I’ve been wanting to hear how everyone else came to practice Dafa, so I thought I’d share my own story first. Mine was a bit of a winding journey, with a few strange coincidences along the way.

I actually came across Falun Dafa almost ten years before I started practicing. At the time, I couldn’t really get into it. I never properly finished Zhuan Falun, and I didn’t start doing the exercises.

But interestingly, even just reading Falun Gong changed the way I looked at certain things-worship, spirituality, and life in general. Something about it stayed with me. I knew there was something good about the practice, even though I wasn’t ready to take it up myself.

Then, during medical school, a whole series of what you might call coincidences happened that eventually led me to start practicing.

The first was that I was desperately looking for a meditation practice.

I was struggling quite badly with ADHD symptoms at the time. My inability to manage even small things had gotten to the point where I was genuinely frustrated and, at times, in tears. I wanted something that could help calm my mind and give me some control over myself.

I already knew about Falun Dafa because my brother practiced it. So I thought, Okay, maybe it’s finally time I actually start.

The second thing happened during my internship.

I was posted in the emergency ICU. One day, a car was bringing a patient to the hospital after an incident involving alcohol intoxication. On the way, the car went over a cliff and crashed.

The strange and heartbreaking part was that everyone involved ended up in the same hospital they had originally been driving to. The person who had been accompanying the original patient ended up in the ICU right next to him.

As an intern, I was asked to monitor these two patients. It was one of the first times I had seen something like this up close. Sadly, the person who had been accompanying the patient eventually passed away.

That experience really shook me. One minute, you’re sitting in a car taking your friend to the hospital. The next minute, you’re fighting for your life in an ICU.

It made me realize something very simple:

Life is incredibly fragile.

And once that really sank in, I started asking myself: What am I actually doing with my life?

Go through medical school, get an MD, make some money, get married, have children, put them through college, settle them, retire… and then what?

What is the actual purpose of human life?

I felt that there had to be something more than that. And somewhere in the back of my mind, I felt that I might find some of those answers by actually sitting down and properly reading Zhuan Falun.

The third thing happened through the Epoch Times.

I was following the Epoch Times because I thought their reporting on COVID-19 was phenomenal. It was one of the places I was regularly going to for information during that time.

While reading the Epoch Times, I came across an article by Master Li Hongzhi about how humankind came to be. Honestly, that article blew me away.

I didn’t completely understand everything on the first read. But I remember thinking: There is a completely different perspective on human existence here, and there is so much I don’t understand yet.

That was probably the final push. I thought, Okay. It’s time. I should actually learn this practice properly and find out for myself what it’s about.

And that’s what eventually led me to start Falun Dafa.

I can’t say that everything has been smooth sailing since then.

I certainly haven’t fixed every problem I had before I started practicing. Far from it.

But I can honestly say that I’m not the same person anymore.

I don’t think I can ever look at the world in exactly the same way I did before.

The way I think, the way I approach problems, and the way I try to conduct myself have fundamentally changed. I’m still far from where I want to be, but I’m genuinely trying to become a better person.

And many of the questions I had about human life, purpose, and meaning have found answers that I had been searching for without even knowing exactly what I was looking for.

There’s also a funny little fact about my practice.

When I first started, I couldn’t even sit for five minutes comfortably during meditation. 😂

For those who practice, you know there are five exercises. I used to do exercises one through five in about 15 minutes and think, Yep, that’s enough.

Now, I’m definitely not claiming to be a veteran or anything, but I’m pretty happy that I can push myself to around 40–45 minutes (sitting meditation) reasonably comfortably.

So that’s my story.

I’m curious about everyone else’s:

What first brought you to Falun Dafa?

Was it something you read? A personal experience? Or were you simply curious and decided to try it?

I’d genuinely love to hear your stories. Let’s make this an interactive thread. 🙏

Falun Dafa instruction classes are available online in more than 170 countries worldwide. By the end of 2025, these global online instruction classes and nine-day sessions, conducted by 32 volunteer teams in 28 languages, have benefited over 165,000 participants, who say their physical and mental health have improved.

The online instruction classes and nine-day sessions started at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. It was a period when many people were forced to stay at home or were isolated. Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, volunteers initiated the online instruction classes on LearnFalunDafa.org.

Each class includes a brief introduction to the history and background of Falun Dafa and a video of Master Li’s exercise teaching. After the class, attendees can participate in online Fa study and group exercises on Next.LearnFalunDafa.org. All classes are held by volunteers and are completely free of charge.

Even though the pandemic has ended, online classes for learning the exercises remain highly popular because they overcome geographical limitations. Anyone who has access to the internet can participate.

