We have our own local source in Jon. See his post from december of last year:
On 12/29/20 10:24 AM, jon zingale wrote: > Falun Gong is an interesting case. Across from the University of Texas at > Austin was one of my all-time favorite vegetarian restaurants, Veggie > Heaven. The owners of VH were Falun Dafa practitioners from China. Images > about the restaurant portrayed meditators floating above lotuses with auras > of light. The last page of the menu included a heartfelt letter speaking > about the plight of practitioners in China, complete with images of beaten, > imprisoned and tortured practitioners. The prices at the restaurant were > very inexpensive (one could get a veggie bowl for $5) and yet they would > participate in a daily humanitarian effort. Homebums and traveler kids would > find their way to the door of VH, hold up a finger or two, and shortly a man > would step out of the door and bring them food. This would happen dozens of > times a day. One day, even I tried it and low-and-behold, hot food was given > to me. > > Shortly after this introduction, I started looking into the qigong practices > and history of Falun Dafa. No doubt it appeared to be a questionably > bureaucratic organization, not unlike the Christian churches here in the > west. That said, the qigong practices seemed to do something for my base > stress level. > > Through my continued interest, and access to the wonderfully extensive UT > library stacks, I came across the book "Breathing Spaces: qigong, > psychiatry, and healing in China" (a book which I believe I have mentioned > on Friam before). To my surprise, the book does not so much cover the health > benefits of qigong but rather chronicles mental health issues involving > qigong practices, persecution of qigong practitioners in Chinese psychiatric > hospitals, and the rise of belief in "superhuman abilities" via qigong in > China shortly after the Tiananmen Square incident. > > The big take-home for me, and a possible connection to organizations like > qAnon, is that in times of hardship it is well documented that communities > have been observed incorporating "supernatural belief and abilities" into a > kind of warrior's narrative. For instance, historians like John Hope > Franklin [1] and anthropologist Wade Davis [2] have noted this tendency in > the transformation of Yoruba into Voudun by Africans brought as slaves to > the new world. > > Once while playing go with my buddy Joe at St. Johns, I asked him about the > perception of Falun Gong in China (he is from Hefei). Joe's take was that it > was a largely fraudulent and criminal organization and that the Chinese > government was very much right to go after it. I didn't press him very hard, > in part so as to not strain our relationship (a potential weakness on my > part). Still, when I search the web even now, I am surprised by the amount > of literature that exists pointing to the potential mental health risks of > such a meditative practice. In the conclusion of Qigong-induced mental > disorders: a review[3], the authors state: > > "Despite the widespread use of Qigong, there is a conspicuous lack of > controlled data regarding its effects on mental health. Qigong, when > practiced inappropriately, may induce abnormal psychosomatic responses and > even mental disorders." > > Which, when I read it I cannot help but feel that this "peer-reviewed paper" > is somehow propaganda. > > I am not always so sure what it could mean to "trust" nations or peer-review > in this post-enlightenment period. Yesterday, the United States > president-elect gave an address where he reports that "Many of the agencies > that are critical to our security have incurred enormous damage. Many of > them have been hollowed out"[4]. If he is speaking truthfully, then I am > unsure what a network of trust can be. If he is not, then the same. My > takeaway here is that it is more than reasonable to have a lack of faith in > one another and in our institutions. I speculate, that without good cause to > restore trust, we ought to expect organizations like qAnon to become more > mainstream. > > Meanwhile in the US: 300k dead from Covid, rampant unemployment, a K-shaped > economy, closings of small businesses, and a stock market decoupled from the > economy. Bipartisan politics has: given rise to climate change as a > political button, prevented many in need from receiving assistance, and a > political system decoupled from reasoning about issues. Those of us in the > upper part of the K-shape hold onto our stocks and jobs and hope that it > gets better. Those of us in the lower part prepare for what? > > [1] From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans (at least I > think it was here?) > [2] The Serpent and the Rainbow: A Harvard Scientist's Astonishing Journey > into the Secret Societies of Haitian Voodoo, Zombies, and Magic > [3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10336217/ > [4] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mkRWc9yKIQ&ab_channel=GuardianNews On 7/19/21 9:35 AM, cody dooderson wrote: > I recently visited a tiny town in the western slope of Colorado. The small > town does not have it's own newspaper, so from what I could tell the people > read something called the Epoch Times. It appears to me to be blatant right > wing propaganda. > It turns out that the Epoch times is at least partially funded by the > persecuted Chinese religious movement called the Falun Gong. I don't know > much about them other than that they appear to have a serious and justified > problem with China. It suddenly makes more sense why the republicans in my > circle are now so anti China. How did this chinese religious movement end up > allying with the far right media machine? -- ☤>$ uǝlƃ - .... . -..-. . -. -.. -..-. .. ... -..-. .... . .-. . FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Zoom Fridays 9:30a-12p Mtn GMT-6 bit.ly/virtualfriam un/subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ archives: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/
