Accusations Of BTS’s Association With Cult Continue Despite Dahn World’s Rebuttal

In the past few weeks, HYBE has found itself in one messy situation after another, which includes accusations of its affiliation to a cult, Dahn World. Fan-fueled “evidence” spread online rapidly, convincing the public that the label is planting cult-related motifs and concepts in the projects of its artists, which includes BTS.

BTS | Weverse

While HYBE still has not released any official statement on this, Dahn World spoke up on May 1, 2024. They thoroughly denied any association with HYBE.

Signage inside a Dahn World Center in Korea. | Dahn World

Amidst the search for the truth between entertainment company HYBE and ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin, yoga corporation Dahn World has been dragged into related controversy. We wish to clearly state that the controversy surrounding Dahn World is completely false.

We will be taking strong legal action against the spread of fake news that frames Dahn World, causing slander, disruption of business, and financial losses.

— Dahn World

This response contained the online wildfire of accusations only momentarily, as a popular YouTube channel brought it up once again, and this time with alleged video evidence. On May 2, the YouTube channel named HOVERLAB hosted a long livestream, attempting to establish that HYBE and BTS are indeed linked to Dahn World.

Netizens seem to have picked up on two specific clips shown on this stream, both featuring the founder of Dahn World, Lee Seung Heun. The first clip, dated from 2018, shows Lee congratulating the BTS members who were enrolled into the Global Cyber University (GCU) as students. Lee is also the founder and the chancellor (or “president,” as he referred to himself in his tweets) at the university. In particular, in this clip, Lee is heard claiming that the BTS members are also learning “Brain Education,” just like the other students at the school.

[Video could not be displayed]

“Brain Education” is a core term in Lee’s cult, referring to his teachings that said that once his followers harnessed enough energy through this process, they would “fly to an ‘enlightenment star’ aboard a spaceship shaped like a golden turtle.”

The second clip in question brought HYBE into the picture. The channel’s owner, Kim Se Ui, argued that the reason why the company’s name differs from the usual spelling of “Hive” is that it is some sort of an acronym related to Dahn World. In the same clip as above, as Lee continued talking about BTS’s music, he praised their message of “Love Yourself, Love Myself” and encouraged his followers to similarly incorporate “Heal yourself, brain education” into their lives. Kim claimed that HYBE is an acronym of this very phrase.

[Video could not be displayed]

Coincidentally, just a year after this video was originally published, BIGHIT MUSIC registered the name HYBE for trademarking, even though the multi-label corporation came into existence officially in 2021.

| trademarks.justia.com

It is, however, noteworthy that the video clips presented by the channel as evidence are not very high in quality. There is quite a big amount of lag in the images, to the point where it often seems that the audio is merged on top of a stationary image. Even among netizens, the channel does not seem to have much of a trustable reputation, which has landed them on the fence about these accusations.

| Nate Pann

• “Wow. Looks like the dogs are out to get’em. LOL.”
• “Lee Seung Heun himself revealed the meaning of ‘HYBE.’ The source is HOVERLAB’s live stream today.”
• “The fact that HOVERLAB unearthed this is amazing.”
• “I f*cking hate HOVERLAB but there is nobody close to them in courage. They started streaming on YouTube when all the media was hesitant to report. Eventually, they dug up something significant. But seriously, how did they find this?”
• “If HYBE has no connections to Dahn World, then HYBE should sue them after seeing this video, right? But how come it’s only BTS’s representatives threatening to take action for speculations surrounding sajaegi and cult association? Whatever is going on, it’s fishy-AF.”
• “HOVERLAB on YouTube, though? Can we trust them?”

You can watch the full stream here: