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answered, and the vicious fabrication and slander would continue contaminating people‘s
minds. Then they would not only agree, but they would be thankful. When we can answer
their questions we are also saving them and all those who read their articles‘.49
In a FLG press release titled: ‗‗Show Tours‘ Planned to use Media for Spreading Beijing
Propaganda‘ FLG management asks the Western press not to participate in upcoming tours
of detention centers or interviews with reformed FLG practitioners that the government
plans to offer. From the FLG perspective, the FLG must protect the media from reporting the
words of the evil opponent so that people may ‗regard the Fa correctly‘ and it may be truly
known and accepted by all, thereby saving their souls.50
The Message. Using the Minghui website as means of communication, Li began to regularly
post messages to the site starting from May 2000. While representatives from the FLG office
in New York spoke to the press and public in terms of human rights, Li spoke to his
practitioners, not in terms of human rights, but in terms of eliminating all evil from the
universe and reaching Consummation. Li‘s teachings prior to the ban focused on how an
individual practitioner could ‗study and obtain the Fa‘ (called ‗cultivation‘) and ultimately
reach Consummation, but his teachings after May 2000 focused on taking an activist stance
towards events in China. The task of practitioners became to ‗clarify the truth‘ and ‗spread
the truth‘ about FLG to counteract the government‘s claims.
Then, in September 2000, messages began appearing on the FLG website specifically
criticizing the president of China, Jiang Zemin, and spoke of the necessity for FLG
practitioners to ‗step forward‘ to ‗validate the Fa‘. This activist ‗stepping forward‘ for
practitioners in China can include: going to Tiananmen Square to protest and being
detained, going on a hunger-strike once in detention, passing out flyers to the public
(usually into mailboxes since this is done surreptitiously at night), and printing and
distributing FLG website articles and Li‘s teachings (obtained either by skirting the internet
restrictions in China or via email from practitioners outside China),51 contacting Western
reporters, reporting information on abuses, detentions, etc., as well as sending testimonials
to the New York FLG office.
In ‗Serious Teachings‘, posted 26 September 2000, Li tells those who have not ‗stepped
forward‘ that they ‗must break-away from humanness‘ and join those ‗who have been
persecuted in the tribulations‘.52 Those ‗afraid to step forward to validate the Fa‘ are being
controlled by demons and have ‗forever lost their chance‘ to reach Consummation. Li makes
it clear that the persecution continues and intensifies only because FLG practitioners have
not let go of all their attachments and been able to step forward. Those followers who step
forward and are beaten or die, those who sacrifice everything, are gods. Those who
renounce FLG while in reeducation camps and become ‗reformed‘ are said by Li to be
‗fiends‘ and ‗malignant tumors‘.53 This contrasting of those willing to ‗step forward‘ and
sacrifice everything to those who do not, is a continuing theme after September 2000.
‗Stepping forward‘ becomes a proof of faith, a test to prove your moral worthiness,54 it is
the only way they can save themselves and help the Teacher in this cosmic undertaking.
The possible effects of this was reported on by Ian Johnson: ‗But dozens of interviews with
Falungong members in recent months reveal another, more subtle source of pressure: the
demands of their beloved founder, Mr. Li[‗s]... [r]ecent writings, ...have also stressed
unwavering activism and opposition to the state. While few complain, they say they can
meet Mr. Li‘s requirements only by sacrificing everything, in a desperate – and probably
hopeless – bid to force the government to lift its ban. In a series of essays over the past few
months, Mr. Li has asked of his disciples almost impossible feats of loyalty and shown little
sympathy for those who buckle, in one case denouncing them as ―depraved‖‘.55
Practitioners cannot reach Consummation (and hence ascend to their own Falun paradise)
until what Li calls the ‗Fa-rectification‘ ends. In August 2001 Li states that ‗disciples must

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not depart until the Fa-rectification is over‘. He also states that ‗[t]he very final stage of Fa-
rectification is taking place‘.56 The Fa-rectification is the process they are all currently
involved in (also referred to as a time of ‗tests‘ and tribulations‘), during which all evil will
be eliminated from the universe and the Fa will receive its rightful place as the universal
truth.
During the Fa-rectification the tasks of practitioners have again increased. They must ‗clarify
the truth‘ (about Falun Gong), validate the Fa (let people know it is good), save sentient
beings (convert others), eliminate evil (elaboration on this follows), and increase their
personal cultivation level which is based on the level of suffering they endure and the
amount of ‗stepping forward‘ to defend the Fa they are able to do. This not only encourages
practitioners to maintain a pro-active stance to hasten the moment, but may also create a
frustrating situation for them, since it is implied that as long as the persecution continues,
they will not be able to reach their final goal.57
Possibly in order to respond to this sense of frustration and failure, a number of new
elements have developed in the FLG belief system. In mid-April 2001, after the United
Nations Committee on Human Rights declined to accept the US proposal to inquire into
China‘s human rights record, there appeared a series of testimonials on the FLG website
where practitioners talked about taking the fight into ‗other dimensions‘. Shifting the battle
to other dimensions may be one way for Li and practitioners to claim victories through
supernormal powers in other dimensions when things do not go well on the worldly plane.58
This may also help solve the problem for Li of his claimed powers being perceived as failing,
or of his control over events and his ‗pre-arrangements‘ being called into question. Another
recent development is the addition of ‗Retribution of Evil‘ stories where ‗evil is met with
evil‘. The FLG website has a ‗Retribution‘ section with up-to-date examples describing how
those hostile to the Falun Gong (or their family members) have suffered or died from
disease, accidents, poisonings, explosions, etc., thereby illustrating the efficacy of the Fa in
distributing retribution.59
Potential Justification for Violence
At the end of the Fa-rectification is the apocalyptic moment when practitioners will reach
Consummation and depart to their Dafa paradise and others will receive punishment and
death.61 In early December 2000, Li posted a message to the FLG website: ‗When this test
concludes, all bad people will be destroyed by gods. Those Dafa disciples who are able to
come through the test will leave through Consummation. Those people who‘ll be left behind
will have to eradicate sins by paying, with horrible suffering‘. Several weeks later, Li posted
another message: ‗Let me tell you, when this Fa-rectification matter is over, human kind
will enter the next stage, and those people and beings who have in their minds ―the Dafa of
the cosmos isn‘t good‖ will be the first eliminated‘. And in March 2001 he stated that: ‗if
people‘s minds contain thoughts that resist Dafa, once this evil drama is over a large-scale
elimination of human kind will commence‘.62
As groups feel an increased frustration of their ultimate goal and an increased persecution,
their apocalyptic ideas may increase and the battle between good and evil intensify. This
appears to have happened for the FLG. Whether or not this leads a group to violent
behavior is a major question whose answer is impossible to predict. It should be noted that
most millennial groups never instigate violence. However, some groups who believed in
other dimensions, supernatural powers and great cosmic battles did resort to violence, such
as the Aum Shinrikyo.63 This does not, however, mean that the FLG will leave or alter their
message of non-violence in order to fight their battle.
There is however, a trend in Li‘s recent teachings that could become a justification for the
use of violence. Li‘s message has increasingly intensified the need to ‗eliminate the evil‘ and
recent postings have stated that it is now possible for practitioners to ‗use different abilities