This is a mini post about an experience I had in Seoul South Korea.

The first few days I spent in Seoul, I was exploring mostly solo and on one such day I was walking around Hanok village in the northern part of the city and then headed down one of the market streets.  I had just been wandering and exploring for several hours and was feeling fairly thirsty.  I decided to sit down and see if there were any breweries or beer bars in the area so I could sit down with a delicious craft beer.  I was sitting on a bench when a women approached me asking me where I was from, what I was doing in Korea and if I like Korean culture.  I said I did and was one of the reasons why I was in Korea.  She then proceeded to invite me to a special ceremony they were hosting today only as a special case for Children’s day  (it was the Children’s day holiday in Korea that day)  She asked if I wanted to go with her to learn more about Korean culture and learn more about it as well as create some good karma.  I was immediately skeptical because whenever anyone approaches me on the street and asks me to do something or come with them, I am always on high alert and am trying to mentally prepare what I will do if a bad situation arises.

I was very polite and when she invited me, I said I had to meet a friend and was unable to come with her at that time.  After some pushing she eventually accepted my response and wished me a good day.  Later that same day, I was in the Gagnam  neighborhood walking around, checking it out and was once again sitting down trying to plan my next move, when a young man approached me asking me very similar questions as the first girl and essentially had the same story.  We were in a completely different part of town so this must be a second group.  At this point I was still on high alert but was now also curious.  Could this actually be a children’s day ceremony happening all over the city, could I learn something about Korean Culture, was this a special once a year occurrence?  I chatted with the guy for some time trying to get a feel for what his motives were and he actually seemed pretty genuine.  I did a quick inventory of what I was carrying and what the result would be if I got robbed. I didn’t have my main pack or my laptop and wasn’t carrying all of my bank cards or money, so was in decent shape.  I decided to say what the hell and see what this “ceremony” was all about.  This is probably one of the riskiest things I have done on my whole travels, or at least the most sketched out/on high alert I have been.  Anyways, we walk down the street and head into a more residential neighborhood and into an apartment building.  We arrive at this apartment and about 3-4 other Koreans greet me with big smiles and hellos.  I am ushered into a room where I sit down with the gentleman and he begins to ask me questions about myself and my family.  I couldn’t figure out if he was trying to steal personal information for identify theft or was genuinely interested in my family and was gathering information for this ceremony since it was all about my ancestors and my family. I provided fake birthdays and a fake address although I did give the real first names of my family members thinking that if this was an actual spiritual ceremony I should at least get some good karma out of it.  We discussed his beliefs about how our ancestors are on their way to better things and that by performing this ceremony and living a good life, we can help them achieve their path.  I was listening and it was clear that he really believed what he was telling me and that made me relax just a little bit, although the whole time I was waiting for the part where he asks for money.  It didn’t take too long for that part to come.  At one point he said that as an offering for each family member I would need to provide a offering of money for each “seat” at the table which would be one for each of my family members.  I asked how much that typically was and he said it was about $10 per family member for a total of $40.  I quickly explained that this was basically my entire budget for the whole day and that I really could not afford to pay that much money.  He then went on to explain that money has caused several hardships in the world and that money is very bad karma.  Getting rid of money provides very good karma and the more we get rid of, the better karma we will have.  Obviously I wasn’t buying it and was curious to see how he would react when I rejected him.  The way he gave me an envelope and asked for money and what not actually did make me more uncomfortable and at one point asked if I could leave.  He asked me why I was feeling uncomfortable and seemed genuinely concerned that this ceremony that he clearly believed in was making someone feel uncomfortable because you could tell he really believed in it.  Anyways after explaining karma again and trying to explain why I should not feel uncomfortable, I did genuinely want to see what this ceremony was all about and so I agreed to pay $10 which was acceptable to him.

This old lady that was chilling with us, took the envelope and went off to prepare the room where the ceremony took place.

After a few minutes they came in and said that the room was prepared.  I was escorted to another room in the apartment and was told to turn off my cell phone (Fat Chance) and was given a Hanbok pretty cheap almost disposable feeling “Korean ceremonial dress”.  The room had a short table typical of the ones Koreans use when sitting on the floor for meals (Ondol style) and on it was a plate of chocolate cakes (they looked like Joe Louise for the Canadians in the house), three sets of chopsticks at each end of the table, 3 cups and two candles on either side.  At the front of the “alter” there was a bowl and a place for incense to burn.  When we arrived in the room, the lady seemed like she was the helper and the guy that was talking to me seemed to be the leader.  They lit some incense, and the two candles and hung up a Chinese poster on the wall.  They also had a few pieces of paper which had Chinese characters on it.  I was instructed to stand back but in the middle of the alter and the lady was in front of me.  I was told that each (let’s call them rounds) round, there would be 4 bows with hand gestures, 4 bows with no hand gestures and then 2 additional bows.  The guy was saying words in what I think was Korean and the lady started to bow.  And when I say bow, I mean get on the ground and put your head to the floor bow.  I was also instructed to stand with my left hand over my right hand (I had my right over my left) and after the lady performed the first round, I was instructed to perform the second with her.  Before each round, they would pour a cup of water, wave it in front of the food and then put it back on the table.  They also continuously picked up the chopsticks on the table, aligned them by tapping them on the table then putting them back.  There were a few rounds of this and eventually they burned some papers with some writing on it as a symbol of something.  We then did a little bit more bowing and eventually one by one they emptied the cups of their water and asked me to fill them up again from a teapot.  I did this one by one and then we bowed a few more times.  Following this we took off the big piece of paper from the wall that had a bunch of Chinese characters on it and they asked me to sit down cross legged and burn the piece of paper then close my eyes.  At this point I felt a bit sketched out lik they were going to burn me a live or something so I kept my eyes mostly closed with a few peeks as to what was happening here or there.  Eventfully the paper was burned and I was allowed to open my eyes again.  At one point I had to do a deep kneel for 5 minutes in a moment of silence, but I don’t remember when this happened.  Anyways, when the ceremony was done, we went back to the “debrief” room and we chatted a little bit more.  He asked me how I felt about the ceremony and if I had a positive feeling.  He also outlined the the three rules I must follow in order for the good energy to continue.  First I was not allowed to tell anyone about the ceremony for 21 days, second I was not allowed to step on the doorstep of a door and I was not allowed to swear.  If I followed those rules, then my ancestors will be in good shape, if I didn’t do these things then they would reverse their path and karma would be reversed.  As I write this it has not been 21 days, and I told some people about this right away.

They said I could go, wished me well and asked if I needed any help to go where I needed to go.  They were all very nice and I DIDN’T GET ROBBED! (I guess for $10 but that’s fine).

Now a few things.  We looked it up after and here is a Wikipedia article about the cult that this was from.  Additionally I met someone else a few days later that went through the same thing.  His experience was similar but in his case it was a girl from the Netherlands and there were about 10 people all participant.  His took place around 9pm so maybe at night they get more people.  They also didn’t ask for money until the very end.  They said in order for the good karma to come through, they needed a gift before he left and that’s when they asked for money, although in his case he also paid $10.

I am glad I followed through despite the risks because it’s a great friggin story and only cost me $10.  Totally worth it.  I’m alive and well and I don’t think I am going to be getting any identity theft judging by the answers I gave, so all is well.  Let me know if you have ever heard of anyone else experiencing this.  Reddit makes it look like it happens often (judging by the fact I was approached twice in one day)

Anyways, ya not dead and this ended up being longer than a mini post but such is life.