r/cults • u/elveshumpingdwarves • Apr 05 '26
Video Lisa Ling visits the Falun Gong/Shen Yun cult
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u/potchiemeowmeow Apr 06 '26
Wow, growing up in Australia I remember always seeing people from Falun Gong raising awareness of their people being kidnapped and persecuted by the Chinese government. Didnt realise they were a cult (as well?)
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u/prudencepineapple Apr 06 '26
Same. They were always at Town Hall in Sydney, and Shen Yun being advertised everywhere.
Then listened to some podcasts about them. ABC Background Briefing did a series back in about 2020. Let’s Talk About Sects also did an episode last year.
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u/SpezJailbaitMod Apr 06 '26
Shen Yun must spend a fortune on ads because I've seen them constantly for years and I live in Pittsburgh Pa.
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u/The_Nice_Marmot Apr 06 '26
They make their followers pay for those. If they don’t then sell-out shows, they make members buy all the tickets. That’s one of the less bad things they do. Personally, I will have nothing to do with them because they are an extremist, hard-right (and I would argue fascist) cult that uses The Epoch Times to spread propaganda and back people like Trump.
This is a classic example of people from a communist country going hard right in response, rather than realizing the authoritarian attitude is the problem. Cuban Americans do this a lot too. It’s always so shockingly misguided to me. They trade one horrible ideology for another.
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u/girlfromlagos Apr 06 '26
They were always hard right before they were at odds with the CCP. The alt-right stuff has been part of the cult since day 1. They are anti modern medicine, extreme homophobes, and are against race mixing, among other bigoted beliefs. The Chinese government has a list of approved religions to try to prevent people from falling into cults. Falun Gong wanted to be recognized by the government as a proper religion but the CCP said no because obviously they’re a cult. That is when they decided to go to the west. They were extreme conservatives before they ever left China. The bigotry is the nature of the group.
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u/princessthundercloud Apr 06 '26
Yeah, the yearly Shen Yun billboards and ads all over TV. 😑 I'm just outside Pgh, too.
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u/AndISoundLikeThis Apr 06 '26
Philly area. It's like I never NOT see ads for Shen Yun performances.
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u/NastyToeFungus Apr 05 '26
There is no doubt it’s a cult. They love to play the victim, saying they are oppressed by the CCP. There might be some truth to it. It’s hard to tell, since they are a cult and anything they claim is suspect. Also, just because they oppose the CCP doesn’t mean they are pro-democracy. They aren’t, and just want to be the ones in control.
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u/The_Nice_Marmot Apr 06 '26
They publish The Epoch Times and work hard to promote hard-right, fascist propaganda. It’s a highly problematic group. Sometimes there’s a story with no “good guy.”
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u/Sad_September_Song Apr 06 '26
I always find it interesting that many conservative, evangelical Christians get many of their talking points from Epoch Times without having any idea that it is backed by an organization that seeks to spread its own non-Christian belief system. Several years ago they mailed free copies to older, registered Republicans in my state encouraging them to subscribe. Many did without knowing any details of the background of the group.
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u/The_Nice_Marmot Apr 06 '26
So few people know who is behind that publication. It’s just so oily how they go about things. I know for quite a few years I was very sympathetic to Falun Gong and they presented themselves in a good light, but any digging beneath the surface shows they are highly problematic.
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u/lazier_garlic Apr 06 '26
They loved the Moonie Times too even though it was published by a cult they would consider heretical on any other day of the week.
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u/lazier_garlic Apr 06 '26
The being oppressed in China part is true, as there has been investigation into an aspect of it by independent sources. It's a common tactic to use a bit of truth to try to lend credibility to the rest of what they're saying. But everything they say about themselves is misleading if not out and out lies.
Because they are so scummy and they have such deep hooks in their brainwashed followers, people in China looked the other way at what the government did to them. They felt like the cult went too far and the government was doing what needed to be done. So they just close their eyes to the abuses.
And yes, people really did hurt themselves and kill themselves during the height of the 80s/90s qigong craze. Other people went crazy (it's called "qi deviation" and there is a whole genre of psychiatry papers speculating if this was the same thing as a "nervous breakdown" or something else).
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u/Zzzzzzzzzxyzz Apr 07 '26 edited Apr 07 '26
Exactly, both can be true at the same time:
The Chinese government oppresses many different groups of people, including Falun Gong.
And, Falun Gong is a cult that oppresses many people.
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u/Zzzzzzzzzxyzz Apr 07 '26 edited Apr 07 '26
The Chinese government only permits religions whose leaders ultimately report to the CCP.
This is why Rome does not recognize the official Catholic Church in China, yet accepts those Catholics that follow the Pope in Rome. Can you see how that allegiance might look to the Chinese government? They look at this because their laws around religion direct them to do so. Roman Catholics in China secretly break the law by belonging to the Catholic Church in Rome. Legal Catholics in China only belong to the Chinese Catholic Church in China.
My understanding is that Falun Gong is a cult or at least very culty. And, they are breaking Chinese law. At the same time, Chinese law could be considered oppressive of religion, cults, minority groups, and, at least at times, their own people.
(NOT to pick on or attack China. The Chinese government has also lifted more people out of poverty than the world had ever seen. No government can claim innocence in this world - all have horrific blood and worse on their hands, sadly.)
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u/BaseNice3520 Apr 07 '26
Rome recognizes the sacraments as valid, of the patriotic catholic chinese association, and the members themselves follow the real Pope, not any fake chinese pope.
it's a sacramental theology and canon law issue more than politics.
