Does anyone know more than me about Falun Gong (formally known as Falun Dafa)?
What I know is: "Falun Gong is a mind and body practice of meditation and exercise. It is not a religion but has a spiritual element that encourages the pursuit of truth, compassion and tolerance in daily living. Falun Dafa, its official name, means great law. The movement was banned by the Chinese Government in 1999."

The reason I'm asking is because "A Sydney-based Chinese diplomat seeking asylum in Australia claims his country is kidnapping people in Australia and repatriating them and is worried he will now meet the same fate."
Read the rest of the story here.

Now, they stress they are not a political party, so why have they been persecuted and banned by the Chinese govt? There's something missing here, but I don't know what. From a different article: "A spokeswoman for the Chinese embassy last night dismissed the practitioners' claims. "Where is the proof?" she asked.
"Falun Gong is really a cult in China and they do a lot of bad things," she said. But in Australia it was up to the Government and police to deal with them, not the embassy, she said."

The only clue I got recently was a TV news report that showed Falun Gong members holding banners, one of which I am sure said something like 'end to communism in China'.

Developments in the case of China's former first secretary in Australia, Chen Yonglin, seeking asylum in Australia are going to be very interesting to watch indeed. The Australian government is hopping around frantically trying to make it just go away without offending the Chinese government and threatening the all-important FTA, and juggling this with a desperate need to be seen to be doing the right thing with regards to Human Rights -- an issue they're looking shakier and shakier on by the day.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Walker:
Now, they stress they are not a political party, so why have they been persecuted and banned by the Chinese govt? There's something missing here, but I don't know what. From a different article: "A spokeswoman for the Chinese embassy last night dismissed the practitioners' claims. "Where is the proof?" she asked.
"Falun Gong is really a cult in China and they do a lot of bad things," she said. But in Australia it was up to the Government and police to deal with them, not the embassy, she said."

---

I don't think Falun Gong are an organized party, but they do try to recruit and convert. That's where the threat is to the Chinese state, as far as I can tell: any religion that tries to convert others is considered a rival organization to the state.

[ 08 June 2005: Message edited by: Suzette ]

He claims we have a propeller in our stomach that whirls around and has some effect on our lives. (I'm not making this up).

It was also clear from the literature there was a political element that was anti-government. I don't know if you could characterize it as 'populist', but somewhat similar in nature, and generally opposed to 'communism'.

My opinion is the followers of Falun Gong are more or less harmless dummies. Nobody could believe half of what was in the great leaders book.

quote:

---

Originally posted by maestro:

On the other hand, if you can make people believe there's a propeller in their stomach, they would probably believe anything.

---

http://www.falundafa.org/book/eng/zfl_new_1.html#2

quote:

---

What our practice does is cultivate a Law Wheel at the lower abdomen, and I personally place it in students during my classes.

While I’m teaching Falun Dafa we place a Law Wheel in you one by one. Some people feel it, some don’t, but most people feel it, and that has to do with people each having different physical conditions. So we cultivate a Law Wheel, not an elixir.

The Law Wheel is a miniature universe, it has all the functions of a universe, and it can operate and rotate automatically.

It will turn forever at your lower abdomen, once it’s placed in you it won’t stop, and it’ll turn like that year in and year out.

When it’s turning clockwise it automatically absorbs energy from the universe, and it can evolve energy by itself, and supply the energy that’s needed to evolve every part of your body.

In the same way, when it turns counterclockwise it sends out energy, and drives used material out of you, which then dissipates around your body. When it sends out energy, it shoots it out very far and brings in new energy again. And the energy it shoots out benefits everyone who’s near your body.

---

And a third eye as well:

quote:

---

The Third Eye’s structure used to be the secret of secrets, and ordinary people weren’t allowed to know about it. That’s why nobody ever revealed it. But what we’re going to talk about here doesn’t revolve around those theories from the past. We’re going to explain it with modern science and in the plainest modern terms, and we’ll explain what it’s really about.

The Third Eye we’re talking about is actually located slightly above the spot that’s between your eyebrows, and it’s connected to the pineal gland.

-snip-

When we talk about "opening the Third Eye" it’s about bypassing your optic nerves and opening a passageway between your eyebrows, which makes it possible for your pineal gland to see outside directly. And this is what opening the Third Eye means.

---

More than 1000 practitioners have been tortured to death. Apparently, it is the numbers of practitioners along with their criticism (albeit mild and mostly implicit) of the repressive government that is attracting such brutality upon their members.

[ 08 June 2005: Message edited by: Sisyphus ]

quote:

---

JO McKENNA: Dr John Wong, a specialist in Asian history at Sydney University, says the Communist regime began to see the movement as a threat after thousands of devotees from around the country suddenly gathered in Beijing in April 1999.

DR JOHN WONG: The Chinese secret police pride themselves on their intelligence, and their ability to know the movement of the people, to know the organisations, and so on. And certainly, these 10,000 people collect under their nose without their knowing anything about it.

---

quote:

---

JO McKENNA: Falun Gong was founded more than a decade ago by a former Chinese government official as a spiritual movement combining exercise and meditation in the pursuit of philosophical truth.

DR JOHN WONG, DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY, SYDNEY UNIVERSITY: It is not the kind of religion that you and I would understand it to be such as Christianity. It has a political agenda. And that agenda is to oppose the government or even overthrow it.

