(Clearwisdom.net) Ms. Zheng Xiuzhi's work-related injury qualified her as being level-eight disabled, but she recovered soon after beginning Falun Gong practice and had a brand new life. With the onset of the Communist Party's persecution of Falun Gong, Ms. Zheng suffered from the regime's cruelties, such as forcible brainwashing at the Kaiping Detention Center in Tangshan City. She had a mental breakdown and almost died. The evildoers who mentally tormented and physically tortured her manipulated her into slandering Falun Gong when her mind was impaired.
After she regained her senses, Ms. Zheng Xiuzhi related incidents of abuse and mistreatment that she had encountered in the brainwashing center:
After Practicing Falun Gong, I Had A Brand New Life
My name is Zheng Xiuzhi. I am a forty-nine-year old woman and was employed at the Tangshan Iron and Steel Company, Hebei Province. One day in 1994 at work I inhaled carbon monoxide, which left me with all kinds of health problems. I suffered from muscular atrophy, rheumatic heart disease, deformed thoracic vertebra, cervical vertebrae proliferation and severely impaired vision.
By 1996 I couldn't eat or drink anything. Merely drinking a little water would make me vomit and have diarrhea, experience dizziness and suffer headaches. I wore sweaters in the summer and couldn't take care of myself; my parents and my sister-in-law took care of me and my child.
At the end of August 1996, someone introduced me to Falun Gong. Several days later, I went to a practice site at night. This wonderful practice let me know what the feeling of being illness-free is like. The next day when I went to work, my body felt very light. My supervisor and other coworkers asked me why I looked so much better. I told them of the greatness of Falun Dafa and my amazing recovery. They were happy for me.
Practicing Falun Dafa helped me become sincere, kind, tolerant and compassionate. Some coworkers treated me very badly, but others wanted to stand up and defend me. Then I explained things from the perspective of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance and smoothed this one person's feeling of injustice, thus resolving the conflict. I prevented people from fighting at work, so that other people could work in a quiet and peaceful environment.
Almost Dying as a Result of Persecution
In January 2001, I was arrested and taken to the Kaiping Detention Center in Tangshan City (No. 1 Detention Center in Hebei Province). I had to immediately submit to a body search, even in my underwear. They washed my other clothes in the washing machine and examined everything. The captors examined other practitioners' quilts and bedding, and even the cotton inside the quilts; some practitioners' shoes were also examined. Six, seven or a even a dozen Falun Gong practitioners were held in a cell. People took turns monitoring each cell day and night. They forbade practitioners to drink water and prevented them from going to the restrooms. Practitioners who wanted to go to restrooms had to take turns. If two practitioners met each other by chance, guards and inmates would physically abuse them. Every cell was closed; the practitioners in the same cell couldn't talk to each other and were forced to watch Dafa-slandering videos.
Guards frequently beat me between June and July 2001. Following the beatings, I was forced to watch videos defaming Dafa. Guards and inmates watched me, forbidding me to turn away. Even when I blinked, the inmates would stab me with their fingers or fists. I wasn't allowed to go to the restroom. They also forced me to sit upright, put my hands on my legs and would not let me move, making me tired and sleepy. As soon as I relaxed, they would beat me ruthlessly. Later on they found people to surround Falun Gong practitioners and deceive and threaten us. We held a hunger strike, but official Wei Tao and two dozen {{collaborators} individually spoke with every Dafa disciple. When I wanted to speak, they spouted their evil reasoning and didn't let me say a word. I wanted to close my eyes and recite Master's lectures, but they screamed at me and used other methods to interfere with me.
The first two days, the guards told me that more than 100 people had talked with me, and there would be another 400 or 500 people to come speak with me. By that time I had stopped eating and drinking for several days and was suffering from the effects of force-feeding and sleep deprivation.
Faced with such a chaotic, noisy and extremely evil environment, I became dazed, exceedingly irritable, and my vision became blurry. My heart-beat sped up and became irregular. I had a mental breakdown, and all my thoughts seemed to stop.
I lost my ability to think clearly. In a daze, I remember official Wei Tao holding something in his hands and demonstrating on his neck, saying something like that if she was not allowed to practice, she should commit suicide. Since then, whenever I was subjected to other mistreatment I always remembered Wei Tao's words and his motions. The more this image appeared in my head, the deeper an impact it had on me. I reacted strongly to this image and once subconsciously grabbed a glass of water and squatted down. Before I knew it, I was lying on the ground and my right hand held the broken bottle. I was scratching back and forth on the right side of my neck, and somehow, I switched to my left hand, and repeated the same motions. I didn't know how many times I did this. Then I felt as if everything had stopped, with nothing left; I felt nothing, nor did I know anything.
After a while I sensed disorder accompanied by fear and noise - people were doing things for me. Perhaps someone suggested to take me to a small room because I bled too much and needed to go to a hospital as soon as possible. But my mind was empty of any thoughts. I couldn't feel where I was, but noticed my body gradually becoming very soft, as if it wasn't my body. I felt no pain or discomfort and did not know what I said. Once I knew I was in the small room, I discovered other people holding me.
After I was stitched up, I kept on the hunger strike for another two days. Guard Wei Tao lied to me, saying that if I cooperated with them they would release me. They lied and forcibly confined me in a solitary confinement cell.
Losing My Mind Again
Being in the solitary confinement cell meant I was forbidden to drink water and take a shower. I went on another hunger strike.
This time they again brought in collaborators to barrage me again. I lost my mind again and my mind was eroded by and filled with their evil elements, I again gave up my belief. At the time, I could not distinguish between good and bad. I felt grateful to them for saving me. Officials told me to join the communist party, and I did so. They said I attempted to commit the suicide because I practiced Falun Gong. I believed what they said. They even had reporters from a TV station interview and videotape me. They asked specifically for me to show them the wounds on my neck. They asked me to admit that the reason I tried to kill myself was because I practiced Falun Gong. I did so. I was in complete support of the evildoers and became their tool to deceive innocent people.
After I gave up my belief, my health got worse and worse, and the carbon monoxide poisoning symptoms recurred. My husband took me home at the end of 2001.
Awakening
Once home, and away from that evil environment, my mind began to wake up. Rational thinking let me understand the reasons why I was persecuted. I realized fully that there is nothing wrong with believing in Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance. Understanding everything, I was filled with grief.
How sad it is if a person can't control oneself with her own true nature! I felt very sorry for what I had done. My true self that is once again composed of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance wants to say, "Master, I am really sorry!"
I returned to the cultivation path and gradually recovered.