Herald-Leader: Falun Gong comes to town

In downtown Lexington yesterday afternoon, 23,000 people spent a couple of hours cheering in Rupp Arena. At exactly the same time a few miles away, 20 people were forming circles with their arms in the Northside Public Library and trying to feel energy from an imaginary wheel.

The downtown event was, of course, a University of Kentucky basketball game.

What happened at the library was something completely different: A demonstration of a controversial Chinese method of meditation and exercise called Falun Gong, or Falun Dafa.

(Few, if any, at the ball game knew that Mayor Pam Miller had proclaimed last week Falun Dafa Week in Lexington, but a copy of the proclamation was prominently displayed at the library.)

The main controversy about Falun Gong is that the government of China has labeled it a [Chinese government's slanderous word], and has clubbed, tortured and imprisoned its adherents.

Beijing also claims that five Falun Gong members set themselves afire last month in Tiananmen Square. But whether they really were Gong practitioners has been questioned by Western reporters and was denied by adherents at the library yesterday.

``The principle of Falun Gong is that killing is prohibited,'' said Sunny T. Lu, a psychiatrist from Northern Kentucky. ``You can't even kill a mosquito or a fly, and suicide is totally against the principle.''

Falun Gong supporters claim to have 100 million practitioners in 30 countries. They follow a leader named Li Hongzhi, who left China in 1996 and now lives in New York.

The people who attended the library demonstration yesterday were nearly all of Western heritage. The instructors were Asian-Americans.

The program began with a video that explained the practice and told of Beijing's persecution of the group.

``Falun Gong is not a religion, not a cult or sect, it's not political and no one is making money off it,'' the announcer on the video said.

Then came the exercises themselves, which adherents claim help promote good health.

There was some awkwardness at first, but soon nearly everyone was moving roughly in unison. One set of exercises was performed from a seated position.

One of the instructors, Jiwu Wanz, suggested that a half-lotus position would be sufficient. He was surprised when one woman was able to sit in a full-lotus, with legs crossed and each foot resting on the opposite thigh.

``Very good,'' he said, ``you must have been a Buddhist in a previous lifetime.''

Several of those who attended said afterward that they were glad they did.

``I think it's just great,'' said Marilyn Pike, 54, a mental health therapist. ``I could feel the wheel. I could feel the energy.''