As the world enters the 21^st century, the perennial question of our ancestors continues to perplex us today: How can people live free from disease and illness, and how can the suffering and the associated fear be eliminated?

Although biomedical research advances down the molecular and genetic paths, an increasing number of people are searching for alternative approaches, which may have preserved ancient human wisdom and knowledge. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM) reported on its web site that Americans using an alternative therapy increased from approximately 33% in 1990 to more than 42% in 1997. The total spending by Americans on alternative and complementary treatments exceeded $27 billion in 1997. During approximately the same period, the United States government increased NCCAM's budget from $2 million in fiscal year 1993 to $68.7 million in 2000, reflecting the government's increasing interest in and support of research in alternative methods.

This book discusses a method that promotes health and stress relief, called Falun Dafa. Falun Dafa (also Falun Gong) is a practice based on ancient wisdom, in which practitioners improve mind, body, and spirit. Since its introduction to the public by Master Li Hongzhi in 1992, it has brought dramatic health improvement and spiritual growth to more than 100 million people around the world. Those who were plagued by various diseases that modern medicine believed to be incurable regained their health and reached a disease-free state. Many who were dying from life-threatening diseases were saved. Even patients once paralyzed could walk again. The young became more energetic. The retired became vigorous and healthy. They could begin to truly enjoy their lives after long years of struggle. People practicing Falun Dafa have gained a peaceful and tranquil mind. They are no longer afraid of encountering tribulations at work, in the family, or during other activities. Therefore, you will hear them claiming that they have no stress or depression.

Witnessing the dramatic health improvement and numerous miraculous examples of healing among Falun Dafa practitioners of all ages and ethnic backgrounds, the editors are encouraged to compile a collection of typical cases of recovery from various diseases, most of them being chronic and incurable, some even life-threatening. Our main purpose is to help the public to recognize Falun Dafa and therefore enable more people to benefit from this powerful cultivation system. We wish to emphasize that we are by no means attempting to promote a disease-healing system, nor are we trying to make a scientific report. Rather, we are presenting some factual phenomena for those who are interested to further explore, judge, or even experience themselves.

The main body of the book is composed of 40 vivid cultivation stories presented at various Falun Dafa Experience Sharing Conferences and on other occasions. The editors revised the stories in order to include only the parts relevant to health improvement, in accordance with the topic and the title of this book. However, since health improvement can not be separated from changes of mind nature during cultivation, we purposely kept content in some stories that described improvement in moral character. All the stories represent the situation at the time they were written, which is provided after each story. Of the 40 individuals, 28 of them are currently residing in North America, 5 in Taiwan, 3 in Mainland China, 2 in Australia, and 2 in Europe. The individuals come from a wide range of backgrounds--from a 10-year-old school child to an elderly person over 70, from housewives to highly educated professionals, including engineers and medical doctors. Due to the severe persecution of Falun Gong practitioners by the Chinese government, we did not select many touching stories from China to avoid endangering any practitioners by publicizing their names. The three stories from China included here are already well publicized and are exceptions. The cases are categorized into 11 subgroups according to the characteristics of their illnesses so that the readers can easily locate cases of interest. To facilitate the reader's understanding, a connection between modern medicine and the disease-healing effects obtained from practicing Falun Dafa is discussed in the introduction. A summary of a health survey conducted among more than 10,000 practitioners in Beijing by medical professionals and experts is included to further validate the effect of Falun Dafa cultivation observed by individuals.

Our special thanks should go to those who provided their vivid cultivation stories. Without them this book could not have been produced.

We are grateful to the contributing editors who have helped to review, edit, and proofread our manuscripts. They include:

Zongyi Hu, M.D.

Joshua Li, M.D., Ph.D.

Frank Ye, Ph.D.

Eric Allen.

We also wish to express our appreciation to Amy Xia, who designed the cover for the book.