Summary：This is an oral account by a former practitioner of his experience with Falun Gong. The man, called Wu Jianghai, is from Wuhu City, Anhui Province. After being involved in the evil cult for more than ten years, the man finally returned to society and lived a happy life. We can recognize the hypocrisy and evil of the Falun Gong cult through an analysis of his inner world. The story is as follows.
I graduated from a railway technical secondary school in 1995. After graduation, I was assigned to work in the construction department of a large state-owned enterprise. While working there, our department leader took good care of me, often inviting me to dinner at his home. A portrait was hanging on the wall of his house, in which a middle-aged man wearing a monk robe sat in mediation, with his right hand forming a lotus finger and a halo on his head. Judging from his costume, he seemed to be a Buddhist disciple, except that he had hair on his head. The leader told me that the man in the portrait was "Master" Li Hongzhi. It wasn’t until then that I knew that the leader and his wife were both Falun Gong practitioners. After being introduced to Falun Gong by the leader, I began to have some involvement in the practice. Gradually, I devoted all my spare time to “practicing Gong” and “studying the Fa”, and little by little, I became obsessed with Falun Gong.
The so-called "practicing Gong" refers to practicing the four sets of Falun Gong exercises. Li Hongzhi claimed that by "practicing Gong", practitioners could quickly transform their bodies into the body of "God" with the help of the Falun (or Law Wheel) he gave to them. This claim greatly stimulated his disciples’ enthusiasm in "practicing Gong", so much so that they kept practicing it almost all year round. From an objective point of view, this kind of regular practice can indeed improve one’s health to a certain degree. In fact, the improvement is due to one's long-term exercise, but it was attributed to Falun Gong by Li Hongzhi, who claimed that "Falun" could cure diseases and protect practitioners from external harm.
The so-called "studying the Fa" refers to studying and understanding Li Hongzhi's "scriptures”: the practitioners gather together to read and recite the Falun Gong “scriptures” and listen to Li Hongzhi's recorded lectures repeatedly. In his scriptures, Li Hongzhi refers to himself as the "Savior" and "Lord Buddha of the Universe" who has surpassed Shakyamuni and Jesus. Falun Gong deceived many kind-hearted people by flaunting the banner of "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" and "being a good person”.
Li Hongzhi also said that the achievements of practicing Gong were reflected in “another dimension”. Therefore, we could only perceive the so-called “another dimension” through our illusions. During our group practice and study, everyone talked about the hallucinations and visions we had experienced in our usual practice. We had been pursuing the so-called "further advancement" and "high levels", with the ultimate goal of "reaching consummation" and "ascending in broad daylight".
Through our illusions and exchanges over a long time, we gradually took the illusory as the real while taking the real as the illusory. We were indifferent to fame, profit, and affection, giving up our work, future, family, and social responsibilities. Finally, we were to let go of life and death. Gradually, I became so addicted to the beautiful dream woven by the Falun Gong evil cult that I was unable to extricate myself from it.
Now, when I look back to it, I know what Li Hongzhi brags about is entirely imaginary. It is nothing but heresies in the disguise of religion and science. The so-called "Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance" or "being a good person" is just a mask, behind which is an evil spiritual trap that induces the Falun Gong disciples to brainwash themselves by taking advantage of their trust in Li Hongzhi. Its purpose is to make these disciples, whose minds have been controlled by Li Hongzhi's scriptures, view everything from the point of view of the Falun Gong cult. Li Hongzhi also claimed that persuading other people to learn Falun Gong was a much faster way for a practitioner to gain Gong than practicing it by oneself. This trick allowed Falun Gong to be spread rapidly in society, leading to more people being deceived into joining the evil cult.
After Falun Gong was designated as an evil cult and banned by the state in July 1999, Li Hongzhi continued to issue "scriptures" abroad. He called on Falun Gong members to “petition" in Beijing, stage a "sit-in" at Tiananmen Square with banners, and distribute Falun Gong leaflets, trying to confront the government in various ways. What Falun Gong members were required to do was described by Li Hongzhi as a test of their ability to gain Gong, save people and reach “consummation”. Although Li Hongzhi’s heretical fallacies were quite absurd, the Falun Gong members couldn't distinguish right from wrong, as they were addicted to those fallacies.
Li Hongzhi also threatened that if his disciples opposed Falun Gong, especially if they betrayed the "Dafa", they would be "destroyed in body and spirit.” Under such intimidation, his disciples were afraid to violate his orders. They had no choice but to act upon what Li Hongzhi said, even at the cost of breaking the law and committing crimes.
Since Falun Gong was outlawed, the company I worked with made great efforts to educate me and save me from the quagmire of Falun Gong. It even brought my family members to the company to persuade me to quit the evil cult. I turned in my Falun Gong books and materials, but did so unwillingly due to my wait-and-see attitude. Later, a Falun Gong practitioner found me and instigated me to join the so-called "Fa-protection cause" again. Then I ran away from my company, petitioning time after time and printing Falun Gong leaflets for distribution in the community. Eventually, I was arrested and imprisoned by the public security authorities for my criminal acts.
After I went to prison, I remained stubbornly obsessed with Falun Gong, believing that being imprisoned was also a test by “Master” to see if I was loyal to him as his disciple. Initially, I argued with the prison officers, not believing in what they said. Besides, I confronted the prison officers and fought with other inmates because of my attitude towards Falun Gong. But little by little, my life in prison calmed me down, and my rationality, which had been blinded by Falun Gong's heretical fallacies for so long, began to recover. I recalled that I once made a bet with a colleague in 1999 that I would "reach consummation" in five years, and that while in prison I said that I would "reach consummation" in two years. I said those words all because of what Li Hongzhi had promised to Falun Gong practitioners in his "scriptures", but facts proved that he had broken his promise. He said repeatedly in his “scriptures”, which appeared every once in a while, that we would "reach consummation" and that everyone should persist in practicing Falun Gong. However, it turned out that the time he said we would “reach consummation” was delayed by him again and again, because he could never fulfill his promise to let us achieve this aim.
The dam constructed by Falun Gong's heretical fallacies finally collapsed, and I regained my ability to think rationally, realizing that I had been a complete fool deceived by Li Hongzhi's lies. Li Hongzhi said that he would never get involved in politics. However, what his Falun Gong organization did later on included overtly attacking the Chinese government, discrediting the Chinese Communist Party, and colluding with Western anti-China forces. As a Falun Gong practitioner then, I became an accomplice of the evil cult organization and an offender against my country and people.
With the patient help and education of the police officers and through my constant self-reflection, I came to know the evil nature of Falun Gong, relieved the burden on my mind, and began to think like a normal person again. I recognized what’s right and what's wrong, what’s good and what's evil, and what’s true and what's false. I’ll never forget the kindness of the police officers who had helped me.
In 2008, I was released from prison ahead of schedule because of my good performance. Then I found a job again and returned to my normal life. I got married later and had two lovely children. Now I work hard for my life, struggle for happiness, and keep enriching myself through study.
When I recalled the unpleasant experience over the past ten-odd years, it’s still hard for me to calm down in my mind. I was unfortunate because I strayed into an evil cult in the past and had been involved in it for many years until I committed a crime as a result, but I was also fortunate because I had eventually been freed from the Falun Gong evil cult and lived a normal life again thanks to the help and education of the Party and government.
I kept this experience deep in my heart and seldom talked about it for fear of being discriminated against by others. I even seldom thought of it because it was a painful experience that had hurt my loved ones and ruined my future. By sharing my experience this time, I want to summon up the courage to face up my past and reflect on myself once again. I hope that my experience can awaken those who have strayed into Falun Gong and other evil cults.
