Falun Gong (, ) or Falun Dafa (; Standard Mandarin Chinese: ; literally, "Dharma Wheel Practice" or "Law Wheel Practice") is a cult .Junker, Andrew. 2019. Becoming Activists in Global China: Social Movements in the Chinese Diaspora, pp. 23–24, 33, 119, 207. Cambridge University Press. ; Barker, Eileen. 2016. Revisionism and Diversification in New Religious Movements, cf. 142–43. Taylor & Francis. ; Oliver, Paul. 2012. New Religious Movements: A Guide for the Perplexed, pp. 81–84. Bloomsbury Academic. ; Hexham, Irving. 2009. Pocket Dictionary of New Religious Movements, pp. 49, 71. InterVarsity Press. ; Clarke, Peter. 2004. Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements. Taylor & Francis. ; Partridge, Christopher. 2004. Encyclopedia of New Religions: New Religious Movements, Sects and Alternative Spiritualities, 265–66. Lion. .Ownby, David. 2005. "The Falun Gong: A New Religious Movement in Post-Mao China" in Lewis, James R. & Jesper Aagaard. Editors. Controversial New Religions, 195–96. Oxford University Press. Falun Gong was founded by its leader Li Hongzhi in China in the early 1990s. Falun Gong has its global headquarters in Dragon Springs, a compound around Cuddebackville in Deerpark, New York, near the current residence of Li Hongzhi. Falun Gong's performance arts extension, Shen Yun ("Divine Rhythm") and two closely connected schools, Fei Tian ("Flying Sky-Being") College and Fei Tian Academy of the Arts, also operate in and around Dragon Springs.Zadronzy, Brandy & Ben Collins. 2019. "Trump, QAnon and an impending judgment day: Behind the Facebook-fueled rise of The Epoch Times". NBC News. Online. Last accessed May 19, 2020.Van der Made, Jaan. 2019. "Shen Yun: Fighting Communism – and making a stack on the side". Radio France Internationale, May 13, 2019. Online. Last accessed July 6, 2020. Quote: "Dragon Springs Buddhists, Inc. in the town of Cuddebackville functions as its informal headquarters" Although it is often referred to as such in journalistic literature, according to Schechter, Falun Gong does not satisfy the definition of a "sect" or "cult  " , although others disagree with the assertion, citing the status of Li Hongzhi being attributed with supernatural powers, since it is a hallmark of cults to attribute such to their founders.Silverman, David. "The Cult of Falun Gong: How this Group Raises Big Money Using a Dance Troupe and its Own Victimhood." Skeptic Altadena, CA%DIFDELCMD < ]%%% , vol. 24, no. 1, 2019, p. 24 A sect is generally defined as a branch or denomination of an established belief system or mainstream church. Although Falun Gong draws on both Buddhist and Daoist ideas and terminology, it claims no direct relationship or lineage connection to these religions.: "[Falun Gong] claims no immediate predecessor in the sense of asserting its position in a lineage of religions. Nonetheless, as will be clear throughout this book, many of the terms Li Hongzhi uses and the ideas that underpin Falun Gong teachings are found in Chinese religions of the past." Sociologists regard sects as exclusive groups that exist within clearly defined boundaries, with rigorous standards for admission and strict allegiances. However, as Noah Porter indicated, Falun Gong does not share these qualities: it does not have clearly defined boundaries, and anyone may practice it. Cheris Shun-ching Chan likewise writes that Falun Gong is "categorically not a sect": its practitioners do not sever ties with secular society, it is "loosely structured with a fluctuating membership and tolerant of other organizations and faiths," and it is more concerned with personal, rather than collective worship. According to David Ownby, Professor of History and Director of the Center for East Asian Studies at the Université de Montréal, Li became an "instant star of the qigong movement",David Ownby, "The Falun Gong in the New World". European Journal of East Asian Studies, Sep 2003, Vol. 2 Issue 2, p. 306 and Falun Gong was embraced by the government as an effective means of lowering health care costs, promoting Chinese culture, and improving public morality. In December 1992, for instance, Li and several Falun Gong students participated in the Asian Health Expo in Beijing, where he reportedly "received the most praise [of any qigong school] at the fair, and achieved very good therapeutic results", according to the fair's organizer. The event helped