THAT DAHN CULT. Anyone thinking about getting involved in the yoga style being marketed as "Dahn" (which operates in more than 100 centers in the Big Apple and other parts of the United States) may be in danger of getting sucked into a corporate cult that drains members of their time, money, and ability to sniff out bad science and greedy, monomaniacal leaders.

The Village Voice cover story "Fatal Trek" focuses on questions surrounding the death of Brooklyn's Julia Siverls during her participation in a Dahn program in Sedona, Arizona. Online comments can be found at Power Plays. The warnings and discussion about Dahn are consistent with what I heard about it from a friend who participated in it for a while but eventually left after the high-pressure sales tactics of the Dahn leadership became too creepy--like something out of Glengarry Glen Ross.

Here's another set of cautionary notes about Dahn. Here's a news story from Chicago. And here's one of the stranger aspects of Dahn: something called Brain Respiration. It qualified for the Guardian's Bad Science column of October 28, 2004!