Daesoon Jinrihoe cultivation

1. Introduction

Version followed: Daesoon Jinrihoe as its own institutional publications are summarised in the World Religions and Spirituality Project (WRSP) profile, which treats the Yeoju Headquarters as the main body; the Simudo (ox-seeking pictures) as described by Introvigne (2023) for the Yeoju and Pocheon temples. Where factions differ after 1995, this guide does not adjudicate between them. All psychotherapy procedures are clinical synthesis unless a source is cited.

What it is. Daesoon Jinrihoe is a Korean new religious movement, not a therapy. Park Han-gyeong, known as Park Wudang (1917–1995), founded it in Seoul in 1969 after leaving the Busan headquarters of Taegeukdo. It belongs to the Jeungsan family of religions. Members revere Kang Jeungsan (1871–1909) as the incarnation of Sangje (Gucheon Sangje, "Lord of the Ninth Heaven"). They recognise Jo Jeongsan (1895–1958) and Park Wudang as the orthodox successors [source: WRSP profile; CESNUR abstract]. The headquarters moved to the Yeoju temple complex in 1993. The order runs Daejin University, hospitals and a welfare foundation, and reports more than 2,000 local Centers for the Propagation of Virtue in South Korea. Membership figures are disputed: the 1995 census counted about 62,000, while the movement claims about six million [source: WRSP profile; CESNUR abstract]. Disputes after Park's death led to factions [source: WRSP profile; CBS Nocut News 2022].

How change happens, as the order teaches it. The order teaches four tenets:

• eumyang hapdeok (virtuous concordance of yin and yang);
• sinin johwa (harmonious union of divine beings and humans);
• haewon sangsaeng (resolution of grievances for mutual beneficence);
• dotong jin'gyeong (perfected unification with the Dao).

It describes cultivation (sudo) as the path to these. Cultivation combines incantation, chiefly the Tae-eul mantra (Taeeulju); prayer; devotional offerings; and moral practice centred on not causing and resolving grievances (cheok) [source: WRSP profile; Joo 2016; Smertin 2025].

The order's eschatology holds three things:

• the Former World (Seoncheon) fell into disorder;
• Kang Jeungsan's Reordering of the Universe (Cheonji Gongsa) opens a Later World (Hucheon);
• the Later World is an earthly paradise in which cultivated people become earthly immortals.

The order frames this transition as gaebyeok, the Great Transformation. These are the order's teachings, reported here and neither affirmed nor dismissed [source: WRSP profile; Smertin 2025].

The psychotherapist's role. The therapist does not teach or lead any of this. The work is to understand what practice means to the client and to support client-led integration of the client's own resources: steady practice, the ethic of resolving grievances, and community. Alongside that, the therapist screens for difficulties that scholars and news organisations have reported around the movement: sleep loss, financial and family strain, demanding group expectations, and distress from factional conflict [source: RRT 2008 summary of Jorgensen 2001; CBS Nocut News 2022; synthesis].

2. Framework

2.1 The order's own structure (religious, not therapeutic) [source: WRSP profile; Joo 2016]

• Three Essential Attitudes: sincerity, respectfulness and faithfulness. Joo pairs them with mind, body and work.
• Four Cardinal Mottos: quieting the mind (anshim), quieting the body (anshin), revering Heaven (gyeongcheon) and cultivation (sudo).
• Four Tenets: listed in Section 1.
• Aims: reforming the human spirit; renewing human beings, including realising earthly immortals; and building an earthly paradise.
• Precepts: Joo divides them into self-cultivation (not deceiving oneself, preventing grievances, self-reflection) and interpersonal cultivation (not causing grievances, speaking well of others, promoting others' betterment, repaying grace).

2.2 The Simudo as the order's picture of cultivation [source: Introvigne 2023]

The Yeoju series has six panels. In each, a boy seeks a white ox, which Introvigne reads as standing for the Dao of Daesoon Truth:

1. Simsim-yuoh: deep contemplation leading to awakening.
2. Bongdeuk-singyo: finding and following the Heavenly Teachings (the boy finds hoof prints).
3. Myeoni-suji: continuing to train through hardship (the ox disappears; a storm).
4. Seongji-useong: continuing devotion (the boy finds and pets the ox).
5. Dotong-jingyeong: perfected unification with the Dao (the boy rides the ox, playing a flute).
6. Doji-tongmyeong: the Later World of earthly paradise (the boy as an earthly immortal).

