It requires perhaps only a moment of thinking to join an evil cult, but the harm brought about by it will be enormous. My experience with Falun Gong has cost me dearly, as it has not only broken my family but also left me penniless.
I’m Lu Xiqin, 51 years old, living in Group 9, Bajilei Township, Nongan County, Jilin Province. Although our family wasn’t rich, my husband and I worked very hard after our marriage and gradually accumulated some savings. Later, we went to the county town, where we started a small general store business. Through our painstaking efforts, our business was getting better and better. In the autumn of 1995, we bought a house in the county town, with our family of three living an urban life envied by our fellow villagers.
During those years, it was hard to run the business, but the benefits were considerable. Also, our child did quite well in his studies, so we lived reasonably well in the county town.
However, what I hadn’t expected was that by early 1996, I had dizzy spells from time to time. Later, I went to the hospital for examination and was diagnosed with hypertension. At only 27 years of age then, I was devastated by the diagnosis. The doctor warned me that hypertension was a condition caused by reduced physical activity and excessive body fat. So, according to the doctor's advice, I persevered with exercising every morning and evening.
Scene of morning exercise in the park (image from the Internet)
Being dragged into an evil cult
One morning in the spring of 1997, when I went to the park for morning exercise with my neighbor, Auntie Zhang, I saw a group of people practicing Gong together. Auntie Zhang pointed to the crowd and asked me, "Do you know what this group of people is practicing?” “I don’t know,” I answered. Then Auntie Zhang told me that they were practicing Falun Gong. She said: “It is a very good Gong. If you practice it, whatever disease you suffer from can be cured without you taking any medicine and your whole family can benefit from your practice!”
I was intrigued by what she said. Later, under Auntie Zhang's persuasion, I bought some Falun Gong books and audio-visual materials for study. The original purpose of my practicing Falun Gong was only to cure my high blood pressure, so I had no interest in “ascending to higher levels”, "achieving consummation” and other things mentioned in the books. Therefore, I insisted on taking my medicines while I was practicing Falun Gong.
Later, when Auntie Zhang learned that I was still taking medicines while practicing Gong, she repeatedly persuaded me not to take medicines but to impress "Master" with my sincerity in cultivation. According to her, only by increasing my potency could I achieve the purpose of curing diseases.
However, I didn’t take Auntie Zhang's preaching to heart but continued to take medicines following the doctor's requirements. Nevertheless, Auntie Zhang, a persistent woman, took it very seriously. She brought three or four of her fellow practitioners to my store regularly, persuaded me to practice Falun Gong single-mindedly instead of taking medicines to eliminate my disease.
A general store (image from the Internet)
When people came to buy goods at my store, Auntie Zhang and her fellow practitioners would block them and let them go to another store, which seriously affected our business. Unable to stand it, my husband advised me to go to practice Gong with them so as not to affect the business of our store. In this way, I formally embarked on the path of practicing Falun Gong with them.
Paying a heavy price for my obsession with the evil cult
Under the instigation and indoctrination of Auntie Zhang and her fellow practitioners, I was quickly brainwashed by the ideas of Falun Gong, such as “achieving consummation," "gaining immortality," "attaining Buddhahood," and so forth. Henceforth, I devoted myself to practicing, no longer caring about our family’s business or my children. Furthermore, I stopped taking antihypertensive drugs. In short, I put everything aside to concentrate on practicing Falun Gong every day.
When the state outlawed Falun Gong in 1999, I dared not practice outside, so I locked myself in my house and practiced secretly. My husband had to manage the business of our store all by himself. Besides, he had to do the laundry and cooking and take care of our child when he came home, which made him very tired. Therefore, he patiently persuaded me to quit the Falun Gong evil cult.
However, as I was addicted to Falun Gong, I didn't take my husband’s words seriously. Instead, I organized my fellow practitioners to practice Falun Gong in private, and went out to do illegal things, such as "spreading the Fa" and "clarifying truth". During that period, I had been to Changchun, Shenyang, Harbin, and other places with several fellow practitioners to "spread the Fa" and distribute Falun Gong materials. I took on the cost of their board and lodging and provided them with funds on my own initiative. Within three years, I spent tens of thousands of yuan in expenses.
In 2002, my husband sold the store and returned to our hometown to do farm work as he was unable to manage the store business alone. As a result, I had become a free person, without the constraints from my husband; and my house had become a harbor for Falun Gong members to practice Gong, exchange ideas, and hide materials.
Finding that I was still addicted to Falun Gong, my husband tried to persuade me time and again to turn back from the wrong path, but I had never followed his advice. Finally, my husband who couldn’t bear it any more filed for divorce from me. I mistook this for a test by “Master” to see if I could cross the “Pass of Family Affection”, so I got divorced with my husband without any hesitation.
Later, as I often went out to attend activities, I needed a lot of financial support. Therefore, I considered selling our house in the county town to raise funds because I had no other source of income. I sold our house in the county town privately and rented a small house nearby for my child to live while studying in the county town. The money I got from the selling the house was soon squandered on "spreading the Fa” and “clarifying truth” with my fellow practitioners, as well as on printing and disseminating materials
From 2003 to 2008, at the instigation of Li Hongzhi's scriptures, my fellow practitioners and I had been busy every day with "sending righteous thoughts", "clarifying truth", inciting people to perform the so-called "Three Quits", and distributing leaflets and CDs. I hadn’t been home for many years.
Coming to my senses while in a hopeless dilemma
In June 2008, finding myself poor and utterly helpless, I was forced to return to my ex-husband's home in the countryside. My child, ex-husband and his mother were stunned by my appearance when they saw me again after so many years: I was wearing winter clothes in early summer, with a pair of broken shoes, looking shaggy and dirty, carrying in my backpack a packet of biscuits and a plastic bottle for holding drinking water.
"Where have you been all these years? How could you have lived like this?" asked my ex-husband’s mother, who immediately led me into the house, told me to take a bath and change clothes, and then she cooked a delicious meal for me.
After the meal, she held me by the hand and said: "Think about the stupid things you've done over the years and look at the clothes are you wearing: What kind of life have you been living? It’s a pity that you haven’t even got a dwelling place. If you had been doing your business in the county town, you might have become a millionaire family!"
Seeing me bowing my head without a word, she continued, "A family is not complete without a woman. As long as you quit Falun Gong, our whole family will welcome you back!" After hearing these words, I couldn't help but shed tears of remorse.
That night, as I lay on the bed, my heart was in agony. Thinking back to what I have done over the past 12 years for practicing Falun Gong, I couldn't stop crying...
Heart in agony (image from the Internet)
When I was having my breakfast the next morning, I lowered my head, not daring to look into the eyes of others. After breakfast, I sat alone on the bed, looking out the window and beginning to reflect: I had worked for Falun Gong for 12 years and had spent all my family fortune on it: our store business was abandoned, the house in the county town sold, the hard-won money squandered, and an otherwise happy family broken up. In comparison, my former neighbors and classmates are living cheerfully every day, either chatting and laughing, or holding their children's hand, or going out to do farm work together...
In the following days, my ex-husband invited volunteers from the township to come to offer me help and education, facilitating me to make a clean break with the evil cult. It was through the help of the volunteers that I came to realize the harmfulness of Falun Gong in killing lives, destroying families, amassing wealth. and disturbing society. I have now completely come to my senses and decided to make a fresh start.
I hope that my painful experience will serve as a wake-up call to more people; and I sincerely hope that those addicted to evil cults will return to the correct path instead of making such silly mistakes as I did.
