The Vital Force Archive

Sandy McAlister offers a drill for students who turn from the shoulders in side to side movements: hands behind the back, weight shift alone, then waist turn, letting the hands return last.

Virginia Lee Cepeda recounts teaching Dimetra Stafford, a blind student who learned Rocking Motion over the telephone before joining the class, and how the group bonded around her.

Ron Heck urges teacher candidates to buy Justin Stone's often neglected audio tape, which gave him the vocabulary of T'ai Chi Chih before Ed Altman's training week.

Bernice Wilkinson, over 70 and living with osteoporosis and compression fractures, describes how Sandy McAlister's reminders about soles of the feet and soft knees ended her nervous clinging to shower walls.

In a letter to the editor, Donna McElhose proposes a course on Preparing Students for Teacher Training, offered in person and as a purchasable video home study with written questions reviewed by fellow teachers.

Kimberly Davis joined a T'ai Chi Chih class expecting intense martial arts training five months after a breakup, and found in Pulling Taffy and Passing Clouds a swirling, protective energy that mended her heart.

Sr. Rita Jean DuBrey links her early morning T'ai Chi Chih practice to Centering Prayer, recounts her 2001 teacher training with Ed Altman, and quotes student evaluations from eight-week sessions at a hospital complementary therapies center.

Three student anecdotes: Pilar Triggs focusing on the soles of her feet through a dental filling, Bobbie Weichman's class thanking Donna McElhose "from the soles of our feet," and Sharon Sirkis splitting a karate student's groin cup.

Carmen Brocklehurst argues that steady daily practice generates creative solutions, and warns that minimal, careless movements signal a split between inner and outer, citing Justin's reminders at Albuquerque's Tuesday morning practice.

Rosanne Santorelli-Barone's pyramid poem builds from graceful hands and grounded feet through yielding and circling to the breath of the One Great Breath, Chi.

Holly Davis recounts how insurance and CPR requirements nearly blocked her from teaching at Eisenhower Memorial Hospital, and how Pam Towne's advice about waivers led to four classes a week.

A Pyramid Poem by Rosanne Santorelli-Barone, student of Sr. Antonia Cooper, describing circling motions, widening circles of meditation, spiraling light through the chakras, and One Spirit in sync.

A pyramid poem by Tim Leigh, a student of Donna McElhose, describing stillness without stasis, moving like water without ripples, gliding in a circle and finding liberty and joy.

Dale Buchanan arrives at Deanne Hodgson's Sedona workshop with no expectations, marking five years since accreditation and deciding to release the need to control students, family and events.

Sr. Meg Costello's account of the January 2003 East Coast teachers workshop at the Dominican Retreat House, where Sandy McAlister worked on alignment, stance, weight shift, Rocking Motion, Joyous Breath and Passing Clouds with 22 teachers.

Letters from Siobhan Hutchinson, Nancy Adams, Ann Marie Wyrsch, Sue Nugent-Reed and Sandy McAlister, including Adams's account of softening the leg during the weight shift until the body is pulled as if by a vacuum.

Lynn Shaw-Ringham recounts a weekend retreat at Queenswood Retreat Centre with Ed Altman, who stressed sensing the weight shift in the soles of the feet, plus notes from co-host Guadalupe Buchwald and three attendees.

Justin Stone argues that T'ai Chi Chih is true Zen practice without the struggle, contrasting Eiheiji's 3:30 A.M. zazen with effortless movement from the T'an T'ien into Mushin.

Mereline Griffith and Ruth Isley, new to T'ai Chi Chih, describe their first retreat at Queenswood Retreat Centre on Vancouver Island, Ed Altman's teaching, and the -38 degree drive home.

Responding to Chery Ann Hoffmeyer's January 2003 article, teacher trainer Ed Altman lists the open practices, Sedona retreat, new Intensive courses and conference events available to students, and urges teachers to share The Vital Force in class.

Chery Ann Hoffmeyer describes a weekend retreat for 43 teachers and students where Ed Altman's humble sharing of his own practice challenges set a tone of teh, inner sincerity.

Ed Altman answers Beverly's questions about rising and sinking during the Taffy moves, recommending conscious relaxation of the substantial leg and a "sweet spot" midway between heel and ball of the foot as a target for the weight shift.

Athene Mantle recounts a Bay Area teachers' retreat at Sequoia Seminar in the Santa Cruz Mountains, where Ed Altman, Sandy McAlister and Pam Towne led 31 teachers in finding and releasing tension.

Beverly McFarland writes to Ed Altman about grouping the 19 movements into front-to-back and side-to-side families for beginners, and asks whether to stay sunk through the Taffies and whether weight settles into the heel or the whole sole.

Nancy Werner-Azarski's account of the second Minnesota teachers' retreat at the Benedictine Center, where Sandy McAlister reviewed every movement below the waist, teachers traded teaching tips, and a deferred candidate was declared accredited.

In a letter, Beverly McFarland credits a belly dancer student's tip about shifting from bent leg to bent leg with releasing hidden tension in her Pulling Taffy and improving her alignment.

Victor Berg, a longtime skeptic who moved to Albuquerque to study with Justin Stone, hosted the November teacher training and watched all 16 candidates transform and accredit without deferrals.

Anne O'Mara, newly moved and looking for a teacher to prepare her for accreditation, gets Noel Altman's advice to interview the local four, plus word on the new second-signature requirement, pass/fail courses and the Justin Stone materials she should own.

Ann Rutherford's notes from Carmen Brocklehurst's March 8th Seijaku review workshop in Albuquerque, quoting Justin Stone on where hardness and softness begin, closing to reunite Yin and Yang, and doing the Jing three times.