Discovering Peace and a Treasure

Maryana from Ukraine learned about Falun Dafa in 2023 and has practiced it since then. She says she now has inner peace and knows the meaning of life. She believes that kindness can overcome hardship. If people can follow the principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance, they can overcome any hardship and enjoy a bright future.

Maryana and other practitioners do the exercises. (Minghui.org)

Maryana’s family moved to the countryside near Kyiv in 2019. She wished to live in a quiet environment and looked for a way to calm down. She browsed the internet in 2023, and found LearnFalunDafa.org.

She said, “It suited me. At that time I didn’t want to contact anyone, just fill myself with peace. The web page I found suggested attending a webinar to get all the information needed to start practicing. That’s how I got acquainted with Falun Dafa.

“As soon as I tried the Falun Dafa exercises, I found them very calming and simple. When I do them, I feel refreshed and relaxed. Falun Dafa’s teachings show me the principles of life and help me understand why we experience many human problems and trials.”

Maryana frequently asked herself: Why do humans exist? What is the real meaning of life? “With war, all these questions started to appear more often and depressed me. Later I was given a diagnosis—irritable bowel syndrome—together with frequent headaches, back pain, and the onset of an allergy.

“While I read Zhuan Falun (the main teaching of Falun Dafa), all my questions were answered,” she said. “I had a feeling that I stumbled on a treasure. At the same time, I started to do the Dafa exercises and didn’t even notice that all my physical problems disappeared. My mind had eventually relaxed, and questions that pressured my mind had simply dissolved. Falun Dafa really purified both my body and mind.”

Practicing Dafa During a War

“The principles of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance show you which areas you need to work on,” she said. “The war is a big challenge and actually a big opportunity to cultivate yourself. For example, staying calm when people are stressed and arguing. Help others when you see they need help. Don’t lie to yourself about the real motives of your actions. All these help me to become a strong and good person.”

She added, “My understanding is that kind people can overcome anything. If you don’t have bad motives, don’t hold a grudge, and can forgive others, then you do not hold bad things inside you. Then, the universe will repay you the same back.”

Her inner calm from the practice helps her and her family. “When at least one person in a group can stay stable and calm during some emergency situation, all the others will follow this person and can naturally compose themselves,” she said. “When the nights are noisy, my son comes to our bedroom. And when he sees that we aren’t panicking, he doesn’t give in to it either.

“We can have the air attacks during the day and at night as well. There’s nowhere to hide in my house, so we just have to wait until the attacks stop. We just stay home and continue with what we are doing. We need to think rationally and do what fits the current situation.”

At the Mid-Autumn Festival, Maryana said, “I thank Master for such an unbelievable opportunity he gave me to practice Falun Dafa. I hope he is happy to see that more and more people are becoming better each day.”

Practicing Dafa Is a Blessing

Over the years, the online teaching classes have received positive feedback from attendees throughout the world. Many people described their experiences of physical and mental improvement, emotional stability, increased energy, getting rid of bad habits, and gaining spiritual strength. The messages from people in different countries and backgrounds about the nine-day classes and online teaching courses also encourage volunteers to improve the courses.

One volunteer received a call from an elderly woman named Sheila from Owen Sound, Ontario, Canada, around 10 p.m. one night. She said she suffered from back pain after an accident four years ago and was unable to straighten her back, so she had to rely on crutches to walk. But after she attended the Falun Dafa class that night, her pain disappeared, and she could straighten her back. She said excitedly that she would definitely continue practicing.

Here is some feedback from the students:

Michele wrote, “I love it. This experience opened my heart, and I look forward to the next class. I’m excited for the opportunity to practice, and I can feel the warm energy in my hands. It’s such a blessing to find something so precious and truly free. Thank you so much for your generosity. I learned so much from just one class.”

Callie LeVina from Seattle, WA, wrote, “I experienced a deeper clarity and calmness. Allowing myself to let nature take its course allowed me to release emotional and energetic tension and strengthen the connection between body, mind, and spirit.”

Victoria wrote, “I know I can watch the nine-day class lectures on my own at any time, but there is something special about watching with everyone. I love the online classes and look forward to attending every month. I feel spiritually cleansed after watching one lecture every night. I have had very healing dreams over the past nine days that I believe are related to watching the lectures. Thank you to all the presenters.”

Source: https://en.minghui.org/html/articles/2026/9/30/236257.html

Investigator Ethan Gutmann estimates that 25,000–50,000 Uyghurs, Kazakhs and other Turkic detainees in Xinjiang are killed annually for their organs. He presented this estimate in May 2026 congressional testimony, drawing on witness accounts and calculations based on detention numbers and disappearance rates.

