admin September 6th, 2007

Ilchi Lee

In the 15th century, the King of Spain granted explorer Juan Ponce De Leon a fortune to search for the legendary Fountain of Youth. He returned with nothing but a festering arrow wound that would claim his life at age 47. The literature and mythologies of the world are rife with other similarly futile attempts to find the secrets of eternal youth, ranging from the Greek heroes’ disastrous attempts to trick the gift of immortality from the gods to Gilgamesh’s useless search for legendary youth-restoring herbs.

And of course, only truth could be more bizarre than fiction. Humans have tried everything imaginable to eliminate the effects of time. In the 19th century, many men had goat’s testicles implanted in their abdomens in order to restore the virility of their youth. Today, heads sit frozen in cryogenic chambers, awaiting transplant onto new, youthful bodies in the future. Yet, the dream of everlasting youth has remained elusive. The moral of these stories is always the same: Age happens.

In fact, it could be said that age is happening more than ever. Worldwide, people are living longer and birth rates are declining. Furthermore, members of the baby boom generation are now entering their golden years. If census projections hold true, one in every five people will be over the age of 65 by the year 2030. This fact is bound to have tremendous social impact as our youth-centered culture is forced to face the inevitability of age.

In spite of current demographic trends, our culture still remains rigidly youth-centered. Essentially materialistic in nature, our media seems to worship aesthetic perfection in the human body, creating standards of beauty that even young people cannot attain. As our body declines with age, our self-acceptance may decline as well. Can Dahn practice help us adapt to and accept the aging process? Can a practice that starts with strengthening of the physical body really benefit older people?

Dr. Jesse Jones, Director of the Center for Successful Aging at California State University, Fullerton, says Dahn practice is “fabulous for the older adult.” A Lifetime Member of the Brea Dahn Center herself, Dr. Jones has dedicated her life to the study of aging. She regularly leads older adults through meditative as well as physical exercise, and has found that the body, mind, and spirit must all be considered in order to promote successful aging. “Dahnhak is great,” she says, “because it promotes the opening of blockages, circulation of energy, and quieting of the mind. Dahn exercise gives practitioners permission to get off the merry-go-round of life and listen to their true self.” As with any physical exercise, she warns seniors to adapt the exercise to fit their current condition, especially in regard to spinal health and blood pressure, but older adults should have little problem following the regular classes. She insists, “Our bodies are amazingly resilient. Physical decline is ultimately inevitable, but we can reduce and sometimes reverse the decline through proper exercise.”

Indeed, many older Dahn members have found renewed health and vitality through Dahn practice. 61-year-old David Duarte of the Ashland Dahn Center in Oregon is a good case-in-point. In 2003, before joining the Dahn Center, he found himself to be tired and lacking in energy. This came as a great surprise to him since he was doing “all the right things:” daily exercise, a natural foods diet, and regular meditation. Seeking relief, he visited the office of an alternative health practitioner, Dr. Joseph Lancaster.

In the office waiting room, David picked up a copy of Dr. Ilchi Lee’s Healing Society and found himself absorbed by its content. He asked Dr. Lancaster about it and discovered that a new center, the Ashland Dahn Center, would be opening close by in a couple of weeks. When he joined, David says the benefits were immediate: “I began to feel more energy, more clarity, and a lightness of being that had been absent for quite some time. My perception began to change, and I began to see the world through a different lens. Attitudes began to change from negative to positive without my having to change anything. I was simply attending classes three times a week.” Since joining in 2003, David has completed Dahn Healer School and sincerely hopes to pass on the healing benefits of Dahn hak to others.

Dr. Larry Rosenberg, 61, of Maryland’s Bethesda Dahn Center, also found considerable physical healing through Dahn practice. Dr. Rosenberg had developed a persistent intestinal problem. He tried traditional Western medicine, acupuncture, and Chinese herbal treatment, but nothing seemed to work. Then, a friend recommended Dahnhak, which she described as “yoga plus.” Dr. Rosenberg joined the center, and found complete reduction in his symptoms. Master Tara Kim instructed him in proper diet and helped him learn to release stress stored within the organs of the body. He now says, “The human body is like an energy bank account. Older people often have overdrawn the account, but Dahn teaches people to make new deposits into the account.” Since joining, Dr. Rosenberg has become a Lifetime Member and has completed Healer School.

The mental benefits of Dahn practice may in fact be the most important. In his book The Pursuit of Happiness, Dr. David Myers studied what ultimately makes people happy. He surveyed older people that described their lives as “happy,” and discovered that physical condition bore no relation to a person’s happiness. He found older people with very great physical and financial limitations who described themselves as “happy,” and many healthy, wealthy people who were not happy. He concluded, “Well-being is found in the renewal of a disciplined life-style, and the giving and receiving of acceptance. To experience deep well-being is to be self-confident yet un-self-conscious, self-giving yet self-respecting, realistic yet hopeful. Dahn practice provides a path that fulfills these basic requirements of successful aging, leading not only to physical health, but also to mental and spiritual health.

Surveys reveal that dementia and other brain disorders, such as Alzheimer’s disease, are the most feared aspects of aging. Some of our fear is unfounded, however, since most neuroscientists agree that the human brain is capable of superior performance into the 100’s. Yet, just like any other organ, the brain must remain healthy in order to function well. In their book The Longevity Strategy: How to Live to 100 Using the Brain-Body Connection, David Mahoney and Dr. Richard Restak claim that mental deterioration associated with age is not inevitable, but rather is connected to stress and blocked blood flow to the brain.

