WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.200 Welcome back to the deep dive today. Wow. Today 00:00:04.200 --> 00:00:07.000 we are staring into an absolute abyss. We really 00:00:07.000 --> 00:00:09.320 are. I've got this, uh, this stack of documents 00:00:09.320 --> 00:00:11.820 here, articles, timelines, court records, psychological 00:00:11.820 --> 00:00:15.009 profiles, and honestly. Looking through this, 00:00:15.130 --> 00:00:18.230 it feels less like history and more like the 00:00:18.230 --> 00:00:20.809 script of some dark dystopian thriller. But it's 00:00:20.809 --> 00:00:22.929 real. That's the terrifying part. It actually 00:00:22.929 --> 00:00:25.109 happened. It's so real. And it's a story that, 00:00:25.109 --> 00:00:26.629 you know, it challenges so many of our assumptions 00:00:26.629 --> 00:00:29.870 about intelligence, about belief, and just how 00:00:29.870 --> 00:00:32.250 quickly a group can slide from self -improvement 00:00:32.250 --> 00:00:35.469 to mass murder. That's it exactly. We are here 00:00:35.469 --> 00:00:38.250 to understand how a yoga teacher, just a guy 00:00:38.250 --> 00:00:40.810 teaching meditation in Tokyo, managed to transform 00:00:40.810 --> 00:00:44.310 a group of spiritual seekers into a, well, a 00:00:44.310 --> 00:00:47.189 fully militarized doomsday cult. A cult capable 00:00:47.189 --> 00:00:49.450 of chemical warfare. We're talking, of course, 00:00:49.490 --> 00:00:52.670 about Shoko Asahara and Yamashin Rikyu. It's 00:00:52.670 --> 00:00:55.170 really the definitive story of modern cult psychology 00:00:55.170 --> 00:00:57.729 meeting terrorist capability. It's the moment 00:00:57.729 --> 00:00:59.750 the world realized that... Cults weren't just, 00:00:59.750 --> 00:01:01.609 you know, people living on a farm singing songs. 00:01:01.729 --> 00:01:03.549 No. They could be sophisticated organizations 00:01:03.549 --> 00:01:06.730 building weapons of mass destruction. And just 00:01:06.730 --> 00:01:08.909 to set the hook for anyone listening who thinks 00:01:08.909 --> 00:01:12.390 they know this story, this isn't just a cram 00:01:12.390 --> 00:01:14.829 story. Not even close. This is a story about 00:01:14.829 --> 00:01:17.769 a man who, and I'm looking at the research right 00:01:17.769 --> 00:01:21.530 here, explicitly wanted to rule a robot kingdom. 00:01:21.969 --> 00:01:25.019 That's a real quote. A robot kingdom. A robot 00:01:25.019 --> 00:01:28.159 kingdom. And yet this is the same man who ended 00:01:28.159 --> 00:01:31.280 up orchestrating the 1995 Tokyo subway sarin 00:01:31.280 --> 00:01:33.400 attack. That's the headline everyone remembers. 00:01:33.620 --> 00:01:35.680 But the journey to get there, I mean, that's 00:01:35.680 --> 00:01:38.159 where the real terror is. So let's unpack this. 00:01:38.200 --> 00:01:39.959 We're working primarily from a comprehensive 00:01:39.959 --> 00:01:43.019 biography of Asahara, covering everything from 00:01:43.019 --> 00:01:45.599 his childhood to his execution. And the mission 00:01:45.599 --> 00:01:47.879 for this deep talk is to answer one really big, 00:01:48.000 --> 00:01:50.340 really uncomfortable question. Right. And the 00:01:50.340 --> 00:01:52.299 framing question is this. How does a visually 00:01:52.299 --> 00:01:55.340 impaired acupuncturist convince Japan's intellectual 00:01:55.340 --> 00:01:57.680 elite? And we're talking about scientists, doctors, 00:01:57.900 --> 00:01:59.819 graduates from the absolute top universities 00:01:59.819 --> 00:02:02.579 to manufacture weapons of mass destruction for 00:02:02.579 --> 00:02:04.980 him. That's the part that just stops me in my 00:02:04.980 --> 00:02:07.420 tracks every time. You expect cults to prey on 00:02:07.420 --> 00:02:09.860 the vulnerable, maybe the lost people who don't 00:02:09.860 --> 00:02:12.099 have any other options. But these were rocket 00:02:12.099 --> 00:02:15.550 scientists. Heart surgeons. Engineers. How does 00:02:15.550 --> 00:02:17.909 that happen? It creates a terrifying paradox, 00:02:18.169 --> 00:02:20.610 doesn't it? How do you hack a smart person's 00:02:20.610 --> 00:02:22.789 brain? So let's rewind. Let's go all the way 00:02:22.789 --> 00:02:24.849 back to the beginning. Before the robes, before 00:02:24.849 --> 00:02:28.069 the beard, before the supreme truth. Who was 00:02:28.069 --> 00:02:30.509 this guy? Well, before he was Shoko Asahara, 00:02:30.689 --> 00:02:33.810 he was Chizuo Matsumoto. He was born on March 00:02:33.810 --> 00:02:37.569 2nd, 1955 in Kumamoto Prefecture. And the background 00:02:37.569 --> 00:02:41.280 wasn't exactly... Not at all. He was the fourth 00:02:41.280 --> 00:02:44.699 son in a large, very poor family. Their family 00:02:44.699 --> 00:02:47.580 trade was making tatami mats. So hard manual 00:02:47.580 --> 00:02:50.479 labor. Very hard. But the defining feature of 00:02:50.479 --> 00:02:52.819 his early life, and really the lens through which 00:02:52.819 --> 00:02:55.180 he saw the entire world, was his eyesight. He 00:02:55.180 --> 00:02:58.580 was born with infantile glaucoma. Yes. And it 00:02:58.580 --> 00:03:01.460 was severe. He lost all sight in his left eye 00:03:01.460 --> 00:03:04.060 completely. In his right eye, he was partially 00:03:04.060 --> 00:03:07.539 blind from a very young age. And because he couldn't 00:03:07.539 --> 00:03:10.860 follow in the family trade of making match. I 00:03:10.860 --> 00:03:13.080 mean, you need precision for that. At age six, 00:03:13.300 --> 00:03:16.759 he was sent away. Sent away. Enrolled in a boarding 00:03:16.759 --> 00:03:19.719 school for the blind. At six years old. I mean, 00:03:19.740 --> 00:03:22.740 that's traumatic for any kid. But. Looking at 00:03:22.740 --> 00:03:25.039 the school environment, something very specific 00:03:25.039 --> 00:03:28.340 seems to have happened there that it sort of 00:03:28.340 --> 00:03:31.060 set his entire personality in stone. This is 00:03:31.060 --> 00:03:33.800 the crucial psychological turning point. At this 00:03:33.800 --> 00:03:36.300 school, you have to understand, most of the other 00:03:36.300 --> 00:03:39.599 children were completely blind. Matsumoto, however, 00:03:39.780 --> 00:03:42.500 still had some vision in one eye. The one -eyed 00:03:42.500 --> 00:03:44.740 king in the land of the blind. Literally. And 00:03:44.740 --> 00:03:46.520 he didn't use that advantage to help people, 00:03:46.560 --> 00:03:49.259 not at all. He used it to dominate them. He discovered 00:03:49.259 --> 00:03:52.259 a hustle. The candy store hustle? Yes. He would 00:03:52.259 --> 00:03:54.400 offer to guide the other kids to the local candy 00:03:54.400 --> 00:03:56.419 store. Which on the surface sounds like a nice 00:03:56.419 --> 00:03:58.800 thing to do. Except he charged them for it. He 00:03:58.800 --> 00:04:00.419 essentially taxed them for their disability. 