Falun Gong (spirtual movement)

Falun Gong is a religious movement that combines elements of Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. It is guided by a belief that certain physical and mental exercises promote bodily and spiritual health. The movement has come under fire in China and elsewhere for what are thought to be cult-like activities. Despite this and other reported persecution over decades, the movement’s followers allegedly numbered in the millions, primarily in China but also in the United States, by 2024.

Beliefs

The belief system of Falun Gong is complex, merging physical, spiritual, and intellectual principles. The physical part of Falun Gong is based on an ancient practice called Qi Gong, which is the ancestor of martial arts such as tai chi. According to this practice, by exercising the body, one can also maintain the spirit. Falun Gong focuses on a part of the body its practitioners call the Falun, located in the lower abdomen, which they believe to be the human spiritual center. The Falun is visualized as a kind of wheel that spins continuously. As the wheel is strengthened through exercise and meditation, believers become stronger physically and mentally. Followers of Falun Gong believe that if the Falun is maintained, traditional medicine becomes unnecessary. The exercises required to maintain the Falun, called Xiu Lan, are slow and comparable to tai chi. Most of these exercises require a person to stand and involve minimal movement, such as simply extending the arms for a period of time.

The Gong of Falun Gong is believed to be a kind of energy that is cultivated through the development of a person's nature, or mind, using meditation. Shaping one's thoughts in the proper way is referred to as Xinxing. The following qualities are necessary to achieve Xinxing: the ability to endure unpleasant circumstances, the strength to forgive others, the ability to distinguish between ethical and unethical behavior, and the willingness to give up possessions one might ordinarily want or need. Members of the movement believe that cultivation of the Gong enables them to communicate with otherworldly beings, who convey insights about how to best lead one’s life and also offer protection from adverse circumstances. Li Hongzhi, the leader of the Falun Gong, has stated that some of these otherworldly beings are malevolent and, in fact, intend to harm humans—it is this type of statement that has brought widespread criticism of and skepticism about the movement and its leader.

History

Falun Gong has had a troubled history. The practice of Qi Gong has existed for hundreds of years, but it was only in the 1980s that it began to assume the form now known as Falun Gong. This was largely due to Li Hongzhi, who became the movement’s leader in 1992. His professional background was not in religion; he had worked as a lawyer and a corporate security administrator. During the 1980s, though, after studying with various Buddhist and Taoist teachers, he developed his own form of the practice, and it became his livelihood. To avoid being perceived as a cult by the Chinese government, the movement focused on the secular use of exercise. However, the movement’s belief that practice of the Falun Gong exercises could replace medical treatment aroused the suspicions of the Chinese government. By its count, 1,400 followers died because they chose Xiu Lan instead of medical care. Nevertheless, Falun Gong quickly became very popular.

After attracting several million followers in China, Li relocated the movement's headquarters to New York City in 1998. Following that move and despite its efforts to separate itself from cult categorization, Falun Gong was attacked by both US medical practitioners and the Chinese government as being potentially harmful to its worshipers. The movement did not take this attack lightly. In 1999, about ten thousand Falun Gong members demonstrated in Beijing.

However, during the same year, a new law was passed that suppressed Falun Gong by restricting the activities of cults. This law resulted in the arrest of one hundred Falun Gong leaders and increased the total number of movement members arrested to more than one thousand. The movement has gained the support of some human rights organizations, who claim that the government’s pursuit of the movement’s members amounts to a kind of religious persecution. Evidence has surfaced that the government has placed many practitioners in prison camps and that as many as several thousand prisoners have died due to interrogation methods. Additionally, by 2019, the debate was ongoing about China's known practice of securing organs from prisoners for the purpose of transplantation. While authorities, including the health official who was put in charge of overhauling the donor system in the country to require it to be voluntary (reportedly going into effect as early as 2015), have denied claims that the inhumane practice has continued, reports, including from the United States, asserted that prisoners, particularly practitioners of Falun Gong, were still being used as a source for organs. In June 2021, the Special Procedures of the United Nations Human Rights Council publicly stated that it had received credible information that detainees from minority groups within China were subjected to unusual medical procedures, including both blood tests and organ examinations. The results of these examinations were allegedly kept in a database of living organ sources intended to facilitate organ donation. In the same release, the Council stated that they were deeply concerned by the reports.

Organization

Falun Gong has a somewhat open organizational structure. The heads of the movement are its teachers. As international director, Li Hongzhi is the movement’s highest leader. Ordinary members of the movement are called practitioners, and those who supervise the practitioners are referred to as masters. It should be noted that the hierarchy of the movement is not strict; while Li occupies the highest level of the organization, all masters and practitioners occupy the level below him.

Practitioner meetings often take place in small groups outdoors or in libraries and other public places. During meetings, all members of a group practice the same exercises as their master.

Bibliography

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