The Pocheon version has nine panels. Its extra panels show the boy struggling with, losing and refinding the ox, and the ox starts brown rather than white. The series appears on a pagoda pedestal and in murals at Yeoju, and as an animation in the headquarters museum. Unlike the Zen ox-herding cycle, the series does not end in an empty circle; it ends in an earthly paradise.

2.3 Who teaches and authorises [source: WRSP profile]

• A Central Council holds the highest authority.
• A Board of Religious Order Affairs oversees temples, events, cultivation and doctrine.
• A Board of Audit and Inspection, which includes a Committee of Discipline, oversees compliance.
• Gongbu, the timed incantation ritual, takes place at the Yeoju headquarters.

Public sources describe no lay teacher-certification scheme open to outsiders [uncertain: not verified]. Formal instruction belongs to the order's own clergy and senior members. The therapist does not teach Taeeulju or gongbu.

2.4 The therapist's working phases [synthesis]

No source gives a session count. Length follows the presenting problem.

• Phase A, assessment and cultural formulation: practice and its meaning; affiliation and faction; sleep, work and finances; family; scrupulosity; risk. Move on when you share a formulation the client recognises in their own terms.
• Phase B, goals and integration: client-chosen goals that are consistent with, or explicitly separate from, their religious commitments. Move on when goals are agreed and the client says how far they want faith brought into the work.
• Phase C, working through: grievance and resentment; scrupulosity treated with ERP where present; health and sleep, routed to the doctor; family conflict; coercion or leaving, if present. Move on when symptoms and function improve and the client acts on their own values.
• Phase D, consolidation: relapse plan; links with clergy, community or ex-member support as the client chooses; ending.

3. Guiding principles

• Attribute, do not adjudicate. Sangje, the Later World and earthly immortality are reported as the order's teachings. In practice, use the client's terms ("in your teaching...") and neither endorse nor debunk them [source: WRSP profile; synthesis].
• Client-led integration. Faith enters therapy only with the client's consent and on their terms. In practice, ask before using Simudo or haewon sangsaeng language, and drop it if the client prefers secular work [synthesis].
• Not a religious teacher. The therapist does not instruct chanting, prescribe practice times or interpret doctrine. In practice, refer doctrinal questions to the client's own religious authorities [synthesis].
• Restricted content stays with the order. Mantra text and gongbu procedure are taught within the order. In practice, do not ask clients to recite or explain them in session unless they spontaneously wish to describe their experience [synthesis].
• Sincerity, respectfulness and faithfulness as the client's values. These are the order's Three Essential Attitudes [source: WRSP profile]. In practice, they can anchor values-based goals, such as keeping one's word in family repair [synthesis].
• Guarding against self-deception is a resource, not a weapon. The order treats not deceiving oneself as the core of self-cultivation [source: Joo 2016]. In practice, invite honest self-observation, and watch for it turning into harsh self-scrutiny [synthesis].
• Resolving grievances (haewon sangsaeng) is the client's own ethic. The order describes this as its central moral practice [source: Kim 2020 via Introvigne review]. In practice, it can frame resentment and forgiveness work. Never use it to press a client to tolerate abuse [synthesis].
• Health questions go to the doctor. Sleep, exertion and physical complaints are routed to medical care. No practice is presented as treating physical disease [synthesis].
• Neutral assessment of group dynamics. Concerns about sleep, money, labour or family are assessed in this client's own life, and only reliable reports are cited [source: RRT 2008; synthesis].
• Respect for diversity of experience. The order reports that few members manage all four daily prayers and that most pray about once a day [source: Smertin 2025]. In practice, do not assume rigidity or extremity; ask [synthesis].
• Be aware of factions. The order has been divided since 1995, and disputes have at times been violent [source: RRT 2008, citing AFP 2000; CBS Nocut News 2022]. In practice, ask about affiliation without taking sides [synthesis].
• Scope and ethics. Avoid dual relationships, use self-disclosure sparingly, and follow your professional ethics code. Spiritual and religious competencies are part of ordinary competence [synthesis; Vieten et al. 2013 [uncertain: not verified]].

