The Commercial Dispatch, Mississippi: Area residents introduce Falun Dafa

January 8, 2006

Jason Wang, a native of China now living in Tuscaloosa, Ala., has something he wants to share with the world -- Falun Dafa.

Wang arrived in the United States, at Houston University, in 1996, to pursue a doctorate degree in physics. That longtime dream dimmed, however, when Wang began experiencing problems with his eyesight.

Studying to prepare for his qualifying exam, Wang found he could focus to read only a few minutes.

"My eyes would hurt after 10 to 15 minutes looking at a computer screen," Wang says. "They would be very tired. I would have to stop and rest my eyes every 10 minutes. I went to see doctors at the Eye Institute at Texas Medical Center. They found I had some possible problem at the bottom of my eye."

Repeated tests, by different doctors, confirmed the diagnosis, but doctors offered no solution.

"The doctors said they couldn't do anything," Wang says. "They asked me to go home until it becomes worse. The doctors couldn't help me, so I started looking for something else in Chinese traditional medicine."

In China, at the end of 1999, Wang's mother had been involuntarily committed to a mental institution by the Chinese government. Her offense was practicing Falun Dafa, a series of meditation and exercises [to improve mind and body].

In Houston, Wang saw a flier at the university advertising a free Falun Dafa workshop, and decided to attend. He began completing the set of exercises and meditation whenever he had a few minutes to spare each day. Within weeks, his eyesight began to improve, and the pain gradually disappeared. His eyesight sharpened noticeably.

"I finished my Ph.D." says Wang, who now is conducting postdoctoral research at University of Alabama. "At the time I am having eye problems, I cried to my wife, 'How can I continue to study and get a degree, if I become blind?' This is how Falun Dafa helps you. This is why I want to help others ..."

Another story

"Starkville resident Chyi-Hong Lin has practiced Falun Dafa for four years. In 2000, his wife suffered severe back problems as a result of a car accident. Struck from behind by a vehicle, she survived with a compressed disc, a problem that that was being treated unsuccessfully at a pain clinic in Tupelo.

"She couldn't even empty a laundry basket," Lin says. "She was injected with steroids and it was painful; still she couldn't do anything. Without pain killers she couldn't even get up. We didn't know what to do."

In September 2001, Lin's father-in-law died, and his wife, despite her incessant pain, decided to visit her home in Taiwan. When she returned to Starkville three months later, Lin was amazed to find her health much improved. She had discovered Falun Dafa.

"In Taiwan, she would walk around in the morning and she saw people exercising, doing Falun Dafa, in the park," Lin says. "She joined them. Five months later, she was fully recovered, with no pills. She started Falun Dafa in November, and the next spring, in 2002, she went to work in our garden."

Lin's experience with Falun Dafa is personal as well. Having heard his wife's testimony about Falun Dafa over the telephone before she returned, he learned more about the practice from the Web site...and joined her in the exercises. He says he soon was cured from problems with allergies.

What is it?

Stories such as Wang's and Lin's abound. Some claim to have overcome cancer tumors or incurable diseases. Those who have not heard of Falun Dafa or Falun Gong already probably will be hearing more soon. This ancient Asian practice, based on Buddhist philosophies, is the latest "new thing" to reach the Western world, and proponents say it is becoming quite popular in cities across the United States.

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