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Part 1:http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/3/18/46167.html

Part 2: http://www.clearwisdom.net/emh/articles/2004/3/21/46281.html

5. Transformed by Fear and Pressure from Persecution

In September and October of 2001, groups of practitioners were sent to Masanjia Labor Camp in large prison trucks holding up to 50 people. With this number of people, one could always hear talking throughout the corridors, stairways, restrooms and cafeterias.

Practitioners know that Falun Dafa is good, and don't want to betray their hearts. But facing the relentless pressure from Masanjia's professional persecutors, some failed to let go of ordinary people's fears and attachments. During the painful struggles, they did not stand up to the evil forces, as true practitioners, and rolled on the floor, crying, "God, what should I do? How can I live?"

Many people broke down from the extreme pressure and wrote the "3 statements" to renounce their belief in tears. Their hands shook violently and they could hardly form the words.

Some practitioners were forced to read the "3 statements in front of everybody. They stood there for 20 minutes, trying to force themselves to speak but not a word came from their mouths.

Day after day, people were forced to go against their conscience and compromise their belief. They suffered the endless pain of hopelessness at their righteous thoughts being consumed by evil, and the recognition of dropping from paradise into hell.

Once they conceded, practitioners were forced to write all sorts of "disclosure" statements, Even after they were released from the labor camp, they had to guarantee that they've completely betrayed their belief. They were required to defame Buddha and Falun Dafa. They were forced to disclose and betray fellow practitioners. Since they had already betrayed themselves and their belief, they were able to betray their families and close friends, and caused many tragedies. Husbands betrayed wives, sisters betrayed sisters, neighbors betrayed good friends. Mothers that were forced to renouce their belief were even coerced into whipping their daughters who refused to renounce their belief in Falun Dafa.

The Families of Practitioners detained in the Masanjia Forced Labor Camp know endless blood and sorrow.

Practitioners are often sentenced to one to three years in Masanjia. Many relatives direct their hatred toward the prisoner's wives (who also practice Falun Gong).

Most of the practitioners in Masanjia are women between 40 and 60 years old. They have parents and children, and are often the mainstay of the family. Some of them looked after their sick parents. Their children now cry for their absent mothers every day. Many heart wrenching stories can be heard from practitioners talking about their family situations.

Family members are counting the days until the practitioners are released.

Practitioners' parents are often very old. Unable to handle the shock, they pass away before their child is released from detention.

A Liaoning practitioner said in her testimony, "I can imagine how much worse it is for the families of practitioners who were forced to leave home or were tortured to death. Falun Gong is being practiced in over 60 nations. But only in China, do people have to pay with their lives to protect basic human rights."

Masanjia Labor Camp takes advantage of former practitioners desire to go home, and their lingering attachments to fame and money. They target firm practitioners, posting notices on the wall to lure those wishing to leave the labor camp into assisting with the brainwashing tasks. Those who comply, try to make other practitioners give up their cultivation practice like they did. Conflicts reminiscent of the Cultural Revolution can be seen at the labor camp on a regular basis.

One Liaoning practitioner said, "Once one betrays his belief, the speed at which he falls brings him to the depths of hell." Some brainwashed practitioners even show hatred toward those practitioners who refuse to be brainwashed. They become the persecution tools of the labor camp. Falun Gong had once made them innocent and kind. After they accepted the propaganda from the brainwashing, their human nature was destroyed and they now stop at no evil.

One brainwashed woman cursed non-stop. She slapped practitioners so hard they couldn't see. When she became irritated she would stab practitioners' hands and faces with a sewing needle. One university professor who used to practice Falun Gong, reported fellow practitioners, and assists the police in inventing ways to torture fellow practitioners.

Once these kind of people betrayed themselves and their belief, their righteous standards were lost and they showed no self restraint. They let gave up their humanity completely. Unlike before, they began to waste food that they couldn't finish, fight among themselves over trivial matters, and refuse to give ground in arguments. Respect for the deities was lost, and replaced with human arrogance and political attachments.

