. He lost 100% of sight in one eye and develops severely impaired vision in the other. This condition seemed to definitely run in his family. Another older brother had it as well and became 100% blind in both eyes as would a younger brother become 100% blind. Since he was partially able to see, he was allowed to attend the regular school. Most of his siblings attended, but his parents sent him instead to a special school for blind children where his

brothers would go. Those two brothers. And I think choosing to send him to this school for the blind ended up actually playing a huge part in his later decision to form and run a cult. I know that sounds crazy. And no one could have known how that would impact him at the time, but I truly believe this to be true. At this school for the blind, where he will spend 14 years, all of his prime identity forming

years, he will physically and socially completely fucking dominate in a way almost no kids do in school. He'll dominate an isolated population, someone removed from society similar to a cult, a closed society, cult researcher, Robert Liffton made a note of this writing about how the blind school was a closed society and how in us a hard left school, he probably wanted to, at least on a subconscious level, build his own form of a closed society to replace the blind school of his youth where he could continue to control and manipulate others, his psychological comfort zone.

I'll explain how he dominated here. He starts school in 1961 to age six. And like his older brother and later, his younger brother as well, he'll live at this school. It's a boarding school, the Mimoto Profectural School for the Blind. He'll live most of the time, study here until his graduation in 1975.

And the state ran school, provided free room and board for students, which is why his and popper's family sent him and his brother's there. Probably why, since he was, even though he's not fully blind, they're like, well, if we get him to go here, we won't have to pay to care for him.

Now, teachers will later describe us as charismatic and intelligent. And as he progressed through his grades, the teachers noticed how he could persuade the students to do whatever he wanted them to do. Nice way of saying he was very manipulative. And they also noted he could be very violent towards the other children.

He was a huge bully. Asohara developed feelings of superiority towards his peers here because he was a big kid. He was large, athletically built, bigger, stronger than their kids. And most of the other kids, almost all of the other kids were 100% blind, completely blind. So he could fucking see better than them. Huge advantage on your playground opponents. If you're bigger, stronger, and they're blind. This is ridiculous. What a nightmare for these poor other children. He would be the shit out of them. A bully who can see going to a school for the blind and just fucking kick in the shit out of these kids.

It feels like the plot of an old Adam Sandler movie or something. Also, Hardware is doing some psychopath shit at this school. He likes to organize a game he called pro wrestling, where he would force his classmates to hit each other. If they refuse, you know, he'd be the shit out of him. It's so messed up. Where were teachers also blind? Like, how was no one seen in stopping this? Occasionally he would threaten his teachers and they would call him the headmaster and then he'd back down and somehow convince them not to kick him out of school.

It sounds like that, yeah, this place was just a manhouse. Some of the teachers would later recall that he was kind to a few of the children and I guess he was always carrying towards his brothers, both of whom would room with the school with him, but to most kids, he was like a nightmare. In addition to learning how to physically intimidate and abuse a people, Aasahara also figured out how to take advantage of people financially here. This dickhead would charge the blind kids for small favors,

like if they wanted him to help them buy something or go out to eat, you know, for example, they would have to pay him, like what an asshole. Just yeah, I'll help you cross the street. Yeah, I'll help you. No problem, I'll help or go out to eat, you know, for example, they would have to pay him, like, what an asshole. Just, yeah, I'll help you cross the street. Yeah, I'll help you. No problem. I'll help you go buy a sandwich, but it's five bucks for getting across the street. And another five for me showing you where the sandwich shop is, bro, or you know what,

just fucking risk it. Just walk out there, see what happens. We wasn't beating up his poor classmates or taking their money. Osta Har got excellent grades. And even, this is weird to me, earned a black belt in judo. That's great. I'm sure the smaller, weaker blind kids love that. I just picture him practicing his judo moves on them frequently. And I mean, if you want to get in a really good judo practice

and you have no conscience, a playground full of blind kids, it is about the best training session you could have. You just quietly position yourself somewhere in the middle of the playground and just wait for them to like walk towards you to stay real quiet. And then he's fucking toss him around, just practice your moves. You know, I bet you he did that. Interestingly, in his final years of the school, Asta Har ran for class president a few times,

but always lost. He was not able to intimidate all those kids into voting for him. He couldn't prove who didn't vote for them. It was hard to figure out who to dish out ass beings to afterwards. In addition to the kids, he beat up. Some of the kids may not have voted for him also because they looked down on him due to rumors that his family was Korean. Koreans were a heavily discriminated group in Japan at this time because Japanese culture super duper racist back then. It's still actually one of the more racist countries now, I think. Prior to World War II, when they existed as an empire, they were brutal towards other

Asian nations. They subjugated. They enslaved people, their soldiers raped thousands and thousands of local women. They displayed a lot of open contempt for anyone who is not Japanese. They were very big on national unity, on just being Japanese. Japan first, everyone else, just in second. Even today, Japan, over 98% ethnic Japanese, non-Japanese residents are rarely, for example, to this day, given 10 year universities when they worked there as professors, almost never

elected to any position of government. And back in the 60s and 70s, when Asahara was going to school, they looked down on Koreans the most. They had kicked Korea's ass in the not too distant past. They ran Korea from 1910 to 1945. They'd done a bunch of horrible shit to Koreans, forced the women into sexual slavery during They had kicked Korea's ass in the not too distant past. They ran Korea from 1910 to 1945. They had done a bunch of horrible shit to Koreans, forced the women to sexual slavery during World War II, lots of stuff. Asahara, not Korean, and I guess this rumor really pissed him off.

He felt tremendously insulted, and I'm sure some kids got their asses beat over that. The fact that he ran for class president shows some ambition, and he was ambitious. He wanted it one point, you know, like a lot of kids, to be a famous actor, like to watch soap operas on TV. He acted in a school plays, even wrote his own play, took the lead role. Another childhood ambition of his was to one day be elected prime minister. Later he will run for prime minister and then, you know, after that he'll want to be more than prime minister.

1975. Now 20 year old, Ossahar graduates from school. I just picture him as graduation ceremony. He's standing there, he's fucking huge, he's muscular, and just like all the kids around him are just like whenever he takes a step, they're just like really just trying to move flinching. They've got like black eyes,

fucking bruises and shit on their faces. He moves on to almost immediately attend a local preparatory school called Cram School. They prepare for his college entrance exams. He applies to the University of Tokyo to study medicine or law and fails entrance exams. He shows ambition here too. Tokyo University, one of the most prestigious universities in the world, it tops the ranks of Japan's best universities basically every year and has for many years. It's like a, in the U.S., if he applied to Harvard and only to Harvard, no backup plan. That's confidence. If only he would have been accepted, maybe he would have been content to be a lawyer or

a doctor, and I wouldn't be talking about him now. Early rejection. So often, a part of a cult leader's story. I think Charles Manson, he wanted to be a rock star. He'd have never formed a cult. If I can beach boys would have hooked him out with a record deal. Young David Kuresh, he wanted to be a rock star. He had never formed a cult. If I can beach boys would have hooked him out with a record deal. Young David Kuresh, he wanted to be a rock star, actually briefly moved out to Hollywood. And then found out that no one thought he was as good on guitar as his buddies back in Texas.

He headed back to Waco. A young Tony Alamo, he wanted to be a big pop star, cut a few records. He said okay, but not, but not, not well enough for him to actually tour in, you know, and become a star. Father Yoda, he clearly wanted to be a rock star Forces source cult members to listen to perhaps the worst psychedelic rock literally ever created Never forget the acoustic delights a Father Yohu, 13 band. Elrond Hubbard, he wanted to be famous. He wanted to be a famous author that didn't work out.

They didn't want it to be embraced and heralded as a star of the international psychiatric community. And those guys were like, no, fuck you. They rejected him hard, told the public, no, this guy's a lunatic, he's a quack. And then he founded Scientology. Ambition plus a failure to achieve what they initially set out to accomplish, you know, often sends these power hungry men towards cult leadership. March 1975, after failing to get into Tokyo University, Asahara begins attending to junior college where he will receive training as an acupuncturist.

Hmm. Not an against acupuncturist, but it feels like a serious step down from doctor and lawyer ambitions. Like if you're an acupuncturist, I mean truly good for you. I wanna try one of these days. I know people who love it, say it helps them manage pain, reduce anxiety, et cetera, tremendously.

But I don't think any parent has ever uttered a version of the following sentence, or sentences, I guess technically. Good news. David has decided to drop out of med school and become an action punctureist. Nope. That's never been said. Also hard now moves to the city of Cuomocho, just 30 miles north to work as an action

punctureist and a masseuse, much bigger city, over 730,000 people now. And it borders the metropolitan area of Fukuoka, Keita Kyocho, where an additional roughly four million people live. And obviously, I'm doing my best with the Japanese pronunciations. A lot of words I had not encountered before this suck. A lot of pronunciation guys, forgive me, is a non-native Japanese person for not nailing. Here, when he wasn't working, he also began to study traditional medicine, IE folk medicine, and he eventually opened his own pharmacy in Chiba, where he sold special Chinese herbal remedies. And here we go.

Here's where he likely started walking directly into Wackadoodle. You know, I know more magical things, other people knowville. If you sell or study or like to take traditional medicine, you know, the shit you buy at stores that probably also sell a lot of crystals. My wife, Lindsey loves this shit. Well, good for you. I think a lot of the herbs and elixirs sold these places do have value. They can work hand in hand for sure with modern medicine, but I have also met and or research

to fair amount of people who's studying this area who get real cocky and arrogant and start to think that the folk medicine they're selling whose efficacy is based almost always on nothing but anecdotal evidence. I know this works because a guy, a guy I know told me about a friend of his uncles who rub this potion on his foot and his warts went away. You know, it's like that kind of evidence. And they start to think or at least claim to think that this folk medicine is magical. You know, drink this elixir full of black rhino horn dust and monotomic gold particles.

You can ask your projector, your fucking arm will grow back or some crazy shit. They think it's superior to medicine whose efficacy has been proven through a longitudinal clinical trials. That's what kills me about people really anti science right now. It's like everybody I've ever seen who strongly anti science is just in general. It's like, oh, it's because you don't fucking know how science works. Like you don't know the difference between clinical trials and just my friend Bob told me it works.

And they become, you know, the classic snake oil salesman, con artist, tricking desperate people and to buy in some root or some teammate out of some leaf, they claim will destroy your brain tumor or knock out your MS and it's super fucked up. You know, they pass on misinformation that leads people to avoid treatment that often has a real chance of saving their lives. They kill people with their bad and reckless advice and I am strongly guessing based on who he will later become that us to borrow was one of these dickhead snake oil peddlers. In 1976, the age of 21, us to borrow gets into some legal trouble. He beats someone's ass and he gets convicted of causing bodily injury to another person.

He gets fined. He loses his job and then he moves to Tokyo. He learns that the outside world probably not going to put up with his violent tendencies like the blind school staff would. Also not sure this played into it at all, but someone who can see you can obviously identify you, you know, to the police a little easier than a blind student. If you beat him up, I wonder if that, you know, affected any kind of trouble he got into the blind school like why he didn't get more. Maybe they was like, well, I think Ossahara fucking smack me around, but you know, I didn't see him. In 1977, Ossahara married the girl he met in college, Tomoko Ishi.

Tomoko was pregnant with his child when they got married, and she gave birth to his first daughter in 1978. His daughter's name has not been mentioned in any recent press articles about the cult. Even when she's directly referred to, clearly she values her privacy. You know, so I won't share her name here either. In recent years, while remaining anonymous, she did release a statement announcing her father is cult and expressing sympathy for any victims of her father's violence. In total, Asaharan his wife would end up having six children, and Tamoko will remain loyal to him throughout

all of this craziness, is still loyal to him today. Still belongs to a splinter group that formed out of Ahm's ashes, and so do some of his children. When the coke gets big enough, man, it's real hard to kill it. Is the coke the Q and I in that big yet? Fuck off, not. No compounds, no known leaders, so we can still hope. We can still pray that those weirdos will fade out eventually. Tomoko came from a well to do family and shortly after their marriage, Asahara Barrow's

money from her father to open the Yamatsumoto acupuncture clinic. and not only administer acupuncture here, here, he'll also sell traditional medicine. Around this time, Asahara also becomes an avid yoga student. And certain beliefs associated with yoga, he studies will heavily influences religious beliefs as the years progress. Yoga not always just stretching and breathing techniques, not always just a way for absolute white women and little lemon pants to work out before grabbing an open milk latte. Or just for new age dudes to hit on these women

while also stretching the shit. And I know I'm being sarcastic and inflammatory here. A lot of people love yoga, and I realize it's a great form of exercise truly. I could use it. I'm way too rigid. I'm jealous. I wish I could bend my body like a lot of you, yoga nuts.

Wish I could clear my crazy brain sometimes with the breathing techniques and stuff I'm sure it helps, you know, keep it feeling young and loose and relax helps your aura be the right color You know, keeps your cheeballs nice and tight and bright and all that good stuff Anyway, certain schools of yoga incorporate Hindu philosophy into their teachings Yoga comes directly from Hinduism one of the six major schools of Hinduistic thought Did you know that? I did not a lot to get into here But spiritual yoga is essentially all about clearing your mind and achieving a mental and spiritual state of balance. For imbalance creates bondage.

