The Vital Force Archive

Constance Fraatz hosted Georgia's first statewide workshop in October 2002, where Sandy McAlister's unadorned teaching, especially her breakdown of Working the Pulley, deepened practice for teachers and students alike.

Sharon Sirkis traces her lifelong fear of money back to her parents' arguments, and describes how a Sedona retreat, a dead car with 242,000 miles and a friend's phone call taught her to stop forcing and let things happen.

Beverly Weil's account of the autumn Seijaku Accreditation Course led by Ed Altman, where moving from softness into hardness and back revealed a tangible wall of accumulated energy.

Five anecdotes: Vida Wackerling's male students who scorned then demanded the Joy song, Thuha Bui feeling chi sent from her New York class mid-training, Noel Altman on George Washington's wooden teeth, Arthur's week-long argument, and April Leffler's student who got only as far as Pluto.

Stephanie Bass reports on the three-day Seijaku accreditation course at Mount St. Francis in Ringwood, organized by Dan Pienciak and taught by Ed Altman, with 33 teachers describing grounding, t'an t'ien and transitions.

Chris Bridge, a student of Judy George, offers a pyramid poem that moves from grounding the feet and rocking back and forth to flowing stillness, emptiness and circles of breath.

Dan Pienciak's account of hosting a New Jersey accreditation course where renovations forced eleven candidates into a cramped pillared room, he fell ill, and letting go became the week's lesson.

Siobhan "Zippy" Hutchinson drives home from accreditation without directions, lets go of her old reflexes in a hotel restroom, and hears her 88-year-old father pronounce T'ai Chi Chih real.

Three letter writers propose changes to accreditation: Vida Wackerling on reviewing candidate videos as an unpaid honor, Patricia Strand on a required intermediate class, and Trisha Jewellen Hargaden on tying sponsorship to teachers' own continued training.

Pat Flynn joined a class on a whim, blurted out to teacher Marge Erickson that she wanted to teach, and recovered shoulder movement and energy lost to Lyme disease.

Justin Stone instructs teachers to watch below the waist, insisting students stay sunk down through forward and backward movements and swivel the hips in sideways ones before being sent to Teachers' Training.

Dale Buchanan hosts Pam Towne's first Washington, DC workshop, where 30 students and visiting teachers from three states worked through all 19 movements and closed with a silent practice outdoors on fallen autumn leaves.

Ed Altman compares welcoming the Chi to hosting a houseguest, urging practitioners to keep legs and hips soft during the weight shift so the spine stays upright and aligned without effort.

Newly accredited, Susan Kenney offers three vows: honor each person's unique journey, honor the form as given without modifying it, and honor the disturbances of doubt, darkness and letting go.

Roberta Taggart describes the six-week pro bono program she began in 1999 teaching twelve special needs children in a Newark public school, with guidelines, foot massage routines, and the speech pathologist's observations of calmer behavior.

Fusun Dogu recounts a November teacher training week in Albuquerque where Pam's instruction to set an intention and release the outcome, plus Justin Stone's blunt corrections, forced her to genuinely let go.

Chery Ann Hoffmeyer measures the TCC community against Schaffer and Anundsen's eight qualities of community, then recounts her own 11 years as a student with no way to deepen her practice except accreditation, and argues conferences and practice days should admit students.

Justin Stone advises newly accredited teachers on filling classes: speak from personal experience, set a fair fee, use classified ads, and seek radio interviews, recalling the Los Angeles broadcast that produced fifteen weekly classes.

Sondra "Sky" Young-Wick recounts the Jersey shore weekend retreat where 26 East Coast teachers reviewed every movement with Dan Pienciak and Sr. Antonia, practiced facing the Atlantic, and listed lessons learned.

Nancy Werner-Azarski reports on the November 22nd gathering of about 30 Minnesota teachers and students at Ron Barker's, with practice led by Joe Apt, Judy George's rededication ceremony, and birthday cake for Justin.

Kathy Albers gathers comments from the second St. Louis area retreat, held October 2002 in Louisiana, Missouri, where teachers and students worked on softness, continuity and releasing habit energies, plus a campfire drumming circle.

Nancy Adams compares her morning walk through heavy fog to T'ai Chi Chih practice, where each repetition reveals a little more landscape before the next rise returns everything to fog.

Three co-hosts, Margo Carpenter, Yvette Bowman and Tamara Zujewskyj, recount the Camp Van-Es teacher training near Edmonton, from backed-up shower drains and cabin temperatures to Ed Altman's teaching and 16 auditors assisting 16 candidates.

April Leffler describes how nine months of consistent practice shifted her consciousness from a controlling, fear-based mind to the t'an t'ien and the soles of her feet, including leaving her full-time job.

Four new candidates write to Ed after accreditation week: Monique Beneteau on the group's bonding, Janine Pidruchney shoulder-checking from the t'an t'ien while driving, Cathy Brochu on grounding and practising with shadows, and Margot Fish on staying a learner.

Cathy Dalton's pyramid poem stretches time and pushes apart the seconds to gaze at the stars where life began, recalling our oneness with all that is.

Athene Mantle audited Ed Altman's teacher training at a Cooking Lake retreat center, where his 'Big Three' of spine alignment, stepping out and weight shifting led her to discover her hips had been closed for a lifetime.

Jan Arrott, six months after bilateral knee replacement surgery, describes consulting teacher Bitsy LeBlanc about whether chi would still flow freely, and discovering soft knees and sinking for the first time.

Roberta Taggart's account of the September 2002 one-day workshop at Loyola Marymount, where Sandy McAlister drilled stance, weight shifting and circularity, read a letter from Justin Stone, and participants traded 'Ahaa!' moments.

Hope Spangler gives thanks for the practice that carried her through the darkest period of her life, eased her fibromyalgia discomfort, and led her to accreditation and teaching.