The broader evidence includes an independent tribunal’s findings, peer-reviewed medical research, investigative reporting and parliamentary testimony.

The independent China Tribunal concluded that forced organ harvesting had occurred throughout China on a significant scale, with Falun Gong practitioners probably the principal source. A 2022 medical study identified 71 Chinese medical reports indicating that organ removal itself caused donor death. Another study found evidence suggesting systematic manipulation of official organ donation figures.

Investigations, books and tribunal findings

1. Bloody Harvest — David Kilgour and David Matas, 2006/2007. Investigation into organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners. Report and background
2. The Slaughter — Ethan Gutmann, 2014. Investigation into mass killings, organ harvesting and the persecution of dissidents. Book and investigation
3. Bloody Harvest/The Slaughter: An Update — David Kilgour, David Matas and Ethan Gutmann, 2016. Expanded investigation into China’s transplant industry. Full report and addendum
4. China Tribunal — 2019 conclusions and full judgment released in 2020. Judgment and reports | Original June 2019 announcement
5. The Killing of Innocents for Their Organs — Ethan Gutmann, 2021. Report on forced organ harvesting from Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang/East Turkestan. Report PDF
6. The Xinjiang Procedure — Ethan Gutmann, 2026. Publisher’s page
7. Killed to Order: China’s Organ Harvesting Industry and the True Nature of America’s Biggest Adversary — Jan Jekielek, 2026. Publisher’s page

Medical research and evidence analysis

1. What Is the Evidence of “Forced Organ Harvesting” in China? — Matthew Robertson, 2019. Journal of Political Risk
2. Analysis of Official Deceased Organ Donation Data Casts Doubt on the Credibility of China’s Organ Transplant Reform — Robertson, Hinde and Lavee, 2019. BMC Medical Ethics
3. Chinese Doctors Admitted in Undercover Calls That Harvested Organs Were Available, Informal Tribunal Finds — 2020. News coverage of the tribunal’s findings. The BMJ
4. Understanding the Evidence of Forced Organ Harvesting — Professor Wendy Rogers. ETAC training webinar
5. Execution by Organ Procurement: Breaching the Dead Donor Rule in China — Matthew P. Robertson and Jacob Lavee, 2022. American Journal of Transplantation
6. Cases Abusing Brain Death Definition in Organ Procurement in China — Norbert W. Paul, Kirk C. Allison and Huige Li, 2022. Cambridge Quarterly of Healthcare Ethics
7. China’s Killer Doctors — Jacob Lavee and Matthew Robertson, 2022. The researchers explain their findings for a general audience. Tablet article

Parliamentary records, testimony and reporting

1. Forced Live Organ Extraction in China — UK House of Commons Library, 2019. Parliamentary briefing recording the evidence and government positions at that time. Briefing PDF
2. Stopping the Crime of Organ Harvesting: What More Must Be Done? — Congressional-Executive Commission on China, 20-Mar-2024. Official hearing transcript | CECC announcement
3. Cynthia Sun’s written testimony to the CECC — 20-Mar-2024. Testimony PDF | Falun Dafa Information Center’s hearing coverage
4. Gutmann’s 2026 congressional testimony. This summary includes his estimate of 25,000–50,000 victims annually and the assumptions behind it. Congressional summary
5. Organ Harvesting from Uyghurs: Evidence Grows, the U.S. Reacts — Ruth Ingram, 2023. Bitter Winter
6. Xinjiang’s Organ Transplant Expansion Sparks Alarm Over Uyghur Forced Organ Harvesting — Tasnim Nazeer, 2025. The Diplomat
7. Chinese Dissidents Are Being Executed for Their Organs, Former Hospital Worker Says — 2019. New York Post

Documentaries, videos and interviews

1. Harvested Alive — Ten Years of Investigation into Forced Organ Harvesting in China. Watch on YouTube
2. Human Rights with Susie Hughes of the Coalition to End Transplant Abuse in China — Voices in Bioethics podcast. Listen on Apple Podcasts | Episode background
3. Why China’s “Industrialized Killing” Matters to the West. Watch on YouTube

Broader context: persecution, detention and human rights

These sources cover related abuses and repression. They provide context rather than independently establishing the annual organ-harvesting estimate.

