(Minghui.org) Looking back on my cultivation path, I can’t help but feel emotional. I went from being a police officer who persecuted Falun Dafa practitioners to becoming a practitioner. I’d like to tell you my story.

When the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) persecution of Falun Dafa was most severe I worked as a prison guard in a forced labor camp and I helped persecute practitioners. I gradually understood what Falun Dafa is. I read Zhuan Falun and was fortunate to begin practicing. My body and mind underwent tremendous changes, several diseases disappeared, my temper improved—I no loner hit or cursed people and I quit drinking and gambling.

The forced labor camps in China were carrying out the CCP’s orders and many practitioners were illegally incarcerated in forced labor camps. They came from all walks of life, from middle and high-level leaders and technicians, to policemen, soldiers, and teachers, to illiterate peasants and housewives. The older ones were in their sixties and seventies, and the younger ones were only fifteen or sixteen years old.

The director and captain of my labor camp required us to force practitioners to renounce Falun Dafa, and we had to force 90% of them to transform, which made the environment increasingly worse. When I first came into contact with these Falun Dafa practitioners, I was cruel because I listened to the CCP’s lies and thought: “I don’t believe that I can’t conquer you!”

During my shift, I beat the practitioners who did not obey the labor camp rules—instead they recited the Fa and practiced the exercises. Urged by the captain, I slapped the practitioners who refused to be transformed. However, I saw that they did not hold grudges, but kindly told the guards that doing evil would incur karmic retribution. I often wondered: what is it that makes them so determined?

I slowly understood the changes they experienced after learning the Fa and practicing the exercises, and Dafa’s miraculous effect of resolving illnesses. Some of them previously had incurable diseases, but recovered after they practiced Falun Dafa. The marriages of thers who were about to divorce became harmonious after practicing Falun Dafa, and some who were high ranking government officials were no longer corrupt.

Since the method the labor camp adopted was to force practitioners to renounce Falun Dafa through violence, I was under more stress, and I suffered from insomnia and other conditions. In the end, the labor camp director said, Let’s read their books and see what we can use to convince them to quit.

I found that what is written in the Falun Dafa books is completely different from the CCP’s propaganda on TV. After I read a book, my insomnia was gone. One day, while on duty, I suddenly had a high fever, and a practitioner told me, “This is a good thing, our Master is purifying your body.” I was a little skeptical: she didn’t know that I had read Zhuan Falun so why would she think Master was helping me?

Not long after I read the book, the white paper turned red. Another time, a warm current went from my head to my feet, just like the guanding Master described in the book. When I looked up at the sky one day I saw a cloud looked like a lotus flower.

Within six months several of my diseases disappeared, and I felt it amazing! I thought: on one hand I’m reading the Dafa book, and Master is take care of me, on the other hand, I’m still persecuting those practitioners, what kind of person am I?

I had questions and I couldn’t stop reading Zhuan Falun. I read it whenever I had time. Once, when I was reading the ninth lecture, the words penetrated into the layers of my body. I understood: in such a harsh environment, if you practice Falun Dafa, you face labor camps, prison, loss of job, and even loss of life. In the midst of the most brutal persecution, if you still believe that this Fa is good and teaches people to be good, you have great inborn quality. From that moment on, I said to Master in my heart: I want to be a good person, and I must practice Dafa!

Seeing the cruel persecution of fellow practitioners every day, It felt like a knife was stabbing my heart. As a practitioner, I can’t sit idly by, I wanted to expose the persecution! But I also knew what I would face in such an evil environment.

The labor camp leaders and department personnel monitored us, and told us to constantly patrol the corridors, and watch every move practitioners made. Because of my dramatic transformation, my coworkers were shocked, and the leaders told them and the non-practitioner inmates to spy on me.

At that time, I slept very little—instead I seized all the time to study the Fa and practice, and sent forth righteous thoughts. I didn’t dare to relax for a moment. While I read the Fa, my understanding of the Fa got deeper and deeper, and Master gave me wisdom and the courage to be fearless in the face of intimidation.

I dream that practitioners were forced to sit on a small bench on the playground, but the were not surrounded by courtyard walls. I shouted: Run! Run! When I woke up, I realized that Master asked me to cooperate with fellow practitioners in the tribulation to deny the persecution and leave.

Even though we were being watched I began to tell fellow practitioners how to deny the persecution and how to break through with righteous thoughts. Many practitioners who had been transformed came back to Dafa, and the steadfast practitioners became more determined. Their righteous thoughts were stronger. They began to go on hunger strikes to protest the persecution. A number of practitioners broke out of the evil den with righteous thoughts and Master’s strengthening.

Under the strict surveillance it was difficult for practitioners to write down how they were persecuted, but I helped them. The practitioners outside made these experiences into truth clarification leaflets. These were sent to the evildoers, and this effectively deterred them from persecuting practitioners.

In those years, we helped each other, and fellow practitioners worked together inside and outside to expose the persecutors and their evil deeds, and dismantle this forced labor camp.

Looking back on the path I traveled, if I hadn’t started practicing Falun Dafa, my life would have fallen into the abyss of no return because I participated in the persecution.

I am grateful to Master for his compassionate salvation. He lifted me out of hell! I am grateful to Master for giving me such a sacred mission! In the toughest of times, I did what I was supposed to do.

I will practice more diligently and do the three things better to save more people.