In uptown Sedona sits a charming little gem of a business called Sedona Story. Step inside and you’ll discover a small retail shop inspired by the messages Ilchi Lee has received from his experiences in Sedona and shares in his work. Here you can purchase gemstone jewelry, including the rare aquamarine, metaphysical books, and CDs and choose from several upstairs clinic services to nourish your physical body, your energy body, and your spiritual body. Enjoy this interview with spiritual healer/director, Banya Lim L. Ac, as she shares her own call of Sedona story.

LT: Please tell our readers about the connection between Dahn Yoga founder, Ilchi Lee and your work at Sedona Story.

Banya Lim, LAcBL: The store itself is very much inspired by Ilchi Lee and Ilchi Lee’s story in Sedona. He has received many messages since he moved here, and a lot of things that he has created in his work were very much based on, basically, the messages he has received. And this is something that we want to convey to other people.

LT: How do you share those teachings and experiences with visitors to Sedona?

BL: People come here for many different reasons: just to relax, for spiritual quest, to heal. Main purpose here is to help them connect to something deep within so they can discover their own soul journey.

There’s a unique energy here in Sedona, and we are trying to help people to experience that from many different aspects: By taking them out into nature, to energy places in Sedona; through guiding them to open their energy channels, especially through trainings; and sometimes by delivering messages through readings and healings.

LT: Please tell us more about yourself as a healer.

BL: I am a multi-generation acupuncturist; I came from family who practiced acupuncture, mainly from my Mother’s side of the family. I never met my Great Grandfather, and only I met my Grandmother briefly, so most of my learnings were handed down to me through my Mother. I was an apprentice to my Mom since I was seven years old.

Actually, she wasn’t an acupuncturist, she was a teacher in high school and word got out [about her healing work] and people began looking for her and inviting her. People would come from all the places and wait for her in the room, living room and outside of the house. And I was assisting her when she would do the healings.

First time I did acupuncture was when I was seven: Once when I was helping my mother, one of the old ladies waiting said, “I know you do acupuncture. Why don’t you do acupuncture, because I cannot wait for her.” So I explained I wasn’t licensed, ‘I’m only seven years old,’ but that was the first time I did acupuncture. And people kept asking about that, but finally, the police came and said we weren’t supposed to be doing that!

That’s how it started. Most of the importance of and philosophy of and mindset of how to do acupuncture and how to be a healer, a lot I learned from my mother. For me, she is one of the most compassionate people I know. Oftentimes I think, “It’s not the technique, or skills, it’s your heart and the compassion.” That’s what she had and that’s what I always wanted to learn.

LT: And the journey that brought you to Sedona?

BL: I was born in South Korea, and I grew up in New York. I had my practice in New York for 11 years before I moved out here. I’m also a fourth degree black belt in a martial art, Tae Kwon Do. So I had a martial arts school and an acupuncture clinic in New York City.

But I felt, although this is ancient practice in arts, some essence was missing. There is an energetic and spiritual aspect of things that I had been looking for in the martial arts that I practice and the acupuncture that I was practicing. And I really wanted to infuse that into the work that I did.

I was looking for it, and I found it in Dahn Hak practice. I have to say that I learned pretty much everything about energy, what I was looking for—the energy and the spiritual aspect of this old tradition and art—through Dahn Hak.

LT: For those who aren’t familiar with the term “Dahn Hak,” this is the practice now commonly referred to as Dahn Yoga.

BL: I started with the BR Clinic, and I’ve practicing in Sedona for 11 years. Sedona Story has been open for 8 years. So I was running BR Clinic and Sedona Story, but now I am mainly in Sedona Story. It is a two-story building; downstairs a store, upstairs a healing center.

If you visit our website, www.sedonastory.com, you will see menus for the services that we have here. Many of the main ones are done by me: Spiritual Acupuncture, you actually are getting acupuncture, but rather than taking just the physical aspect, we are going to the root of the issue. We are made up of three bodies; physical body, energy body, and spiritual body. By working through spiritual body, we can heal the energy and the physical aspects of the person. Spiritual body consists of information, so we are working on information of the person.

Energy Healing is basically LifeParticle energy healing, and this is a “hands-on” healing, while Spiritual Readings are an intuitive reading.

LT: How has being in Sedona changed you and your practice?

BL: Once I was in a movie that premiered in the Sedona Film Festival, a documentary of a collection of healers. When they came and interviewed me, they asked me questions that I felt were very important questions that I should ask myself. One of the questions was why I do the things that I do and how I have grown from it. I wanted to be sure and wanted to have a measurement of how I grow: how I grew from yesterday to today, how I’d see it. Instead of answering, I asked them to interview me again the next day instead, because I really wanted to think about it and meditate on it.

So what came up was very, very simple: it was love. I want to use that as my measurement, and I kind of check myself from now to yesterday, the year before, five years ago, ten years ago. And I have to say I definitely grew and I definitely love more now than before. And through love, true healings happen. I have to say going to Sedona taught me that.

Coming back to what I usually say, about people coming to Sedona and just looking at the beautiful scenery, it is kind of a shame. People sometimes just tour and sight-see and then leave without realizing that there’s a lot more here for their soul. That if they can be open to the possibilities, and open to listen, open to receiving, they can receive more than just a view of the beautiful scenery.

LT: Banya, are there any final thoughts you would like to share with our readers?

BL: Everything kind of fell into place, and I was working a lot after 9-11. I was living in New York City. I also lost many friends in the tower. I just want people to stop hurting themselves and hurting each other. One of the things I realized is unless we change our consciousness—all of our consciousness, this hurting and destruction cannot stop. I want to keep growing and expanding my consciousness and, at the same time, do everything I can to assist others to come out of their pain and expand their consciousness so they can heal themselves and so they can heal others.

LT: Thank you, Banya!

Dear Reader,

Do you have a special story of what brought you to Sedona? We’d love to hear from you! Please comment below, and don’t forget to share this with your friends.

By Lynn A. Trombetta