In the school of thought, you become a slave to your job, to your various habits, et cetera, and true balance liberates you from this bondage. Through yoga and meditation, you release tension from your body and from your mind. And you focus on the idea of a higher self, higher consciousness, life or light, you can achieve through sustained effort, some semblance undervana, a state of self-realization and total liberation from all the sufferings, and you squeeze your power crystal tight, and you float or something. And when you're totally liberated from bondage, you can levitate and teleport, and you can

shoot Street Fighter II, Hadookin, energy blasts out of your hands. Oh, you get Hadookin! Hadookin! Goshs out of your hands. Oh, you get Hadookin, Hadookin! Gosh dang, kidding, of course. I wish, you could fucking shoot Hadookins. I'll be doing yoga right now. Turns like shockrars get thrown around, you know, in this school of thought,

you gotta align your shockrars through meditation and yoga. You got seven centers of spiritual power and the human body, that's your shockrars, you know, Q-spot music. Lay out the amethyst. Like traditional homeopathic medicine, yoga has a ton of value. But also some people take this yet too far and will literally claim to do things like

meditate until they levitate. That specifically will be a major claim of a osaharis that will help him recruit a lot of members. In 1982, osaharis arrested for selling fake medicine. I told you, he was a snake whale salesman. He was fine, $2,000, is arrested for selling fake medicine. I told you, he was a snake oil salesman. He's fine $2,000, he's briefly thrown in jail. He's convicted of fraud.

His pharmacy in Acque Puncture Clinic, go bankrupt and I'm sure his father-in-law was fucking furious. Broke in searching for answers, he joins a small new religious movement now called Aganshu. This movement is based in ancient Buddhist teachings but also adds elements of Hinduism and for funsies, European Doomsday prophecies. Haha, fuck yeah.

Aganchu was created in 1954. Its popularity rose when it became an official religion in Japan in 1981. Asahara got sucked in, became a devoted member. Aganchu was part of inspiration for, you know, starting his own cult. Aganchu was still around with an estimated 300,000 members. Peers to be relatively harmless, but you know, kind of weird with that Doomsday focus. They're mostly known for these giant fire rights ceremonies they do over a year with a burn two giant pyres,

one for the living, one for the dead. Ideally, if this ritual works perfectly, it opens up the sky to heaven, like back in ancient times when that's supposed to happen, but never did. It doesn't seem like they'd be able to figure out how to open that heaven hole. Their beliefs are frankly a little hard to understand, like a lot of these cults. They remind me of the Game of Thrones, Lord of Light priestess and her followers.

Holy shit, is that actress. Karee has been out in super hot, by the way. Hey, I'll lose the Fena. A gancho introduced us a horror to the prophecies of Nostradamus. While he was a member of a gancho, he claimed he had an awakening of Kundalini. This is a concept of mystical yoga. Kundalini is when one unlocks the cosmic energy at the base of the spine.

You gotta get that root chakra open the fuck up. You have porcelain by his end and that's third eye. If you want it clear. And this all sounds totally legit and not at all crazy. You just gotta, we just all need to unlock our cosmic root energy through stretching. If your hamstrings are loose enough, that's when your root energy, fucking powers your spine and you can do all you get.

Anyway, you get to know this meditative breathing and I don't know, I guess if you've meditated enough, some nocturnal doomsday prophecy, you start to make sense in this cold or something. Not long after joining up with this NRM, Asaharaara tells his wife to moco that he's having a religious crisis and then he leaves to go to india to explore his spirituality for three fucking years. He was clearly a very patient woman. I bet his father-in-law literally wanted to kill him. If someday I have a son-in-law and say you know he abandoned his Monroe to go find himself in india for three years after they have a son-in-law and say, you know, he abandoned his Monroe to go find himself

in India for three years, after they have a kid, after he loses fucking business money I loaned him, yeah, I'm going to actively root for his death. And one of his later sermons, Osahara said, one day I stopped fooling myself all together and thought, what am I living for? Is there anything absolute? Does true happiness really exist in this world? If so, can I get it? I did not realize at this point that what my soul was looking for was enlightenment, but

I couldn't sit still. Urged by such relentless, I started a blind search. It was an intense feeling. It was a fate. So I left my wife to take care of our children. She can figure it out. And I banded all my responsibilities and just focused on me. Because enlightenment and happiness mostly occur when you're a selfish prick who just

focuses on himself. I added those last parts. I wonder if anyone listened to this speech, did Snickr a little bit when he said blind search. Anyway, 1982, he decided to embark on a road to enlightenment to find answers to all his questions while living in India. He meets the Dalai Lama. He studies yoga at Buddhist temples.

He has his picture taken with the Dalai Lama. Basically, the Pope of Buddhism. Same dude has been the Dalai Lama. Basically the Pope of Buddhism. Same dude has been the Dalai Lama since 1940. How crazy that shit. He was five when he's given the title. He's 86 now. And the Dalai Lama has taken his picture with a lot of people. He's very old. Not a heavy screening process to get your pick taken with the Dalai Lama. Next year, Colt leader Keith Rineri, right? He had his pick taken with Dalai Lama. And like Rineri, also, Harara would use this pick for propaganda purposes. I'm legit!

Come on! The Dalai Lama endorses me. Obviously we're in the same picture and everything. 1984 Asahara founds his own NRM called Om Shinshin No Kai. This group will later become Om Shinshin Riko, Divine Truth a few years later. Shinshin No Kai, by the way, apparently translates into,

this is so good. The circle of divine wizards. Fuck yeah! That's when you know your head is screwed on tight. When you start a cult called the circle of divine wizards, I get why he would change the name later. I mean, divine truth does sound like a cult that wants to be taken more seriously than the circle of divine wizards.

That sounds like a group that plays magic together every Saturday, down at the game, you know, shop. I like that one more though. The fun one, circle of divine wizards. The age of 29, this guy who couldn't get an actual puncture business to stay open is now a spiritual guru who begins to recruit followers, cult, cult. He knew what a disillusioned secret looked like because he was one. Asahara found a new yoga school, a publishing house to recruit followers. Not clear we got that initial money to start all this up, but based on his pattern later, I'm assuming he got his first followers to give him all their money and assets.

1985 Asahara returns home to Tokyo, and the famous image of Asahara levitating begins to circulate around in the media. The photo appears in Japanese version of the Occult Magazine Twilight Zone magazine where he will advertise to recruit followers. This gets also horror on the public radar. It attracts some nerdy recruits, often educated and tech sci-fi geeks with good jobs and a decent amount of assets to hand over to him.

And so frustrated, this photo is so fucking dumb. This is his primary recruitment tool, and it saddens me how he was able to trick people with it He just he just figured out I seen this people do this on Instagram and so he figured out like a hop off the floor a little bit While sitting in that crisscross applesauce post right like good core and kind of hip strength a little pop you pop off the floor And he had the camera go off on the right time and it's and he sells this is like I'm peacefully levitating and his face is grimacing His hair is all over the place. He's clearly moving quickly.

He tells people he's, you know, he's just levitating peacefully. You know, he's got a shock resolve line, right? And sadly, people buy it. You know, I guess if you really want to be tricked, you're just gonna be. That's what I just think about more and more as I get older. If you just want something to be real badly enough,

you'll see evidence where none exists. And I say this is someone who believes in weird shit. I would love to see undeniable video proof of either an alien or a ghost. It would be so fucking, that'd be so great. And I do believe both are real. I can't prove it, but I just believe it. Not gonna bore you with all the reasons why I now distract too much from this story, but you know, while I've seen some videos that are maybe of UFOs or ghosts, I think they probably are.

I still haven't seen one that I would bet my life on as far as being 100% undeniably legit. And I want to see that real bad, but I'm not going to force it. Because if I did a party, we would always know as lying to myself, you know, but some people, man, some people are so fucking good at lying to themselves. Also in 1985, Osahar claimed that when he was wandering near the ocean alone, conveniently, a deity appeared before him, clear as day and said that he was the God of Light who leads the armies of the gods. God, they always give him a powerful message, don't they?

Some vision never shows up, I was like, hey, buddy, I need you to keep the toilet clean until I give back. Oh, okay, can I have anything more powerful than that? No, no, no. Just keep it clean. Keep it clean for a while. I'll check in here later. until I give back. Oh, okay, can I have anything more powerful than that? No, no, no, no. Just keep it clean. Just keep it clean for a while. I'll check on you later.

He told us, Ahara, this guy that he had to fight in a war to destroy darkness and create a kingdom of Shambhala, a utopian society from Tibetan Buddhist lore, a spiritual kingdom heaven on earth. To have an on earth, but it's hard to find, but it's hidden. It might be in the Hall of Wars or something. Nobody knows. This mythical land, you know, that uh... shangra law was

based on is uh... shambala oboe uh... so now is the pick of him with the all you know that he's pretty good at yoga you know that i talk about you know new age is yet you know about shockers and fucking roots and elixirs uh... you know he has a pick that he claims is of him levitating now he's talking about the beach

who deems important spiritual leader got chosen warrior to fight against the army of darkness not to be an asshole but uh... you think i would pick somebody with twenty twenty vision to be a battle against an army of darkness i mean come on with his eyesight also are he couldn't even get into the regular military he would be allowed to pilot a jet

he would be allowed to copilot jet probably not even't be allowed to co-pilot a jet. Probably not even sitting in the first row, I don't know. But he's, uh, he now he's leading the most important army ever. I don't know. So frustrating, this dumb spiritual shit works. So disheartening in moments that the world is full of so many spiritually gullible people.

People just ready to be, you know, taking in. If someone shows you a pick of them levitating and this is part of their body of proof for them being a spiritual leader, I don't know how much I ask them to fucking prove it. Levitating again, you know, phone you fuck. I wish those blind kids used to pick on, would have ganged up on him

back at that school and beat him to death when he's a kid. Aasahara announces his vision in an interview for a Japanese New Age magazine, right? Talks about his meeting on the beach with this guy, and more people are now drawn to him. And man, anyone excited by that interview to meet him? They're fucked. When you see Gettadude who says he met some God of light

on the beach, you're showing up at the compound with the hook already set in your mouth. There's probably not any place he can't lead you. 1986, G2 Matamoto officially changed his name to Shoko Asahara. He says it's happened to him after he had a final enlightenment while meditating in the Himalayas, of course. Of course the Himalayas can't just be on some random

hill. Spiritual home with the Tybethan Buddhist. So important to mystics, right? It gives you that street cred. Why? It's just some fucking mountains. Why do people automatically attain spiritual credibility in the eyes of so many when they spend time in Tibet? Oh, he must know something. He was in Tibet. He was in the Himalayas. I don't give a fuck. In my eyes, that doesn't make any less crazy than if you just wanted the mountains,

you know, down the road for my house. You know, went up on fucking Huckleberry Ridge and meditated yourself and to believe in some weird crazy shit. Shoko means bright light, Asahara means field of hemp. The plant symbolizes connection. His new name, not just cool sounding like I joke

about it earlier, it's powerfully symbolic. He is connecting you to the light, to heaven, to Nirvana. As a horror now grows out his hair and beard, can't be a cult guru with the count's haircut. Now you got to grow that shit out like Jesus. And he starts wearing traditional Hindu ropes, cold leader ropes, fuck yeah, cult, cult, cult. He begins preaching about Shambhala plans to build Om communes to bring his utopian society to life. Shambhala not in the hollow worth by the way. You're trusty guru bright light hemfield, whatever the shit. He can build

it for you. He says now, he can take, you know, you're, you're, I don't know, your energy and your Chi and use it to build Nirvana. Thank you, Mr. Brightlight Hemfield. Thank you, Mr. Growlight Weed Farm. In 1977, Guru, Strobe Light Pot Ranch, renames his group to Omshin Rikyo. Group's name again means supreme truth. And again, such a bummer that didn't stick with circle of divine wizards.

This is the best cult name ever. Maybe a band could be named that. How the circle of divine wizards? Sounds awesome. Some progressive metal band or something. I don't know, some psychedelic rock band. Asohar and his small group of followers are now handing out pamphlets,

giving street sermons, teaching yoga classes in Tokyo. Former members said that at this time, you know, he seemed pretty cool. Asohar was used benevolent. Soft, warm, compassionate. They could feel a charismatic power emanating from him. That won't last long. Also around this time,

Asohar begins becoming dissatisfied with the trappings of traditional Buddhism. charismatic power emanating from him. That won't last long. Also around this time, Alsehar begins becoming dissatisfied with the trappings of traditional Buddhism. It boasts him. He starts to tweak the scriptures a little bit, add a little bit of Hindu, a little bit of New Age, a little bit of his own thing. He wants to create a religion that emphasizes

non-Japanese themes. Perfect for recruiting people dissatisfied with traditional Japanese life. He promotes a spiritual path where the goal is enlightenment ASAP. He's gonna fast track that shit. No reincarnating you over and over and over and over until you finally achieve, you know, Nirvana, traditional Buddhist style bullshit.

