Jan 17
After graduating high school, I made an appointment with one professor who specialized in mind control by “cults” such as Aum or “Unification Church.” He is very kind to me and invited me to join one of his classes for graduate students.
It was before the assassination of Shinzo Abe, so I was just one of the rare examples of those who have experienced spiritual abuse by parents, and luckily Japanese Child Consultation Center (CPS-like organization) decided to take me from my parents. I learned many things from him and his students. The examples are how to investigate the impact of spiritual abuse or the existence of a research center that focuses on conspiracy theories.
It was the final period in Japan, so he and his students seemed very busy, but they warmly accepted me. One of his students is working on investigating the longer effect of spiritual abuse by surveying former followers of “Unification Church,” Jehovah’s Witnesses, Happy Sciences, and some other new religions in Japan. I briefly reviewed the draft of the questionnaire and gave some advice on the use of languages.
After that, the professor talked about the current situation. He worried about the decrease of public interest in the “Unification Church” and spiritual abuse since the Japanese government currently seems they want to stop discussing this problem more because they made a “rescue bill,” which he thinks is not enough. But he worked for the guideline for Spiritual and close sorts of Child Abuse by MHLW, and we both feel it is enough to help children and youths who are suffering.
However, since he is a Social Psychologist, he knows few psychologists can deal with this complex problem. Because of that, he now aims to seek a way to increase the number of psychologists who have basic knowledge about religion and spiritual abuse through their education while trying to increase the number of students who want to be a psychologist.
Finally, he said it is very precious that I, who have experienced spiritual abuse and its after-effects while interested in spiritual abuse and advocating individual rights, am studying outside of Japan because this studying opportunity will give me a new perspective that cannot be gained from Japan. I don’t know how or if I have contributed to this problem so far, but I can definitely work on that in the future.