As a child, Dr. Lin Wei Yu’s life revolved around hospital visits, emergency rooms, and inhalers. Born in Taiwan into a family with a history of severe allergies, he struggled with asthma from as far back as he could remember.
“When an asthma attack happened, my parents would rush me to the hospital for emergency care,” Lin said. “I'd inhale some bronchodilators and wear an oxygen mask.”
The illness shaped nearly every aspect of his childhood. He remembers sitting up through the night because lying down made breathing impossible, dragging tissues to school to cope with an endless runny nose, and even being excused from compulsory military service in Taiwan at 18 after failing his physical exam.
“My IgE levels were 20 times the normal level,” he said. “The doctor would have me inhale some bronchodilators or take some steroids, and also provide me with an oxygen mask to assist my breathing. Only when my symptoms subsided did he allow me to be discharged from the hospital.”
According to the National Institute of Health, IgE refers to immunoglobulin E, and high IgE levels indicate allergy, eczema, or chronic skin infection. It is a hallmark of allergic diseases.
Despite the relentless hardship, Lin’s struggle inspired his career path. He studied pharmacy at the Kaohsiung Medical University in Taiwan, determined to search for a cure. “I just wondered if there was any medication that could improve or treat this disease, so therefore [I] chose Pharmacology,” he said. However, after obtaining his Doctor of Pharmacy degree and years of advanced research, Lin found no breakthrough.
At this moment, Lin, who is proficient in pharmacology, resigned himself to living with asthma. With no other options, he was prepared to live with his condition for the rest of his life.
“Currently, in medical science, for diseases like asthma, we can only provide relief,” he said. “But to completely prevent the disease from occurring is still not possible.”
A Turning Point
Just when he had resigned himself to a lifetime of illness, an unexpected invitation changed everything.At the age of 25, when Lin was in the middle of his doctoral program, a unique encounter changed everything. A fellow student invited him to a consecutive nine-day Qigong lecture. He was reluctant at first due to his busy doctoral program, but on the final day of the lectures, embarrassed for having promised, he attended the last 30 minutes.
“I heard a middle-aged man talking about something related to Qigong. What exactly he was talking about, I had forgotten,” he said. “[But the] next morning, I woke up and found my nose was completely clear. Breathing was incredibly smooth. It was a comfortable feeling I had never experienced before. Sleeping until the next morning was really pleasant.”
That short session turned out to be Falun Gong, also known as Falun Dafa, a spiritual practice involving meditative exercises and moral teachings based on the principles of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance. Intrigued, Lin sought out more information, bought a copy of Zhuan Falun, the main text of Falun Gong, and began to practice seriously.
Beyond Physical Healing
Lin’s health transformation was only the beginning. Soon after starting the practice, he experienced another scare. One morning, he discovered his toilet filled with his own dripping blood.Normally, with a family history of colorectal cancer, that would have meant rushing to the hospital for a colonoscopy. However, Lin remembered Zhuan Falun mentioning a body cleansing process.
“I just stayed calm,” he said. “The next morning, I got up and went to the bathroom again. There was not even one drop of blood.”
Over time, Lin realized Falun Gong was not just about health but also about spiritual cultivation. He found out that the number of people practicing Falun Gong who are in good health is very high, and many people with incurable diseases have been cured by practicing Falun Gong.
Rethinking Health and Science
Therefore, as a pharmacist, Lin recognizes the limits of modern medicine. He emphasized that if scientists can view these supernatural phenomena from an objective standpoint, human science would make significant breakthroughs.“Current empirical science only studies why people get sick,” he said. “It does not study why people can stay healthy. From an objective perspective, studying a group of people practicing Falun Gong to understand why they have such extraordinary immune functions and defense systems could be a great contribution to human science.”
A Healthy Mind, a Healthy Body
Today, Lin is not only healthy but also deeply grateful. He believes the biggest lesson Falun Gong has given him is that health and mindset are inseparable.“A person who often gets angry will have high blood pressure, which results in poor blood pressure control,” he said. “For people practicing Falun Gong, we constantly remind ourselves to keep a calm and peaceful mind, with kindness towards the people and things around us. Thus, our emotions always remain in a relatively calm state. This is beneficial for our overall physical and mental health.”
Looking back on his journey—from a sickly child burdened by chronic asthma to a doctor who lives in robust health—Lin hopes his story will inspire others.
“People often say health comes first,” he said. “Without health, everything else is nothing. I find this statement so true.”
