The Vital Force Archive

Names for three group photographs, listing the seated and standing rows of teachers and students gathered with host Marie Dotts, plus the group pictured outdoors.

Dr. David Parrish, a psychologist of forty years, previews his conference talk on research into Qigong and neuroplasticity, and on the evolution of consciousness that Justin addressed in his spiritual talks.

A preview of the 2019 Teacher Conference sessions, including Sheila Leonard on awakening energy, Bruce Eisenmenger on PTSD and veterans, Dr. Edward Ehlinger on public health, plus grounding, props and scholarship auctions.

Laurie Jacobi gathered four written responses from her students, who describe returning to the circle each week, practicing in a chapel, feeling the flow of chi, and leaving calmer.

Lynn Porzig argues that classes, intensives, retreats and conference practice deepen wholeness, describing community as the place where practitioners share joys and struggles and recognize God's presence in each person.

Linda Braga's notes from the Northern California teachers' annual daylong workshop, where Sandy McAlister taught polarity, continuity and stillness through three movements each, followed by side-by-side partner practice.

Carmen Brocklehurst describes how Caroline Guilott's invitation to touch one's own cheeks like a baby's face let teachers feel softness for the first time, plus the 2019 Minnesota conference theme Return to the Circle.

Bob Poland, a diabetic whose fingertips are calloused from daily blood sugar tests, describes feeling energy through his palms for the first time, plus relaxing his knees and fully unweighting the opposite foot.

Amy Tyksinski describes her doubt before leading Turiya meditation sessions at the Philadelphia conference, then traces the year she spent slowing down Push Pull after a friend questioned its continuity.

Judy Kistler-Robinson recounts stalling Sister Joan Schafhauser outside a birthday cheesecake at the Philadelphia teacher conference, hearing how Joan's smile, not perfect movements, kept men coming to her prison class.

Dora Wiemann unpacks flowing and emptiness at the 2018 conference, sharing the lists her teacher prep students made of their own markers for feeling ungrounded and grounded, then asks whether a plant sprouting from a rock at Folsom flows from emptiness.

Amy Tyksinski describes teaching Nei Kung to beginning students midway through each semester and shares notes from Justin Stone's Saturday night teshos on Original Face, motivation, patience and confidence in the Chi.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst distinguishes softness from limpness, comparing it to the confident strength of lifting a baby, then guides Rocking Motion through heavy air and shares words her Albuquerque group felt while practicing.

Janet Oussaty's 2018 conference paper on Flowing from Emptiness draws on Alma Zerboni clearing her mind in a park between classes, a student who complained there was nothing to hold onto, and the Tao Te Ching.

Stephen Thompson's conference notes give three partner exercises: a paper plate shared between Pulling in the Energy and Around the Platter, mirrored Working the Pulley, and a hand-hovering energy circle with weight shifts.

Stephan Koblick, drawing on his sports and karate background, describes how he reframes T'ai Chi Chih for reluctant male students by comparing the weight shift and chi transfer to a golf swing or a thrown baseball.

Co-coordinators Laurie Jacobi and Linda Zelig announce the 2019 International T'ai Chi Chih Teacher Conference, "Return to the Circle," set for June 27-30 at the Marriott Southwest near Minneapolis.

David Parrish shifts attention from grounding below the waist to the hands, asking students to keep them alive and soft with open wrists so chi can flow and flutter visibly.

April Leffler introduces the theme of the 2018 Philadelphia teacher conference, Flowing From Emptiness, quoting the Lotus Sutra and relaying what teachers said about being emptied out by life.

Ahead of the 2018 Teacher Conference, Lorry Marcketta rounds up Philadelphia art destinations from the Rodin Museum and mural tours to her favorite, the Brandywine River Museum, closing with an acrostic poem.

JoEtta Heck describes the self-gratitude she carried home from the Prajna and Heightened Awareness workshop, where April Leffler asked participants to list ten things they would love to do before leaving this world.

At April Leffler's workshop, Rebecca Paulson listed clearing out every closet among things that would bring her happiness, then went home, emptied magazines into the trash, and found unexpected prajna.

Bob Poland, 84 and a year into practice, describes being the only man at a Prajna retreat, April Leffler's talks on attention, four full practices indoors and out, and finding his way home in the dark.

A group photograph submitted by Bonnie Sokolov and taken by a passing visitor at Assisi Heights, naming all nine people pictured, from Nan Nelson to Pam Towne.

Diana Bahn links Justin Stone's Lotus Sutra quotation, William Penn's Quaker founding of Philadelphia, the LOVE icon's hidden yin/yang and the cracked Liberty Bell to the 2018 conference theme, with nine reasons to attend.

Mary Buirgy, a new student, recounts four teachings from April Leffler's Northern Colorado sessions: innate prajna as an inner GPS, the reciprocal nature of mind and Chi, saying yes with "Now, is how!", and leaning into community.

Connie Krumrai recounts a weekend workshop led by April Leffler where meditation, eyes-closed partner exercises and guided visualization brought a subtle shift she located in her t'an t'ien rather than her head.

Amy Tyksinski cautions against turning the hands forward before the backward weight shift completes in Rocking Motion and Push Pull, locating continuity instead in the t'an t'ien's expansion and contraction.

Marie Dotts treats alignment as the key to downward chi flow, recounting her own breakthrough with a resistant right hip and leading conference participants through an alignment exercise and weight shift checks.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst calls Joyous Breath the Grandmother/Grandfather of Seijaku, reviews its audible breath and cupped palms, explains why Justin kept Seijaku an oral tradition, and adds pyramid poems from her April 2017 retreat.