(Minghui.org) Money is important in our society, but it has its limitations. For example, it cannot buy health or happiness. Falun Dafa (also known as Falun Gong), however, has brought health and happiness to its numerous practitioners at no cost. So, how does this work?

Mind and Health

Many of us know that our emotions and mental state may influence our physical health. The deep connection between mind and body can be traced back to Huangdi Neijing (Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor). This ancient classic text of Chinese medicine explained that one should remain upright while striving to balance yin and yang. More specifically, a modest life style with no ill thoughts would bring health and longevity.

This has also been confirmed by modern science. Konstantin Korotkov at the University of St. Petersburg in Russia wrote several books to understand the spiritual world from a scientific perspective. For example, he pioneered quantum medicine based on quantum physics (the study of matter and energy at the subatomic level). Quantum medicine aims to find the root cause of diseases by exploring imbalances in the body and mind to achieve health and wellbeing.

An article from Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) in December 2004 showed how stress resulted in the earlier onset of age-related diseases at the cellular level. To evaluate psychological stress (both perceived stress and chronicity of stress), the authors studied the telomere length, an indicator of cell senescence and longevity. “Women with the highest levels of perceived stress have telomeres shorter on average by the equivalent of at least one decade of additional aging compared to low stress women,” wrote the article titled “Accelerated telomere shortening in response to life stress.”

Cultivation and Energy

A large number of examples collected by Minghui have shown that many Falun Dafa practitioners have improved mind and body by following Falun Dafa’s principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and doing its five sets of exercises.

Liu Guohua, Ph.D. in Physiology and Biophysics, once conducted an experiment while working at the University of California at Davis. The experiment measured a rat’s heart muscle contraction force. When a Falun Dafa practitioner did the second set of Falun Dafa exercise 12 inches (30 cm) away, Liu and his research team found that the muscle cell contractions increased by 100%. Interestingly, after the practitioner left the room, the contraction force gradually returned to the baseline.

The effect of cardiac cell contractile force of a Falun Dafa practitioner’s exercises.

Repeat of the cardiac cell contractile force experiments in ten individual cells.

To confirm the result, the experiment was repeated ten times using different isolated cells (numbers from 1 to 10 labeled in the horizontal axis of above image). The Falun Dafa energy field increased the cell contraction force by an average of 75.4%, with a range of 35%-111%.

A non-Falun Dafa practitioner then imitated what the practitioner had done. The result was that the non-practitioner was not able to change the cell contractile activity, indicating that Falun Dafa energy from cultivation practice was essential for the significant increase in cell contraction force to occur.

Improving the Health of Cancer Patients

Dong Yuhong is a former senior medical scientific expert and pharmacovigilance leader at Novartis Headquarters in Switzerland. She is currently the chief scientific officer at SunRegen Healthcare AG in Switzerland. She once conducted a retrospective study to examine Falun Dafa’s effect on cancer patients.

She interviewed 152 terminal cancer patients, whose average expected survival was 5.1 months, and asked them about their health conditions before and after starting to practice Falun Dafa. She found that the patients’ survival time was extended to 56 months after they started to practice Falun Dafa. Additionally, 97 percent of the patients reported alleviated symptoms only an average of 1.3 months after practicing Falun Dafa.

According to the National Cancer Institute in the U.S., retrospective study is a common methodology that “compares two groups of people: those with the disease or condition under study (cases) and a very similar group of people who do not have the disease or condition (controls).” Dong also found that Falun Dafa practice not only improved the patients’ physical health, but also their character, temperament, and spirit. They showed an increased ability to solve problems and stay upbeat. She said her findings were consistent with various other findings on mind-body interventions in the field of psychoneuroimmunology.

Chinese National Sports Commission: Total Effective Rate of 97.9%

After qigong systems became popular in China in the 1980s and 1990s, the Chinese State Council decided to place qigong and human sciences study under the management of the National Sports Commission.

Because Falun Dafa was the most popular qigong practice at the time, the National Sports Commission formed a task force in September 1998 to evaluate the practice’s effect. Over 12,500 Falun Dafa practitioners (27.9% male) participated in the study. They were from various cities in Guangdong Province including Guangzhou, Foshan, Zhongshan, Zhaoqing, Shantou, Meizhou, Chaozhou, Jieyang, Qingyuan, and Shaoguan.

Among the participants, 48.4% were under 50 years old, and 10,475 of them (or 83.4%) had at least one illness before practicing Falun Dafa. After beginning to practice Dafa, their health improved dramatically. A total of 77.5% of the participants fully recovered from their illnesses, and 20.4% reported health improvement, making the total effectiveness rate 97.9%.

During the survey, 7,170 practitioners also reported the medical expenses they saved through practicing Falun Dafa. The total amount was 12.65 million yuan, or over 1,700 yuan per person. This was a significant amount given the living standard at the time.

24-Year-Long Persecution

Although Falun Dafa is now practiced in over 100 countries, it has been suppressed by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) since July 1999.

One leaked document from 2000 showed how the then CCP top leader Jiang Zemin implemented the systematic persecution policy nationwide. With the title “Opinions on Severely Cracking Down on the Illegal and Criminal Activities of the Falun Gong Heretical Organization by Law,” this document was a judicial opinion issued on November 30, 2000 by five agencies, including the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of State Security, and the Ministry of Justice.

In particular, the document stressed that “political and legal departments at all levels must resolutely implement” Jiang’s “important instructions to eradicate Falun Gong.” It was “political, legal, and policy-oriented” and “political and legal departments at all levels cooperate closely under the unified leadership of the Party Central Committee.”

The document also ordered the judicial system to indict Falun Gong practitioners and sentence them to prison based on the Criminal Law, such as “inciting subversion of state power” or “defaming Party and state leaders.”

Together with the extrajudicial agency known as the 610 Office, policies like this mobilized the entire state apparatus to target innocent Falun Dafa practitioners for their belief in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Many of them were arrested, detained, imprisoned, and tortured. A large number of practitioners also became the victims of forced labor, psychiatric abuse, and even organ harvesting.