The Vital Force Archive
Forty years of The Vital Force (1985-2025), the journal of the T’ai Chi Chih community. Search for a word, a teacher, a movement or a place, or browse by category and topic.
July 2002
The July 2002 issue has Justin Stone quoting Swami Rama on prana and crediting his health at nearly 86 to steady practice. Ed Altman answers teacher feedback by proposing to split Teacher Training into two courses and end deferrals, after Noel Altman and others weigh videotaped candidates and mandatory audits. Pam Towne teaches grounding and balance to 44 teachers and students in the Oakland hills.
Ed Altman answers teacher feedback on candidate preparation by proposing to split Teacher Training into two courses, a mandatory T'ai Chi Chih Intensive and a teaching-focused course, eliminating deferrals.
Ann Rutherford announces that candidates at the Albuquerque teacher training will receive movement tips from Justin Stone himself and celebrate his birthday on Friday, Nov. 22, at the T'ai Chi Chih Center.
Six classroom anecdotes from Nancy Jo Bleier, Debbie Cole and Sharon Sirkis, including a hospital student singing rock-a-bye-baby during Pulling in the Energy and a pose renamed the "Cosmic Kick-stand."
A short pyramid poem by Vinca Renner, a student of Ron Barker, naming herself rock, ocean, mountain, tree, wind and silence before closing on belonging with everything and being free.
Letters to editor Noel Altman include Sr. Mary Reynolds seeking ways to use TCC with New York Archdiocese schoolchildren affected by the World Trade Center disaster, and Mary Teetor Zablotny reporting measured gains in lung capacity despite asthma.
Justin Stone quotes Swami Rama of India at length on prana as the Cosmic life principle, then credits his own undiminished health at nearly 86 to consistent T'ai Chi Chih practice.
Justin Stone
Answering a student's question at a Sedona retreat about what to think about while moving, Ed Altman distinguishes the conceptual mind from Universal Mind and describes listening through the soles of the feet and the T'an T'ien.
Ed Altman
Donna McElhose recounts the March 2002 Illinois workshop she hosted, where teacher trainer Sandy McAlister led 33 students and 10 teachers through all 20 movements, with attendee comments following.
Nancy Lecraw and four fellow students of Donna McElhose traveled from Illinois to Ed Altman's four-day Sedona retreat, where morning sets in the sun, sessions with Pam Towne, red rock hikes and bonfire evenings sharpened their sense of the chi.
Athene Mantle hosted 44 teachers and students in the Oakland hills on May 4, 2002, where new Teacher Trainer Pam Towne taught grounding, balance before stepping out, and synchronicity of hands and feet.
Nancy Werner-Azarski recounts co-hosting the first TCC teachers' retreat at a Benedictine sisters' center, where Ed Altman and Sandy McAlister worked thirty teachers through stance, weight shifting and individual feedback.
Course host Kathy Albers describes the May 2002 Seijaku accreditation near Eureka, Missouri, where Ed Altman led 31 trainees and 10 auditors from 16 states through letting go.
Donnis Minx and Ann Daly recount the June 2002 Indianapolis workshop where Pam Towne led 43 teachers and students from six states, coaxing them to relax into the soles of their feet.
Roberta Taggart, Bitsy LeBlanc, Wayne Kipple, Dan Pienciak, Bill Mishler, Debbie Cole and others answer Ed Altman's call for ideas on the 12% deferral rate, debating candidate videos, mandatory audits, second referring teachers and a preparation checklist.
Noel Altman, drawing on 17 audited teacher training courses, recalls Justin Stone deferring a shy candidate and proposes a two-step process with videotape or in-person evaluation by a lead teacher before training.