(Clearwisdom.net) (The purpose of this article is to let people know what is happening in labor camps and brainwashing centers. I will explain various theories used so that people can fully realize how evil and absurd they are. As a consequence, I hope Dafa disciples going through tribulations will understand Dafa more solidly, deeply and comprehensively during this period and see through the evil "enlightenment.")
I will list some of the evil "enlightenment" I have heard about. It's easy to see that almost all of it claims to conform to Fa principles. The evil "enlightenment" seeks to justify itself by quoting parts of the Fa out of context and by twisting the Fa, which make it more deceptive. Some brainwashed people with evil "enlightenment," while under the control of the evil, noisily advocated their evil understandings in labor camps and brainwashing classes. The evil instilled such thoughts and also used physical and mental torture to "deal with" individual Dafa practitioners. I won't list the torture methods here, as many of them have already been published on Clearwisdom.
As time has passed, with practitioners' continuing appeals, firm rejection of the evil's arrangements and exposing the evil persecution in various ways, and with the powerful support of Dafa practitioners from outside China (I hereby express deep gratitude to overseas Dafa practitioners for their exposing and protesting these evil acts. Overseas practitioners' actions have effectively suppressed the evil and alleviated the pressure on detained Dafa practitioners. I am not alone in this - many of our incarcerated practitioners share the same feeling), most importantly, as Master's Fa-rectification progresses, the evil has gradually been eradicated and our environment has improved. The police here usually don't shock people with electric batons or beat and kick us at will as they did in the past. The corporal punishment we receive is not as severe as before.
The thugs also have changed their tactics and are resorting to softer methods. Sometimes they would put on a hypocritically kind mask and carry out so-called "help to reform" activities. For example, when new practitioners arrived there, they no longer beat or curse or punished them. Instead, they would fake kindness and chat with them. At this time, they don't get angry, even if you say something to provoke them. In fact, in the beginning they are observing and learning about your way of thinking and your mental attitude, and then they would accordingly work on you with specific "help-to-reform" tactics. They absolutely forbid newly arrived practitioners to get in touch with determined practitioners who have been detained there for some time, though, because practitioners who have been detained for a long time know about the true face of the jailers and can expose their hypocrisy.
Oftentimes, those who are sentenced to a labor camp are determined practitioners and they are somewhat mentally prepared before they arrive. They expect to suffer certain kinds of persecution after they enter the labor camp, and they have thought about how to remain unmoved when facing evil. Once they are in the labor camp, they find that they are not severely persecuted. The guards and collaborators [former Falun Gong practitioners who have gone astray due to brainwashing and torture] all appear "kind," so they are likely to feel a bit puzzled and before long they loosen up a little. That is the time when the collaborators would start the "help-to-reform" scheme with the guards' instructions from behind the scene. They would start spreading their evil "enlightenment." For example, they would say, "We were like you at the very beginning, our minds were stubborn and couldn't give up certain things. When we got here, however, we saw it was not like what we thought of from the outside. Those reformed practitioners treated us well. Reform is good and it is improvement." They said other things as well.
If practitioners refused to be "reformed" in this way, the guards and authorities would find some recently brainwashed people in the labor camp or other brainwashed people from close to the practitioner's hometown to show themselves as examples, since they had just undergone "reform" after being steadfast in cultivation. They remember well the mental state they had during this period, and know the types of weaknesses to target. Also, people from the same place tend to share a lot in common. They know about same things that happened in that area, so it's easy for them to have common ground. Practitioners are likely to have little resistance to familiar things. It is therefore easier to instill evil "enlightenment" in them.
Failing this, they would find collaborators who have been "reformed" and are familiar with or know the practitioners well, to talk to the practitioners. When acquaintances meet, they naturally bear little caution and reduced vigilance. At this time, the collaborators would instill the evil messages. If this failed, they would find people of the opposite sex to do the job. Some practitioners are very stern before collaborators and they will firmly refuse their evil "enlightenment," but when they talk to someone of the opposite sex they will not be so unyielding, at least they will be outwardly more polite. If they don't firmly resist the situation, the collaborators spread their evil "enlightenment" while the practitioners are unaware. If the practitioners have the slightest misunderstandings or are unclear on even one point of the Fa, it's very easy for them to be affected by evil messages.
After a while, some people would gradually lose their righteous faith in Dafa because round after round of bombardment with evil messages can slowly erode their faith. The collaborators are very experienced. Usually several of them "help" one practitioner and because of the sheer numbers of people they gain the upper hand. Every one of the collaborators would observe and get to know the practitioner's words, actions, mental state and psychological characteristics, as well as their personal understanding of Fa principles. Every time after they returned from talking to the practitioner, they would analyze this practitioner's weakness of thought, gaps in words, and try to find out a breaking point in the practitioner's thinking. They would make up a so-called "take over the fort" plan and try again next time.
