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Lee Seung-Heun (; born December 23, 1950), better known as Ilchi Lee, is a South Korean author and the founder of a variety of mind-body training methods, including Body & Brain (), Brain Wave Vibration, Kookhak Qigong, and DahnMuDo, all falling under the umbrella name "Brain Education" (formerly known as "Brain Respiration"). Lee started teaching his methods in a park in the 1980s, and since then, the practice has developed into an international network of for-profit and non-profit entities. Lee's practices have been criticized as pseudoscience, and his organizations as a cult.
In his adolescence he turned to the martial art of Taekwondo to help calm his restless mind. He eventually earned a fourth-level black belt, and opened a successful martial arts studio.Ilchi Lee. (2000) Healing Society. Charlottesville, Hampton Roads. He took the first term of Taekwondo master education hosted by Kukkiwon in 1972.[1] 기고 태권도 바로세우기 - 1등 인터넷뉴스 조선닷컴 After he graduated from Dankook University in 1977 with a B.S. degree in clinical pathology and physical education, he opened a health clinic, which according to his own account did well. He soon married and settled down to raise a family.
However, Lee recounts that he was still plagued by questions about the meaning of human life and the universe, even while on the surface living an ideal life. Thus, in his early thirties he set out to engage in rigorous solo training in the wilderness of Korea's Moaksan. He engaged in 21 days of ascetic practice and meditation without food, sleep or lying down. He claims that through this training he gained insights that would provide the philosophical underpinnings of his methods.
Korean religions scholar Donald Baker regards Dahn World as one of the more noteworthy among more than 200 new in South Korea that share a 'Korea-centric' view that Korea has become 'the spiritual center of the world' – with Dahn World asserting that Seung Heun Lee is a spiritual leader leading humanity toward an 'enlightenment revolution'.Buswell, Robert, ed. Introduction chapter by Donald Baker The Religions of Korea in Practice, Princeton University Press, 2007. Accessed February 5, 2008.
In 2000, Ilchi Lee became a director of the Tao Fellowship, a non-profit religious charity and educational foundation, Arizona Corporations Commission, Public Access System Tao Fellowship record. Accessed January 30, 2008. The Story of Mago Castle Sedona Live article published on official Ilchi Lee Web site.Red Rock News, Sedona, Arizona Friday, May 2, 2008 which purchased property in Sedona, Arizona to house the Sedona Ilchi Meditation Center (SIMC). Arizona Secretary of State - public records - tradenames Accessed January 30, 2008. Tao Fellowship Web page "Sedona Ilchi Meditation Center" Accessed February 1, 2008. According to their web site, the Tao Fellowship teaches and promotes Tao philosophy and provides training for a cultural movement for peace. "Mission and Activities of Tao Fellowship" Tao Fellowship Web site. Accessed February 1, 2008. The Sedona Ilchi Meditation Center is described as "the home from which the ideals of Tao Fellowship may flower and go forth to awaken the human consciousness," and as the location of 12 "energy vortexes". (Sedona is believed by many visitors and locals to contain healing "energy vortexes".) Frommers article on Sedona's "Vortex Power" Described by Dr. Woo as the "heart of the 'world mission' or 'global management,'" SIMC hosts 3,000 participants annually from around the world in a variety of programs based in Lee's Brain Education system, including youth camps, residential healing, retreat programs and advanced Dahn training programs such as Dahn Healer School. Dahn Yoga Web site FAQ. Accessed February 10, 2008.Red Rock News, Sedona, Arizona Friday, April 18, 2008 Eventually SIMC was renamed the Sedona Mago Retreat Center (SMRC). ("Mago" means "Mother Earth" in Korean.)
According to his official website, Lee is no longer in direct management of the Dahn Centers, instead focusing on developing educational applications of his training system and serving as president of the consulting firm BR Consulting in Sedona, AZ,http://www.ilchi.com/profile-of-ilchi-lee/ Official Ilchi Lee Web site. Accessed February 1, 2008. which provides services to corporations that provide his training programs, including management of trainer education programs, training and licensing of trainers, marketing and media relations, business analysis and planning. BR Consulting, Inc. Official Web site. Accessed February 19, 2008.
