The Vital Force Archive

Donna McElhose, left waiting three hours in a hospital cubicle for a delayed procedure, wrapped her IV lines around her wrists and practiced TCC in her gown while nurses looked on; Pyramid Poems on silence follow.

Chris Norkus watches fifteen students at his FirstHealth class practice within their own abilities, likening them to blooming dandelions, and describes Christina falling mid-class and her hard-won gains.

Pia Knighton took over her teacher's classes at the Cenacle Retreat Center right after accreditation, then built classes at a community center, a retreat house, and the Menninger Clinic psychiatric units.

Physical therapist Sara Nelson picks movements like Working the Pulley for clients with pain or fatigue; Donna Moore and Daisy Hobbs then discuss twenty years of teaching and seated practice.

Stephen Thompson recounts Peter Gregory's challenge to teach TCC in 12-step recovery programs, his failed attempts to enter Mississippi jails, and six months of talks before NMHS Behavioral Health Center accepted classes.

Gloria Mancusco credits classes with Dorene Krause and Bill Moore for normal blood work, blood pressure and improved bone density, joined by Kay Spaloss, who stopped her bone density medication.

Hannah Hedrick gathers testimonials from two conference breakout sessions on "T'ai Chi Chih: Part of All You Do," from animals drawn to practitioners' chi to skeptical spouses coming around and teachers steadied by grief and volatile situations.

Suanne Lewis describes falling in love three times over: with a new beginners' class reaching Carry the Ball to the Side, with patients at a western Maryland psychiatric hospital, and with an outdoor community practice in the Allegany Mountains.

Judy Jackson has taught since 2005 at Exempla Lutheran Medical Center's holistic division in Wheat Ridge, and quotes students from three recent six-week sessions on moving meditation, balance and daily practice plans.

Judith Schwartz describes her three classes at Laguna Honda Hospital, including the Zen Hospice Floor, where she rings a singing bowl, plays Mbira and chant recordings, and leads patients in wheelchairs.

Cynthia Madonna describes seated practice at Laguna Honda Hospital, where residents calm down, insomniacs nearby fall asleep and one stroke patient left his anger in the Wellness Center, plus her own recovery from a back injury.

Julie Buffalo describes a second year of teaching a well-attended class in a green park on the hospital campus where she works, where the earth seems to rise up to meet practitioners' feet.

Mark Moloney recounts a caseworker at a children's psychiatric inpatient facility who stayed centered through a shouted, threatening family conference, crediting the 40-minute T'ai Chi Chih class held that morning in the same room.

Hannah Hedrick reviews a Respiratory Care pilot study of T'ai Chi for COPD patients, praising its 61-item bibliography and two T'ai Chi Chih citations, then previews the 2011 Ohio teacher conference at Sawmill Creek Resort.

Dennis McCann, a hospital chaplain newly accredited by Pam Towne and Antonia, describes starting a class at Middlesex Hospital in Middletown, its Wellness Room setting, and the overlapping hour format for returning students.

Judy Hendricks recounts visiting Justin Stone in the hospital and rehab center, where he told staff about T'ai Chi Chih, joked with the ambulance driver and thanked visitors instead of complaining.

Stephan Koblick, a lifelong athlete and student of Eastern thought, found a T'ai Chi Chih class in a hospital complementary medicine department after a serious diagnosis, and has studied with Dorene Krause for over a year.

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.

Liz Humphrey recounts practising T'ai Chi Chih before, between and after three 45-minute Gamma Knife radiation sessions for a suspected returning brain tumor, and her neurosurgeon calling her a miracle.

Ron Richardson and Stephen Thompson lay out the costs, publicity and logistics behind their Mississippi workshops and retreat, from paying a visiting teacher's $500 fee to free hospital Wellness Center space.

Nancy Beck recounts Carmen Brocklehurst's September 2006 workshop at the SAS Wellness Center, where Return to Basics, the Seijaku massages and sounds, and meditation drew enthusiastic comments from students and the wellness director.

Liz Humphrey, told she had months to live after a brain tumor diagnosis, describes combining chemotherapy, radiation, meditation and T'ai Chi Chih, plus Justin Stone's advice not to accept the prognosis.

Notes from Bonnie Sokolov's conference workshop list eighteen group suggestions for getting T'ai Chi Chih into hospitals, from arranging nursing CEU credits and health fair booths to bartering free staff classes for room space.

Ron Richardson recounts Pam Towne's March workshop for 35 people at the Wellness Center of North Mississippi Medical Center, local newspaper coverage with a T'ai Chi Chuan misprint, and doubled class attendance afterward.

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.

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.

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.

Linda Braga honors Bay Area teacher Lois Mahaney, who kept the TCC database for 15 years, mailed the Vital Force, designed the Ou Mie Shu bird shirts, and retired in her mid-80s.

Sher Dano recounts a student telling her, after class, how her family gathered at her dying mother's hospital bed and did Rocking Motion, the mother's favorite movement, as she slipped away.

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.