(Minghui.org) Falun Gong practitioners gathered in Asbury Park, a famous tourist city on New Jersey's coast, for the first time this year on Saturday, June 15, 2024, to introduce the practice to local residents and tourists.

Practitioners demonstrate the exercises at Asbury Park in New Jersey on Saturday, June 15, 2024. Several people learned the exercises on the spot.

Asbury Park Beach was recognized as one of the world’s best beaches by Money magazine and one of the best beaches in the United States by Travel and Leisure magazine. Every year in late spring and summer, many tourists come to the beach.

Practitioners demonstrated the five sets of exercises in an empty area on the busiest part of the boardwalk at the beach. The peaceful exercises caught the attention of many tourists. People took photos of practitioners doing the exercises and stopped to learn more about Falun Gong. 

Tourists Learn the Exercises 

Islan Caserta has a telephone sales job and said he loves to meditate in his spare time. “Falun Gong is a mind and body practice, as long as it is good and makes me feel better, this is the kind of thing I am after,” he said.

Islan Caserta learned the Falun Gong exercises after seeing the exercise demonstration and said he felt a powerful energy field.

Islan said he was drawn by the energy field from practitioners doing the exercises and wanted to learn them on the spot. “The energy field is the strongest in the whole beach and boardwalk. It is extraordinary. I can tell these people have a belief and they are doing a sacred thing,” he said.

After he learned the movements for the five sets of exercises, Islan joined practitioners and did the exercises. He completed several sets of exercises. “I felt calm doing the sitting meditation with them. This is exactly the kind of inner peace I have been searching for,” he said.

Hayzee Belez, who is an auditor for a government agency in New York, had come to the beach for the weekend with her family. She was drawn to practitioners doing the exercises and also joined them after learning the movements.

Hayzee Belez (first left) joined practitioners after learning the exercises.

“This is easy to learn and makes one feel at peace,” she said, and that she would go online to find more information about Falun Gong when she returns home and will introduce the practice to other people.