4. Intervention inventory

Items 4.1–4.5 are the order's own practices. They are described as public outlines so that you can understand the client's life; they are not instructions for you to give. Items 4.6–4.18 are the psychotherapist's own work.

4.1 Taeeulju (Tae-eul mantra) chanting: public outline

• Purpose (as the order states it): The Tae-eul mantra is the order's main incantation. It is chanted in spiritual practice, and the order says it may be chanted without a fixed place or time [source: WRSP profile]. Scholars describe it as the most important mantra, used both inside the gongbu ritual and in personal prayer [source: Kim 2020 via Introvigne review]. Smertin describes repetition of the formula as a means of hastening unity with the Dao [source: Smertin 2025]. The mantra text and how to chant it are taught within the order and are not given here.
• Steps for the therapist: (1) Ask what chanting is like for the client and what it means to them. (2) Note when they chant, in their own words, without setting or suggesting any amount. (3) Ask whether it calms, energises, troubles or exhausts them. (4) If the client wants to use chanting as a coping resource, explore when it helps. Leave the practice itself with their religious teachers [synthesis].
• Example language (illustrative): "You mentioned chanting the Tae-eul mantra. What is that like for you, and what does it mean in your faith?" / "When you chant during a hard week, what changes for you, if anything?"
• Watch for: chanting that has become compulsive, repeated until it feels 'right' or done to neutralise feared thoughts (see 4.9); chanting that cuts into sleep (see 4.10); unusual perceptual or bodily experiences (see 4.11). It is working when the client describes it as steadying and freely chosen [synthesis].

4.2 Gongbu (sihak and sibeop): public outline

• Purpose (as described): Gongbu is a timed incantation ritual held at the Yeoju headquarters. It has two forms, sihak and sibeop, which differ in how and where the incantations are chanted. The order believes it hastens the coming of the earthly paradise [source: WRSP profile; Kim 2020 via Introvigne review]. Smertin describes it as continuous chanting by rotating groups, aimed at unity with the Dao [source: Smertin 2025]. Participation and procedure are arranged by the order.
• Steps for the therapist: (1) If the client takes part, ask how often they travel for it, how it fits around work, family and sleep, and what it means to them. (2) Plan sessions around it [synthesis].
• Example language (illustrative): "When you go to Yeoju for gongbu, how do you prepare, and how are you afterwards?"
• Watch for: exhaustion or sleep debt after participation; changes in perception or mood; pressure to attend beyond what the client wants. These call for a health check and, if the client wishes, a conversation with their senior member [synthesis].

4.3 Daily prayers (kido) and devotional offerings (chiseong): public outline

• Purpose (as described): The order sets four daily prayer times, including night and early-morning times, and weekly prayers on a traditional five-day cycle. Chiseong are collective devotional offerings held on the birth and death anniversaries of Kang, Jo and Park, at major events, and at solstices and seasonal changes [source: WRSP profile]. Smertin reports a member's account that few people manage all four prayers and that most pray about once a day [source: Smertin 2025]. Kim's study also covers candle lighting and the wearing of hanbok in ritual [source: Kim 2020 via Introvigne review].
• Steps for the therapist: (1) Map the client's actual practice, not the ideal schedule. (2) Schedule appointments to avoid major chiseong dates if the client wishes. (3) Ask how night-time prayer fits with sleep and work [synthesis].
• Example language (illustrative): "Which prayer times do you actually keep, and how does that sit with you?"
• Watch for: guilt over missed prayers that is out of proportion to the order's own expectations (scrupulosity, 4.9); chronic short sleep (4.10) [synthesis].

