Aum Shinrikyo
From Conservapedia
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Aum Shinrikyo (オウム真理教), also spelled Om Shin Rikyo was a doomsday religious cult, based in Japan from its founding in 1984, until shortly after the sarin gas attack carried out by several followers on the Tokyo subway on 20 March 1995. [1]. Despite the subsequent arrest and conviction of the spiritual leader, Asahara Shoko, and several senior cult members, it remains active to this day, having changed its name to Aleph and is led by Asahara's daughter, Matsumoto Rika.
The name was derived from the Hindu word Aum, representing the universe, followed by the three kanji characters shin (meaning "truth," "reality," "Buddhist sect"), ri (meaning "reason," "justice," "truth"), and ky (meaning "teaching," "faith," "doctrine"). The new name of the cult, Aleph, is taken from the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
Asahara Shoko was born in 1955 as Chizuo Matsumoto, the son of a tatami straw mat maker. Partially blind at birth, he attended a school for the blind, before working as an acupuncturist as an adult. In the early 1980's, he opened a traditional medicine shop, later establishing a yoga school. Then he traveled to the Himalayas to study Buddhism and Hinduism, which led to the formation of the Aum Shinri Kyo in 1984. In 1987, it was granted religious status by the Japanese government, becoming, for a time, Japan's fastest growing religion. At its peak, it numbered between 20 000 and 40 000 followers, worldwide. Present day membership of Aleph is estimated at around 1 500 members.
Many of them were drawn to the group on the premise they would develop supernatural powers; others were attracted by the group's rejection of the corruption and materialism which they saw throughout modern Japan. Asahara claimed at the time to have traveled to the year 2006, and discovered that his followers were the only survivors of World War 3.
The cult's teaching's were a mixture of ancient Buddhist scriptures called the Pali Canon, the biblical Book of Revelation, Tibetan Buddhist sutras, Hindu yogic sutras and Taoist scriptures, as well as the writings of Nostradamus. Members were kept compliant via a cocktail of prophesies concerning the end of the world at the turn of the millennium, which could only be survived with Asahara's guidance, a siege mentality, claiming that outside groups, including national governments, were intent on destroying their organization, and overt acts of violence against both renegade former members and critics alike.
External Links
Aum Shinrikyo at The Council on Foreign Relations
Japan Glossary - Aum Shinrikyo
Religious Tolerance's Entry on Aum Shinrikyo
