Enlightened Martyrdom - The Hidden Side of Falun Gong - James R. Lewis

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
Stefano Bigliardi completed his undergraduate studies in Philosophy (2004) in Bologna. Later on, he obtained a PhD in Philosophy of Science (2008) at the University of Bologna in a joint supervision with the University of Konstanz (Germany). His postdoctoral research complements a Western/analytical philosophical outlook with the study of religion, most notably Islam and New Religious Movements. His first project about Islam was initially supported by a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Konstanz (Excellence Cluster EXC-16 “The Cultural Foundations of Integration”). He later joined the faculty of CMES at Lund University, where he served as a researcher and a lecturer and worked on the monograph "Islam and the Quest for Modern Science" (Swedish Institute in Istanbul, 2014). In October 2013 Stefano joined Tecnológico de Monterrey (Campus Santa Fe, Mexico City) as a philosophy teacher. Since September 2015 he is a postdoctoral fellow at FIIRD (Foundation for Interreligious and Intercultural Research and Dialogue) in 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.

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Citation

Bigliardi, Stefano. “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. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 160-194 Oct 2019. ISBN 9781781794999. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=30556. Date accessed: 05 Jun 2023 doi: 10.1558/equinox.30556. Oct 2019

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