4.4 Simudo (ox-seeking pictures): description and client-led use

• Purpose: The Simudo are a series of symbolic paintings found in all Daesoon Jinrihoe temples, and meditating on them is one way to grasp the order's theology [source: Introvigne review of Kim 2020]. The six Yeoju panels move from deep contemplation, through following the teachings, perseverance in hardship, devotion and unification with the Dao, to the Later World of earthly paradise; the Pocheon version adds panels in which the boy loses and refinds the ox [source: Introvigne 2023]. For a client who values them, the panels can serve as a culturally congruent metaphor for their own struggle, setbacks and persistence [synthesis].
• Steps (client-led, with consent) [synthesis]: (1) Ask whether the client finds the Simudo meaningful and whether they would like to use them in therapy. (2) Invite them to describe the panels in their own words. Do not supply doctrine. (3) Ask which panel feels closest to where they are now in their life or difficulty. (4) Ask what the boy does in that panel that the client might draw on, for example persisting through the storm in Myeoni-suji. (5) Link this to one concrete, values-consistent step for the week. (6) Drop the metaphor if it becomes a measure of spiritual failure.
• Example language (illustrative): "You said you feel like the boy who has lost sight of the ox. What does he do in that picture? What would that look like for you this week?"
• Watch for: self-condemnation ("I'm still in the storm, I've failed"). If that appears, separate religious progress from therapeutic goals. It is working when the client uses the image to tolerate setbacks and act [synthesis].

4.5 Resolving grievances (haewon sangsaeng) and not causing cheok: the client's moral practice

• Purpose (as the order states it): The order teaches that people should not cause grievance (cheok), should promote others' betterment and should repay grace. It also teaches that the one who created a grievance must resolve it, so resolving one's own comes first [source: Joo 2016]. Smertin describes the practice as resolving old grievances, forgiving enemies, cooperating and avoiding conflict [source: Smertin 2025]. For a willing client, this ethic can frame work on resentment, conflict and repair [synthesis].
• Steps [synthesis]: (1) Ask what haewon sangsaeng means to the client in practice. (2) Identify one relationship with unresolved grievance. (3) Separate the parts the client can repair from harm done to them. (4) Plan one repair or boundary step, drawing on the client's own terms (sincerity, speaking well of others). (5) Review it the following session.
• Example language (illustrative): "Your teaching speaks of resolving grievances so both sides can flourish. Is there a relationship where that feels relevant? What part is yours to carry, and what part isn't?"
• Watch for: the ethic being used, by the client or by others, to justify staying in abusive or exploitative situations, or to silence complaints. Resolving grievance does not mean accepting harm. Also watch for excessive self-blame [synthesis].

4.6 Respectful religious history and cultural formulation

• Purpose: To understand affiliation, practice, community and meaning before any intervention. Use the DSM-5-TR Cultural Formulation Interview, including its spirituality, religion and moral traditions supplementary module [uncertain: not verified; synthesis].
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Ask how the client came to the order, how long they have belonged and their role, for example lay member or someone who propagates.
  2. Ask which centre or faction they belong to. Ask neutrally.
  3. Ask which practices they keep: chanting, prayers, gongbu, chiseong.
  4. Ask what the teachings mean for their hopes and fears.
  5. Ask about family members' views.
  6. Ask about time, money and labour given, and how freely.
  7. Ask whether they want faith included in therapy.
• Example language (illustrative): "I'd like to understand your faith as you live it. What does belonging to Daesoon Jinrihoe give you, and is anything about it hard right now?"
• Watch for: guardedness, because some members expect outsiders to be hostile. Reduce it by asking about meaning first. Watch also for shame about doubts. It is working when the client speaks freely about both what sustains them and what troubles them [synthesis].

4.7 Values clarification using the Three Essential Attitudes

• Purpose: To draw on sincerity, respectfulness and faithfulness, the order's Three Essential Attitudes [source: WRSP profile], as client-owned values for behavioural goals [synthesis].
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Ask how each attitude shows up in the client's daily life.
  2. Choose one life area that matters now, such as work, family or health.
  3. Define one concrete action expressing that value.
  4. Review the action next session without moralising.
• Example language (illustrative): "If sincerity guided how you handle this conflict with your sister, what's one thing you'd do differently this week?"
• Watch for: values turning into standards for self-punishment. It is working when actions increase and self-criticism falls [synthesis].

