An instructional workshop on Falun Dafa, a meditation and exercise from China, took place Saturday at the Ames Public Library to end “Falun Dafa Week” in Ames.

Falun Dafa, also known as Falun Gong, is a form of qigong [chee-gong], a Chinese tradition that hearkens back thousands of years, said Margaret Jiang, president of the Falun Dafa Association at Iowa State.

“Qi is a lower form of energy, and gong is a higher form of energy,” said Jiang, graduate student in food science. “Put together, it is an art that helps people transcend body and spirit and helps them to reach enlightenment.”

Four people participated in the workshop. Ames Mayor Ted Tedesco issued a proclamation declaring Feb. 10-16 as “Falun Dafa Week.” He said Falun Dafa “is designed to help people cleanse their mind, uplift their moral standards, rid bad habits, preserve precious human traditions such as honesty, courtesy, loyalty and unselfishness.”

Falun Dafa integrates the principles of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance with five, simple, yoga-like exercises designed to clear the mind and ease the transition to tranquility, Jiang said. She said Falun Dafa encourages people to apply these principles to their daily lives and to solve problems from the inside out by looking inside the self to see if any of these principles have been violated.

Workshop participants practiced two of the five exercises, watched a video on the practices and misconceptions of Falun Dafa and read information on the practice of Falun Dafa.

Founded in 1992 by Li Hongzhi, Falun Dafa was created so qigong could be more accessible, Jiang said. Previously, she said, qigong practices were passed down from teacher to student and never publicized.

Barb Egemo, of Ames, attended the workshop, and said she practices Falun Dafa for both the spiritual and the physical benefits.

“It’s spiritual and I love the music; I’ve never heard anything like it,” Egemo said. “I’m kind of an exercise nut. To do aerobics, you need to be in good physical condition. Falun Dafa is more like yoga.”

Jiang said practice of Falun Dafa can help those with chronic illnesses and diseases.

“Practicing Falun Gong can relieve suffering,” Jiang said.

Junbiao Dai, vice president of the Chinese Students and Scholars Friendship Association, questioned the ability of Falun Dafa to cure illness.

“Most people studying science do not believe practicing Falun Gong can do that,” said Dai, graduate student in molecular, cellular and developmental biology. “

Falun Dafa has been vilified by the Chinese government since 1999, Jiang said.

Amnesty International, an international human rights organization, reports on its Web site that in some areas of China, Falun Dafa practitioners are being systematically detained in “reform centers,” and those who don’t renounce their beliefs are kept in jail.

Falun Info Net, a Web site devoted to news and information about Falun Gong, reports 359 people have been killed from police torture and brutality since China began its “crackdown” on Falun Dafa.

Jiang said the Chinese government wasn’t adverse to the practice of Falun Dafa until they saw the results of a national survey in 1997. The survey showed that more than 70 million people in China practiced Falun Dafa, a number that exceeded the membership of the Communist party in China, she said.

“The Chinese government uses propaganda to convince Chinese people that Falun Dafa is evil and bad, and that it has been abandoned everywhere,” Jiang said.

Jiang said governmental control may have some Chinese afraid to learn about Falun Dafa.

“We have no political agenda in Falun Gong,” she said.

Dai said that the practices of Falun Dafa are not representative of the majority of Chinese students at Iowa State.

“We don’t try to stop them – they can practice by themselves. But some of the reports [of torture] are not true,” Dai said.

The Falun Dafa group at Iowa State practices Monday through Thursday at the Campanile from 12:15 p.m. to 1 p.m.