Ain't nobody got time for that. He preaches that he can lead you to Nirvana and like, I don't know, 10, 20 years tops. You don't have to become a grasshopper or fucking cow or something and then work your way through it. He'll do it through't know, 10, 20 years tops. You don't have to become a grasshopper or fucking cow or something and then work your way through it. They'll do it through yoga classes, meditation, some shit called psychic development exercises

to help as followers reach enlightenment. Psychic development exercises, that sounds fun. I feel like you can get pretty loosey goosey with those. You know, really make up whatever the fuck you want since none of that has ever been proven to work. And some spiritual teaching pamphlet books he wrote at this time. Also, horror now starts claiming that he is Jesus. Okay.

He's Jesus in physical form and better. He can time travel. So that's a fun claim. That's a fun thing to believe. Not sure we've come across a co-leader yet, who, you know, says he can actually time travel. I feel like that claim can really come back to haunt you. It can really make you look like Dick.

You know, if some cold member asked you to go back, save their child from maybe a car crash or something, and you're like, I mean, I could, of course I could. Yes, obviously, but I'm not going to. It's not good to mess about in the past. I learned that the hard way. Might change the presence in terrible and unexpected ways. I used to, I used to have my full sight,

but I went back and fucking tinkered around with some things and lost one of my eyeballs. And they're like, okay, okay, I don't like it, but fine, makes sense. But then, you know, if you ever then claim going forward to go to the past for no reason, now they're like, hey, hey, you stay going back with a bad idea. But now, you do it?

Well, then now go back and save my son, you fucking asshole. Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, Henchman, please show this person out and silence them. Japanese Jesus will not stand for being criticized like that. Randomly when coming across all this info for the first time, I got kind of bummed out that no one for my childhood or young adulthood or family has become a crazy cult leader. How entertaining. If guru flashlight hemp bracelet is your cousin or uncle or something, right? And still comes by to visit. You know, that's, that's fun. Life is good. As a horror, we just bought a new home.

I got a promotion to work, but working on learning how to, how to play pianos. That's nice. How about you? Real good, Matachi. I've collected a small, but dedicated band of followers. We have a compound now. I found out I'm Jesus. I'm working on time travel. So much fun gossip if you're related to somebody like that. We have a compound now, I found out I'm Jesus. And I'm working on time travel. So much fun gossip if you're related to somebody like that. Close enough to see them a fair amount, but not so close to his devastating.

Like my sister became a cycle cult leader like that. I'd hate it because I love her. And I spend time with her and I value our relationship. But I have a few cousins whose relationship I would be willing to sacrifice. It would be fucking great if they became co-leaders. It'd be so fun to talk about. Also, in the late 80s, Asahara is teaching the works of 16th century

astronomer, fellow con artist, Nostradamus. Oh, many thought produced the world would end in 1999. Then she's come up a few times now. We suck that guy, weighs back, episode 40. And we learned that he did not predict shit. You throw enough vague predictions against the wall and a few of them are bound to kind of vaguely stick.

Ossahara was teaching all kinds of shit. He tossed the toss that there are a number of levels of consciousness that a member can reach by following the teachings of only him, Master Shoko Ossahara, but only one person who reached the highest level of consciousness. And that is, of course, Master Shoko has a heart himself. Noice. Don't leave the door cracked open to someone possibly stepping in and thinking they can become your equal. That's a good way to have your coat cookie crumble. Also, hard did believe in reincarnation. Again, but if you follow his teachings,

you know, you stretch, you can breathe right, you got your shock, where it's tuned up. You know, you can skip it. You can fast-track to Nirvana. Also believed in extra sensory experiences such as clairvoyance, awesome. Being able to see through walls, fun. And of course, levitation. He claimed, he claimed he could do more than just levitate like he does in that cheesy picture. He claimed he could levitate and fly around rooms when he wanted.

So weird, they never showed anyone that. If I could levitate and fly around the room, oh my God, I would do it so much that you would grow to hate it. You might think like, no way, I would love to see somebody fly around the room. For a little while, I obnoxiously do it. You'd eventually hate it.

You'd be like, do stop! You keep knocking on the papers on my desk when you whiz-by! Quit, you just boom, coffee on my keyboard again! You fucking flyin' dick. And then sometime around 1987, Assahar becomes fixated on the Hindu God Shiva, the God of destruction, God's primary role,

it is to destroy the universe in order to recreate it. So that's, you know, that's not good. That's not good for Guru night light, edible bag, or whatever his name is. Assahar now starts to preach that salvation can only come after Armageddon. And only for those who are part of arm, you have to get the world destroyed to achieve salvation, to have, you know, your fucking Shangri-La.

Members can only be saved if they got to a higher state of consciousness by following his and only his teachings in his major religious treats. He called the destruction of the world. He describes how the world will end because of a war between the US and Japan now. He says this war will start in 1997. He bases his book on the prophecies of course of Nostradamus and the revelations of St. John book revelations, Buddhist scriptures, his own personal revelations. Uh, us, the hardest public image still of a new guru spreading peace and happiness, but you know, it's a far cry from the truth now privately. It's crazy

cults growing really fast. It's tracking thousands of the members. He starts opening up numerous compounds around Japan, mostly around Tokyo at first, coming up with a bunch of strange and constantly changing and initiation rituals and cult practices. Just weird shit. Former members testified that they would pay thousands of dollars for rituals involving stuff like strands of Asahara's hair or like drinking his dirty bath water. One cult member paid over $8,000 for a blood initiation, where he drank what he was told with some of us

are hardest blood. Progress towards enlightenment and commitment to the cult was marked by three levels of initiation. He had to undergo ever evolving rituals at each level. After the third level, followers were admitted into the monastic community, and it was clear that total unwavering devotion to their guru was expected.

At members at the third level, people are expected to cut off all contact with their families. They're only social interaction with other members. Cult, cult, cult, strong ass cult move live only in my echo chamber. Works well for cults, works well for politicians and media conglomerates too, right? Listen only to our outlets that spend everything in ways favorable to us. Think about how many families are divided now because the people getting lost in media echo chambers, political chambers, only listening to one heavily slanted point of view. What lots of media outlets and a lot of politicians do to their viewing and voting bases is just to dilute and form what co-liters do to their followers. And they all do it because

tribalism and echo chambers, it works. Time and time again. There were several classifications for the members. Lay members were called Ziki. Everyone wanted to become Shuki, a priest or none. The Shukisha members living in communal lives. I guess Shuki means to leave home. As Hara told new followers that if they wanted to reach salvation, they had to become Shukisha

by leaving home and giving up all their property. And they had to give up their names. had to take on a new Sanskrit name. That's a that's a deep cult cut. Who say goodbye to who you were before that person's dead. You are now my vessel, my spiritual child. Only we are your family now. Only I am your father. It's fucking insane when he's pulling off after just a few years of having a cult.

You clearly had a lot of charisma growing growing up in intimidating, manipulating those poor blind students. Man, that's really paying off for him now. Smart plain off of a religious precedent here with that priest none stuff too, right? Making it not seem as crazy to leave home, join a commune because that's what monks and priests, nuns have been doing for centuries. How weird is it? So many of us, you know, historically haven't been bothered by someone leaving the family

to become a nun or a priest or a monk. But many of the same people, not bothered by that would be very bothered by someone leaving their family to join. You know, like this guy's cold, not the same I know exactly, but pretty close when you stand back far enough to look at it all. Shooky has to go through complete or Shooky, the priest and nuns, they have to go through complete celibacy at the level three. No ejaculation allowed as dictated by the guy who will have six kids.

They had to agree to often on fasting, long meditations, breathing exercises, hours, long prostration, work assignments, sleep deprivation, small quarters, mild starvation, eight only small portions of rice and vegetables twice a day, little to no protein. So we keep them nice and disoriented. All the most successful cult leaders do that. Can't give your followers too much time to think, can't let them feel too good. They might finally get clear ahead and realize how fucked up you are. Guru love a lamp water bomb. Preached all kinds of crazy shit to his compound members.

He preached that supernatural power could be achieved through non-sexual means, through absence, right? Like I was just talking about, but before he started on, Osahara, I guess frequently tried to obtain supernatural power through masturbation or sex. I love that detail and one of the sources. Supernatural power through masturbation. How often do you have to beat off to do that? Like after beating off a few times in a day, you know, it hurts. The skin's so sensitive. Do you have to push through that pain to achieve some kind of supernatural jerk off session? Do you have to beat it until you bleed? Is that even possible? Can you get hard when you hurt that much? And what power do you unlock through intense masturbation?

The power to not be controlled by the urge to be off all the time because you finally completely broken your dick? Is that your vana? Beating your dick until you break it. Even though Asahara preached abstinence, it would be revealed later that he offered, of course, transfers of energy to select female followers, which were tantric, sexual initiation rituals. I fucking knew it. Of course, guru, street lamp, vape pin, who's fucking some of his followers. Of course, I was waiting for this. The guy went big with being a cult leader in every aspect of cult leader.

He also had other non-sexual initiation rituals and exercises. He developed to help his priests and nuns along their spiritual journey to Nirvana and to keep them obedient and focused on his teachings and confused and never understanding what's going on of some followers given massive amounts of LSD and led through visions to believe he was Christ in one ritual. I'd love to get my hands on that LSD, you know, minus the cult brainwashing. In another ritual, they were given massive amounts of narcotics, and then confessions of doubt would be extracted from them, or confessions of embarrassing acts they'd committed so that could be, you know, blackmailed using it later and keeping them subservient. Sounds like they had great drugs.

So much this did not come out until after his arrest. There were rituals where followers would have to chant about their failures over and over while high. A lot of chanting rituals. Like, there was one cassette tapes, this person played in a video. And it was just like him saying like the same two things over and over. You know, focus on the knowledge, focus on the knowledge, focus on the knowledge, focus on the knowledge, learn the breathing, learn it. It was just like dumb like okay vague stuff. Other cult training exercises consisted of immersion and hot or cold water being hung upside

down for long periods of time, long periods of dangerous solitary confinement. During some initiation ceremonies, devotees were locked in a small box, literally buried alive with limited oxygen for over 24 hours. And there's rumors that, you know, a fair amount of people died from this. And then they just, they, you know, they burned them and hid the bodies. This torture was justified by need to overcome any bad karma. A new member could bring to the group. Now you got to put them in the box. So they could bring the carman. Didn't you read page 673? Come on. September 1988, one disciple was bound and hung up by his legs as part of an initiation initiation ritual for way

too long. And then he was dunked suddenly in freezing water and the shot killed him I his family found a police report assisted by a lawyer and then that lawyer disappeared forever Hmm weird also harryx playing the death by saying that the boy died because he shed his earthly body under his guru's guidance so that he could be reborn only one of his followers considered leaving him over this incident and That person was quickly dealt with that's when you really have control when you can fuck and kill followers with little to no consequences as a harry has to feel like a god now a golden god fuck being class president is way more powerful than that now after this guy died other followers acting on a house orders burn his body

through the ashes uh... one member threatened to uh... go to the police and a response he was strangled death in his body burn as well. How wild is this story? And it's gonna get so much wilder. There was a level above Shuki, above the priests and nuns, the Sikoshi, and then there was the Satashi, above that the sacred grand teachers. The five sacred grand teachers were Ishii, Hisako, Asahara's wife, Tomoko, Achari, Ashara, his third daughter, Hideo Morai, and Fumihoro, Joyo.

Guru LED, LED light, fat blunt, he held the title of Sonshi, revered master. The club was getting so many new members by the end of the 80s. They established a recruitment division called the new followers agency. This agency distributed pamphlets, gave street sermons, taught yoga, herbal healing, meditation classes. They recruited a computer stores, nice book stores, noodle shops, even made broadcasts on Russian radio. They used psychedelic and mind altering drugs as part of their recruitment process, right?

Your LSD dealer is trying to pull you into a cult now. They also used brainwashing techniques like sleep deprivation, isolation on new recruits to confuse them, pull them into the cult. Most of the followers still came from universities and good jobs, young people often in their 20s from academically pressured backgrounds, who as we talked about earlier, under extreme pressure from their families to prepare for their careers or to continue in their careers, and the cult promised them an escape from the trappings of that life. Not all the members were wealthy or educated, many working class members also recruited to be construction workers, military soldiers, etc.

Yes, soldiers, building an army now, a lot of stuff going on. They even had animators. I'm created their own animations to present a public image of peace and happiness and fun to present propaganda. At his peak, I'm will have tens of thousands of members, including numerous rich and powerful people from Tokyo by 1995. They'll have roughly 50,000 members. Interestingly, I will end up with three times more members in Russia than in Japan.