00:04:00.759 --> 00:04:03.060 He was monetizing his slight advantage over them. 00:04:03.180 --> 00:04:05.419 It went further than that, though. He became 00:04:05.419 --> 00:04:08.080 a bully. We have accounts of him beating other 00:04:08.080 --> 00:04:10.479 students, exhorting money, forcing them to do 00:04:10.479 --> 00:04:13.280 things for him. He figured out early on that 00:04:13.280 --> 00:04:15.580 having even a slight advantage gave him total 00:04:15.580 --> 00:04:19.189 power over those who had none. Wow. It established 00:04:19.189 --> 00:04:22.589 this hierarchy in his mind. I am above, you are 00:04:22.589 --> 00:04:25.129 below, and my ability justifies my dominance. 00:04:25.490 --> 00:04:27.850 And he didn't exactly keep his ambitions secret, 00:04:27.990 --> 00:04:31.250 did he? No. Even as a teenager, he had these 00:04:31.250 --> 00:04:33.589 grandiose fantasies. He would confide in his 00:04:33.589 --> 00:04:35.990 schoolmates that he wanted to be the prime minister 00:04:35.990 --> 00:04:38.350 of Japan. And this is where that incredible robot 00:04:38.350 --> 00:04:40.769 kingdom quote comes in. Right. He told people 00:04:40.769 --> 00:04:43.170 he wanted to rule a robot kingdom with total 00:04:43.170 --> 00:04:44.990 power. Now, you could just write that off as 00:04:44.990 --> 00:04:47.129 a teenager who reads too many comic books. Sure. 00:04:47.449 --> 00:04:49.730 But if you dig a little deeper, what is a robot 00:04:49.730 --> 00:04:52.050 kingdom? It's a population that obeys without 00:04:52.050 --> 00:04:54.769 question. It's a system with no dissent. It was 00:04:54.769 --> 00:04:57.350 a projection of his desire for absolute automated 00:04:57.350 --> 00:05:00.910 control. So he graduates in 1973. He's got this 00:05:00.910 --> 00:05:03.910 hunger for power. And he tries to go the legitimate 00:05:03.910 --> 00:05:06.910 route first. He does. He aims for the absolute 00:05:06.910 --> 00:05:10.850 top. He applies to the University of Tokyo. Now, 00:05:10.870 --> 00:05:13.829 for context, in Japan, today... The University 00:05:13.829 --> 00:05:16.629 of Tokyo isn't just a good school. It is the 00:05:16.629 --> 00:05:19.110 school. It's the Oxbridge or the Ivy League of 00:05:19.110 --> 00:05:21.910 Japan. Exactly. It is the pipeline for prime 00:05:21.910 --> 00:05:24.790 ministers, for CEOs, for the top bureaucrats. 00:05:25.050 --> 00:05:27.410 And he didn't just apply anywhere. He applied 00:05:27.410 --> 00:05:29.629 to the Faculty of Law. Which is the traditional 00:05:29.629 --> 00:05:32.149 path to becoming prime minister. The only path, 00:05:32.389 --> 00:05:34.389 really. But he was rejected. He didn't get in. 00:05:34.490 --> 00:05:36.110 That must have been a massive blow to his ego. 00:05:36.290 --> 00:05:38.209 It was the closing of the door to legitimate 00:05:38.209 --> 00:05:41.009 power. The establishment looked at him and said, 00:05:41.110 --> 00:05:44.839 no. You're not one of us. So he pivoted. Right. 00:05:44.920 --> 00:05:46.980 He turned to what was a common career for the 00:05:46.980 --> 00:05:49.680 blind in Japan at the time, acupuncture and traditional 00:05:49.680 --> 00:05:51.680 Chinese medicine. Right. So he's a practitioner. 00:05:51.899 --> 00:05:54.040 He opens a shop. He opens a Chinese medicine 00:05:54.040 --> 00:05:57.120 shop near Tokyo. He gets married, starts a family. 00:05:57.240 --> 00:05:59.279 He eventually had six kids. You know, he's living 00:05:59.279 --> 00:06:02.160 a seemingly normal life. But that hustler side, 00:06:02.379 --> 00:06:05.920 the kid who taxed blind children for candy, that 00:06:05.920 --> 00:06:09.019 guy didn't go away. No. In 1981, he had his first 00:06:09.019 --> 00:06:11.319 real brush with the law. And what did he do? 00:06:11.480 --> 00:06:14.399 He was practicing pharmacy without a license 00:06:14.399 --> 00:06:17.699 and selling unregulated drugs. Snake oil. Basically 00:06:17.699 --> 00:06:19.660 snake oil. He was selling cures that weren't 00:06:19.660 --> 00:06:23.579 cures. He got caught, convicted, and fined 200 00:06:23.579 --> 00:06:26.160 ,000 yen. Okay, so let's just pause and look 00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:28.279 at the scoreboard here. We have a guy who wants 00:06:28.279 --> 00:06:31.379 to be prime minister. fails, tries to be a businessman, 00:06:31.600 --> 00:06:34.019 gets arrested for selling fake cures. And this 00:06:34.019 --> 00:06:36.459 is the pivot point. Yeah. The analysis suggests 00:06:36.459 --> 00:06:39.399 that this failure, the arrest, the fine, the 00:06:39.399 --> 00:06:41.800 rejection from the elite world, it marks the 00:06:41.800 --> 00:06:45.279 moment he shifts gears completely. He realizes 00:06:45.279 --> 00:06:47.879 he's not going to get secular power through politics 00:06:47.879 --> 00:06:50.480 or business. The system is rigged against him, 00:06:50.519 --> 00:06:52.740 or at least that's how he sees it. So he decides 00:06:52.740 --> 00:06:55.699 to seek spiritual power instead. If you can't 00:06:55.699 --> 00:06:57.660 rule the real world, you create your own world 00:06:57.660 --> 00:06:59.769 where you make all the rules. Precisely. In the 00:06:59.769 --> 00:07:01.790 spiritual marketplace, there are no entrance 00:07:01.790 --> 00:07:04.850 exams. There are no licenses to practice being 00:07:04.850 --> 00:07:07.610 a guru. You just have to be convincing. So we 00:07:07.610 --> 00:07:10.050 move into the transformation. How do we get from 00:07:10.050 --> 00:07:12.810 Chizuo Matsumoto, failed medicine seller, to 00:07:12.810 --> 00:07:16.310 Shoko Asahara, holy guru? It starts with a rebrand, 00:07:16.430 --> 00:07:19.430 a total image overhaul. He lets his hair grow 00:07:19.430 --> 00:07:22.230 out long and wild. He grows that distinctive 00:07:22.230 --> 00:07:25.329 flowing beard that became his trademark. And 00:07:25.329 --> 00:07:28.000 he changes his name to Shoko Asahara. And he 00:07:28.000 --> 00:07:30.199 starts studying. He becomes a voracious student 00:07:30.199 --> 00:07:33.240 of the occult. And it's a real mix. The research 00:07:33.240 --> 00:07:35.879 lists a pretty wild combination of influences. 00:07:36.379 --> 00:07:38.240 It's not just one religion, is it? No, it's buffet. 00:07:38.459 --> 00:07:41.160 He's pulling from Chinese astrology, Taoism, 00:07:41.379 --> 00:07:45.519 Western esotericism, yoga, esoteric Buddhism, 00:07:45.860 --> 00:07:47.879 esoteric Christianity. It's like he's taking 00:07:47.879 --> 00:07:50.139 bits and pieces that serve his purpose and stitching 00:07:50.139 --> 00:07:53.139 them together into this patchwork theology. It 00:07:53.139 --> 00:07:54.740 sounds a bit like he's trying to hack spirituality. 