Resources

These articles and web sites provide academic discussions about Japanese New Religions, Sukyo Mahikari, and related topics. There are also books that we recommend, links to cult awareness sites, and a bunch of our favourite sceptical and humanist sites.

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About Mahikari

• Sukyo Mahikari: Not All Harmony and Light, Alyssa Pearl Fusek, Unseen Japan (Jul 2020)
• Academic articles about Mahikari in the Japanese Journal of Religious Studies
• Sukyo Mahikari: New Religion and Japanese Popular Culture, William Sanborn Pfeiffer
• Seeing Red blog (active)
• After Mahikari blog (inactive) – recent posts are in Japanese, and older posts are in English
• General Essay on South East Asian Religions
• Sukyo Mahikari, Jackie Fowler, 1999, World Religions and Spirituality Project
• An Open Letter to Kamikumite
• Tangled blog (inactive)
• 真光について (archived, can be translated)
• 真光関係者集合 (archived, can be translated)
• Reddit: Sukyo Mahikari in Takayama
• Reddit: Sukyo Mahikari
• Reddit: How do you feel about Sukyo Mahikari?
• Reddit: I was a devoted member of Mahikari from age 13 to 18. AMA.
• Reddit: My Japanese girlfriend is part of a new Buddhist sect religion known as Ma-Hikari

Scepticism, Faith Healing and Cults

• Quackwatch - Your Guide to Quackery, Health Fraud, and Intelligent Decisions
• Some thoughts about faith healing, Dr Stephen Barrett, 2009, Quackwatch
• NCCAM studies of 'Energy Medicine' are a waste of money, Dr Stephen Barrett, Quackwatch
• Reiki is Nonsense, Dr Stephen Barrett, 2015, Quackwatch (Reiki is a similar energy to Mahikari's 'True Light')
• Reiki: Fraudulent Misrepresentation, Jann Bellamy, 2014, Science-Based Medicine
• Reiki Nonsense, Dr. Gary Wenk, 2020, Psychology Today
• International Cultic Studies Association (ICSA)
• Cult Information and Family Support (Australia)
• Freedom of Mind, Dr Steve Hassan
• Take Back Your Life Recovery program Help for survivors, family members and therapists
• Cult Counselling (Melbourne, Australia)
• Miguel Perlado Psicología clínica. Psicoterapia. Exit counselling (Spain)
• 20 Questions to Evaluate the Validity of a Group or Leader, Janja Lalich, 1996
• IndoctriNation podcast
• Let's Talk About Sects podcast
• A Little Bit Culty podcast
• The Cult Vault podcast
• Trust Me podcast
• The James Randi Educational Foundation
• Skeptical Inquirer
• The Centre for Inquiry
• #igotout
• The Body International
• The Museum of Hoaxes
• The Skeptic's Dictionary

Suggested Reading

• Captive Hearts, Captive Minds: Freedom and Recovery from Cults and Other Abusive Relationships, Madeleine Tobias, et al, 1994
• Combatting Cult Mind Control, Steven Hassan, 1988–2018
• Cults in Our Midst: The continuing fight against their menace, Margaret Thaler Singer, 2003
• Dojo : Magic and Exorcism in Modern Japan, Winston Davis, 1980
• Freedom of Mind: Helping loved ones leave controlling people, thoughts and beliefs, Steven Hassan, 2012
• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Robert B. Cialdini, 1993
• Japanese New Religions in Global Perspective (New Religious Movements), Peter B. Clarke (Editor), 2000
• Recovery from Cults: Help for Victims of Psychological and Spiritual Abuse, Michael D. Langone, 1995
• Releasing The Bonds: Empowering People to Think for Themselves, Steven Hassan, 2000 (out of print)
• Spirits, Selves, and Subjectivity in a Japanese New Religion: The Cultural Psychology of Belief in Shukyo Mahikari, Brian J. McVeigh, 1997
• Take Back Your Life: Recovering from Cults and Abusive Relationships, Janja Lalich and Madeline Tobias, 2006
• Terror, Love and Brainwashing: Attaching in Cults and Totalitarian Systems, Alexandra Stein, 2016