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They typically work and meditate 12-14 hours a day and are not paid.

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http://ozma.blogs.com/ozmalinks/2010/04/coming-soon-the-cults.html#comments

Having looked into Maum Meditation out of curiousity,i found it to
be kind of scammy.It made me uncomfortable for several reasons.
The person on the phone said it costs no money to learn.Once I
came over for the introduction,I was told they need $150.00 a month
to come over and meditate.But yet they call themselves 'non-profit'.
Hmmmm..The person really seemed hot to get me to start right away
and that I really should come over all the time.Hmmm....
I didn't like the idea that you have to work thru like 8 levels
to attain,"Oneness".Any self-help program that has many levels,is
a scam,and they want more money,too.These guys look like brain-washing
to me,and they are to be avoided.
The booklet tells us there has been no other way until now to
discard your old,false mental pictures.This also a lie.
AVOID.

Posted by: Stefan M. | July 26, 2010 at 08:56 PM

i've been practising Maum Meditation and It's been really good for me. I have benefitted alot from it.

When I started, I went to their free seminar. Not like steven, when I called them, I was told that the seminar was free but there would be a fee once I decide to join. They also explained that they are non-profit too that the fee goes into the rent and food for students.etc. Not profit-making. I guess Non-profit does not mean they provide everything free.

I find the method quite simple yet very effective.
I just thought Id share my idea too. it's not all that bad. :-)

Thanks :-)




Posted by: roeun | July 30, 2010 at 08:52 AM

It is not a cult nor a scam. The one rule of the universe we all know in life is that there is no free lunch. We can't expect just to take and have without return. The small fee pays the overhead depending upon the center's location and number of students etc. quick rundown:

I have practiced 5.5 years...and so has my spouse. We are now the main instructors in Chicago and will spend the rest of our lives helping people discard their mind and false picture world within. The only reason people have a problem with this practice is due to them not truly discarding whole-heartedly their own mind world within their self. If practiced with the brain, it just becomes a burdensome challenge as the "self", which is you/your mind, just gets in the way. One cannot simply hold onto all the things in his/her mind and try to stuff the universe mind within their self. The universe, which is our true mind, and this method thereof, simply will not allow for it. One must truly discard and continuously throw away the false mind, which is just the life lived according to whatever experiences were encountered and stored in that mind - and discard the image of body and self existence, exactly how much it has been swallowed in one's lifetime. The only reason a Maum student has trouble is precisely this: He/she is attempting, like many students that get a bit off-track here and there, to fit Maum Meditation to his/her standard of thinking, his/her idea of what should be or shouldn't be...rather than just throw away his/her standards as the method indicates. Those standards are what is false. Why are 6 billion people living separately within their own standards? Those standards just come from whatever mind accumulated and stored within the self since birth. My country, your country. My religion, your religion. My family, your family. Prior to humans existing on the earth, did that kind of mind and separation exist? Newp, it did not. So who created that mind world around which humans chase right now? Yep, we did. Hence, the reference to eating the apple of good and evil etc. Maum Meditation doesn't create pressure to believe something or think something...or not believe something for that matter. The only pressure is the instructors enthusiasm to keep a student meditating as much as possible because all humans' minds are a mess and it takes a ton of time, work and effort to clean it out. Maum teaches people to get rid of all of their standards, conceptions, beliefs and disbeliefs...the entire life of accumulated mind. After all, what is one's standard and conception/opinion, belief/disbelief, like/dislike, right/wrong etc? It's simply the picture world - the mind one has within - that is only the accumulation from birth until the present day of experiences absorbed and stored in the mind and body. It comes from parents, cultural surroundings, TV, books, what we decide to put in our self or not put in...memories/pictures, the emotions, feelings...creating a prison and filter through which one lives currently. That's why people cannot live as the Truth, as one with the universe and with each other, and always in the present. We all live in the past, living through the filter of life. This picture world filter was created all the way back by the first humans that appeared. Rather than just living in the world, they created their own world, separate from the True world, in their own mind. That world filtered through to our ancestors and still exists within us in the form of money, power, family, pride, fame, enemies, love and so on. All of that world inside of our mind is not real. It is not the True mind, creator's mind. It's all just false mind. It's false because it is not the true mind, the original mind of the universe. If you just get rid of this mind world inside you, the true mind reveals itself. You only subtract your way to the answers. Subtract, Subtract, Subtract. Not put more information, beliefs, standards, conceptions and garbage into you, hence, dividing the self even further. We're too packed as it is. Very simple. But for some people who are deeply attached to their mind world and cannot truly discard it, it becomes a difficult challenge for them to do this meditation. Why would we want to keep a mind that is not even real? It's not real because it's full of pictures and feelings/emotions tied to those pictures that are just human mind and experiences. Only the universe mind, creator's mind, is true. Maum Meditation is the path to become the Truth. No pictures, separation of you and I, your country/my country, your religion/my religion. Living as the one True mind and becoming one with each other and God, the universe, the origin of everything, is Maum Meditation. You guys need this meditation. All of mankind does. That is understood around level 5 incidentally. Hope I've helped.