cement Li's popularity, and journalistic reports of Falun Gong's alleged healing powers spread. In 1993, a publication of the Ministry of Public Security praised Li for "promoting the traditional crime-fighting virtues of the Chinese people, in safeguarding social order and security, and in promoting rectitude in society." International reception Since 1999, numerous Western governments and human rights organizations have expressed condemnation of the Chinese government's suppression of Falun Gong. Since 1999, members of the United States Congress have made public pronouncements and introduced several resolutions in support of Falun Gong. In 2010, U.S. House of Representatives Resolution 605 called for "an immediate end to the campaign to persecute, intimidate, imprison, and torture Falun Gong practitioners", condemned the Chinese authorities' efforts to distribute "false propaganda" about the practice worldwide, and expressed sympathy to persecuted Falun Gong members and their families.United States House Resolution 605 , United States Government Printing Office, 17 March 2010Einhorn, Bruce, (17 March 2010). "Congress Challenges China on Falun Gong & Yuan, Businessweek Adam Frank writes that in reporting on the Falun Gong, the Western tradition of casting the Chinese as "exotic" took dominance, and that while the facts were generally correct in Western media coverage, "the normalcy that millions of Chinese practitioners associated with the practice had all but disappeared."Frank 2004, p. 241 David Ownby blamed the group's perception in the West as a culton the Chinese government's classification of it as one; Ownby (2000), p. 248 nevertheless, outside observers have noted the group bears key defining characteristics of a cult.
Falun Gong (, ) or Falun Dafa (; Standard Mandarin Chinese: ; literally, "Dharma Wheel Practice" or "Law Wheel Practice") is a new religious movement .Junker, Andrew. 2019. Becoming Activists in Global China: Social Movements in the Chinese Diaspora, pp. 23–24, 33, 119, 207. Cambridge University Press. ; Barker, Eileen. 2016. Revisionism and Diversification in New Religious Movements, cf. 142–43. Taylor & Francis. ; Oliver, Paul. 2012. New Religious Movements: A Guide for the Perplexed, pp. 81–84. Bloomsbury Academic. ; Hexham, Irving. 2009. Pocket Dictionary of New Religious Movements, pp. 49, 71. InterVarsity Press. ; Clarke, Peter. 2004. Encyclopedia of New Religious Movements. Taylor & Francis. ; Partridge, Christopher. 2004. Encyclopedia of New Religions: New Religious Movements, Sects and Alternative Spiritualities, 265–66. Lion. .Ownby, David. 2005. "The Falun Gong: A New Religious Movement in Post-Mao China" in Lewis, James R. & Jesper Aagaard. Editors. Controversial New Religions, 195–96. Oxford University Press. Falun Gong was founded by its leader Li Hongzhi in China in the early 1990s. Falun Gong has its global headquarters in Dragon Springs, a compound around Cuddebackville in Deerpark, New York, near the current residence of Li Hongzhi. Falun Gong's performance arts extension, Shen Yun ("Divine Rhythm") and two closely connected schools, Fei Tian ("Flying Sky-Being") College and Fei Tian Academy of the Arts, also operate in and around Dragon Springs.Zadronzy, Brandy & Ben Collins. 2019. "Trump, QAnon and an impending judgment day: Behind the Facebook-fueled rise of The Epoch Times". NBC News. Online. Last accessed May 19, 2020.Van der Made, Jaan. 2019. "Shen Yun: Fighting Communism – and making a stack on the side". Radio France Internationale, May 13, 2019. Online. Last accessed July 6, 2020. Quote: "Dragon Springs Buddhists, Inc. in the town of Cuddebackville functions as its informal headquarters" Although it is often referred to as such in journalistic literature, according to Schechter, Falun Gong does not satisfy the definition of a "sect" or "cult . " %DIFDELCMD < ]%%% A sect is generally defined as a branch or denomination of an established belief system or mainstream church. Although Falun Gong draws on both Buddhist and Daoist ideas and terminology, it claims no direct relationship or lineage connection to these religions.: "[Falun Gong] claims no immediate predecessor in the sense of asserting its position in a lineage of religions. Nonetheless, as will be clear throughout this book, many of the terms Li Hongzhi uses and the ideas that underpin Falun Gong teachings are found in Chinese