The Vital Force Archive

Nancy Vermond describes returning to Toronto from the New Jersey accreditation week feeling emptied and relaxed, thanks her trainers and auditors, and notices TCC carrying into dishwashing and bus stops.

A three-panel Viereck cartoon in which a couple admire a dinosaur's graceful moves, and the dinosaur privately claims his kind would still be here if they had listened to him about T'ai Chi Chih.

Dan Pienciak's account of three days of meditation with Justin Stone at Albuquerque's Dominican Retreat Center, from silence and Pyramid Poetry to the two dollars he gave a stranger in a train station on the way home.

Nine Pyramid Poems written at a silent meditation retreat, by Dan Pienciak, Ed Altman, Ed St. Martin, Jim Houle, Corine Reeber, Guy Kent, Chris McLain and Connie Hyde.

Two short haiku from Cathy Dalton and Carmen Brocklehurst, one on a still blue morning filled with cold, the other on autumn finally cooling the earth and quieting hot thoughts.

Hannah Hedrick hosted the October 1999 accreditation course in Chicago, crediting Ed Altman's "move from your center" message, 18 auditing teachers, and a deferred certificate that changed how she prepares candidates.

News briefs report planning for the July 2000 Conference at Xavier Center, the Arthritis Foundation's formal statement naming T'ai Chi Chih, a Texas osteoporosis ad, and Dr. John Moth's cellular research on vashanas.

Letters from readers, including Theda Gillespie's call for a teacher at a Napier high school, Tonya Setzke's request for menopause research, and Sr. Marie-Ann Main's schoolchildren asking for their morning tape.

Chris McLain reports from the Maryvale Retreat Center, where Ed Altman's guidance certified 10 new instructors bound for Arizona, Minnesota and North Dakota, with auditors deepening their sense of a teacher's accountability.

A Zen story submitted by Dick Detert from Peter Beilson's Zen Buddhism: the swordsman Banzo tells the eager Matajura that training harder will take seventy years, not ten.

A week after the Maryvale accreditation course, Sherry Corson writes to teacher trainer Ed Altman about her spiritual shift, her new understanding of chi, and the five hour drive home that no longer frightened her.

Justin Stone argues that "Flow Softly" should be a teacher's first instruction to a new pupil, since tension contracts the meridians and blocks the flow of Chi.

Roberta Taggart's pyramid poem builds from the single word "Flow" to a question about what exactly is being released, answering itself in one word: ego.

Five short pyramid poems by Ed Altman, moving from stilling the mind and the thousand-year strength of redwoods to tears falling as Justin plays the piano.

Roberta Taggart reports on the November one-day workshop in Cupertino where Ed Altman led three refinement sessions on flowing from the center, with student notes on Push Pull and the taffys.

Ed Altman challenges teachers who postpone conferences, trainings and workshops until "next year", noting that auditing a teacher training is free and that habit patterns, as Justin says, determine our future.

Sr. Alice Holden recounts the first Texas TCC workshop on November 14, where Ed Altman led thirty-two participants through softness, alignment and weight shift, and a newly widowed nurse practitioner released long-held tension.

Justin Stone retells the tale of Daito Kokushi, who begged under a Kyoto bridge until the Emperor's messenger offered melon to whoever could take it without using his feet.

Susan Patterson recounts how Dr. Tahir Bhatti's back pain study at UCSD led Dr. Michael Irwin to test TCC's effect on shingles vaccine response and immunity in people over 60.

Joanna Woodrow's account of her teacher accreditation course, crediting Ed Altman's vivid corrections, Elissa Maguire's coaching, Roberta Taggart's seated T'ai Chi Chih demonstration, and the student presentations that tied her business past to her new path.

Judy Tretheway suggests meeting holiday sorrow and joy by practicing intuitively, in whatever order comes, even just Rocking Motion, letting emotion swell and release like a wave.

Sr. Patty Campbell recounts the September 12 gathering of Indiana and Ohio teachers at Michaela Farm in Oldenburg, with practice in the herb garden, a pot luck, and a Motherhouse tour.

Noel Altman describes filling three waitlisted TCC classes at Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco, teaching the form over two eight-week courses, adapting for disabilities, and sending students home with Justin Stone's video.

Amy Hackenberg arrived at the St. Paul teachers' conference with nine years of practice and found it awkward, as corrections from Ed and others revealed she was using outer strength instead of waiting for the weight shift.

Mary Erickson, a student of Virginia Lee Cepeda, looked up mid-practice to see all 14 classmates moving in unison, and carried the resulting sense of merged energy out of the gym to the trees and birds.

Donna Mc Elhose describes practising Rocking Motion beside the moving sidewalk at MSP airport with Sr. Viola Bens and Sharon Sirkis, and the shy passenger who recognized moving meditation from television.

Don Rasmussen, a student of James Hecker at Folsom State Prison, writes to Noel Altman about a vivid dream of a hidden door and an unusually shaped key, and about growing interest inside the walls.

Sr. Antonia Cooper hosts a demanding accreditation week at Carmel Retreat House, where Ed Altman and Noel Altman guided thirteen candidates, eleven accredited and two deferred, alongside eighteen auditing teachers.

Deborah Cole, an at-home mother of two young boys, writes that daily practice brought her patience, calm amid chaos, an end to depression, and relief from psoriasis and carpal tunnel while she waits for teacher training to fit her life.