Ilchi Lee was born in 1950 in Cheonan (?? ??), South Korea. His father was a teacher, yet he reports having struggled in school due to his inability to focus and a preference for imaginative play. Later in life, he would identify himself as having overcome Attention Deficit Disorder through rigorous physical and mental training. He suggests in his books that these early experiences formed the foundation of the brain-based training techniques he would develop later in life.

In his adolescence he turned to the martial art Taekwondo (??? ???) to help calm his restless mind. ??? He eventually earned a fourth-level black belt, and opened a successful martial arts studio. ????? He took the first term of Taekwondo master education hosted by Kukkiwon in 1972. [??] ??? ????? - 1? ????? ???? After he graduated from Dankook University (????? ?????) in 1977 with a B.S. degree in clinical pathology and physical education, he opened a health clinic, which according to his own account did well. ????? ??? ????? munhwa.com He soon married and settled down to raise a family.

However, Lee recounts that he was still plagued by nagging questions about the meaning of human life and the universe, even while on the surface living an ideal life. ??? ???? - ???? | Kyunghyang.com Thus, in his early thirties he set out to engage in rigorous solo training in the wilderness of Korea's Moak Mountain (??? ???) to engage in 21 days of ascetic practice and meditation without food, water, sleep or lying down. He writes that through this training he gained enlightenment and deep insights that would provide the philosophical underpinnings of his methods.

Upon his return to ordinary civilization, he began to teach his methods in a community park, ??? ??! ??? ??! - ???? at first to only one stroke victim. It was at this point that he took the name Ilchi (?? ??), which means "finger pointing to the truth." Eventually, a larger group of people gathered in the park, and inclement weather necessitated that the classes be moved indoors. This led to the opening of the first Dahn Center in 1985 in Seoul (??), South Korea, which would grow to over 300 Korean centers in the early twenty-first century In 1991, the first Dahn Center opened in the United States. As of 2006, there were approximately 146 Dahn Centers in the United States. In the meantime, many corporates and government organizations, including Samsung Group, Hyundai, POSCO, and Ministry of National Defense of South Korea employed Lee's program for their employees. Chung Ju-yung, the former Hyundai CEO, Chey Jong-hyun, the former CEO of SK Corporation and Cho Soon the former Vice Prime Minister of South Korea took personal training from Lee. Lee has been given a letter of appreciation from Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs and Ministry of National Defense of South Korea. ?????? Korean religions scholar Dr. Hai Ran Woo describes Ilchi Lee's Dahn World Co. (formerly Dahn-Hak-Sonwon) as South Korea's largest 'New Age' (or 'self-cultivation') 'meditation industry' with sales reaching $280 million in 2005. Dahn World has described their spiritual products as the most lucrative of all Korean exports; they plan to expand to 36,000 training centers worldwide by 2010.

Korean religions scholar Donald Baker regards Dahn World as one of the more noteworthy among more than 200 new religions in S. Korea that share a 'Korea-centric' view that Korea has become 'the spiritual center of the world' — with Dahn World asserting that Seung Heun Lee is a world renowned spiritual leader leading humanity toward an 'enlightenment revolution'.

In 2000, Ilchi Lee became a director of the Tao Fellowship, a non-profit religious charity and educational foundation, which purchased majestic property in Sedona, Arizona to house the Sedona Ilchi Meditation Center (SIMC). According to their Web site, the Tao Fellowship teaches and promotes Tao philosophy and provides training for a cultural movement for peace. The Sedona Ilchi Meditation Center is described as "the home from which the ideals of Tao Fellowship may flower and go forth to awaken the human consciousness," and as the location of 12 energy vortexes (Sedona is believed by many visitors and locals to contain healing energy vortexes.) Described by Dr. Woo as the "heart of the 'world mission' or 'global management,'" SIMC hosts 3,000 participants annually from around the world in a variety of programs based in Lee's Brain Education system, including youth camps, residential healing, retreat programs and advanced Dahn training programs such as Dahn Healer School. Recently SIMC was renamed the Sedona Mago Retreat Center (SMRC) and celebrated its 10th Anniversary in May 2008."Mago" means "Mother Earth" in Korean.

According to his official website, Lee is no longer in direct management of the Dahn Centers, instead focusing on developing educational applications of his training system and serving as president of the consulting firm BR Consulting in Sedona, AZ, which provides services to corporations that provide his training programs, including management of trainer education programs, training and licensing of trainers, marketing and media relations, business analysis and planning.

On January 8, 2009, Lee held a seminar at the United Nations on "The Role of Brain Education in Global Mental Health," as the president of IBREA. Coincided with the seminar, New York City declared this day "IBREA Brain Education Day," recognizing Brain Education's contribution to education, health and well-being of New York citizens.

