Master of Brain “Techknowledgey”
ILCHI LEE DOESN’T SEEM a likely entertainer. The mastermind behind a movement called Brain Education is serious business and rarely makes public presentations. So when he takes the stage at a hotel in Koreatown the brain philosopher-educator plays to a capacity crowd.
Ilchi Lee is operating from the premise that, “Humanity, by focusing on the brain as the final determinant of human consciousness and behavior, will unite people worldwide in creating a peaceful, sustainable way of life within this century.”
Ilchi Lee
Like everything else Lee has created, it’s a decidedly high-minded, discernibly ambitious vision.
Brain Education, a system Lee developed for mastering the mind, and subsequently life, is the next frontier for the man who mounted a transcontinental movement called Dahn Yoga: a Korean Yoga system that places emphasis on physical, emotional and spiritual well-being through exercises as a blend of Yoga, tai chi, bodywork and martial arts. Dahn Yoga now boasts over 1,000 centers around the world.
It would be a gross understatement to say Ilchi Lee likes a challenge. Now in his sixties, engaged in what might seem like a massive undertaking for a normal human, Brain Education looks like just another seemingly insurmountable mountain that the Dahn master has climbed.
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Brain Education (BE) for enhanced learning is a program to promote physical, emotional and social well-being, and encourage higher achievement. It involves a series of meticulously researched and developed exercises specifically designed to improve physical balance, emotional regulation, test-taking skills, patience and concentration across multiple subjects. In short, to educate the brain.
Ilchi’s system is outlined and delineated into five trademarked steps in his new book, Brain Wave Vibration: Getting Back into the Rhythm of a Happy, Healthy Life:
- Brain Sensitizing™ awakens the brain/body senses, stimulates blood circulation and enhances awareness of the brain and its functions.
- Brain Versatilizing™ focuses on the flexibility needed to free us from fixed habits and patterns and opens the brain to new information.
- Brain Refreshing™ releases negative emotional memories and habits as well as encourages the development of emotional intelligence.
- Brain Integrating™ unites different functional areas of the brain to release latent capabilities and improves communication between the left and right hemispheres.
- Brain Mastering™ achieves greater mastery of the brain and control of executive function, enhances decision-making abilities.
The system utilizes about 360 activities involving movement, breath and energy to achieve mastery over the brain. To understand BE you need to do it.
And to understand where Lee is coming from, you need to understand where he’s been. A roster of his accomplishments, including the thirtyone books he’s written, doesn’t really tell the story. A good point of departure is the first peak ascended by the child of the Korean War who struggled with attention deficit disorder. In retrospect, this action foreshadowed a life of innovative, adventurous service.
Lee climbed his first mountain as a kid in Korea. He gathered all the trash from a local stream that people had turned into a garbage dump and endeavored to cart it up to higher ground. On top of the garbage heap, he planted a pumpkin garden. When the crop came to harvest, he gave the pumpkins to the villagers.
A few years down the road, he climbed another mountain. Instead of planting pumpkin seeds, he was digging for a vision. At this time a college grad (after failing to be admitted twice) with a wife, kids and a job, he scaled the peaks of Mt. Moak. Seeking deeper meaning, Lee went on a vision quest: twenty-one days and nights with no food or sleep. He emerged enlightened and imbued with the vision for Dahn Yoga, but again, this is Ilchi Lee and that was just the beginning.
His brain training programs is a conduit for nothing less ambitious than his ultimate goal of world peace. Currently, he focuses on research and educational innovation, and collaboration with global leaders to effect peace.
After his LA presentation, I sat down with Ilchi Lee and his translator.
SS: How did you get from where you were to where you are now?
IL: When I was in school I couldn’t adjust to being a student; I had problems focusing. I had ADD. I wasn’t happy. I couldn’t be peaceful and through the process of that experience, I wanted to be happy and I wanted to be peaceful. And then I came to know that the answer to that is in my brain. And I became enlightened to the fact that I need to use my brain well.
SS: I was fascinated to know that some years back you climbed a mountain in Korea. Sort of like a Native American Vision Quest. I
understand you had the intention to understand the meaning of your life.
IL: The ultimate question was, “Who am I?” I had to know that to know what I stood for. SS: So…who are you? IL: Currently I’m in the process of sharing or delivering what I became enlightened to at that time. I felt that if the enlightenment is not that helpful to health, happiness and peace, then it is not enlightenment. My enlightenment has to do with the health, happiness and peace and the peace of humanity.
SS: That’s the purpose of enlightenment? Health, happiness and peace and the peace of humanity?
IL: Through enlightenment, you come to know that we as humanity need peace because even I as an individual need peace. What I came to realize through my enlightenment was that the whole world needs to be healthy, happy and peaceful.
SS: Americans have a reputation for being undisciplined, mentally and physically. Do you see them as a viable fertile ground for Brain Education in terms of a demographic that would benefit more than others?
IL: That is my hope. People don’t really know very much when it comes to the brain. They think they know a lot about God… but I think they think they don’t know about the brain. But nowadays there’s more interest in the brain…That’s where my interests lie. That’s why I call this “human techknowledegy.”
To read Sam Slovick’s interview with Ilchi Lee in its entirety and to experience the prayer Ilchi Lee offered to the United Nations Millennium World Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders, visit: layogamagazine.com.
For more information about Ilchi Lee, visit: Ilchi.com. For more information about Dahn Yoga worldwide, visit: dahnyoga.com.
Sam Slovick is a journalist/documentary filmmaker living in Los Angeles. He is a regular contributor to LA Yoga, LA Weekly and other publications. Blog: samslovick.com; Site:thecurelist.com
By Sam Slovick
Award-winning journalist, documentary director and long-term LA Yoga contributor Sam Slovick is the director, writer and producer of the Radicalized documentary, currently working on the Kirtan Road Dogs documentary.