The Amazing Effectiveness of Folk Remedies

Translated into more than thirty different languages, the book Zhuan Falun has spread all over the world. Within this book is a story that describes a folk remedy formula that was spread amongst the people. The story discusses how the remedy was being used and sold by a vendor on the street. With his yellowish medicinal solution and some matchsticks, he pulled out a person’s tooth with ease.

“Some people talk about how great today’s medicine is. That’s not how I see it. Ancient Chinese herbs could really get rid of sickness efficiently. A lot of things were lost as they were passed down, while a good number haven’t been lost and have been passed down as folk medicine.” (Zhuan Falun).

Two years before I started cultivation practice, in the early months of 1999, a wart appeared on my cheek. One night I had insomnia, which I had never experienced before. I was suffering from a cold and had been to see a traditional Chinese doctor in Taipei. The next morning, I called him and asked what I could do about my insomnia. He directed me to put a bit of salt with the medicine that I was taking for my cold. After doing this, indeed I had no more insomnia. However, soon a wart to appeared on my right cheek. I visited that traditional Chinese doctor in Taipei again. I imagined that taking some Chinese herbs could get rid of the wart. However, the doctor recommended laser treatments. Afterwards, I visited the Chinese medicine department at the local health center. The doctors there recommended laser treatments as well.

The use of lasers is an advanced treatment from western medicine for removing warts. Since I had never experienced it before, I was afraid of trying it, especially on my face. Originally I had no intention of undergoing laser treatment for the wart. However, after uncontrollable urges to scratch it every night and finding blood when I woke up every morning, I realized that I had to do something about it.

When I was a boy, kids in the neighborhood would play hard and get scratch marks on their faces very frequently. Afterwards, when their parents saw the scratches, their mothers would tell them to put onion slices on their faces. The marks would quickly vanish. It was amazing that I remembered this folk treatment after all those years. So I bought some onions and applied a slice to my skin.

Every morning I would use a different thin slice of onion. I remember the first time I took off the skin coloured tape, that I used to cover it with, some of the wart came off with it as well. I was shocked at the effectiveness of the onion, how it could tell the good part from the bad. The bad part of the wart was peeling off and the good part, the skin of my face, was growing a very smooth new piece of skin. This process was a slow one, changing a little bit everyday. However, I wasn’t worried at all since I knew it would be healed completely one day.

During this time, friends would caringly inquire about my condition. I was taking math night classes from a famous professor at the university. My classmates asked how my face was. Also, at my work my boss rotates taking department employees out to dinner. When he took us out to dinner, he also asked, “Zheng Wen, how is your cheek?” On the weekends I would return home. My family members also inquired about the bandage on my face. Since they would not understand my using the onion even if I told them, I just explained simply that it wasn’t anything, and that it was getting better.

After two weeks the wart had completely fallen from my cheek. The spot where the wart used to be grew new, soft, white skin. At first, if you didn’t inspect it closely you couldn’t even see that there used to be something there. Slowly the new skin blended in with the rest of my skin, so invisible that there were no signs where the wart used to be. I have read in health and medical books about people growing warts on their feet and dying because of ill treatment. I never thought that the folk remedy for curing my wart would be so easy and effective, and that there would not be any scars.

There was also another experience during high school: round blisters grew on my legs. There were big ones and small ones. After hearing about different ways of treating blisters we decided to try them. I remember we used calligraphy pens to draw circles on the blisters and that didn’t seem to work. Next, we heard that there was a doctor of western medicine that was very good, so we went to see him. The doctor used chemicals to take the pen marks off. He then proceeded by cutting the blisters with a small knife. I laid on the bed and screamed from the intense pain. Not long after, the blisters on my legs were all gone. However this treatment left scars till this day. Was the result of this western doctor’s treatment any good? The treatment was painful and it left lifelong scars. The onion, on the other hand, could be purchased very cheaply and did not leave one scar. Also, it did not hurt at all.

Passed from person to person, indeed there are many great folk remedies. Years ago my family and I went to the cemetery. Many herbs grew on the mountains. My father would randomly pick one and explain what it could cure. I knew of many people in Taiwan who were doing research on the healing effects of herbs. Once I met an older gentleman who was not well educated and hadn’t read much. He first did excavation work, then as time went by he learned to do Feng Shui, pick herbs and other techniques. Patients who needed to have surgery because of tumors would go to him first and get cured by the herbs he picked. He did not charge much, just enough for basic living was sufficient for him. I highlighted this gentleman’s store in a small article published by the Chinese Times newspaper. I received letters from people wanting to meet this person. Years later I started practicing Falun Dafa, so I sent Dafa materials to these readers.

In reality, there are many cures and treatments among everyday people worth researching and looking into. Because of the influence of modern science, people do not believe in their effects. However, as modern medical science comes to understand more about its own shortcomings, these folk remedies will become more and more popular with the people.