Dafa practitioners are usually honest, straightforward and uncomplicated. They don't realize the extent of the evil conspiracy behind the talk, and they innocently talk and debate with the collaborators. Most people, though, cannot guarantee the absolute thoroughness of their words and logic. The more opposing their views, the more engaged the argument, the more likely it is for the practitioners to have gaps in words. Another point is that the practitioners are each faced with several collaborators and it's hard for them to think rationally and think things through, so it's easy for the collaborators to capitalize on the practitioner's weak points, and the collaborators would mount a group-attack. Moreover, these evil collaborators claim that their ideas "conform to Fa principles, that they have enlightened to high level principles and have cultivated well." At the same time, in terms of practitioners' personal surroundings, the practitioners are confronted with great tribulations and their bodies and minds suffer greatly, while the collaborators are comfortable and free, supported by the evil. In this situation, if a practitioner has the slightest doubt in the Fa, it's very easy for them to be deceived.
If all of these methods failed, the evil persecutors would show their true face. The fake "kindness" would suddenly disappear and be replaced with threats and intimidation. "You must reform or you can forget about ever getting out! You will stay here until the iron bench is worn out!" Some thugs would even say, "If you don't reform you shall die!" Additionally, they use corporal punishments to torture the practitioners, such as heavy labor, or long hours of military-style drills under the scorching sun. They send several people to follow and monitor the practitioners and forbid them to walk or talk freely, or to contact other practitioners. Practitioners would be forced to work long hours during the day and the thugs would forbid them to sleep well at night. On top of that, they were forced to "study" slanderous material until very late at night. When the guards or collaborators again talk to the practitioner, instead of seeming calm and kind they would show their true faces, scorning, ridiculing, ranting and raving.
If a period of physical torture still wouldn't work, they also "invented" a way to make people "alone." I read about a case in the official "experience in reform work." There was a practitioner who was initially very determined in Dafa. She had a deep understanding of Dafa and her logic was thorough. No collaborators could move her. She was not afraid of tribulations and she had let go of life and death, and she didn't become persuaded, no matter how she was tortured. Later, the evil thugs came up with a different method and isolated her. They locked her in a solitary room and gave her three meals a day, but didn't let her work, nor was she allowed to do anything else but eat and sleep. At the same time, she was also forbidden to contact with others and was not allowed to talk. They tortured her with loneliness, boredom and isolation. She could persist for one or two days, even for one or two weeks, but after two or three months she could not last and she began to grow agitated. She tried to find someone to talk to, but there was no one! There was no one who even said something against her. During this whole time, the evil observed her at a close distance and when they saw the time had come, the guards began to appear to care about her and be thoughtful. The collaborators instilled her with evil thoughts, "Give up attachments and stop hurting yourself." At this time all she needed was to talk to someone and exchange words. When her mind was not set firmly against the evil messages, the evil took advantage of that and she was finally brainwashed.
Seeing this method was effective, the evil people used it on other determined practitioners who refused brainwashing. Some practitioners were detained in solitary confinement for as long as one year. According to some practitioners who were brainwashed before, when they were in physical and mental pain, they even hoped for someone to convince them with a "seemingly" Dafa-conforming thought that doesn't conflict with the government's requirement, in order to escape the painful tribulation and to justify themselves. At that moment, one's mind is only preoccupied with thoughts of how to get rid of the pain. His/her way of thinking is twisted and it's impossible for them to think about problems from the perspective of the Fa in an objective, thorough and rational manner, and this state of mind would make it possible for the evil thoughts and understanding to have their way through and destroy a great number of people. Its deception comes from the fact that people would not realize they are degenerating and self-deconstructing when they are deviating from the Fa, they even think they are "making progress and improving." The evil destruction is indeed very serious! If we think about it, though, this is not a coincidence. The reason the evil can make damage like this, aside from the evil influences themselves, has to do with our xinxing problems. If everyone's xinxing can be rational, determined and without any omission, the evil can do nothing! I think the tribulations and evil "enlightenment" resemble stumbling blocks on our cultivation path; if our xinxing is not high, we could easily be swallowed or stopped. If our understanding of the Fa is definitely determined and clear, we would be able to defeat these evil understandings and overcome them, and turn them into stepping-stones on which we make progress and improve ourselves, step by step.
(To be continued)
For Part 1, please see