Kuk Sool Kwan Master Mike Dunchok Full Interview (2025)

The following interview is with Master Mike Dunchok, a seventh-degree black belt in Kuk Sool Kwan. He is also a doctor of acupuncture and an Oxford alumnus. I trained under Master Dunchok starting in 2006 and received my black belt in 2015. It was a true labor of love putting this interview together. I wanted to showcase what makes him a true master of martial arts. In this interview, we discuss his martial arts origin story, his training under Masters Huh Mongil and Ho Nan Jie, the influence of the ninja craze of the 1980s, his personal journey, his practice of European magic and mysticism, and his path to becoming an ordained Zen monk. Timecodes 0:00 0:02 - Intro 2:23 - How Master Dunchok got into martial arts 6:14 - The Bridge Between Martial Arts and the Occult 9:44 - How did Master Dunchok choose Kuk Sool? 12:17 - What is Kuk Sool Kwan? 14:26 - What is the difference between Kuk Sool Won and Kuk Sool Kwan? 17:08 - Buddhism and the Baek Pahl Ki Hyung 18:56 - What it was like training under Master Huh 21:55 - The importance of other members of the 80s Kuk Sool studio 23:52 - Master Huh watered down Kuk Sool for Americans 24:48 - Breaking rocks with a hand and Warrior Spirit 28:25 - Limitless Possibility as an attitude to teaching 29:55 - Being a Ninja at Night as a Gen Xer 34:02 - Catching arrows 38:02 - Stealthing the Carnies 40:00 - "Discipline" in martial arts in the 90s 41:48 - The Art of Magic; A Magic Book from His Father 46:34 - How Western Magic is trained 49:33 - Did studying Magic help his Martial Arts? 50:44 - The practice of recording dreams 54:17 - The Out of Body Shadow Battle 1:02:40 - The Magic Lectures at the Martial Arts Dojang 1:04:54 - Why is it important that there be meditation in martial arts curriculum? 1:10:12 - What is Qigong and its relationship to martial arts? 1:13:38 - Qi in Martial Arts Performance 1:16:00 - Qi and Miraculous Feats 1:21:49 - Dim Mak and Pressure Points 1:25:50 - The Microcosmic Orbit 1:35:00 - The Dangers of Qigong Malpractice 1:37:34 - Hapkido and the Chinese 1:43:07 - Taiji Master Tony Ho Nanjie 1:46:30 - Ho Nanjie's ability to read minds and hearts 1:51:26 - What is Zen? 1:57:00 - The Constructed Part of Zen Hagiography 2:00:00 - The Cross Pollination of Zen and Taoism 2:02:50 - Difference between Zen and Taoism 2:06:10 - Deities are Personifications 2:08:00 - Methodology of Zen 2:10:20 - Koans 2:13:40 - How to answer Koans 2:15:00 - Budo IS Zen 2:16:00 - Kuk Sool's History with Korean Zen 2:17:10 - Technical definition of meditation 2:19:00 - Zen Koans aren't "parables" 2:22:00 - Hopes for a Martial Arts Temple