PureInsight | September 20, 2004
[PureInsight.org] Over a year ago, I got a chance to make a presentation about Dr. Lili Feng's research on how practicing Falun Gong helps improve health, especially the immune system. At that time, I did not write about my experiences, but I have felt recently that I should share them.
I am a graduate student in an engineering program a state university in the southeastern U.S. In the summer of 2003, an e-mail was sent to all graduate students requesting them to submit abstracts of their research to a symposium. At that time, my personal research was not advanced enough for me to present it. But I had been reading about articles on PureInsight regarding Dr. Feng's studies, about how practicing Falun Gong helped a person's immunity.
I decided: "Why not, let me just submit an abstract about her research, and see what happens." I got in touch with Dr. Feng, who helpfully e-mailed me her slides and documents. Because my mother is a professor at a medical school and because I took biology courses in high school, I was fortunate to have enough background to understand her research and write an abstract.
Two weeks later, I was very surprised when I was informed that my abstract had been chosen for presentation! There were two reasons for my surprise: one was that I was an engineering student, and I was going to present something about medicine; and secondly, the research was done by someone else, not myself. Further, my presentation was one of the 4 that been chosen for a particular session – 4 out of maybe 50 or more submissions!
I sent an e-mail to the coordinators to find out if it was all right for me to make a presentation given such considerations. They replied that it was all right. I then proceeded to make a Powerpoint presentation documenting Dr. Feng's research.
I was still apprehensive on the day before my presentation. I continued to wonder whether the fact that I was an engineering student would affect my presentation. I was worried about what the reviewers in the panel would think when I mentioned that the research was not my original research.
To my surprise, things went very smoothly. Two fellow practitioners in my school came out to support me. The coordinators and the panel members were also very nice and helpful.
My presentation was right after a Chinese graduate student's presentation. Although I didn't get a chance to talk to her directly to clarify the truth, I glanced in her direction from time to time to see how she was reacting to the presentation. It seemed to me that she went from shock (that it was about Falun Gong) to surprise (that Falun Gong had such wonderful health benefits).
After I finished my presentation, several people asked simple questions, which I was able to answer. An American student mentioned that he had seen us on campus and was very interested in Falun Gong. He said that he had come from another session particularly to listen to this presentation about the health benefits of Falun Gong.
In the end, I was glad that I made the presentation despite all my fears and anxiety. It was a wonderful experience for me to read about Dr. Feng's research and be able to present it before an audience, all of whom now know about the benefits of Falun Gong.
The details of the presentation can be found online at http://grove.ufl.edu/~gsc/gsf/2003/schedule/2003book.pdf (page 105).
