Practitioners of a Chinese cultivation system of mind, body and spirit traveled to New Bern from Raleigh and Durham on Saturday to share the benefits of Falun Dafa with people in eastern North Carolina.

"It's spread like wildfire to 100 million people throughout the world since 1992 because people are reaping the benefits," said Al Whitted, a Durham middle school teacher who practices the five sets of exercises and meditation the system promotes.

Introduced in China in 1992 by Master Li Hongzhi, the system also incorporates the principals of truthfulness, compassion and forbearance. Characterized by its followers as a "cultivation practice," Falun Dafa exercises and teachings are designed to lead to enhanced health, wisdom and peace of mind.

"Falun Dafa is not political or religious and completely free of charge," said Jeff Chen, who presented the program. "We offer all of our materials free on the Internet.?

Followers of the teachings do not claim that the practices treat illnesses, but they report benefits to their overall state of health and well-being as a result of it.

Augusto Andrade, a native of Ecuador who now lives in Sanford, told the group that early in his three-year practice of the system, a back injury from which he suffered for 42 years was relieved.

"The injury left me with a twisted spinal column," Andrade said. "My body could not be straight and my head was bent forward toward my chest."

Andrade said he was meditating in a park about two months after he began practicing Falun Dafa when what he describes as a miracle occurred.

"I heard a loud cracking sound coming from my spine, he said. "With each cracking sound, I felt my spine being stretched and straightened, vertebra by vertebra."

Chinese medicine, which is based on an energetic network connecting all parts of the body called meridians, emphasizes prevention. The practitioners say that the exercises, in concert with cultivating compassion, kindness and tolerance is an important preventive for stress related diseases.

Other practitioners who visited New Bern said they've improved relationships at home and at work as the result of following Falun Dafa's teachings of compassion and tolerance.

Like tai-chi, which has enjoyed a growing following in the United States, Falun Dafa has become a vital part of the lives of many Asians, but it was outlawed in China in July, 1999.

"Since then, the government has used the most inhumane methods to terrorize and pres- sure people to denounce Falun Dafa," Chen said. "There are more than 80 documented cases of practitioners being beaten or tortured to death and the death toll continues to escalate on a daily basis'"

To learn more about the practice of Falun Dafa or about the plight of the Chinese who practice it, visit www.falundafa.org, or contact Jeff Chen at www.duke.edu/web/falun.

Pat Coleman can be reached at 638-8101 ext. 260.