Word: asahara
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...Mystics consumed with signs of the apocalypse have a tendency to bring their visions horrifically to life. Japanese need no reminder of Aum Shinrikyo, the cult that staged a deadly chemical gas attack on commuters in Tokyo's subway system seven years ago, allegedly masterminded by Aum's Shoko Asahara. Last week, one of Asahara's top henchmen, Tomomitsu Niimi, became the eighth Aum member to be sentenced to death in connection with the chemical attack...
...thoughtful woman, Ozaki (her cult name) joined Aum after the sarin attack, drawn in part by its promise of life after death in a reincarnated form. "I was afraid of dying," she says, "so I liked their creed." She knows in her heart, she says, that Asahara must have had something to do with the subway murders, "but there is a part of me that still hopes he can save me. I still want to believe...
...Using a similar appeal, Aum Shinrikyo drew tens of thousands of followers during the 1990s, and even ran political candidates in national elections. Aum's godhead was its founder, Asahara, an intelligent misfit who claimed he could levitate and who appeared regularly on TV talk shows. Asahara, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, preached distorted versions of Buddhism and Hinduism steeped in apocalyptic theology...
...Asahara, now 47, has spent the past seven years in a Tokyo jail cell. In court one day recently, facing murder charges in connection with, among other crimes, the gas attack, he bobs his head up and down, looking tired and confused. His hair, once wild and frizzy, is now cut short, his Rasputin-like beard trimmed respectably. Every move he makes is closely watched by his remaining disciples?wide-eyed men and women who flock to the courtroom to bask in the aura of the man they still consider their spiritual father. "He never did what you expected...
...liked their creed." She left the group when Japan's new surveillance law required members to fill out forms that would be shared with the government. She couldn't tolerate the invasion of privacy. Ozaki's friends and family don't know about her Aum ties. She follows Asahara's trial, in which his lawyers have argued that the attack was plotted and executed by his underlings without his knowledge. She says she knows, in her heart, that he must have had something to do with the murders. "I can't really figure it out," she says, "but there...