Fifteen American cities including Atlanta, Cambridge, Las Vegas and San Francisco have declared Ilchi Lee Day, in recognition of Lee's contributions through his original Brain Education

Ilchi Lee considers the creation of world peace to be the ultimate goal of his training methods. Essentially, they are meant to facilitate a shift in human consciousness toward a more suitable world culture, according to Lee. He stresses a concept of personal enlightenment similar to those found in other Eastern philosophies, but emphasizes the need to take action based on that enlightenment. Appropriate action, according to Lee, should include some sort of action intended for the betterment of the human condition. Based on this notion, he has spearheaded what he calls the "HSP Movement," a movement intended to spread "health, happiness, and peace."

Lee also believes peace can only be achieved if humanity gives up nationalistic identities in favor of a single common identity. He contends that this identity should be rooted in people's mutual appreciation of and reliance upon the Earth, what he refers to as the "Earth Human" concept.

He believes that the Brain Wave Vibration training he created can help change negative thoughts which generate negative brain waves to positive ones, and understand the effects their actions have upon their brains.

In his book Human Technology, Lee asserts that people should become more self-sufficient in their own health care. Citing what he believes to be modern civilization's over-reliance on pharmaceuticals and specialized health care, he encourages people to rediscover what he regards as natural means of health maintenance, such as the traditional Asian methods discussed in the book, including acupressure and moxibustion.

The South Korean Government conferred the Order of Civil Merit (?? ??) on Lee in 2002, ??? ??! ??? ??! - ???? honoring his dissemination of Korean traditional philosophy and culture throughout the world through his founding of the Institute for Traditional Korean Cultural Studies (??? Kook Hak Won, or Kukhak Institute), an educational non-profit organization devoted to the study and development of traditional Korean philosophy

Through this and other affiliated NGOs and projects, such as 'Erecting 369 Tan-gun Statues in Schoolyards', which proved controversial in Korea in the late 1990s, Lee contributes to the revival of Korea's nationalist movement by mobilizing large numbers to revere Korea's legendary 2333 BCE divine founding father Tan'gun [or Dangun, Tan-gun, Dahngun], an indigenous tradition said to exist prior to the influence of foreign religions. Lee advances the belief that Tan'gun practiced a 15,000 year old Korean value called 'Hongik Ingan Ewah Saegae' ('Widely benefit humanity, rightfully harmonize the world') and that an ancient scripture exists, 'Chun Bu Kyung' [or Cheonbugyeong], that reveals that Heaven, Earth, and Human exist as One in each person. Lee maintains that this is the core Korean spirit that will prove key to Korean reunification as well as world peace, an ideal he contends to be attainable through his 'brain education' programs - resulting in a 'one world communal culture' of perfectly healthy and peaceful 'Power Brains' or 'New Humans'.

Religions scholar Massimo Introvigne suggests that Dahn World School is an offshoot of Taejonggyo, as exemplified by the large statue of Tan'gun at its U.S. headquarters in Sedona and memorization of passages from Taejonggyo's scriptures, "Heavenly Code," or "Chun Bu Kyung," by members. Practitioners, however, deny any connection to the religion.

Ilchi Lee's training methods have been described as focusing primarily on the brain and its development. Although actual practices resemble yoga, martial arts, meditation, and other recognizable Eastern disciplines, they have been modified with the said intent of uncovering the practitioner's natural brain potential. Lee's Power Brain Kids book describes that these practices may also be combined with other games and activities intended to develop mind-body connection and mental acuity. Collectively, the techniques have been termed Brain Education System Training (BEST) (formerly known as Brain Respiration).

Lee categorizes all of his training techniques under one or more of the five sequential steps that comprise the BEST method. The focus of each step is as follows:1) Brain Sensitizing: Stress management, awakening of the five senses, physical health, and brain awareness.2) Brain Versatilizing: Enhanced learning ability through the creation of new synaptic connections.3) Brain Refreshing: Emotional release, emotional control, and positive mental outlook.4) Brain Integrating: Developing latent brain abilities and increasing communication between diverse parts of the brain.5) Brain Mastering: Improved decision making and developing a clear sense of life purpose.

Lee teaches that while the brain is the primary focus of his training methods, the health of the physical body as a whole is of primary concern in the initial phase of training (Brain Sensitizing). Exercises and practices followed during this phase are heavily influenced by the notion of ki (? ?) energy as it is understood in Traditional Korean medicine. This typically includes a variety of exercises that are said to be designed to open up the energy meridian system of the body. and work to open up the body's seven major energy centers, known as chakras.

Lee's Korean Institute of Brain Science (KIBS), which was granted UN ECOSOC "roster consultative status" and Lee's International Brain Education Association (IBREA) report that Lee's programs not only help children develop better memory and concentration but also certain supernatural abilities (or Extrasensory Perception - ESP) due to "Heightened Sensory Perception," as their studies find that children could identify colors, shapes, and letters while blindfolded. - although this ability was found by KIBS to diminish significantly with less ambient light and greater filtering of the viewed material. While Lee asserts that these findings are based on cognitive neuroscience, mainstream neurologists generally regard such conclusions as strongly lacking in scientific support A scientist from the University of California at Irvine (UCI) reported in 2005 that Ilchi Lee's demonstration of these abilities in children at UCI failed and are 'pseudoscience.'

