So here's my experience with Maum Meditation:
I went on google maps and looked for Meditation Centers nearby. Three popped up and I chose the closest one to my house, which happened to be a Maum Center. I chose it because I wanted to be able to bike there - I needed something that also made me exercise, in other words, my original idea was to keep my body and mind active/healthy.
So I called and scheduled what I first believed it would be a "free trial". As I got there it happened to be a lecture, which they call the introduction seminar. Their ideas spoke to me as I'm a very anxious person. They talked about letting go of your stress and compulsive (or repetitive/cyclic) behavior, traumas from your childhood, toxic relationships, grief, etc.
I must say it seemed very interesting. I wanted something like that. That made me relax and realize material things are not as important as we think they are, and that our problems are all in our heads. I do believe in that so I liked it and wanted to put it in practice. At the end the native Korean instructor (as they call "helpers") weirdly asked me to start and subscribe/ become a member. I felt uncomfortable with the approach, but I felt that maybe it could have been some cultural barrier (since sometimes people from other cultures also find me rude even when I try to be nice and respectful). She presented me the membership plans- 1 year $180/mo; 2 years $160/mo; Monthly $250. I believe no one in safe mind would dispose that money just like that. As I was ready to say no- she presented me the TODAY ONLY offer for two months $140/mo. Which sounded much more reasonable to me. After all I really wanted to try it, but I didn't feel as into it as to put up an year commitment/contract, or to pay $250 just to try a month. So I said I'd talk to my wife about it and would get back to her. She insisted a lot that I came back that very same day, so I did and ended up subscribing. It felt weird but I thought to myself that maybe they were new and really needed new members? It must be hard to start a business, I thought. (I had no idea that they were non profit)
So I started my first week. Bring up memories (what they call "pictures") from your entire life. At first I laughed and said THAT IS A LOT TO REMEMBER. So she explained that it takes time and practice but I'd really feel better once I started to let go of all my inner mind world that I've been living in that causes all my stress and anxiety. It made sense. So I put my effort into it. After all I really wanted to become a more relaxed person, less anxious about the future, and let go of all my ghosts from the past.
The repetition of key words on all sections was bugging me, but I thought it was just a poor vocabulary issue. I tried to be understanding.
At some point I tried a different instructor that made me feel even worse. He repeated key words even more, and made me read repeatedly sayings and paragraphs of their book. I am definitely not a book person, but I faced the challenge. The ideas and beliefs of the method's founder didn't seem as interesting to me anymore. He speaks about how to find Truth and how to become the universe (?). I'm very much atheist I must say, so I thought to myself "just ignore this religion bullshit and try to get the benefit from the practice- it doesn't matter to me what made them come up with the method as long as it works for me". So I continued.
On the first week I already started feeling like the instructor's voice was getting into my brain a lot more than I liked. I could clearly hear her voice in my head during the rest of the day and even her weird Korean accent / mispronunciation of words. That's when I started to feel weird. Then I found out that level 1 consisted of about 50 cycles of THROWING AWAY YOUR ENTIRE LIFETIME OF MEMORIES.
After doing the "bring up" process of my entire life for 3 cycles (took me about 10 days), I started the Subtraction Method. That was when everything fell apart. During every section I should imagine my physical death and become a ghost in order to throw away into the black hole (a black dot on the wall) all my "pictures" from my mind world. That did not make sense at all. I did it once. After I left the place that day I felt devastated. I felt fooled. I felt played. I've struggled in the past with depression and suicidal thoughts. That definitely did not feel right. As I got home I went on Google and found this website and now I'm writing my story. I'll ask for a refund of my money. I'm unsure about what their true intentions are- but if everything that was written here is true- I want to keep myself far away from that place.
UPDATE: they refused to give me a refund. I will proceed to take legal action against this organization.
UPDATE 2: they gave me a refund.
My major comments and notes about the RED FLAGS and previous posts:
1- The center had three instructors and it was open from Sunday to Sunday from 9:30AM to 9:30PM. I was told one of the instructors only stayed until 3:30 because she had kinds. The other two were always there all times that I went. That means very extensive hours of work even for American standards.
2- They use your own words about problems in your life that you want to get rid of. Example: stress, anxiety, relationships issues (cheating, fighting), people's names, losses in the family, etc. At first I TOUGHT that was a way to give me a better (customized) experience- but then it just felt like merely brain invasion.
3- On the first days I literally felt like the instructor was OVERSHARING her life traumas/experiences. And then she expected me to do the same. She claimed it was needed to achieve better results. They want you to talk about childhood traumas, or any traumatic life event. Definitely weird.
4- It was definitely not pleasant to remember bad moments of my life and surface scars and traumas. Even though psychology claims that there is where all of our behavior problems are hidden. However, the instructor made it sound that the way I was feeling was normal and that a lot of people felt the same way- but it was a necessary step of the process. As she constantly asked me to tell her how I felt about the practice and about my life in general.