On January 8, 2009, Lee held a seminar at the United Nations on "The Role of Brain Education in Global Mental Health," as the president of "International Brain Education Association". Coincided with the seminar, New York City declared this day "IBREA Brain Education Day," recognizing Brain Education's contribution to education, health and well-being of New York citizens. Today is Ilchi Lee Day August 9 is Chancellor Ilchi Lee Day in Washington, DC
Fifteen American cities including Atlanta, Cambridge, Las Vegas and San Francisco have declared Ilchi Lee Day, in recognition of Lee's contributions through his original Brain Education.
On September 12, 2018, Ilchi Lee received the award, José Simeón Cañas Slave Liberator Order, by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of El Salvador as the president of IBREA Foundation, a non-governmental organization in special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) that Ilchi Lee founded. The award was for the culture of peace Lee's Brain Education program brought to El Salvador's public schools. Brain Education has been taught in Salvadoran schools since 2011, beginning with a pilot project in Distrito Italia, an area on the northern outskirts of the capital of San Salvador. Brain Education is a five-step mind-body method that includes brain exercises, meditation, and mindfulness training. At the time of the award, 2,357 educators in El Salvador had been certified to teach Brain Education, and the Ministry of Education and the Teacher Welfare Institute continue to support the program.
Lee also believes peace can only be achieved if humanity gives up nationalistic identities in favor of a single common identity. He contends that this identity should be rooted in people's mutual appreciation of and reliance upon the Earth, what he refers to as the "Earth Human" concept.Ilchi Lee. Mago's Dream(2002) Sedona, Healing Society.
He believes that the Brain Wave Vibration training he created can help change negative thoughts which generate negative brain waves to positive ones,Red Rock News, Sedona, Arizona, February 15, 2008 and understand the effects their actions have upon their brains.Red Rock News, Sedona, Arizona, June 6, 2008
In his book Human Technology, Lee asserts that people should become more self-sufficient in their own health care. Citing what he believes to be modern civilization's over-reliance on pharmaceuticals and specialized health care, he encourages people to rediscover what he regards as natural means of health maintenance, such as the traditional Asian methods discussed in the book, including acupressure and moxibustion.
The South Korean Government conferred the Order of Civil Merit on Lee in 2002, 맛있는 정보! 신선한 뉴스! - 서울신문 honoring his dissemination of Korean traditional philosophy and culture throughout the world through his founding of the Institute for Traditional Korean Cultural Studies (국학원 Gukhakwon, also known as the Kukhak Institute), an educational non-profit organization devoted to the study and development of traditional Korean philosophy Kukhak Institute University of Brain Education, (a/k/a Graduate University for Peace, Korea), founded by Seung Heun Lee (Ilchi Lee). Accessed January 30, 2008.
Through this and other affiliated NGOs and projects, such as 'Erecting 369 Tan-gun Statues in Schoolyards', which proved controversial in Korea in the late 1990s,Seth, Michael J. "Myth, Memory and Reinvention in Korean: The Case of Tan'gun" James Madison University. Accessed February 12, 2008. Page 10–11.Lee, Timothy "Beleaguered Success: How Korean Evangelicalism Fared in the 1990s" Page 20–21. Accessed February 12, 2008. Lee contributes to the revival of Korea's nationalist movement by mobilizing large numbers to revere Korea's legendary 2333 BCE divine founding father Tan'gun or, an indigenous tradition said to exist prior to the influence of foreign religions. University of Brain Education Web page Accessed February 18, 2008. Lee advances the belief that Tan'gun practiced a 15,000-year-old Korean value called 'Hongik Ingan Ewah Saegae' ('Widely benefit humanity, rightfully harmonize the world') and that an ancient scripture exists, 'Chun Bu Kyung' or, that reveals that Heaven, Earth, and Human exist as One in each person. Lee maintains that this is the core Korean spirit that will prove key to Korean reunification as well as world peace, an ideal he contends to be attainable through his 'brain education' programs - resulting in a 'one world communal culture' of perfectly healthy and peaceful 'Power Brains' or 'New Humans'. University of Brain Education Web page Accessed February 18, 2008. University of Brain Education Web page Accessed February 18, 2008. Kookhakwon Web site Accessed February 18, 2008. University of Brain Education, Web page Accessed February 18, 2008Ilchi Lee Peaceology. (2003). Healing Society.