religions of the past." Sociologists regard sects as exclusive groups that exist within clearly defined boundaries, with rigorous standards for admission and strict allegiances. However, as Noah Porter indicated, Falun Gong does not share these qualities: it does not have clearly defined boundaries, and anyone may practice it. Cheris Shun-ching Chan likewise writes that Falun Gong is "categorically not a sect": its practitioners do not sever ties with secular society, it is "loosely structured with a fluctuating membership and tolerant of other organizations and faiths," and it is more concerned with personal, rather than collective worship. According to David Ownby, Professor of History and Director of the Center for East Asian Studies at the Université de Montréal, Li became an "instant star of the qigong movement",David Ownby, "The Falun Gong in the New World". European Journal of East Asian Studies, Sep 2003, Vol. 2 Issue 2, p. 306 and Falun Gong was embraced by the government as an effective means of lowering health care costs, promoting Chinese culture, and improving public morality. In December 1992, for instance, Li and several Falun Gong students participated in the Asian Health Expo in Beijing, where he reportedly "received the most praise [of any qigong school] at the fair, and achieved very good therapeutic results", according to the fair's organizer. The event helped cement Li's popularity, and journalistic reports of Falun Gong's healing powers spread. In 1993, a publication of the Ministry of Public Security praised Li for "promoting the traditional crime-fighting virtues of the Chinese people, in safeguarding social order and security, and in promoting rectitude in society." International reception Since 1999, numerous Western governments and human rights organizations have expressed condemnation of the Chinese government's suppression of Falun Gong. Since 1999, members of the United States Congress have made public pronouncements and introduced several resolutions in support of Falun Gong. In 2010, U.S. House of Representatives Resolution 605 called for "an immediate end to the campaign to persecute, intimidate, imprison, and torture Falun Gong practitioners", condemned the Chinese authorities' efforts to distribute "false propaganda" about the practice worldwide, and expressed sympathy to persecuted Falun Gong practitioners and their families.United States House Resolution 605 , United States Government Printing Office, 17 March 2010Einhorn, Bruce, (17 March 2010). "Congress Challenges China on Falun Gong & Yuan, Businessweek Adam Frank writes that in reporting on the Falun Gong, the Western tradition of casting the Chinese as "exotic" took dominance, and that while the facts were generally correct in Western media coverage, "the normalcy that millions of Chinese practitioners associated with the practice had all but disappeared."Frank 2004, p. 241 David Ownby wrote that alongside these tactics, the "cult" label applied to Falun Gong by the Chinese authorities never entirely went away in the minds of some Westerners, and the stigma still plays a role in wary public perceptions of Falun Gong. Ownby (2000), p. 248 
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cult
new religious movement
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, although others disagree with the assertion, citing the status of Li Hongzhi being attributed with supernatural powers, since it is a hallmark of cults to attribute such to their founders.Silverman, David. "The Cult of Falun Gong: How this Group Raises Big Money Using a Dance Troupe and its Own Victimhood." Skeptic
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Altadena, CA
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, vol. 24, no. 1, 2019, p. 24
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alleged
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members
practitioners
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blamed the group's perception in the West as a culton the Chinese government's classification of it as one;
wrote that alongside these tactics, the "cult" label applied to Falun Gong by the Chinese authorities never entirely went away in the minds of some Westerners, and the stigma still plays a role in wary public perceptions of Falun Gong.
D
nevertheless, outside observers have noted the group bears key defining characteristics of a cult.