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I came across your Shim Sung entry . I am a concerned significant other of a Dahn member who recently attended shim sung. I noticed your blog was from 2002 and am just wondering if you are still active with Dahn and what your thoughts on the organization and Shim Sung are 6 years later.It's been difficult getting across the negative feedback on the organization. Any insight on your part would be much appreciated.
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After all this time I find that I have mixed feelings about my Dahn experience. Back in about 2000 I started attending Dahn classes regularly, I stayed with it for about two years. I liked the regularity of the classes, and the staff/teachers were very welcoming. I've been involved in Yoga and Tai chi over the years, so the principles that they worked with were very familiar to me. I experienced positive change during that time, becoming more in touch with myself, my emotions and with humanity. I still miss that aspect of it. On the other hand, there were some aspects of the experience that I disliked, mostly financial. There was always a financial angle to things, whether it was the upcoming workshop, or buying another uniform, or whatever. And the expense was always higher than seemed reasonable, even for a two day weekend workshop. I attended a few of these, and I felt that they generally delivered what they promised. THe last of them was Shim Sung.
Since my time there I have read some of the stories about their workings, and many of them jibe with my experience, that they are adept at extracting cash from people. It's not a real ripoff, you do get some value for money, but the focus on cash is a turnoff, especially for such a spiritual organization. I don't think it's a cult in any way, as some of the reports have it.
As I wrote in my post, the Shim Sung workshop was a positive experience for me. However, afterwards, I found myself drifting away and losing interest. Part of that had to do with the flaws becoming more obvious. It is an emotionally "restructuring" experience, it took several weeks afterwards before I felt close to normal again. It really does break you out of your old emotional habits, and it takes a while to get used to it and get used to reacting to things differently.
That's the overview of my experience. Can you tell me more about the concerns that you have ? I'd be happy to go into more detail if you have more questions.
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Let me start by thanking you so much for taking the time to respond. I think your input is valuable given that you've experienced Dahn over the past 8 years.
My concerns stem from my own personal experience. My fiance's mother was and still is a regular member. She always spoke so highly about Dahn because it's been able to change her life by getting her off of medication and in control of high blood pressure. Yoga has always appealed to me and I had tried some classes previously at my regular gym, so I had some concept of the practice and what to expect. When I went into Dahn for the first time I realized nothing about this was yoga. I was, however, really intrigued by the energy ball exercise and felt generally well after my first class. After my first class I was told to stay for a special assessment, where I laid on my back and was felt by the instructor. The assessment was that I needed to heal myself because when my feet were relaxed they naturally pointed in a 45 degree angle instead of straight up, and because my palms were sweaty. I was told that I needed to purchase a 6 month membership in order to achieve this healing. I rejected the frivolous assessment by saying I'm not ready now and was quizzed as to why I didn't want to join. A high pressure sales tactic pursued that would put a used car salesman to shame. As a last resort the 6 month membership price was cut in half, but I still did not budge. I found the sales tactics to be very aggressive and the assessment results to be ridiculous.
Last year I went to the Illchi Lee Meditation Center in Sedona, Arizona, and this is when I became extremely uncomfortable. Most members seemed possessed and infatuated with Illchi Lee. During sharing periods, most members were venting about some sort of traumatic life experience or dysfunction in their personal lives that had caused a lot of pain. I noticed Dahn was being used as a channel to vent, and almost all members had major issues, pouring their deepest emotions to complete strangers. I began to notice how the term "healing" was being used by Dahn to sell accessories (i.e., $1000 yoga mat that has energy, $3000 gold turtle with "energy", participation in phoenix project, healer school (~$10k), volunteering in centers).
I find that prospective members turn to Dahn as an alternative to the gym or other forms of exercise, but the mission of Dahn is to continually recruit members and increase your involvement with the organization. Eventually this attracts unsuspecting members to extra workshops and events which all cost extra money.
I can see the similarities of this organization to a cults for the following reasons:
- The organization has one founder (who is a self proclaimed doctor with unaccredited and unverifiable degrees) who has fanatic followers. His books and other products are continually promoted for member purchase. No other Yoga or exercise based organization has the hierarchy structure that Dahn has.
- There are multiple forms of recruitment that regular members are encouraged to participate in after they have been convinced that Dahn is for everyone and everyone must participate (this is notion shared by my future mother in law). The forms recruitment include but are not limited to Dahnhak, DahnMudo, Brain and Body Club (on college campuses), Healer School, Phoenix Project, participation in Yeha, Healer School, Shim Sung, etc.
- Member who have never tried yoga before are mislead by the centers title: "Dahn Yoga". Dahn resemblance to Yoga is slim to none.
Although this may seem a little extreme for some, in some ways I am able to equivocate this organizations practices to that of a religious organization.
- forms of recruitment:crusades::illchi lee:jesus christ (I missed that one on the SATs!)
My concerns stemmed from my own personal experience and all the research I did just reaffirmed my thoughts. It wasn't just me! No other organization that calls itself Yoga has such negative member feedback.
A couple weeks ago, the love of my life went to Shim Sung after being persuaded by the center's masters and her devout mom. She had mixed feelings about it at the beginning, but was then signed up. The weekends happen to be the only time we have together, as I work full-time during the week a ways away, and the weekends are the only times we have to plan our wedding. So imagine my excitement when I found out that an exercise as pure as yoga, a typical weekday night activity, an alternative to the gym, will require 17 hours of emotional drainage to a complete stranger...
That just crossed the line and I had to step in. I think any weak member will be taken advantage of by Dahn. It's okay once in a while to workout and feel better about yourself (especially if it gets you off of meds and controls your blood pressure), but please don't give your life away to Illchi Lee's business.
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unDahnYouself
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