4.8 Working with the order's eschatology (Later World, Great Transformation)

• Purpose: To explore what the order's teaching on the transition to a Later World means to the client, especially if it drives anxiety, urgency or major life decisions. Scholars report that apocalyptic predictions in the 1980s preceded members leaving jobs, studies and families, and that these predictions were later passed over quietly [source: RRT 2008 summarising Jorgensen 2001]. These reports concern a past period; do not assume they apply to the client [synthesis].
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Ask how the client understands the Later World teaching and how it affects their plans.
  2. If it causes distress, explore their fears without debating doctrine.
  3. Separate religious hope from specific pressures, for example to quit work or study, or to give large sums.
  4. Support decisions taken freely and with time to reflect.
• Example language (illustrative): "In your teaching, the Later World is a hopeful vision. Is it bringing you hope right now, or pressure? What decisions feel tied to it?"
• Watch for: fear-driven sleep loss, panic, or sudden irreversible decisions. If the client's belief seems to go beyond what their community shares, assess for psychosis or mania (4.12). It is working when the client holds the belief in a way they experience as sustaining [synthesis].

4.9 Scrupulosity screening and adapted ERP

• Purpose: Practices that involve precise incantation, set prayer times, self-reflection and not deceiving oneself can become a vehicle for OCD. The IOCDF describes scrupulosity as religious or moral OCD, with obsessions such as fear of sin or of doing a prayer incorrectly, and compulsions such as checking or repeating prayers until they feel 'just right', excessive confession or reassurance-seeking from religious leaders, and mental neutralising. It differs from devotion in being distress-driven, narrowly focused and impairing [source: IOCDF].
• Steps:
  1. Screen: ask about repeating chanting or prayers because they feel wrong, fear of offending Sangje through errors, and repeated reassurance-seeking [synthesis].
  2. Formulate the OCD cycle in the client's terms.
  3. With consent, and where the client wishes, consult a senior member of the order on what the tradition actually requires. The IOCDF says involving faith leaders is optional and depends on the client [source: IOCDF].
  4. Build an exposure hierarchy that stays within what the order permits, for example chanting once without repeating, or tolerating the doubt that a prayer was imperfect [synthesis].
  5. Practise response prevention for repetition and reassurance-seeking [synthesis].
  6. Aim to separate OCD from the client's values so they can live their faith [source: IOCDF].
  7. Refer for medication assessment to the prescriber; give no medication advice [synthesis].
• Example language (illustrative): "It sounds like OCD has attached itself to your prayers. Would it help to check with a senior member what your tradition actually asks of you, so we can tell OCD's rules from your faith's?"
• Watch for: exposures that would breach the client's sincere beliefs; stop and renegotiate them. Watch also for reassurance-seeking moving to the therapist. It is working when time spent on rituals and distress fall while voluntary practice continues [synthesis].

4.10 Sleep, workload and health check, routed to the doctor

• Purpose: The order's schedule includes night and early-morning prayer [source: WRSP profile]. A scholar has reported that members were at times encouraged to reduce sleep to devote more time to practice, and that people working on the order's construction projects had very little rest [source: RRT 2008 summarising Jorgensen 2001]. Whether this applies to an individual today must be asked, not assumed [synthesis].
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Ask about typical sleep, night practice, work and volunteer labour, without judgement.
  2. Ask about daytime functioning, mood, accidents and physical symptoms.
  3. If sleep is chronically short or health is affected, recommend a doctor's review, and coordinate with the doctor if the client consents.
  4. Help the client plan how to keep the practice that matters to them while protecting sleep, in their own terms. Do not prescribe practice times.
• Example language (illustrative): "Many people who keep night prayers find it hard to get enough sleep. How is your sleep, and how is your body coping?"
• Watch for: exhaustion, low mood, irritability, perceptual disturbance, or a manic switch after sleep loss. Seek medical review urgently if these appear [synthesis].

