Falun Gong: In Their Own Words

It’s an early Sunday morning at Veterans Park in Otisville, upstate New York. At a time of year when the trees are still green, but the mornings start to have a slight chill in the air.

People of various ages, ethnicities and backgrounds slowly begin to fill up the otherwise empty park. They move quietly into a circle. With their eyes closed, they perform graceful, slow movements following meditation music from a loud speaker placed in the middle.

For the last 20 years you’ve heard journalists talking about them on the T.V. and radio. You’ve seen them holding rallies and peace protests around the world.

They are practitioners of Falun Gong.

Who are these people? What motivates them? And how might their struggle to expose the Chinese Communist Party have far reaching implications for all of us?