Miao Shaowen, a 62-year-old retired teacher in Kejing Township, Jiyuan County, Henan Province.
Miao's wife Chen Suxian had difficulties in moving around after suffering a cerebral thrombosis. In the autumn of 1997, Miao Shaowen met a fellow villager who practiced Falun Gong and was swayed by him. Miao felt that Falun Gong could probably help his wife recover from her illness. But, as his wife was too weak to perform the movements of Falun Gong, Miao decided to practice it himself and cure his wife after he mastered it. After half a year's practice, Miao Shaowen felt he had achieved attainment at a high level and began to "treat" his wife. He first massaged her hands, then sprained her wrists and filed away her fingernails, after which he forced her to practice Falun Gong. He even forcefully broke bones in her leg (so that now she still cannot walk). Later he began to think that everything black was bad. So he burned all the black furniture and black clothes in his courtyard, proclaiming he would "substitute old with new." In his confused state of mind, he thought that he and his wife had both become Buddhas and that he himself was Li Hongzhi or Li Hongzhi was attached to him. He often brandished a sharp knife and chanted while kneeling. He took meals irregularly and his lower limbs became swollen. He often stayed up all night or got up to practice Falun Gong at midnight. He scolded his children and even shut them out of the room.
Seeing this, his neighbors all felt sorry for this once fine veteran teacher. His children were even more brokenhearted. With their mother bedridden with illness and their father in such a state, they saw little hope for the future. In desperation, they tied up their father, who had lost his mind and refused to get medical treatment, and sent him to a psychiatric hospital. This happened on October 18, 1998 after Miao Shaowen had been practicing Falun Gong for one year.
Now Miao Shaowen has recovered and left the hospital.
