Published , September 06, 2002

[Editor's note: The Red & Black is a student newspaper at the University of Georgia.]

Erping Zhang watches a film about the Falun Gong movement, a group highly persecuted in China. (Elissa Eubanks • The Red & Black)

Imagine being tortured to death by your government -- not for dissension or treason, but for seeking enlightenment.

This is the fear of about 100 million people in China who practice Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, said guest lecturer Erping Zhang, a volunteer international spokesman for the practice.

Zhang spoke at a seminar Thursday hosted by The Center for Humanities and Arts on the practice -- an accurate word for Falun Gong.

"There is a spiritual dimension [of] this [to] value, but it is not a religion," Zhang said. The goal of the practice is to achieve truth and compassion, rather than emphasize a church or god, said Seema Gahlaut, director for the South Asia program at the Center for International Trade and Security, which helped bring the seminar to campus.

Although the practice teaches spiritual peace, the Chinese communist government, whose party has half as many followers as Falun Gong, has condemned the practice, which, according to Zhang, only has the social agenda of reviving traditional values and has no political motivation.

Over 1,600 people have been tortured to death by Chinese police, according to the practice's Web site (www.faluninfo.net).

The victims are sought-out through "big brother" tactics, said Zhang, but "the practice was being promoted by the government for the health benefits" as recently as 1994. As for the benefits, Falun Gong relieves stress and increases energy, said Mitch Gerber, a senior from South Africa, who plans to start a Falun Gong club on campus, in the footsteps of such universities as Columbia University and MIT.

"I began practicing Falun Dafa three months ago," Gerber said. "It's changed my life."

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