The Time I Unintentionally got Inducted into a Korean Cult

Well, this made for an interesting afternoon! There are common scams you come across while travelling, like taxi drivers trying to rip you off, or tour guides taking you to certain shops because they get commission, but this was far more unusual and (at least in my case) didn’t involve losing any money.

Hungover in Hongdae: How it started to go wrong

I was staying in Lazy Fox Hostel in the Hongdae district of Seoul. The hostel is very social and, despite my intention of having a quiet night, I ended up out until around 6am, a mistake pleasure that I would repeat several times while there. Anyway, I got up pretty late and my plans for the day were thrown out the window. I was wandering around Hongdae when two university students approached me and started asking various questions about where I’m from and what I was doing here. Something about the situation felt old, but it all seemed harmless so I carried on chatting with the girls. At some point I mentioned that I was deciding where to have lunch and they offered to take me to a local Korean market for food which I said yes to. That was the beginning of the trap, they then asked if I would be interested in seeing a typical Korean show at a studio used for their university studies. Now, I was starting to get suspicious about the whole thing, but I was also bored and curious so I went along with it. We took the subway to this local market where I bought these large, Korean style dim sums.

After buying the food, we walked to the studio nearby, which was down a small road and looked like a large house (not the building pictured at the top of this post, that’s just a temple in Seoul with no connection). At this point I started to get a bit apprehensive. Assuming they weren’t secretly Taekwondo masters, the two girls posed no threat but, for all I knew, there could have been a group inside waiting to mug me. Nevertheless, I went in and was immediately relieved when I saw various Korean students going about their business and some other foreigners that had also been roped into coming here.

Inside their Evil Lair

I sat down with the girls to eat the dim sum, which were tasty, but too spicy for my white guy palate. They were asking some unusual questions, but I felt this may have just been due to cultural differences, so I answered them as well as I could. After a while, they mentioned a ceremony and wanted me to write some wishes down on a piece of paper. I wrote some down and they then asked for me to write my date of birth, along with my close family members names and dates of birth (internet security questions fraud alert). Needless to say, some false information was given at this time. After eating, they took me upstairs and, before I knew it, brought out what they said was a traditional Korean outfit and asked if I would put it on. Suddenly, I was regretting my decision to come but I was sort of amused by the situation so continued going along with it. By now I was getting deeper into the trap and one of the girls started showing me how to do what she said were some traditional Korean bows. By this point I’m thinking “oh fuck” and they’re taking me into a small room for a ceremony which, of course, I’m part of. The other foreigners who had been sucked into this were also in the room, along with some locals. The two girls leave the room at this point and one of the Korean guys instructed me where to stand – the room was split with girls on one side, guys on the the other and one Korean student/priest/whatever he was at the front. The ceremony started and, for what felt like forever, everyone was having to do the various bows I had been shown a few minutes earlier. One of these, which was done over and over, involved going right down to the floor and standing up again in a certain manner. It reminded me of a yoga session, something which my hungover self, dressed in jeans and a hoody with the Korean outfit on top, really wasn’t prepared for. After a while, everyone was instructed to stay bowed on the floor for what felt like an eternity. The room had gotten extremely hot with all the rapid bowing and I was very tempted to just stand up and walk out but, not wanting to make a scene, I carried on and the ceremony eventually ended after some burning of paper. Everyone left the room at this point and the two girls reappeared, asking me to go back downstairs for another chat. Another conversation is not what I wanted with them but, at least they were fruits and biscuits in the room everyone went into.  After chatting for a while, they asked if I wanted to see a different show tomorrow night. I said yes and got the phone number off one of them so we could arrange meeting up but there was no way I was continuing this into a second day.

Getting Away

In the end, they took me back to the subway station , we said our goodbyes and I went to get the subway, while they creepily stood there waving endlessly as they watched me walk away. When I got back to the hostel, I had a laugh with some of the other guests about what happened, then did some googling and found out it’s a common scam in Seoul. It turns out that the girls belonged to a religious cult called Daesun Jinrihoe. There isn’t a great deal of information online (at least not in English) about the cult but, unsurprisingly, they seem to have made several apocalyptic predictions which haven’t come to pass.

While nothing happened to me during this experience and it didn’t cost me anything (I actually got some free fruit and biscuits out of it), the situation can apparently get ugly. One of the hostel staff told me a story about a girl who had gone there, put her clothes and valuables into a locker while wearing the Korean outfit and, afterwards, they refused to open the locker for her unless she agreed to give them a substantial amount of money. Note that this particular risk only applies to the ladies – guys simply put the male outfit over whatever they’re wearing rather than having to change. I also heard the situation can get nasty with the cult asking for money while you’re there and threatening violence. For me, the whole thing passed without incident and I’m sort of glad I went. The only thing I lost was a few hours of my time, which I had no plans for, and I had a bizarre experience which I can look back on and laugh about. Having said that, it can go badly so I wouldn’t recommend going. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading this and remember, if two girls approach you in Seoul and ask if you want to see a traditional Korean show, they are in a cult and this is what you’re getting yourself in for!

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