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(Volume 3: Number 2) -- May 31, 1999

Falun Dafa: New cultic group
larger than any previously known

Chinese Cult Startles Communist Authorities

One of the world's fastest-growing, most powerful new religious movements was virtually unknown in the west before April 25 of this year. Between 10,000 and 30,000 meditating adherents of a relatively new mystical creed demonstrated in front of the Chinese government's central headquarters in Beijing. On May 8 the Los Angeles Times reported that this was "the largest such gathering since the 1989 pro-democracy protests in Tiananmen Square -- [and] Chinese leaders were stunned."

The sect behind the demonstration is Falun Dafa. Based loosely on Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, Falun Gong is a system of exercises and beliefs aimed at leading its practitioners to enlightenment and winning them an eventual place in heaven. According to Time magazine, "Falun Gong is a variant of Qi Gong [pronounced chi-gung], a blend of mind and body work...that strives to harness an energy called qi.." The May 3 New York Times explains that "the word Falun means 'law wheel,' a high-energy rotating body said to be in a practitioner's abdomen that harnesses cosmic forces and expels bad elements. Followers are told to harness this power, rather than using medicines, to cure disease."

The movement's founder is 48-year-old Li Hongzhi, a Chinese citizen with a "green card" who lives in New York and has been described as the sect's "Grand Master" and "absolute leader." In just seven years his mystical movement has grown to an estimated 20 million to 60 million adherents. The April 26 Wall Street Journal reports that "his flock far surpasses that of the Dalai Lama, the exiled religious leader of Tibet, or that of any of the world's emerging new religions. By the Chinese government's own estimates, his following outnumbers China's 55-million-strong Communist Party." Even powerful party members -- and at least one general -- are said to be followers. What's more, the May 10 issue of Time magazine reports that "there are Falun Gong chapters in eight countries and 21 American cities."

The movement's beliefs are strange to many outsiders. According to the April 26 Wall Street Journal, Li says he has been developing his spiritual practices privately since he was a child of four. "Mr. Li's writings devote much space to discussion of levitation, possession by animal spirits, and see the future with the third eye, located in the pineal gland behind the forehead." The Journal writes that "The 48-year-old former clerk is careful not to call his discipline a religion, though it has distinctly religious overtones." The Journal further reports that "in 1996 he published Zhuan Falun" ("Rotating the Law Wheel"), a sort of bible for the sect, "which quickly sold nearly a million copies." The book has been translated into Spanish, French, German, Russian, Swedish, Japanese, and Korean. Among other things, it predicts that in the future a "third eye," located in the pineal gland behind the forehead, will enable people to view remote scenes like a television. Not only that, but Li claims in Zhuan Falun that "Without trains and planes, people will be able to levitate in the air from where they sit without using an elevator." As his movement anticipates a worldwide apocalypse of some sort, Li says that making Falun Dafa public is man's last hope.

The May 10 issue of Time magazine briefly describes Li's belief that space aliens who arrived around the year 1900 have come to earth and influenced the majority of scientific discoveries. Not only that, but the aliens "intend to replace all humans with clones." Li refuses to confirm whether he himself is really "a human being from earth" -- or something else.

Meanwhile, those who criticize the movement in China may be subject to fear tactics. According to the February 22 issue of U.S. News and World Report, "Outspoken opponents of Falun Gong say their jobs and lives have been threatened. 'After I criticized them on TV, they said the master [Li Hongzhi] would put an energy wheel in me and make it spin backwards,' says [one man]. 'They said it was only a matter of time before I went blind or had both my legs cut off by a car."

The Chinese government may have reason to be worried, too; mystical sects led by charismatic leaders have caused chaos in the not-too-distant past. The Wall Street Journal recounts that "in the late 19th century, a man claiming to be Jesus' brother built a huge following across China and led a revolt, known as the Taiping Rebellion, against the ruling Qing dynasty. The leader, Hong Xiuquan, set up a government in Nanjing and controlled a large swath of central China for more than a decade. Imperial troops crushed his movement, but tens of millions died in the war." Modern-day Chinese authorities have taken steps to limit Falun Gong's power; the international press reports that some of the movement's followers have been arrested, and that Li's books have been banned.

Paul Carden, Executive Director
The Centers for Apologetics Research
Post Office Box 1196
San Juan Capistrano, CA 92693 USA

tel. (949) 364-2435 / fax (949) 364-7266