The group recruited scientists, technical experts to develop weapons from Russia, also successfully infiltrated law enforcement and the military in Japan and possibly Russia. Omr-am recruiters targeted individuals with skill sets to fit their agenda Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- Omr- well-trained defensive force. I mentioned a while back. They recruited between 20 and 64 military members of note. These former soldiers once trained only to protect Japan would later participate in domestic terrorism. I'm recruited police officers, employees of the prime minister's office in order to get access to classified information there. They targeted business owners and business owners in tech and weapons production to produce their own military technology. It's fucking crazy how well they were able to sell their insane vision. Their theology based around Asahara being, you know, the man the gods attest with cleansing the earth and creating Shambhalla. Asahara got all

these followers not only to dedicate themselves to him spiritually, he got them to hand over their personal assets. He was a fucking dark wizard. By 1995, you would have just over a billion dollars in assets equivalent to 1.8 billion now. Another power, co-leader move here, really darkly impressive. I hate this guy, but he was very good at being very bad. He's almost peaked now in his co-leader powers, almost completed the full checklist. Just needs to mobilize his army into violent action, not allowing followers to remain in

contact with friends and family members, not also part of the cult. Check on isolation, giving followers too much to do. Not enough to eat, so they're always a little tired, hungry, and confused. Check on continual confusion and distraction. Establishing your presence as an undisputed leader by making clear and teachings that no follower can attain your level of enlightenment, that you're God and the reigning alpha male forbidding followers from ejaculation while you fuck their wives and any other members you want. Check on rigid and impressive hierarchy, where you are the undisputed leader. For bidding followers from a calculation while you fuck their wives and any other members you want, check on

rigid and impressive hierarchy, where you are the undisputed leader. Forcing followers to sign assets over to you. Let go of their previous jobs. So followers are now socially and financially 100% dependent on you, which places enormous pressure on them to remain in the cult. Check on no easy way out. Check on damn near 100% control. That's how you get away with murder. So much pressure on members

to keep conforming. And he's already convinced followers that the only way they'll survive the apocalypse is by following his teachings, providing even more powerful incentive to stay inside the cult, cult, cult, check on Doomsday acceptance and being a part of the inner circle. Also hard to become extremely wealthy. Obviously, from the state's best members, he and his inner circle reinvest, reinvest much of the money into running businesses, restaurants that will build his empire further. It's grouped not only on property and numerous countries, they also own helicopters, boats, literal gold bars, mountains of cash. They own legitimate businesses like an import export business, a tea plantation, a computer

store, bento box shops, noodle restaurants, fitness club, telephone dating club, why not? Even had a babysitting firm, fun. And Asahara also used these legit businesses for money laundering. Club members also manufacturing and selling stimulants like meth and LSD. And I'm just buying good drugs, they're making them. They put Walter White to shame long before Breaking Bad came out. Um, I'm also sold a bullshit. What does this really do?

Religious training headgear. This is for so ridiculous. They claim to synchronize the user's brain waves with Asahara's brain waves. This headgear supposedly costs, oh my God. $10,000 a month. I cannot fucking believe they sold this. It was called the perfect salvation initiation unit.

Man, just because you have money doesn't mean you're smart. Unreal. This thing looks so dumb. And I didn't do anything. Outside of giving you just mild electrical stimulation, right? It just kind of felt weird on your head and it convinced people. It was making them smarter. Hey, my brainwaves are lined up with fucking crazy asses, brainwaves.

Another way I made money was through extortion. They targeted church offices across Japan, threatened the residents of towns that they were going to establish themselves. They're permanently, they didn't pay up. You don't want us to take your congregation, fucking pay up, pastor. You know, he forced his followers to practice extortion. Some members would kidnap families for ransom. What is going on?

He's living it up thanks to all this money. He's fucking his favorite coal members, while 99% of them, they're living in cramped squalor, constantly working on weird spiritual assignments. And the early 90s, the cult started buying massive amounts of property around the world yet to create a heaven on earth. All right, they're going to get that shangolad. They used many of these properties to store their growing arsenals of chemical weapons.

They're manufacturing weapons now. Onbils and headquarters in Fuji, no, Fuji, no Mia near Mount Fuji. Also built a large facility in a village called Kami Koshi, Kami Kushi Shiki. Kami Kushi Shiki. There were 20 other facilities in Japan, mostly concentrated in and around Tokyo. Most of the lay members lived in 10 buildings in Kami Kumi Shiki, or Kami Kui Shiki. Sorry, that's a tough one for me. A satirical online game about the cult would later be released called Kami Kui Shiki

Village. Kami Kui Shiki Village. A lot of people think online was created by the cult as an evil recruitment tool, it was not. It was created by people making fun of the cult, actually. So you don't have to worry about that game. At the real Kami Kui Shiki, I don't have to say that slow every time. Kami Kui Shiki Village, there were large buildings used as cult dorms where low level members lived.

These dorms were filthy and infested with bugs because against Asahara's teachings to kill any living creature. Members were taught to express disdain for middle-class values of cleanliness. In August of 1989, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government grants on legal status as a religious organization. This really helps with their early 90s wealth building. Because this recognition on gets privileges such as tax breaks, immunity from official oversight and prosecution.

Under the Japanese religious corporation law, when a group is recognized as a religious organization, authorities not allowed to investigate their religious activities or doctrines. That's fun. This allows a group to have perfect cover or a perfect cover for their criminal activities. Not good for anyone. Just with these assholes needed the ability to plan horrible shit covertly. This law was inspired by similar U.S. laws regarding religious freedom, which have historically allowed cults here in the U.S. to get away with all kinds of dumb shit.

But also probably worth it. Thanks to the freedom these laws protect for many other people not doing anything wrong. Anyway, not in Japan, this law was created in 1947 during allied occupation as a reaction to previous religious persecution from the Japanese government. After on putting their application to become a religious group. They began an aggressive lobbying campaign outside the offices of the agency,

even lobby politicians to put pressure on the government to approve their application. After they got approved, their net worth would grow from $4.3 million to over $1 billion in just six years. Ah, man, makes me want to turn bad magic productions into a religious institution. I mean, we do have some guts. He'll never out. Come on.

Membership also rose after this recognition. It went from a few hundred in the mid 80s to 10,092 up to 50,000 by 95. By 95, they have built over 30 offices in six countries. These guys are killing it. I mean, this was a growth rate that would have put them ahead of Scientology worldwide, just a few more years. Had they not tried so aggressively to bring about World War III. Scientology claims to have anywhere from four to 10 million members worldwide, but recent reports by investigative journalist state that that number is just a bit outside, grossly exaggerated, crazy that the church of Scientology would lie. The real number seems to be between 50,000 and 200,000,

instead of, you know, 40,000,000. Fuck yeah. Way more people than that. Listen to Time Suck every week. Great suck God, Nimrod, more powerful than the incredibly powerful Zeno of Scientology mythology. Fucking suck it, Zeno, Hail Nimrod. Scary to think that Om was on track to be so much bigger

than Scientology. Man, so much more dangerous and destructive. Some say that I'm yet got their status because they infiltrated the government with their members, feeling boosted by this new status as a hara. Now started calling himself holy pope savior of the country and Tokyo. It's Christ. Yeah, I love that all the success is not going to his head. He still as humbles ever.

All this wealth and power still not enough. Ross Ahara, the power he got the power, he got the more he wanted. Now he wants to literally rule the world. Ahara has become more deadly as he becomes more powerful, which I guess just makes sense. Beginning in late 1989, ramps up the violence further. Families and members say their children are kidnapped, physically assaulted, when they try and leave the cult. Few anti-armed groups start popping up in response to these attacks.

Then members of these groups become targets for assault and harassment. Some of them disappear because they're murdered. Um, it's very scary. Uh, makes a church Scientology look like a benevolent organization. On November 4, 1989, a lawyer in his family or kidnapped murdered by all members, the lawyer represented families attempting to get their children out of the cult. Uh, Suitsumi Sakamoto was a lawyer and human rights activist and very vocal in his opposition to the cult. He was preparing a civil suit against them when he his wife and their one-year-old

son disappear forever he they are well i guess not uh... forever as far as it appears they don't they don't get seen alive again they will remain until missing until nineteen ninety five when all members finally admit to killing them after a bunch of arrests on the morning of the number four nineteen ninety nine uh... when police killing them after a bunch of arrests on the morning of November 4th, 1989. When police entered his apartment in 89, it looked like the family just left quickly, abandoned everything. There were still plates left out on the table. The police knew all of the threaten Sakamoto, but they couldn't prove that all had abducted

them based on initial evidence. Their bodies will be buried separately in three different prefectures. Their killers even smashed their teeth to keep them from being identified. On February of 1990, Asahara orders 25 candidates to run for Japanese parliament. He thinks that if they can win their seats, then he can become prime minister, just like he wanted as a kid. Asahara and his followers start their own party called the Ishen Rito. He's very confident they'll win.

Of course he is. He's probably interpreted some old stupid nocturnal misprediction, assuring him a victory, right? They laid out the tea leaves correctly or something. But then all his candidates lose by a lot, literally all of them. It was this class president failure all over again. He's still the bully. Most people can't stand. He's embarrassed.

He looks weak to his followers and he's fucking pissed now. This 1990 election failure marks a dark turning point for Alcahar and his cult. This failure causes the group's theology to darken, becomes much more doomsday focused. It was already focused on doomsday, but now it's like, that's all that matters. If they wouldn't let him win, now the whole fucking world has to pay. Asohara starts preaching mostly about death and final judgments now. He predicts the series of disasters that will foreshadow the end of the world. Orders on members now to start collecting firearms, developing biological and chemical

weapons, learning to make saring gas and other horrible weapons of mass destruction. Even wants to acquire nuclear weapons and attack Japan with them. He literally wanted to nuke these fuckers because he didn't win his elections. The world rejected him. Japanese Jesus of all people. And therefore the world deserved to be punished. Time for guru spotlight pop brownie to go full Shiva. Ostehara wants to literally kick off World War III more than ever, which will end civilization.

Bring on Armageddon and thus his cult salvation. Obviously, all his plans for violence initially kept from low ranking members. Only the inner circle knew his full plans. Right. They had to help him bring about Armageddon. Ostehara becomes obsessed with Doomsday prophecies, started studying the Christian book of Revelation's Heart of the Never. Of course, he gives his inner circle titles

of minister of this and that. Now, he starts to really expect that Alma is going to replace the Japanese government after World War III, and he structures his cult to mirror the Japanese government. He makes his inner circle heads of know, heads of certain departments, for example, Hideo Morai, now the Minister of Science and Tech. Fumi Hiro, Joyo, Public Relations Minister, Masamami, Succia, Chief Scientist, and so on.

They have 24 organizations. They're taking themselves very seriously, Asahara, as a household agency, they provide security, medical care for his family, has a department run by his 11 year old daughter. Raka Matsumoto, uh, no one knows exactly what she did, but, uh, she'll later, she'll later lead the cult briefly. Also, our continually reach preaches now that the end of the world is, you know, very near. I'm followers.

They're only, the only ones are going to survive the apocalypse. You predict the world will end in 1996 or 1999 or 2003. Revelations, fucking trick, you understand understand because it's crazy not written well. Whenever it was 99 96 2003 he knew that the US would bring on Armageddon by starting World War 3 with Japan. Asahara uses the concept of Poa to justify his murders. This is interesting I'd never heard about this. Poa is when someone kills another person not not in a bad way, but just to transfer their consciousness and allow them to be reborn one step closer to Nirvana.

It's a nice loophole. It's not even a poophole loophole. It's a regular loophole. Murder? What? We're not murdering anyone. We're speeding up their reincarnation process to help them achieve Nirvana faster. If that's what you mean, we're helping people. Why can't you see that? What a fucking great way to rationalize murder. No, I'm not a cold blooded murderer. I may help her who pushes people along.

Their reincarnation journey, Asahara said that murder in the entire world was just a big Poah. A song from an on pamphlet explains the followers believed in Poa. They have these stupid songs that a Melodies are never incorporated. But here's a lyrics I'll try my best. I will Poa all wrongdoers. I will do whatever is required for salvation of the world. I will practice complete Vatre Oya. Vatre Anna. I will not stop from this practice even if I die from it, I will practice Vajrayana

without a care. Now, as the Bible explains, Armageddon is finally approaching. It must rhyme better in Japanese. I will join the Holy Army to Poa, all wrongdoers. I will Poa won evil to evils and more. Poa is world salvation. Poa is virtue. Practicing Poa will leave me to the highest world.

You know something like that. Vajrayona is a form of esoteric Buddhist, and by the way, so in this context, they're just literally saying that because they're good and they're faithful Buddhists, they have to kill everyone in the world. That's all. It is unreal how far they openly took things. They're handing out pamphlets now, essentially saying that they're going to kill everybody. They make the Westboro Baptist church with like a bunch of fucking friendly cupcakes.

March 2015, a Japanese time staff writer named Masami Ito will publish an article interviewing three former insiders regarding how the cult was operating around this period. So glad he did. It offers a very personal window into all this this madness Edo interviewed Hero hero Yuki Naka Sorry Nagaoka Nagaoka Sun and cult lawyer Taro Takimoto Nagaoka's Sun asked for his name to be kept private so he'll be referred to as N in this article and here is what Edo reported put in little Mood music behind this piece

N joined in the fall of 1987. He was a college student in Tokyo studying Indian, Indian philosophy. He read a few books published by Om and was surprised by the cult's progressive ideas. He was immediately captivated by Guru, Al-Sahara. He studied Om's teachings and took part in some of the yoga classes. He then also participated in a 10-day madness camp. We're participants were forced to undergo severe training that tested their physical strength.