00:07:55.220 --> 00:07:57.540 Finding the shortcuts to power. That's a great 00:07:57.540 --> 00:07:59.740 way to put it. And to sell this new brand, he 00:07:59.740 --> 00:08:02.540 needed legitimacy. So he goes to India. Starting 00:08:02.540 --> 00:08:05.120 in 1984. Right. And this is a key part of his 00:08:05.120 --> 00:08:07.819 propaganda machine. He manages to meet the 14th 00:08:07.819 --> 00:08:10.639 Dalai Lama. Now, Asahara spins this meeting into 00:08:10.639 --> 00:08:14.689 something huge, doesn't he? Oh, massive. He comes 00:08:14.689 --> 00:08:17.129 back to Japan claiming the Dalai Lama personally 00:08:17.129 --> 00:08:20.589 gave him a special mission to preach real Buddhism 00:08:20.589 --> 00:08:23.649 in Japan. He basically tells his followers the 00:08:23.649 --> 00:08:26.629 Dalai Lama himself ordained me. I'm the chosen 00:08:26.629 --> 00:08:28.949 one for this era. But what's the fact check on 00:08:28.949 --> 00:08:32.370 that? The fact check is, well, false. Years later, 00:08:32.450 --> 00:08:35.009 the Dalai Lama clarified what happened in that 00:08:35.009 --> 00:08:37.980 meeting. He said he met Asahara, sure, just like 00:08:37.980 --> 00:08:40.440 he meets thousands of people, but he described 00:08:40.440 --> 00:08:44.500 him merely as a strange Japanese man. A strange 00:08:44.500 --> 00:08:46.860 Japanese man. And he completely denied giving 00:08:46.860 --> 00:08:50.370 him any special mission. Wow. That's a far cry 00:08:50.370 --> 00:08:52.809 from Savior of Japan. But I guess Asahar didn't 00:08:52.809 --> 00:08:54.629 need the Dalai Lama to verify it. He just needed 00:08:54.629 --> 00:08:56.870 the photo, right? Correct. It was all about the 00:08:56.870 --> 00:09:00.210 optics. He returns to Japan in 1987 and assumes 00:09:00.210 --> 00:09:03.269 the title Sonshi, which means guru or venerable 00:09:03.269 --> 00:09:06.009 master. And then he pulls his most famous stunt. 00:09:06.330 --> 00:09:08.269 The levitation claim. The levitation claim. Oh, 00:09:08.330 --> 00:09:09.929 the photo. I'm sure you've seen it. It's him 00:09:09.929 --> 00:09:12.269 in a full lotus position, seemingly floating 00:09:12.269 --> 00:09:14.429 in midair. Yes. He looks like he's hovering. 00:09:14.789 --> 00:09:17.230 he claimed he had mastered meditation to such 00:09:17.230 --> 00:09:20.429 an extent that he could defy gravity he published 00:09:20.429 --> 00:09:22.990 this photo in his own magazines to prove his 00:09:22.990 --> 00:09:26.409 supernatural power but let's be real Was it just 00:09:26.409 --> 00:09:28.250 a guy jumping really high with his legs crossed? 00:09:28.470 --> 00:09:30.850 Essentially, yes. It was just a high shutter 00:09:30.850 --> 00:09:33.629 speed capturing him at the apex of a hop. But 00:09:33.629 --> 00:09:35.110 you have to think about the time. This is the 00:09:35.110 --> 00:09:37.649 late 80s. Photoshop wasn't a thing people were 00:09:37.649 --> 00:09:40.070 thinking about. True. To a spiritual seeker looking 00:09:40.070 --> 00:09:42.610 for a miracle, looking for proof that the physical 00:09:42.610 --> 00:09:45.549 world could be transcended, that photo looked 00:09:45.549 --> 00:09:48.769 like the real deal. So he starts a group. What 00:09:48.769 --> 00:09:51.090 was it called initially? It started as a small 00:09:51.090 --> 00:09:54.029 yoga and meditation class called Umu Shinsen 00:09:54.029 --> 00:09:57.919 no Kai. Which means? The Alparum Immortal Mountain 00:09:57.919 --> 00:10:00.240 Wizard Association. Mountain Wizard Association. 00:10:00.620 --> 00:10:02.779 That is, well, it's certainly descriptive. A 00:10:02.779 --> 00:10:04.919 little niche, maybe. It was eventually renamed 00:10:04.919 --> 00:10:08.240 to Akum Shinrikyo, which translates to Supreme 00:10:08.240 --> 00:10:11.179 Truth. Much more marketable. And this brings 00:10:11.179 --> 00:10:12.960 us back to that big question about the membership. 00:10:13.259 --> 00:10:15.700 Because Mountain Wizard Association sounds like 00:10:15.700 --> 00:10:19.129 something for, you know, fringe hobbyists. But 00:10:19.129 --> 00:10:21.389 he starts pulling in some really serious people. 00:10:21.549 --> 00:10:24.750 He does. And this was deliberate. Asahura specifically 00:10:24.750 --> 00:10:27.950 targeted the elite. He went after graduates from 00:10:27.950 --> 00:10:30.669 Japan's top universities, the very institutions 00:10:30.669 --> 00:10:33.350 that had once rejected him. It was even dubbed 00:10:33.350 --> 00:10:36.330 a religion for the elite. How do you get a scientist, 00:10:36.529 --> 00:10:38.590 someone trained in the scientific method, to 00:10:38.590 --> 00:10:40.950 join a group led by a guy who claims he can fly 00:10:40.950 --> 00:10:43.039 by hopping? You have to understand the context 00:10:43.039 --> 00:10:45.399 of Japan in the late 80s, the bubble economy. 00:10:45.820 --> 00:10:49.019 People were working insane hours. The corporate 00:10:49.019 --> 00:10:51.940 track was rigid, hierarchical, and frankly, soul 00:10:51.940 --> 00:10:54.240 crushing for a lot of these brilliant, creative 00:10:54.240 --> 00:10:57.080 minds. So there was a spiritual void, a meaning 00:10:57.080 --> 00:11:00.100 crisis. Exactly. You graduate from today, you 00:11:00.100 --> 00:11:02.080 join a massive conglomerate like Mitsubishi, 00:11:02.259 --> 00:11:04.860 and you spend the next 40 years pushing paper 00:11:04.860 --> 00:11:07.649 until you die. Asahara filled that void. He spoke 00:11:07.649 --> 00:11:09.789 their language, but he twisted it. The source 00:11:09.789 --> 00:11:12.129 material mentions they used anime and manga themes. 00:11:12.389 --> 00:11:14.370 Yes, but even more interestingly, they referenced 00:11:14.370 --> 00:11:17.210 Isaac Asimov. The science fiction writer. The 00:11:17.210 --> 00:11:20.549 one and only, specifically the Foundation Trilogy. 00:11:21.409 --> 00:11:24.269 Asahara pitched this idea of a group of spiritually 00:11:24.269 --> 00:11:27.049 evolved scientists who needed to go underground 00:11:27.049 --> 00:11:30.730 to rebuild civilization after an inevitable collapse. 00:11:31.029 --> 00:11:34.110 That is an incredibly seductive idea if you're 00:11:34.110 --> 00:11:37.269 a smart... maybe socially awkward scientist who 00:11:37.269 --> 00:11:39.549 feels unappreciated by the world. It's perfect 00:11:39.549 --> 00:11:42.049 for them. We are the foundation. We are the secret 00:11:42.049 --> 00:11:44.750 saviors. It weaponized their intellect against 00:11:44.750 --> 00:11:47.789 their own morality. He told them the world is 00:11:47.789 --> 00:11:50.190 going to end in Armageddon. Ordinary people, 00:11:50.570 --> 00:11:53.909 mass man, can't save it. Only we can. Only the 00:11:53.909 --> 00:11:56.649 enlightened elite. It gave them a purpose that 00:11:56.649 --> 00:11:59.269 Sony or Toshiba never could. And he promised 00:11:59.269 --> 00:12:01.350 them upgrades, right? It wasn't just pray with 00:12:01.350 --> 00:12:04.740 me and feel good. Right. This was key. The Anso 00:12:04.740 --> 00:12:07.620 Salvation Plan promised to cure any illness and, 00:12:07.639 --> 00:12:10.120 this is the crucial part, improve your intelligence. 