Li Shulin, 53-year-old, suffered from outburst of cerebral thrombosis at a Falun Gong training course held by Li Hongzhi in August, 1994. According to Li Hongzhi's explanation, it was a normal reaction as Li Shulin was practicing higher-level Falun Gong and there was no need to take medicines or injection. A couple of days later, Li died.
This is one but not the first and only case of death of Falun Gong practitioners who died at Li Hongzhi's training courses.
To hold training courses is the main method for Li Hongzhi to make profits at the initial stage of Falun Gong. Each disciple paid around 30 to 50 yuan to be permitted to practice Falun Gong at the training course. Li Hongzhi taught Falun Gong and treated diseases at the course with Gong, a kind of energy healing system he claimed to have for curing the illness.
It is not the innovation of Li Hongzhi to hold training courses and treat diseases by Gong. In the 1980s and 1990s, many qigong masters who claimed to own supernatural power and special energy made use of the strong public demand for building up bodies and the tradition of exercising qigong to exaggerate the function of qigong and the ability of qigong masters to an uncanny extent for the purpose of making profits from qigong.
The death cases occurred at the training courses and Gong treatments or soon after the trainings, impelled Li Hongzhi to make money by giving lectures on Fa instead of such high-risky methods as teaching Gong and curing diseases with Gong.
Fa-teaching can be regarded as the unique invention of the Falun Gong cult.
Li Hongzhi spread his gradually complete theory of "Falun Dafa" step by step at Falun conferences where hundreds, even thousands, of people assembled. This is the main method taken by Li Hongzhi to teach Fa.
The core of "Falun Dafa" theory: Human beings are superior lives from the universe falling on the earth. The earth is the garbage station of the universe and America is the garbage station of the earth. Since the morality of the human beings was ruined, this would further lead to the blast of the earth and the extermination of human beings. It is Li Hongzhi who will save the human beings with Falun Gong theory prepared by him many many years ago when the human beings had been destroyed already several times. Learning Dafa can not only eliminate all the sickness and trouble, but also turn all the practitioners into superior lives of the universe such as god, Buddha and the king. Whoever disbelieves Falun Gong will be exterminated.
The representative book by Li Hongzhi, Zhuan Falun (Turn the Dharma Wheel), was published in December 1994, which was a significant sign of the conversion of Li Hongzhi and Falun Gong.
As described in the Falun Gong books before Zhuan Falun, Li Hongzhi was just a magic qigong master with special energy. He possessed four kinds of abilities including "moving objects with ideas, fixing objects with ideas, controlling others' thinking and invisibility". But Zhuan Falun and the other books thereafter described Li as the greatest god of both the universe and the outer world of universe. According to a quotation from Li Hongzhi, "No matter how big the universe is, it cannot be bigger than me", "I can supervise the whole world and the human beings no matter how many there are."
Mystified Li Hongzhi
However, this conversion brought about death in a larger scale. Before Falun Gong was banned in July 1999, over 1400 practitioners died from exercising Falun Gong, which was the key reason for the Chinese government to ban it as a heresy organization.
More astonishingly, all these Falun Gong practitioners died in similar ways, i.e., committing suicide and deterioration of illness due to rejecting medicine and medical treatment. The way of thinking and the behavior mode initiated by the theory of Falun Dafa was the direct cause of the massive death cases.
※In January 1998, Wang Chengxiang, a 66-year-old retired worker in Heilongjiang Province, jumped from the sixth floor and died just for the purpose of going up to the heaven.
※Also in 1998, Ma Jianmin, a retired worker at the age of 54 in Hebei Province, killed himself with scissors in order to seek for the wheel of law which Li Hongzhi claimed was installed in the abdomen of each Falun Gong practitioner.
※Yang Qiugui, a 27-year-old Chinese student studying in the UK, made a special trip from UK to Frankfurt to attend a Falun conference on May 30, 1998. At that meeting, Li Hongzhi made a comparison between Falun Gong and Christianity. The former was described as a splendid palace while the latter was viewed as a small and shabby house. Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Europe published after that meeting was among the 21 representative books which were the compulsory reading materials for the Falun Gong practitioners. Yang jumped from the second floor of a local hotel and died on June 1.
※On July 3, 1999, Chang Haochi (27-year-old) and Li Jinzhong (50-year-old) from Shanxi Province affirmed that they had achieved consummation and were able to go up to the heaven, hence they sat opposite to each other in a special posture of Falun Gong and burnt themselves to death.
