The Vital Force Archive

James K. Hecker, teaching T'ai Chi Chih at Old Folsom Prison, describes a letter from a newly accredited teacher whose fear and anger toward him dissolved after the training video, and the changes he sees in his advanced inmate students.

Noel Altman reports on the death of Kansas City teacher Jean Smith in June 1999 and how her student LucyAnn Fleischman, newly accredited, took over the Shepherd's Centers of America classes.

Writing from a cell block, Tom Bogdan thanks the volunteers who brought T'ai Chi Chih to Folsom Prison, calls it a cosmic life preserver, and asks about groups near Fresno and accreditation.

Noel Altman relays two blood pressure drops: Jo Trautmann's Texas student Chuck L. reached a diastolic of 79 after four lessons, and Kaiser San Francisco student Nancy C. measured 130/68.

Anne Perkins recounts auditing the St. Louis teacher training course with Ed Altman and Noel Altman, the corrections she received, and her resolve to audit one course every year.

Cary Fellman's pyramid poem traces a class from students arriving with stiff arms and locked knees through relaxing muscles, shifting weight front to back, and energy flowing as yin meets yang.

Mark Moloney audited the final morning of a St. Louis teacher training, where Ed Altman's feedback on his upper-body excess prompted fourteen questions he now asks himself about his form.

Three pyramid poems: John Buffington likens practice to a tree holding resting birds with no effort, and to the tide rolling forward and back, while Cass Redmon offers a chocolate-dipped rainbow.

Gordon Wade recounts the April 1999 Victoria workshop with Ed Altman, praising the informal teachers' gathering the night before and carrying away two reminders: shift the weight and follow me.

Jim Shorr's poem, read to fellow initiates at the final practice of the June 1999 accreditation class, holds that the chi sent into others' lives returns to one's own.

Mary Teetor Zablotny's letter to the San Francisco Kaiser Health Education Department describes practising two or three movements at a time while hospitalized with pneumonia, and the easier stair climbing her asthma allowed after four classes.

Four anecdotes: Sharon Sirkis gets a message from a movie listing, Mark Moloney's student renames Around the Platter "Wiping the Counter," Jean Katus mishears "waste," and Ed Altman slips a quarter under a candidate's heel during Anchor Taffy.

Ann Rutherford recounts Ed Altman's June 1999 teacher training for 18 candidates in Albuquerque, with Justin Stone visiting daily, plus Jerry Jonnson's letter crediting the week with easing his lower backaches.

A set of pyramid poems written at the 1999 conference by Nancy Werner-Azarski, Paul Arnold, Sr. Alice Holden, Senora Avery, Marie Dotts and Joanna Woodrow, with a note on the form's origin in Climb the Joyous Mountain.

Writing to Justin Stone and Carmen after an imperfect training presentation, KG lists what practice changed: returning cash left in an ATM, patience for a 4x5 camera, reclaiming her body after abuse.

Pam Towne reports on July's accreditation of eleven teachers under Ed Altman, including Marty Beery starting her first class two days later, and Karen Schneider's letter on finding approval within.

Letters praising editor Noel's redesign of the journal, plus Sr. Viola Bens asking for help teaching a hearing impaired student and Jean Doan practicing daily at nearly 75 after a shoulder injury.

RuthAnne Plourde's fax interview with Justin Stone, reprinted from Twin Cities Wellness to promote the 1999 International Teachers' Conference, covers his 1962 departure from Wall Street, Professor Huang's three hand movements, and the circulation of chi.

Jean Katus urges the journal to fix grammar, spelling and misspelled names, editor Noel Altman defends leaving writers' voices intact, and Justin Stone laments sloppy English while backing her policy.

Attendees of the 14th annual conference in St. Paul, among them Rhonda St. Martin, Donna McElhose and Ralph Garn, thank the Minnesota hosts, praise Ed Altman's weight-shift teaching, and recall Justin Stone's talks.

Justin Stone quotes the Indian teacher Sri Nisargadatta on the Vital Breath and blockage, arguing that TCC exists to circulate and balance the Chi rather than to entertain or defend.

Doug Harned reports from the 14th annual teachers' conference at Concordia University, where 150 teachers practiced twice daily, heard Justin Stone speak on chi, learned Seated TCC, and honored TCC's 25th Anniversary.

Ed Altman argues that softness is impossible while the ego calculates and anticipates, and recommends releasing the scheming mind rather than hunting tension joint by joint, like chopping a tree one leaf at a time.

Mary Duffy's Rapid City Journal profile of Jan Marshall-Thoreen, who lost her speech therapy career to chronic fatigue syndrome in 1992 and first watched T'ai Chi Chih from the floor, too weak to stand.

Victor Berg argues that Seijaku's hard and soft principles generate a far stronger chi flow than T'ai Chi Chih alone, comparing a 75 watt bulb to a 1000 watt one.

Viereck's four-panel cartoon has two tired, stressed people respond differently: she decides fatigue is the best time to practise T'ai Chi Chih, while he dozes off in his chair.

Carmen Brocklehurst weighs how a teacher knows a student is ready for Teacher's Training, recalling the year she waited after Justin Stone's heart surgery postponed her own course.

Mark Moloney describes how an open, drop-in health club class in St. Louis led to workplace sessions for county health nurses, a school grant proposal, and a living-room lesson for a woman with breast cancer and her family.

Linda Braga recounts the sensations her practice brought, from a warm "chi bath" over a surgically repaired knee to crawling-insect feelings and a moment of pure joy, then the armed robbery she met with calm.

Jeanne Marlowe recounts her first year as an accredited teacher: a detached retina discovered during training in Albuquerque, two surgeries, ongoing blurry vision and balance work, and practice at Machu Picchu.