00:12:10.460 --> 00:12:12.600 He told them, if you follow my teachings, you 00:12:12.600 --> 00:12:15.240 will unlock your brain's full potential. He framed 00:12:15.240 --> 00:12:17.299 enlightenment almost like a software update for 00:12:17.299 --> 00:12:19.600 your mind. But behind all the sci -fi promises 00:12:19.600 --> 00:12:21.879 and the yoga, things were getting dark really 00:12:21.879 --> 00:12:24.320 fast. The training wasn't just sitting on mats. 00:12:24.700 --> 00:12:28.120 No. The initiation rituals involved the use of 00:12:28.120 --> 00:12:31.740 hallucinogens, specifically LSD. They would disguise 00:12:31.740 --> 00:12:34.179 it as a spiritual sacrament. They called it the 00:12:34.179 --> 00:12:37.740 Christ initiation. So you drug them and they 00:12:37.740 --> 00:12:40.019 think they're seeing God, but really they're 00:12:40.019 --> 00:12:42.500 just seeing Azahara's version of God. Precisely. 00:12:42.500 --> 00:12:45.879 And they practiced extreme asceticism. The source 00:12:45.879 --> 00:12:48.240 describes initiates being hung upside down for 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:50.759 hours at a time. They use sleep deprivation. 00:12:51.159 --> 00:12:53.860 And they use shock therapy disguised as yoga 00:12:53.860 --> 00:12:56.480 practices to purify the body. Wait, shock therapy, 00:12:56.519 --> 00:12:59.159 like actual electric shock? Yes. It was all about 00:12:59.159 --> 00:13:01.039 breaking down the individual. You strip away 00:13:01.039 --> 00:13:03.120 their identity, you drug them, you subject them 00:13:03.120 --> 00:13:06.000 to intense pain, and then you replace their reality 00:13:06.000 --> 00:13:09.679 with Asahar's reality. It's classic brainwashing, 00:13:09.679 --> 00:13:11.480 but it's wrapped in the language of spiritual 00:13:11.480 --> 00:13:13.860 self -improvement. And I imagine once you're 00:13:13.860 --> 00:13:16.519 in that deep, you can't exactly just put in your 00:13:16.519 --> 00:13:18.440 two weeks notice and leave. That became the rule. 00:13:18.600 --> 00:13:21.019 And that leads us directly to the turning point. 00:13:21.139 --> 00:13:23.620 The moment Ayam Shinrikyo went from a weird, 00:13:23.679 --> 00:13:26.740 abusive cult to a murderous organization. We're 00:13:26.740 --> 00:13:28.620 moving into the Sakamoto family murder. This 00:13:28.620 --> 00:13:32.710 is 1989. Right. So Ayatollah is starting to face 00:13:32.710 --> 00:13:35.029 some real heat. Parents are complaining that 00:13:35.029 --> 00:13:36.769 their kids are being held against their will. 00:13:36.970 --> 00:13:39.730 There are accusations of extortion, of forcing 00:13:39.730 --> 00:13:42.250 members to sign over their entire life savings. 00:13:42.529 --> 00:13:45.889 And standing in their way is a lawyer named Tsutsumi 00:13:45.889 --> 00:13:49.649 Sakamoto. He was a huge threat, a serious legal 00:13:49.649 --> 00:13:52.870 threat. He was only 33, but he was working on 00:13:52.870 --> 00:13:55.649 a class action lawsuit against the cult. He was 00:13:55.649 --> 00:13:57.730 gathering evidence that could dismantle the whole 00:13:57.730 --> 00:14:00.879 organization. And this brings us to... a massive 00:14:00.879 --> 00:14:04.559 media scandal involving tbs tokyo broadcasting 00:14:04.559 --> 00:14:07.539 system this is one of the biggest ethical failures 00:14:07.539 --> 00:14:09.940 in the history of broadcast journalism it's just 00:14:09.940 --> 00:14:12.980 staggering what happened there tbs taped an interview 00:14:12.980 --> 00:14:15.220 with sakamoto where he laid out his case against 00:14:15.220 --> 00:14:18.340 the cult but before they could air it acm officials 00:14:18.340 --> 00:14:20.820 somehow found out and demanded to see the tape 00:14:20.820 --> 00:14:23.500 and tbs just showed it to them they showed the 00:14:23.500 --> 00:14:25.740 cult the interview with the whistleblower before 00:14:25.740 --> 00:14:28.019 broadcasting it and without sakamoto's knowledge 00:14:28.019 --> 00:14:30.909 or consent Unbelievable. IOM officials, of course, 00:14:30.950 --> 00:14:33.529 pressured TBS and the network actually canceled 00:14:33.529 --> 00:14:35.929 the broadcast. But more importantly, the cult 00:14:35.929 --> 00:14:38.009 now knew exactly what Sakamoto was planning. 00:14:38.190 --> 00:14:40.409 They knew every piece of evidence he had. They 00:14:40.409 --> 00:14:42.990 basically handed the cult an intelligence briefing 00:14:42.990 --> 00:14:45.610 on their number one enemy. They did. Asahara 00:14:45.610 --> 00:14:48.429 decided Sakamoto had to be silenced. And this 00:14:48.429 --> 00:14:51.620 is where he introduces the doctrine of POA. Poa. 00:14:51.759 --> 00:14:53.980 We need to explain this because this concept 00:14:53.980 --> 00:14:56.019 seems to be the engine of their violence. It 00:14:56.019 --> 00:14:59.220 is. Poa is a concept Asahara twisted from Tibetan 00:14:59.220 --> 00:15:01.759 Buddhism. Originally, it refers to the transfer 00:15:01.759 --> 00:15:03.980 of consciousness at the moment of death to achieve 00:15:03.980 --> 00:15:07.179 a better rebirth. But Asahara reinterpreted it 00:15:07.179 --> 00:15:10.480 to mean that if someone is accumulating bad karma 00:15:10.480 --> 00:15:13.379 -like, say, a lawyer attacking the supreme truth, 00:15:13.700 --> 00:15:16.100 it is actually an act of mercy to kill them. 00:15:16.259 --> 00:15:18.490 Wait, so killing them is... Doing them a favor. 00:15:18.610 --> 00:15:21.210 In his twisted logic, yes. By killing them, you 00:15:21.210 --> 00:15:23.710 stop them from accumulating more bad karma, which 00:15:23.710 --> 00:15:26.610 saves their soul in their next life. It transformed 00:15:26.610 --> 00:15:29.909 murder into a spiritual service. That is a terrifying 00:15:29.909 --> 00:15:32.830 mental gymnastic. It's the ultimate rationalization. 00:15:33.370 --> 00:15:37.450 So, November 1989, Asahara orders a hit team. 00:15:37.769 --> 00:15:40.649 And you have to note who is on this team. It 00:15:40.649 --> 00:15:43.090 includes Hideo Murai, the chief scientist. The 00:15:43.090 --> 00:15:45.149 scientists are now the enforcers. What was the 00:15:45.149 --> 00:15:47.769 initial plan? Originally, they planned to kidnap 00:15:47.769 --> 00:15:50.009 Sakamoto at a train station. They were going 00:15:50.009 --> 00:15:52.909 to use hypodermic needles to sedate him. But 00:15:52.909 --> 00:15:54.769 he didn't show up. It was a national holiday, 00:15:54.929 --> 00:15:57.570 so he was at home with his family. So they changed 00:15:57.570 --> 00:15:59.830 the plan on the fly. They went to his apartment. 