Ryuho Okawa's Happy Science

In February at the 13th Annual Los Angeles Conscious Life Expo, among 175 exhibitors was an organization that I hadn't heard about before — "Happy Science Reigen Channeling."  (I later learned 'Reigen' means 'spiritual messages.')  When I approached the booth, a Happy Science representative enthusiastically began talking to me about the founder of the organization, Ryuho Okawa.  When the representative learned that I was a blogger, he provided me with some introductory materials.

In the Happy Science Organization Overview (July 2013 edition), there is a short biography:

Master Ryuho Okawa

Master Okawa was born on July 7, 1956 in Tokushima Prefecture, Japan. After graduating from the prestigious University of Tokyo, he joined a Tokyo-based international trading company.  While working at the company's New York headquarters, he studied finance at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

On March 23, 1981, he achieved Great Enlightenment and awakened to the hidden part of his consciousness, El Cantare, whose mission is to bring happiness to all humanity.

In 1986, Master Ryuho Okawa renounced a promising career as a businessman and devoted his life to spreading the Truth.  He established "Happy Science" ("Kofuku-no-Kagaku" in Japanese), which was registered as a religious organization in 1991.  Since then, he has guided countless people to happiness, publishing over 1,300 books, giving over 2,000 lectures, creating numerous seminars and producing 8 films based on his teachings.

Furthermore, in order to guide companies and the Japanese government through today's troubling times, Master Okawa has given innumerable guidance in politics, economics and foreign affairs.

In 2009 and 2010 respectively, he laid the foundation for ideal politics and education by establishing the Happiness Realization Party and the Happy Science Academy for manifesting happiness in a tangible way.  In 2013, Happy Science Academy Kansai was also found and Happy Science University is planning to open in 2015.

A notice in the pamphlet informs about Okawa: "In 2010 alone, he published 52 books.  It was recorded by Guinness World Records as 'the most books written in one year by an individual.'"

Perusing issue 245 of the Happy Science Monthly periodical, I noticed that the total of books published by Okawa is currently reported as having surpassed 1,600.  Articles in the pamphlet included "Setting the Foundation for the Development of Japan by 2020" subtitled "Lecture on The Laws of Perseverance (Part 4)" and excerpts from one of Okawa's books in an article entitled "Spiritual Interview with Ichiru Suzuki."  An explanation about the latter article was offered: "On August 21st, 2013, Ichiru reached his remarkable 4,000 hits of his professional baseball career.  Upon hearing the news, on August 27th, 2013, Master Ryuho Okawa summoned the guardian spirit of Ichiru to interview him on his thoughts and the secrets to his success and professionalism."

A paragraph about another book mentioned that the "guardian spirit" of Russia President Vladimir Putin is the channeling source for another book.  I also learned there is also a 'Happiness Realization [political] Party.'  The Overview instructed:

The Happiness Realization Party is a new Japanese political party that was founded in May 2009 by Master Ryuho Okawa, the President of the Happiness Realization Party.  By preserving democracy and the values of freedom and prosperity, it aims to realize the happiness of the people of Japan, as well as the world, and thus create a utopian world.

At the center of Okawa's teachings is 'El Cantare,' who is described in the Overview brochure: "El Cantare is the spiritual name of the God, which means 'the light of the Earth,' whom Happy Science believers follow and worship.  He is the united consciousness of Buddha and God."  It seems that in this instance 'Buddha' expresses the same meaning as the name 'Christ' while 'El Cantare' might also be understood as another way of expressing the traditional metaphor of 'Holy Ghost'/'Holy Spirit.'

I conducted an Internet search to see if there were any Western media news articles about Okawa.  I found no in-depth articles.

The IRH Press/Happy Science imprint paperback book (an English translation) provided to me is The Secret Behind The Rape of Nanking: A Spiritual Confession by Iris Chang (2014). The book is identified at the top of the front cover as being part of the "Spiritual Interview Series."

The book has a question and answer interview style.  I am not knowledgeable about much of the Eastern historical data presented in the book yet the sentiments expressed by "the spirit of Iris Chang" seem reasonable, including some confusion about the turbulent final months of her Earth life.  Iris is the controversial author of the bestselling book The Rape of Nanking (1997). 

