Las Vegas NowI-Team Investigation Part 2: Yoga Cult?

I-Team Investigation Part 2: Yoga Cult?

Booker Elementary School in Las Vegas is the only public school in America where the teachings of a hybrid form of Korean yoga is being taught to kids. Teachers at Booker think the program is valuable, but they admit they had no idea that it stems from a group that many regard as a dangerous cult.

In Korean, Dahn Hak essentially means the study of energy. In this case, it means brain energy. There is almost no academic research to back up the value of the Dahn Hak beliefs. So far as we know, the only academic research in the country is underway at Booker Elementary, and while there may or may not be positive results for the students, people are going to be very surprised when they hear where all of this originated.

Master Lee, the Korean founder of the Dahn movement, reputedly possesses supernatural powers, healing powers, and believes himself on a par with Jesus or Buddha. Dahn yoga is regimented to get the body in shape so the mind can be tackled next. "Dr." Lee, who holds honorary degrees only, created the concept of brain respiration that is energizing and focusing the brain to the point that kids can read books without ever opening them. Children play a special role in the Dahn movement. In Korea, ads for Dahn are kid-friendly. The centers use cartoonish icons.

A former Dahn student named Nathan Hale told the I-Team from Korea the seeds are being planted for a new religion. In the U.S., thousands of satisfied customers enjoy the yoga exercises at centers like the one in Summerlin. But on anti-cult websites and chatrooms, legions of former students complain that they were brainwashed or were subjected to mind control and had to be deprogrammed to escape. Some say they were told to leave their families, divorce their spouses. Is Dahn a cult as many allege?

Charlotte Connors, a Dahn instructor, said, "It's the antithesis of what you are referring to -- the core of the program is that it empowers individuals to be able to manage their own health and happiness."

"Cheryl," former Dahn student said, "They break you down and get control of you. They con you. They manipulate you." A Las Vegas woman we call "Cheryl" says she had a complete breakdown after attending a weekend Dahn retreat known as Shim Sung. She is horrified to learn that a Dahn-inspired program is underway at Booker Elementary School in Las Vegas considering the Dahn emphasis on changing the brain. The group even sells little dancing brains to its members.

For the past five years, Booker students have begun their days with the same kind of stretching and group chants and meditation periods that are used in Dahn centers. The kids seem to like it and teachers say the results are encouraging. At Booker, the Twelve Days of Christmas became the Twelve Days of Brain Respiration . Principal Beverly Mathis is enthusiastic about programs that get the students motivated, but admits she had no idea this program stems from Dahn Hak or even what Dahn Hak is.

Dr. Geoffrey Leigh of UNR is a Dahn Hak student himself and oversees the Booker program. He says no one is trying to hide anything. "Every year we've used the term. We've not made it a big deal out of it. We're not trying to hide it either." Dr. Leigh says the Booker program isn't linked at all to any Dahn centers and it incorporates other disciplines.

However, the students at Booker are a type of experiment. Leigh wrote a paper about them, co-written by a Dahn instructor, and on Dahn websites the Booker program is touted as a major success story, even though results are sketchy at best. Dr. Leigh admits he'd like to see the program expanded. "Our hope is to get this expanded to other schools and help teachers learn to do this with kids."

Dahn centers are expanding in Las Vegas and elsewhere. Eyewitness News sent one of our producers in to sign up. She reports the yoga was intense and satisfying, that the instructor vowed to help her with an assortment of health problems, and that on her first day, they talked to her about attending Shim Sung, which is the weekend retreat that sent "Cheryl" to a hospital. "Macy" said, "It's not physical. It's mind. It's spirit. It's discovering who you are. He said it's the greatest thing he's ever been to."

Teachers at Booker say they see better attitudes and better focus among the students as a result of this program, although there's very little empirical evidence of any effect on grades or test scores or even attendance. Dr. Leigh encourages anyone with questions about his program to come and check it out, which is what we hope school officials will do before any steps are taken. As we said, the students really seem to like it, as do the teachers. It's just that everyone needs to know the full story.

As far as little empirical evidence to support brain respiration work at Booker, in one of the five years the program's been underway at Booker, they used a control group to see if students who didn't get Dahn training would do as well as those who did. The control group -- the ones without the training -- did better academically, but Dr. Leigh says it turns out the control group was a better bunch of students to begin with and the Dahn group was even with the control group by the time it was over.

Email investigative reporter George Knapp at gknapp@klastv.com