Posted by: Maum Chicago | August 10, 2010 at 11:24 PM

The new post of your blog is very brilliant!I enjoys your blog quite a lot and at the same time, I had learned a lot from YOU. Today is monday. WISH YOU AND YOUR FAMILY HAPPY AND HEALTH!

Posted by: air jordan 11 | October 31, 2010 at 07:24 PM

its actually now monday

Posted by: billy | November 01, 2010 at 12:54 AM

Don't part with your illusions . When they are gone you may still exist , but you have ceased to live.

Posted by: cheap jordans | November 11, 2010 at 10:35 PM

Stefan makes excellent, valid points. Research into the group reveals sinister mind control. Look out for cult of personality, unquestioning obedience to their teachings, claim to absolute truths, and asking for lots of money and more money! There are many groups out there masquerading as self-help/enlightenment teaching but in fact, taking advantage of vulnerable, trusting people. Enlightenment is not about finishing certain number of steps and then you are done. It is a lifetime process. If the goal is to help/enlighten people, it should be donation-based, not a must-pay to learn.

Posted by: SeeClearly | November 16, 2010 at 10:00 AM

A Maum Meditation Center opened up in our neighborhood a few months ago. This "non-profit" organization paid almost a million dollars for the house! Non-profit indeed! Now there is even less parking in our area because of their frequent events and meditation classes.

Posted by: Sceptical | January 01, 2011 at 08:27 PM

All this is is our infatuation with the Orient. Since the dawn of time, through the Crusades, and up until the globalized present, the West has always had a strange fascination with the exotic East. With Asian culture, Asian women, etc. I think a bunch of lower middle class Koreans with egos took advantage of this. That's all. It's about money-making and praise.


Posted by: Devin | February 01, 2011 at 04:46 PM

I think the second comment on here said pretty much what I would want to say.

The fee for Maum Meditation is consistent all throughout the levels of the meditation and the level system is just there to slightly adapt the method for the expanding consciousness to subtract the false more completely, effectively and efficiently.

Maum Meditation is about the ultimate Truth. All it says is that the ultimate Truth is the real world. It is reality. It is knowing that the material and the non-material are actually one and there is no separation in this world except in peoples mind. This Truth has been the basis of every genuine spiritual practice or religion. Nothing fancy about it, it is just a method to eliminate that which distracts the mind from recognizing this Truth.

I have found it to be vastly more effective than anything else I have tried to give some sort of solace to the critical, questioning mind that did not know why it existed; what it's purpose was. It was a restless mind that was caught up in all sorts of stories.

I hope you and all people are able to get rid of the false mind that keeps one thinking that there is something that needs to change before everything is just as it is, and having complete peace with that.

Posted by: Nathan Klein | April 07, 2011 at 07:16 PM

Maum Chicago wrote: "The only reason people have a problem with this practice is due to them not truly discarding whole-heartedly their own mind world within their self."

Are you kidding?!! Our "own mind worlds", good and bad, are what make us unique! Get rid of that and you're left with a drone, a husk, a follower. Problems need to be faced, owned, and worked through, not blotted out and ignored! By resolving issues, we become more human.

