Falun Gong, Falun Dafa, Falungong
An Apologetics Index research resource

Falun Gong (pronounced fah-luhn gung) borrows heavily from Buddhist and Taoist philosophies and styles itself as a school of qigong (pronounced chee-gong), a traditional Chinese practice that uses meditation and martial arts exercises to channel unseen forces and improve health.
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Followers believe Li implants a falun - a "wheel of law" or miniature of the universe - into their lower abdomens, where it spins constantly, absorbing and releasing power. Skeptics like Sima Nan have debunked "the supernatural powers claimed by leaders of the outlawed Falun Gong movement and other meditation sects."

North American members have also repeatedly denied the group is a cult, has a doomsday message or believes their meditation leads to magical powers, like levitation and invisibility.

But Mr. Li has also told Western reporters that humanity will soon be wiped out, that space aliens are on Earth trying to replace human beings with clones and that he is invested with supernatural powers allowing him to move through dimensions. He also criticizes rock 'n'roll, science and homosexuality.

Li's rambling dissertation, Zhuan Falun, has only added to accusations that Falun Gong is a cult. Li writes he can personally heal disease and that his followers can stop speeding cars using the powers of his teachings. He writes that the Falun Gong emblem exists in the bellies of practitioners, who can see through the celestial eyes in their foreheads. Li believes ''humankind is degenerating and demons are everywhere''-extraterrestrials are everywhere, too—and that Africa boasts a 2-billion-year-old nuclear reactor. He also says he can fly.

The added benefit of Falun Gong is that practicing it requires little effort, Wu says. "It has a very wide appeal because for other forms of qigong, the question is, what happens if you don't do the exercises? Li says, 'If I plant the wheel in you, you don't have to worry.'"

Wu has some reservations about such an approach, which he says moves the focus from the practitioner to the master. Also of concern to Wu is Li's claim that he talks of the truth of the entire galaxy and places himself above all other ancient Buddhist and Taoist sages.

I myself feel [Falun Gong] has cult tendencies in that when the master says I am going to plant something in you, and it's me protecting you, it's actually encouraging a worship of him, a dependence on him. He has an organization. I've seen the constitution of the organization, and he's the only leader who can teach the principles of Falun Gong

The movement's founder said, ''We are ordinary members of society....It's only that we get up early to do our exercises. We are a popular mass exercise movement.''4 Yet it would be a mistake to define Falun Gong as simply a health-and-fitness craze. The philosophy behind the exercises and moral code reveals a deeper significance. Purportedly rooted in Buddhist and Taoist teachings, Falun Gong (fa meaning ''law'' or ''principle''; lun meaning ''wheel''; and gong denoting ''cultivation energy'') has been rendered ''Buddhist Law'' in English. It is not really Buddhism, however. It is more closely tied to the ancient Chinese practice of qigong (pronounced CHEE-goong), which is a form of Taoism combining personal discipline (morality, meditation, and breathing exercises) with attainment of spiritual energy or life force. (Qi is generally translated as ''life force.'')

Serious practitioners of Falun Gong seek to tap into the life force qi and thereby move toward enlightenment. They do this by cultivating the falun or ''law wheel'' within them. This ''law wheel'' is believed to be a minireplica of the universe itself, spinning in sync with the universe and absorbing universal energy while purging the body of its bad elements. Access to the inner falun (said to be located in one's lower abdomen, the psychic center of the body) is sought through cultivating one's mind and body. Falun Gong emphasizes cultivation of XinXing or ''the mind nature,'' with the goal of bringing it in line with Zhen-Shan-Ren (Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance), believed to be ''the supreme nature of the universe.''5 (''Cultivation'' is a frequently used term for the practice of Falun Gong.)

According to the movement's founder and revered leader, Li Hongzhi, benefits of Falun Gong range from reversing the aging process and being healed of chronic illness to supernormal abilities such as seeing through matter with a ''third eye.''
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Since Li's teachings supposedly lead to better health and rejuvenation, as well as supernormal powers, medicine is only for those who do not properly believe. He forbids followers to seek medical attention, claiming that they can be restored to health by reading his books. Practicing Falun Gong allegedly has the power to smooth away wrinkles, return gray hair to its original color, restore menstrual cycles to postmenopausal women, and cure tuberculosis. ''Your diseases will be eliminated directly by me,'' Li writes. Followers may even gain the ability to levitate and see into the future: ''There is a mirror in the position of one's forehead....When one is about to develop the power of remote sight, the mirror will keep turning over.''

