The 1st World Sangsaeng Forum was sponsored by Yeoju headquarters temple complex and organized and held by Daesoon Academy of Sciences(DAOS) of Dajin University on October 14 – 15, 2017 at Daejin University. It is the first international forum that is held by DAOS, and will be the beginning of other global academic conferences that DAOS plans to hold annually.

On the theme “Peace and the Path of Mutual Beneficence”, about 150 scholars of religious studies and religious practitioners from 10 different nations participated in the forum to make it a place for active academic communication. The scholars who brought up various themes related to the theme in their presentations were: Bae Kyu-han(Chairman of Daesoon Academy of Sciences, Korea), Ko Nam-sik(Daejin University, Korea), Eileen Barker(London School of Economics, UK), Bernadette Rigal-Cellard(University of Bordeaux, France), Massimo Introvigne(Managing Director of CESNUR, Italy), Rosita Soryte(Minister Counselor at the Permanent Mission of Lithuania to UN), Milda Alisauskiene(Vytautas Magnus University, Lithuania), Gorden Melton(Baylor University, USA), Patrick Laude(Georgetown University, USA), Holly Folk(Western Washington University, USA), Thien-Huong Ninh(California Polytechnic State University, USA), Edward Irons(Director of Hong Kong Institute for Culture, Commerce, and Religion, CANADA), Susan Palmer(Concordia University, USA), Hachiya Kunio(Tokyo University, Japan), Pochi Huang(National Chengchi University, Taiwan), and David Kim(Australian National University, Australia).

The forum was held for two days from October 14 to 15 in six sessions and was followed by 4 days of field trip to Yeoju headquarters temple complex and other famous Korean traditional sites.

Chairman Bae of DAOS said “This forum is the first international forum that is organized by DAOS and became a place for communication among the Eastern and Western scholars of religious studies. More importantly, it was a good opportunity to introduce Daesoon thought worldwide.”