Lee categorizes all of his training techniques under one or more of the five sequential steps that comprise Brain Education. The claimed focus of each step is as follows:
Lee teaches that while the brain is the primary focus of his training methods, the health of the physical body as a whole is of primary concern in the initial phase of training (Brain Sensitizing). Exercises and practices followed during this phase are heavily influenced by the notion of ki energy as it is understood in Traditional Korean medicine.Ilchi Lee. (2003) Meridian Exercise for Self-Healing. Volume 1. Sedona, Healing Society. This typically includes a variety of exercises that are said to be designed to open up the energy meridian system of the body and work to open up the body's seven major energy centers, known as chakras.Ilchi Lee. (2005) Healing Chakra: Light to Awaken My Soul. Sedona, Healing Society.
One of the mental and physical health enhancement techniques that Ilchi Lee created, Brain Wave VibrationIlchi Lee. (2009) "Brain Wave Vibration". Sedona, Best Life Media. (head-shaking), was used as a kind of moving meditation in a research study published in the international journal, Neuroscience Letters, in July 2010. Using two psychological questionnaires, this study suggested that regular practitioners of Brain Wave Vibration were less stressed and experienced more positive emotions and fewer psychosomatic symptoms. As well, regular Brain Wave Vibration practitioners had more dopamine in their blood than the healthy control group. The Ministry of Science and Technology of South Korea funded the research. Researchers from several departments of Seoul National University and the university hospital collaborated for the research along with the Korea Institute of Brain Science, of which Ilchi Lee is president.
Lee says that although the underlying philosophy has remained the same, he continues to "refine and improve" the methods.Tyler Midkiff. Ilchi Lee speaks about the aging brain. Sedona Red Rock News. February 15, 2008 He recounts in one newspaper report that the techniques have evolved from breathing methods to meditation to its current emphasis on the brain. An early English-language book by Lee, Dahn Meditation, which was published in 1997, focuses primarily on Ki development through Lee's "practical and modern" version of traditional Korean Dahn Hak techniques and does not mention any exercises specific to brain development.Lee, Seung Heun. Dahn Meditation: A Spiritual Exercise to Perfect Health and Happiness Seoul, Dahn Publishing. The book describes stretching exercises ("do-in"), meditation for energy sensitivity ("ji gam"), energy dance ("dahn mu"), and energy building exercises ("haeng gong").
In The Call of Sedona, Ilchi Lee shares his personal memoirs and the inspirations he received in Sedona, Arizona. Among these were claimed experiences of being visited in his mind, (in meditation) by Lester Levenson, a master who had recently dropped his body, who urged Lee to buy his Sedona Method group's Sedona retreat property, which Lee later bought after much vacillation, due mainly to the price, but he found a way to handle it. The book also provides a range of advice on meditation and spirituality that claims to benefit anyone. Though millions of visitors are drawn each year to Sedona, Arizona's red rock formations, Lee believes there is much more to be gained than what can be seen with the eye. Recounting his own experiences, he here tells how readers can find inner strength and guidance by experiencing the spirit of Sedona. According to one review, "The Call of Sedona offers powerful guidance for all people seeking to connect with their inner selves, nature, and the spirit of this magical region."
Lee is donating 30% of his royalties from the sale of his book to three Sedona area charities: Camp Soaring Eagle, Yavapai Big Brothers Big Sisters, and the Sedona Community Center.
Lee's organization has also been described as a cult by Steven Hassan.
The Court dismissed ten plaintiffs in 2012. The other seventeen plaintiffs withdrew them and settled the case by mutual release. No money was paid to any of the plaintiffs by any defendants in this case. On the other hand, a judgment was entered against seven of the dismissed plaintiffs awarding defendants $11,072.07 in litigation costs.
Two plaintiffs acknowledged that they brought this lawsuit primarily because of the misrepresentations made by their former attorney Ryan Kent about their claims and his ability to handle their case.
This case was finally dismissed entirely on April 1, 2013 by court order.
Jessica Harrelson filed emotional distress claims against Lee in both the Barba et al. v. Lee et al. case and another case filed in the State of Massachusetts. On January 31, 2012, the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts dismissed Harrelson's case, finding that "Lee filed a motion... providing the court with a number of exhibits that tended to disprove, or at the very least, shed serious doubt, on Harrelson's substantive claims." On April 6, 2012, Harrelson was also dismissed in the Barba et al. v. Lee et al. case for failure to prosecute.
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