Li claims that he has the power to implant in his followers the falun or law wheel. As they follow his exercises, immerse themselves in his teachings, and meditate, they are able to tap into the power of the life force, purging their spirits of the evil karma so prevalent in the world and unleashing their potential for a new kind of energy.
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Mixed in with this naming of evils in the earthly realm is Li's identification of threats from worlds beyond. In his interview with Time, he talked about the effect of extraterrestrials on society: ''One type of alien looks like a human but has a nose made of bone,'' he said, while noting that others are ghostlike in appearance. Li disclosed that they showed up on earth sometime around 1900. ''Everyone thinks that scientists invent on their own,'' he continued, ''when in fact their inspiration is manipulated by the aliens....In terms of culture and spirit, they already control men.'' The intent of these aliens, according to Li, is to displace humanity with clones
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Li sees the modern world with its moral decay — along with the evils of science — as headed for disaster, except for those who look to Falun Gong for salvation. Hinting at the coming destruction, he writes, ''The universe in which we now live is a reconstructed entity after nine catastrophic explosions. The planet we inhabit has already experienced destruction many times.''24 Li claims to have been sent to save humanity from its plight. He alone knows the ''truth of the cosmos'' and what lies ahead. Only by the enlightenment he has received can one escape disaster. ''The future looks bleak except for those who purify themselves with Falun Gong and who work to achieve a higher plane.

In Li's view, the races are not to be intermingled. Mixed-race children, he notes, are a symptom of societal decline. A race has its own particular ''biosphere,'' and whenever children are born of a mixed-race relationship, they are ''defective persons.'' Li contends that heaven itself is segregated. ''Anybody who does not belong to his race will not be cared for. I do not just say that. It is really true. I am revealing the secret of heaven to you.''

From those who practice the exercises of Falun Gong merely for stress relief and fitness to those who pore over Li's Zhuan Falun looking for spiritual guidance and enlightenment, there is a common thread: a desire for self-improvement.
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Once one begins to take in the teachings and ideology of Falun Gong, deeper, more esoteric appeals to self-improvement are introduced. Those who are further along in the program testify that Falun Gong allows a person to

• ''Open up all the energy channels in the body.''
• ''Attain wisdom and enhance one's energy level.''
• ''Mix and exchange the energy from both the cosmos and human body to rapidly purify the body.''
• ''Circulate energy smoothly throughout the body.''
• ''Attain clear and pure mind, to strengthen supernormal powers and to increase energy potency.''30

Convinced of the effectiveness of Falun Gong on one level, one goes readily to the next level of searching out the teachings behind the exercises. One must then take what looks like a great leap of faith. Since true devotees are forbidden to seek out medical treatment, even when seriously ill, their only thread of hope for survival is their faith in Li. Unfortunately, for some, that has not been enough. ''Followers are prohibited from consulting doctors when sick,'' reports Inside China, quoting a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. ''As a result, some have died, while others have become insane from practicing qigong.''
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People outside China should also be wary of this global movement. Despite the marketing of Falun Gong as a way to good health, moral living, and inner happiness, the central tenets of Li's teachings should alarm most North Americans. Great strides toward racial harmony have occurred in the latter half of the twentieth century. Li's doctrine of racial purity and the segregation of the races (even in heaven) is a backward teaching that should offend all Americans who have worked toward understanding and better relations among the many diverse ethnicities in North America. What about those children who are products of mixed marriages? Either they must be excluded from the physical, social, and spiritual benefits of Falun Gong or Li must severely amend his original teachings. Either way, something is terribly amiss about Li's doctrine on the races.

