Why falun gong is a cult

Audiences around the world have lauded every performance. Some are moved to tears others are left completely speechless. This art form seemed to resemble both ballet and gymnastics, they said, but, they explained, ballet and gymnastics had in fact borrowed the traditional techniques of Chinese classical dance.

The dancers were showcasing a tradition that was thousands of years old, they went on—a tradition that had been single-handedly rejuvenated by Shen Yun. It was impossible to see a show like this in China, because of the Communist regime, they told us. It was hilarious to me, and so ridiculous, and, in a way, it inspired me to write this history in my book.

Wilcox told me that Chinese classical dance is one of the predominant forms of dance in the contemporary Chinese art world. She then pointed me to several Chinese-classical-dance performances on YouTube , all of which were markedly more expressive and nuanced than what I saw at Shen Yun.

On a freezing evening in early March, I took the train uptown for my second viewing of Shen Yun. I got to Lincoln Center early and began chatting up strangers. The crowd was heavily Asian; little girls with long black hair were running around in poofy department-store dresses. The first two groups I approached did not speak English.

A fiftysomething man with a Turkish accent told me that he and his wife had come for his birthday. A stylishly dressed black couple told me that they usually bought tickets to Alvin Ailey for birthday celebrations, but this year they had decided to try Shen Yun instead. A white couple in their seventies from Long Island were also celebrating a birthday.

I asked them all what they were expecting from the show. I also asked what had prompted them to buy tickets. Some people mentioned the billboards, others the TV ads. A representative for Blanchett did not respond to a request for comment. As the Epoch Times later noted , the theatre was full. When the curtain went up, white fog rolled off rows of smiling female dancers, and everyone gasped. The religious circles declare Falun Gong to be a cult. The international Buddhist circles firmly believe that Falun Gong is a cult.

The Forum determined Li Hongzhi was a preacher of cult, and the so-called doctrine of Li Hongzhi out and out was a cult. In , the Christian magazine Church and Heresy in South Korean published three journals consecutively, declaring Falun Gong to be a cult. The magazine pointed out that Falun Gong was a non-belief cult much more dangerous than any other criminal organizations.

Facts proved time and again that the Falun Gong organization, headed by Li Hongzhi, was an anti-science, anti-humanity and anti-society cult through and though. It deified Li Hongzhi and repelled other religions, spread cultic heresies and brought harm to society, much viciouser than any other cults outside China.

The international cultic study experts declare Falun Gong to be a cult. The leader has people instead of worshiping God or abstract principles, they worship him. It makes Falun Gong visible as these years, one more of them, thousands of cults. Professor Bergin, head of the Russian National Research Institute of Religious Relation and Law, says that Falun Gong's attitude toward the Chinese government and other religious groups, its imputation and impact on traditional religious values, as well as what Falun Gong had done against himself, made him firmly believe that Falun Gong was an extreme cult organization.

It is not important where the Falun Gong practitioners live, for instance in China, France, the United States or other countries. As far as the Falun Gong practitioners are concerned, they do not belong to any country, they all belong to Falun Gong group. More than 30 scholars or representatives from seven countries, comprising the United States, Austria, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and China, analyzed, appraised and verified the character and salient features of the Falun Gong cult as well as grave harms it had done to society and people from such aspects as theology, the science of law, political science, psychology, sociology and the science of information transmission.

The crimes committed by the cult were alarming. Over the past few years in some parts of China, many innocent people were fooled by Li and his lies, more than 1, people had committed suicide, inflicted self-injury or died as a result of refusing medical treatment, resulted in a great number of family tragedies and many others have suffered psychological distress.

On May 21, , he said to his wife, "tomorrow is my master referring to Li Hongzhi 's birthday, I will go and burn joss sticks for him. On the spot, he left a picture of Li Hongzhi and the remains of seven joss sticks. He said many times that his master Li Hongzhi had asked him to burn himself to death so as to become a Buddha.

He also said that Li Hongzhi wanted him to become a Buddha in a well. He finally committed suicide on April 27, by jumping into a well. Ma Jianmin, a retired worker from the North China Oilfield, became distraught after two years of practising Falun Gong.

