> I saw the center with it's huge YOGA sign. I went in for information and
> asked about the fees and programs. I was quoted $1600 for a year's
> membership. I took the paperwork home after sharing my contact information
> with the center. I discussed my interest with my husband. It took us a
> couple of days to get together the money. The center master immediately
> contacted me at home pressuring as to when the monies would be completed on the
> membership. Every few days more firm request phone calls would happen until
> we could complete the deal. I should have run the other way. I joined the
> Dahn Yoga Center in my area, in Centreville, VA.
>
> I am a huge self growth seeker. The center and it's philosophies aligned to
> that tremendous need. I shared my personal story with the "masters" at that
> center. That story involved a childhood of emotional, physical and sexual
> abuse. I needed a lot of healing...
>
> I left the center after 6 months of yoga and classes after spending over
> $2,000.
>
> The reasons I left were that my inner guidance became more and more
> uncomfortable. The cult word was also becoming more prominent in my
> thoughts. I physically became more uncomfortable as they used healing
> techniques, I paid extra for, that involved energy and massage healing. I am
> a Reiki Master, myself, and am trained in "energy" healing, but this healing
> was most inappropriate. I was always paired with a male master (I am female). I noticed
> other students were always paired with the opposite gender master. This
> master insisted on massaging my breasts. I have fibrocystic breasts and are
> painful and get heavy and uncomfortable around my menses time. He said that
> the blocks in my breasts would be manifesting more deeply in my body if they
> were not resolved. He diagnosed that they were a result of my childhood
> abuse. I often received deep black and purplish bruises because of the deep
> massage techniques that would last for weeks.
>
> I remember another time, this same master was attempting energy work that
> involved him sitting in a lotus position with me laying on my back and my
> head cradled in his hands and my head centered in the lap/lotus made by his
> legs. He fell asleep during this energy work. I got tired of just laying
> there and attempted to caterpillar my way out of this cradle. I almost made
> it before he awoke. I had planned to be sitting across from him in same
> lotus position facing him to show him this was not acceptable master
> behavior. That was the last treatment I signed up for.
>
> I became more and more uncomfortable with the control and emotional
> manipulations of the center's masters friendships with me and firm
> insistence of signing up for the extra cost programs from all the centers
> masters. They used my personal story to bait me as reason for more classes,
>conventions and classes. Everything more than my few nights a week of "yoga"
>was extra cost.
>
> I even met the head master, Ilchee "Master" Lee, founder at a conference in
> Rockville, MD. He was surrounded by huge and many body guards. I could not
> understand why. Most in the group were the masters from many centers and the
> students in uniform. You had to have paid a fee and be registered to attend.
> What was to be feared from this group? He walks with a cane. I did not
> observe why. Why would a great enlightened spiritual master of a healing and
> spiritual enlightened teaching need a cane, if, as his literature stated
> equated his alignment similar to Buddha and Jesus? I felt it was a power
> prop. He walked up to our small center group while we were seated on the
> floor and put the dirty tip of his cane on my chest where the Dahn Yoga
> patch was sewn onto my shirt and nodded at me and his words were translated
> to convey his approval of my decision of wearing this/his symbol. He did
> not touch me with his hand. I felt that he would never really touch me, only
> his dirty cane! Would Buddha or Jesus feel that I needed to sit lower than
> them? Would they hesitate to physically touch me with love? There was not
> the "love" I associate with a higher spiritual master. I did not feel he was
> so master-like at that moment. I also observed him with others at the
> conference and never saw him touch anyone else, either. There was always
> this barrier of his guards and we were never allowed nearer than his cane.
> We, personally, were never allowed to approach him.
>
> I did not return after the conference and never looked back. I became aware
> of many types of trespasses and the attempt to lower my well earned
> boundaries relating to my childhood experiences and my self growth to learn
> to say no.
>
> I made a few friendships with a few of the students. With those students, I
> even expressed my concerns of what I shared here in this email. All stayed
> anyway. I was more concerned as to how many teens and young adults were getting
> involved, who I observed, were expressing a very obedient compliant
> behavior.

>BEWARE!!

>A Spiritual Seeker

SS, I saw this information on the BBB listing about Dahn Yoga: "If consumers have an unsatisfactory experience, they can either contact their center manager directly, contact the company's toll free service hotline at 1-877-477-9642 to report a grievance, or email Dahn's customer service center at customerservice@dahnyoga.com. Three channels of communication are available in case the consumer does not desire a direct confrontation and prefers to cancel privately. "

It could be that the Dahn center manager doesn't know about him massaging women's breasts. Have you considered also reporting this behavior to the police, and the Virginia Attorney General? It's criminal behavior. This instructor should be stopped before someone else is victimized. It's hard to believe that someone could get away with doing this routinely.

(I think I read somewhere that Ilchi Lee had fallen off of a horse, so that could explain the cane.)

Good luck.