5- I remember having trouble to sleep and headaches after 4-5 days of practice. I could not stand some of the memories of my past that I had just remembered. Ones that I tried so hard to forget for years. I felt like everything came back to me (actually it literally did). A lot of pain and suffer from past bad-ended relationships and decisions/acts that I regretted. That definitely affected my mood on a very bad way on those days. It brought back a lot of anger on other people and also self-hate. All of that with the promise of making me a better person? Non sense.
6- when I first saw their video advertising playing on the hall area I thought to myself "they hired a VERY BAD marketing agency". It's just ridiculous. People saying how their life CHANGED and a lot of other (very hard to believe) stuff. Not only for the clearly FAKE testimonials, but for how secretive they sound. No overview of the method, nothing really interesting on the ad- like a historic view of Korean meditation or anything like that. Just trying to get you to do it with Things like "don't wait just start today". Plain BS. With the advertising the same thing happens to their website. "Related Sites" are all owned by the same organization. You can easily identify they are all copies from one another.
7- Mostly every post here sounds very accurate to me. On the other hand, the posts talking about its benefits sound just like another of its meditation section. If you can even call that meditation. They are all copy pasted type of posts.
8- I remember the instructor slightly telling me to not comment with other people about the subtraction method. As one would only truly understand it if they were part of it or guided into it (unsure which words she used).
9- About the secretiveness on advancing levels- I think it is true because they don't let you interact or share sections with other higher levels.
10- about the "active meditation" doing flyers - I did see pics on a board showing an exposition stand and I did see some of the members on the pic. I assumed they stopped by- but now it doesn't make sense- they were probably flyering / prospecting new members- which to me sounds a lot like a scam. For example, you won't be asked to do advertising for a gym that you go to exercise - or a restaurant that you often eat at.
11- I read a very sober post of a guy saying that MM is just hardcore. That could be true. If it wasn't for the adoration inducing and the high fees that everyone is mentioning. If you think the method works for you: great. But one cannot deny that you shouldn't have to pay such high fees to meditate nor relate/adore/devote to a specific religion/entity/belief.
12- I remember clearly thinking to myself "once I get used to denying all these emotions and memories I'd just probably lose my humanity. If you're thought to react emotionless to any type of impulse - you'll get used to it and you'll simply become a vegetable. At some point your mind will react automatically and discard any emotion or feeling caused by the physical world ("mind world"). That is not peace. That is ignoring. "
I went on google maps and looked for Meditation Centers nearby. Three popped up and I chose the closest one to my house, which happened to be a Maum Center. I chose it because I wanted to be able to bike there - I needed something that also made me exercise, in other words, my original idea was to keep my body and mind active/healthy.
So I called and scheduled what I first believed it would be a "free trial". As I got there it happened to be a lecture, which they call the introduction seminar. Their ideas spoke to me as I'm a very anxious person. They talked about letting go of your stress and compulsive (or repetitive/cyclic) behavior, traumas from your childhood, toxic relationships, grief, etc.
I must say it seemed very interesting. I wanted something like that. That made me relax and realize material things are not as important as we think they are, and that our problems are all in our heads. I do believe in that so I liked it and wanted to put it in practice. At the end the native Korean instructor (as they call "helpers") weirdly asked me to start and subscribe/ become a member. I felt uncomfortable with the approach, but I felt that maybe it could have been some cultural barrier (since sometimes people from other cultures also find me rude even when I try to be nice and respectful). She presented me the membership plans- 1 year $180/mo; 2 years $160/mo; Monthly $250. I believe no one in safe mind would dispose that money just like that. As I was ready to say no- she presented me the TODAY ONLY offer for two months $140/mo. Which sounded much more reasonable to me. After all I really wanted to try it, but I didn't feel as into it as to put up an year commitment/contract, or to pay $250 just to try a month. So I said I'd talk to my wife about it and would get back to her. She insisted a lot that I came back that very same day, so I did and ended up subscribing. It felt weird but I thought to myself that maybe they were new and really needed new members? It must be hard to start a business, I thought. (I had no idea that they were non profit)
So I started my first week. Bring up memories (what they call "pictures") from your entire life. At first I laughed and said THAT IS A LOT TO REMEMBER. So she explained that it takes time and practice but I'd really feel better once I started to let go of all my inner mind world that I've been living in that causes all my stress and anxiety. It made sense. So I put my effort into it. After all I really wanted to become a more relaxed person, less anxious about the future, and let go of all my ghosts from the past.
The repetition of key words on all sections was bugging me, but I thought it was just a poor vocabulary issue. I tried to be understanding.
