04-30-2001

Host: ROBERT SIEGEL, NOAH ADAMS
Time: 9:00-10:00 PM

ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

NOAH ADAMS, host:

And I'm Noah Adams.

China is increasingly violating the religious freedoms of its people. That's according to a sharply worded report out today from the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. The report urges the US to prod Beijing toward easing restrictions on followers of spiritual practices such as Falun Gong. The movement's been outlawed in China since 1999, and in China Falun Gong members are subjected to mass arrests. But here in the US, the physical exercises advocated by Falun Gong are becoming a popular health fad. From member station KPLU in Seattle, Jason Derose reports.

JASON DEROSE reporting:

It's not exactly the Forbidden City.

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DEROSE: In the sixth-floor multipurpose room of Seattle's downtown YMCA, seven people stand barefoot on carpet squares arranged in a circle. They perform deliberate stretching movements, reaching towards the ceiling and out to the sides. If the activities schedule didn' t tell you this was a Falun Gong class, you might think it's Tai Chi or even modern dance. The participants work their way through the five sets of Falun Gong exercises, among them, Buddha showing a thousand hands, penetrating the two cosmic extremes and heavenly circulation. While the exercises have decidedly philosophical-sounding names, this class isn't marketed as a belief system.

Ms. BRENDA HAFNER: I've had a couple people express concerns about it being like a religious class.

DEROSE: Brenda Hafner is the health and fitness director at Seattle' s downtown YMCA. The original signs advertising the Falun Gong class said, 'an exercise program for all ages, but especially helpful to the elderly.'

Ms. HAFNER: And I had to just explain it and that it's an exercise involving spirituality, of course, but it is, you know, an exercise, so...

DEROSE: Hafner was approached by Matt Wang a few months ago, who asked if he could teach Falun Gong at the Y. He was already running several well-attended classes around town in community centers, retirement homes and in parks. Hafner allowed an introductory session, to which over a dozen people came. But Wang had to live with one restriction.

Mr. MATT WANG: We are not politics. We cannot do a religion. I said, 'I only do the exercise. You don't have to worry about any kind of things like this. We just want people become good, healthy, mentally, physically good health.' And then gradually you come to your spirit.

DEROSE: Falun Gong falls into a category of Asian practices called Chi Gong. Chi is the Chinese word for energy or life force, and these practices focus on the often ignored connections between the mind and the body. Four years ago, Wang began teaching a handful of people on weekends. Now he leads about 400 people in the practice, one of whom is 67-year-old Christina Rivlin(ph). Her doctor told her to look into Falun Gong for health reasons.

Ms. CHRISTINA RIVLIN: And I was very suspicious at first, thinking, well, you know, the Western sciences are so advanced, and if anybody can help me, it would be that.

DEROSE: Rivlin read the "Zhuan Falun," a book written by the movement' s founder, Li Hongzhi. The book outlines the basic tenet of Falun Gong, that through exercises of the body, one makes room in the spirit for truth, compassion and tolerance. Rivlin says the book offered so many answers to spiritual questions she'd had all her life, she decided to try the physical exercises as well.

Ms. RIVLIN: I have done that for three years now, and after a year and a half, all my medical problems had disappeared completely.

DEROSE: It's stories of miraculous recovery like this that create skeptics and give Falun Gong its [slanderous term] reputation in China. Yet here, it's viewed as no more threatening than yoga. And like yoga, many are drawn to it as a physical exercise and eventually become interested in the spiritual exercise.

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DEROSE: Several dozen people attend early morning Falun Gong classes in a more traditional bucolic setting on the shore of Seattle's Green Lake. Tony Defenbach's(ph) been practicing Falun Gong for about a year now. Previously, he was involved in several New Age movements.

Mr. TONY DEFENBACH: I've been on a quest, we'll say, for spiritual enlightenment for over 30, maybe even 40 years. I've done a lot of reading, a lot of research, been involved with a lot of spiritual groups. And I've come to this group and feel that this is where I belong.

DEROSE: Also looking for a place to belong was Carol Bach, who began practicing Falun Gong at Green Lake last summer.

Ms. CAROL BACH: I've always wanted a group to meditate with early in the morning. And an added gift, I think, is being outside. I like the gentleness of it. I enjoy the music. And I like the energy of the group.

DEROSE: Those who follow American religious trends say Falun Gong' s growing popularity among Westerners may have to do with a longing for spiritual practices that give life meaning. Pacific Lutheran University religion Professor Paul Ingram says Falun Gong may be especially attractive to those longing to protest their current situation--medical, spiritual or political. [Editor's notes: The people who practice Falun Gong come from every walk of life. Falun Gong's effectiveness in improving health and its profound principles of Truthfulness, Benevolence, and Forbearance have made the practice immensely popular throughout the world.]

Professor PAUL INGRAM (Pacific Lutheran University Religion Professor): That seems to be a very attractive thing for people who are fed up with what they consider to be the sterile doctrines of, in China, I suppose Marxism or, here, I suppose mainline Christian and mainline Jewish traditions.

DEROSE: Ingram believes seeking difference need not only be political or spiritual. It can even be the difference between the frenzied actions of everyday life and the deliberate subtle movements of Falun Gong. For NPR News, I'm Jason Derose in Seattle.