How much money does founder Woo Myung make a year as head of Maum Meditation? Is he open about his salary, or is this information hidden? I would like to know the Truth. It would clarify his true self for us.

Posted by: Blue Coyote | May 31, 2011 at 11:58 AM

Nathan Klein wrote: "Maum Meditation is about the ultimate Truth[...]...knowing that the material and the non-material are actually one and there is no separation in this world except in peoples mind."

Of course they are not one! If they were not one, no-one would have to eat, seek shelter, or charge fees! This is not a trick of our human minds, this is reality!

Nathan Klein wrote: "I hope you and all people are able to get rid of the false mind that keeps one thinking that there is something that needs to change before everything is just as it is, and having complete peace with that."

Suspect as well is the terminology on the latest 20-page Maum booklet I've read, using terms like "false mind", "false self", etc., referring to Woo Myung as "the great teacher" (pg 13), or this: "Maum Meditation allows me to live freely, without judgement and with gratitude because I am free of my "self"." (pg 15).

Then there is the blurb on founder Woo Myung whom it says "In January of 1996, while meditationg in the mountains of South Korea, Woo Myung became enlightened." (pg 05)

REALLY? In the MOUNTAINS of SOUTH KOREA? How come none of these guys ever become enlightened on a city bus, sitting at a stoplight, or laying in a hammock in their garden? C'mon. Woo Myung is a BUSINESSMAN. Helpful to all or not, non-profit or not, Myung earns money from this endeavor, as do other Maum "teachers".




Posted by: Blue Coyote | May 31, 2011 at 12:26 PM

What squicked me out is the "Harvard University Honors Maum Meditation Guide" untruth at the end of the 2010 brochure. There's a repro of the certificate, so you can see that the org rented conference space AT Harvard and at the conference, the org honored this person. Harvard just happened to be the location.

Not a good sign.

Posted by: Anon | June 04, 2011 at 09:26 AM

A Korean friend of mine joined Maum Meditation in Seoul, a little while after her sister died. She started out with a bit of meditation, which soon became daily multi-hour sessions which interfered with her normal sleeping patterns. Some nights she was only getting five hours sleep.

When I went over to visit with another mutual friend, it seemed to be difficult for her to get time off from the meditation to show us around South Korea.

After I returned home, she eventually went to the meditation centre in the hills near Nonsan for a fortnight visit. Which became a month-long visit. Which had been going on for something like three months by the time I visited her again.

The visit was a little difficult to arrange, since she wasn't allowed to use her phone except early in the morning or late at night, but eventually I arrived in Seoul, took a train to Daejeon and met her there. From there we took a coach, owned or hired by Maum, that apparently drives around the local towns picking up and dropping off Maum meditators.

The centre isn't so bad, I guess. Nice new construction, lots of wood used in the interior decor, though the outside looked distressingly like my old grammar school. The administration building I didn't see much of, but it looked bigger than the school building. There's a shop and cafe next to the school.

Tucked away behind the school are the workshops where the meditation students spend time when they aren't meditating or being lectured making stuff for the shop to sell. Well, some of them. Others work in the fields around the centre growing cash crops for, I guess, Maum Meditation to sell. Some also work on building houses, according to my friend. Note that the students pay for the privilege of this meditation-through-labour, or whatever it's meant to be, and they receive nothing except enlightenment.

By this time my friend had burned through all the money she'd inherited from her sister, and her family had refused to give her any, so she was busy trying to borrow money off all of her friends and acquaintances by email, chat, and whatnot, to pay for her next level of training. But, she told me, she didn't care much about money any more.

I chatted briefly with one of my friend's teachers, and I suggested that, from what I'd heard, Maum sounded a bit like Tao Buddhism. She got quite cross with me and said that Maum was nothing, _nothing_ like Buddhism. Which is odd thing to be aggravated at, because Maum claims to be a synthesis of all religions. If I'd said it resembled Judaism, Christianity, or Australian Aborigine Dreamtime (it doesn't), surely she should have enthusiastically agreed? Well, she's only third level, perhaps they teach those techniques at higher levels.

