29 Facts About Sung Chi-li

Sung Chi-li was embroiled in a scandal in 1996 and accused of swindling US$7 million from his followers.

Sung Chi-li was convicted of fraud in 1997 and sentenced to seven years imprisonment.

Sung Chi-li's verdict was later overturned in 2003 by the high court which cited freedom of religion was protected under Taiwan's constitution.

Sung Chi-li was born in Xiaogang village, Kaohsiung County in the Taiwan Province on 17 September 1948.

Sung Chi-li is the oldest of six children; four sisters and one brother.

Sung Chi-li's father was very adept at making money and worked at a wholesale fish market.

Sung Chi-li's family were the first in their village to own a television and telephone.

Sung Chi-li recalls it was at the age of seven that he saw a beam of light follow him.

Sung Chi-li became a social outcast due to poor grades and being abnormal.

Sung Chi-li went into hiding for two years after writing a bad check and was later imprisoned for two years.

In 1987 when martial law was lifted in Taiwan, Sung Chi-li, who was 39 at the time and out of prison, saw an opportunity and began to hang around tea houses, talking and demonstrating his skills.

In 1990, Sung Chi-li founded the Academy of the Union of Humans and Nature and began recruiting members in Taipei.

At his prime, Sung Chi-li would draw large numbers of followers who came and went in groups of cars.

Sung Chi-li said when he was on the run for bouncing a check, his friend refused to lend him NT$500 and he vowed he would not to become a miser himself.

At the last interview, Sung Chi-li tried to give the interview and his three colleagues an iPhone 6 which they declined.

The interviewer noted Sung Chi-li seemed desolate so he consoled Sung Chi-li.

The scandal, known locally in Taiwan as the Sung Chi-li Incident, was first uncovered by Melody Chu Mei-fong, then Taipei city councillor who accused Sung of conning disciples by selling them high-priced photos of him demonstrating his supernatural powers and that by worshiping the pictures, his followers could become a buddha.

Sung Chi-li accused Frank Hsieh, who was legal consultant of Sung, of taking NT$16 million in political donations from Sung and that Hsieh's wife helped with compiling and publishing books for Sung.

Police challenged him by inviting him to demonstrate his powers in public but Sung Chi-li failed to make a standing police officer to sit down.

Yu went so far as to profess personally witnessing Sung Chi-li's spirit leave his body at will.

In 2005, Sung Chi-li told TVBS cable news that in 2004 at a gathering in a follower's home, he had taken Hsieh on an outer body tour of Paris with a stopover at the Eiffel Tower where they could touch the cast iron.

Hsieh temporarily disappeared from the political scene after it was alleged he had taken inappropriate political donations from Sung Chi-li and faced fierce criticism from the public over his membership in Sung Chi-li's cult.

Sung Chi-li admitted to police in charge of the investigation that he lied about having supernatural powers and police demolished the Miracle Association Memorial Hall, his Transmogrification Society's main shrine, on the grounds that it was built illegally.

In 1998, Sung Chi-li founded a new religion, the Great Sun Sect whose members are believed to be in the hundreds but an accurate number has not been determined.

Under the protection of freedom of religion, the High Court decided that faith was more important than authenticity and that not only would it be difficult to prove Sung Chi-li did not have supernatural abilities but that accusers' testimonies were not sufficient to prove that Sung Chi-li had defrauded them of money.

In 2004, with the financial support of his followers in Australia, Sung Chi-li opened a US$3 million "divine photo shop" to display his divine photos.

In 2015, SET News interviewed Sung Chi-li regarding his supernatural powers, the reporter asked Sung Chi-li if he could demonstrate his powers especially his fenshen ability.

Sung Chi-li objected and insisted that only followers who have awakened their third eye could see the supernatural.

Sung Chi-li demonstrated his abilities of being able to control his followers' bodies with his mind, to which his followers played along, but it had no effect on the reporter and cameraman.