Fatal Trek: The mysterious desert death of a Brooklyn yoga devotee

Every day for a year and a half, Julia Siverls practiced an eclectic Korean style of yoga called Dahn. [...] A certificate dated July 14, 2003, signifies her crowning achievement in yoga: becoming a master instructor. Sadly, Julia could not attend the graduation ceremony held in Sedona, Arizona, at the Ilchi Meditation Center, a resort-style compound that serves as Dahn’s U.S. headquarters. On July 12, at the age of 41, she died on a nearby mountain while training to be a Dahn master. [...]

According to promotional materials, Dahn was born in 1983 after founder Dr. Ilchi Lee “helped a half-paralyzed stroke victim regain his health and confidence at a local park in rural Korea” by updating 5,000-year-old martial arts moves. [...]

From another set of documents, a different picture of Dahn emerges. In a 109-point civil complaint, nine of Julia’s brothers and sisters allege that Dahn masters “forced and coerced” her to practice their brand of yoga, ultimately compelling her to attend the deadly yoga retreat. They charge that members of Dahn laced her food with drugs before leading her on a grueling mountain hike, during which, despite indications she was struggling, they denied her medical care. And along with various former group members and experts on the topic, they believe that Dahn is a cult. [...]

[...] late in August, when the family received a copy of the sheriff’s report, says Veronica Siverls-Dunham, Julia’s sister and the administratrix of her estate, they learned for the first time about an off-duty deputy who had been riding his ATV down Casner Mountain [...]

The sheriff’s deputy noted that the group “did not appear to be carrying a large amount of water, and it was already very hot at 9:30″ a.m. It was this detail that stunned the Siverls family, since the 911 call hadn’t come in until 4:30 p.m. “That means all day long she was suffering,” Alephia says. “That’s what is really unbelievable, that this organization that preaches love would allow someone to suffer to death.”

[...] Detective McDormett called Robert. What Robert said on the phone that day and later wrote in an affidavit led the sheriff’s office to reopen its investigation in June 2005. He told McDormett that the key to the mystery of Julia’s death was the hikers’ backpacks: Instead of containing appropriate provisions (he said the hikers were given only four 10- to 16-ounce bottles of water and two pieces of fruit to share), their bags were filled with rocks. Master Charlie instructed the trainees to gather 40 pounds each from the retreat center grounds and weigh them on a scale. By the time police and paramedics arrived, the rocks were gone from the packs, emptied by Master Charlie and another hiker, according to Robert.

Robert says that he was “coached” by Dahn employees at the meditation center to tell the police that they carried enough food and water with them on the trip. As for the rocks, “We were told not to bring [them] up, that I know for sure,” he says. “It was not only implied, it was stated very clearly.” But if there was a cover-up, the sheriff’s office and the D.A. found insufficient evidence of it. They also could not rule out the possibility that the methadone in her system came from a prescription painkiller and closed the second criminal investigation last fall. [...]

Gladys Wesley-Kennedy, a former master, who earned her stripes in Sedona in 2002, is not surprised that a masters’ training session would come to tragic end. Not long before Julia’s death, Dahn began mass- producing masters, she says, targeting certain American members with “good energy” and hurrying them through the intense training process.

At the root of this push for masters, according to Wesley-Kennedy and other former Dahn members, is money. In their civil complaint, the Siverls family cites a labyrinth of 12 for-profit and nonprofit corporate entities that they allege are “secretly link[ed] . . . to disguise the size of the organization and shelter the Dahn Hak Cult’s income and assets,” as well as Dahn’s founder, Ilchi Lee. Critics of Dahn claim that Ilchi Lee is purveying faux enlightenment for very real profit. According to the Siverlses’ complaint, Dahn lures members with free classes and then pressures them to spend big on retreats, workshops, and healing sessions, an allegation based at least in part on the more than $15,000 Julia paid out to Dahn. An annual membership in New York City runs almost $2,000; in its Brooklyn Heights center, Dahn charges $29 for an initial consultation. The hour is capped by an aggressive sales pitch to become a member, complete with instructions to “feel” the decision to join, rather than think about it, and a warning that choosing the gym over Dahn will lead to the buildup of toxins in the body. The session ends with a hug.

Former Dahn masters say the pressure to buy Dahn membership pales in comparison to the pressure to sell it. [...]

It is indeed difficult to comprehend why five seemingly intelligent adults continued on a hike that was killing one of them, or what kind of hold Dahn could have had over a bright woman like Julia, but one former master has a thought. “When you’re there, you meet the most wonderful people and have the best relationships you ever had in your entire life, because in the beginning there’s no pressure, other than you’re all training together, you’re having a great time, going out to dinner, having parties,” Robert says. “It was such a tight-knit thing. Suddenly you’re hanging out with these people and everybody loves you and cares for you. The next thing you know you’re being manipulated. And the next thing you know, you’re in the desert.”

This is a summary extract from the full article as it appeared on Village Voice, July 11 2007
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