"High pressure negotiation"

September 2001
By a former Dahn participant

I have been sick with heart disease and undertaken my recovery in part through yoga, walking, swimming and this has worked out well.

My husband and I received a number of brochures at our door from a neighborhood Dahn school and thought it might be nice walking to classes nearby to study Tai Chi. Such exercises would be much gentler than the Tae Kwon Do, which I had once pursued in the past. So I called the school and asked about their classes.

When I visited there an attractive young woman insisted my husband and I sign up for two introductory assessments at $20.00 each.

When we arrived for our scheduled assessments she led us through some basic exercises. Then proceeded to have us lie down on the floor on our backs while she poked our abdomens and chests, giving us a routine "Meridian and Ki" exam. She then said that we were not well, emphasizing that there was something very wrong with my intestines, much to my surprise and that our energy was also blocked. She told us that we would need to sign up for at least a year.

What began as an opportunity to find out about the school suddenly turned into a high pressure negotiation about how much money we should spend. She emphasized that I was very sick, using my history of heart attacks to play on my worries, and then suggesting that I must not want to get well if I didn't want to spend a thousand dollars immediately.

We told her that we would like to think about it over the weekend and then she began to act very sad saying, "But we need the money now, it's the end of the month." It was indeed the 31st and my husband and I felt bad for this young woman who seemed responsible for this tiny school. So we gave her our credit card and she charged up $270.00 (i.e. $130.00 for my first month, $100.00 for my husband and $40.00 for our first session) and advised that we would have to come a lot more and should stay and wait for the masters to give me exercises to do. But I won't be attending any more of these classes.