The Vital Force Archive

Hannah Hedrick traces how cancer prevention authority Sam Epstein moved from scientist's skepticism to nightly practice on an Italian terrace at nearly 90, after 25 years of exposure to TCC.

Lorraine Lepine describes a Stone Circle in Kenmare, Ireland, where a beam of light through the center stone became a recurring practice vision of Justin Stone at the heart of the TCC community.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst recalls Justin Stone asking students "Did you feel that?" and telling of a professor too much in his head to learn the movements, arguing that analyzing produces jerky motion while feeling the Chi produces flow.

Sheryl Adair recounts eleven years of persistence at Temple Sinai, from an unanswered volunteer offer in 2004 to a women's retreat session, a home class, and finally a six-week series in the chapel.

Carol Mockovak recounts the July 25 gathering at Hannah's Bend Park in Cannon Falls, where 28 Minnesota-area teachers and students practiced beside the Cannon River, then shared a potluck.

Anna Vaith describes a Cannon Falls group practice and vegetarian potluck, quarterly Twin Cities teacher meetings and four national conferences, and how each widened her teaching and personal practice.

Aphorisms from Justin Stone's out-of-print 20th Century Psalms on the Impersonal, karma worked out in dreams, the barrier of time, cruelty toward animals, and the man who retired with a million dollars and still has it.

Anita Vestal recounts the 2015 Black Mountain conference, where Susan Quinn used chocolate and candy to locate the perfect moment, April Leffler told of a fly landing on her nose, and Sandy McAlister taught gliding into a full weight shift.

Roseann Heinrich describes attending the 2015 conference in the North Carolina hills two years in a row, finding that smaller numbers, old friends and unhurried talk with teachers mattered more than lodging or food.

Justin Stone explains the Sanskrit term Advaita, arguing that trees, chairs and bodies are transformations rather than permanent forms, and that balancing Intrinsic Energy through regular practice makes us whole.

Panelists Deb Bertelsen, Deanna Rasch and Sheila Leonard describe growing TCC communities in Minnesota, Richmond, Virginia and Newfoundland, from quarterly potluck gatherings and mentoring frameworks to Dan Pienciak's nine island visits.

Laurie Jacobi credits a Robert Graves line about Celtic poets treating their fingertips as oracle agents with transforming her feeling for Pulling In the Energy, especially outdoors among birds and trees.

Mary Wichmann describes the morning after the 2015 conference in Asheville, eating heirloom tomato eggs Benedict on the Inn on Biltmore Estate terrace and finding herself moved to tears by strangers.

Donna Deffenbaugh's poem traces one pair of hands from infancy through muddy play, motherhood, keyboards and stiff buttons to timid hands rising at heart-height in practice, reaching for the universe.

April Leffler recounts the three black and white images that came during morning practice before her 2015 conference talk on harmony, plus the palm-to-palm partner exercise in leading and following she led.

Stan Corwin opens a new column with a step-by-step way to teach the forward and back weight shift, then tells how a neighbor with multiple myeloma reached remission after taking up daily practice.

Ann Rutherford and Kathy Grassel trace how Justin Stone's deliberately incomplete Seijaku DVD and brief accreditations left teachers unsure, and why they compiled a community booklet whose sales fund the TCC International Foundation.

Marie Dotts traces 17 years of teaching, a six-year pause while caregiving, and building the Northern Colorado community through a retreat with Pam Towne and monthly principle sessions for teacher candidates.

Sandy McAlister quotes Justin Stone on the need for TCC to evolve, then proposes holding the teacher conference every other year with a community conference for students between, and asks teachers to answer a survey.

Daniel Pienciak has students imagine a clock face on the torso, tracing middle fingers from 7:30 and 4:30 up to twelve, to learn the hand positions in both Daughter movements; Pyramid Poems from Carmen Brocklehurst's Fall Seijaku Retreat follow.