He insisted that he had a Wheel of the Law Falun in his stomach. On September 4, , Ma Jianmin died at home after cutting open his abdomen with a pair of scissors to look for it.

I will not go on with the tragic list. Why there are so many people who believe in Falun Gong. The major reasons for this can be summarised as the following: First, many people believe that one can attain physical fitness and cure diseases through Qigong exercises, Li Hongzhi has taken advantage of this mentality, and attracted many followers by bragging that he has supernatural power and people can realise the aim of keeping healthy.

Second, in the modern society, rhythm in social life is accelerating and many challenges crop up, thus a lot of people can not get used to these rapid changes and increasingly heavy psychological pressure, and some people have got lost in what to believe.

Taking advantage of these, Li Hongzhi put out the banner of "truthfulness, benevolence and forbearance", claiming that practitioners can attain purity of mind, and cheated many innocent people. Third, the lower level of education, lack of scientific knowledge, lack of the ability of differentiating pseudo-sciences are the fundamental reasons for people being cheated by Falun Gong.

The lack of basic scientific knowledge results in the fact that some people even believe in the "explosion of the Earth" theory and many other fallacies. Forth, though mankind has make great progress in science and technology, there is more to be explored in the universe and there are many unanswered questions and there is still room for the existence of various kinds of pseudosciences.

No government will turn a blind eye to a cult's illegal deeds, which are a threat to people's lives and social stability. At the strong appeal of the people, the Chinese government, strictly in accordance with the law, decided to outlaw the " Research Society of Falun Dafa" and the evil cult under the illegal organization's control. However, in that process, things went inevitably wrong, since his "patients" were persuaded not to go for any medical treatments, while being "cured" by Li himself.

As a result, many of his patients died. In order to get out of trouble, Li soon gave up "curing" illness through his "own energy and power".

He began to ask his followers to learn his theory instead, which, as he put it, could cure their illness and help them escape from mortality and fly to a place what he described as "heaven". Of course, every follower was supposed to buy his books and attend classes accordingly.

From this business, he accumulated a huge amount of money and became a millionaire. Q: What are the main arguments of Falun Gong? Why is it deemed a cult heresy? A: Falun Gong has a set of ridiculous ideas, the basic one of which claims that the doomsday is coming, that human beings will be extinct soon, that modern science can do nothing to prevent the catastrophe, that only Falun Gong can save mankind, and that Li Hongzhi is the sole "savior".

Many Falun Gong practitioners were driven into such intense fear by these heresies that they became insane and even committed suicide or killed their loved ones.

Social problems have been emerging, he said, and no government can solve them. And, because neither the government nor the rule of law can solve social problems, he should be the rightful ruler. He renounced modern science and said that the world should listen to him, otherwise everything will be lost. Li said that the Falun Dafa is the only grand theory that can save mankind and is the most profound and superb of all sciences and philosophies and a ladder for people to ascend to heaven.

Although the banner of Falun Gong is said to be "Truthfulness, Benevolence and Tolerance", whenever Falun Gong is criticized, he gets his followers to create a disturbance. One good example is their besieging of media organizations' office buildings in Li said that to practice Falun Gong well, people must make a clean break with other ideas and cannot mention what they learned before and are forbidden to use what they feel, see, or know, or the doctrines of other beliefs.

Otherwise, they will learn a false grand theory and damage the grand theory. By spreading these fallacious ideas, Li has actually signed a life-and-death contract with his followers, who have to obey all his instructions and depend on him for everything.

He forbids them to read other books or learn other theories and deprives them of the ability to distinguish between right and wrong. With those means and the tight control of the highly organized group, Li forces practitioners to follow his fallacious ideas. He also borrowed Buddhist doctrines to deify himself and claims that he possesses the "body of law" and can install "the wheel of law" in practitioners and give them extrasensory perception. Li ordered that Falun Gong practitioners not to take medicine when they are ill.

He preaches that the power achieved by practicing Falun Gong can automatically kill disease and break away with the karmic chain -- the cosmic principle that acts from previous lives are rewarded or punished in this life.