My name is Liu Lifen and I was born in 1971. My husband is Li Changli. We both worked in a radio equipment manufacturing plant for space industry in the Longquanyi District, Chengdu, Sichuan Province. We were assigned to the factory after graduation from a technical school in 1992. In the following year, we got married and had a lovely baby girl named Shasha. When our daughter was two years old, my husband obtained the title of engineer in the research room, and I was also given the title of senior technician. At that time, my husband and I cherished the same ideals, encouraged each other in our work, took care of each other in daily life, and our parents looked after Shasha for us. Our family life was pleasant and enjoyable except that some of us had slight illness occasionally.
In the year 1998, when my husband was playing bridge, he heard that practicing Falun Gong could eliminate karma and have illnesses cured. Since my husband was slender and frail and got a cold easily, he heard of the magic power of Falun Gong and decided to give it a try.
My husband was serious in whatever he did, and ever since he started practicing Falun Gong, he flung himself into it as he did with technology research. My husband always had a strong desire to do better and worked in a serious manner, and some of his co-workers even called him workaholic, but now he started to ask for sick leaves and stayed in his bedroom all day long practicing Falun Gong and studying "Zhuan Falun". He didn’t do a hand’s turn in the house, rarely communicated with people, and even became cold to me.
But I had always believed my in husband's judgment, and thought what he deemed right wouldn't be wrong. After his repeated persuasion, I joined him in practice, finally sank into the mud and could not free myself of it. My husband enjoyed high prestige in our family, and impelled by him, his parents and my sister all joined him. In this way, five adults of our family all joined the ranks of the Falun Gong practitioners.
In 2002, when my parents had just retired, we tried to persuade my parents to practice Falun Gong, but met with strong opposition from them, who advised us not to give up our legitimate work, and to quit those deceiving activities. We just disdained to consider it.
My mother became desperate when she found that two daughters for whom she had once been proud and one son-in-law abandoned home and careers for Falun Gong, and turned a deaf ear to her entreating. She worried about us, was afraid of us making any trouble, and weighed down with anxiety all day long. Long-term anxiety and depression led to continuous deterioration of the myelitis that mother had suffered, and finally her complete paralysis.
Nevertheless I said to my father: “Mother’s sufferings arise from evil deeds of her previous life, and she bears too much karma; what’s more, she didn’t follow our advice, did not practice Falun Gong timely.” As my father had always been opposed to our practice, he was so angry on hearing what I said that he gave me a few slaps in the face, determined to cut off relations with me, and immediately put me out of the house.
The slap in the face did not make me awake. And I said to myself: “The affection I have for my parents is beyond the love of ordinary people. It is compassion borne only by God or Buddha. I will strive for a higher level. As I obtain supernatural abilities, I can save them.”
(Photo of the whole Liu’s family)
At that time we hated to waste a penny on food and clothes, but in order to churn out more brochures for “truth clarifying” to fellow practitioners, we spent many years’ saving of more than forty thousand yuan on computer, printer, copier, discs and paper.
In August 2008, due to the long-term absenteeism, both my husband and I were fired by the factory. Even so, we went our own way, deeming practicing Falun Gong and striving for a higher level as ultimate goal of our life, and being obsessed with "blessing" and “Consummation”. In this way, we insisted day after day, month after month, but nothing extraordinary happened. Instead, without the proper income from work, we lived on the meager pensions of my father and mother-in-law. The life was extremely difficult.
In March 2009, my husband suffered from flu and ran a high fever. He even went unconscious occasionally. In fear of all our previous efforts being wasted, we insisted on not taking medicine. Fortunately my brother-in-law found it and sent my husband by force to the hospital for treatment. My husband caught meningitis for failing to have timely treatment. Although he retrieved a life, he had to face the bitter sequelae: he became more and more slow-witted, and some times babbled about nonsense.
Recalling our experiences in these years and facing the reality, I really did not know where the “blessings” Li Hongzhi had promised were. When I felt confused and helpless, it was the community volunteers who came to my home, and with their patient help, I gradually saw through the true nature of Falun Gong and freed myself of it.
Now, I have returned to my original factory and have been accepted by my parents again. My daughter also has come back to me. So I have started a new life. But my husband and other family members are still trapped in the mud, and I heartily wish that I could pull them out of the cult some day.
