Why "Falun Gong'' and Scientific Health-Enhancing Exercises Are Two Different Matters?

By Zhu Shijun, President of the General Hospital of the People's Liberation Army

No different from various other heretical organizations in the world, Li Hongzhi and his ``Falun Gong'' have made a fuss about being able to promote health, boasting that he had boundless superpower, controlling the minds of the practitioners, making them mentally attach themselves to him, and enticing those who lacked the knowledge to enhance their health scientifically, so that they fell into his trap. As a result, many practitioners refused either to consult doctors or take medicine when they fell ill; others became mentally deranged, and even committed suicide by hanging, burning themselves to death, disembowelment, or drowning, causing appalling tragedies. From the point of view of medical science, it is not difficult to see that ``Falun Gong'' is a cheap fraud. It claims that people can overcome illnesses and build up their bodies through practicing it. However, it only uses suggestion psychology, and exaggerates its efficacy. As a result, many practitioners have become psychologically distraught to various degrees. A host of facts has proved that ``Falun Gong'' can not help people build up their bodies and make them strong; instead, it has harmed many people's physical and mental health, and even deprived some people of their lives.

Scientific body-building exercises refer to scientific and rational activities based on ordered principles in accordance with each individual's physical and mental characteristics. The basic principle is to exercise frequently, proceeding in an orderly way and step by step, according to the practitioner's age, sex and state of health, and movements and rest should alternate in an appropriate manner. The cycle of growth, maturity and senility follows an irresistible law of nature. Life span and the rate of degeneration are affected by many factors, such as one's economic situation, nutrition, medical service, physical activities, genetic factors, environment and disease. ``Life rests in exercises,'' as the popular saying goes. Scientific body-building exercises are an important means of preventing diseases and postponing senility. Scientific research has proved that scientific and rational exercises may improve the mentabolism of histocytes, and then achieve the goal of postponing senility and improving the health by making the body bear some physical load, promoting the blood circulation and making the histocytes acquire adequate oxygen and nutrients. However, ``Falun Gong'' and scientific body building exercises are entirely different.

Scientific body-building exercises and ``Falun Gong'' are fundamentally different by nature. Scientific body building exercises, based entirely on science, are active, and good for one's physical and mental health. People can improve their health continuously through proper exercises, while ``Falun Gong'' is not a system of health-enhancing exercises, but has obvious political purposes. It gathers its followers to make disturbances in the name of protecting the fa (law) while actually engaged in illegal activities aimed at harming society and opposing the government.

Scientific body-building exercises aim to prevent diseases, maintain the normal functions of the body, and improve one's ability to resist ailments. Normal people may keep fit through regular exercise, people suffering from mild diseases, especially those with functional diseases, may quicken the tempo of recovery through proper and effective exercises, while people suffering from chronic diseases may improve their health and the quality of their lives through regular exercises according to their own requirements. However, ``Falun Gong'' does not aim to improve the health. It imposes harsh control upon its practitioners, and makes them dejected and benumbed, until they lose their sense of responsibility for their families and society, and finally succumb to morbidity and even madness through practicing ``Falun Gong'''s rituals.

The contents of scientific body building exercises are scientific. People may choose exercises according to their own characteristics, such as their physical and mental conditions, age and purposes. Healthy people may choose exercises with great kinetic energy, such as ball games, long-distance running and mountain climbing; young people may do exercises set to music or aerobics; and for old people, Taijiquan (shadow boxing), Qigong and walking are suitable. People may change the contents and methods of the exercises at any time, according to the circumstances, to achieve the best effect. ``Falun Gong'' confines its practitioners to Li Hongzhi's arbitrary regimen. Once ensnared, they find themselves in spiritual shackles, and become more and more entrapped. Immoderate periods of ``meditation'' make the practitioners' autonomic nerves overexcited, and their bodies remain hypertense for a long time. Serious sufferers became mentally abnormal because of disorder caused to their neurotransmitters, i.e., they become mentally deranged, and even harm themselves or others.

Scientific body-building exercises are open, conscientious, voluntary and free. People may either take part in the exercises organized by collectives and communities, or do exercises by themselves, and are not restrained or controlled by any organization. People join morning exercise and street dancing teams and clubs voluntarily. But ``Falun Gong'' controls people's minds and behavior with its compact organization by enticing and threatening the practitioners, ``cleansing their minds,'' and arranging their activities, to the point of making the practitioners prostrate themselves in worship of Li Hongzhi, their master, and willingly obey his orders. It is difficult for them to withdraw from the organization once they have joined it, and they have to think and act in strict accordance with Li Hongzhi's teachings.

Judged by the standards of social psychology, scientific body-building exercises have the effect of trimming people's bodies and minds, so that their physical functions and psychological states are adjusted properly, and they can adapt harmoniously to modern society with active and healthy minds and attitudes. ``Falun Gong,'' on the other hand, makes its practitioners pessimistic and morbid, and they can not keep healthy at all. Because the practitioners' minds are controlled, and they have lost their personalities, they have to obey Li's teachings. Each member of the community is induced to act just like the other members; they have no choice, even when they feel that their reactions to the stimulations are incorrect. By making use of group psychology--the tendency to do what others in the group do--the ``Falun Gong'' organization stirs up its practitioners to disrupt public order and carry out other criminal activities.

Active health-enhancing exercises and medical science are in harmony. According to modern medical science, there are three states of people's health: healthy, sub-healthy and pathological. In the sub-healthy state, moderate exercises are good for improving one's health, for they excite one's autonomic nerves, stimulate the releasing of catecholamine, speed up the heart rate and promote the metabolism, so as to remove tiredness, get rid of diseases and strengthen one's physique. Li Hongzhi and his ``Falun Gong'' oppose medical science, medical treatment and the taking of medicine. As a result, many practitioners have died because they refused to seek medical treatment. The mechanical movements of ``Falun Gong'' exercises, following the same pattern, can not play any effective part in the fight against disease or the enhancement of health.

(From People's Daily, November 25, 1999)