-snip-

DR JOHN WONG: I think it is a cult. How would one define a cult? I would say that a cult is a - a belief, propagated by somebody who has a particular agenda in mind, and that agenda may not be entirely religious.

---

Given the quotes from the Falun Dafa material I posted, I don't think there's any doubt it's a cult. No reasonable person could believe they had a third eye with which they could see through a channel between their eyebrows.

[ 09 June 2005: Message edited by: Fidel ]

quote:

---

No reasonable person could believe they had a third eye with which they could see through a channel between their eyebrows.

---

quote:

---

Saying it's an "eye" is just a metaphor, as is the "channel".

---

As the man said, I never metaphor I didn't like.

This is the strangest manifestation of a metaphor I'ver ever heard.

quote:

---

The Third Eye we’re talking about is actually located slightly above the spot that’s between your eyebrows, and it’s connected to the pineal gland.

-snip-

When we talk about "opening the Third Eye" it’s about bypassing your optic nerves and opening a passageway between your eyebrows, which makes it possible for your pineal gland to see outside directly. And this is what opening the Third Eye means.

---

Pardon me for saying so, but when someone says something is 'actually located' somewhere, I take them at their word. They believe - or want me to believe - that one can let their pineal gland 'see' outside.

The pineal gland is very important, and is buried deep in the brain, which suggests it is both ancient, and of evolutionary value.

There was a time when the pineal gland was directly affected by light. This could very well account for the 'third-eye' concept.

However, in mammals the pineal connects to the outside world via the suprachiasmatic nucleus which is connected to the retina in your regular eyes. It produces melatonin from serotonin, and helps regulate both circadian rythm and the onset of puberty.

If one could indeed open a passageway between your eyebrows, the pineal would still be in the dark. It's position at the centre of the brain means any attempt to shine a light on it would necessitate making a mess of the rest of your brain. Don't try this at home.

There is nothing in the Falun literature that suggests the 'third eye' or the 'law wheel' are metaphorical. They are presented as being physical facts.

They are not physical facts, they're hogwash. Any reasonable person could, and would, realize that.

However, outrageous claims like these are useful for filtering out those who won't become 'true believers'.

If I say, for instance, that people have a magnetic something or other within their bodies that could be uses to attract money (if they only knew how to use it), most people would think I was crazy.

However, a certain number, perhaps quite small, might believe me.

Having made one outrageous claim, I have now identified those who will believe more or less anything I say.

If I have some other item on my agenda, those who will believe anything I say could come in very handy.

I'll agree that there is no hard and fast rule for defining a 'cult'. However, bullshit like the 'third eye' and the 'law wheel' are indicators. Another indicator is the presence of an agenda that is not explicitly stated.

Falun Gong qualifies under both.

Besides, it wasn't me who identified Falun Gong as a cult, it was Dr. Wong, who was quoted approvingly in another post.

However, as I said, just because they're stupid it doesn't mean they're dangerous.

By the way, that Epoch article posted included photographs of people being tortured. Those photos were of people acting out the Chinese governments treatment of Falun Gong followers.

quote:

---

Originally posted by maestro:

By the way, that Epoch article posted included photographs of people being tortured. Those photos were of people acting out the Chinese governments treatment of Falun Gong followers.

While everything in the article may well be true, it is certainly not up to any journalistic standard (except Fox, perhaps).

---

Well, the Epoch Times is a funny sort of paper, with somewhat dubious connections, journalistically speaking - both the South China Morning Post and the Boston Globe characterise it as Falun Gong-owned, or at least connected. Which doesn't make their Falun Gong reporting entirely valueless, but certainly likely to be ever so slightly biased. [Edited due to my inability to press the correct damn button.]

[ 09 June 2005: Message edited by: trevor j. ]

Several issues that raise my suspicions:
1. To produce the amount of media they do [newspapers, full colour magazines etc] they must have a lot of money. When I press the supporters on this they simply tell me "we are all volunteers".

2. The level of organisation in Falun Gong seems kind of obscure. The support is widespread across all kinds of demographics and yet the people I speak to are all x Chinese.

3. Falun Gong's oppression in China seems to be their major selling point in North America - they claim their movement is based on a physical activity but delve in the religious nature as a belief system.

I realise all this sounds really loopy to you. That's fine. I'm just trying to make you see that these concepts are considered normal for literally billions of people, mostly not of our culture, of course. I'm willing to bet even the Chinese authorities that are villifying this movement wouldn't claim that he's a quack, exactly. More a dangerous radical. All the stuff that you see as evidence of an unbalanced mind is quite normal in Qi Gong theory, which is highly regarded in Chinese medicine.

Incidentally, anybody ignorant enough to associate China's regime with socialism needs a healthy dose of Logic 101.

DEATH TO FALSE SOCIALISM!

LONG LIVE LIBERTY, EQUALITY, AND DEMOCRACY!

[ 09 June 2005: Message edited by: NDP Newbie ]

quote:

---

The government's accusations against Falun Gong followers range from ''organizing illegal gatherings'' to ''threatening political stability''. These accusations include "forcefully occupying parks", organising or taking part in ''illegal'' sit-ins, assemblies or demonstrations, obstructing "normal religious activities", having "illegally'' published and distributed books, ''leaking state secrets'', ''harming people's health'' or ''causing deaths'' through the philosophy it promoted.

---

quote:

---

Again, I haven't read these books, but I doubt that he believes that actual photons are beaming through his head and shining on his pineal gland.

---