Although everyone was pleasant and courteous during my visit (except for that one teacher's moment of exasperation), I didn't get love-bombed into staying — I was almost disappointed. Maybe it was the anti-bogon field I was giving off, or perhaps the language barrier, and they didn't think I was a good prospect.

Before I left, my friend gave me Woo's book 'World Beyond World' (English Translation) to read. Near as I can figure it, Woo teaches that when our bodies die our souls are cut off from all sensation, forever, so it's important to prepare for an eternity in a sensory-deprivation tank by the eight-step programme which Maum Meditation will teach you for a massive overall sum of money. What a bleak and desperate thing to teach people. I think I'd prefer an eternity in the Christian Hell.

All in all, Maum looks very much like the Scientologists, the Moonies, TM and other scurrilous cults. They pick up vulnerable people, teach them a few simple techniques to help sort their lives out, but in the process brainwash them with sleep deprivation, extended meditation sessions, brow-beating and other techniques into dependency and obedience, while draining money from them. There's a multi-step programme of ever-higher levels of teaching, and above the bottom levels, students are taught to recruit and extract money from vulnerable people, and so on.

Their leader used to claim to be a UN World Peace Ambassador; however, there is no such post or any mention of Woo Myung on the UN site. Lately, I note that the "UN" part of the title has been dropped (check the history of the wikipedia page on Maum).

I would be interested to know what make of car Woo Myung drives, and what his home is like. Non-profit? Yah.

Posted by: NelC | June 26, 2011 at 06:37 PM

Oh, you can see photos of my visit to the Maum Meditation Centre here: [www.flickr.com]

Posted by: NelC | June 26, 2011 at 06:43 PM

I was introduced to maum about 4 years ago and went for over a year. I had conflicted views similiar to those mentioned above. I tried to be open minded, but I couldn't ignore how I felt: cheated and really notice of difference in the stress in my life. It seemed to promise too much and require unquestioning loyalty. When I tried to take a rest from it after 3 months due to a stressful schedule, members reminded me of cults that intimidate you from quitting. I stayed and gave it a try until the 4 or 5th level; but I never felt any difference in my life as the "leaders" promised. There was also alot of odd greencard and pyramid scams going on with some members. It may work for some, but I heard half the group quit soon after I did. If people want to try it fine; but I think it was a waste of my time.

Visitor

Posted by: visitor | July 07, 2011 at 06:28 PM

The literature blurb on the Mahatma Gandhi Peace Prize seems to be fraudulent. It says that Woo Myung won it in 2002 but the official Mahatma Gandhi Peace Prize site says that a completely different organization won it.