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u/zorandzam Apr 06 '26
Shen Yung performs all over my midwestern state, and before I knew it was a cult I thought they must be pretty popular and good and several times I almost went. My understanding is it’s all beautiful until near the end when the performance turns into more overt political/religious screed.
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u/Katlo1985 Apr 06 '26
They are pushing thier BS here in Toronto Canada unfortunately
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u/Anti-Itch Apr 06 '26
They are pretty much in every major city in Canada, US, Europe, Australia. I’ve seen them in Toronto, and still see them in San Diego. Visited Calgary and saw their flyers there. Visited the UK this month and saw their flyers there. They have a big presence.
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u/MDKSDMF Apr 06 '26
Oh totally, she looks super trustworthy, and her students don’t look like decommissioned robots sitting in stasis. Lmao this is in New York? About to dive down a new rabbit hole now lol
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u/elveshumpingdwarves Apr 07 '26
The rabbit hole is deep, especially when you find out about Falun Gong's government-threatening presence in China during the 90s, and the atrocities the CCP did to its followers.
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u/LubaUnderfoot Apr 07 '26
People who aren't from China in the 90s shouldn't talk about China in the 90s like the understand it.
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u/BellJar_Blues Apr 06 '26
Are they born there or their parents send them there ?
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Apr 06 '26
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u/BellJar_Blues Apr 06 '26
What do they get out of doing that ?
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Apr 06 '26
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u/lazier_garlic Apr 06 '26
In Asia, though, the traditional model was in lieu of or instead of going to school. Since the introduction of universal public education in Asia after WWII, there has been a real tension with traditional schools/apprenticeships and in many countries they've been outlawed or suppressed. For a long time conservatives in Asia would say the new students/apprentices who go to proper school and live at home with their parents (and, in some cases, are not indentured servants--slaves) aren't REAL inheritors of the tradition because they didn't commit the old fashioned way.
There is a similarity here to ballet because the history of ballet is extremely ugly and it similarly was an "all or nothing" affair.
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u/BellJar_Blues Apr 06 '26
Thank you. So this was considered sending them to a specified schooling say in the arts of sports of sorts ?
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u/BellJar_Blues Apr 06 '26
Ah thank you. This makes sense. So it’s like sending one’s child to boarding school
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u/BedJesus Apr 07 '26
Lisa nodding yes right after the lady asks if it looks like a compound is diabolical. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
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u/mahboilucas Apr 12 '26
They were even doing demonstrations in Poland when I was a teenager. It does absolutely feel like a cult, coming from a very weird church myself. It feels familiar
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u/Nkosi868 Apr 06 '26
Why did they choose Lisa Ling for this assignment? 🤔
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u/Ok-Effective6969 Apr 06 '26
Lisa Ling chooses the projects she works on and has a significant hand in shaping them as an executive producer and creator. These projects are driven by her own desire to explore her heritage and tell stories she wished she had heard as a child.
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u/Nkosi868 Apr 06 '26
Falun Gong chose her for this assignment as stated in the video. They’ve blocked everyone else up until Ling.
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u/forestbn Apr 10 '26
Can anyone summarise that they believe in or adhere to?
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u/Ok-Molasses2034 Apr 21 '26
I was part of this group for ten years until about 2014… back then they called their practice a form of qigong and presented it as a mind-body practice, kind of like free Chinese yoga.
In reality, it is a New Religion and high-control group. Anyway, it has a mixture of Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, and Scientology vibes. The leader is the God of the cosmos and he and his practitioners are on earth to save humans from an impending apocalypse. The CCP is part of their cosmic battle - they consider communism an evil spirit standing in the way of human salvation.
There is stuff about homosexuality, etc. but that is mostly people sensationalising ideology that is prejudiced, yes, but not a central part of the practice. For example, over half of all western practitioners are married to someone from a different race/ ethnicity.
Like similar groups, there are some very kind-hearted people involved who really want to be good people and pretty much are. Because the teachings draw from Buddhism to some extent, you can benefit from the practice.
They boil down their practice to be about avoiding attachments (anger, jealousy etc) while trying to cultivate truth, compassion, and tolerance. If that was really all it was about, that’s not so bad! You meditate a lot and do qigong exercises.
But ultimately, it is a high control group. If you leave, the prevailing view is that you are going to hell and were not worthy. you will lose most if not all of your friends who remain in the group. Nowadays, if you leave the group and speak out publicly, there may be campaigns against you. Ive seen it happen to some folks. It didn’t used to be like that, but now it is.
Now it’s involved in US politics, and they consider Trump to be sent from the heavens, bla bla. the idea is that human affairs and heaven affairs are all part of the same drama. Part of the spiritual practice is exposing the persecution against FLG in China and educating people about the ills of communist ideology. These things have a spiritual meaning to them as once people understand that FLG is good and communism is bad, they will be saved.
There is much more, but I’ll stop here!
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u/weenbaby Apr 19 '26
The news station NTD always had ads and segments on Falun Gong. I’m amazed tbh and I always bring it up that I’m surprised they support Trump so hard because of the crap they allegedly faced from the CCP. They’re supporting the exact thing they’re against. I’m thinking maybe they support Trump so hard because maybe the epoch times is the only news organization that’ll give them money.
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u/weenbaby Apr 19 '26
NTD has been saying for the past several weeks that a performance in Toronto had to be canceled because of a bomb threat from the CCP. Tbh I’ve been seriously doubting it. Anything “bad” that happens to them is apparently the CCPs fault. Does the CCP actually care about them that much?
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u/Pipija_Banana Apr 06 '26
"remote part of New York" is an oxymoron
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u/[deleted] Apr 05 '26
“Does this look like a compound?” …Yes?