From the San Francisco Experience Sharing Conference, October, 2000

I work at a silicon valley company as vice president of marketing and sales. I have been asked to share with you today about something truly wonderful that has impacted my life on so many positive and healthy levels. I must first say I am truly honored to have been asked to speak to you today and I come here today to share with you the enthusiasm and excitement that I have about the positive impact that Falun Gong has had in my life.

It had been a restless night. For quite sometime now I had battled insomnia, various bouts with depression, anxiety over many issues in my life, and a lot of the time I just felt exhausted and spent. I really longed for rest and some peace and serenity in my life. I had done alot of work on myself over the last few years, work that was about emotional healing and growth, spiritual reconnection, taking a real close look at patterns of thought, self image, behaviors, boundaries, and seeking well being on all levels in my life, Dealing with the breakup of a 20- year marriage, raising my daughters as we transitioned into a new way of being a family and such turmoil and chaos in my career and the company I worked at for 11 years. It had gone into bankruptcy soon after my wife had left me. My new relationship with a woman had been fraught with heartbreak and pain. I wasn't always a real happy man. I knew the answers lie inside myself and I continued to search.

I awoke that morning saying I had to exercise and move my body. I had to try to break this pattern of no energy and low spirits in the morning and throughout my day. I slowly awoke, got dressed and walked down to the park close to my house and began to walk briskly around the course. As I was walking, I glanced over to my left and saw some people doing what initially appeared to be a form of Tai Chi. As I drew closer, I saw a young Chinese woman holding her hands over head. She warmly smiled at me and said "Would you like to join us?" I immediately said yes. There was just a knowingness that this was right.

I did the exercises and she helped me do the first two sets that I had missed. I really liked it, and she invited me back the next day at 7 am. I said OK. That day I noticed I felt really clear in my thoughts, I felt relaxed and at peace with the world. That night I slept really well. Well all this sure got my attention, and I knew I would go back again the next morning.

Sure enough, the alarm went off at 6:15 am but I was already awake ... ready to embrace the day and surely the morning. I was truly excited about going again to the park to do these wonderful exercises. The volunteer assistant and the other practitioners began to lead us in the exercises. I should also say everybody was so warm and friendly, and very peaceful in their demeanor. We all did the five exercises, and I again felt wonderful during and after doing the exercises. I get up everyday to do the exercises. I was invited to the 9 day seminar and eagerly attended. I felt so relaxed listening to the teachers words. I really liked it and felt excited to learn more and do more of this practice called Falun Gong.

Last year my girlfriend had given me an article in Time about the persecution of people in Mainland China who were doing this. Both she and I got on the web site and downloaded material. I felt an attraction to this even then. I called one of the local numbers and the gentleman said please come at 5:30 am to a park that was far away and do this for two hours. I thought I didn't want to do that. I just wasn't ready at that time. Now I am ready and it is wonderful. I am so grateful that I made the decision to begin after the opportunity presented itself. But honestly it wasn't really hard to decide. I just knew it was right and I really wanted to do it.

I got both the books and started reading and I really liked what they had to say. The material was exciting to read and my mind felt so alive and stimulated. Doing Falun Gong and studying the DaFa has really had a very profound effect on my life in a very positive way. Five simple exercises and three very simple and basic principles guide my daily life. Truth, Benevolence, and Forbearance -- Very simple, but very profound.

I am now much more at ease with some of the challenges I face in my personal life. Both in my relationship and in my job. I notice I am much more relaxed, accepting and detached from some of life's daily struggles. Tribulations, as they are referred to in Falun Dafa. I feel like I am at home now and on the right path to truth. Truth, Benevolence and Forbearance. What great principles to live my life by. Compassion and developing xinxing is very attractive to me and enhances my life on a daily basis. I was always attracted to things that talked about coming from the heart and having compassion for all things.

While doing Falun Gong practice, I have experienced many different things. Sometimes they are very meaningful and different. At other times, I

just quietly and calmly go about my practice. I always feel better after I have done the exercises. When I do the exercises, I feel a glow in my heart area, my mind relaxes and I feel peaceful many of the times. When I do the first exercise my body begins to feel energized, when I do the third exercise, many times I get a really nice sensation in the front of my body, a warm glow of energy. I usually get a smile on my face. Sometimes when I do the second and fifth exercise my body will involuntarily pulse forward to a deep rhythm from within. One time when I was doing the fifth exercise I felt a warm glow in-between my eyebrows deep within. I saw an eye that was closed and then it opened and I saw things endlessly and beyond my understanding -- open and expansive. It was a feeling of infiniteness and my connection to it.