Brain Respiration provides a way to maintain and even accentuate brain health through natural stress relief and the movement of Ki energy. As Ki energy flows, blood flow is naturally restored and oxygen is delivered to brain cells properly. While it is true that brain cells continually die as we age, researchers have found that this does not really effect the functioning of the brain. What really matter are the connections between brain cells, the dendrites that create our patterns of thinking, and sensory processing. We must continually build new connections and pathways in the brain in order to keep learning and processing information well. Brain Respiration exercises help to create new pathways that awaken untapped areas of the brain and balance left and right hemispheres of the brain. Furthermore, Brain Respiration can help practitioners change life-long patterns of thinking, some of which are negative and self-defeating. In short, Brain Respiration can help the older brain remain “creative, peaceful, and productive.”

Gerontologist Dr. Jesse Jones comments, “Medical technology has provided many things to help alleviate the superficial, physical aspects of aging, but true, successful aging lies in how you feel about yourself as a person.” Key attributes are a positive attitude and sense of purpose in life. The greatest difficulty for older people in our individualistic society is that many find themselves alone and disconnected from other human beings. Dr. Kenneth R. Pelletier, author of Sound Mind, Sound Body, writes that contribution to others is essential to life-long health. As he says simply, “We do well by doing good.” People who find wider meaning in their lives, like many Dahn members, are healthier physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Dahn centers around the world are providing a place where older people can once again connect to others and develop meaning for their lives. Priscilla Mustin, 66, of Georgia’s Duluth Dahn Center has found a renewed sense of purpose and meaning for her life through her Dahn practice. Currently serving as myungsa (New Human Leader) in her center, she has found healing for herself through service to others. Before joining the center, she suffered from frequent anxiety attacks and high blood pressure. Now she is doing more than she ever thought possible-conducting energy check-ups, teaching regular class, and helping kids learn Brain Respiration. Through the center she has found a community of people that “always believe in me more than I have believed in myself.”

Priscilla says that her previous anxiety and stress were rooted in a basic fear of something that older people must face as they enter the last third of their lives-the certainty of death. Through her Dahn practice and Tao Fellowship training, she says, “Something inside of me relaxed.” Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, the famed psychologist who devoted her life to the study of the psychology of dying, claims that our ability to cope with the concept of death is a direct measure of how successfully we have lived. She once observed, “The ones who scream loudest on their deathbeds are the ones who never lived.” Dahn members like Priscilla Mustin have found relief from this basic fear because they have found a way to truly live, with meaning and with purpose.

Nevertheless, old age is undoubtedly a time of significant loss. During this period, we not only come to terms with the finite nature of our own physical life, but we are likely to suffer the loss of many friends and family members. Also, older people usually experience loss of status and financial viability after retirement. Dr. Rosenberg comments, “Retirement is generally a crisis for older people. People have spent a lifetime building up identity through their work.” In a materialistic world, retirement may seem tragic since our measures of self-worth are often based upon whom we know, what we do, and what we own. As we age, we begin to lose the identity that we have painstakingly constructed during our lives. However, Dahnhak principles teach us that we can never generate true value for our lives through the accumulation of these things.

In fact, what seems like loss could actually provide the chance for greater gain through spiritual growth. Dr. Ilchi Lee, founder of Dahnhak and Brain Respiration, teaches that the identities we build up around our names are merely attachments that block the path to enlightenment. He implores his students, “You have studied to build character, to become lawyers, presidents, CEOs, because you believe that you deserve what you get according to the level of your character…People make the mistake of thinking this name is what they truly are. …All the ambitions to control, to possess are accessories attached to your name.” If oriented toward continued spiritual growth, old age need not be a pathetic time of dwindling power. Rather, it can be a wondrous phase of self-rediscovery and re-creation, a very natural opportunity to shed the false identities of youth in favor of our genuine selves.

One of Dr. Ilchi Lee’s favorite phrases is, “No action, no creation.” Staying active and involved in Dahn practice is key to creating a new identity beyond societal status. Dahn healer David Duarte offers this advice to retired people: “Do not stop growing just because you are ‘retired.’ Retirement does not mean resignation! Grow yourselves, do what brings you joy, and accomplish your goals and visions one by one. You will begin to realize that true joy is found in helping others and in helping other grow.” The poet Mary Edwards Renaker, at the age of 100 years, wrote this poem about the need for active spirituality in the last years of our lives:

We should not drag our feet
When time commands, “March on;”
We should step out briskly,
Within our hearts, a song.
Our memory is a mirror
Through which we view the past
With melancholy pleasure
But such moments cannot last.
We have to face the future
With joys and griefs unknown;
Let spiritual growth continue
So we do not walk alone.

On Bell Rock in Sedona, meditation tour participants stop to ponder the life cycle of a plant called the “century plant.” This succulent, also called the agave, lives a long life for a plant, 25-60 years, but it blooms only once in its lifetime, shortly before its death. When it finally does bloom, it sends a tall stalk as high as 20 feet into the air. The stalk then bursts into bunches of flowers, which then drop seeds all around the plant.

The word “agave” is Greek for “noble.” Indeed, this humble plant may serve as a model of a life lived with true nobility. Old age is a time to do as the agave does, putting all its efforts into upward growth. Let us not be afraid to scatter our seeds of healing far and wide as we age. There are many younger ones looking toward us for an example of how to live well, age well, and ultimately to die well. Let this be our gift to them.

Nicole Dean is a Professor of Writing and Literature at California State University, Fullerton and a Dahn healer at Brea Center, Brea, California.

Ilchi Lee

Dr. Ilchi Lee is founder of Dhan Yoga (known as Dahn Hak or Dahnhak) state it to be a Korean yoga style. To know more about him please visit Dr. Ilchi Lee’s official website.

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