In this pursuit, he began to research both established faiths and unorthodox sects and cults. He encountered hundreds, but decided that an essentially Buddhist sect called Agonshu was most suited to his calling. In order to gain admission into the Agonshu, Chizuo enthusiastically began the 1,000-day training period of daily, lengthy meditation. However, it was a somewhat different and cynical Chizuo who completed this period of training, and he consequently turned away from Agonshu claiming that it had destroyed his peace of mind.
AUM ASSOCIATION OF MOUNTAIN WIZARDSV & SHOKO ASAHARA
After such disappointment, in spite of his extensive research into the many religions and sects of Japan, Chizuo decided that he would have to establish his own sect and subsequently founded the Aum Association of Mountain Wizards, officially Aum Incorporated. To finance this sect, Chizuo returned to making and selling his dubious herbal remedies.
A trickle of recruits initially registered for Aum yoga classes, but following a carefully placed advert in the Twilight Zone magazine which showed Chizuo levitating through meditation, members began to enrol in their hundreds. Soon Aum was receiving enough money to open schools nationwide, and Chizuo’s reputation as a caring and gentle spiritual leader was spreading.
Whilst on one of the spiritual retreats, which Chizuo found himself more and more at liberty to enjoy now that he could afford to leave the running of his schools in the capable hands of his deputies, he met a companion who informed him that Armageddon was imminent and that only a race pure in spirit could survive. As his friend spoke, Chizuo realized that this was the calling he had been waiting for. He was the chosen one, and he would lead this race to salvation. He returned back to his following, and declared that it was up to them to save the world. He also changed his name, to Shoko Asahara, as Chizuo Matsumoto was too plain a name for the saviour of their civilisation.
Shoko Asahara embraced this vocation with enormous energy and enthusiasm, travelling far and wide to spread his word and to meet other spiritual groups with whom he could ally. His followers were whole-heartedly supportive, and new recruits joined his school daily. An opportune photo with the Dalai Lama on a trip to India furthered his cause as he claimed that he had been selected by the Dalai Lama to reveal the true teachings of Buddha to the people of Japan. He was chosen in this mission, he said, as he had been given the mind of a Buddha.
Asahara came back and made personal appearances, wrote a book, and held classes in how to improve spiritual powers. Those who saw him came away convinced of the amazing results and talked wildly of how he had helped them to reveal their untapped potential. Realizing his own potential, Shoko Asahara soon declared that in fact he was closing down the Aum Association of Mountain Wizards, and opening instead the Aum Supreme Truth. What had begun as a simple yoga school which cultivated psychic ability was to become a global religion.
AUM SUPREME TRUTH
The most fundamental conviction of the Aum Supreme Truth, was its belief in the forthcoming Armageddon and the absolute certainty that only those who achieved spiritual enlightenment through the teachings of Shoko Asahara could survive the ever-nearing disaster. The payments flooded in from Japanese citizens who wanted to hear and learn from the teachings of Shoko Asahara and in so doing, safeguard their place when the day of reckoning came.
As Asahara’s power and influence spread even further, so his already-slipping grasp on reality began to fade into oblivion. He was no longer just taking money from those who came to hear him preach but, for extortionate sums, offering them the chance to partake in ceremonies such as drinking his blood, which had magical powers, and selling them vials of his used bath water, or clippings of his body hair.
The membership figures for Aum Supreme Truth in Japan had reached 1,500 by the end of 1987, and a new office was opening in America, entitled Aum USA. Joining fees, annual ‘course costs’, and all the additional donations offered by the faithful ensured that Shoko Asahara’s mission could keep on expanding. In 1988, in a location at the foot of Mount Fuji, the live-in headquarters of the Aum Supreme Truth was constructed. Here, for a fee of $2,000 per week, followers came to listen to Shoko Asahara, receive one meal a day, sleep on the floor, be encouraged to join Aum, and sever any contact with any non-members, be they friends or family. The ‘truly faithful’ even moved in permanently, offering up their savings, their estates, and all their material possessions to the greater good of Aum and Shoko Asahara.
REJECTION
The only disadvantage of Aum’s ever-increasing wealth was the taxation levied upon it, so Shoko Asahara tried to register Aum with official religious status which would mean that he would be awarded substantial tax relief. At first the application was rejected. The status was only granted to religious groups which were run according to certain guidelines and word had spread about Aum separating parents from their children and punishing rule-breaking with food and sleep deprivation. Under the Japanese Religious Corporation Law therefore, Aum was not worthy of the concessions. The rejection infuriated Shoko Asahara and he consequently set his followers the task of hounding government officials, making threatening phone calls and writing threatening letters. When Asahara involved lawyers, who claimed that the officials were in violation of the religious freedom laws, the application was finally accepted and the heavy taxes alleviated.
UNWANTED PRESS ATTENTION
Although a success for Aum, the debacle had drawn unwelcome attention from the press, and several newspapers began to write about the twisted religion of the Aum Supreme Truth. When the editor of one such newspaper, faced with a furious Shoko Asahara and a group of his followers, refused to withdraw his article, a hate campaign was launched against him, his family and his place of work. When the poor editor suffered a fatal stroke, Shoko Asahara was pleased and believed that heaven had had its vengeance for the defamatory articles.
More and more people began to object to the practices of the Aum Supreme Truth, yet the authorities felt helpless to intervene. So sensitive was the new-found religious freedom on which Japan now prided itself that they simply could not be seen to be suppressing any kind of religious group, even though accusations of cult activities had been made against the organisation.
It was not only the weak-willed and easily led individuals of society who found guidance in Aum. Brilliant scientists, physicists and engineers also succumbed to the enchantment of Aum and the charisma of its leader. This empowered Shoko Asahara, and made Aum Supreme Truth all the more dangerous.
It was not only the outside world who were becoming uneasy about the activities of this ever-expanding cult. Inside the compound, disillusion was creeping in and a few members who felt that they had not achieved the spiritual enlightenment which they had been promised, began to voice their concerns. These ‘dissenters’ were summoned to the master and told that their irrational apprehension was caused by mental instability, all the more reason to stay with Aum and become stronger. Those who did not return to the fold, and declared their wish to leave Aum completely, were never seen again.
When the families of these victims tried to contact their loved ones and were told time and time again that they were in ‘training’, they turned to the police. Yet, although the police were being forced by the ever-mounting complaints about the cult to investigate further, they were still not taking the appropriate action, and therefore the friends and families sought legal support.
TSUTSIMI SAKAMOTO
One man, a lawyer who specialized in human rights and who, having taken on a similar case with the Moonies, had previous experience with cults, took on the case of one family who were trying to get their daughter back. Word soon spread though and before long, Tsutsimi Sakamoto was representing 23 families who wanted Shoko Asahara to release their children.
The further Sakamoto delved into the activities of the Aum Supreme Truth, the more resistance he met, and the more lies he heard. A committed family man himself, this only made him more determined. He made a claim for the families’ rights to have proper access to their children, a request which met with the offer of letting one of his clients see their daughter. This was not good enough for Sakamoto and he fought for the same response for all of his clients. He went further, representing a former member of Aum, who had paid $7,000 to drink the magical, power-giving blood of Shoko Asahara, and having noticed no difference as a result wanted his money back. It could not be proved, he claimed, that the blood had magical properties, and he demanded to see the medical report which stated otherwise.
When the media heard of Sakamoto’s involvement and interviewed him, wherein he announced that Aum had imprisoned its members against their will and under false pretences, all negotiations between him and Aum ceased. Shoko Asahara tried to damage Sakamoto’s reputation, sending out flyers which made false allegations against him