Countless North Americans have flirted with a wide variety of spiritual disciplines from different religious traditions, predictably tiring of one and then moving on to something new, yet still embracing the belief that all religions basically teach the same truths. For increasing numbers, Falun Gong is the current spiritual fad. Do they realize that Li insists that only faithful obedience to his teachings will bring true enlightenment and salvation to a seeker of ultimate truth? Li emphasizes the distinctiveness of his doctrine when he states, ''Falun Dafa is completely different from traditional cultivation [religion] ways in theory, and from internal alchemy theory in various systems and schools. Practitioners of Falun Dafa are required to obey the first rule of Li Hongzhi: ''No one is allowed to propagate other religions in the name of practising Falun Dafa.''
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The last of the 13 ''Basic Requirements and Points of Attention for Practicing Falun Gong'' contain some eerie words from Li: ''If you are interfered with by some terrifying scenes or feel threatened, just say to yourself: I am protected by my Master. I am not afraid of anything. You may chant the name of Master Li, and continue with your practice.'' Although the statement is intended to reassure Falun Gong practitioners of Master Li's protection while they practice his prescribed exercises, they reveal two realities about Li and his spiritual disciplines. First, contact with spirit beings (i.e., demons) is a real possibility when one engages in Li's exercises. Second, from the Christian perspective it is clear that Li himself has some connection with the domain of darkness. If North Americans in general should be distressed with Li's teachings, Christians should be even more disturbed with the occult nature of his exercises.

As we've seen, many critics of Falun Gong point to Li's aversion to modern medicine, which they claim has caused the death and insanity of many adherents of Falun Gong. Christians should be concerned not only with this alarming belief but also with Li's teaching on the supernormal power that supposedly dispels all physical disorders. One receives this power when Li opens a practitioner's ''Celestial Eye'' that is ''the main channel…located between the middle of the eyebrows and the pineal body.'' ''We usually see with our physical eyes. It is these very two eyes that serve as a screen and block our passage to other spaces. We can only see what exists in our physical world. Opening the Celestial Eye enables us to see without using the two eyes. After reaching very high level cultivation, one will acquire a True Eye....I will open your Celestial Eyes straight to the plane of the Wisdom Eye Sight.'' Indeed, ''I am here to open the Celestial Eye on a large scale.'' Those familiar with New Age occultism will note the similarity between the ''Celestial Eye'' and the ''Third Eye.'' Both promise to provide the true believer with esoteric knowledge and occult powers.
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Following is a list of key events in the past 18 months which have seen the Falungong spiritual movement branded the biggest threat to China's communist regime since the 1989 democracy protests.

April 25, 1999: More than 10,000 followers of the Buddhist-inspired sect sit down around the Chinese Communist Party headquarters in Beijing for an entire day, demanding the right to practise their meditation and breathing exercises. It was the largest demonstration in the capital since 1989, when democracy protestors were massacred on Tiananmen Square.

April 27: The authorities say they are prepared to listen to Falungong grievances but warn of strict measures against any attempt to destabilise society.

May 3: Li Hongzhi, the sect's US-based guru, calls on Beijing to start dialogue with the movement which claims it has 80 million followers in China (two million according to the authorities).

June 6: First questioning of over 100 followers protesting in Beijing.

July 20-22: Thousands of followers rounded up throughout the country. By the end of the year at least 35,000 followers had been arrested, according to official statistics.

July 22: Falungong is formally declared an ''illegal organisation.'' The move coincides with the launch of a media campaign accusing the movement of causing 1,500 deaths.

July 27: US State Department calls on Beijing to exercise restraint.

July 28: China issues an international arrest warrant against Li Hongzhi, accusing him of seeking to overturn the regime. Interpol refused to help with the warrant.

Oct 7: First case of Falungong follower dying in police custody, announced from abroad.

Oct 21: 11 senior figures in the movement arrested.

Oct 25-Nov 1: A week of protests in Tiananmen square in Beijing as parliament adopts law officially branding Falungong as an ''evil cult.''

Nov 12: First Falungong ''show trials'' end with four followers sentenced to between two and 12 years prison. Hundreds of others sent to ''reeducation through labour'' camps for three years.

Dec 26: Four senior figures in the group sentenced to prison terms of seven to 18 years.

Feb 5, 2000: Dozens of followers protest in Tiananmen Square during the Chinese New Year.

Feb/March: Deaths in custody of 15 members disclosed. Several detained members stage hunger strike.