Lee says that although the underlying philosophy has remained the same, he continues to "refine and improve" the methods. He recounts in one newspaper report that the techniques have evolved from breathing methods to meditation to its current emphasis on the brain. An early English-language book by Lee, Dahn Meditation, which was published in 1997, focuses primarily on Ki development through Lee's "practical and modern" version of traditional Korean Dahn Hak techniques and does not mention any exercises specific to brain development. The book describes stretching exercises ("do-in"), meditation for energy sensitivity ("ji gam"), energy dance ("dahn mu"), and energy building exercises ("haeng gong").

In 2005, Seung Heun (Ilchi) Lee, et al., was named in a $84 million wrongful death lawsuit following the 2003 death of Julia Siverls, PhD, a 41-year-old New York City Dahn Center member and college professor seeking master-level instructor status. According to a document filed by the Southern District of New York of the United States District Court, the case was dismissed on August 1, 2008.According to the coroner's report, Siverls died of dehydration due to heatstroke and environmental exposure.

Claims made in the original Siverls legal complaint before the case was dismissed precipitated a number of television and print media reports, some including interviews of one of the participants on the fatal hike, suggesting that some aspects of Dahn activities are cult-like. Former Dahn spokesperson and Director of PR & Communications Charlotte Conners (now resigned from the organization), had asserted in a letter to the editor of an article in the Village Voice that the final toxicology report found no evidence of drugs in Julia's body, and that the interviewed participant's motives and credibility were questioned in the final police report. The reporter replied to Conners that they stand by their story, having used information not just from the Siverls family but from the autopsy report, a detective, and several Dahn Yoga members. Conners had denied all allegations of the Siverls lawsuit, and stated on several occasions that Dahn was not a cult.

According to the coroner's report, Siverls died of dehydration due to heatstroke and environmental exposure while participating in training at the Dahn retreat facility in Sedona, AZ. On the original complaint, the plaintiffs charged that Dr. Siverls was "drugged and killed by the Dahn Hak Cult"; 'Grand Master' Seung Heun Lee is the "founder, leader, and controller of the Dahn Hak Cult, and the principal of the other Corporate defendants"; each student was required to carry a backpack filled with forty pounds of rocks while hiking an Arizona desert mountainside in temperatures exceeding 90 degrees Fahrenheit with just three bottles of water and three pieces of fruit for five trainees to share; Siverls had collapsed more than once yet was forced to continue; defendants delayed many hours after Siverls had collapsed into unconsciousness and an hour after she had died before calling 911.

Ilchi Lee and Dahn yoga are being sued by 26 former members and masters. A complaint was issued at the end of May 2009. Charges range from undue influence, thought reform, and failure to pay proper wages, to RICO Law violations and sexual assault. WBZ Channel 4 News in Boston interviewed two of the claimants on June 11, 2009.

On December 21, 2009, the New York Post published this clarification on the “article in The Post on Nov. 9, 2009, about the “Brain Education” program taught in New York City schools referenced an Arizona federal lawsuit filed by former employees of Dahn Yoga. Power Brain Education is not a defendant in that lawsuit and its methods are not the subject of any allegations in that lawsuit. The court in that case dismissed eight out of 10 claims brought by 26 of the 27 plaintiffs.

On August 25, 2010, in the case Barba et al. v. Lee (Case No. CV09-1115-PHX-SRB), the United States District Court for the District of Arizona dismissed Jessica ‘Jade’ Harrelson’s claims of alleged sexual assault by Mr. Lee, as she provided information to the Court which discredited her earlier statements. The dismissal of her claims reflects previous assertions by Mr. Lee and Dahn Yoga that Ms. Harrelson’s allegations were fabrications.

In addition, the plaintiffs in the Arizona suit had attempted to argue “undue influence,” one of their key theories underlying charges of brain washing and cult manipulation against Dahn Yoga. However, Judge Bolton rejected those arguments, dismissing all Arizona claims related to undue influence. Dahn Yoga and its affiliates have also filed counterclaims against the plaintiffs in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona for conspiracy and interference with existing and prospective business relationships.

In another case, Myers v. Lee (Case No. 1:10-cv-00131-AJT-JFA), on September 21, 2010, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division, ruled to dismiss Andrew Myer’s claims against Dahn Yoga, Mr. Lee and other defendants for RICO, fraud, Virginia Consumer Protection Act violations and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The Judge found insufficient support for elements of some claims and lack of jurisdiction to uphold others. As Dahn Yoga has asserted in the past, the weakness of the claims has been revealed in court.