In recent years, "spiritual" organizations that are concealed, short-lived, and highly profitable have emerged in many places across the country. Such organizations often use the name of "self-improvement" and "soul healing" to achieve mental control over students through carefully set courses and training, and ultimately enable students to actively or passively help the organizers to "draw people's heads" to make money. In the popular movie "Zhou Chu Eliminates Three Evils" that was released some time ago, there is also a similar "spiritual cultivation" organization. The leader calls himself "Venerable", controls the mind, defrauds people of money, and even kills people.
Implementing mental control under the banner of "soul shaping"
In early 2022, the public security agency received reports from the masses and discovered that an organization deified key elements, carried out mental control on students under the banner of "spiritual cultivation" and "soul shaping", and charged high training fees . The Public Security Bureau of Xiamen City, Fujian Province quickly set up a task force to conduct a comprehensive investigation of the gang's dynamics by using a variety of means. An illegal organization, headed by Deng Haipeng, who traveled to many provinces and used "spiritual cultivation" to engage in illegal and criminal activities, gradually emerged. .
The organization has a five-level organizational structure with thousands of members all over the country. During the training, the leader of the organization, Deng Haipeng, vigorously promoted concepts such as "soul shaping" and "collective field", preaching to the students that the Xiamen headquarters is the center of the universe and the place with the strongest collective field, and that he is the channel chosen by God.
Wang Longjie, Captain of the Criminal Investigation Detachment of the Xiamen Municipal Public Security Bureau: Deng Haipeng fictionalized that he is the spokesperson of God and the thickest channel to God. In this lie of his, as long as you participate in his so-called "soul shaping" training, you can obtain a mysterious energy in the so-called collective field he created to communicate with God, and through this mysterious energy you can It can cure all diseases and heal all difficulties.
In order to establish his absolute authority, Deng Haipeng also declared to the students that students who do not surrender to God or withdraw from the field will be punished by God.
Victim Xiao Zhang: We often send a signal, which is the operation of God. This means that if we go against the source and the will of God, then God will operate. The so-called operation of God means that we will have a very bad life and encounter all kinds of greater punishments, that is, God will punish us.
On the surface, he has no desires and desires, but behind the scenes, he defrauds money and sex.
Police investigation found that the so-called "soul healing" and "collective field" are nothing more than Deng Haipeng's means of brainwashing and mind-controlling students. Ultimately, they are for the purpose of pyramid schemes, franchises, Advanced and other modern marketing models achieve the purpose of making money and seducing others.
The police found out that the organization has set up eight large areas across the country and established ten "Xin Yangsheng" companies, with 370 related accounts involved. During the activities of this illegal group, Deng Haipeng not only brainwashed the students of the organization and asked them to provide funds and supplies, but also required the students to perform voluntary labor to publicize and expand the influence of the organization, spread its fallacies and heresies, and attract new victims.
Victim Xiao Li: In my work at the center (organization), I edited a film called "Disease Healing". During the editing process, we found that it was actually just taking some out of context, editing some of these clips, and finally highlighting the magical field-based thing that Deng Haipeng calls self-healing without treatment. Deng Haipeng said that when the soul stands up, the disease will heal itself without treatment, and this film is to promote this disease and to deceive more people to come to this workshop and pay tuition. of.
During the investigation, the police also found that in Deng Haipeng’s illegal organization, many volunteers or students had various difficult-to-treat diseases themselves or their family members before joining. After being controlled by his mind, they not only stopped accepting medical treatment from the hospital. treatment, leading to deterioration in physical condition, and even incurring heavy debts to pay funds to the organization.
Victim Xiao Wang: After my mother fell ill, I had no way to go back and take care of her. Because Deng Haipeng said at that time that if I took care of my mother there, my mother's illness would be more serious.
Defendant Deng Haipeng: After hearing about these things about the students, I did not reflect on what I did. At the same time, I wanted to continue to make money.
At the same time, Deng Haipeng, who appeared to be detached from the world and without desires in front of the organization members, used various coercive and inducement methods to trick many female students into having sex with him behind the scenes. The victim Zhang already had a family, but Deng Haipeng said, "God and I approved it three times, and it was God who arranged you to be with me." "We will nourish the field when we are together. If you are not with me, God will work." Waiting for words to deceive and coerce.
According to police statistics, as of the incident, the training institution had involved more than 3,600 victims in more than 20 provinces and 30 prefectures and cities across the country, including many minors, and the amount of fraud was as high as 11 million yuan.
Several crimes were concurrently punished.
