Wang Gong (a pseudonym) was born in Tongling, Anhui Province. Although he was a man of few words, he treated others with modesty and warmth. Years ago, he daydreamed about becoming a “Buddha” and once was addicted to pursuing “Perfection”. Whenever he recalled that experience, he would feel regretful and ashamed, sighing: “In those five years, I was obsessed with ‘Falun Gong’ as if I was enchanted. Now I think it’s really ridiculous and quite harmful.”

Up to now, he has spent 19 years on doing one thing: sharing his own experience to help those “Falun Gong” addicts.

Practicing “Falun Gong” day and night to become a “Buddha”

In 1997, at the age of 42, Wang Gong was full of high spirit and ambition, boasting to his colleagues that “due to his practicing Qigong, he had been quite healthy since childhood and seldom had any illness even at the age of over 40.” One of his colleagues joked, “The best Gong to practice right now is no longer Qigong but ‘Falun Gong’. Why don’t you have a try? Maybe, you could become a ‘God’.” The joke of “becoming a God” stirred Wang Gong in heart a whole night, tossing and turning, he was sleepless. When it was finally past dawn the next day, he went to get his colleague and asked him where to learn “Falun Gong”.

In April when it was the late spring in the lower reach of the Changjiang River, the breeze was pleasantly warm. However, at that time, Wang Gong attributed such genial feeling to practicing “Falun Gong” which, he believed, was conducive to prolonging life, rejuvenation, and becoming a “Buddha” eventually. Since then, he had been increasingly diligent at practicing “Falun Gong” and strict with himself in reading over Zhuan Falun every three days. And he wouldn’t miss even one activity held nearby as long as it was related to “Falun Gong practice” or “Dafa learning”.

In his own words, “In those years, except for eating and sleeping, I spent nearly all my time on ‘learning Dafa’ and ‘practicing Falun Gong’, as if I was enchanted.”

Promoted to be head of a “station”, he was more convinced of being “holier than thou”

In 1998, as he cultivated with such an enthusiasm as if he was enchanted, he was appointed as the head of a “Falun Gong” station in the downtown area as he wished. He became dizzy with the surge of the “sense of achievement” and “sense of honor”, which seemed unreasonable to others but provided comforts for Wang Gong, a man who got frustrated in his career.

Wang Gong was a locomotive mechanic in the 1970s when China’s industry was developing at an unprecedented rate. As a hardworking worker without any complaint, he was shortly appointed as a team leader. However, due to his hot temper and poor communication ability with colleagues, he then reached his careen ceiling soon after. These small setbacks in Wang Gong’s life made him feel that he had been deprived of the chance to show his talents. So, he decided to place hope on “becoming a God by practicing Falun Gong”. Every time they gathered to learn “Dafa”, he would exhort “fellow practitioners” to firmly believe in “Master’s” words. As the leader, he led other followers to read books such as Zhuan Falun (Turn the Dharma wheel) over and over again until they all knew it by heart.

Wakening from a dream, he fully realized the real danger of “Dafa”

On July 22, 1999, the Ministry of Civil Affairs issued a ban on “Falun Dafa Research Association”. After more than three years of “practicing Falun Gong” with tremendous efforts, Wang Gong had been deeply stuck in the cult mire.

In 2001, anti-cult volunteers take the initiative in contacting Wang Gong after learning about his situation. When asked by volunteers “where are you from”, he answered, “I come from heaven, I am not a human.” And the conversation was fruitless because of his resistance. Guided by the idea of “not easily giving up on anyone”, anti-cult volunteers continued to help him by analyzing contradictory arguments in “Falun Gong” theoretical framework, pointing out absurdities in Li Hongzhi’s words, exposing layer by layer the political schemes and real danger of the “Falun Gong” cult, carefully guiding Wang Gong into believing in medicine and science ……

It took anti-cult volunteers half a year to make him “let go of all his attachments” to “Falun Gong” with patience, earnestness, and systematic guidance. Wang Gong finally came to realize some basic knowledge of the universe and the real world: there was no heavenly kingdom, no “Perfection”, let alone the so-called “immortals”. At the same time, he successfully saw through some tricks of “Falun Gong”: the rotating wheel in man’s belly, the celestial eyes on top of the skull, and so on. At this point, Wang Gong fully woke up from his daydream. He said, “The more I learned, the more frightened I became. After seeing through their insane tricks, I suddenly realize I have been fooled”. “At that time, I had a selfish desire: to become a Buddha alone, and leave all family member on earth. Therefore, I didn’t get my family members involved in the mess. It’s lucky in a sense. However, I wasted the first half of my life for nothing, which was terrible.”

He spent 18 years exposing the lies of “Falun Gong”

After coming to his sense, Wang Gong tried to enrich his spare time with traditional Chinese culture. However, he always felt there was something missing in his life, and he experienced somewhat emptiness and anxiety in his heart. He said to himself: thanks to anti-cult volunteers. They visited me from time to time, and brought comforts to me. That’s why I could manage to get through the difficult period of mental vulnerability.

In 2003, Wang Gong actively applied to join the anti-cult volunteer team in the hope of making contributions to save cult victims. For the past eighteen years, Wang Gong had been refuting “Falun Gong’s” fallacies with its own arguments which he was quite familiar with, and successfully emancipated many misled “Falun Gong” followers from spiritual shackles, helping them recognize the evil nature of the cult. Wang Gong said proudly, “now, it would only take me few rounds of talks to pinpoint their problems. Then, I would find specific ways to help them come to their sense, see clearly the true color of the evil cult, and successfully get rid of their obsession.”

After giving up the delusion of “becoming a God”, dramatic changes took place in Wang Gong’s life. He said, “I used to be a narrow-minded man. But after this ‘cultivation-for-Buddha’ farce, I have broken away from my previous cocoon and embraced a broadened horizon. It’s bound to have ups and downs in life, what really matters is to deal with them bravely and rationally. It’s wrong to turn to the delusion of ‘becoming a God’ for comforts. Only by taking a down-to-earth manner could we really enjoy a happy life!”