Shi Shuyan, 49, was a native in Dongnanying Village, Dongguang County, Hebei Province. Formerly a healthy and mentally normal rural woman, she began to practice Falun Gong in March 1999 at the instigation of her fellow villagers. Although Shi turned to Falun Gong for a very short time, she became quite obsessed with it, often chanting "I want to ascend to Heaven and look for Master Li Hongzhi."
On May 1, when she was practicing Falun Gong at home, she started to dig into her mouth with her hands, claiming that there was in her pills of immortality and she would ascend to Heaven if she could dig them out. Her mouth was full of blood and the scene was indeed horrible.
In the following two days, her mind and behavior remained abnormal--shouting all the time and not wanting to sleep. In the morning of May 3, she continued practicing Falun Gong at home despite that she did not sleep at all the previous night. Again, she dug into her mouth with her hands. Seeing her pitiful plight, her husband tried to stop her practicing Falun Gong. She retorted, "You mind your own business. I would go to Heaven soon." Taking her husband unawares, she took up a knife and gave herself five cut. When her husband and son came to stop her, she said to her son, "I could extract the pills from mouth. So I have to cut myself with a knife for it can bring the pills out."
Shi's family wanted to send her to hospital after she hurt herself with the knife. But, other Falun Gong practitioners came to stop them, saying that according to the teachings of Falun Dafa one could not seek medical treatment when ill and she should solicit help from the Master. So, they fetched a portrait of Li Hongzhi and put it up on the wall to suppress the "evil spirit." Due to the lack of timely treatment, Shi Shuyan died of cranial injuries.