He became desperate, be a member, and devoted himself completely. He was a university student on a budget, where he made donations as often as he could, even skipped meals in order to donate money. Mind control is sort of like magic. Anyone is in danger of falling into that trap. All made it seem like you were free to make choices, but in reality, you were being guided toward those choices.

Enemies achieve a prominent role in the cult representing all in the media. His father would get very angry about this. Osahara told him not to worry about his father. He told end-other members that having a relationship with their parents was not one necessary, because family only represented life on Earth. And said,

The bond between all members was very strong because we thought we were connecting on a spiritual level. We believe we are connected in our past lives as well as the future to reincarnation. I didn't have a good relationship with my dad at that time. I was taught that anything he said was evil, nonsense. And dedicated himself to do anything Asahara wanted, and worked in the political campaign to get Asahara and 24 members elected to parliament. He ate one meal a day and barely slept.

One morning after passing out from exhaustion, he woke up with amnesia. He didn't know who he was or what Om was. A few days later, he recovered his memories, from before he joined, including his father's phone number, and then he did some research into Asahara and the cult and realized everything was a lie. I was the son of the chairman of an armed victim support group. If I had stayed, I would have either been killed or forced to become involved in the seren attacks.

Here at Yuki, Nagaoka, is the reason his son was able to escape. He stood up to the leaders and tried to help with their parents. He was attacked with VX nerve gas several times in retaliation. Together, he and Anne have helped 30 people. Leave on. Here were Yuki noticed something strange was going on when his son started asking for his inheritance. He found a piece of paper in his son's room pledging to give all assets to Holy Master

Asahara. On turn to our children to mindless people without a sense of their own free will, they became unable to determine good and bad, and that is why all members don't think twice about murder. They became also how his puppets. Also how was after his property, 500 square meters in Tokyo's expensive, Ayama district. A journalist introduced him to lawyer, Katsumi Sakamoto. Sakamoto helped him launch a parent support group in October 1989.

His support group was called Om Shinricyo Family Group. Here are Yuki hired a PI to look into Asahara. The PI visited Chinese medicine stores. He analyzed herbal remedies. Asahara was selling. He learned it was all a scam. Here at Yuki was forced to sell his land and quit his job because Om began harassing him in his office.

He confronted Asahara and other leaders. I called him out in his lies and told him to his face that he's a liar and has no right to preach Carol Takamoto was a lawyer who knew that you move Sakamoto Sakamoto asked him to help with the case against the arm cult He was reluctant to get involved because cults are difficult to deal with After Sakamoto went missing Takamoto stepped into help parents get their kids back and even negotiated with the senior or with senior cult members People are vulnerable and everyone is in danger of falling under their influence. Most of these armed children were honest, hardworking people who grew up not knowing the kind of

evil that exists in the world. In July 1993, Taco Moto and Anne started counseling, offering counseling services to members who wanted out. Cult members no longer know the difference between right and wrong. It's the same with Islamic State militants. They think they're doing the right thing by beheading people. All members could equally commit murder because of their strong religious beliefs.

That is what makes them extremely dangerous. First, he started by making the members question small things like buying Asahara's books. Then he got them to question the famous levitation photo. Taki Moto demonstrated how it's possible to fake levitation with photography and angles. Asahara felt disrespected by all this. The photo was one of his main tools to get converts

because of this Takamoto was put on his cult's hit list. They tried to kill him four times, but Takamoto never backed down and said he sent his family to live separately and took out a 280 million yen life insurance policy. I love this dude. True hero, brave meat sack.

Takamoto finally got the trust of a few former members, told him about illegal drug use, death to one member on cult property reported to the police. They sadly didn't take him seriously. Also told the police about the attacks on Harayuki. They didn't care. They tried to say the Harayuki attempted suicide, talking about things that the police would have listened.

The March 20th, 1995 attack could have been prevented. And then talking about it will later establish Connie Ria, Nokai, the Canary Group to support over 100 former Colt members. So hail, Taro Takimoto, glorious meat sack, back to the timeline now. April 1990, there was a confirmed attack. Sprays what they think is, I think this, and this seems to be the first of their chemical warfare attacks. I'm sprays what they think is a bunch of linom, a bunch of linom talks and using three

customized trucks. It's a toxin made by a bacteria that attacks the bodies, nerves, causes difficulty breathing, muscle paralysis, and possibly death. Members drove near two US naval bases, the Nareda airport, parliament, the Imperial Palace, and even the headquarters of a rival cult fucking cult versus cult gang more shit. They attacked in Tokyo, no, kohama, no, suka and the Rita, but none of their attempts worked this day because they didn't isolate. Clostridium botchalitum, the active and deadly strain of the toxin, had it worked thousands

of it have gotten ill and hundreds likely would have died. This attack may have been a retaliation to losing the parliament campaign. December 26, 1991, the USSR collapses. On begins infiltrating operating former Soviet states. Thousands of their followers will eventually come from the former Soviet Union. October 22, 1992, Shoko Asahara leads over 40 followers to Zaire Africa to treat Ebola patients is what they said, believed that they went there with the intent to collect samples of Ebola to try and use it as a biological weapon. They most likely failed to collect the proper samples because they

will never spread this virus. These fuckers are now just a full on terrorist organization. 1993, also horror publishes another book called Shivering Predictions. Sounds like that could be a soft porn title. Shivering Predictions. In it, Guru Glowlight, Refer Madness publicly states his predictions about Armageddon. He writes for the first time in a series of films, predictions. Sounds like that could be a soft porn title. Shivering predictions. In it, Guru Glowlight, Reefermadness publicly states his predictions about Armageddon. He writes from now until the year 2000, a series of violent phenomena filled with fear that are too difficult to describe because they don't know his ends. Will occur. Japan will turn into a wasteland as a result of a nuclear weapons attack. This will occur from 1996 to January

1998. And a lion centering on the United States will attack Japan in large cities in Japan. Only one 10th of the population will be able to survive. Nine out of 10 people will die because of religious protection laws. Still not enough evidence to have these idiots investigated. And it's crazy. If you say, I'm going to kill nine out of 10 citizens with weapons of mass destruction. You're going to be brought in for question. You're going to likely end up incarcerated for a long time. If you say, God is going to kill nine out of 10 citizens with weapons of mass destruction, you're gonna be brought in for question. You're gonna likely end up incarcerated for a long time. If you say, God is gonna kill nine out of 10 citizens

with weapons of mass destruction, I can't wait to watch it go down. Now you just written off as a nut. On June 9th, 1993, Om launches another attack. High ranking members spray the vaccine's train of anthrax from their roof of their Tokyo headquarters. What the fuck?

They use the custom spraying device, fit it with a fan, and they targeted civilians near the compound, the Imperial Palace and government buildings. This attack ultimately fails because they had not acquired a usable strain of anthrax. Making weapons of mass destruction, thank God, is a little harder than they anticipated. If they would acquire the correct strand, they would have likely killed thousands. Untreated anthrax inhalation kills almost everybody. Treated it still kills about half the people who inhale a deadly strain had that attack work these fucking idiots would have also killed a lot of

their own members since they launched attack from the roof of their own headquarters as a hara more insane than ever july 1993 austin hara publishes yet another stupid book called second set of predictions this one he changes some of the end times dates. Pretty funny title. It looks like the subtitle should be corrections to Doomsday nonsense in the first book. Gosh, gosh dang, it's hard to be a co-leader. He now wrote, I am certain that a 1997 Armageddon will break out by breakout. I mean that war will erupt and that it will not end soon. Violent battles will continue for a couple of years. During that time, the world population will shrink markedly. A third world war will break

out. I stake my religious future on this prediction. I am sure it will occur. And unlike most doomsday predictors, you know, our recent episode on the Jehovah's Witnesses comes to mind. He clearly was not just cross those fingers and hoping for this to happen. He was actively planning terrorist attacks carried out in the hope that a large death toll will be blamed successfully on the US and Japan and that will lead directly to World War III. Man, June to August 1993, all members attempts to more anthrax attacks. Shoko Asahara, other members attacked the legislature, the Imperial Palace, Tokyo Tower. They now use three vehicles with custom sprained devices, but both attacks fail because even though they had the right anthrax train now, the spray nozzles are clogged.

Seriously, I bet whoever was supposed to make sure those nozzles work got to beat down. These assholes came so close to committing massive atrocities now several times, but they just keep fucking up one important thing. Starting to remind me of Wiley Coyote, 20 Kilaue Road Runner. Right? He orders the right bombs and weapons from Acme, from their catalog, but always fucks up one important step and the road runner just keeps getting away.

From late 1993 to early 1994, I'll make some assassination attempts now on Daisaku, Ikeida, head of the Soka Gagai Buddhist organization. Usahar didn't like this guy's popularity. He's a rival co-leader. This NRM formed in 1930, has over 12 million members. He didn't like their peaceful, the world doesn't have to end mentality. So he attempts to murder him with sarn gas. A little bit about sarn gas. It's going to be their favorite weapon. They're going to use it frequently. Sarns and nerve agent developed by the Nazis back in 1938, an odorless, colorless, highly

toxic gas, one of the most lethal nerve gases in the world. Sirens 500 times more deadly than cyanide, much more lethal actually than the Zeichlon B, like the Nazis used in the gas chambers, hard to make pure siren, but possible with publicly available chemicals. According to the CDC, Siren is a human-made chemical warfare agent classified as a nerve agent. Nerve agents are the most toxic and rapidly acting of the known chemical warfare agents. They are similar to certain kinds of insecticides called organophosphates in terms of how they work and what kind of harmful effects they cause.

People can get exposed to Saren from skin, eye, and air contact. It can get into water or food supplies. It can be spread from clothing transfer, symptoms start after just a few seconds. Just a small drop on the skin. In a liquid form, it can cause sweating and muscle twitching. Exposure to a large dose can cause a loss of consciousness, convulsions, paralysis, respiratory failure. Symptoms include runny nose, watery eyes, small pupils,

eye pain, blurred vision, drooling excessive sweating, coughing, chest tightness, rapid breathing diarrhea, nausea, vomiting of domino pain, increased urination, confusion, drowsiness, weakness, headache, slower fast heart rate, high or low blood pressure, just fucks y'all up. Recovery is possible, but only if you're exposed to a small amount. A salon works by deactivating a subtle cooling, a neurotransmitter without the proper enzyme. A set of cooling will constantly stimulate nerve cell receptors, a set of cooling will build up causing excessive twitching possible paralysis that the lungs get paralyzed, then you're probably going to die. The best way to get serenophied is to take off all your clothes, hose yourself down with

water as fast as possible. You may also be able to get an antidote if you're close to a medical facility that can block a set of Colleen receptors and protect your muscles from oversimulation. So I'm banned by the chemical weapons convention, more than 190 countries participate in this convention. Very scary shit. And it's the, yeah, it's the weapon of choice for on law enforcement does not know how the cult tried to spread the gas with their first attempt, but the second time the group uses a

radio controlled helicopter and a vehicle equipped with a sprayer. This is a like some James Bond villain shit. During this, the first attempt, you know, they got scared off by people following them. The second attempt, they experienced technical difficulties, the little helicopter crashes. And you know, catch some fire and doesn't work back back to the Akami catalog, these idiots go. On April 27th, 1994, Osahara gives a public sermon from his Tokyo headquarters.

He said that his group was attacked with gas by Japan and the US, with the poison gas attacks that have continued since 1998. We are sprayed by helicopters and other aircraft ever wherever we go. The use of poison gases such as siren were clearly indicated. The hour of my death has been foretold. The gas phenomenon has already happened.

Perhaps nuclear bomb will come next. Nice. Tried and trueed way to get your followers to go to war with you. Convince them that the enemy is already attacking you. They're trying to kill you. So now you're not the aggressor, you're defending yourself from acts of aggression

that have never actually happened. May 9th, 1994, all members attempt to murder Tarotaki Motto, the man who rescued his son and others from the cult, you know, that we just talked about a little bit ago by releasing Saren into the ventilator system of his car. He experiences mild symptoms of exposure, but no serious injuries. June 17th, 1994, all-mattax residents of a neighborhood in the city of Matsumoto, was sarn gas. They used a heating pot to vaporize the gas and a fan spread it around. The main motive for this attack is to target three judges who lived in the apartments of the neighborhood where they plotted the attack.

Other civilians were nearby. The judges were overseeing a fraud case against a cult and they just wanted to delay the ruling. And this attack sadly was successful. In total, there were seven fatalities, 144 serious injuries, 126 other people who experienced some symptoms of exposure. An eighth person will later die from the effects of Saren in 2008. They will suffer for 14 years before dying.

