Enlightened Martyrdom - The Hidden Side of Falun Gong - James R. Lewis
“You Don’t Want to Have That Kind of Thought in Your Mind”: Li Hongzhi, Aliens, and Science
Enlightened Martyrdom - The Hidden Side of Falun Gong - James R. Lewis
Stefano Bigliardi [+]
Foundation for Interreligious and Intercultural Research and Dialogue, Geneva
Description
Li Hongzhi has drunk deeply from the well of the paranormal, being especially attracted to ideas about extraterrestrial aliens. Like other flying saucer aficionados, Li teaches that modern technology was introduced to planet earth by extraterrestrials, including in the distant past (“ancient aliens”). He has also adopted beliefs (widespread in alternative circles) that (1) aliens have abducted and interbreed with human beings in ongoing efforts to create a hybrid race, and (2) terrestrial governments not only know about these activities, but actively conspire with aliens for their own sinister purposes. In addition to their hybridizing experiments, shape-shifting space aliens capture human beings for use as pets back on their home planet, and are planning to take over our planet via their false, immoral religion of “science.” In a 1999 interview with Time magazine, Master Li accused aliens of corrupting the human race, an activity that will eventually lead to an apocalypse. Some of Li’s most controversial statements have been made in the context of his descriptions of alien-induced human corruptions: People would stop at nothing in doing evil things such as drug abuse and drug dealing. A lot of people have done many bad deeds. Things such as organized crime, homosexuality, and promiscuous sex, etc. None are the standards of being human. Many Westerners who at one time regarded themselves as Falun Gong’s friends subsequently distanced themselves from the group after critics began to call attention to Master Li’s pronouncements against homosexuality, feminism, rock music and “race mixing.” The present chapter will analyze these teachings, tracing their sources to both Western paranormal literature and Chinese tradition.