Falun Gong, also called Falun Dafa, is a new religious movement founded by Li Hongzhi in China in the early 1990s. The movement was built on interest in qigong with additional religious and moralistic dimensions, and includes claims that its practices can cure illness, including serious or terminal illnesses, without modern medicine. It gained popularity in part through its health claims and practitioners' beliefs in their effectiveness. Falun Gong has its global headquarters in Dragon Springs, a compound in Deerpark, New York, United States, near the residence of Li.
Falun Gong emerged from the Qigong fever era in China in 1992, combining meditation, qigong exercises, and moral teachings rooted in Buddhist and Taoist traditions. Its central text Zhuan Falun also promises that practitioners can develop supernatural abilities such as clairvoyance, though such abilities can only be attained through moral practice and should not be pursued or abused. The movement is named after the "Falun" (Dharma Wheel), which according to Li's teachings, is a supernatural entity that he claims to install in practitioners' lower abdomen and is described as a spinning wheel. Adherents are taught that performing 5 exercises can keep the wheel rotating which the teaching says promotes health and eliminate disease. Li teaches that Falun Gong is the only means of truly curing diseases at their spiritual root, and characterizes that homosexuality, feminism, modern science, and conventional medicine as moral deviations incompatible with the Fa.
Although initially supported by some government agencies in China, Falun Gong developed during a period of growing official scepticism toward qigong movements. From the early 1990s, Chinese authorities, scientists, and journalists increasingly criticized some qigong organisations and practices as "unscientific", as qigong research failed to produce unequivocal proof that it constituted a scientific field. Falun Gong's rapid growth and independence from state control later led several top officials in China to perceive it as a threat, resulting in periodic acts of harassment in the late 1990s. On 25 April 1999, over 10,000 Falun Gong practitioners gathered peacefully outside the central government compound in Beijing, seeking official recognition of the right to practice their faith without interference.
In July 1999, the government of China implemented a ban on Falun Gong, categorizing it as an "illegal organization". Mass arrests, widespread torture and abuses followed. In 2008, U.S. government reports cited estimates that as much as half of China's labor camp population was made up of Falun Gong practitioners. In 2009, human rights groups estimated that at least 2,000 Falun Gong practitioners had died from persecution by that time. Falun Gong practitioners also face systematic societal discrimination in employment, education, housing, and business opportunities. Prior to its 1999 ban on Falun Gong, the Chinese government estimated there were 70 million adherents.United States Department of State. 2022. "China 2022 International Religious Freedom Report". Online . In 2009, Falun Gong sources estimated that tens of millions continue to practice privately. A 2017 Freedom House report estimated there were between 7 and 20 million practitioners in China at the time.
Led by Li Hongzhi, Falun Gong practitioners operate a variety of organizations in the United States and elsewhere, including the dance troupe Shen Yun. The Falun Gong also operates the Epoch Media Group, which is known for its subsidiaries, New Tang Dynasty Television and The Epoch Times newspaper. The latter has been broadly noted as a politically far-right media entity, and it has received significant attention in the United States for promoting conspiracy theories, such as QAnon and anti-vaccine misinformation, and producing advertisements for U.S. President Donald Trump. It has also drawn attention in Europe for promoting far-right politicians, primarily in France and Germany. Scholars and media outlets have discussed Falun Gong's opposition to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), as well as its controversial teachings, including its rejection of modern science and conventional medicine and the conservative social views espoused by its founder.*
Beliefs and practices
Falun Gong is based around the teachings of its founder and leader, Li Hongzhi. According to NBC News, "To his followers, Li is a God-like figure who can levitate, walk through walls and see into the future. His ultra-conservative and controversial teachings include a rejection of modern science, art and medicine, and a denunciation of homosexuality, feminism and general worldliness."
Scholar David Ownby writes of four elements that effectively encompass Falun Gong in "capsule form". 1. That Falun Gong claims to be "profoundly moral". In line with Buddhism, Li instructs followers to abandon “attachments” (or “desires”) and teaches the concepts of karma and reincarnation, where “one reaps what one sows.” Li further argues that Falun Gong's three cardinal principles, truth, benevolence, and forbearance, are the forces that constitute the physical universe. His teachings also include apocalyptic elements adopted from “traditional strains of Chinese apocalyptic thinking.” 2. Li presents Falun Gong not just as a return to traditional Chinese culture but also as a major scientific contribution. Li appreciates the achievements of modern science but argues that it is incapable of understanding higher spiritual realities, multiple dimensions, and the ultimate nature of the universe. Ownby however states that few Western non-practitioners will find Li's "scientific" contributions as "convincing" and that most non-believers will see such teachings as more religious rather than being scientific. 3. Falun Gong promises followers supernatural powers in which Li himself claims to have many. Notably among these powers include Li having Fashen (Dharma bodies) that will watch over his followers and ensure both their physical safety and that they cultivate effectively. Li also teaches that karma commonly manifest as illnesses in the human body and promises that he can install a Falun (Dharma Wheel) in his followers' lower abdomen, to help purify themselves. 4. Falun Gong is "unabashedly Chinese" and emphasizes to revive authentic traditional Chinese culture. Ownby also noted that many leadership positions among Falun Gong practitioners are occupied by women.