All three judges survive, but they are injured. After the Montenegro attack, Osahara convinces it's cult at the end of the world. It's so soon now. Now it's right around the corner, faster than previously expected, and they have to expedite the process. Now, Alm sets up a fucking factory to produce AK-47s. They actually make a bunch. They steal plans to build tanks. Oh God, from a military contractor, they began extracting uranium from one of their Australian properties to make nuclear fucking bombs. Anyone who dares to disagree with any of their Australian properties to make nuclear fucking bombs. Anyone who dares to disagree with any of this or tries to leave the cult is now executed. I mean poet.

They're poet. They're pushed along the path in Nirvana. They will not risk someone snitching on them between a matzimodo and their later Tokyo subway attack at least nine of their own members are murdered for dissent. These psychos write two songs, more songs now about their Saren attacks. These, uh, they don't translate real well. The song of Saren the Magician. Great, great title. Song of Saren the Brave. What is happening? Here, here is Saren the Magician. And again, don't know the melody, but the words are, it came from not to Germany, a dangerous

little chemical weapon. Saurin, Saurin. If you inhale the mysterious vapor, you will fall with blood coming from your mouth. Saurin, Saurin, the chemical weapon. Yeah, it's not a great song. Not a very fun happy song. This is their self fucking crazy. Saurin the brave, not a better song.

In the peaceful night of Motu Motocity, people can be killed even with our own hands. The place is full of dead bodies everywhere. There, inhale, saar in, prepare, saar in, prepare, saar in. Immediately, poison has gas, fulfilled up, place, spray, spray, spray. Saar in, brave, saar in. I bet these fucking lunatics think they're shit with gusto. Just doing some more power, just doing good deeds.

Just poisoning innocent people with smiles on their faces, just helping Shiva, just helping out guru overhead fluorescent lights, hash pipe. On September 1, 1994, suspected to have attacked towns in the Navra prefecture, 231 people across seven towns affected by skin and eye irritation, a complaint of a foul odor odor before experiencing symptoms. Starring gas does smell like a mustard or burned rubber. Some people compared to paint thinner. On September 20th, 1994, all members attack Shoko Igawa, a journalist who is writing critically about the cult.

Shoko accused Alm of kidnapping and murdering Tatumi Sakamoto in 1999, which was they did. He was a human rights activist, you know, a slash lawyer who went missing along with his wife and one-year-old son. These perpetrators released fostering gas now through Shoko's mail slot while she's sleeping in her apartment. She wakes up, survives the attack, but suffers adverse effects from exposure. Fostering gas extremely toxic if you inhale enough of it. In the fall of 1994, up to 24 former on members murdered by being sprayed with effects

gas. More dissidents. So they bring about to an unknown location and they spray them with a human-made chemical warfare agent classified as nerve agent. That fall on members suspected to have attempted to kill attorney slash hero, Terro Takamoto. Again, by putting VX gas on the door handle of his car. They will retaliate retaliating against him this time for starting that Canary group to help victims that attack also failed. They attempted to kill them again shortly afterwards by mixing a botch

a line them into his drink that toxin, but this fails because they didn't have the right string. They will again try and fail later attempting to kill talkomoto by squirting hair oil with VX gas and he'll be frequently used. I surprise it and eventually just say, ah, just fuck it. Just get a computer. I'm attempting to kill Taco Moto by squirting hair oil with VX gas and you're a keyhole he frequently used. I'm surprised I didn't eventually just say, ah, just fuck you, just get a gun. But you know what, bullets would have probably bounced off the chest with that Superman motherfucker. I love Taco so much. Taco Moto bad ass dude, things get crazier in October of 1994 during one three month period

beginning in October of 1994 resident cult physician, Dr. Hayashi, administers more than 600 electric shocks to 130 followers. He shocked them so frequently and powerfully that afterwards some of them forgot which cult they were in. What the guru was called, even their own names. Why is he doing this? Because Asahara wanted to create an army of zombies through mind control experimentation. That's going on in the background. Scientists are fascinated by electronics and the brain, and following us to horror's instructions,

they're trying to achieve mind control. He wants to create a realm of zombies that will always follow his every command. Glad zombies finally showed up in this episode. I felt like this suck was light on zombies. On November 28th and November 2nd, 1994, I'm attempts to murder Noburu Mizuni outside his home in Nagano of war Tokyo, right?

They tried to kill him twice. Members attempt to spray him with VX. Um, Mizuno had been assisting dissident members of the cult by offering them shelter, shelter helping them with the lawsuit to get their money back. Luckily, these, uh, these attacks fail. December 12, 1994, um, members attack, uh, Tadahito Hamaguchi. A member jogged up next to this fellow, stabbed him in the neck with a syringe full of VX. He was allegedly spying on the cult. Uh, he immediately become sick and is pronounced dead four days later. Towards the end of the year, Asahara moves his prediction for

World War III up again now to November 1995. Finally, the Japanese government is very concerned. He's trying to speed things up and help his prediction along by instigating the war. They're worried he's planning an attack. US President Clinton, 17 other world leaders are scheduled to gather in Osaka for the annual Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting from November 16th to the 19th, 1995, and Japan hires extra security to protect these leaders. No attack happens. So back it up here. January of 1995, it skipped a little bit. The Colts monthly paper prints articles with both anti-American and anti-Japanese sentiments. Ossahara now predicts Clinton's assassination, calls Japanese government officials black-hearted aristocrats who sold their souls to the devil.

There are other lists of officials who may have been assassination targets. Amgos public also with anti-Semitic beliefs in early 1995. They issued a 95 page publication rambling about Jewish people being a hidden enemy. Publication is titled Manual of Fear and it declares war on the Jewish people. Why not? Why not if I can throw them into the mix on behalf of the earth's 5.5 billion people. Vajahanya Saka, the name of the paper, hereby formally declares war on the world shadow government that murders untold numbers of people. while hiding behind sonarous phrases and high-sounding principles plans to brainwash and control the rest, Japanese awake. The enemy's plot has long since torn our lives to shreds.

My God, they just keep getting crazier! Something darkly funny to me about a Japanese cult worried about Jewish people. Poking around a bit, it seems like there are a total of three small synagogues in all of Japan. A total permanent Jewish population of anywhere from 300 to 1400 people in a nation of around 126 million people. Pretty easy target to attack. I highly doubt Asahara had literally ever met

a single Jewish person even one time in his entire life. I know. Probably has more Jewish people than Japan. They're supposedly over 2000 people here. We're Jewish. Osahara randomly blamed Jewish people for mass murders in Cambodia and Bosnia and the warfare in Rwanda because why not blame them for everything. He claimed Jewish people were planning on other massacres, planning on reducing the world's population to three billion by the year 2000. This one, the guy who wants to get rid of 90% of the world basically immediately, he also spoke about Jewish Japanese who were not actually Jewish, but they were Jewish-ish.

They were cosmopolitan, whatever the fuck that means, businessmen and politicians. He felt these people valued the opposite of Alms teachings. It's probably right about that, you know, they weren't crazy. January 4th, 1995, Alm members attempt to kill. He wrote Yuki Naganova, head of Alms, the Alms victims group by spraying Himmeth VX gas outside of his home in Tokyo. Talked about Himmeth a little bit earlier. He wrote Yuki suffers from cardio, respiratory arrests, and was in critical condition for

10 days. He lived, but to this day, the right side of his body is paralyzed and he has to go to the hospital every month for treatment. February of 1995. All members attempt to murder, uh, re-o-o-o-o-o-kawa, leader of the Institute of Research and Dehuman Happiness. Another rival religious organization. He's always going after these rivals.

Uh, you know, they put VX into the dude's air conditioning system. Uh, uh, o-o-o-o. Okawa is hurt but survives the attack. More cult on cold wars. These fuckers were brazen, running the cold like it was a South American or Mexican drug cartel going directly after anyone who opposes them, just straight up trying to murder him. The Institute for Research at Indyhuman Happiness,

now known as Happy Society, still alive in Japan and classified as a cult. They claim around 11 million members, more likely around 30,000. They're doing some Scientology inflation there. They believe their leaders are reincarnated. God recently got in trouble for selling spiritual vaccines that they said prevented COVID. Nope, just snake whale.

One of their most outspoken critics is the son of their leader who was like, my dad is not a god, he is a dickhead. Back to Om's timeline. March 2, 1995, one on member illegally purchased his gas mass, military equipment from a US-based military surplus company. These materials will be most likely used in the upcoming March 20 attack. March 5th, 1995, pastures on a subway

in Yokohama, a complaint of headaches, sore throats from foul smelling fumes. No one dies, but 11 people send to the hospital. Alms suspected of organizing the attack. It's maybe a trial run for the big attack coming up around the corner. March 15, 1995, three All members placed three briefcases near ticket barriers and a Tokyo subway station. They planned to release a bunch of line-up to toxin, but one member replaced the toxin with water so the attack failed.

This wasn't discovered until after leaders were arrested, had Asahara known at the time, I'm sure that one member would have been killed. March 20th, 1995, the day of their most infamous attack. This will be the worst terrorist attack in Japan's modern history. A subway attack happened at 8 a.m. during the morning rush hour. In Tokyo, millions of commuters travel on the subway each and every day. The Tokyo Metro area has over 37 million people living there today.

Back in 1995, over 33 million, the most popular city in the world, known for having one of the busiest subway systems in the world, making it a perfect target for terrorist attacks. The morning of March 20, 1995, five bags filled with liquid siren, put on different trains, five attacks on three train lines. All the trains headed to a sookie station in central Tokyo at the same time, five all members dropped their bags of saren after puncturing them with sharpened umbrella tips, right? These synchronized or watches are some shit. Same time they dropped their bags, puncture them with sharpened umbrella tips.

Again, James Bond villains and then flee the train station. A getaway car awaiting for each man. The first alarms go off just two minutes later, 802 AM subway officials stop all the lines. Unfortunately, trapping people inside while trying to figure out what the hell is going on, trapping people inside with the gas, making the effects of star and worse for them. Some commuters, you know, they do open them a little while after that. A few seconds later, you know, whatever, I don't have the exact timeline and when they opened them, but it was within a minute or two, some comeders run out and they bring deadly gas

with them now on their clothes and spread it to others, paramedics who initially tried to help many of the injured, also injured by Saren. As soon as the bag started leaking nearby passengers started feeling fumes, singing in their eyes after a few seconds subway pastures started choking in vomiting, just a few seconds. Some are blinded, others are paralyzed. I read about one poor woman somehow her fucking contacts were melted into her eyeballs. The fumes coming from the bags vaporized as soon as they hit the air of the trains continued towards the heart of Tokyo, all full of sick passengers leaving stations.

Gas soon leaks out of the train spreads from people's clothes and shoes. As I said, most of the severely injured or victims who died that day were those who came into contact with the gas, trying to help others who were hurt. Two brave subway employees died when they tried to dispose of two of the bags. About 6,000 people were directly exposed to the gas because they couldn't get out of the subway fast enough that morning or encounter someone coming out of the subway. Luckily, the siren that on made not actually pure siren, thousands, probably tens of thousands would have died if it was one

witness account of this attack comes from Toshiyaki Toyota, a deputy station master working that day at eight 12. He's told there was a suspicious object on a train that had arrived at the station. He got reports that people were seeing dropping off packages on several trains, you know, 10 or so minutes earlier. One man reported seeing a leaking bag and gas started singing his eyes. Toyota and other subway drivers were trying to figure out what exactly was going on while trying to remain calm and professional. Toyota saw a trail of spots that looked like oil on the ground.

He and his coworker's attempted to clean these spots with newspapers. They took a bag of used newspapers to his office shortly after that. He sees one of his coworkers collapse. The whole coworker rushed to the hospital while Toyota stays behind, then he begins to feel the effects of the gas. He starts shivering while he tries to write a report of the incident. Then he soon is unable to write because he's shaking so violently. He takes his clothes off, washes his face, and then collapses, wakes up later in the hospital. When asked about the two coworkers that helped clean up the siren with him, the nurse told

him they were dead. Toyota knows his decision to take off his clothes and wash his face saved his life. The first confirmation that the gas was siren given by a doctor who made a public service announcement later that day. Hiroshi Morita, a resident of Monty Moto, worked the front lines of that June 1994 attack on those three judges. So he knew about siren gas. When you heard what was happening, he called facts, hospitals in Tokyo, you know, just as soon as he saw it on the news, gave first responders instructions for how to treat star

and victims and his actions, likely saved hundreds of lives that day. The March 20 attack killed 13 people left at least 5,500 injured, 17 taken to ICU, 37 classified as severely injured with muscular twitching, GI problems, et cetera, 984 slightly injured. Many others experience effects later on after the attack. There were over 1,000 total injuries reported, 4,460 people went to the hospital, yeah, 668 via ambulance,

4,000 went by foot or taxi. Almost three decades later, victims continue to suffer from the effects of the attack with impaired speech, blurred vision, PTSD. You know, some people blind from this attack, some people still so sick, they're on permanent bedrests all these years later. The police finally made the connection between this incident and earlier on attacks. And now a national search for all members is underway.

