El objetivo que el PCCh intenta alcanzar con el lavado de cerebro es "transformar", o reprogramar a los practicantes de Falun Gong hasta el punto de que abandonen su práctica espiritual. Las autoridades prometen que su calvario terminará una vez que firmen una triple "declaración de garantía" para así demostrar el entendimiento "correcto" sobre Falun Gong, prometen renunciar a Falun Gong y nunca asociarse con otros practicantes o ir a Beijing para apelar en favor de Falun Gong. Además, se les exige que revelen información sobre amigos y familiares que practican Falun Gong.

La angustia mental no se detiene ahí: A los practicantes "transformados" se les exige inmediatamente no sólo que dejen de creer en Falun Gong, sino que se vuelvan contra él. Una vez que se firma una declaración de transformación, a menudo se pone a los practicantes frente a las cámaras de televisión y se les dice que lean la declaración con su "nuevo entendimiento" sobre Falun Gong. Estas grabaciones se usan posteriormente como material de propaganda contra otros practicantes de Falun Gong. Si la declaración no muestra el arrepentimeinto de forma conviencente o es insuficientemente despectiva hacia Falun Gong y su fundador, el proceso debe repetirse.

Si no escriben una "declaración de garantía", los practicantes siguen siendo sometidos a las formas más agotadoras de tortura mental. Si escriben una "declaración de garantía", rápidamente se ven forzados a tomar un papel activo en la transformación y persecución de otros practicantes de Falun Gong. No hay salida para ellos. Algunos que han sufrido esta tortura y viven para hablar de ella la han descrito como un asesinato espiritual.

¿Se considera que el asesinato es el más malvado? ¿Se considera el daño físico como la única forma de daño? No. Cuando se controla el pensamiento de una persona, se viola su inocencia, y se invade el pequeño y último espacio para pensar libremente. Cuando se mata su creencia, ¿qué es más cruel, insoportable y miserable que esto? Es el mayor crimen. Sé que el colapso mental de los practicantes de Falun Gong es el resultado directo de la devastación psicológica y el asesinato espiritual.
- Zhang Yijie

How Falun Gong practitioners are broken

The accounts from Falun Gong practitioners who have been subjected to prolonged brainwashing sessions reveal that the following methods are frequently used:

1. They are isolated and locked up, either completely alone or with criminals.
2. They are beaten and physically tortured on a daily basis.
3. Their clothes are stripped off, and they are deprived of their personal dignity – it is drilled into their minds that they are criminals who have committed a terrible crime, that they are people with dangerous mental problems.
4. They are deprived of sleep for days on end; if they fall asleep they are woken up immediately with a blow or loud sound. This is continued until they can no longer keep track of time or remember basic details about their life.
5. They are forced to watch videos vilifying Falun Gong, and especially its founder Li Hongzhi, for 10 hours a day. The films are played at full volume, and they are not allowed to look away for even a brief moment.
6. They are being persuaded that the only way they will ever be able to leave again is if they sign the "three-fold statement of guarantee" and that everything will be over once they do.
7. Their parents, children, and siblings are brought in as a coercive tactic, to cry and even kneel in front of them, begging them to come home. Their spouses are brought in to threaten with divorce.
8. They are threatened (and this action is actually carried out) that their jobs, pensions, or enrolment at university will be taken away. They are also threatened that their family members will lose their salaries and education opportunities.
9. Transformed former Falun Gong practitioners (ideally someone the person was previously very close to) are forced to help them "see the light". These one-to-one sessions are alternated with ones in which many people talk at the same time.
10. They are told that Falun Gong is banned around the world since there is an international consensus that it is "evil". This is repeated hundreds of times daily for weeks or months until they accept it and start to believe in this themselves.
11. It is attempted to replace Falun Gong in their minds, by instilling a different ideology e.g. by indoctrinating them with Marxism (in cultural revolution style), and they are told that this is all for their own good.