00:16:00.129 --> 00:16:03.490 At 3 a .m., the door was unlocked. And this part 00:16:03.490 --> 00:16:06.289 of the story is, it's just hard to read. It wasn't 00:16:06.289 --> 00:16:08.409 just the lawyer they went after. No. They entered 00:16:08.409 --> 00:16:10.850 the apartment and they murdered Tsutsumi Sakamoto. 00:16:11.419 --> 00:16:13.700 They beat him with a hammer. They strangled him 00:16:13.700 --> 00:16:16.080 and they injected him with potassium chloride. 00:16:16.559 --> 00:16:19.580 But his wife, Satoko, was there. So they killed 00:16:19.580 --> 00:16:22.200 her, too. They killed her and their son, Tatsuhiko. 00:16:22.500 --> 00:16:25.580 He was a baby. He was 14 months old. They injected 00:16:25.580 --> 00:16:27.580 a baby with potassium chloride because he was 00:16:27.580 --> 00:16:30.639 crying and might alert the neighbors. And the 00:16:30.639 --> 00:16:33.740 cover up was meticulous. This wasn't a crime 00:16:33.740 --> 00:16:36.799 of passion. This was a black ops disposal. They 00:16:36.799 --> 00:16:38.779 took the three bodies, put them in separate metal 00:16:38.779 --> 00:16:42.299 drums and drove to three. different rural prefectures, 00:16:42.360 --> 00:16:45.440 Niigata, Toyama, and Nagano. Why spread them 00:16:45.440 --> 00:16:48.220 out like that? It was pure strategy. To prevent 00:16:48.220 --> 00:16:50.299 the police from linking the disappearances if 00:16:50.299 --> 00:16:52.879 the bodies were ever found. If you find one body, 00:16:52.960 --> 00:16:55.639 it's a murder investigation. If you find three 00:16:55.639 --> 00:16:58.120 together... you immediately know it's the missing 00:16:58.120 --> 00:17:00.279 Sakamoto family. They even smashed their teeth. 00:17:00.740 --> 00:17:03.240 Smashed their teeth to prevent dental identification. 00:17:03.539 --> 00:17:05.940 And it worked. The bodies weren't found until 00:17:05.940 --> 00:17:08.940 1995, after the cult had collapsed and members 00:17:08.940 --> 00:17:12.059 started confessing. For six years, nobody knew 00:17:12.059 --> 00:17:14.019 for sure what happened to them. And during those 00:17:14.019 --> 00:17:15.759 six years, because they got away with it, they 00:17:15.759 --> 00:17:18.180 just escalated. They realized they could kill 00:17:18.180 --> 00:17:19.859 and get away with it. They felt untouchable. 00:17:19.960 --> 00:17:23.140 They felt invincible. And that emboldened Asahara 00:17:23.140 --> 00:17:26.640 to dream much, much bigger. moves us into the 00:17:26.640 --> 00:17:29.180 full scale militarization phase because they 00:17:29.180 --> 00:17:30.819 didn't just stick to hammers and needles for 00:17:30.819 --> 00:17:34.640 long. No. Asahara tried to enter politics legitimately 00:17:34.640 --> 00:17:38.299 one more time in 1990 with something called the 00:17:38.299 --> 00:17:41.319 Shinri Party. They ran this bizarre campaign. 00:17:41.420 --> 00:17:44.200 I've seen the videos. It's cult members in white 00:17:44.200 --> 00:17:47.890 robes and. Like elephant masks, dancing and chanting 00:17:47.890 --> 00:17:50.569 Asahara's name. It looks completely unhinged. 00:17:50.630 --> 00:17:53.690 It was. And they lost miserably, every single 00:17:53.690 --> 00:17:56.589 one of them. Asahara took this as a final rejection 00:17:56.589 --> 00:17:59.789 by society. He decided that if the world wouldn't 00:17:59.789 --> 00:18:01.970 elect him, he would destroy the world and rebuild 00:18:01.970 --> 00:18:04.369 it in his own image. He becomes obsessed with 00:18:04.369 --> 00:18:06.710 Armageddon. And conspiracy theories. And this 00:18:06.710 --> 00:18:10.269 is where the intellectual elite members really 00:18:10.269 --> 00:18:13.089 come into play. He sets them to work on biological 00:18:13.089 --> 00:18:15.710 and chemical weapons. started with biologicals, 00:18:15.710 --> 00:18:17.529 right? They did. They wanted to create a pandemic. 00:18:17.730 --> 00:18:21.329 In 1993, they tried to spray bacillus and thyrsus 00:18:21.329 --> 00:18:23.710 anthrax from the roof of their Tokyo headquarters. 00:18:24.210 --> 00:18:26.789 Wait, they sprayed anthrax in central Tokyo in 00:18:26.789 --> 00:18:29.509 1993. Why didn't we hear about mass deaths then? 00:18:29.750 --> 00:18:32.430 Because luckily for everyone, they were incompetent 00:18:32.430 --> 00:18:34.970 terrorists at that stage. Doing science in a 00:18:34.970 --> 00:18:37.049 lab is one thing. Weaponizing it is another. 00:18:37.529 --> 00:18:40.109 They used a liquid mixture and sprayed it from 00:18:40.109 --> 00:18:42.809 a cooling tower. But the strain they used was 00:18:42.809 --> 00:18:45.349 an attenuated vaccine strain. It wasn't lethal 00:18:45.349 --> 00:18:47.750 enough. Plus, the pressure from the sprayers 00:18:47.750 --> 00:18:50.069 likely killed most of the bacteria before it 00:18:50.069 --> 00:18:52.569 even hit the air. So what was the result? The 00:18:52.569 --> 00:18:55.349 source says it just caused a bad smell. Neighbors 00:18:55.349 --> 00:18:57.009 complained about the odor. They said it smelled 00:18:57.009 --> 00:18:59.930 like rotting garbage. But nobody got infected. 00:19:00.190 --> 00:19:02.549 So they failed at biology. So they switched to 00:19:02.549 --> 00:19:04.750 chemistry. Chemistry is more predictable. You 00:19:04.750 --> 00:19:07.250 mix A and B, you get C. They started looking 00:19:07.250 --> 00:19:10.250 into nerve agents, specifically sarin and VX. 00:19:10.450 --> 00:19:12.049 And they needed a testing ground. You can't just 00:19:12.049 --> 00:19:14.230 cook up nerve gas in a Tokyo apartment and see 00:19:14.230 --> 00:19:16.630 if it works. So they bought a property in Western 00:19:16.630 --> 00:19:19.769 Australia, a huge sheep station called Banja 00:19:19.769 --> 00:19:22.009 Warn Station. It's in the middle of absolutely 00:19:22.009 --> 00:19:25.329 nowhere, a vast red desert. And what did they 00:19:25.329 --> 00:19:28.619 do there? They tested sarin gas on sheep. I mean, 00:19:28.619 --> 00:19:30.960 just picture this scene. Japanese scientists 00:19:30.960 --> 00:19:33.900 in full hazmat suits in the Australian outback 00:19:33.900 --> 00:19:36.440 putting sheep in a pen and releasing homemade 00:19:36.440 --> 00:19:38.740 nerve gas to see how fast they die. How many 00:19:38.740 --> 00:19:41.380 did they kill? They killed 29 sheep. And it worked. 00:19:41.849 --> 00:19:44.029 The gas was effective. It was proof of concept. 00:19:44.069 --> 00:19:46.809 The sheep convulsed and died horribly. The gas 00:19:46.809 --> 00:19:49.190 worked. So now they have a working nerve agent. 00:19:49.329 --> 00:19:51.769 Yeah. And they start using it for targeted assassinations. 00:19:51.789 --> 00:19:56.009 Yes. They manufactured VX. Now, VX is an incredibly 00:19:56.009 --> 00:19:58.710 potent nerve agent, much deadlier than sarin, 00:19:58.710 --> 00:20:01.450 but it's an oily liquid, so it persists on surfaces. 