 

An introductory portion of the book "Publisher's Note" explains: "Happy Science's spiritual messages are not only from the spirits of people who lived in the past, but are also from the guardian spirits of living people [A guardian spirit resides in the spirit world, and is a part of the consciousness of the living person, as well as a past life of that person . . .]"  In this part of the book some assumptions are made about 'messengers of God,' reminding me of the importance of keeping the records of transcendental communication (and other interaction) from being altered or confused with passages of interpretation.  The Publisher's Note affirms about Okawa:

The majority of his spiritual messages are publicly recorded in front of a live audience.  Videos of these spiritual messages are made public, and the spiritual messages are published in books, too.

 

Okawa is conducting and publishing countless spiritual messages at an amazing pace to prove the existence of the spirit world and to enable readers to learn valuable lessons.
 

Described in the book as a "Chinese-American journalist," Iris Chang was born in New Jersey and grew up in Illinois.  She is a graduate of the University of Illinois, became a journalist and in 2004 at age 36 was found dead in her car after being shot in the head.  During the 2014 channeling session, three interviewers participated: Soken Kobayashi, Jiro Ayaori and Yukihisa Oikawa.  The following excerpts are from the interview transcript published in the book.  The communication of Iris Chang followed her being summoned by Okawa, who remains conscious while channeling.

They palmed off false material on me and made me write what I wrote.  I realized that some things were not as they seemed to me.

I was seeking justice.  "This is your chance to stand out, to become famous.  We'll give you the money and funding.  Write the book," they told me.  "We'll advertise it to make sure you get publicity," they said.  They told me all these good things.

But later, when I was criticized about various things, a lot of different pictures started to emerge.

I found that no matter how much I investigated, the materials were inconclusive.

It became increasingly agonizing.

It really struck me that I'd been misled when I realized that I had relied too heavily on the material provided by anti-Japanese groups of China and had written too much from their point of view, yet I'd sold 500,000 copies of my book and couldn't retract it.  After that it started to hurt my conscience to continue writing as a writer or journalist.

I had received a number of work requests and was interacting with a variety of people.  And in the middle of all that, I sometimes revealed my doubts about the content.

The doctor said that I had some type of psychological abnormality, so I had to take some medicine.  I think I was being given too much medication.  After that, I believe that maybe they did me in and made it look as if I had spontaneously committed suicide . . .

I feel that maybe I was made sick and made to look as if I had committed suicide.  This is probably because if I were still alive and were to hold a press conference denying the authenticity of the book, it would cause problems.

AYAORI: It has been 10 years now since your death . . .

IRIS CHANG: It's been that long?

AYAORI: Yes.

IRIS CHANG: Oh I see.

There actually is a hell.

AYAORI: So you have been gathering various information for the past ten years?

IRIS CHANG: Yes, and I feel like I'm also running around nightmarish war zones. Or I feel like I'm being hounded by someone in the United States. It seems like I'm running from place to place in the United States. Various things like those.

In the case of the United States, I often have nightmares in which it seems like I'm involved in something like mafia wars and being targeted with guns. When I go to China, there is something like a hell of war and I also gather information there, but it seems like things somehow don't make sense.

Also, after seeing the destruction of the World Trade Center in which 3,000 people died, I lost track of what is what, and I'm no longer sure about what justice is anymore.

I can't rest in peace unless this book is taken out of print.

Whatever the circumstances . . . you mustn't lie. Lies are wrong.

And furthermore, to the writers and journalists who are still using my words for their business, I want to say, "This is all fabricated. It is foolish to think that unreported facts about that time could be discovered in 1997" . . .

I'm very sorry . . .

There is a Happy Science website in English with information about Ryuko Okawa and his organizations.  Although numerous books have been published, it is reported that donations are the main source of funding.  A variety of articles about Okawa may be read at The Liberty Web, including about his own 'guardian spirit' and 'El Cantare.'  Here is an excerpt from the article "How to Understand the Importance of El Cantare's Love".

El Cantare has a cosmic characteristic.  El Cantare’s cosmic expression of love has been interwoven within the very fabric of the consciousness of the universe.  As I’ve explained in many of my books, humanoids and human-like beings live all throughout space and on other planets.

These beings are significantly different from humans in appearance, but they also receive teachings on "The Origin of Love," which directly flow from the Spring of Love.  El Cantare is the name of this "Spring of Love," which I liken to a tree-like structure in the universe.  El Cantare appears to me as a tree of universal life-force.  El Cantare exists at the heart of the birthplace of every human-like being.