March 22nd, 1995, Tokyo police raid on compounds. They raid the on offices in Tokyo in the lab headquarters in Kamakushi Shiki Village. Kamikui Shiki Village. They see these canisters of toxic chemicals used to make siren. There were nationwide raids thousands of checkpoints to try and catch Asahara. On begins planning retaliation attacks now while their leadership is in hiding. A few days after the attack, Asahara sends out a video message denying involvement in the incident. Also because he's fucking insane, he talks about his cults rolling on her again. He said on this video, we act on the basis of prophecies in 1997 and 1998.

Most of Japan's large cities suffered major damage in a war between the US and Japan. Then the Japanese economy will collapse. Japanese assets will be lost, reviving the nation after this collapse is one goal of our salvation activities. Listen, everyone, we had nothing to do with that horrible subway attack, but you should get used to shit like that. Because I'm against it, hand, wake up! I mean, really, you waste your time looking for us.

Why arrest us? By the time we go to trial, the US is going to be bomb in the fuck out of Japan. The economy is going to collapse. God's wrath is going to be upon us. Also, check out this cool song I wrote called, Sorry in the Magician. It came from Nazi Germany, a dangerous little chemical weapon. Sorry and sorry. If you nailed him, it's serious vapor.

You fall with blood coming from your mouth. Sorry and sorry and sorry. Chemical weapon. March 30th, 1995. I'm trying to assassinate the head of the National Police in another retaliation attack. They have straight up gone to war against Japanese government. April 23rd, Hideo Marai, Om Ministry of Science and Technology is arrested. in another retaliation attack. They have straight up gone to war against Japanese government.

April 23rd, Hideo Marai, Om, a Ministry of Science and Technology is arrested. He will never make it a trial because he'll be murdered by a citizen who blamed him correctly for a role in the subway attack. Fuck yeah, hell no, run. Vengeance. May 5th, 1995, two transparent vinyl bags

found in the men's room of the Shinjuku subway station. One bag contained sulfuric acid, the other sodium cyanide. Final bags found in the men's room of the Shinjuku subway station. One bag contained sulfuric acid, the other sodium cyanide together that would produce hydrogen cyanide, another attempted large scale attack. Four people injured by the chemicals with the attack fails. The bomb had enough gas if it worked properly to kill up to 20,000 people because of all these attacks. Japan now to this day still has very few public trash bins, trash bins.

Seriously, if you've been over there, you've been wandering around looking aimlessly for a garbage can to throw something away. Well, you can blame omission recoil for not being able to find it. On May 11, 1995, police officers surround another om compound to search for a Sahara. They find a hidden basement where other cold members are hiding. They arrest Masami to, ooh, don't know how to say it. I'm not even going to try. TSU CHI YA. The chemist who admitted to making the star in gas on May 15, 1995, several people in the Yokohama subway affected by fumes, 10 to 20 injuries, three people hospitalized, another retaliation

attack. May 16, 1995. Ossahara finally arrested. He was hiding a little secret room in the Mount Fuji compound. He was hidden basically inside the wall. It was already living like a prisoner before he was arrested. Japanese Jesus hiding the wall. I'll please look to arrest him for plotting multiple murders. Why didn't he time travel? If there was ever a good time to time travel, it's when the police are trying to find you. How did his followers not think of that? After Asahara and now nearly 200 cult members have been arrested, the rest of the cult dissipates, goes into hiding.

The government sees this cult property. Most of the Japanese members will remain in hiding for years. With no leadership, a lot of foreign members, they'll move on with their lives. Asahara, Mr. Armageddon himself, guru, candle, dime back. Now denies that arm is involved in the gas attacks. But several followers admitted on was responsible for the gas attacks implicating him in several major crimes uh... the tell police that i'm also committed several murders other you know

uh... numerous attacks uh... also harris first arrested he says he couldn't commit it in these attacks he's helpless he's he's behind and you refuse to admit that is he even told us followers to do it is not so committed to his hardcore armageddon believes anymore He's willing to throw anyone under the bus to try and get free. On the day, Asahara is arrested, the Tokyo governor is recipient of a mail bomb, not harmed, but his poor secretary loses three of her fingers when the bomb detonates after she opens

a package. They're still fucking attacking the government. Asahara's daughter, 16-year-old Rekha, now becomes a new leader, or the new leader after her dad's arrest, continues the terrorism. She's believed to be responsible for that male bomb and for organizing hydrogen cyanide bombs to be planted in Tokyo subways. Members justify their murderous actions by claiming that Saahara told them that they were being persecuted by the state and had to defend themselves. In June of 1995, the Japanese Public Television Network puts out a story claiming they have

parts of a confession from chief physician, Akui Hayishi, admitting the cold is planning to mail, was planning to mail packages of star into the US. Now, Hayishi was to travel to the US to receive the packages, deliver them. Please find out that the group wanted to attack New York in a similar way that they'd attacked Tokyo with another subway attack. July 4, 1995, two transparent bags, more bags, a timer, a reaction device found in the women's restroom of another Tokyo subway station. One bag, Containstle Fjord Acid, the other sodium cyanide, right?

They're trying to make hydrogen cyanide again. And this attempt also fails because the chemicals never properly mix. They're fucking relentless. Next day, July 5th, three men become ill from fumes in the restroom in Tokyo subway. I'm again suspected. Same day. Another Sinai producing device found in another bathroom of a Tokyo railway station. One person injured there. July 18, 1990, 1995, cult member, Masami. Don't know how to say TSU, CHI YA, confesses to helping produce hundreds of kilograms of mustard gas, star in several other chemical weapon compounds at the cults compound in

Kami kui shiki Asahara's sensational trial begins April 26, 1996 Most of the other trials will not begin until the early 2000s Asahara's trial will last eight long years in exhausting legal battle where the prosecution has a has to mount a mountain of evidence to present and the defense tries to fight Japan's seldom used death penalty. On September 30th 1999, four years after their leaders arrest, armed members and hiding threatened to now launch an attack on the Takahara Jima nuclear reprocessing plant. They send their threat to a magazine, but the attack never happens. January 18th 2000, the remnants of arm renamed themselves. They are reborn as a left and publicly announced that they are going back to their roots as a spiritual group

and they were announced all violence. The new group is led by former public relations minister Fumi Hiroh, who had been released from prison in December of 1999. He had only been charged with perjury. Some members of a left admitted that Asahara was the leader of the attacks and wanted to distance themselves from him now. They even set up a compensation program for victims. A left still around and currently thought to have around 1500 followers. Crazies that they want to keep it going. When the one man who built up literally all of their core ideology, their god on earth proved

himself to be a murderous fraud and lunatic, was they still like keep it going. They just made him sad to bring it all to an end crazy how to nationally some will cling to their fucking misguided beliefs. Doesn't matter if you cut the head off of some state snakes, the body will just continue to fucking slither around, crawl in the face of any and all logic and decency. A left gains new members, engages in commercial enterprises, buys property and now under heavy surveillance to Japan and

internationally. You bet your ass is. The government obviously, you know, doesn't trust a left. And they put them under a three year surveillance period that they will just keep extending and extending to this day. On March 29, 2000, the Japanese police reports that all members in the hiding have gathered information about nuclear facilities in Russia, Japan, the Ukraine, other countries. All had cyber attacked computer security systems in other countries Japan, the Ukraine, other countries, OM had cyber-attacked computer, security systems in other countries.

What the fuck? There are a few remaining members who knows how many are out there hiding, still trying to build a new, can bring about Armageddon. Japanese police managed to confiscate their information before they can act. July 2000, the Russian police arrest Russian OM members who plan to detonate bombs in Japan as part of a plan to free Asahara. February 27th, 2004 Asahara's trial finally ends. He's found guilty of orchestrating numerous attacks resulting

in numerous fatalities and ascents to death. Over the years, 189 on members will go to trial and almost all of them, all of them will be found guilty. On September 15th, 2006, Asahara's final appeal is rejected. His defense argued that he was mentally ill and asked for the case to be suspended during the hearing. Asahara mumbled incoherently and main unexplained gestures. I think he's faking it. His death sentence is upheld.

Japan's still very divided when it comes to the question of whether or not Asahara is legally insane. Many think he was faking. Like I do, other think he was faking it first, but then eventually did have a real mental breakdown. And if he did, who gives a shit, fuck him. I think if someone is this dangerous and sane or not, isn't the best for the world at large

just to put him down. What would be the point of saving this miserable piece of shit? Air on the side of caution. Don't let us follow his hold onto any hope that their precious leader will someday get out. Don't give him any incentive to keep trying to bust him out of prison or out of some asylum with more terrorist attacks.

In March of 2007, a left splits into two divisions, former armed leader, Fumihiro Joyu, leaves to create another NRM, Hikari Noah. He emphasizes a separation from armed, but keeps believing a lot of the same old bullshit and bites people to come, visit his new stupid cult, remaining the left members like Asahara's wife and a few of his kids, they continue to worship Asahara. 2008 Asahara cuts off all contact with everyone including his family.

He now refuses to eat unless he spoon fed, starts wearing adult diapers because he now refuses to use the bathroom or bathe himself. Super fun for staff. We'll have to sometimes clean this piece of shit who is now literally covered in shit and piss. He goes completely silent as well, refuses to talk and he will live like that for the next 10 years. Just a no talking, diaper wearing, fucking maniac. So gross, uh, well, you know, it would be so sad if I was able to

feel sorry for him. November 21st, 2011 after 16 years of other prosecutions and appeals, a total of 13 death sentences are now finalized. At this time, only three remaining former high ranking all members are still on the run. Then in the late 2011, Herata Makoto, one of three those men is arrested. The next year on June 15, 2012, Katzuyu Takashe, Takahashi is arrested, tried after being on the run for 17 years. He was the most one of the three because he was Ashahara's bodyguard. One of the getaway drivers on March 20th received life sentence for his crimes. Also in June, the last member, Kikuchi Nakoha is arrested.

Their trials could finally finish up and bring peace to victims and their families. In August 2012, Japan Airlines flight to the US had to turn back after receiving a bomb threat from a left members. I thought they were nonviolent. Demanding also, our is release March 2016. Authorities in Montenegro, expel 58 foreigners for suspected association with arm. Crazy. Just five years ago, they were all gathered at a hotel they'd rented forward Japanese, but the other 43 were from Eastern European nations. April of 2016, Russian authorities rate 25 armed properties make arrests there July 6,

2018, seven of arms top leaders are executed, including shitty diaper wearing, Shoko Asahara. Oh fucking good room numb nuts. 63 when he dies, the executions take place at a Tokyo detention house early that morning, all the prisoners hanged their bodies quickly cremated later the same day. The executions postponed for so long because the court wanted to wait for all convicted all members to finish their appeals. Those appeals finally ended in January of 2018. Six members ended up sentenced to life in prison, 13 cents to execution.

Japan is executed roughly eight people per year since an execution moratorium ended in 2010. This is a heavy year for them. Officials do not give advanced notice of execution, so prisoners only learn a few hours before they're about to die. That's crazy. Man, not knowing when you're going to be executed, what a mentally torturous way to live on death row.

Uh, Japan hangs all their death row inmates and doesn't notify the public that they've been hanged until afterwards. Also, Harra's daughter, uh, Reika had campaigned for her father's retrial for years. She never got a fair trial because he was mentally ill. She tried to visit him in prison right up until shortly before he died, but he never spoke to her, refused to see her. Man, I feel sorry for her. Raised by a father who brought her nothing but insanity and misery.

The six remaining omshinrico members sentenced to die are executed and cremated on July 26, 2018. April 10, 2019 Tokyo District Court orders a left to pay one just over one billion yen to victims of the 1995 attack. A victim's group filed for damages after left failed to pay in 2009 after years of stalling a decade of stalling the court order the full amount to be paid immediately. Not sure if that happened, not sure if they got their money or not. And that will complete conclude our wild timeline today. Good job, soldier. You've made it back.

Barely. What a tale, right? Back, barely. What a tale, right? I hope my mishmoth pronunciations, mispronunciations, we're not distractions. That story, it's such a wild story. I have a few more thoughts on it, but first one, one more quick sponsor break. The Circle of Divine Wizard School for the Mostly, or at least kind of blind and judo institute.

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The sign of your child is a circle of divine wizards, school for the most of your least kind of blind and judo institute today. Very interesting sponsor. Asohara studying judo and beating kids at the school for the blind is really gonna stick with me for a while. And that was like the least crazy part of today's episode. And the world has no shortage of wild ass stories. Such a different type of cult.

These assholes not content. Did this hang out on the compound? Wait for the end times. Their leader, Shoko Asahara, not comfortable, which is fucking a bunch of followers, being super duper rich, being worshiped by tens of thousands of people as a god on earth. She was right hand man, Japanese Jesus.

