Cult leaders such as Jim Jones (the People's Temple) and David Koresh (Branch Davidians) boasted that they were God or God incarnate.
Mind control is a basic means used by a cult leader to consolidate his "divine" position and keep his disciples loyal to him. Also, every cult head fabricates heretical ideas to deceive and entrap the people.
Another prominent feature of a cult is its hierarchical structure, through which practitioners strictly follow the instructions of the leader of the organization, and are willing to sacrifice themselves for this spiritual leader.
Master Li Hongzhi made up a series of heretical ideas, such as the "doomsday" theory and the "explosion of the Earth" fallacy, so as to frighten his disciples into following his instructions without question.
Before the organization was officially banned in China in 1999, 136 Falun Gong practitioners had committed suicide at the instigation of Li Hongzhi, who called for his followers to "go to the Heaven" and "achieve real completion."
Many innocent people have been killed by Falun Gong cult followers in practicing the cult's doctrines of "clearing crimes committed in a previous life" or "complete oneself in this life" either by killing
themselves or killing others. Chen Fuzhao, a 29-year-old dermatologist who had mental problems, was one of them.
"When I was reading the doctrines on Feb. 17, I suddenly felt Master Li Hongzhi told me to do bad things, which though contrary to my usual practices, would help promote my power," Chen said, "and I felt the bad things included killing, setting fires, and all the bad things are extremely good for our practices."
"I began killing mosquitoes, flies, then dogs and humans," Chen said.
With poisoned drinks, Chen killed 16 beggars and vagrants in streets and one Buddhist believer. "Most people would not take my drinks, so I chose beggars and vagrants," Chen said.
When asked how many people he wanted to kill, Chen answered he wanted to kill all humankind within one year.
http://www.mingjing.org.cn/e-falunews-438.htm
http://www.clearharmony.net/articles/200401/17193.html
An excerpt from the BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A2922644
"We are here not to eliminate your diseases or to build up your health or to give you some message to heal your diseases. We do not do these things. Your diseases will be eliminated directly by me. Those who practice in the practicing spot will be cured by my Law bodies. Those who learn Falun Dafa through self-study by reading the book will also be cured by my Law bodies."
"The disgusting homosexuality shows the dirty abnormal psychology of the gay who has lost his ability of reasoning at the present time."
In a 1998 talk in Switzerland, Li said gay people would be "eliminated" by "the gods."
On mixed-race marriage his views are similarly intolerant, as he sees such deviance as evidence of alien interference. Li also regards mixed-race or "cross-bred" people as rootless and deviant, a sign of morally bankrupt times. Mixed-race people are a plot by the evil extraterrestrials who populate his cosmology, which spills over with accounts of lost civilizations, higher realms and mysteries that
science cannot grasp.
"By mixing the races of humans, the aliens make humans cast off gods," he is quoted as saying in a lecture in Switzerland.
Original text from: http://cgi.stanford.edu/group/wais/cgi-bin/?p=16269
(Stanford.edu, July 1st, 2008)