Okawa being conscious while channeling differentiates him from trance-channelers, who are unconscious as another entity speaks through their bodies.  I conducted a You Tube search to see what videos of Okawa are available.

In addition to an 11-minute introductory video, I discovered there are available a few videos of Okawa speaking English.  A Happy Science Australia video entitled "The Law of Salvation Master Ryuho Okawa" shows that he is inexperienced speaking English.  A subtitled video about seven and a half minutes in length contributed to my introduction to Okawa's perspective (as he expressed at the time) — the following are the subtitles of the first portion of the discourse seen in "Can you handle the Truth?"

When I was speaking in Hawaii there were about 150 local members with an additional 50 people that those members brought along with to hear me.  The Hawaii branch was jam-packed, with people sitting along the sides, and even people sitting up beside the podium.  About half of the local members were crying, but the non-believers, those who call themselves Christians, received quite a shock.  What was it that shocked them?  It was when I declared that the one whom Jesus called 'Father' was me.  Now, for a Christian believer, this is like having someone split your head open with an axe.  I declared that I guided Him, that Jesus prayed every day to His Father, and that it was I who guided Him in what He would preach each day, telling Him that He need not worry about it . . .

Okawa said this with some humor, reminding how each person's spiritual reality is determined by one's own synthesis of understanding.  Eventually the wry rationale for Okawa's hypothetical perspective is stated:  "I am able to call out any god, or high spirit, or angel . . . they would come if called, and would have to speak to me.  I can call down the revelation.  What does that mean?  It means exactly that it reflects the position of El Cantare, as is taught in our teachings.  Because I'm master of them all . . ."

Reminding me of the 'Ra-Ta' conundrum in the Edgar Cayce channeled reading transcripts, the expression "brother souls" and the circumstances concerning Okawa learning about "past incarnations" are aspects of Okawa's case about which I would like to learn more.  A portion of the opening message of the aforementioned video—a quotation of Okawa—provides a means of comprehending the basis of his perspective of himself: "I am just a storyteller or liar or a savior . . . I must be, I want to be, I desire to be the third one.  Because, I love everybody . . ."  Perhaps Okawa was referring to Gautama Siddhartha and Jesus on this occasion yet there have been many people through the ages who have been subjects for scriptures that have inspired religions.  Other channelers have allowed their bodies to be used for transcendental communication explaining the Christian prophecy of the Second Coming — (through Edgar Cayce) as "that influence in the earth known as the Christ Consciousness, the coming of that force or power into the earth that has been spoken of through the ages"; (through JZ Knight) "The Coming of Christ is the awakening of that principle of that divinity in all people."

A video with the odd title "The Mayan Calendar Prophecy for 2012 and Its Connection with President Obama" presents Okawa commenting about apocalyptic fears and stating in English: "I now came down to here to stop [the] worrying of the world, to stop the destroying of the world, to stop the bad prediction of the world . . ."

There is a short clip of Okawa in a video entitled "Master Ryuko Okawa" in Malaysia".  Okawa is seen speaking in English:

The time has come.  You need new religion which combine all the religion, all the differences, all the — and overcome all the discommunications of the world.  We are One.  Asia is One.  The world is One.  We are living in the Age of Mercy.  Mercy's a different name of God.  Mercy means God stand by you everyday.

Among Happy Science data (FAQ Ryuho Okawa) is the identification of Okawa's soul as "the core part of El Cantare's consciousness" with details about Okawa's past lives.

 

The past incarnations of Ryuho Okawa's brother souls over the last 20,000 years are: La Mu on the Mu continent, Thoth in Atlantis, Rient Arl Croud in the ancient kingdom of the Incas, Ophealis and Hermes in Greece, Gautama Siddhartha (Shakyamuni Buddha) in India.  The core consciousness of El Cantare has descended only three times in the 300 million years of the history of humanity, the third being in the present day as Master Ryuho Okawa.  The two previous descents were under the name Alpha and then later Elohim.

 

It seems evident that when one studies the annals of unexplained phenomena, there are no two personal spiritual or religious orientations of people that are precisely the same as each individual's perspective derives from one's own experiences, family traditions and perceptions encompassing interpretations and beliefs.  My evaluation of the 'El Cantare' cryptogram is that the relationship of Ryuho Okawa to the spiritual Force is analogous for each human soul as an individual 'consciousness unit'/iota of 'God.'