1. The Darkness Deepens: The Crackdown on Human Rights in China 2016–2020 — Conservative Party Human Rights Commission. Report PDF
2. “Their Goal Is to Destroy Everyone”: Uighur Camp Detainees Allege Systematic Rape — BBC, 2021. BBC investigation
3. The Uyghur Genocide: An Examination of China’s Breaches of the 1948 Genocide Convention. Video discussion
4. Xinjiang Documentation Project — University of British Columbia. Lived experiences and databases
5. A Multi-Generational Effort to Eliminate the Uyghurs: An Ongoing Genocide — Global Accountability Network, 2022. Report PDF | Publisher’s report page
6. China: Allegations of Human Rights Abuses — UK House of Lords Library, 2022. Parliamentary briefing
7. Unmasking China’s Gestapo — directed by Mathias Magnason. Documentary about the 610 Office and persecution of Falun Gong. Nspirement article | Watch the film
8. Diplomatic Disruptions and Disinformation: Beijing’s Global Drive to Stop Shen Yun — Falun Dafa Information Center. Report page | Report announcement
9. Vatican Diplomats Must Find Courage Again to Defend the Gospel. Commentary on religious persecution and diplomacy. National Catholic Register
10. Cardinal Once Jailed by Communists Criticizes Vatican’s “Silence” About China’s Persecution of Catholics. LifeSiteNews
11. China’s Colonial Games in Tibet — edited by Vijay Kranti, 2026. Book record

More than 700,000 people signed the petition to STOP Forced Organ Harvesting by CCP: FOHpetition.org

Following up on my previous post introducing this series →

[ https://www.reddit.com/r/falun_dafa/s/29bOhhUVKA ]

Annie - The Sujiatun Account, 2006

For the first story in this series, I want to start with Annie.

Annie was a nurse who worked at the Liaoning Province Thrombosis Treatment Center of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine. Her work involved statistics, logistics and accounting. She was also the wife of a neurosurgeon who worked at the same hospital.

In 2006, Annie came forward with an account describing what she said she learned and witnessed while working there.

According to her statement, her former husband removed the corneas of around 2,000 people between late 2001 and October 2003. She said that he initially did not know the people were Falun Gong practitioners, but later learned who they were and became aware that the procedures involved the removal of multiple organs.

Annie also described what she said she noticed through her work with hospital statistics and logistics, including increases in food and medical-supply consumption during periods when large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners were being detained.

Rather than summarize her story further, I think it’s better to let Annie speak for herself.

Below is her full statement as published in the FOH report:

My name is Annie. I used to work for Liaoning Province Thrombosis Treatment Center of Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine. I have exposed a concentration camp hidden inside the hospital. My work had to do with statistics. My ex-husband was a surgeon in that hospital. I’m sorry that I am not able to attend today’s press conference. I have been escaping from the danger of assassination for the past few years. When my ex-husband decided to stop removing organs from Falun Gong practitioners, he was nearly assassinated by an organization in China.

My ex-husband and I worked in this hospital from 1999 and 2004. [He removed] corneas of around 2,000 people … from the end of 2001 to October 2003.

In July 2001 … on the receipts I noted sharp increases in the food supplies. Also, the people in charge of the logistics were delivering meals to the facilities where Falun Gong practitioners were detained. From the receipts, the medical equipment supplies also sharply increased … After several months, the consumption of food and other supplies gradually decreased.

The person in charge of … sending food to Falun Gong practitioners detained told me that there were about 5,000 to 6,000 practitioners. At the time, a lot of public security bureaus and hospitals in many areas were detaining many Falun Gong practitioners. A lot of people working at the hospital, including me, were not Falun Gong practitioners. So, we didn’t pay attention. If it were not for what happened in 2003, when I found my ex-husband was directly involved in it, I probably wouldn’t be interested in this at all.

In 2003, I learned that Falun Gong practitioners had been transferred to the underground complex and other hospitals, because our hospital couldn’t hold so many people.

During the years of 2001–2002, I didn’t know anything about organ harvesting. I only knew the detention of these people.

The operations started in 2001. Some were done in our hospital, and some were done at other hospitals in the region. At the beginning [my ex-husband] also did the operations, but he did not know they were Falun Gong practitioners. He was a neurosurgeon. He removed corneas… Because our hospital was not an organ transplant hospital—it was only in charge of removal—how these organs were transplanted, he didn’t know. At the end of 2001, he started to operate, but he didn’t know these live bodies were Falun Gong practitioners. He got to know that in 2002. Usually, these Falun Gong practitioners were injected with a shot to cause heart failure. During the process these people would be pushed into operation rooms to have their organs removed. On the surface the heart stopped beating, but the brain was still functioning, because of that shot … These people were pushed to other operation rooms for removals of heart, liver, kidneys, etc. During one operation when he collaborated with other doctors, he learned they were Falun Gong practitioners, that their organs were removed while alive, and that it was not just cornea removal—they were removing many organs. In the later period of time, when these doctors cooperated together, they started doing the operations together. At the beginning, fearing information could leak out, different organs were removed by different doctors in different rooms. Later on, when they got money, they were no longer afraid anymore. They started to remove the organs together.