4.11 Monitoring challenging contemplative experiences

• Purpose: Intensive repetitive practice can be followed by challenging experiences. Lindahl et al. (2017) documented 59 types of experience across seven domains: cognitive, perceptual, affective, somatic, conative, sense of self and social. Influencing factors included practice intensity, psychiatric or trauma history, quality of supervision, and health behaviours such as sleep. Effects lasted from days to more than a decade, and having someone knowledgeable to talk to was a commonly cited help [source: Brown University 2017]. That study sampled Buddhist meditators; its application to incantation practice is [synthesis].
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Ask routinely about unusual experiences during or after chanting or gongbu: fear, light or sound sensitivity, insomnia, involuntary movements, changes in sense of self.
  2. Normalise them as reported by other practitioners, without diagnosing.
  3. Suggest grounding, for example orienting to the room or the feel of the feet.
  4. Suggest the client discuss lighter practice with their religious teachers, and review sleep and health.
  5. Coordinate with the teacher if the client wishes.
  6. Use trauma-sensitive pacing (Treleaven 2018 [uncertain: not verified]).
• Example language (illustrative): "Some people who chant intensively notice changes in sleep, feelings or perception. Has anything like that happened to you?"
• Watch for: symptoms that persist or impair functioning. These require assessment, as in 4.12. Farias et al. (2020) and Cheetah House resources are relevant [uncertain: not verified].

4.12 Telling religious experience apart from psychiatric illness

• Purpose: To avoid pathologising normative belief while not missing psychosis, mania, depression or dissociation [synthesis].
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Ask whether others in the client's community share and recognise the experience.
  2. Check function, sleep, self-care and risk.
  3. Look for features beyond the shared belief system: bizarre content, command hallucinations, marked agitation, reduced need for sleep, grandiosity.
  4. Arrange psychiatric assessment if present.
  5. Where the issue is religious or spiritual distress without disorder, DSM-5-TR provides a category for a religious or spiritual problem (Z65.8) [source: ICD-10-CM Z65.8].
• Example language (illustrative): "Is this the kind of experience others in your temple talk about, or does it feel different from theirs?"
• Watch for: rapid deterioration and risk. Act on risk using standard procedures [synthesis].

4.13 Assessing coercive or high-control dynamics

• Purpose: To check, without labelling, whether the client experiences coercion. Scholarly and media sources have reported:
  • tithing and donation expectations, including from poor members;
  • unpaid labour;
  • members leaving jobs, studies and families during past periods, following a KBS programme in 1984;
  • secrecy;
  • factional violence in 1999–2000 and again in 2022, in disputes over headquarters and funds.
  [source: RRT 2008 summarising Jorgensen 2001, CSD 1996 and AFP 2000; CBS Nocut News 2022]. The order emphasises its charity, welfare and education work [source: WRSP profile]. These reports describe particular periods and groups; individual experience varies [synthesis].
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Ask about freedom to question, say no, take time off, see family and keep one's income.
  2. Ask about consequences of declining.
  3. Ask about debts or loans taken for giving.
  4. Name any concerns descriptively, for example "you said you can't refuse requests for money".
  5. Support the client's own decisions.
  6. Provide practical information, such as debt advice or legal advice, if they ask.
• Example language (illustrative): "If you wanted to give less or take a break, what would happen? How free do you feel to decide that?"
• Watch for: fear of reprisal, isolation from family, escalating debts, exploitation of labour. Assess safety and refer to legal, financial or safeguarding services as needed [synthesis].

4.14 Family conflict around membership

• Purpose: To help when family members disagree with the client's membership, or when the client is a family member worried about a relative [synthesis].
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Map each person's concerns.
  2. Separate facts, such as money, time and contact, from fears.
  3. Coach non-confrontational, curious conversation that keeps contact open.
  4. Discourage ultimatums or coercive interventions.
  5. Offer joint sessions if all parties consent.
• Example language (illustrative): "What matters most is keeping the relationship open. What could you ask your son about his faith that comes from curiosity rather than worry?"
• Watch for: escalation, cut-off, and safety concerns. It is working when contact and mutual understanding improve [synthesis].