Most brainwashed practitioners exhibited a drastic change to their personality. When happy, they laugh like mad, and they weep over a little disappointment. One graduate of a science and engineering university, was overjoyed upon hearing the Taliban had bombed the Bamiyan Buddha statues in Afghanistan. She started shouting, dancing and celebrating outloud with other brainwashed practitioners, as the bombing the Buddha statue suited their brainwashed mentalities.

Masanjia's brutal brainwashing program has changed countless kind and righteous living beings into soulless people who live to please the Masanjia Labor Camp authorities, in order to reduce their torture and speed their release.

Many police were sent to Masanjia after they graduated from school. Most of them were not against Falun Dafa at first, and some even had good will towards Dafa. But in this environment where right becomes wrong, and good and evil are reversed, they were pressured into brainwashing practitioners and forcing them to renounce their belief in Falun Gong. Their status was directly related to how many people they could get to renounce their belief. Each day they receive literature aimed at defaming Dafa, hearing only how right "disclosure" is, and distorting their personal viewpoints. They became evil without realizing it. They studied how to brainwash practitioners, actually believing these techniques will help practitioners.

Police often make a show of looking after practitioners. Some leaders might buy fruit for everyone, then brag about how "selfless" they were, "serving others and not oneself" in their reports. During major holidays, the police would celebrate with the prisoners, dancing and singing. Superficially, it appeared to be like a company picnic. The authorities are careful to not be directly cruel to practitioners, but instead send the former practitioners, now collaborators, to do the dirty work of torturing, so the authorities can later document that they cared for the abused practitioners and not be implicated in crimes against practitioners.

Some of the head police had righteous thoughts in the beginning. They didn't want to forcefully transform practitioners for their own personal gain. But pressure numbed them. When they didn't see any karmic retribution for their criminal acts, they no longer believed that they would be subjected to karmic retribution. Some of them arrogantly claimed, "If there was a hell, I would be there already. Once I'm dead, you're welcome to a different opinion."

In Masanjia, the cruel ones get promoted.

In this harsh environment, some practitioners still clarified the truth to the police, but too few to be effective. Other than keeping their righteous thoughts, newly imprisoned practitioners had little chance of making a difference, and didn't get to talk to police. Every day, the police were fed poisonous information about Falun Gong, and unwittingly became victims of the lies at Masanjia.

Since Jiang's regime's persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999, due to enthusiastic performance by people like Su Jing (Head of Masanjia), Masanjia had became a machine to torture the human heart, destroying kindness and devouring souls.

No matter how cruel the authorities can be, many instances of brainwashing are done unwillingly. This is well known in Masanjia, but the authorities are only concerned with the quantity of the practitioners they can brainwash into renouncing their belief, rather than their sincerity or how much blood and pain they cause. Su Jing and her followers are motivated by the money and promotion promised with more brainwashed practitioners, and willingly assist Jiang Zemin and Luo Gan.

When doing brainwashing, those collaborators still reveal to those they trust "I couldn't handle the torture, but my heart remains unchanged. Truthfulness, Compassion and Tolerance are deep in my heart."

A practitioner from Liaoning gave these examples:

-Once during mealtime, a practitioner who shared my cell wept into her bowl of rice. Later she told me, "Today was the date I attained Dafa and started practicing." She longed for the days as a practitioner.

-A veteran practitioner became the leader in the brainwashing activities, but before she left the camp, she held my hand and whispered in my ear, "You are right not to be brainwashed!"

-During the forced brainwashing, I was stumbling from the torture. One day, a Lingyuan practitioner came to me with a cup of water. She looked into my eyes and ordered, "Drink this water!" I drank it; it was a cup of sugar water to give me strength.

-When I left this group, I found a box of sugar and 6 eggs in my bag. I knew it was from the old lady from Hulu Island who was diagnosed with lung cancer. Her husband had just visited her. She told me, "Falun Gong saved my life. My lung cancer is no more. I just saw the x-rays from the hospital."

-When I came to another group, there was a college student who had been brainwashed for almost a month. During forced labor, she kept singing one phrase from a song: "My heart is unchanged." Soon after, she declared to everyone that her transformation was null and void.

(to be continued).

February 26, 2004

Chinese version available at http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2004/2/29/68523.html