Scholar David A. Palmer identifies four principal themes in Li's sacred writings (jing): 1. "Apocalyptic" theme concerning the moral decline of humanity and claims that extraterrestrial beings are influencing humanity through modern science. 2. "Rigorous spiritual discipline", in which Li calls on his followers to eliminate worldly attachments and "purify" themselves. 3. "Messianic" theme in which Li is presented as an "omniscient and omnipotent saviour of the entire universe" who revealed the "fundamental law of the universe", understood as the only tool to protect against the apocalypse. 4. "Sectarian practise" in which Li warned against both "religions and traditions of the past" and modern science, and instead directing that adherents should devote themselves exclusively to Falun Gong teachings.
According to scholar Benjamin Penny, being a Falun Gong practitioner consists of four main aspects, with the last one added after the suppression: 1. Perform five exercises that are intended to purify the body and reach a state to begin “advanced cultivation.” 2. Follow a moral code of “truth,” “compassion,” and “forbearance,” to ensure that the cultivation work by performing the exercises will be effective. 3. Read and reread the Falun Gong scriptures, especially Zhuan Falun. 4. “Clarify the truth” by giving information to non-practitioners about the current state of the suppression and nature of communism. Penny also argues that Falun Gong teaches a general worldview of the cyclic destruction of human civilization in which Li claimed that we are currently living in the "last days of Last Havoc". Penny argues that Li's teachings are clearly intended to present itself as being a path to salvation where Li "diagnoses" the present condition of humanity and prescribing guidances to practitioners to help them "transcend" their "degraded, fallen state".
Scholar Helen Farley writes that Falun Gong "draws heavily" from traditional Chinese religions, where in line with Buddhism, it asks adherents to abandon their "attachments", including to meat, alcohol, medicines, material possessions, or other human beings. However, Farley notes it also infuses a "contemporary veneer" with references made to UFOs and modern science. She writes that Li teaches that societal morals is declining to the point that humans are no longer being "up to standard", making an apocalypse is imminent, but that Falun Gong can bring salvation. Farley describes many of Li's doctrines as being socially conservative where Li opposes homosexuality and feminism. She also states that Falun Gong emphasizes "god-like" powers in Li in which he promises to use to "guarantee the health and well-being of his followers".
Central teachings
Central to Falun Gong is the concept of the "Fa", which Li describes as being the ultimate truth of the universe, transcending modern science. French sociologist David Palmer writes that Li 's teachings present him as a messianic and uniquely enlightened spiritual figure who was the first to reveal the Fa to humanity. Li teaches that certain things deemed incompatible with the Fa, like homosexuality and drug use, causes people to deviate from the universal law, resulting in greater illnesses and damage to one's spiritual development.
Scholar Benjamin Penny notes that despite borrowing ideas from Buddhism, Li had explicitly asserted that Falun Gong isn't Buddhism. One of the terms that Li borrowed from Buddhism is a supernatural entity known as "Falun" (Dharma or Law Wheel). According to Penny, although the term falun has its origins in Buddhism, Falun Gong gives it a distinctively different meaning. Penny explains that Li teaches it as a real object that he inserts in practitioners' abdomens although its physical existence is not located in our dimension but in a "parallel body in another dimension". Li Hongzhi teaches that, as the Falun spins continuously, it absorbs energies from remote areas of parallel universes. Practitioners are taught 5 exercises to cultivate and keep the wheel turning, which the teaching says promotes health and eliminates the need for conventional medicine.
According to Palmer, Li's teachings are strictly sectarian where practitioners are taught to be exclusive to Falun Gong practice and are warned not to learn other qigong systems, including Tai Chi. According to Li, many qigong masters are "swindlers" and that even thinking about other qigong practices can deform the Falun that he installed in practitioners' bodies. Li had asserted that it is "absolutely forbidden" for practitioners to read religious and medical classics including Buddhist sutras, the Taoist Canon, the Book of Mountains and Seas or the Book of Changes. Palmer notes that participation in Falun Gong is voluntary, but writes that Li teaches that only he can guide practitioners to a "superior level" and that Li teaches that his supernatural "Dharma-bodies" (fashen) accompany disciples, and protect and heal them, and know everything that passes through their minds.