00:20:01.930 --> 00:20:04.990 In December 1994, they attacked a man in Osaka 00:20:04.990 --> 00:20:08.509 who Asahara suspected was a spy. They sprayed 00:20:08.509 --> 00:20:11.680 VX on his neck on the street. Did he die? He 00:20:11.680 --> 00:20:13.759 chased them for about 100 yards, then he collapsed. 00:20:13.900 --> 00:20:16.559 He was in a coma for 10 days and then died. At 00:20:16.559 --> 00:20:18.619 the time, doctors thought it was severe pesticide 00:20:18.619 --> 00:20:21.819 poisoning. They had no idea a cult was manufacturing 00:20:21.819 --> 00:20:24.900 military -grade nerve agents in Japan. They also 00:20:24.900 --> 00:20:26.559 attacked a member of the Owing Victim Society, 00:20:26.920 --> 00:20:29.940 didn't they? Hiroyuki Nagaoka. Same method. VX 00:20:29.940 --> 00:20:32.359 on the neck. He survived, but he was critically 00:20:32.359 --> 00:20:34.779 ill for a long time. But it wasn't just chemicals. 00:20:34.980 --> 00:20:37.619 The outline mentions conventional weapons. This 00:20:37.619 --> 00:20:38.960 part sounds like they were trying to build an 00:20:38.960 --> 00:20:41.000 actual army. They were. There's no other way 00:20:41.000 --> 00:20:43.819 to describe it. They smuggled an AK -74 rifle, 00:20:44.059 --> 00:20:46.740 a modern Soviet assault rifle, into Japan. To 00:20:46.740 --> 00:20:49.480 use it? No, to reverse engineer it. The plan 00:20:49.480 --> 00:20:51.640 was to build a secret factory and mass produce 00:20:51.640 --> 00:20:55.099 1 ,000 of their own assault rifles. They wanted 00:20:55.099 --> 00:20:57.579 to arm their followers for the final war with 00:20:57.579 --> 00:21:00.259 the state. 1 ,000 rifles. Did they succeed? They 00:21:00.259 --> 00:21:02.920 only finished one working prototype, but the 00:21:02.920 --> 00:21:05.839 intent was there. They also purchased a Russian 00:21:05.839 --> 00:21:09.440 Mil Mi -17 military helicopter. A helicopter? 00:21:09.660 --> 00:21:12.140 What for? The plan, investigators believe, was 00:21:12.140 --> 00:21:15.380 to use it to spray sarin gas from the air, like 00:21:15.380 --> 00:21:18.279 a crop duster of death over Tokyo. And they were 00:21:18.279 --> 00:21:20.500 stealing industrial secrets, too. They broke 00:21:20.500 --> 00:21:23.359 into Mitsubishi Heavy Industries to steal data 00:21:23.359 --> 00:21:26.359 on tanks and laser technology. This was a full 00:21:26.359 --> 00:21:29.039 -scale attempt to build a private military state 00:21:29.039 --> 00:21:31.099 within Japan. This is absolutely terrifying. 00:21:31.480 --> 00:21:33.599 You have a group that believes in Armageddon, 00:21:33.599 --> 00:21:36.039 led by a man who thinks he's a savior, armed 00:21:36.039 --> 00:21:37.980 with nerve gas trying to build machine guns, 00:21:38.180 --> 00:21:40.319 and they have a helicopter. And nobody had stopped 00:21:40.319 --> 00:21:42.859 them yet. Which leads us to the dress rehearsal. 00:21:43.099 --> 00:21:45.680 The Matsumoto Seren attack. This is June 1994. 00:21:46.480 --> 00:21:49.859 The motive here was just incredibly petty. Asimov 00:21:49.859 --> 00:21:52.579 was facing a lawsuit over a real estate dispute 00:21:52.579 --> 00:21:55.779 in the city of Matsumoto. They expected the judges 00:21:55.779 --> 00:21:58.880 to rule against them. So the plan wasn't kill 00:21:58.880 --> 00:22:01.359 everyone in the city. It was kill the judges. 00:22:01.539 --> 00:22:04.519 Correct. They specifically targeted the three 00:22:04.519 --> 00:22:06.960 judges handling their case. How did they deliver 00:22:06.960 --> 00:22:12.819 the gas this time? It was grimly inventive. They 00:22:12.819 --> 00:22:15.619 converted a refrigerator truck. They built a 00:22:15.619 --> 00:22:18.099 heating contraption in the cargo space to turn 00:22:18.099 --> 00:22:21.339 liquid sarin into an aerosol and then used fans 00:22:21.339 --> 00:22:23.599 to blow it out through a vent in the side. It 00:22:23.599 --> 00:22:25.200 sounds like something out of a bad movie, but 00:22:25.200 --> 00:22:27.539 it's real chemical engineering. And they drove 00:22:27.539 --> 00:22:29.740 this truck to Matsumoto on the night of June 00:22:29.740 --> 00:22:32.559 27th, but they were late. The courthouse was 00:22:32.559 --> 00:22:34.880 closed, so they decided to go to where the judges 00:22:34.880 --> 00:22:36.799 lived. Which was a residential apartment building? 00:22:36.940 --> 00:22:39.019 A regular apartment building in a regular neighborhood. 00:22:39.400 --> 00:22:41.799 At 10 to 40 p .m., they parked the truck and 00:22:41.799 --> 00:22:45.140 just... sprayed the gas into the night air. But 00:22:45.140 --> 00:22:48.240 wind, you know, it's unpredictable. The gas floated 00:22:48.240 --> 00:22:50.180 through the neighborhood. It killed seven people 00:22:50.180 --> 00:22:53.079 immediately. An eighth victim, a woman named 00:22:53.079 --> 00:22:56.339 Sumiko Kono, fell into a deep coma and died 14 00:22:56.339 --> 00:22:59.180 years later without ever waking up. And the symptoms? 00:23:00.140 --> 00:23:02.720 Saren is nasty stuff. It attacks the nervous 00:23:02.720 --> 00:23:05.480 system. The hallmark symptom is meiosis. Your 00:23:05.480 --> 00:23:07.559 pupils constrict a tiny pinpoint so everything 00:23:07.559 --> 00:23:10.079 looks dark. Victims said it felt like the lights 00:23:10.079 --> 00:23:13.400 were going out. Then comes the nausea, the spasms, 00:23:13.400 --> 00:23:17.619 the suffocation. 274 people were treated. And 00:23:17.619 --> 00:23:19.819 did the police catch them then? Surely a chemical 00:23:19.819 --> 00:23:22.299 attack would lead straight to them. No. And this 00:23:22.299 --> 00:23:24.400 is another tragedy within the tragedy. Suspicion 00:23:24.400 --> 00:23:27.680 actually fell on an innocent local man, Yoshiyuki 00:23:27.680 --> 00:23:29.940 Konosumiko's husband. He was the one who called 00:23:29.940 --> 00:23:32.160 the ambulance. The first victim. The first victim. 00:23:32.240 --> 00:23:34.740 And the police and the media decided he must 00:23:34.740 --> 00:23:36.599 be the culprit because he had some chemicals 00:23:36.599 --> 00:23:38.720 in his house for his photography hobby. He was 00:23:38.720 --> 00:23:41.180 vilified for months. So the real killers got 00:23:41.180 --> 00:23:44.420 away completely. And the victim was blamed. Precisely. 00:23:44.440 --> 00:23:47.259 And for the cult, this was a success. They saw 00:23:47.259 --> 00:23:49.859 it as a successful test run. They proved their 00:23:49.859 --> 00:23:51.880 home -brewed sarin could kill, and they got away 00:23:51.880 --> 00:23:54.000 with it. Which brings us to the main event. March 00:23:54.000 --> 00:23:57.279 20th, 1995. The day everything changed in Japan. 00:23:57.480 --> 00:24:00.670 The Tokyo subway attack. Right. By March of 95, 00:24:01.009 --> 00:24:03.470 the walls are finally closing in on Asahara. 00:24:03.670 --> 00:24:06.049 The police are planning a massive simultaneous 00:24:06.049 --> 00:24:09.210 raid on all the cult facilities across Japan. 