Born in South Korea in 1950, at the start of the Korean War, Ilchi Lee wondered about the meaning of life from a young age. At fourteen, he witnessed his friend drown while swimming in a lake and started to question everything around him. He was constantly plagued by unanswered questions about his life and purpose.
On top of the depression and listlessness he felt as a result, Ilchi struggled to pay attention in school due to ADHD and could not understand what the people around him were studying to accomplish.
However, after discovering his own sense of self-worth, Ilchi Lee successfully graduated from Dankook University with a bachelor’s degree in Clinical Pathology. He then opened his own clinical pathology laboratory, got married, and had two sons, but the fundamental questions of who we are and why we live never fully went away.
After much searching and mind-body training, Ilchi eventually found his answers through a regimen of fasting without sleeping while meditating in the mountains. On the twenty-first day, he realized his true nature—oneness with the universe: cosmic energy and cosmic mind. Through this profound realization, Ilchi Lee discovered his essential value and his life purpose—helping people find their true nature in easy and attainable ways.
The first thing he did after this realization was to get up early in the morning and go to a park. There, Ilchi started teaching meditation and mind-body exercises, starting with just one person who couldn’t walk properly.
The class at the park attracted more and more people. Five years later, Ilchi opened the first Body & Brain Yoga center in Seoul. In the last four decades, the number of centers has grown to over 500 around the world.
Ilchi Lee systemized the techniques he taught into a five-step method called Brain Education, which emphasizes the importance of the brain for experiencing self-worth and discovering one’s life purpose. This system helps individuals use their brain to create health, happiness, and peace.
Brain Education does not stop with the health and development of individuals, however. Ilchi Lee believes that if enough people—one percent of the earth’s population or one hundred million people—experience and live by their true selves, together they can make a real and lasting change in the world. He calls these people Earth Citizens and initiated the Earth Citizen Movement.
Ilchi Lee has authored more than forty books on meditation, brain wellness, spirituality, personal growth, and other Brain Education-related topics, including the New York Times bestseller, The Call of Sedona: Journey of the Heart. He’s also produced films, websites, and apps, and started nonprofits, retreat centers, and for-profit training centers teaching Brain Education. These are now owned and operated by Brain Education instructors in sixteen countries.
Brain Education has been codified into an academic discipline recognized by the South Korean government. Ilchi Lee founded secondary and post-secondary educational institutions based on it, as well as a research institute to explore it.
Brain Education has also been implemented in schools in South Korea, Japan, the United States, El Salvador, Liberia, and the Philippines. Spearheading this work in developing countries is the IBREA Foundation, an NGO founded by Ilchi Lee that is in special consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
Now Ilchi Lee continues to develop and teach Brain Education around the world. Through his workshops and media, he empowers people to use their brains to connect to their infinite potential and take charge of their health, their lives, and their communities.
“This extraordinary book renders the most complex secret of existence—how to give your life meaning, longevity, and fulfillment—amazingly simple. The wisdom here is miles deep, yet easily accessible, making it instantly usable.”
Neale Donald Walsch
Author of the Conversations with God series, about on Ilchi Lee's book, I've Decided to Live 120 Years
“I have been fortunate to experience firsthand how his visionary view of the human potential actually translates into reality.”
Emeran A. Mayer, MD, PhD
Author of The Mind-Gut Connection
“Ilchi Lee is absolutely a beacon of light, and it is such an honor to be part of a common dream. We promised to work together as spiritual brothers until there is peace on our planet for all.”
Don Miguel Ruiz
Author of The Four Agreements