Over 300 Falun Gong practitioners committed suicide before Falun Gong was banned by the Chinese government. Even though it was banned, such tragedies continued.
※ On January 23, 2001, seven Falun Gong practitioners, including a 12-year-old girl among the five females, burnt themselves at Tiananmen Square, which caused one female to die on the spot. One month later, her 12-year-old daughter Liu Siying also died of serious burn complication.
Compared to those committing suicide, an even greater number of people died because of rejecting medicine and hospital treatment. Over 1,000 Falun Gong practitioners died of deterioration of illness due to complying with the principles of not seeing doctors or taking medicines.
※Zhang Jinsheng aged 21 in Liaoning Province burnt his arm incautiously. But he refused medical treatment because he thought this was his master was eliminating karma for him. Consequently, he died of septemia in November 1998 caused by the wound infection.
※Li Qiaoying (58 years old) felt sick in October 1998. But she refused to be treated at hospital and died of cerebral thrombosis in December of that year. Two days before her death, she was suffering from paralysis and lost the ability of talking. Her husband said to her, "It is Falun Gong that has brought us misfortune. If cured earlier at hospital, you would have been saved." Li kept nodding her head but too late to repent.
※Wu Xigen, a 41-year-old teacher, suffered from tuberculosis for nearly 20 years. His illness maintained stable by virtue of medical treatment. Since he started to practice Falun Gong in August 1998, he refused medicines. Instead, he propagandized the advantages of Falun Gong with himself as an example. He said to the others, "Falun Gong practitioners can not accept hospital treatment because it is sin and can not eliminate karma. Practicing Falun Gong can cure my illness." However, on the wee hours of February 26, 1999, he died at home due to the deterioration of the illness.
※Another Falun Gong practitioner Hu Guangying, a retired worker in Shanghai aged 59, caught an ordinary dermatosis in January 2001, but she resolutely refused to accept medical treatment, and finally died caused by purulent infection on the affected part.
In recent couple of years, several overseas Falun Gong core members died of illness.
※ In March 2006, Falun Gong core member Li Guodong died of liver cancer in New York.
※ On June 22, 2006, Falun Gong core member Feng Lili died of pancreas cancer in Houston, US. Feng had been giving lectures everywhere, and advocating that, "Falun Gong had magic power in keeping people fit and strong". She was claimed to be "a leading figure of Falun Gong in the medical community".
※ On the New Year's Day of 2007, Falun Gong core member Zhu Gengmei who lived in Germany died unexpectedly because of blood infection resulted from delayed treatment as she refused to have medical treatment for her diabetes.
If those who committed suicide and refused medical treatment took a road to death because they believed Li Hongzhi's theory, then the rest deceased, who were not Falun Gong practitioners but their relatives, died in a particularly innocent way.
※Wu Deqiao from Jiangsu Province killed his wife with a kitchen knife on the night of February 25, 1998 because his wife dissuaded him from practicing Falun Gong.
※Wang Anshou, a worker from Shandong Province, killed his father with a shovel on April 8, 1998 just because his father advised him not to practice Falun Gong.
※In April 2004, ten-year-old Dai Nan was regarded as a demon and was choked to death before over 40 Falun Gong practitioners by her mother. All those present just prayed for quick dispelling of the demon.
As we look through the theory of Li Hongzhi, it is easy for us to find out the reasons for their death.
Why did the Falun Gong practitioners choose to commit suicide?
Mr. Li Hongzhi said:
"If you can let go of life and death, you're a God; if you can't let go of life and death, you're a human."
"My followers who achieve nirvana can fly to heaven with their bodies. Those who do not want to keep their bodies can transform them into rainbows and fly away."
Why did the Falun Gong practitioners refuse to take medicine or medical treatment?
Mr. Li Hongzhi said:
"Taking medicine while practicing Falun Gong means not believing that Falun Gong is able to cure illness. If you believe, why do you need to take medicine? "
"I tell you, if one of our practitioners has some bodily discomfort, it is not disease. Disease is a manifestation of "sin," and hospitals are unable to get rid of your sin. "
"Wars, plague and natural and man-made disasters are ways to get rid of human sin."
Why did the Falun Gong practitioners kill others?
Mr. Li Hongzhi said:
"Human beings are deteriorating, devils are everywhere."
"With disturbance by devils, you cannot practice."
"Your family members are also controlled by devils."
"These devils should be killed."
Each tragedy has its origin.
(China Association for Cultic Studies, May, 2008)
