I've been meaning to explore Maum Meditation for a while now as I've heard from several former members over the years, but beyond some bookmarking and one little Kindle purchase, I've have failed to find the time.
This little incident in the US provided me the opportunity to finally start a thread about the group here. And that Kindle purchase is the creepily titled
Stop Living In This Land, Go To The Everlasting World Of Happiness, Live There Forever.I have only just skimmed the early pages, but I think I might now read the rest sooner rather than later. Those early pages certainly gave off a clear cult vibe, as did the title. Just skimming the reviews just now,
this one caught my eye as most reviews seem to have been written by members:
STOP LIVING IN THIS LAND... is the most repetitive, brainwashy, culty thing I've ever read (except for the Holy Bible). On nearly every page of it's nearly 400 pages it repeats this simple message: "You were born a sinner and the current state of your hellish life is meaningless and you must wake up to live forever in bliss or die forever and ever to never NEVER get another chance and the ONLY way to wake up is through Maum Meditation." There, now you don't have to read this book. Literally, that is all Woo Myung has to say in this book! Oh, except when he sings his own high praises towards the end, describing his glorious self as a divine teacher in possession of the ONLY WAY to spiritual salvation and that is, once again, Maum Meditation.
And now to the articles that rekindled^ my interest in this group:
Nov. 22, 2017: 85 S. Koreans Denied Entry to US Due to Travel Document Complications (The Korea Herald)
Meanwhile, the US edition of Joongang Ilbo reported that the group was on their way to participate in a meditation program hosted by a South Korea-based organization, Suwanee Mediation, through a travel agency.
This
recent Reddit ties "Suwanee Meditation" to Maum.
Suwanee is the name of a US town, obviously not the name of the parent Korean group.
While the Korea Herald piece does offer "Suwanee Meditation" as the name for the group, in this Yonhap piece, a Ministry official refuses to name the group. That caused a chuckle as determining the name of the group from the name offered in the Korean Herald article took less than a minute.
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news/2017/11/22/0200000000AEN20171122006200315.htmlHe, however, declined to disclose the name of the organization and the identifications of the individuals for protection of their privacy. He also did not provide the purposes they stated in their entry review process at the airport.
Here's a thread on
Rick Ross's cult awareness site about the group.