From Falun Gong to Health Care
by Ching-Chee Chan, Ph.D.
Egret Publishing
All Rights Reserved
August 1999.
Falun Gong or Falun Dafa seems to be a mixture of martial art
(qigong), Buddhism, Daoism, and Shamanism. Its mantra is
truthfulness, kindness and perseverance. It also encourages its
followers to trust faith healing or meditation to cure their illnesses.
This is consistent with the general trend all over the world. People
are opting in droves for alternative medicine or alternative
religions. There is a good reason for this. The problems of allergies
and immune disorders are real and wide spread. These problems
can be activated by stress (mental or physical), intercurrent
infection, or chemotherapy. Normally the doctors will prescribe
steroids or even cyclosporine or nsaid. These are
immunosuppressant or cytotoxic. In an emergency, one would have
to accept that but for chronic problems it is very dangerous and
very damaging. For mild and chronic cases, meditation or faith
healing may actually work or at least it does not do any harm,
because the problems may be due to mental stress. Religious belief
will help it work better in the case of mental stress.
Alternative medicine and alternative religions have a place in the
society. Suppressing these occults will not solve any problem
because the pains are real. A defective immune system overreacting
can kill people. Learn how to live with these alternative religions
and medicine in the case of chronic problems and make sure people
go to a hospital in the case of an emergency. Ultimately better
research and education programmes will solve the problems of
immune disorders and allergies.
There are many different views about healthcare. Nobody is sure
which view is absolutely correct. There is a basic point which is the
right to free speech. The establishment will attempt to block view
and information not favorable to its position. The right to
demonstrate is a right to free speech. But the right does not include
intimidation. Demonstration should end within reasonable time say
in twenty minutes which is more than enough time to make a point.
When demonstration turns into besieging the workplace, it ceases to
be a right and it becomes an attempt of intimidation to deny the
right to free speech for the other side holding different opinions.
Especially for an organization which has the means to publish
books, audio and video CD, it certainly has no difficulty in telling its
side of the story. Intimidation is unacceptable no matter how it is
disguised.