Beyond the 'Spiritual Interview Series,' many books by Okawa offer philosophical topics with a prominent trilogy mentioned at the Happy Science website: The Laws of the Sun (1990), The Laws of Eternity (1998) and The Golden Laws (2000).

The first book of the trilogy concludes with some autobiographical details of Okawa's life.  Here are some excerpts from this part.

After having studied nothing but law, I encountered the "Right Law of God's Truth" instead of the six codes of law.  Then, in January of 1981 I began reading a volume called God's Truth out of Shinji Takahashi's trilogy, The Discovery of Mind.  When I reached somewhere around page 57, I realized that my heart was beating very quickly and my body began to sway back and forth.

 

Something was bound to happen.  I kept reading the books one after another by the same author and found myself always saying, "I already know this Truth.  I have learned it before."

 

On the twenty-third of March of the same year, a Sunday, I was suddenly struck by the feeling that somebody was trying to speak to me.  I hurried to get a card and a pencil.  My hand which held the pencil started to move as if it had its own life and wrote, "Good news, good news" on one card after another.  When I asked who it was, it signed "Nikko"; It was the Buddhist monk Saint Nikko.

 

After a while, St. Nichiren started to send messages.

 

 

Finally, a decisive moment arrived.  It was an evening in June of 1981.  A voice as solemn as I had never heard before suddenly echoed in my heart.  A person named Shinji Takahashi started to send messages to me.  He had passed away five years before.  I had never met him personally while he was alive, nor had I been aware of his existence.

 

Takahashi: "Ryuho Okawa, I come here to tell you of your vocation.  You must teach the laws of salvation to save humankind."

 

Okawa: "My Master, I'm only an ordinary business man at a trading house.  I am even a freshman at that.  What do you think I can do?  Or, do you mean that I should cooperate with the GLA (God Light Association), the body which your daughter has succeeded from you?"

 

Takahashi: "GLA does not need you.  You have to clear your own way.  You have to go your own way."

 

At that time, the spirit, named Shinki Takahashi, told me what my vocation was and who I was.

 

The person most surprised by this story came rushing from my home town.  It was Saburo Yoshikawa, the current Advisor to The Institute for Research in Human Happiness [the organization that has evolved into Happy Science].  Then, in the same month, June, 1981, Jesus Christ spoke to Saburo Yoshikawa through myself.  It was a very shocking event.

 

Since then, Yoshikawa and I have been researching God's Truth, sometimes being surprised at or wondering about innumerable spiritual phenomena unfolding one after another in front of us.  In the meantime, St. Nichiren informed us that Mr. Yoshikawa was St. Nichero in his past life, one of Nicheren's six senior disciples.

 

 

In August, 1985, we presented our  first publication of communications with the spiritual world, Spiritual Messages of St. Nichiren, for public judgment.  We were elated that the reaction was much greater and the criticisms much fewer than we had expected.  As more of our books were published; Spiritual Messages of Kukai, in October; Spiritual Messages of Jesus Christ, in December; Spiritual Messages of Amaterasu-O-Mikami, in February, 1986, the response from readers grew bigger and bigger.

 

While publishing these spiritual messages, I continued to work for the trading house.  I was in charge of international finance in one of the international general trading houses in Tokyo.

 

 

Eventually, in June, 1986, I was struck a hard blow.  Saint Nichiren, Jesus Christ, Ame-no-Minakanushi-no-Mikoto (the Lord God of the Heavenly Center, principal god in Japanese Shintoism), Amaterasu-O-Mikami (the Sun Goddess in Shintoism), Moses and Shinji Takahashi descended one after the other and sternly advised me to immediately leave the company.  After three sleepless nights, I finally tendered a letter of resignation to the company.  And on the fifteenth of July of that year, I formally resigned the trading house I had spent some years with, just after I had turned thirty on the seventh of July.

 

In September, 1986, I established "The Institute for Research in Human Happiness" in Tokyo and have dedicated my whole life to spreading God's Truth.

 
Previous blog articles about channeling include: "Taking a Closer Look at 'Unexplained Phenomena'", "Paulina Peavy Interview on Long John Nebel Radio Show 1958", "Ramtha's 2014 Interview", "Case Profile: Edgar Cayce", "'The Dr. Fritz Phenomenon'", "An Introduction to Healer John of God", "Mark Probert and The Inner Circle", "Rosemary Brown and the Media", "The Coming of Seth" and "Chico Xavier: Medium of the Century by Guy Lyon Playfair".