Falun Gong practitioners, who are firm in their belief in fallacies spread by Li Hongzhi, are suffering from what is termed as delusion-like subcultural belief in psychiatric medicine, said a doctor with Mental Hygienics Institute attached to Peking University.

In an interview with Xinhua, Zhong Tongling said these people like to move in groups and share obvious features of destructive cults in the world, which often pose great danger to society.

Zhang has been engaged in professional research on psuedoscience and cults at the institute for about a decade.

According to Zhang, delusion-like subcultural belief is the faith shared by a group of people who do not have normal capacity for judgment and can hardly be persuaded with facts.

"Spiritually controlled by Li Hongzhi, Falun Gong diehards are firm with their belief in the fallacy of 'ascending to heaven,' which is similar to a delusion," she said.

Zhang said that she has contacted 24 Falun Gong diehard membersand found 21 of them have shown the tendency to suffer from delusion-like subcultural belief.

Being shocked at the serious degree of Falun Gong's control over the minds of the followers, Zhang said these people do not have a normal state of mind and their only righteous choice is to seek help from psychiatrists in hospitals.

Zhang also talked about one experience she personally had. On viewing the televised suicidal self-burning action of the seven Falun Gong practitioners from Henan Province, one Falun Gong follower who was receiving psychiatric help did not show any care for the dead or the injured.

"Care for the beloved ones and the relatives is the most basic and natural feeling of human beings, but some relatives of a member on the suicidal burning group were even overjoyed at the member's 'ascending to heaven' and accomplishing 'the eternal completion', which goes against common sense," said Zhang. "Such behavior is also not in line with the internationally accepted normal health standards for the body, psychology and sociability."

According to Zhang, normal people have the capacities to judge things independently, which is an important factor to ensure normal operation of society.

"But Falun Gong instigates the diehards to go to the extreme, from refusing to see doctors or take medicines when falling ill, to eventually participating in self destruction activities in groups in accordance with the 'Great Scriptures' of Falun Gong in order to realize the fallacies of 'ascending to heaven' and 'eternal completion', which is certainly not accepted by a civilized society," said Zhang.

The support of some people who are hostile to China for the cult Falun Gong under the cloak of human rights is indeed unreasonable, said Zhang, adding the suicidal burning action of Falun Gong practitioners not only demonstrates that Falun Gong followers are stripped of their fundamental right to live by FalunGong, but also serves as a lesson to teach Falun Gong diehards thetrue nature of Falun Gong as a destructive cult and let them wake up.

(China Central Television 2001/02/03)