The Vital Force Archive

Kathy Starrick watched smoke rise over the Twin Towers from her New Jersey living room, then faced it and offered her practice to those across the river, Passing Clouds releasing grief and relief.

Linda Braga describes a television program on NASA's human centrifuge experiments, in which pilots reported out of body experiences before blacking out, and asks what that suggests about chi and cosmic consciousness.

Nancy Connell of Severna Park, Maryland began T'ai Chi Chih at 57 after losing agility, and within three weeks could balance on one leg to put on her walking shoes, with praise for teacher Sharon Sirkis.

Timothy Stuetz of Anaheim sends Justin Stone birthday greetings along with an account of blue pearls, streaks of light and dissolving into pure light in the cosmic consciousness pose.

Steve Ridley describes how the Cosmic Consciousness Pose aligns chi and draws energy upward to the third eye, and offers a breathe-and-relax method for holding it several minutes.

Lee Campbell recounts a 6 a.m. practice in a park across from her Lucerne hotel, where a bell clock chimed and a stranger practiced his own form of T'ai Chi behind her.

Hope Ridley recounts two class moments that made her smile: students veering left in unison when reminded about equal weight in Cosmic Consciousness Pose, and the whole class turning sideways when she did.

Richard Brier continues his comic allegory of Chi Lanka, meeting Rip Van Stone in the Taffy Forest, relieving Masters Yink and Yank at the pulley, and posing atop Mt. Chi.

Steve Ridley urges stillness after practice rather than chatter and random motion, using the Cosmic Consciousness Pose and several quiet minutes seated to assimilate freshly circulated chi, as hatha yoga does after asanas.

Mary Naidu reports on the first T'ai Chi Chih class in Hong Kong, held at the Personal Growth Centre in February 1992, where six of ten international students completed the twenty movements.

Maxime Wan noticed that the thumbs and fingers of the Cosmic Consciousness Pose form the Chinese character for "complete," whose mirror image and added strokes yield the character for gold.

Lois Mahaney hunted everywhere for a poem she needed for a calligraphy deadline, gave up and did her daily practice instead, then walked straight to her purse and found it.

Steve Ridley explains how to hold the Cosmic Consciousness Pose for five to fifteen minutes after practice, focusing on the upper t'an t'ien, and why he follows it with a grounding resting pose.

A West County Times profile of 70-year-old Ben Levitan, who teaches T'ai Chi Chih at The Open House Senior Center in El Cerrito and says a fifth of his students start yawning from relaxation within 45 minutes.