What I noticed after 10 days of practicing the Falun Gong exercises

I am 60 years old, and I work as an engineer. I consider myself to be at an average level of being able to understand the phenomena that happens around me. For some phenomena I find logical explanations, in my mind I admit or reject them, but I don't argue or debate them extensively. Other phenomenon that I do not understand, I leave without an answer and not give it much attention, as I don't see it's value or meaning, or I simply call it something strange and pass by it without much care and ability to understand.

A few years ago, I started experiencing a sleep disorder. I have been feeling tired during the day because I was not able to sleep at night. The cells in the brain were asking for their right to rest and regenerate at night, but they were simply denied it. After consulting my physician, he recommended some sleeping pills and sprays in order to open up the breathing channels, as he thought this was the reason for my not being able to sleep.

After a treatment of over a year without any positive effect, I went through a sleep test, which consisted of a series of recordings of the body functions during sleep. A special electrode was connected to my left hand and to an electronic device, which was registering the state of sleep. After the test at night, the doctor told me that during 6 hours of sleep I had awakened 92 times due to lack of oxygen. This means, on the average once every 4 minutes. The diagnosis they gave me was apnea, an inability of the brain to control the vital functions of the body in a reflex way during sleep. Apparently, the cells whose role it is to control breathing during sleep lost their capacity to function. Surgery would not have done much either because the problem lay in the nervous system. I was told I was in danger of having a heart attack due to lack of oxygen. One solution that was presented to me was a so called "life support machine", an oxygen mask that covered my whole face at night during sleep. Basically, it made up for when the brain "forgot" to send the signals to the muscles that control breathing. In the beginning this was extremely uncomfortable to wear at night, but after a while I got used to it and was able to sleep at night. I realized, as the doctor told me, that I would have to use this machine for the rest of my life.

I heard from my son about Falun Dafa over one year ago. I did not pay much attention to it and to the literature and books he sent me. I briefly watched the videotape showing the exercises, and very superficially browsed through the book China Falun Gong. I have all my life been a strong atheist, and therefore it is very difficult for me to believe in some things.

Recently though, several dramatic changes occurred in my life in a relatively short period of time, which made me change my whole view in regards to events that happen around me. At this point I decided to watch again the videotape with the exercises and to try as well to perform them as well. Most likely, I did not do them correctly, but I tried my best.

An average person reading this would probably find it extremely hard to believe what happened next, and consider it unbelievable. The first night after I tried the Falun Gong exercises I was able to sleep without using the "life support machine". I felt inside that I can sleep without it, and I felt encouraged to give it up and sleep without it. It is hard to describe this feeling; I was living in a reality I could not explain. The next few nights were similar, very relaxing without the "life support machine".

A few days later, as I was busy, I skipped the little set of exercises I was doing (only 3 of the five, #1,3 and 4) in front of the TV watching the videotape. That night I could not sleep without the oxygen mask. After doing the exercises again, I returned to a good night sleep.

Furthermore, for many years I had some pain in my left shoulder due to arthritis. At times this pain was quite sharp and I had to use different painkillers to bear it. This pain disappeared completely as well after doing the exercises.

Another thing I experience as I am doing the exercises is that I sweat profusely and at the same time I feel something intangible that is going out of my body through the skin. After finishing the exercises I feel very relaxed and light.

There are miraculous things happening in my life: I am less impulsive or not at all, I treat with more care everything I come across in my every day life, I have more understanding and patience in situations that before were bothering me a lot. Colleagues at work tell me that all of the sudden, I am a more pleasant person to work with and more sociable.

I do not regret that I started to look into this practice that I started doing the exercises or looked at the book or participating in group activities. What I regret deeply is not doing it earlier.

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