Sometimes I will experience emotional well being and at times I will release some tears of sadness. I experience it as a release and in the teachings of Falun Dafa know that I am releasing bad karma.

One day we were doing exercise two and my eyes were closed and my arms were above my head. I began to get very peaceful and I seemed to raise out of my body and be looking down at myself. I saw a transparent image of myself below me and actually within the physical body. I actually felt like I had three perspectives. Me looking down at my physical body and then seeing a transparent image of myself actually standing in front of my body. The transparent image of myself kind of crouched down with my hand on top of its head, and then I corkscrewed up out of the top of my head on up into the sky...floating upward and upward. What a free and exhilarating feeling.

I have been practicing for about 8 weeks now. Upon beginning the practice of the five exercise of Falun Gong, I immediately noticed that I was calmer and more relaxed. My overall mental outlook began to really change in a very positive way. I feel that I have more clarity and mental focus.

Because Falun Gong is a very holistic practice that improves and enhances ones mental, physical, and emotional well being, I can honestly report excellent changes on both a physical and emotional level too.

My emotional outlook is one of feeling much more relaxed and less stressful. I feel physically better. My energy level has increased, I feel excited about embracing the day upon awakening, and I sleep much better. I feel more rested and alert.

Physically, I feel a lot of stress that I normally carry in my body has been released. My neck and shoulders are less tense and I generally feel alot more flexible and loose. As I said before I have more energy and am much more relaxed.

In general I am alot more peaceful in my life and things that used to cause me anxiety and worry just don't seem to have such a strong affect on me now.

When doing the exercises, it feels good to relax and quiet my mind and thoughts.

I am very happy to be meeting new people and practitioners every week. Every person I have met is a person of strong moral character and is thoughtful and considerate of all people they come into contact with. I have felt very welcomed by all that I have met. I have always been greeted with a warm smile and encouragement to continue to practice Falun Gong.

Mr. Li Hongzhi, the founder and teacher of Falun Gong, has had a very significant impact on a worldwide level, including a growing number of practitioners here in the United States, in improving how people relate to each other and live amongst themselves. Wanting to improve peoples' moral character and their integrity, developing a compassion and consideration for others, and values of honesty and truthfulness are very sound principles for us all to incorporate into our personal and professional lives.

Here in the Bay Area more and more people are attracted to the simplest and most basic guidelines for doing the exercises and embracing the concepts put forward in Mr. Li's books and other materials. I recently attended Falun Dafa Day in Sunnyvale and gave a speech at the ceremony for San Jose Falun Dafa Week. The honor and commemoration is not only for the practitioners of San Jose and Sunnyvale, but also for the practitioners of Falun Dafa on a worldwide basis, including those practitioners in mainland China.

The question would then be why are more and more people attracted to the practice of Falun Gong? Why was I attracted to it? For all of the reasons that I have mentioned above. On a physical, emotional and intellectual level, I have directly and almost immediately experienced the very positive ways that Falun Gong has enhanced my daily life. I am most thankful that I have learned of Falun Gong, and I am most eager and excited to continue on a daily basis learning more and practicing more.

I really love Falun Gong: doing the exercises every day, going to the discussion group once a week to read and discuss the writings of Mr. Li Hongzhi, the wonderful people and practitioners I have met as a result of becoming involved in Falun Dafa. I feel much more mental clarity, focus, emotional well being, spiritual connectedness, a sense of acceptance, and detachment and forbearance to deal with life's challenges. I know I am on the right path of spiritual enlightenment and that in itself brings me peace and serenity. I am very grateful to have had Falun Dafa come into my life. My life is truly enhanced by my practice of it and the truly wonderful people I have met who practice Falun Gong. My gong increases each day and my xinxing continues to develop and grow. I am a better man and person as a result of this cultivation practice.

I thank you for this opportunity to tell you of the great impact that Falun Gong has had on my life.

Thank You.