Man or Beast? Revealing the Root of Forced Labour Camp Brainwashing

I am a Falun Dafa practitioner who was imprisoned at Beijing Women's Forced Labour Camp in 2001. I witnessed how the guards used "The Same Song" to brainwash Falun Gong practitioners, and how the collaborators fooled themselves by singing this song, and subsequently lost precious opportunities to cultivate.

Brainwashing Procedure at Beijing Women's Forced Labour Camp:

1. The dispatch centre forced me to address myself as "forced labour camp member so-and-so" before I was allowed to eat.

2. The dispatch centre coerces practitioners to write a "guarantee letter" promising not to do the exercises in the camp. If you comply, you are sent to do hard labour while being watched by drug addicts. Practitioners are not allowed to speak to one another. If you refuse to write a guarantee, you are made to squat in the courtyard under the baking sun or freezing wind.

3. In a forced labour camp, each brigade holds about 100-120 people, with 12 people in each "team," including 1-2 drug addicts. Practitioners who agree to the demands are classified as "transformed¹" and treated accordingly. Steadfast Dafa practitioners are put into solitary confinement and other prisoners know nothing of their existence at the labour camp. Whenever one or two new practitioners arrive, they storm him or her to try to brainwash them. The person responsible is called the "personal cangue." They try to suffocate the practitioners with brainwashing, thereby smothering their righteous thoughts. When one "inmate" is unable to complete the task of transforming the practitioner, guards assign a replacement.

Brainwashing at forced labour camps is more covert and insidious than at detention centres. The guards knew that practitioners were "transformed" due to their confusion, so they transferred steadfast practitioners to isolation or "training camp" to prevent them from influencing those who had been "transformed."

Almost all personal cangues would say something like this: "There will be a day when you cannot take it anymore." What does this mean? To put it directly, all those transformed were out of fear. As soon as you acknowledge the persecution one bit, fears will become rampant. They will manifest themselves in prisons, the laws, etc. The illusion created by a human's mind makes the fear very real. So it is difficult for human beings to acknowledge that they give in to violence and animal instincts. They make up excuses to justify their actions. They is very deceptive. They maintain people's fear, but sing songs and otherwise make people forget their prior submission to the fear. Only when one sees oneself as a slave, does one truly become so. This is why they won't allow people to sleep, use the washroom, or speak. They also use guards and personal cangues to brainwash practitioners, until the practitioners cannot take it any longer and surrender.

Ancient Chinese people said that "a promise is worth a thousand dollars." How do those who denounce their faith come to terms with that? They made up all kinds of absurd excuses, including having heard the Same Song, and the song of Qingzang Prairie, causing them to believe that they had completed their cultivation path. They reinforced their lies by telling them to others. In addition, some said that they felt inspired by reading "'The Story of Lei Feng". Others felt that the 23 Rules of the forced labour camp are the principles for human beings to live by. Those who have written the three "guarantee statements" admitted that it was painful to do so. In exchange, they are given smiling faces, more sleep and more chances to use the toilet and to be able to go out to do some exercise and outdoor work. They sought solace from the Same Song to suppress their pain. The Same Song became part of the brainwashing rituals.

No matter what method they use, the purpose is to turn a human being into an animal who is only interested in eating, drinking and excreting and to make you think that the basic needs of human beings are above all else. Through torturing the physical body, they make people think that physical comfort is the ultimate pursuit, and as a result destroy human moral standards.

Throughout the process, people's spirits are destroyed. They make you give up all spiritual pursuits. Only physical needs are of concern. In addition, they use bad language to insult your beliefs until you feel that avoiding insults and enjoying physical comforts are the most desirable things in life.

As long as you give up your faith, they will stop insulting you. When you sing the Same Song, you experience a short-lived sense of liberation and happiness. In fact, man has been imitating the ways and the sounds of animals. Human standards have been grossly demeaned, so much so that observance of animal instincts is groundlessly viewed as "natural," and as a result, divine nature is disregarded.

The police's mentality is split. On the one hand, they have to employ their animal nature to brainwash the practitioners. Yet, on the other, they disguise the evil with a false front of human nature to lead practitioners astray. To sing the Same Song, they present their human nature for others to see. They force themselves to believe that beating up and yelling at people every day is a form of kindness done for the tortured person's own good. They think that by implementing the "law" (though in fact the persecution of Falun Gong is entirely illegal) they can avoid personal responsibility. In reality, however, they are very clear who is in contempt of the law. They cling to the communist heaven-on-earth illusion despite its inherent evil nature. Furthermore, they are very clear that what they are preaching is all lies. New university graduates who wrote exams to get into the civil services had to spout lies about Falun Gong, nevertheless, they wound up in forced labour camp. Disillusioned, they became numb and sank to very low states.

Note

1. "Reform or Transform" Implementation of brainwashing and torture in order to force a practitioner to renounce Falun Gong. (Variations: "reform", "transform", "reformed", "reforming", "transformed", "transforming", and "transformation")

Chinese version available at http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2006/1/26/119464.html