00:24:09.509 --> 00:24:11.569 And he knew it was coming. He was tipped off. 00:24:11.670 --> 00:24:13.930 He knew the police were coming on March 22nd. 00:24:13.950 --> 00:24:16.490 So he needed a distraction. A big one. He orders 00:24:16.490 --> 00:24:20.170 an attack in central Tokyo. The logic was completely 00:24:20.170 --> 00:24:23.109 twisted. If there is a massive terror attack 00:24:23.109 --> 00:24:24.930 in the city, the police will be too busy dealing 00:24:24.930 --> 00:24:27.970 with the chaos to raid the cult. It's a desperate 00:24:27.970 --> 00:24:31.640 panic move. It is. So March 20th, 1995, during 00:24:31.640 --> 00:24:34.380 the morning rush hour, they targeted five different 00:24:34.380 --> 00:24:37.779 subway lines, specifically lines that converged 00:24:37.779 --> 00:24:40.799 on Kasumigaseki Station, which is the hub of 00:24:40.799 --> 00:24:42.859 the Japanese government. The diet, the ministries, 00:24:42.859 --> 00:24:44.900 they're all there. And the delivery method this 00:24:44.900 --> 00:24:48.670 time. It wasn't a fancy truck. No, it was disturbingly 00:24:48.670 --> 00:24:51.269 simple and low -tech. They put liquid sarin in 00:24:51.269 --> 00:24:52.910 plastic bags like something you'd get from a 00:24:52.910 --> 00:24:54.569 convenience store. They wrapped them in newspaper. 00:24:54.890 --> 00:24:57.289 And then what? The perpetrators boarded the trains, 00:24:57.490 --> 00:25:00.009 dropped the packets on the floor, and then as 00:25:00.009 --> 00:25:02.609 they exited the train, they used the sharpened 00:25:02.609 --> 00:25:04.710 tips of their umbrellas to puncture the bags. 00:25:04.970 --> 00:25:07.509 So the liquid just leaks out onto the floor of 00:25:07.509 --> 00:25:10.069 a crowded train car. And evaporates into deadly 00:25:10.069 --> 00:25:15.079 gas in an enclosed space. During rush hour, 13 00:25:15.079 --> 00:25:18.759 people died, 54 were seriously injured, many 00:25:18.759 --> 00:25:21.140 permanently. But the number of people affected, 00:25:21.440 --> 00:25:23.940 people who sought treatment, who had vision problems, 00:25:24.279 --> 00:25:27.740 PTSD, the estimates go as high as 6 ,000. It 00:25:27.740 --> 00:25:30.339 paralyzed the city. I see the footage. People 00:25:30.339 --> 00:25:33.240 stumbling out of subway stations, coughing, blinded, 00:25:33.240 --> 00:25:35.619 being treated on the sidewalks. But here's the 00:25:35.619 --> 00:25:38.579 thing about his desperate plan. It backfired 00:25:38.579 --> 00:25:41.339 horribly. It didn't stop the raids. No. Instead 00:25:41.339 --> 00:25:43.619 of diverting the police, it triggered a massive, 00:25:43.640 --> 00:25:46.539 furious crackdown. The police realized, we are 00:25:46.539 --> 00:25:48.460 dealing with a domestic terror army. We have 00:25:48.460 --> 00:25:50.420 to end this now. So they raided the facilities. 00:25:50.559 --> 00:25:52.440 What did they find? It was a house of horrors. 00:25:52.460 --> 00:25:54.259 They found the Russian helicopter. They found 00:25:54.259 --> 00:25:58.039 explosives, guns. But the chemicals? They found 00:25:58.039 --> 00:26:00.559 stockpiles of chemicals sufficient to produce 00:26:00.559 --> 00:26:03.380 enough sarin to kill an estimated 4 million people. 00:26:03.720 --> 00:26:07.420 4 million? That's a significant chunk of Tokyo's 00:26:07.420 --> 00:26:09.880 population. If they had been more efficient or 00:26:09.880 --> 00:26:11.660 if they had deployed it from the air like they 00:26:11.660 --> 00:26:14.900 had planned. The scale is unimaginable. We were 00:26:14.900 --> 00:26:17.740 all very, very lucky it was a botched job. Asahara 00:26:17.740 --> 00:26:20.420 goes on the run. He does. But the cult doesn't 00:26:20.420 --> 00:26:22.720 go down quietly. They get desperate and violent. 00:26:23.039 --> 00:26:25.759 Ten days after the subway attack, the chief of 00:26:25.759 --> 00:26:28.160 the National Police Agency, Takaji Kunimatsu, 00:26:28.400 --> 00:26:31.619 is shot four times near his house. He survived, 00:26:31.779 --> 00:26:34.140 though. He survived, but it was a direct attack 00:26:34.140 --> 00:26:36.599 on the head of the Japanese state security apparatus. 00:26:37.079 --> 00:26:39.259 Then there's Hideo Murai, the science minister 00:26:39.259 --> 00:26:41.039 we talked about. The one involved in the Sakamoto 00:26:41.039 --> 00:26:44.519 murders. Yes. In April 95, he's stabbed to death 00:26:44.519 --> 00:26:47.859 on live TV, surrounded by reporters. I remember 00:26:47.859 --> 00:26:50.960 seeing that clip. It was absolute chaos. A Yakuza 00:26:50.960 --> 00:26:52.700 member did it, though the motives were never 00:26:52.700 --> 00:26:55.140 fully clear. Some say it was to silence him before 00:26:55.140 --> 00:26:59.740 he could talk. Then the cult tries one last terror 00:26:59.740 --> 00:27:03.109 campaign. They plant hydrogen cyanide devices 00:27:03.109 --> 00:27:06.250 in the toilets in Shinjuku Station. Did they 00:27:06.250 --> 00:27:08.450 go off? They were discovered and extinguished 00:27:08.450 --> 00:27:11.170 in time. But if they had gone off, the gas would 00:27:11.170 --> 00:27:12.710 have been sucked into the station's ventilation 00:27:12.710 --> 00:27:15.509 system. It could have killed 10 ,000 people. 00:27:15.710 --> 00:27:17.710 They also sent a bomb to the governor of Tokyo. 00:27:18.190 --> 00:27:21.569 A parcel bomb mailed to Governor Yukio Aoshima. 00:27:21.690 --> 00:27:24.089 It blew off his secretary's fingers when she 00:27:24.089 --> 00:27:27.289 opened it. It's just chaos. Violence flailing 00:27:27.289 --> 00:27:29.529 in every direction. But finally they catch him. 00:27:29.609 --> 00:27:32.660 May 16th, 1995. The police are searching the 00:27:32.660 --> 00:27:35.380 cult's headquarters in Kamikalushiki. They are 00:27:35.380 --> 00:27:37.660 searching a building known as the Sixth Session. 00:27:37.920 --> 00:27:40.359 Where was he? He was hiding inside a wall. In 00:27:40.359 --> 00:27:42.980 a wall. You mean like a secret room? A tiny hidden 00:27:42.980 --> 00:27:45.700 compartment between two floors. He was curled 00:27:45.700 --> 00:27:48.859 up in a sleeping bag with a stash of cash. The 00:27:48.859 --> 00:27:51.339 Supreme Truth, the man who claimed he could levitate, 00:27:51.559 --> 00:27:53.880 was found cowering in a crawlspace. Which brings 00:27:53.880 --> 00:27:56.559 us to the final chapter, the trial and the execution. 00:27:57.150 --> 00:27:59.569 The trial of the century, they called it in Japan. 00:28:00.250 --> 00:28:04.329 Asahara faced 27 counts of murder across 13 separate 00:28:04.329 --> 00:28:07.109 indictments. And his defense strategy. His lawyers 00:28:07.109 --> 00:28:09.150 tried to claim he was mentally unfit to stand 00:28:09.150 --> 00:28:11.910 trial. And Asahara played the part. For years 00:28:11.910 --> 00:28:14.410 in court, he just stayed silent. Or he would 00:28:14.410 --> 00:28:16.690 just sit there muttering nonsensically to himself. 