The Vital Force Archive

Pam Towne predicts a critical mass of long-term practitioners transforming planetary consciousness and urges teachers to keep up personal practice, followed by Sandy McAlister's call to strengthen the TCC connection by practising with teachers wherever we travel.

Sister Carol DeAngelo describes the seated, breath-and-hands practice she leads at St. Cabrini Nursing Home, where residents, day health registrants and nurse assistants find a noisy room gradually quieting.

Sharon Matesi tells how Lucia Veteran brought T'ai Chi Chih to northeast Pennsylvania after moving there, growing to over 100 students and a five-county group practice at Marywood University.

Diana Welsh-Durkin and Debbie Cole summarize Sr. Alice Holden's open-floor conference discussion on spreading the UCLA, Wall Street Journal and Prevention findings to doctors, insurers such as New Mexico's Blue Cross, and graduate researchers.

Sher Dano reports the results of the National Council on Aging qigong and tai chi pilot: 349 participants at 18 sites, mean age 73, with significantly reduced perceived stress and plans for a more rigorous study.

Judy Tretheway's account of teaching six movements to about 150 men across six yards at Avenal State Prison, with closing Push Pull circles and plans for a new group at New Folsom.

Debbie Cole credits her teacher training week with starting her writing, and offers poems including "When a Student Can Flow" and "Explorers" alongside thanks to Sharon Sirkis and Ed Altman.

Pat Flynn describes practicing T'ai Chi Chih step by step across a patio toward Sprite, a fearful Saluki scarred by infant surgery, until the dog let herself be touched.

Siobhán Hutchinson recounts a self-drive from Dublin to Shannon on the left side of narrow Irish roads, finding in missing third gear, roundabouts, Gaelic signs and a galloping herd of sheep the same lessons T'ai Chi Chih teaches about presence and acceptance.

Athene Mantle's 2004 St. Louis conference talk, in which a hummingbird and two hawks outside her window lead her through years of auditing trainings, hip restrictions and a broken baby toe.

Ray Welles, a minister and family therapist sent to T'ai Chi Chih by his orthopedist for spinal stenosis and aching knees, found pain relief and a moving prayer that rewards no one for finishing first.

Sharon Sirkis recounts blinking emergency lights during her college class's first music session, a student's "get-out-of-jail free card," and a 95-year-old choosing her hair appointment over class, plus Sheila Leonard's license plate holder photo.

Athene Mantle, Nancy Jo Bleier, Sher Dano and Susan Evans give short accounts of the St. Louis conference, from Jim Hecker's message from Folsom Prison practitioners to Evans's objection to alternating future conferences with Albuquerque.

Lee Moore, facing two scheduled operations seven years ago, used acceptance and faithful T'ai Chi Chih practice at home and visualized practice in the hospital to walk into surgery free of panic.

Sheila Leonard, a Presentation Sister from Newfoundland who practised alone 1000 miles from the nearest teacher, recounts how the first Ringwood Intensive in May 2003 prepared her for accreditation.

Lucia Veteran recounts the June 2004 Intensive at Mt. St. Francis Retreat Center, where Sandy McAlister spotted the bad habit in her Anchor Taffy: complete the wind-up before stepping out.

Asked to teach at the Muhammad Ali Parkinson Research Center, Sher Dano was required to carry professional liability insurance and reports finding affordable coverage through the Tai Chi Arthritis Association of America.

Lorraine Lepine, accredited in 1999 and rusty, describes Sandy's Houston intensive where onomatopoeic sounds loosened her Anchor Taffy hips and the phrase "soft without sacrificing the form" released her neck tension.

After the 2004 St. Louis conference, Beverly Weil argues that the community's collective Chi mirrors each member's own, and asks whether responsibility is being shifted yin to yang, citing the Teachers Directory.

Athene Mantle reports on the June 2004 week-long teacher training at San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, where Sandy McAlister led twelve candidates and eighteen auditors, and all twelve were accredited.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst thanks the St. Louis team for the 2004 Conference and describes leading the final morning practice with 115 teachers who moved as "one sea of energy."

Nine 2004 candidates, among them Glenna Dockery, Carol Wong and Denise Singerline, describe teacher prep classes, the auditors' support, hip-rolling waist-turn warmups, and one candidate's emotional release about her legs.

Dorene Krause's pyramid poem builds from a single candle flame to three circles of practitioners moving as one, then returns to silence that is no longer solitary.

Linda Braga, Roberta Taggart and Donna McElhose describe auditing the June 2004 accreditation week, praising partner practice, Northern California teachers' support, and the strain on candidates who arrive without prep courses.

Linda Braga's rhyming parody of the Snow White mirror, written at 3 a.m. and performed at the St. Louis conference, asks a partner to spot incomplete weight shifts, raised heels and showing ego.

Pilar Triggs recounts the final morning of her teacher training, waking before dawn with her week-long cough and wheezing suddenly gone, then receiving her certificate and driving home elated.

Catherine Brieussel travelled from France to the St Louis conference through lost luggage, missed connections and a hotel fire alarm, then felt the community's chi transform a windowless room and rode to the top of the Gateway Arch.

Cathy Dalton's account of the St. Paul Intensive led by Pam and Sr. Antonia, where handmade quilt squares, Justin Stone quote cards and the phrase "not too big, not too little" guided participants toward letting go.

A transcript of Victor Berg's half-hour appearance with Dr. Julia Bain on Albuquerque public-access Channel 16, where he defines chi, cites the UCLA immune study, and demonstrates Around the Platter.

Byron Gill describes being deferred at the 2002 Edmonton teacher training with his wife Rhonda and Faye Mohr, and Pam Towne's announcement that they had finally earned full accreditation.