4.15 Support with leaving and religious trauma

• Purpose: To support a client who is leaving or has left, or who is distressed by the order's factional conflicts [synthesis].
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Respect the client's pace and mixed feelings: grief, loss of community and of the eschatological hope, guilt, fear.
  2. Address practical needs: housing, finances, work, family reconnection.
  3. Treat trauma symptoms with standard trauma-focused approaches.
  4. Help the client rebuild meaning; they may keep, change or let go of beliefs.
  5. Offer peer support if they wish.
• Example language (illustrative): "Leaving can mean losing a whole world: friends, a future you hoped for, a way of praying. What do you miss, and what are you relieved to be without?"
• Watch for: depression, suicidality, and pressure to return. Assess risk using current standards [synthesis].

4.16 Collaboration and referral

• Purpose: To involve the client's religious authorities, or other support, only when the client wishes [synthesis].
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Obtain written consent and agree exactly what will be shared.
  2. Contact the senior member or clergy the client names, about specific questions such as what is required in prayer, or whether health exemptions or rest are acceptable.
  3. Refer doctrinal or practice questions to the order, health questions to the doctor, and legal or financial questions to the relevant advisers.
• Example language (illustrative): "Would you like me to speak with your senior member about how your practice can fit with your recovery? We'll decide together what I share."
• Watch for: the client feeling pressured into this contact; confidentiality breaches. If the faction situation makes contact risky, do not proceed [synthesis].

4.17 Scope, dual relationships and self-disclosure

• Purpose: To maintain professional boundaries [synthesis].
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Do not attend the client's ceremonies, give donations or become a member while treating the client.
  2. Disclose your own religious views only when it serves the client.
  3. Follow your professional ethics code on multiple relationships and competence; the APA Ethics Code is not quoted here.
  4. Seek supervision or consultation on Korean new religions if unfamiliar with them.
• Example language (illustrative): "I'm not part of your tradition, and I won't try to teach it. My job is to help you with what you've brought here."
• Watch for: invitations to proselytise or to join, and your own counter-transference towards new religions [synthesis].

4.18 Safeguarding minors

• Purpose: Reports of harsh practices by the order aimed at children: none found in the sources consulted. Where a minor is involved in sleep-shortening practice, labour or financial pressure, apply standard safeguarding procedure [synthesis].
• Steps [synthesis]:
  1. Assess the child's assent and wellbeing.
  2. Consult your safeguarding lead.
  3. Follow local reporting duties.
• Example language (illustrative): "I'd like to understand how the family's practice fits with your daughter's sleep and schooling."
• Watch for: missed schooling, exhaustion, and isolation [synthesis].

5. Handling problems

All guidance in this section is [synthesis] unless a source is cited. Sources on this order do not address psychotherapy directly.