In the year 2002, [my] neighbor had a liver transplant. It cost 200,000 yuan. The hospital charged a little bit less for Chinese than foreigners. … [My ex-husband] was asked to help out in other hospitals. However, every time when he did such a favor, or provided this kind of help, he got lots of money, and cash awards—several dozen times his normal salary. … Paid in Chinese yuan. Equivalent to hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars. There was no proper procedure or paperwork for this kind of operation. So, there was no way to count the number of operations in the normal way. [My ex-husband] heard … that people were detained underground. If three operations were done every day, after several years of operation, for the 5,000–6,000 people, not many people would be left. This whole scheme and the trading of organs were organized by the government healthcare system. The doctors’ responsibility was simply to do what they were told to do. The bodies would be sent to the crematorium near the Sujiatun area … Usually the reasons were ‘the heart stopped beating,’ ‘heart failure.’ When these people were rounded up and detained, nobody knew their names or where they were from. So, when they were sent to the crematorium, nobody could claim their bodies.

Later, when [my ex-husband] wanted to quit, someone did try to kill him. He submitted his resignation letter … In February 2004, after his resignation was granted, the last month of working in the hospital … we received phone threats at home. Someone said to him, ‘You watch out for your life.’ One day we got off work in the afternoon. There were two people walking toward us trying to assassinate him … I pushed him aside and took the stab. Men do not have very good sixth senses, so he kept walking. When I realized the two people were going to pull the knife to stab him, I pushed him aside … Many people came over and I was sent to the hospital. These two men ran away … I learned that they were thugs hired by the government health authorities.

Some of the staff in this hospital knew about it … Many surgeons participated in such organ removal surgeries secretly. Some other staff members dared not reveal the secret even when they knew about it. They avoided talking about it because they didn’t want to be killed.

The majority of the Falun Gong practitioners were transferred from Dabei Prison, Masanjia Forced Labor Camp and other prisons in Shenyang. Others were kidnapped from parks or their homes. They were kidnapped because they refused to give up their belief in Falun Gong. The police didn’t have any search warrant and their families didn’t know it when they were arrested.

Because the Chinese Communist government’s state policy authorizes killing Falun Gong practitioners without any legal consequences, the death of Falun Gong practitioners in China’s penal system is nothing. I knew about this at the end of 2003.

At the time, my husband had become absent-minded and trance-like. He had been doing it for years, but he had never told me about it. He kept it as a secret. He often had terrible nightmares at night and woke up shrieking and terrified. He stared blankly at the TV. When the kid or I touched him, he would shriek. I found him becoming abnormal.

My ex-husband told me, ‘You have no idea of my agony. These Falun Gong practitioners were alive. It would be okay if we removed organs from dead bodies, but these people were truly alive.’

These things were done in secret … The intern doctors used Falun Gong practitioners’ bodies for experiments. Some doctors felt very painful after they had done it.

My ex-husband had the habit of keeping a diary. There is an entry in his diary. When a patient lost her conscience, he cut open her clothes with a scissor. A package fell out of her pocket. My husband opened it and found a small box inside. Inside the box, there were a lucky charm with Falun Gong symbol and a note. It says, ‘Mommy Happy Birthday.’

I am not a Falun Gong practitioner. I am not speaking here with the same high level of morality as Falun Gong practitioners.

Source: FOH report / Annie’s 2006 statement.

I’m sharing her account in full because that’s the point of this series. We’ve seen the investigations, documents, statistics and official records , but behind all of that are individual people with their own stories.

This is #1.

One witness at a time.

More witness accounts to come.

Hi everyone,

We’ve recently seen the U.S. Senate pass the Falun Gong and Victims of Forced Organ Harvesting Protection Act, addressing forced organ harvesting in China.

While that’s a significant development, I wanted to share something a little different - the real human stories behind it. Over the coming posts, I’m going to share the stories of individual witnesses, and family members of victims who have described the persecution of Falun Gong and forced organ harvesting in China.

The idea is simple -one witness at a time.

Some of these stories are difficult to read. But if we want to understand just how dark the persecution became for the people caught up in it, I think these stories deserve to be heard. Wherever possible, I’ll present the witness’s own words and provide the original source so you can read and look into it yourself.

The first witness will be Annie — the Sujiatun account from 2006.

Her story will be the first post in the series. I’d really like to hear your thoughts on these accounts as we go along. Thanks for reading.