The Vital Force Archive

Stephen Ryter describes the 6:45 a.m. T'ai Chi Chih class he teaches to Blue Cross of Idaho employees, from a November sunrise over the foothills to the closing Cosmic Consciousness Pose.

Joan Hutchison, diagnosed with spinal stenosis in 2009 and unable to walk, describes how intense physical therapy helped her avoid surgery and how T'ai Chi Chih became the one exercise she can still do.

Sherry Ventris signed up for her first class not knowing what she was getting into, and now starts each day with a practice she calls a quiet personal retreat and plans to keep for life.

Kathleen Yochum and Steve Cox found traditional T'ai Chi too complicated to perform well, and describe how T'ai Chi Chih's simple repetitive movements brought centeredness without the tension of recalling what comes next.

Elissa Maguire reports on David Schulberg's conference discussion of teaching styles, where instructors agreed teachers must shift a classroom's ambience toward empty mind through silence, softness, flowing music and body-mind scans.

Stephen Ryter sorts audiences into facts, forms, feelings and futures people so a T'ai Chi Chih pitch lands, and Mary Schapker recounts the 2007 conference committee's agenda-free beach reunion in Silver Beach.