00:28:16.789 --> 00:28:19.710 He refused to answer any questions. So was he 00:28:19.710 --> 00:28:22.210 actually insane? Or was he faking it? That's 00:28:22.210 --> 00:28:24.970 the big debate. But the prison staff didn't think 00:28:24.970 --> 00:28:27.430 he was insane. They reported that he communicated 00:28:27.430 --> 00:28:29.509 with them perfectly normally when his lawyers 00:28:29.509 --> 00:28:31.490 weren't around. The court eventually determined 00:28:31.490 --> 00:28:34.230 that the silence was a choice. A strategy. A 00:28:34.230 --> 00:28:37.490 strategy to delay or maybe a final act of narcissism, 00:28:37.509 --> 00:28:39.950 refusing to engage with a world he could no longer 00:28:39.950 --> 00:28:42.670 control. He was found guilty. Guilty on 13 of 00:28:42.670 --> 00:28:45.369 the 17 charges he faced. Four were dropped for 00:28:45.369 --> 00:28:47.690 various reasons. He was sentenced to death in 00:28:47.690 --> 00:28:50.309 February 2004. But it took a very long time to 00:28:50.309 --> 00:28:52.720 actually carry it out. Appeals dragged on for 00:28:52.720 --> 00:28:55.819 years until 2011. Then it was postponed again 00:28:55.819 --> 00:28:58.240 because some other high -level fugitive members 00:28:58.240 --> 00:29:01.259 were still being caught. But finally, on July 00:29:01.259 --> 00:29:05.240 6, 2018, Shoko Asahara was executed by hanging 00:29:05.240 --> 00:29:08.099 at the Tokyo detention house. 23 years after 00:29:08.099 --> 00:29:10.880 the subway attack. 23 years. And even after his 00:29:10.880 --> 00:29:13.660 death, the drama just didn't end, did it? No. 00:29:13.859 --> 00:29:16.279 The issue of what to do with his remains became 00:29:16.279 --> 00:29:20.019 a huge legal battle. Asahara, in one of his final 00:29:20.019 --> 00:29:22.319 directives, assigned his remains to his fourth 00:29:22.319 --> 00:29:25.319 daughter. And why her specifically? She had left 00:29:25.319 --> 00:29:27.980 the cult. She was very critical of him. Her plan 00:29:27.980 --> 00:29:30.440 was to have the ashes disposed out at sea so 00:29:30.440 --> 00:29:32.299 they couldn't become a shrine for his remaining 00:29:32.299 --> 00:29:34.700 followers. But his wife and other children objected. 00:29:34.740 --> 00:29:37.059 They contested it. They likely wanted to enshrine 00:29:37.059 --> 00:29:39.259 the ashes to keep the cult's worship alive and 00:29:39.259 --> 00:29:41.960 make him a martyr. As of 2024, the courts have 00:29:41.960 --> 00:29:43.960 affirmed the ashes should go to a second daughter. 00:29:44.279 --> 00:29:47.839 It's a mess that continues to this day. So let's 00:29:47.839 --> 00:29:50.319 just take a breath. That is a lot. It is a heavy, 00:29:50.359 --> 00:29:52.539 heavy history. We've gone from a bullied kid 00:29:52.539 --> 00:29:54.900 in a blind school who wanted a robot kingdom 00:29:54.900 --> 00:29:58.880 to a yoga teacher to a guru to the mastermind 00:29:58.880 --> 00:30:01.700 of a terror organization that nearly wiped out 00:30:01.700 --> 00:30:04.240 Tokyo. It's a trajectory that really shows the 00:30:04.240 --> 00:30:07.339 danger of unchecked narcissism combined with 00:30:07.339 --> 00:30:09.680 what you might call the isolation of intelligence. 00:30:09.799 --> 00:30:12.279 The isolation of intelligence. That really sticks 00:30:12.279 --> 00:30:15.200 with me because those scientists, they were brilliant. 00:30:15.690 --> 00:30:18.490 But they were lost. And Asahara found them. He 00:30:18.490 --> 00:30:20.750 used science fiction to give them a grand narrative. 00:30:21.069 --> 00:30:23.710 He used religious prophecy to validate their 00:30:23.710 --> 00:30:27.269 sense of superiority. And he used fear, the threat 00:30:27.269 --> 00:30:30.670 of bad karma, of hell, to keep them all in line. 00:30:31.160 --> 00:30:32.859 It's terrifying to think about the what -ifs, 00:30:32.940 --> 00:30:35.920 the anthrax that didn't quite work, the 1 ,000 00:30:35.920 --> 00:30:37.640 assault rifles they only managed to build one 00:30:37.640 --> 00:30:40.359 of, the helicopter they didn't fly. The 4 million 00:30:40.359 --> 00:30:42.819 lethal doses of sarin they didn't use. We talk 00:30:42.819 --> 00:30:45.079 about the Tokyo subway attack as this massive 00:30:45.079 --> 00:30:47.940 tragedy, and it absolutely was. But in reality, 00:30:48.039 --> 00:30:50.259 it was a botched job. It was a desperate last 00:30:50.259 --> 00:30:52.200 -minute distraction. If they had ever executed 00:30:52.200 --> 00:30:54.660 their real master plan, the death toll could 00:30:54.660 --> 00:30:57.119 have been in the tens of thousands, maybe millions. 00:30:57.960 --> 00:31:00.859 It really puts the fragility of public safety 00:31:00.859 --> 00:31:04.279 into perspective. It forces you to look at the 00:31:04.279 --> 00:31:06.420 people on the fringes in a different way. It 00:31:06.420 --> 00:31:08.779 raises a final really provocative thought for 00:31:08.779 --> 00:31:11.220 me. What's that? Asahara was, by all accounts, 00:31:11.460 --> 00:31:14.170 a fraud from the beginning. He sold fake medicine. 00:31:14.329 --> 00:31:17.730 He was rejected from college. He faked a levitation 00:31:17.730 --> 00:31:21.150 photo. He was a snake oil salesman through and 00:31:21.150 --> 00:31:23.869 through. A con artist with a beard. Yes. But 00:31:23.869 --> 00:31:26.369 he convinced some of the brightest minds in Japan 00:31:26.369 --> 00:31:29.170 to kill for him. He convinced doctors to breach 00:31:29.170 --> 00:31:31.529 their ethics, scientists to build gas chambers. 00:31:31.750 --> 00:31:34.660 So it forces us to ask. At what point does a 00:31:34.660 --> 00:31:37.259 guru cross the line from spiritual leader to 00:31:37.259 --> 00:31:40.000 warlords? And maybe more importantly, why didn't 00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:41.940 society stop him when he was just selling fake 00:31:41.940 --> 00:31:44.400 cures? That is the question, isn't it? At what 00:31:44.400 --> 00:31:46.880 point do we stop laughing at the weird yoga guy 00:31:46.880 --> 00:31:49.039 and start realizing he's building an army in 00:31:49.039 --> 00:31:51.460 plain sight? Exactly. We ignored him because 00:31:51.460 --> 00:31:54.579 he looked ridiculous. But ridiculous people can 00:31:54.579 --> 00:31:58.039 be very, very dangerous. Well, that is something 00:31:58.039 --> 00:31:59.720 that will definitely keep me up tonight. Thank 00:31:59.720 --> 00:32:02.460 you for listening to this deep dive. It's a dark 00:32:02.460 --> 00:32:05.099 chapter. but one we absolutely have to understand 00:32:05.099 --> 00:32:07.099 if we want to prevent the next one. Absolutely. 00:32:07.359 --> 00:32:10.400 Knowledge is really the only defense. Thanks 00:32:10.400 --> 00:32:11.740 for listening. We'll see you next time.