(Clearwisdom.net) A Falun Gong friend told me how she was mistreated in a detention center. The method used was a nameless torture that didn't allow her to interact with other people and forbade her to talk to anyone. When other people were sent to work each day, she was kept in an empty room with another prisoner who was there to watch her. The police ordered this prisoner to sit with her, but not talk to her.

At first this prisoner thought the police officers were giving her special treatment because they arranged an easier job for her than going to work in the factory. But as time went by, she couldn't stand it. My friend the practitioner just sat there and was very quiet. Although she didn't say anything, the quiet and peaceful state of her mind affected the prisoner. She sat there every day, as if nothing around her existed anymore and she didn't feel how slowly time was passing by. Then one day, the prisoner who was watching her suddenly cried out: "I can't take it anymore. Just sitting here like this and I'm not allowed to talk, it's even worse than killing me!"

When my friend told me about this, she was calm, showing no animosity. I myself didn't realize at the time what cruel torture this kind of tight confinement is. Later, I read that Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Liu Zhimei, a student at China's renowned Qinghua University, was blindfolded and sent to a secret place to be detained in a 2 meter by one meter (about 6.5 ft. by 3 ft.) cell for two months. Not until then did I realize how cruel this kind of torture is. Ms. Liu Zhimei was kept in such a small cell and she didn't dare take off her clothes during the two months because there was a big monitor on the ceiling and she didn't know if there was a man or a woman behind the screen. This 21-year-old girl was isolated from the outside world in such a closed environment. If she hadn't been a Falun Gong practitioner, she may have suffered a mental collapse.

We live in a society filled with people and it is only normal for us to have interaction with others on a daily basis. This is the natural way of life for us. However, if a person is isolated from society and unable to interact with others, feelings of solitude and loneliness, as time goes by, will begin to torture the person's mind. If the door is closed locking the world out behind it, the walls very soon seem to close in even more tightly. Authorities in China widely use cruel means, a kind of torture that leaves no trace on the physical body, in attempts to destroy the wills of Falun Gong practitioners; to make them renounce their beliefs.

Such torture can take many forms. Sometimes they combine confinement and isolation with physical punishment. For example, with the so-called "military training," practitioners are forced to squat or to stand still for hours and hours on end. If they move or speak, they may be beaten or shocked with electric batons. Sleep deprivation is also widely employed.

Yet many practitioners remain steadfast despite all these torture methods and refuse to give up their faith. The isolation and loneliness forced upon them does not overcome the peace in their hearts. This peacefulness is the result of assimilation to Falun Gong's principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance; the cultivation of one's mind. Even under tight confinement, the dark nights and isolation doesn't destroy their faith. Their firm beliefs have been integrated into every facet of their lives. The extraordinary calm and peacefulness they possess reflects exactly the spirit of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

Such pure hearts also tend to purify the environment around them. Even in prison, such transcendent purity and peace of heart can change the surrounding environment. Here is an example.

Ms. Chen Hongping and her brother Mr. Chen Aili are both Falun Gong practitioners in Beixinbao Village, Huailai County, Beijing. The sister went to Yidong Prison to visit her brother, and he was brought out by several police officers. He nodded to her, and for ten minutes, they didn't speak, they just sat there very quietly. Practitioners understand each other. The guard who was watching them became worried, and the supervisor, named Wang, demanded that the brother speak. The first thing Mr. Chen said was, "I will continue to practice until the end." To his sister, he said, "Let things be. No matter what happens, you should continue steadfastly practicing Falun Gong. I am not sick, but they force me to take drugs. I refuse to do so, but they force me to take them. They arrange six or seven people to watch me every day."

Mr. Chen refused to wear a badge indicating that he was a criminal, so the guards arranged for several other inmates to torture him. He was to be isolated. If anyone said anything showing sympathy for him or even looked at him in a sympathetic way, they were punished. The guards subjected Mr. Chen to "Stewing the Hawk" (a kind of sleep deprivation) torture. In order to make him yield, they didn't allow him to sleep. When they asked Mr. Chen if he would continue to practice Falun Gong, he always answered "Yes!" One of them threatened, "Even if you try to practice, we won't let you do it." Mr. Chen said: "I will still continue to practice." This was what Mr. Chen said when he was tortured with "Stewing the Hawk" for a long time. Sometimes, he only said one word, "practice."

Mr. Chen was tortured so severely that he lost consciousness. That night, the guards ordered other prisoners to pour a big pot of hot water over his head. As the intense pain brought him around, the guards asked, "Will you still practice Falun Gong?" "Yes!" Then Mr. Chen would lose consciousness again. The evildoers poured another pot of hot water over him. After painful screams, Mr. Chen still said: "Practice!"

Those police officers can't understand Mr. Chen. Falun Gong practitioners cultivate themselves according to Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Holding onto hatred would have no calm and peace to it, which does not meet the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.

Mr. Chen was assigned to specific prison guards who chose prisoners to watch him and record and report everything he did. No one was allowed to talk to him. However, word of the treatment he suffered spread throughout the prison. Over the Chinese New Year, a notorious gangster feared by everyone in the prison, who even the guards dared not offend, came specially to greet Mr. Chen and wish him a Happy New Year. He said, "I have been hearing about you for a long time. What you suffered here in one day is worse than anything I've ever suffered." He bowed deeply and respectfully, and said: "If you need any help, just let me know, I'm willing to do anything for you, even with my life." Mr. Chen said, "Just please remember that Falun Dafa is good!"

Falun Dafa provides the foundation for the peaceful demeanor that practitioners demonstrate. Isn't it remarkable?