Posted by: Paul | August 05, 2011 at 04:11 PM

My dad does Maum Meditation, here in Canada. He's a pretty stressed out person, since he's the only one who has a job. My mom can't because she has health problems, and is well on her way to getting better, and I'm too young(14). The first few months, he was becoming a wonderful person. More relaxed, and kind towards others. Few months later, my mom and I noticed obsession with this maum meditation. He'd tell my mom to go there and he'll work, if not, then he's going to quit his job. (he has a really tough job, and now he has back, hand and thigh pain.) After few more months, he is CRAZY about this! I noticed the "cult personality". It was scary. He'd be telling everyone to throw away all your thoughts and feelings, because it means nothing.As more time went on, he'd be at the meditation center EVERY chance he gets. He comes home only about every other week for 3 days or less. (he's a truck driver) so when he's in USA, he'd attend the maum meditation there. And when he comes "home", he'd be at maum meditation. That's his home, and where my mom and I live is his second home. My mom just recently found out about how their rent (or the payment of the rent, not sure which one) was under my dad's name! He even made donations over a thousand dollars there, and my mom packs his food for work, and it's this expensive organic drink that my mom bought just for my dad. When my dad arrived from work, my mom found them ALL to be in the fridge of the Maum mediation center! She didn't even let me drink that, because it was for HIS health in mind! Also, being his "home", he eats, sleeps and even SHOWERS there. He even has his own little soap bar there. My mom got drunk one night, and just let out everything she's been keeping in at my dad and told him that he should just go to Korea, since the maum meditation is more important than our family(Maum meditation head quaters is there). So he left. EVERYTHING. I called the meditation center after he left the house asking if my dad was there. The helper said that he left 10 minutes ago. My mom and I ran to out car, and found his cellphone and a note there to me saying he's sorry.So my mom called relatives in Korea and they picked him up at the airport. They took him to their home and called my mom and said he'll be back in 10 days. And I talked to him, and he said he's sorry because we shoud've gone to Korea as a family. I didn't say much to him. Then my mom and I had a relief moment because maybe seeing his parents in 11 years has changed him. Few days later, (he went to the maum meditation headquaters) and called saying that he wants my mom and me to come to Korea with him and live in the maum meditation head quarters. He said that we can all meditate there. But he said its a good place with lots of other kids and we pay them to live there. He also said that we can all stay there until he becomes a helper, becuase the max age you can be is 45 and hes 43. It's going to take a year for his training to be completed, and he said that I won't be going to school during that time. My mom told me something about them sending him to Brazil, Argentina... My mom did some research and found out more about this. She found out that when they say Brazil, they mean the dessert. And she know that while he's becoming a helper, he's going to do the same with her and me. So my dad came back from Korea. But, not to stay with us, but to sign the divorce papers, and sign papers to sell his truck. Then he's going back to the maum head quarters. He doesn't know the truth about this place. The only people he listens to is the helpers. The helpers in my area have done nothing but bad to my dad. They show no concern for my dad's behavior, and they enforce it. She tells him things like to stay longer, and she cooked yummy food, etc. Also, when my mom was talking to her that she's going to try her best to keep him with our family. The helper there said, ''Why? So you can make him work again?''. Which was really offensive, and sounded like she was implying that my mom's treating him bad. He's still at our home, currently. I don't know what will happen next. My mom told him that he's basically killing us, because we cannot survive here. He said that whether my mom and me die or not, it doesn't matter to him. (that's not what he said when he cheated on her with her best friend 5 years ago!). He keeps telling me to go there when my mom's not around. I don't want him to go because I care about him but I don't know how to tell him because I can't say anything had about maum meditation because he always thinks that my mom is telling me this stuff, or the Internet, and telling me it's not true and how would I know if I never meditated. It's impossible to talk sense into him! My mom told him to stay here, and we'll move to Toronto, and she'll do a homestay job, and he can become a car mechanic (which he used to love so much) and he can come home everyday and go to maum meditation in Toronto everyday and she'll do everything he wants. He said not to try to change his mind, because he's going to the maum meditation head quarter no matter what.

I'm not saying all this maum meditation is bad, just to be careful.
My mom heard me crying last night, and told my dad. (around 4am) He came in crying a lot. He held my hands and kept tellin me that I grew a lot, and I'm so nice and blah.. Then I told him that if he leaves, we'll never see each other forever. He stays quiet. Then I say that he's leaving us behind because of the maum meditation. Then he threw my hand away, got up and yelled at me, ''OKAY THEN JUST COME TO KOREA WITH ME, OR YOU CAN JUST STAY HERE. I'M GOING NO MATTER WHAT!''. It was devastating.. He changed so much.


I don't know what will happen next. Please email me at lakieas33@hotmail.com if you have some more info on this! He is abandoning his family, and I won't be able to see him for the rest of my life.. They've been married for 15 years, and because if this, our family is gone. If he leaves, my mom said that we're going to shut the maum meditation in our area down because we've got nothing more to lose. It's mostly the helper there to blame. When it's just him and her, she's telling him all these twisted words. He even told my mom that this world we're living in now, is all a dream that we can't wake up from.

*Also, my mom even contacted former maum meditators, or helpers in other areas. They thinks he's insane. They've tried to talk to him, but he just has one thing in his mind: maum meditation*

Posted by: Rozina | January 05, 2012 at 12:12 AM

Meditation should not rip a family apart... something seems off here...

Posted by: Bob Smitty | January 10, 2012 at 08:18 PM

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