The principal criminal Deng Haipeng was sentenced to seventeen and a half years in the first instance.
On the evening of October 25, 2022, under the command and deployment of the Fujian Provincial Public Security Department, the Xiamen City Task Force organized 320 police officers and arrested all 46 arrest targets. Arrive at the case.
With all the main criminals and related persons involved in the case being arrested, this case was organized by the main criminal Deng Haipeng to use fallacies and heresies to defraud property, distort the victims' psychology and social cognition, seriously damage the people's physical and mental health and property safety, and endanger social order. Successfully resolved.
Chen Zhihong, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of the Xiamen Municipal Public Security Bureau and Secretary of the Party Committee of the Xiamen Municipal Public Security Bureau: After more than four months of special case investigation, our public security organs have captured all eight major criminal suspects led by Deng Moupeng, and all key members have been prosecuted by the procuratorate. court. By carefully investigating the flow of funds, the stolen money involved in the case was frozen, effectively safeguarding the economic interests of the defrauded people.
In October 2023, the court found Deng Haipeng guilty of using superstition to undermine the enforcement of the law, fraud, and rape. He was sentenced to seventeen years and six months in prison at the first instance and fined RMB 8.1 million. The remaining seven identified accomplices also received due justice.
"Spiritual Practice" courses have routines
How to avoid falling into the trap?
In recent years, public security agencies across the country have severely cracked down on companies and institutions that use "spiritual cultivation" to engage in illegal training activities in accordance with the law. Since 2018, a total of 77 key cases have been detected, 269 people have been criminally punished in accordance with the law, and more than 217 million yuan in illegal gains have been collected. It has effectively curbed the development and spread of such activities and effectively safeguarded the physical and mental health of the people and the safety of life and property. What are the characteristics of this type of illegal “spiritual” organization? How can ordinary people avoid falling into the "spiritual practice" scam?
Experts said that many organizations or groups on the market under the banner of "spiritual practice" are created to cater to the rapid development of society and people seeking spiritual comfort. Some illegal institutions or organizations "stew" psychology, hypnotism, chicken soup for the soul, plus religious ideas, etc., set up various courses, and conduct mental control on students to achieve the purpose of illegally making money. Documents from the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission clearly identify such behavior as "spiritual pyramid schemes."
Chen Tianjia, an expert on cult issues at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences: Spirituality courses are a cultural hodgepodge, including foreign physical and mental movements and local metaphysics. They falsely use religious concepts and mainly advocate "eschatology" to allow believers to "awaken" and "ascend" to find The new "savior". Gain salvation by entering the so-called "higher dimension" and reaching your "higher self". The introduction of modern marketing models such as MLM, franchising, and advanced marketing into development methods is actually a kind of modern superstition advocating new theism. Mentally control people and cause physical and mental harm.
The training provided by "spiritual MLM" organizations usually have the following characteristics:
First, it allows people to talk about their painful experiences and private matters. Through chatting, people continue to talk about their own experiences, increasing the victim's emotional level, constantly immersing the victim in the pain of the past, and laying the foundation for the brainwashing course.
The second is to keep shouting slogans during class, and through constant repetition, these slogans can achieve mental brainwashing.
The third is to create "trustees" and "active students".The trainer will let his internal staff pretend to be students, actively ask questions in various communities, and give feedback on the magical effects obtained after listening to the class.
Lai Danfeng, Director of the Psychological Counseling and Education Center of Xiamen University: When mental control groups commit crimes, they often have many ritualized parts. They use this set of ritualized parts to tame your obedience bit by bit. When you first join this team, you may wonder why these people are kneeling and shouting, but you can still stand on the shore at that time. As long as you start the first act of obedience, that obedience is very simple. He said that you just need to stay here and watch us. If you make the first obedient action and walk away without turning around, you will have the second obedient action, and you will start to have the third one. After I started to do more and more obedient actions, I suddenly looked back and realized that I had started saying things that couldn't stand scrutiny, doing things that were so embarrassing, or acting so emotionally. There are both the role of suggestion, the group pressure of the environment, and the process of us being hypnotized step by step.
Experts remind that "spiritual pyramid selling" is essentially a variant of pyramid selling. Once you fall into this trap, in addition to monetary losses, it may also cause the victim's family relationships to be broken, relationships with relatives and friends to be broken, and more seriously, it will cause incurable mental trauma. While relevant departments continue to attack "spiritual" gangs and organizations that endanger people's lives, we need to maintain a positive and healthy attitude in our daily lives and live in the sunshine. (CCTV News)