April 19: The official Xinhua news agency reports that a total of 84 Falungong supporters have been given prison terms.

April 25: At least 100 members defy a security net to protest in Tiananmen Square on the first anniversary of their landmark mass demonstration against the Chinese government.

May 11: About 200 members protest in Tiananmen Square to mark their founder's birthday and are detained by police.

July 22: Falungong members are kicked and badly beaten by police in Tiananmen Square in the most violent crackdown yet seen on the group since it was banned exactly one year ago.

October 1: Chinese police round up close to 1,000 protesting members of the Falungong group during clashes in Tiananmen Square on China's National Day.

January 1: Chinese police detain about 1,000 protesting Falungong members in one of the most violent clashes with police.

Falungong founder Li Hongzhi issues a new year statement titled ''Beyond the Limits of Forbearance'' in which he for the first time he says his teachings make allowances for going beyond forbearance, one of the three principles of Falungong. He says evil cannot be tolerated.

January: The government launches new propaganda offensive against the group, with daily reports in state-owned media accusing Falungong of brainwashing members and misleading them into ruining their lives.

January 23: State news agency Xinhua says five Falungong followers set themselves on fire in a mass suicide attempt, which left one dead. It was not immediately possible to confirm the report from independent sources. [...entire item...]

Civil disobedience by the Chinese spiritual movement Falun Gong shows no sign of slowing in the New Year and may be ratcheting up to a new level.

In a New Year's Day message to followers, posted on the group's official Web site (www.clearwisdom.net), the movement's exiled founder, Li Hongzhi, warned that Falun Gong followers facing persecution could rightfully ''go beyond the limits of forbearance.'' Forbearance is one of the principal virtues promoted by his discipline.

''If the evil has already reached the point where it is unsavable and unkeepable, various measures at different levels can be used to stop it and eradicate it,'' he said, writing from the United States, where he now lives.

That suggests that 2001 will be a year of increased activity among the core of true believers in China who are not in detention or under strict police supervision. The number of those followers is impossible to estimate.
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Whether Mr. Li's New Year message advocates more militant action than the group's remarkably passive behavior to date is not clear. While his calls to ''defend the Fa,'' or Great Law of Falun Gong, have kept adherents streaming into Tiananmen Square, his doctrine of forbearance has prevented most from resisting the beatings and detention that they invariably receive there.

But his followers' activism has risen over the past six months as Mr. Li's appeals have grown increasingly urgent, even politicized. In September, Falun Gong's official Web site began attacking President Jiang Zemin as the man personally responsible for Falun Gong's persecution, calling him ''the highest representative of the evil force in the human world.''
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Mr. Li, meanwhile, has begun speaking in increasingly apocalyptic terms. He has said the current struggles in China are leading to an apparently transcendent event that he calls the Consummation, in which his disciples will ''leave'' and ''all bad people will be destroyed by gods.'' Those who are left will pay for their past sins with ''horrible suffering,'' he has said.

China has responded to Mr. Li's shift in tone by declaring late last year that Falun Gong had become a reactionary political force bent on subverting China's socialist system. Known dissidents in Shanghai have been warned to steer clear of any contact with Falun Gong followers or face immediate detention.
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The implication is that Beijing is worried that as Falun Gong metamorphoses into a more political movement it could knit together an alliance of dissident networks around the country.
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Outlawed in mainland China, the Falun Gong spiritual movement has been allowed to operate unhindered in Hong Kong, but after a spate of publicity stunts the group is beginning to get on people's nerves.

Recent staged suicide attempts, a hunger strike and a dispute within the fractious group over leadership are costing Falun Gong public sympathy, experts and commentators say.

``These events hurt their credibility,'' Joseph Kaung, theology lecturer at the Chinese University, told Reuters. ``It's showing traits of a cult. It keeps an air of mystery about it, and there is leader worship.''
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One year after Beijing banned Falungong as ''''an evil cult'', the spiritual movement outside the mainland appears to be splitting into factions.

A number of overseas followers are now supporting Hongkong-based Peng Shanshan as the sect's new master, replacing Li Hongzhi, who lives in New York.

''''We have only one great universal law and one master.

