The Vital Force Archive

Sr. Patty Campbell gathers comments from Sisters aged 80 to 93 who practice with her at their Motherhouse, describing eased arthritic joints, calmed anxiety, prayerful focus, and moving from wooden soldier to Raggedy Ann.

Mary Case, who noticed her own sudden hearing loss ten years ago, offers practical adjustments for students who cannot hear you: face them, seat them discreetly up front, lower the music, and use a waist amplifier.

Ardi Baker, in her seventies and left depressed and listless after an illness, found T'ai Chi Chih through a newspaper article and turned her practice time into prayer.

Donna Dittmer, 73, took up T'ai Chi Chih after serious surgery left her with problematic breathing, and felt the energy in the first movements her class learned with Bev Chandley.

Lucille Porter, at 80 and with a history of lower back trouble, describes going to her T'ai Chi Chih class despite stiffness and pain, and finding her back fine within minutes.

Nelson Weaver, a retired Air Force and corporate Type A personality, describes taking stock at 62, signing up for Donna McElhose's beginning class, and celebrating a 149 Day Gong.

MaryAnn Moran, newly accredited, names the pressure and worry of a fast-paced life, the peace TCC gave her, and an aging population's need to stay active as her reasons for teaching.

Justin Stone answers his editors' constant requests for copy, notes his articles may lean spiritual as he enters his nineties, and recalls the former head of T'ai Chi Chih who quit over his insistence that the practice is a service to humanity.

Sue Bitney recounts an elderly Minneapolis student who arrived with a cane and oxygen tank on doctor's orders and, over three eight-week sessions, stood unaided for a full hour.

Dan Pienciak describes using Justin Stone's essay "The Cumulative Effects of T'ai Chi Chih" from Spiritual Odyssey to motivate senior students, and inviting them to report changes like dropped blood pressure medication and a discarded oxygen tank.

June Engle began T'ai Chi Chih at 85 with a lesson in a parking lot after a hike, then DVDs, tingling hands, and one sleepless night after practising before bed.

Justin Stone quotes Swami Rama of India at length on prana as the cosmic life principle, then credits his own undiminished vigor at 86 to consistent, correct T'ai Chi Chih practice.

Marcy Burns, injured by falls in Tanzania, Spain and Vietnam, describes how retirement, widowhood and Lisa Otero's twice-weekly classes led to steadier travel through Turkey, Transylvania and, at 81, Morocco.

Kate Hollister, instructor for three UCLA studies, describes Dr. Michael Irwin's insomnia trials with older adults and breast cancer survivors and Dr. Helen Lavretsky's project on depression.

Rhonda St. Martin, RN, introduces T'ai Chi Chih to nurse life care planners, citing the Journal of Gerontological Nursing balance study and the UCLA shingles immunity trial alongside her own experience since 1986.

Claire Whalen replaced dwindling eight-week beginner classes with weekend and one-day intensive formats at her convent retreat center, paired with a Harvard Health Letter report on UCLA's T cell study.

Pam Towne counts 23 years of practice in terms of balance: skating and tree climbing at 53, low blood pressure normalized within six months, thyroid and hormone shifts, and steadier grief after her parents' deaths and her divorce.

Justin Stone answers his own terse questions on truth, rain, old age and compassion, declaring darkness positive, arguments foolish, and chi the greatest influence on our lives.

Jan Arrott recounts Sr. Antonia's correction to let the knees straighten before the heels rise in Light at the Top of the Head and Rocking Motion, plus Jerry Bumbalough on teaching seniors to balance before stepping.

Pat Flynn recounts how Lyme disease left her nearly blind and crippled, and how T'ai Chi Chih ended her night pain and restored ninety percent of her damaged shoulder movement.

Linda Braga names inertia as the two-fold pitfall of teaching in assisted living residences, poses the hard questions teachers face about lowering standards, and offers six posted guidelines for resident participation.

Rosalind Braga's article for Delta Kappa Gamma's international journal The Bulletin, recounting how a stress reduction flyer led her to TCC and to teaching seniors aged 60 to 90.

Hannah Hedrick describes pairing pursed-lip breathing with the weight shift for students with COPD, modifying Light at the Top of the Head, and bringing TCC to Red Hat Society women, cancer and HIV/AIDS groups.

Lorraine Levine asks teachers to return the 2005 TCC Teacher Survey by December 31 and publishes teaching tips from the first 55 responses, covering seniors, Parkinson's, dementia care, hospice bereavement groups and deaf children, plus a new Special Requests section.

Linda Braga recounts how Helen, an unsteady 85-year-old referred by her doctor, stood through her first Seniors class and returned to report sitting in her car feeling amazingly calm.

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.

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.

Barbara Riley describes 13 years of teaching at Rossmoor, an over-55 community in Walnut Creek, where longtime students stay fit and each class closes with a five-minute seated meditation.

Evan B. Hammond traces his life from bio-cosmic infancy through clock-trained childhood to forty, when years shrank to months, and imagines his lifetimes compressed into a single photograph of consciousness.