(Clearwisdom.net) When Jiang decided to "eradicate Falun Gong within three months," he used the evil Party to illegally set up the gigantic 610 Office system that blanketed the nation. Meanwhile, he also illegally established different sized brainwashing centers around the country, with various titles, such as the "Legal System Education Center," "Legal System Education School," "Mental Education School," "Study Class," etc. The purpose is to mentally destroy Falun Gong practitioners and "reform" them, making practitioners give up their cultivation and practice of Falun Dafa.
Seven years have passed, and some practitioners indeed have been "reformed" after the mental abuse in the brainwashing centers. Some of them were compelled to be "reformed" against their will; some were deceived by the hypocrisies and then were "reformed;" some were "reformed" out of the misunderstanding of the Fa principles and the failure to see through the vicious harangues by the evil; and so forth. Nevertheless, for genuine Dafa disciples, after going through this tribulation they have completely recognized the evil nature of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and then further treasured and consolidated their belief in Falun Dafa and Teacher.
Based on what I know, I am exposing some of the approaches utilized by the CCP to forcibly brainwash practitioners. From this we can discern how the CCP is devastating human nature and then better understand that the promise of "freedom of belief" flaunted by the CCP and claimed by the Constitution and laws is nothing but a lie.
Use of Technology for Surveillance and Control of Practitioners
The practitioners who are illegally arrested are usually placed in rooms with electronic surveillance devices so that their every behavior is monitored. The authorities forbid practitioners to practice the exercise or to sit with their legs crossed. They also conduct body searches. When they arrange for one or several of them to take turns "talking with" the practitioners, the others watch in the monitoring room. The purpose of the "talk" is to determine whether the practitioner is a silent type, excitable, truth-clarifying, whether they may protest with a hunger strike, etc. Then they will adopt corresponding measures based on their judgments to "reform" the practitioners.
The length of detention for the practitioner is based on his or her reactions during the brainwashing sessions, for instance: Would the practitioner take food? Would the practitioner do manual labor as assigned? Would the practitioner answer questions? If the practitioner takes food, they will claim, "You can go home early if every other aspect of your behavior is as cooperative." If the practitioner is on a hunger strike, they will remark, "Nobody knows how long you will stay here." They will even attack Dafa and Teacher if the practitioner adopts anti-persecution behavior such as a hunger strike. Meanwhile they will conduct the torturous force-feeding. With regard to labor, if the practitioner refuses to cooperate to complete the illegal work assignments, they will vilify Dafa and say it makes practitioners vicious and only willing to take but not give back, and similar such phrases. Apparently those are all rote smearing phrases, and none of them can withstand a practitioner's refutation.
Some practitioners try to get an early release using different reasoning, then yield to the evil's arrangements and pretend to be "reformed." In that case, the authorities will adopt measures to detect and observe whether a practitioner has been truly "reformed." For example, they arrange for somebody to talk to this practitioner and to intentionally attack Teacher and Dafa during the conversation, while others observe the practitioner's facial expressions and body language. It is written in one of their books specializing in the study of how to "reform," that if a Falun Gong practitioner has even the slightest movement when the Teacher of Falun Gong is attacked, it is an indication that the practitioner is still grateful to Teacher in his heart, and it can be determined that the practitioner is only pretending to be "reformed." Nevertheless, whether the practitioner who was "reformed" is sincere or not, they will track the practitioner as soon as he or she is released and then arrest other practitioners who contact him or her. In addition, they will force the practitioner to "deliver information" to them periodically.
The authorities will also assign the practitioners to write the so-called "Four Statements" (similar to "The Three Statements"). Apart from the demand that practitioners completely break from Teacher and Dafa, they further demand the "exposure and criticism" of Teacher and Dafa. Then they will judge whether or not the "reform" of the practitioner is truly ingrained, based on the intensity of the "exposure" and "criticism."
Forcing Practitioners to Watch Videos and Read Materials That Slander Falun Gong
The persecutors use many types of videos and other materials to "reform" practitioners. Some are "scientific," some smear the Falun Gong Teacher, some focus on the staged "Self-Immolation on Tiananmen Square," while others attack Teacher's Fa teachings, and so on.
Their "exposing and critical" materials are filled with rumors, aspersions, condemnations, vituperation, lies, etc. Among those materials, the most obvious is their corruption of Teacher's Fa lectures. A paragraph is taken out of context, to be perverted and smeared. They then force the practitioners to "study" such perverted materials and coerce them to repeatedly write "Gains in Study." Without succeeding in "reform," they continue to demand the "study" and the writing of "Gains in Study" until the practitioners are eventually considered to be "reformed," with their brains numb and deluded. They assign agents to "accompany" the practitioners in the forced "study" of the made-up stuff, aiming to detect the practitioners' words and observe their expressions, and to look over their reactions. As for the writing of "Gains in Study" and "Feelings and Ideas," they will regard those writers who have better handwriting as being well-educated and therefore demand a more "profound" "Gains in Study" report. Failing that, they force the practitioners to watch more videos, "study" more materials, and write more "Gains in Study."
The Illegal Nature of the Existence of Brainwashing Centers
The villainy of arresting people and taking them to brainwashing centers is illegal, to force Falun Gong practitioners to give up their belief is illegal, to force people to accept the ill-natured principles and lessons of the evil Party is worse, and the existence itself of the brainwashing centers is illegal. The brainwashing centers seek to achieve "reform" by fabricating, smearing, and framing. Actually it is the persecutors who are conducting the evil spiritual manipulation, forcibly indoctrinating the masses with that vicious set of distorted principles, and constraining others to believe in nothing but the lies of the Party. If someone refuses to believe in their lies, he or she will be detained, and if they are not "reformed," the person will not be released and then will be put into a labor camp. It is very clear who is conducting "spiritual manipulation." It is regulated by the Chinese Criminal Law that the public security organizations "shall execute due penalties to such lawbreakers as thieves, robbers, prostitution abusers, gamblers, drug-abusers, etc. after the procedures of investigation and attestation, verification, submitted reports, authorization and punishment notification in line with juristic formality." The practitioners in brainwashing centers, however, go through no legal formalities or procedures and detention can be arbitrarily arranged by 610 Offices, which are outstripping the rule of law, or even can be directly conducted by the Street Offices. Furthermore, there are no terms of detention, no "reform," and no freedom. The brainwashing centers are not merely illegal, they are the criminal root and branches of the evil CCP.
Indeed, some practitioners have been "reformed" during persecution in brainwashing centers, but most of them were forced to do so against their will. They heartily believe in Dafa and Teacher from years of cultivation and practice, but they have lost their righteous thoughts during the endless detention. They write a Guarantee Statement against their will. Once they do that, the misery in their hearts makes living almost more painful than death. Even if they have already gotten rid of their shackles, they cannot get rid of the pain from "betraying Dafa" in their hearts, and they become desperate. I myself have experienced this kind of psychological torment.
The preceding exposes the evilness in brainwashing centers, based on my own experience. It is only a small fraction of the persecution imposed on practitioners by the evil Party in the brainwashing centers.