''''But the master can accommodate in different physical bodies,'' Ms Tao Hua Lian, a Chinese-Australian disciple of Ms Peng, told the Hongkong iMail on Friday.

''''At the early stage, the master has shown up in (the physical body of) Li Hongzhi. Now Master Peng Shanshan is born,'' said Ms Tao, adding that Ms Peng declined to be interviewed.

In the near future, perhaps later this month, the giant Buddha statue at Lantau would bring about a series of changes to the world, including having all the detained and jailed Falungong devotees on the mainland freed, she said, quoting Ms Peng.
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Falun Gong followers in Hong Kong and the United States are squabbling over assertions by a woman in the southern Chinese territory that she is the ''true master'' of the spiritual movement, having taken over from its founder, Li Hongzhi, who has dropped from view.

The power struggle is a potentially important one for Falun Gong, which drew millions of adherents in the late 1990's, because most of its followers are on the Chinese mainland, across the border from Hong Kong.

Hong Kong, the former British colony, reverted to Chinese rule in 1997, and whoever controls the group there has a chance of influencing Falun Gong's development in the rest of China.

The assertion that the woman, Belinda Pang, 37, is the ''Lord of Buddhas'' has led to more of a cat fight than catharsis for the movement, which went underground on the mainland after Beijing banned the group a year ago. Mr. Li, who is now based in New York, and Ms. Pang have traded accusations on competing Web sites.
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Three mainland overstayers who threatened to jump out of a Happy Valley flat to escape arrest on Friday were not genuine Falun Gong members, the group's Hong Kong branch spokesman said yesterday.

Kan Hung-cheung continued the war of words between Falun Gong factions as immigration chiefs ordered the overstayers to report to officials tomorrow or face arrest.

Mr Kan claimed the trio did not belong to the religious group. ''I do not know any of them. But all have breached the Falun Gong principles, so I believe they are not Falun Gong practitioners.
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Mr Kan's claims were rejected by Wong Chui-lai, who claimed she and the overstayers belonged to a Falun Gong group led by Belinda Pang San-san. A split has emerged within the sect with Ms Pang claiming to be the new master of the religion, replacing Li Hongzhi.
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A great many curious new beliefs have emerged among the Falun Gong members in Hong Kong. One says that one of the practitioners here, Belinda Peng Shanshan, is taking over the mantle of the movement's leadership, now that the hidden-away founder Li Hongzhi has reached the age of 50.

Another says that the giant Buddha statue on Lantau island is going to be the location of a great miracle - and members of Falun Gong need to be present there to be part of it. This belief is the reason the human yo-yo, Wendy Fang Minqing, reappeared in Hong Kong yesterday. She, you will be recall, is the pregnant woman who keeps trying to get into Hong Kong without a valid visa.

Perhaps the most worrying new belief is the feeling that persecution and imprisonment in Beijing are part of the initiation into the deepest part of the faith for true believers. Once such a belief takes root, there will be no end to the trouble for the Beijing authorities. Still, we have no sympathy in that regard. Beijing has brought its problems upon itself. Heavy-handed, unfair persecution is the one guaranteed way to make a religion grow.
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Who was this woman? What right did the police have to arrest her? How did they know if she was Falun Gong? Was I witnessing the heavy-handed suppression of religion, or was the Chinese government shrewdly nipping a dangerous cult in the bud?

''Falun Gong's Challenge to China,'' a reader assembled by New York media critic Danny Schechter, attempts to answer some of these questions. Schechter recognizes the futility of trying to explain Falun Gong single-handedly and instead presents a diverse range of viewpoints, allowing the reader to draw his or her own conclusions.
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Schechter's own observations on the cult have an unapologetic liberal bias: He sees religion where others might see a cult. And in a contrarian, sporting sort of way, he has taken a liking to the unlikely revolutionaries now challenging China. He comes close to bending over backward for them. But he is a sober observer and doesn't dally on the primrose path for long.

Clear Wisdom is the main website run by practitioners for practitioners around the world for sharing insights and information. If you are new to Falun Dafa, we encourage you to visit our introductory site, www.falundafa.org, to learn more about this unique practice. If you are primarily interested in the human rights situation in China, please check out www.faluninfo.net, the voice of the Falun Dafa Info Center.