by Caleb Fort
Daily Lobo
The Body and Brain Club, a student group, is trying to recruit people into a cult, said student Monica Demarco.
She joined the club in the fall semester of 2005. She said she was interested in the club because she saw fliers saying it would help reduce stress. She was also interested in the martial arts aspect of it. At the suggestion of the club's officers, she was soon taking classes at the Dahn Yoga Center on Central Avenue, she said.
By December, Dahn instructors were pressuring her to attend a week-long yoga camp at Dahn Yoga's headquarters outside of Sedona, Ariz., she said.
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"That's when a lot of shadier things started happening," she said.
Dahn instructors told her she would receive training at the camp to become a martial arts instructor.
"But the first session wasn't devoted to martial arts," she said. "Everyone has to meditate on their inner child and cry over their inner pain. It was really uncomfortable because that's not what I thought I was there for."
Is it a cult?
Charlotte Connors, a Dahn spokeswoman, said the organization is not a cult.
"It's actually, to me, the antithesis of that," she said. "It really empowers members to be the managers of their own health, and use those tools however they want."
The camp instructors kept their students busy and exhausted, Demarco said. Students had to meditate for several hours a day, and they went to sleep late and got up early, she said.
Several members of the camp were in poor health, Demarco said.
"Everyone was getting sick throughout the camp, and the leader said we were expected to get sick because we were purging negative energy from our bodies," she said. "I don't think it was a result of purging that energy. I think they were putting something in the food, or it was just because we were so exhausted."
Instructors would not intentionally make anyone feel ill, Connors said.
"Our primary focus is health," she said. "Being a staff member or student, I always felt like if I was sick or tired I could take a break, or (go) back to my room and rest."
A campus connection
Andrew Tongate, president of the UNM Body and Brain Club, said the club is not a recruitment device for Dahn Yoga. Nobody from the club pressured Demarco to attend the camp, he said.
The club is meant to promote an "integration and utilization of physical, mental and spiritual capacities for the purpose of individual and community harmonization," according to the Student Activities Center Web site.
"Body and Brain didn't ever tell any of the members to go on that trip," he said. "That was something that Dahn Yoga was promoting as part of their business."
The club does not have a partnership with Dahn Yoga, he said. The club does not receive any funding from it and the club does not try to recruit students into Dahn Yoga, he said. Nevertheless, Dahn Yoga is an effective way for club members to achieve some of their goals, he said.
However, the club Web site lists Dahnhak - another name for Dahn Yoga - as one of its sponsors. The Body and Brain Web site also lists the founder and co-chairman of the club as Ilchi Lee, the national founder of Dahn Yoga.
Connors said Lee is no longer involved in running Dahn Yoga.
"He serves Dahn Yoga on a consulting basis only," she said. "He doesn't have control over any of the day-to-day operations."
The only connection between the club and Dahn Yoga is they use many of the same techniques, she said.
The centers teach stretching, breathing exercises and meditation, she said.
The Web site also links to several other Web sites, including those of profit and nonprofit organizations. On all of them, national founder Ilchi Lee is listed as being involved in some way, usually as a founder or director.
That is a cause for concern, Demarco said.
"I really think that it is still a recruitment tool," she said. "All of it seems like a means to an end."
A global movement
There are at least 18 other clubs on campuses all over the world, according to the Brain and Body Web site. The UNM club has three or four active members, Tongate said. It has been at UNM since September 2005, he said.
Tongate said the club meets once a week on campus and once a week at the Dahn Yoga Center. However, he said the meeting at the center is optional.
"It's kind of a courtesy to us," he said. "They offer another class, which is by no means obligatory."
There are three centers in Albuquerque and one in Santa Fe. There are more than 600 centers worldwide, including in Korea, Brazil and the United Kingdom, according to the Dahn Yoga Web site. There are more than 200,000 members, Connors said.
Debbie Morris, student activities director, met with Tongate and Crystal Kralian, vice president of the club, on Jan. 30 to discuss Demarco's accusations. She said she was convinced the group is not doing anything wrong.
"Anyone who goes to a meeting of this group should not feel pressured to join one of these yoga centers," she said. "The officers seemed reasonable - they understood that they need to be separate."
The club and Dahn Yoga provide many positive things, Tongate said.
"What I've gained through these exercises is a very strong sense of self," he said. "I'm more able to listen to myself and more able to take care of myself. It's a great way to release stress and a great way to build confidence."
The club and Dahn Yoga are not religious organizations, he said.
"I don't feel that there's any religious context to what we do," he said. "We're cultivating our own mind and body, potentially for spiritual benefit - but it's not our intention to be a religious group."
Demarco warned students to be careful about joining the club.
"Just be really cautious, because it is connected to a much bigger, very manipulative organization," she said. "If you want to be in Body and Brain Club, that's fine. But just be aware that it's all intertwined."
Other students in the Body and Brain Club declined to comment.