At some point I tried a different instructor that made me feel even worse. He repeated key words even more, and made me read repeatedly sayings and paragraphs of their book. I am definitely not a book person, but I faced the challenge. The ideas and beliefs of the method's founder didn't seem as interesting to me anymore. He speaks about how to find Truth and how to become the universe (?). I'm very much atheist I must say, so I thought to myself "just ignore this religion bullshit and try to get the benefit from the practice- it doesn't matter to me what made them come up with the method as long as it works for me". So I continued.
On the first week I already started feeling like the instructor's voice was getting into my brain a lot more than I liked. I could clearly hear her voice in my head during the rest of the day and even her weird Korean accent / mispronunciation of words. That's when I started to feel weird. Then I found out that level 1 consisted of about 50 cycles of THROWING AWAY YOUR ENTIRE LIFETIME OF MEMORIES.
After doing the "bring up" process of my entire life for 3 cycles (took me about 10 days), I started the Subtraction Method. That was when everything fell apart. During every section I should imagine my physical death and become a ghost in order to throw away into the black hole (a black dot on the wall) all my "pictures" from my mind world. That did not make sense at all. I did it once. After I left the place that day I felt devastated. I felt fooled. I felt played. I've struggled in the past with depression and suicidal thoughts. That definitely did not feel right. As I got home I went on Google and found this website and now I'm writing my story. I'll ask for a refund of my money. I'm unsure about what their true intentions are- but if everything that was written here is true- I want to keep myself far away from that place.
UPDATE: they refused to give me a refund. I will proceed to take legal action against this organization.
UPDATE 2: they gave me a refund.
My major comments and notes about the RED FLAGS and previous posts:
1- The center had three instructors and it was open from Sunday to Sunday from 9:30AM to 9:30PM. I was told one of the instructors only stayed until 3:30 because she had kinds. The other two were always there all times that I went. That means very extensive hours of work even for American standards.
2- They use your own words about problems in your life that you want to get rid of. Example: stress, anxiety, relationships issues (cheating, fighting), people's names, losses in the family, etc. At first I TOUGHT that was a way to give me a better (customized) experience- but then it just felt like merely brain invasion.
3- On the first days I literally felt like the instructor was OVERSHARING her life traumas/experiences. And then she expected me to do the same. She claimed it was needed to achieve better results. They want you to talk about childhood traumas, or any traumatic life event. Definitely weird.
4- It was definitely not pleasant to remember bad moments of my life and surface scars and traumas. Even though psychology claims that there is where all of our behavior problems are hidden. However, the instructor made it sound that the way I was feeling was normal and that a lot of people felt the same way- but it was a necessary step of the process. As she constantly asked me to tell her how I felt about the practice and about my life in general.
5- I remember having trouble to sleep and headaches after 4-5 days of practice. I could not stand some of the memories of my past that I had just remembered. Ones that I tried so hard to forget for years. I felt like everything came back to me (actually it literally did). A lot of pain and suffer from past bad-ended relationships and decisions/acts that I regretted. That definitely affected my mood on a very bad way on those days. It brought back a lot of anger on other people and also self-hate. All of that with the promise of making me a better person? Non sense.
6- when I first saw their video advertising playing on the hall area I thought to myself "they hired a VERY BAD marketing agency". It's just ridiculous. People saying how their life CHANGED and a lot of other (very hard to believe) stuff. Not only for the clearly FAKE testimonials, but for how secretive they sound. No overview of the method, nothing really interesting on the ad- like a historic view of Korean meditation or anything like that. Just trying to get you to do it with Things like "don't wait just start today". Plain BS. With the advertising the same thing happens to their website. "Related Sites" are all owned by the same organization. You can easily identify they are all copies from one another.
7- Mostly every post here sounds very accurate to me. On the other hand, the posts talking about its benefits sound just like another of its meditation section. If you can even call that meditation. They are all copy pasted type of posts.
8- I remember the instructor slightly telling me to not comment with other people about the subtraction method. As one would only truly understand it if they were part of it or guided into it (unsure which words she used).
9- About the secretiveness on advancing levels- I think it is true because they don't let you interact or share sections with other higher levels.
10- about the "active meditation" doing flyers - I did see pics on a board showing an exposition stand and I did see some of the members on the pic. I assumed they stopped by- but now it doesn't make sense- they were probably flyering / prospecting new members- which to me sounds a lot like a scam. For example, you won't be asked to do advertising for a gym that you go to exercise - or a restaurant that you often eat at.
11- I read a very sober post of a guy saying that MM is just hardcore. That could be true. If it wasn't for the adoration inducing and the high fees that everyone is mentioning. If you think the method works for you: great. But one cannot deny that you shouldn't have to pay such high fees to meditate nor relate/adore/devote to a specific religion/entity/belief.
12- I remember clearly thinking to myself "once I get used to denying all these emotions and memories I'd just probably lose my humanity. If you're thought to react emotionless to any type of impulse - you'll get used to it and you'll simply become a vegetable. At some point your mind will react automatically and discard any emotion or feeling caused by the physical world ("mind world"). That is not peace. That is ignoring. "