Gao Encheng, 42, official of an industrial and commercial administrative office in Tianbai Township, Kaixian County, Chongqing, in charge of a local Falun Gong instruction center, killed himself by jumping from a building.
Gao and his wife, Li Xiaofen (25, unemployed), began to practice Falun Gong in November 1997, and bought some Falun Gong books. He practiced Falun Gong every morning and evening. He became withdrawn and uncommunicative. He firmly believed that he could became an immortal after practicing Falun Gong for some time, and that his soul would go to Heaven after his death, as Li Hongzhi had said.
On November 2, 1998, he withdrew all his savings from the bank and gave 1,800 yuan to his daughter by his ex-wife, 1,000 yuan each to his parents and 1,800 yuan to his mother-in-law. On the evening of November 5, he told fellow Falun Gong practitioner Zhang Zhizhao that he had dreamt that his wife Li Xiaofen had been a snake in her previous life. At home that evening and the next morning he was distraught. Later, on the morning of November 6, at an office meeting he said to others that his thinking had reached the summit after one year's practice of Falun Gong, and only his son, Gao Xiong, understood him properly. He did not want to talk to mortals, he said. After that, he went back home, and again practiced Falun Gong for some time. Then he jumped from the roof of the building, holding his son Gao Xiong in his arms. A doctor was called, but his wife refused to let him treat her husband, saying that Li Hongzhi would protect him. Gao died, but his son was rescued by emergency treatment.
