A Japanese cult which threatened to fire all 111 members of its own orchestra if they did not undergo a "spiritual initiation ceremony" involving secret mantras and vibrating electrodes, has established five branches in Moscow.


So far, parents' attempts to take their children out of the cult or to restrict its activities have met with little or no success.


Marina Yakut joined Kiren, the cult's Moscow-based orchestra in January 1994. Lured by the its high level of professionalism and by pay approximately 10 times as high as that of musicians in the most prominent Russian orchestras, she agreed to attend Aum Shinrikhyo lectures and play what she described as "a combination of astral music and plagiarized classics" composed by the cult's "master," Shoko Asahara. But a year later, on an eight-day tour of Japan, the musicians were told they had to participate in an "initiation ceremony" to increase their energy and creativity.


According to a report signed by Yakut and 14 other members of the orchestra, the musicians were blindfolded and then given headphones into which Asahara chanted a mantra. This released powerful vibrations through electrodes connected to the players' bodies. Many reported feeling feverish, dizzy and nauseous. According to the report, when they tried to detach themselves from the machines and leave the building, they found that monks were approaching the center in cars from all directions.


Aum Shinrikhyo shamans threatened to fire those who would not participate, and when some of the musicians tried to leave, the shamans pursued them in cars and took them back to the center, the report said.


Early the following morning, the buses returned and the musicians were taken back to their hotel. Two days later, as scheduled, the musicians returned to Moscow, whereupon almost half of them resigned from the orchestra. Today, they are campaigning to have Aum Shinrikyo banned in Russia.


First registered with the Justice Ministry in 1992, the sect lost its license two years later when it was found to have forged its original documents. Weeks later, however, it presented new documents to the Moscow City Government under a slightly different name and received a new license. While the current law on religious organizations forbids such groups from interfering with human rights, many have criticized it for being too vague and inadequately protecting citizens from cult activity. Parliament is to consider a new and more specific bill later this year.


At the largest of the sect's five Moscow centers, the monks denied detailed knowledge of the initiation process, merely calling it a "secret technique." "I would love to receive an initiation like that," said Tatiana Nyrikova, 30, who became a shaman last March, "They have very good results and often make you understand other peoples' minds and karmas."


Nyrikova also denied claims by the Moscow Committee for the Protection of Young People that Aum Shinrikhyo is luring people towards membership under false pretenses, damaging their health and separating them from their families.


But Boris Abramkin, tells a different story. Five months after a Kiren concert drew his daughter Yulia, 17, to the sect, she announced that, together with his ex-wife, Flyura, she was going to dedicate her life to Aum Shinrikhyo and become a shaman. She abandoned her music studies and sold her violin when she joined the sect, Abramkin said. Yulia, meanwhile, is not permitted to see her father outside Aum Shinrikhyo premises and refuses to take his telephone calls.


In an interview at one of the group's Moscow centers, where photographers are not admitted, she said her father did not understand her and that she was afraid of him because he had once tried to physically force her away from the center. Asked if she was allowed to leave, she replied, "Why does it matter whether I'm allowed to, since I don't want to anyway?"