• The client expects the therapist to be hostile to new religions.
  • Name your stance: curious, not judging, and not taking sides between factions.
  • Start with what the faith gives the client.
  • Do not raise reported controversies unless they are relevant to the client's own experience.
• The client wants you to endorse or confirm teachings, such as the Later World or the efficacy of chanting.
  • Reflect the meaning back without endorsing or disputing it, for example: "That hope matters a lot to you" (illustrative).
  • Redirect doctrinal questions to the client's own religious authorities.
• The client wants you to teach or check their chanting.
  • Decline kindly. Mantra and gongbu instruction belongs to the order.
  • Explore what they hope that check would give them. If the request is reassurance-seeking, see 4.9.
• Stuck: the client feels spiritually 'behind', as if stuck in the storm panel.
  • Separate therapy goals from spiritual attainment.
  • Draw on the Pocheon panels, in which the boy loses and refinds the ox (Introvigne 2023), only if the client already values them.
  • Otherwise use secular behavioural activation.
• Resistance to discussing money, sleep or labour.
  • Ask permission, normalise the question ("I ask everyone with demanding schedules"), and come back to it later.
  • Respect the client's refusal unless safety is at stake.
• Non-adherence to homework because of practice commitments.
  • Fit tasks around prayer times and chiseong dates.
  • Fold tasks into existing routines, for example a two-line reflection after evening prayer.
• Overwhelm or unusual experiences after intensive practice. Use grounding, sleep and a medical review, and suggest the client discuss lighter practice with their teacher (4.11). Assess for psychosis or mania (4.12).
• Rupture after the therapist names a concern about group dynamics.
  • Acknowledge it: "I may have sounded as if I was judging your community" (illustrative).
  • Restate respect for the client's choices, and return to the client's own stated goals.
• The client is caught in a factional dispute. Reports describe violent clashes over headquarters and funds in 1999–2000 and 2022 (RRT 2008; CBS Nocut News 2022).
  • Assess physical safety and exposure to violence.
  • Treat trauma symptoms.
  • Stay neutral on which faction is legitimate.
• A family member asks you to help 'get someone out'.
  • Decline coercive approaches.
  • Offer support for the family member and coaching on keeping contact open (4.14).
  • Treat the adult member's autonomy as decisive.
• The client discloses financial exploitation or abuse.
  • Document it.
  • Assess risk.
  • Provide referrals for legal, debt and police help as the client wishes.
  • Follow mandatory reporting duties where they apply, for example for minors or adults at risk.
• Scrupulosity worsens when exposures feel like sin.
  • Slow down and renegotiate the exposure hierarchy.
  • With consent, consult a senior member of the order on what the tradition permits (IOCDF).
• Cross-cultural and language gaps. Learn the client's Korean terms (sudo, cheok, haewon sangsaeng) from the client. Use interpreters who have no tie to the client's congregation.
• Therapist's own discomfort with apocalyptic teachings. Take it to supervision. Keep the focus on the client's experience, not the doctrine.
• Suicidality during leaving or after loss of hope. Use standard risk assessment and safety planning. Increase contact and involve crisis services as needed.

Sources

Web sources:

• Daesoon Jinrihoe profile and timeline, World Religions and Spirituality Project
• Introvigne, CESNUR abstract on Daesoon Jinrihoe (2017)
• Introvigne, M. (2023). Every Picture Tells a Story: The New York Unicorn Tapestries and Daesoon Jinrihoe's Simudo Paintings. Journal of Daesoon Thought and the Religions of East Asia 3(1): 13–32
• Introvigne, M. (2022). Review of D. W. Kim, Daesoon Jinrihoe in Modern Korea. JDTREA 1(2): 161–163
• Joo, Soyeon. Religious belief system of Daesoonjinrihoe (CESNUR 2016, preliminary conference paper)
• Smertin, Y. G. (2025). The Korean religious movement Daesoon Jinrihoe: the project of earthly paradise and methods of achieving it. RUDN Journal of World History 17(4): 533–550
• Refugee Review Tribunal, Australia (2008). Research Response KOR33839: South Korea: Daesunjinrihui
• CBS Nocut News (4 March 2022). Report on the Daesoon Jinrihoe factional dispute over funds and hospital construction
• Brown University News (2017). Study documents range of challenging meditation experiences (on Lindahl et al. 2017)
• International OCD Foundation. What is OCD & Scrupulosity?

Books and works cited through the sources above [uncertain: not verified]:

• Kim, D. W. (2020). Daesoon Jinrihoe in Modern Korea: The Emergence, Transformation and Transmission of a New Religion. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
• Jorgensen, J. (2001), as summarised in RRT 2008 [uncertain: not verified].
• Lindahl et al. 2017, PLOS ONE. The varieties of contemplative experience (as reported by Brown University News).
• Farias et al. 2020, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. Systematic review of adverse events in meditation [uncertain: not verified].
• Treleaven, D. (2018). Trauma-Sensitive Mindfulness [uncertain: not verified].
• Vieten, C., et al. (2013). Spiritual and religious competencies for psychologists [uncertain: not verified].
• American Psychiatric Association. DSM-5-TR, Cultural Formulation Interview [uncertain: not verified].
• ICD-10-CM Z65.8, Other specified problems related to psychosocial circumstances (includes 'Religious or spiritual problem'), https://www.unboundmedicine.com/icd/view/ICD-10-CM/945432/all/Z65_8___Other_specified_problems_related_to_psychosocial_circumstances