The Vital Force Archive

Sher Dano describes being selected with Deanne Hodgson as one of about 20 facilitators in a 2004 National Council on Aging pilot bringing qigong, breath practice and self-massage to seniors.

Carolyn Perkins recounts taping a six-minute T'ai Chi Chih segment at Martha Stewart's Westport studio, persuading Stewart that her 89-year-old mother, recovering from hip replacements, should practise seated.

Two letters, from Barbara Riley to Dr. Weil's wellness bulletin and from Kendelyn Beck to Time, asking both to name T'ai Chi Chih correctly in reporting the UCLA immune-response study of seniors.

Dan Page summarizes a UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute trial, published in Psychosomatic Medicine, in which 36 adults over 60 took 15 weeks of T'ai Chi Chih classes and saw shingles-suppressing immunity rise 50 percent.

Bernice Wilkinson, over 70 and living with osteoporosis and compression fractures, describes how Sandy McAlister's reminders about soles of the feet and soft knees ended her nervous clinging to shower walls.

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.

Noel Altman reports that teacher Susan Haymaker is teaching TCC classes for Dr. Michael Irwin's four-year NIH-funded study of 200 seniors over 60, measuring immune response to shingles.

Five classroom anecdotes from Sharon Sirkis, Nancy Vermond, Ann Sollars, Debbie Cole and Kat York, including a reluctant husband's "T'ai Chi - Cha Cha Cha," Toronto nonagenarians, and a student asking whether TCC is sold in health food stores.

Sr. Patty Campbell describes the Friday half-hour of seated T'ai Chi Chih she leads for retired sisters in St. Clare Hall infirmary, plus Monday sessions broadcast on closed circuit TV.

Eight classroom mishearings and comebacks collected from Viola Bens, Sharon Sirkis and Pat Huseby, including silly putty mistaken for chewing gum and a student stuck on the two girls on the mountain.

Susan Patterson recounts how Dr. Tahir Bhatti's back pain study at UCSD led Dr. Michael Irwin to test TCC's effect on shingles vaccine response and immunity in people over 60.

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.

Tara Stiles reports that three Kaiser facilities contracted her, Judy Tretheway and Nancy Reed through Health Education and Behavioral Medicine, including her demanding class for the "Health Challenged."

Justin Stone explains "Chi Posteriori" accumulated through practice, the Turiya state he teaches only to a few privately, and the young ashram yogi whose nightly emissions ceased after a 1:00 a.m. practice.

Ed Altman's presentation at Shepherd's Centers of America headquarters in Kansas City led the cross-denominational aging-services network to plan T'ai Chi Chih at nearly 100 centers, starting with Justin Stone's videotape.

Sharon Sirkis, teaching seated TCC at an adult day care center, mistook a silent member for cognitively impaired, then stayed through lunch as he wept about his fear of a psychiatric institution.

Shirley Ownes, 80, recounts how T'ai Chi Chih helped her recover from a 1997 hip replacement, her surgeon approving practice before and after, and how Sharon Sirkis' live class outdid the televised lessons she had followed.

Carol Krucoff's San Jose Mercury News column, reprinted here, reports a Johns Hopkins study of 62 sedentary adults over 60 in which t'ai chi lowered systolic blood pressure nearly as much as aerobic exercise.

Drs. Lumsden and Matire, with research assistant Baccala, introduce primary care physicians to t'ai chi ch'uan as a low-impact adjunct therapy for osteoarthritis of the hip and knee.

Adria Neumann maps her T'ai Chi Chih practice onto four life stages, from a tree-rooted childhood grounded in the bubbling spring to the stability and clear thinking of seniorhood.

Carrie Kinsey interviews Theda Gillespie, accredited in 1983 and teaching in New Zealand's Hawke Bay for eight years, who at 81 calls herself "youthing," credits yoga, reflexology and vision exercises, and laments video conversion costs.

Teacher news reports 83-year-old John J. O'Connor's accreditation at Mahwah, Justin Stone's first East Coast visit to Convent Station, Marlene Brown's six-day Kentucky wellness retreat, and Patricia Herbig's call for medical evidence of TCC's benefits.

Roberta Taggart lays out the five-part hour she developed for seated T'ai Chi Chih with frail elderly students at two senior day care centers, from an opening reading through warm-ups, the form, and closing waterfall visualization.

Lynn Lind's Deming Headlight report on Beverly McFarland, who took over daily T'ai Chi Chih sessions at the Deming Elderhostel, came to the practice through recurring dreams, and taught a blind woman with her own eyes closed.

R. Taggart and Liz Salada report on the City of Hayward naming Lois Mahaney a STAR volunteer in October 1996, cataloguing her work as longtime Vital Force editor, Resource Correspondent, Teachers' Directory compiler and host of Sunday Practice in the Park.

Roberta Taggart offers five pointers for new or physically limited students to avoid delayed-onset muscle soreness: staying at 70% of capacity, adding practice time gradually, practising daily, warming up and breathing naturally.

R. Taggart's account of Sandy McAlister and Lois Mahaney appearing on Transitions, a local senior-issues TV program, where six students from Casa Sandoval Retirement Community performed ten minutes of seated TCC on air.

Roberta Taggart summarizes a Times report on William Haskell's federally funded Stanford study testing t'ai chi and other unconventional therapies against aging, measuring balance with eyeglass-mounted devices and stress indicators in saliva.

Timothy Stuetz introduces a letter from Dr. Donna M. Cone, who attended three morning T'ai Chi Chih sessions at a Conference on Aging, and recounts a man whose locked ankle moved painlessly for the first time in ten years.

Donna M. Cone, a student of Timothy Stuetz, writes after 35 consecutive days of practice about rising early, losing 10 pounds, steadier balance at 57, and calm during career stress.