Basically, it's a large sect, which teaches QiGong.
I don't think sect means what you think it means. The proper word for a religious organization is a cult. And it most definitely is a religious cult, since the founder basically claims to be a divine being and teaches his followers to militantly defend his "law"
The PRC government has historically encouraged Qigong and other traditional art forms. Hell, it's pretty much categorized as a medical science in China. Non-Falun Gong Qigong certainly isn't prosecuted, I used to see groups of old people practicing in formation every morning. In fact, in 1982 the government passed a policy to not promote, debate, or criticize Qigong (I can't find a detailed explanation of this policy in English, but here's the source in Chinese). If it's simply Qigong, why do people cling to it so resolutely? Would you set yourself on fire to protest the government banning yoga, or at least go around passing out pamphlets about how great yoga is on street corners and university campuses? It's obviously a little more hardcore than plain Qigong.
Have you read the actual teachings of Falun Gong? Before you put the face of the well-meaning mystic on Falun Gong, check out their publications. Here are a few choice snippets.
We've found that when a person is born, many, many him are born at the same time within a certain range of the space of this universe.
They found that? Really?
When a person is born, his whole life is already laid out there in a specific dimension. Meaning, where he is in his life, what he's supposed to do, and so onâ"it's all there. So who arranged his life? It's obviously done by higher beings.
The fact is, qigong treatments can't be like ordinary people's healing methods - it's not an ordinary person's skill. It's something higher. And are higher things allowed to disrupt the ordinary world on a large scale? A Buddha's capabilities are just awesome - with the wave of a Buddha's hand all of the human race's sicknesses could vanish. Then why don't any Buddhas do that, especially when there are so many of them? Why don't they have mercy and heal you? Because that's just how the ordinary world is
Right, and God conceals traces of His work to give us free will.
I divided my gong among the disciples who I brought along. Each of them got a share, and they were energy clusters composed of over 100 abilities. I sealed their hands, but still, some of them suffered bites to the hand that broke the skin, caused blisters, or made them bleed, and that even happened a lot. Those things are so fierce. You think youâ(TM)d dare to touch them with your ordinary personâ(TM)s hands?
Yes, my disciples are obviously superior to ordinary people, so you better not try where they failed. But if you join the ranks of my disciples then you'll be elevated from the ordinary. Classic.
When a person has a tumor somewhere, an infection somewhere, a bone spur somewhere, or whatever, in another dimension there's a being crouching at that place. In a deep dimension there's a being there. A typical qigong master can't see that, because the usual supernatural abilities can't see it, and they can only see that the person has black qi in his body. Wherever there's black qi there's illnessâ"they're right about that. But, black qi is not the root cause of the problem. Instead, it's a being in a deeper dimension, and it's that being that produces the field.
I don't even have to ridicule it, it ridicules itself. This ain't government propaganda, folks. Straight from the horse's mouth.
In before "it's all bullshit propaganda from the Chinese government!!!!": this paper is a first hand study done by a New Zealand academic on the Falun Gong issue, who actually participated in the practice for a year for the study. If anything, Falun Gong is a better propaganda machine than the Chinese government, since the Chinese government has a certain stigma associated with its press releases.
Highlights from the study:
Qi Gong is mainly comprised of breathing exercises, but Li added teachings of a world full of demons, aliens and apocalyptic adventures. His books Zhuan Falun and Falun Gong read like an Asian version of the X Files and were
instant best sellers.
Sounding familiar?
Between 1996 and mid-1999, practitioners initiated over 300 protests against negative media reports, forcing dismissals of reporters and receiving public apologies (Zhao, 2003).
Oh, so the Chinese government is censoring them, is it?
Li forbids practitioners from talking about what he calls "high level things" to ordinary people, and instructs them to lie to those uninterested in spiritual matters ("tell them that we're just doing exercises" [Li, 2002, p. 21]).
Yeah, just uh, just exercises.
At conventions he claims not just to be a God, but the best God, superior to Buddha and Jesus whom he dismisses as merely teaching 16 carat gold paths compared with his 24 carat gold path (Li, 1998c, 2003a).
"truthfulness, compassion and forbearance".
However, this claim does not tally with Li's writings. He teaches that illnesses are caused by karma, and that by taking medicines or getting medical help one presses the karma back into the body. The sign of a true practitioner is to refuse medicine or medical care (Li, 1998b; 1998c; 1999; 2001a; 2003b).
Sounding REAL familiar now.
six months into the fieldwork - a member told me that Falun Gong was not about doing the exercises at all
Wait, but you said --
The Western perspective on Falun Gong is basically that the big bad Chinese government is prosecuting grannies practising a harmless form of exercise for no reason. Just a little one-sided and naive. From what I've seen Falun Gong is the bastard child of Mormonism and Scientology, except more media-savvy and can use their persecution to further their cause.
