* Central Leading Group for Preventing and Handling the Problem of Heretical Organizations ( related to Falun Gong );

Falun Gong teaches that the spirit is locked in the cycle of rebirth, also known as samsara due to the accumulation of karma.

Falun Gong states that karma is the reason for suffering, and what ultimately blocks people from the truth of the universe and attaining enlightenment.

Ownby regards the concept of karma as a cornerstone to individual moral behaviour in Falun Gong, and also readily traceable to the Christian doctrine of " one reaps what one sows ".

Ownby says Falun Gong is differentiated by a " system of transmigration " though, " in which each organism is the reincarnation of a previous life form, its current form having been determined by karmic calculation of the moral qualities of the previous lives lived.

* 1992 – Li Hongzhi gives the first public lecture on Falun Gong in Changchun, People's Republic of China.

Stephen A. Kent analyzes and summarizes the use of the brainwashing meme by non-sociologists in the period 2000-2007, finding the term useful not only in the context of " New Religions / Cults ", but equally under the headings of " Teen Behavior Modification Programs ; Terrorist Groups ; Dysfunctional Corporate Culture ; Interpersonal Violence ; and Alleged Chinese Governmental Human Rights Violations Against Falun Gong ".

In spite of this, dissent continued to be suppressed, and President Jiang Zemin launched a brutal crackdown against the Falun Gong religious sect in 1999.

* May 13 – Falun Gong is introduced by Li Hongzhi in China.

The use of the swastika by the Bön faith of Tibet, as well as later syncretic religions, such as Cao Dai of Vietnam and Falun Gong of China, can also be traced to Buddhist influence.

Falun Gong or Falun Dafa ( literally means " Dharma Wheel Practice ") is a spiritual discipline first introduced in China in 1992 through public lectures by its founder, Li Hongzhi.

Falun Gong emphasises morality and the cultivation of virtue in its central tenets of Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance (), and identifies as a qigong practice of the Buddhist school, though its teachings also incorporate elements drawn from Taoist traditions.

Through moral rectitude and the practice of meditation, practitioners of Falun Gong aspire to better health and, ultimately, spiritual enlightenment.

Falun Gong emerged at the end of China's " qigong boom ", a period which saw the proliferation of similar practices of meditation, slow-moving exercises and regulated breathing.

Western academics have described Falun Gong as a qigong discipline, a " spiritual movement " based on the teachings of its founder, a " cultivation system " in the tradition of Chinese antiquity, and sometimes a religion or new religious movement.

Although the practice initially enjoyed considerable support from Chinese officialdom, by the mid-to late-1990s, the Communist Party and public security organs increasingly viewed Falun Gong as a potential threat due to its size, independence from the state, and spiritual teachings.

By 1999, some estimates placed the number of Falun Gong adherents in the tens of millions.

In October 1999 it declared Falun Gong a " heretical organization " and began banning Internet access to websites that mention Falun Gong.

Human rights groups report that Falun Gong practitioners in China are subject to a wide range of human rights abuses ; hundreds of thousands are believed to have been imprisoned extrajudicially, and practitioners in detention are subject to forced labor, psychiatric abuse, torture, and other coercive methods of thought reform at the hands of Chinese authorities.

In the years since the suppression campaign began, Falun Gong adherents have emerged as a prominent voice in the Chinese dissident community, advocating for greater human rights and an end to Communist Party rule.

The alleged oldest commercial corporation in the world, the Stora Kopparberg mining community in Falun, Sweden, obtained a charter from King Magnus Eriksson in 1347.

Falun Gong is distinct from other qigong schools in that its teachings cover a wide range of spiritual and metaphysical topics, placing emphasis on morality and virtue, and elaborating a complete cosmology.

Falun Gong differentiates itself from Buddhist monastic traditions in that it places great importance on participation in the secular world.

Falun Gong adherents are required to maintain regular jobs and family lives, to observe the laws of their respective governments, and are instructed not to distance themselves from society.

As part of its emphasis on ethical behavior, Falun Gong's teachings prescribe a strict personal morality for practitioners, which includes abstention from smoking, drugs, gambling, premarital or extramarital sex, and homosexuality.

The Falun Gong teachings use numerous untranslated Chinese religious and philosophical terms, and make frequent allusion to characters and incidents in Chinese folk literature and concepts drawn from Chinese popular religion, including such concepts as spirit possession.

Falun Gong is a multifaceted discipline that means different things to different people, ranging from a set of physical exercises for the attainment of better health and a praxis of self-transformation, to a moral philosophy and a new knowledge system.

Human rights groups report on the suppression of Falun Gong as a violation of religious freedom, and in 2001, Falun Gong was given an International Religious Freedom Award from Freedom House.

Falun Gong assistants were self-selecting volunteers who taught the exercises, organized events, and disseminated new writings from Li Hongzhi.

Following its departure from the CQRS in 1996, Falun Gong came under increased scrutiny from authorities and responded by adopting a more decentralized and loose organizational structure.

Falun Gong attracted a range of other individuals, from young college students to bureaucrats, intellectuals and Party officials.

According to Richard Madsen, Chinese scientists with doctorates from prestigious American universities who practice Falun Gong claim that modern physics ( for example, superstring theory ) and biology ( specifically the pineal gland's function ) provide a scientific basis for their beliefs.

Falun Gong had differentiated itself from other qigong groups in its emphasis on morality, low cost, and health benefits.

In March, 1996, in response to mounting disagreements, Falun Gong withdrew from the Qigong Association, after which time it operated outside the official sanction of the state.

Falun Gong was initially shielded from the mounting criticism of qigong, but following its withdrawal from the CQRS in March 1996, it lost its protection.

Li made statements that practitioners ' response to criticism showed their hearts and " would separate the false disciples from the true ones ", also indicating that publicly defending the practice was a righteous act and an important aspect of Falun Gong cultivation.

Wu Shaozu, an official from China's National Sports Commission, was at this time quoted in an interview with U. S. News & World Report that as many as 100 million may have taken up Falun Gong and other forms of qigong.

Called China Falun Gong, or simply Falun Gong, is an introductory text that discusses qigong, Falun Gong's relationship to Buddhism, the principles of cultivation practice and the improvement of moral character ( xinxing ).

In discussing the portrayal of Falun Gong as " anti-gay ", Ethan Gutmann notes that Falun Gong's teachings are " essentially indistinguishable " from traditional religions such as Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism.

Li situates his teaching of Falun Gong amidst the " Dharma-ending period " ( Mo Fa, 末法 ), described in Buddhist scriptures as an era of moral decline when the teachings of Buddhism would need to be rectified.

In addition to its moral philosophy, Falun Gong consists of four standing exercises and one sitting meditation.

Porter writes that practitioners of Falun Gong are encouraged to read Falun Gong books and practice its exercises on a regular basis, preferably daily.

In the West, Falun Gong is frequently classified as a religion on the basis of its theological and moral teachings, its concerns with spiritual cultivation and transformation, and its extensive body of scripture.

James Tong writes that it was in the government's interest to portray Falun Gong as highly organized in order to justify its repression of the group: " The more organized the Falun Gong could be shown to be, then the more justified the regime's repression in the name of social order was.

In 1995, Chinese authorities began looking to Falun Gong to solidify its organizational structure and ties to the party-state.

In the face of Falun Gong's rise in popularity, a large part of which was attributed to its low cost, competing qigong masters accused Li of undercutting them.

Until this juncture, Falun Gong had successfully negotiated the space between science and native tradition in the public representation of its teachings, avoiding any suggestion of superstition.