Not enough for guru, oil lantern, CBD cream. Poor bully from the blind school, always wanted more and more and more right vaulting ambition like the protagonist of a Shakespearean tragedy without any likeable qualities no amount of power is ever enough no amount of vengeance ever enough the more targets who died the more he wanted to kill

dude literally wanted to burn down the world rule what remained in the ashes so shocking to me how many terrorist, terrorist acts they pulled off. How they made their own powerful chemical weapons. They remind me more of ISIS or al-Qaeda than they do most of the other cult we've covered. Asahara, you know, convinced his followers that the world was about to end. And a World War III and all members, only them could survive it and they needed to kick it off. He convinced them it would be better for everyone.

They just killed off the majority of the world. You know, I just pushed a bunch of folks along towards Nirvana. As followers kidnap injured murdered whoever he told them to eventually using chemical and biological warfare to kill anyone, you know, who might come into contact with it. On March 20th, 1995, on-planned to star in gas in Tokyo subway killing 13 people, injuring thousands,

the worst terrorist attack on Japan since the bombings of World War Two. Or excuse me, just the worst attack of any kind on Japan since the bombings of World War Two. And then in the months after March 1995, the group made several failed attempts to release hydrogen cyanide, other deadly chemicals and other train stations and retaliation attacks trying to get their leaders freed. Hundreds of members went to trial for their attacks. 13, including Asahara executed after the big

subway attack, the group goes underground. They're not arrested, you know, those not arrested eventually split into two branches. The left and Hikari Noah, both still around the U.S. other countries have labeled on a terrorist organization. Still members hiding around the world. A left in Hikari, Noah, legal in Japan, but labeled dangerous religions and under constant surveillance. Um, Shinrico remains one of the strangest stories in modern Japanese history. It shows how even educated successful people can fall victim to a cult's influence. So be careful. None of us are too smart to

not get swindled by these smooth talking motherfuckers who pray on us in our most desperate moments, right? When you're grieving, when you're down in your luck, your disillusioned, maybe you're depressed, you're going through a divorce, spiritual crisis, crisis, what am I supposed to do with my life? What kind of job am I supposed to get? When the world just doesn't make sense anymore, et cetera, et cetera.

That's when they get you. That's when you gotta keep your guard up. When you're doing a lot of searching, feeling unfulfilled, voluntary or to charity. Take up a new hobby. Spend more time with your kids, try and learn the guitar or new language. Set some fitness goals, try and write that book,

learn to fly fish, take up skatesuit, and you did something, anything, to provide you with self-esteem and give your life meaning, do anything other than go to meetings with some new spiritual group that claims to have answers, no one can have. All right, some groups that wants you to cut off ties with your friends and family. If you need a coat, just stay in this one. Go to the curious. We meet once a week at your convenience twice for inner circle members and I'm never gonna try and fuck you or claim to have all the answers in life. You know, you can hang out with

anybody you want to, even people who are toxic and annoying, like that one cousin you're unfortunate related to. If that's what you want, we're not gonna try and stop you. Take care of yourself, meet Zach and Joy as much of this weird ass rock of ours that you can before the sun finally sets. What's the alternative?

Being abused by weirdos? One of these cults we've talked about? Nah, fuck that. If God is real and I hope God is, I doubt God's a big fucking asshole. They would sign off on any of this wacky, doodle horses. I'm guessing he would pick better profits than Shoko Asahara. Time for today's top five takeaways.

Time Shuck, top five takeaways. Number one, Shoko Asahara was born to soil a Matsumoto in the small village of Yatsuhiro. He had infantile glacoma making him fully blind to one eye, partially blind to his other, and that disability did not hold back. Is his story weirdly inspiring in some way? Don't let your disability keep you from running a powerful doomsday cult. Number two, Amshin Rikio, the supreme truth, once known as the circle of divine wizards. God, that's the best cult name ever.

Number three at his peak, I'm had over a billion dollars in assets. Ossahara forces followers to sign over all their money and heritances, even property to him. Also made money through various businesses, selling his blood, dirty baths water, fucking LSD, some crazy salvation headsets, claim to synchronize a person's brainwaves to his,

used all this money to buy guns, manufacture guns, make chemical weapons, create elaborate facilities for poison gas and terrorist attacks. Why couldn't he just, you know, build some sweet compound, some big old giant sex dungeon and in fucked his followers, like a normal cold leader. Number four, after he lost those parliament elections in February 1990, Asahara shifted his cult theology to a more doomsday focused one. He encouraged his followers to launch chemical attacks on the citizens of Japan as a way to bring about their salvation.

Towards that end, he planned the March 20th, 1995 Tokyo subway attack Japan's largest domestic terrorist event. I was in declared a terrorist organization by several countries. Members had access to biological and chemical weapons and they were willing to kill if ordered two. chemical weapons and they were willing to kill if ordered to. Number five, new info. She's way Takahashi is the widow of Saren victim Kazumasa Takahashi, one of the subway employees who died trying to clean up the Saren. She fought for a victim's conversation to order to honor the memory of her husband, still tries to preserve the memory of all those who died.

She recently gave an interview and said legislation was eventually brought in and the victims were compensated. When that happened, I was relieved. And I immediately felt like telling my husband the good news and I started crying for all those years. I had been able to face. I had been unable to face my husband's death. Experts believe that if her husband had not made the efforts to remove the Saren hundreds more could have died that day because of his bravery. He was exposed to too much Saren for his body to survive. Another hero in today's story.

These two wasn't all villains and victims. Hale, Kazumasa, Takahashi. That's all for today's Top 5 takeaways. Time, suck, top 5 takeaways. The Omshin Rikio Cult has been sucked. Thank you to the Bad Magic Productions team for all their help and making times like every week. Queen of Bad Magic Lindsey Cummins, Reverend Dr. Jill Paisley, thanks to Sophie Evans

for initial research this week. Thanks to Biddle-Xer. Or actually, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, it was Olivia Lee. Olivia Lee. Gotta give credit what credit it's to. Thank you, Olivia. Thanks to Biddle-Xer for keeping the times like app running smooth and Logan,

the artwork lock Keith, our creative director, creating all the merch at BadMagicmerch.com and more. Thanks also to Liz, the Enchantress and Andes, running our Cult of the Curious Facebook private page currently Cult of the Curious 2. Along with their wonderful, wonderful, all-seeing eyes moderators, also helps Logan with our socials. Thanks to beef steak and his mod squad, keeping over 10,000 meat stacks happy over on Discord. Next week, it is a weird mix of true crime,

wild west and cannibalism. We said, the energy mix, we sucked the Kentucky cannibal, Levi Boone Hill, an American mountain man, Old West gun fighter and serial killer who gained his nickname for his opportunistic and unrepentant proclivity for a consumer human flesh. Usually in survival situations, although instances of killing people for their meat unprovoked were documented.

Born in Kentucky, he made his way west in the early 20s. After his wife divorced him and he murdered his cousin for refusing to go with him, sounds like a bit of a hothead. Boone committed crime after crime for the remainder of his life, robberies, murderers, horse devoury, cannibalism, all because well, he seemed to enjoy it. He wanted to. And sometimes because he was paid to by other outlaws, uh, Boone would eventually reach the Montana territory where he would join up with the gang of men who called themselves

the innocents. They were not. They were road agents who harassed, roved and murdered minors and merchants in the populist mining towns of Bannock and Virginia city. The innocents were led by the town sheriff Henry Plummer. Boone fit in well with his criminals. We're all just like him him excluding the cannibalism part Spend his final years terrorizing innocent people causing much chaos as possible

I know so little about him right now. I'll know so much more next week. We'll cover it all right now Let's head head over to this week's time sucker updates I'm funny sucker April Favinger. I currently have my 10 year old googling Rhonoq spiders. April writes, he's telling his little friends on discord all about them and they are freaking the fuck out. Alarious mother of the year. Thought you guys would enjoy this love you work. Yeah, I love the year Yeah, I tell your kid that Rhino recluse spiders are real fucking open people's eyelids crawling inside attacking the brains

Yeah, that's gonna get spread around by a kid who believes it Now we haven't done many shout out requests lately, so let's change that with this message from thontful sack Jamie Hoffman who writes Hi, Dan, I was hoping you might do a birthday shout out for my husband, time in for his 39th birthday, coming up on November 19th. Thanks to him, you have a few more suckers in this world for his birthday this year. We're turning his dream of becoming a spaceitter into a reality. After 17 years of my life, he's the only person I ever want to suck with. Thank you, Jamie Hoffman. Well, happy birthday, young time in.

Welcome to the space, lizards. Don't let the world tell you your old by the way Rage rage against the dying of light and your light. It's not even dying. You're like I think 39 is like the new 16 or something Another shout out now Let's hear sweet sucker terror wolves request Hi, Dan. I'm a huge fan of your time suck and scared of this podcast entirely due to my husband his name is Scott Laube And he found you a while back. He literally started with your first suck. Oh my God. And as listen to all your casts, he caught all the way up and has put you on our bucket list to see lives someday. Well, I cannot wait to disappoint him. No, Scott hasn't been having the best time lately. He served for 10 years and did

three tours. Wow. Two to Iraq, one to Afghanistan. He was an army scout in the 101st. Holy shit. Currently, he drives truck for a lumberyard. I can't even begin to express how much you have helped him get through his days. I know it's been a tough one. The last couple of years for everyone. So honestly, I don't even feel the right mention anyone having a hard time right now. You're too sweet, Tara. But the death of his best friend has been weighing heavily on him lately. They called his best friend Z. Scott lost him brutally when they were together in action. Holy shit. I was just hoping that you might do a call out for Scott. He's such a strong human being. I'm so proud of him. He a call out for Scott. He's such a strong human being. I'm so proud of him.

He works so hard for our little family and life and doesn't think very much of himself, even though I thank the universe every day for him. I know he struggles with the fact that he got to come home when so many of his friends didn't. I just wish I could show him how important he is. And how he deserves to be here too. Thank you, Terri Wolf.

Well, what a nice request, Terri. Scott, well, first off, you're fucking hero in my book. I'm sure you hear this a little time, but thank you so much for your service. I mean, three tours, what you saw, holy shit. I appreciate your sacrifice. I appreciate being able to be a jackass and having the freedom to do the dumb shit that I do,

like this ridiculous podcast, and understand that freedom is not free. You sound like a very strong dude. Good on you for doing what you need to do to take care of your family. Also, you know, you for doing what you need to do to take care of your family. Also, you know, talk to someone if you need to talk to someone. You've been through a lot, no weakness in that. You're dealing with something really fucking heavy. Just because you came home doesn't mean you're not dealing with a lot of shit. And I say that as somebody who obviously

never served. But, you know, just from the outside looking in, looks like a lot to me. So hail Nimrod to you and man, I hope I see you to show one day and I hope you laugh your fucking nuts off. One more shout out request now from Sweet Sucker Justin Tate. Right, dear Suck Master and Bad Magic family. I know Lightning really strikes twice in the same place, seeing how you just played my organ trail message on the secret suck. But I know if anyone can make this happen as you guys.

So apologies in advance for the long email. I'm writing this now in November 1st in hopes that you will read this on next Monday's episode. Done. You see November 8th is my one year anniversary with love of my life. We have crossed each other's paths throughout our entire lives, dated, had a childhood 18, split up, both married to the people, didn't work out, lost our daughter when she was 16 four years ago.

Oh, so sorry. Last year, when both of our lives were with her lowest Nimrods off fit, let when she was 16, four years ago. Oh, so sorry. Last year, when both of our lives were their lowest Nimrods off fit to let our past cross again, emerging to one, her love of things dark and twisted. All things dark and twisted have brought so much light into my life. I love how that works. I don't know where I be without her and sharing time, stuck and scared of death. And as we've done with her, have been a lot of fun this past year. So oh, exalted cold leader, if I could ask you to please give a happy anniversary shout out to my beautiful goss girl Wednesday, Guara. She is my Lucifer now and forever.

Also if you do read this on the show, please do the shout out as Albert Fish. It's her favorite episode and anytime we hear about anything about fish, she immediately says show bees. Again, thank you, Dan. Joe Lindsey Zach, everyone else makes my and so many others weeks suck a little less. Well, happy anniversary Wednesday. You say a little bit. I can't sound like Justin wants to lap up your peanut butter. Think you hot apple cider. Motivate those sweater torpedoes. Slap his fat bear bottom. Tell it, bleed those of Fina. Well, you know, it's the best

twin. The poop pits. This chest. That's how Justin comes. Hail, name, Rodrod happy anniversary fucking weirdos I love that you're back together sorry you've been through so much continued to console and love one another and enjoy the life you got it is Nimrod's will and that's all for today's updates Thanks time suckers I need a net we all did Thanks again for listening to this bad man,

bad man, Jesus Christ. My mouth is done. My mouth is like, now we're done. We had to pronounce so many Japanese words today, and we're gonna click. We're going on strike. Thanks again for listening to this bad magic production podcast, Meat Sex.

Maybe do not try to start World War Three this week. It seems like a lot of work. Probably easier just to sit back and keep on sucking. And magic productions. Hey, bud. Just stop. Stop this this start talking again all of our lives depend on you talking You smell like shit and piss Those hard words to pronounce

Are you hungry? Oh Get a spoon I'll get a spoon.