SOUTH PORTLAND - Six people wearing yellow and blue T-shirts sat on the ground with their legs folded and one arm across their chests. Their eyes were closed and their faces were expressionless as they moved from one position to another, almost in slow motion.
"If you were doing this in China, you could be beaten and sent to a labor camp," said Martin Fox, using a microphone to explain this demonstration of the mind-and-body practice known as Falun Gong. "We need to stop this persecution."
Fox, a public relations professional from Kittery, was among about a dozen Mainers who say Falun Gong has improved their lives. They were at the Maine Mall on Sunday to demonstrate the techniques and make people aware of the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China, where the practice originated.
The demonstrations were uneventful, as the practitioners stood or sat with their eyes closed and slowly moved their arms into different positions while soothing music played. The participants stretched in various positions and often looked as if they were praying.
But Fox and others talked passionately to interested onlookers about Falun Gong and what it has done for them. Fox, 60, said he and other Falun Gong enthusiasts demonstrate the practice at fairs and other events around Maine to help people find out more about it.
"We're not an organization. We are all people who happen to practice it and who take the opportunity to help people find out about it," Fox said. "It's a free practice, and it's just something that made sense to me."
As hordes of Christmas shoppers flowed through the mall, a trickle of people stopped to find out more about Falun Gong.
Fox, who saw a pamphlet about Falun Gong at a Chinese restaurant, said the practice has helped make him more relaxed, more aware, more truthful. He and others at the demonstration said that it is Falun Gong's emphasis on truthfulness and compassion that makes it a target of persecution by the Communist government in China.
Chinese government officials have called the movement an "evil" sect controlled by its U.S.-based founder, Li Hongzhi. It was outlawed in China in 1999.
Fox and others at the demonstration said the principles of Falun Gong are achieved by doing the exercises and reading the teachings associated with the practice.
"It's a purification of body. There's no mind intent; you're not thinking about anything," Fox said. "You're connecting yourself to nature."
Jason Pomerleau, 25, a native of Vassalboro now living in Boston, said he discovered Falun Gong while in college. He had read about other mind and body practices but found that Falun Gong appealed to him more than other techniques.
He said his younger brother began reading about Falun Gong on his recommendation, and because of positive changes in his attitude, Pomerleau's mother began practicing Falun Gong as well.
"Everyone has their own internal questions to answer," Pomerleau said. "And I found more of my questions answered through this than anything else."