I've noticed this happening frequently at the events I'm exhibiting at, and I've heard rumors about it, so I'm taking note. It might be necessary to reconsider where I exhibit.

- Some booths have a theme like "Friends with Aliens" at spiritual events, and they lure people into expensive seminars. It's a simplified counseling session that's a "bait and switch" – it's free if you register for their LINE account, but they don't mention that upfront. Then, they use LINE to lead people to a 1,000 yen webinar, followed by a 10,000 yen 1-hour session, and then seminars on "the laws of the universe" or similar self-help topics that cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of yen. They also offer "gifts" of vibrational machines that cost tens of thousands of yen individually, which is a strange pricing strategy. The person running the seminar seems to imply that anyone who doesn't buy it is foolish, but then they say something like, "If this marketing works, I won't have to worry about money anymore," which feels like a threat. While they might not have money problems if they can extract money from naive spiritual beginners with expensive seminars, I wonder how aware they are that they're accumulating bad karma by doing so. That karma will likely come back to them someday.

It seems they don't genuinely believe in aliens, but they're using alien mascots as a marketing tactic to attract naive spiritual beginners and get them to attend expensive seminars.

Despite having pictures of alien mascots, they explain that "aliens are subatomic particles," which contradicts the idea of them having a physical form. They might say something like, "We're just showing a simplified version," but it's clear that their primary focus is on using the most effective marketing techniques. While I can understand their reasoning, there are inconsistencies in their words and actions, which suggests they might be a cult or a fake spiritual group. Furthermore, if aliens were real, there would be no need to advertise them. The fact that they say "in a way that's easy to understand" is very human-like. It's more likely that they're possessed by lower spirits than actual aliens. People who aren't knowledgeable about these things are easily deceived by lower spirits.

When I asked someone who claimed to be connected to "aliens" what the purpose of aliens helping Earth was, the staff member said, "I've never thought about that," which seems incredibly naive. They're teaching about "the laws of the universe," but they don't even seem to understand basic concepts of the universe. After pretending to channel a question, they responded that "there is no such thing. Aliens don't have emotions, so there's no reason for them to help." I then asked if there was a "karmic" reason, but they seemed to not understand the concept of karma, and the conversation didn't go anywhere. The staff member became irritated and repeatedly said, "I said they don't have emotions. Motivation is an emotion," which shows they're not familiar with karma. They seem to be stuck in a marketing mindset where they interpret everything based on emotions, which might be effective for marketing but is shallow from a spiritual perspective. This staff member is talking about aliens and the laws of the universe, but they don't even know about the law of karma, which is a huge oversight. And yet, they're trying to get customers to attend expensive seminars. They never try to verify the answers, so it's impossible to have a productive conversation. When I insisted, "Just ask the aliens," they became slightly irritated, paused for a moment, and then said, "They said they can't answer that." That's a different answer than before. It's suspicious when they can't answer a question, which is something lower spirits might do. The "channeling" with aliens that has inconsistent answers is not trustworthy. They start by saying things like "there's no reason to help," but then later say "it can't be said," which suggests they're hiding something. They describe aliens as highly advanced beings with no emotions and existing as subatomic particles, but then they act like humans who hide things. The inconsistencies in their story are suspicious. It's more likely that they're foxes or lower spirits pretending to be aliens.

There is also a way to understand this logically, but if you look at the energy of the people who are doing it, it is immediately clear. People with low energy should not attend such expensive seminars.

In fact, even the people who are doing marketing like that may be ignorant people who are being manipulated themselves. I saw a booth selling energy machines at a certain spiritual exhibition about 5 or 10 years ago, and it seems that they are leading people to seminars that have developed from that. It may actually be just a salesperson. When you think about it that way, it makes sense that there are so many points to criticize in the story.

Recently, there are many people who are doing spiritual-like businesses that specialize in marketing. They don't seem to have studied spirituality very much, and if you ask them a few questions, they will quickly reveal their ignorance. However, spiritual beginners may be driven by a sense of compulsion to attend expensive seminars and be deceived. It's sad.

■Other examples:

・It was said that a spirit was possessing someone and that they would commit suicide if the spirit was not exorcised, and that suicide was absolutely unavoidable. Exorcism requires a high price. This is a common form of spiritual fraud. And there is a rumor that this is actually related to someone close to the event organizer. What the heck.

■Examples mentioned before:

・They recommend healing as if it were a half-threat, and then they say that you must undergo an initiation or something in order to achieve spiritual growth, and they make you attend a series of expensive seminars. This is another group that is quietly expanding its influence.

■Summary:

I have heard rumors about fake spiritual groups that use modern marketing techniques to promote expensive seminars, and I have had the opportunity to learn about it firsthand. If that is the case, the strange booth that I registered with on LINE a while ago may be similar. It's a scary time.

I am also surprised that traditional spiritual fraud is still being carried out.

People like that exist, which is why true spirituality is misunderstood. If they claim that they do not need money, they should not need money themselves, so they should only take a small amount of money and do it properly with just commissions. However, "spirituality that does not need money" usually involves the organizers collecting large sums of money from the participants, so the organizers are not short of money. It is a common pattern for suspicious seminars to collect money through expensive seminars, and then claim that they are spiritual. They do this because it is profitable to put the label of spirituality on it.

In times like these, perhaps it would be better not to use the word "spiritual."