The Vital Force Archive

Mary Teetor Zablotny's letter to the San Francisco Kaiser Health Education Department describes practising two or three movements at a time while hospitalized with pneumonia, and the easier stair climbing her asthma allowed after four classes.

Jeanne Marlowe recounts her first year as an accredited teacher: a detached retina discovered during training in Albuquerque, two surgeries, ongoing blurry vision and balance work, and practice at Machu Picchu.

Phil Darghty, a long-term inmate at Folsom State Prison, recounts how a year of twice-daily T'ai Chi Chih with the Contemplative Fellowship eased old shoulder and knee injuries until he stopped needing pain pills.

Sr. Francis A. Kay writes from her hospice ministry to HIV and AIDS patients and the bereaved in Harare, Zimbabwe, teaching a class to hospice staff and crediting T'ai Chi Chih energy for her recovery from eye surgery.

Mark Moloney reports on three students in his St. Louis adult education classes whose knee swelling after surgery, Lupus pain and chronic arthritic neck and shoulder pain eased within weeks.

Richard Detert describes the formless flood of energy he encountered after a 45 minute practice and relaxation in the week following his 1998 accreditation, and the feeling that returned to his chest after heart surgery.

Kevin T. Seufert watched his treadmill pulse monitor drop from 117 to 106 while he mentally ran through the movements, and R.M. Zurkan, 60, used morning and evening practice to recover after falling down 22 cement steps.

Henry Mattos, skeptical that a gentle discipline could do much, recounts childhood polio, back surgery at thirty-two, and finding T'ai Chi Chih a low-impact workout and stress reducer.

Vivian Hoff arrived at her senior class at a St. Paul community center fighting a respiratory infection, and found her balance and breathing cleared as the chi cultivated by all twenty students took over.

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.

Susan Larson-Waugh's newspaper profile of Joe Apt, who teaches up to 15 classes a week despite multiple sclerosis and a triple bypass, and of student Lenore Listiak, strengthening knees after replacement surgery.

Christeen McLain-Horpedahl recounts teaching seated T'ai Chi Chih at Villa Maria Nursing Home in Fargo from 1985, her daughter Kathryn helping residents form circles, Gail Braaten's 12-week study, and two knee injuries healed without surgery.

Sandy McAlister relays student Joanne Ramirez's account of postponing surgery for a torn cartilage in her left knee, and after eighteen months of practice walking, climbing stairs and dancing again without pain.

Sister Francis A. Kay fell six steps from a cabin ladder during a Kentucky retreat, fracturing a thoracic vertebra, and found the joyous movements more healing than her prescribed therapeutic exercises.

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.

A profile of teacher candidate Sue Inteman, a student of Marjorie Peltier who uses T'ai Chi Chih in recovering from left facial paralysis and presented research on TCC and stress reduction to Hospice of Wake County.

Ray Watson describes teaching Mary, a woman in her seventies paralyzed on her left side, who heard him on Batavia talk radio and, combining TCC with visualization and self-hypnosis, regained feeling and began standing.

Jean Katus reports on Barbara Friedman of Florida, who learned T'ai Chi Chih at an Arizona Elderhostel, ordered a videotape, and found her hip pain gone, canceling planned replacement surgery.

Rich Axline, accredited in San Diego in 1994 and teaching his second class, admits presentations still challenge him, then recounts two students whose back and leg pain vanished during his first class.

Recovering from foot surgery, Rosalind Braga spent the 9th Annual Conference practicing seated T'ai Chi Chih, and describes the pelvic movement, rooted center and movements that worked best for her seniors class.

Patricia Bough, sidelined by tendinitis, taught her senior center class seated, then standing with a student model, then settled on using Justin's new video so she could circulate, correct and rest her foot.

Merced Sun-Star writer Debra Salonen profiled George Balliet, whose pain and depression after a 2-by-12 struck his head eased with his first T'ai Chi Chih movement; he now teaches using a Slinky.

Carolyn P. Shaw's first teaching after breaking her leg: a two-week class for 19 seniors in the Getaway Program, with Tao Te Ching readings, chair practice, and a man with a lung ailment performing at the final banquet.

Lucille Boman began practicing a week after back surgery, standing still with wobbly legs, skipping Pulling Taffy, until three weeks later she completed the whole form with her group at Santa Margarita Lake.

Sandy McAlister describes co-teaching a six-hour Clinical Use of T'ai Chi Chih workshop with hand therapist Eva Ching for Northern California physical and occupational therapists treating chronic pain and hand rehabilitation.

Carolyn Shaw recounts breaking her fibula on December 9 and rebuilding her practice after the cast came off, starting with Rocking Motion and Bird Flaps Its Wings alone.

Four teachers report student results: Virginia Shilson's introverted student felt his heart center open after learning Push Pull, Caroline Chavez's diabetic student leveled her blood sugar, Ellen Tatge's midwife used chi during labor, and Gordon Wade's Elderhostel walker eased his knee problems.

Hope Burla practiced T'ai Chi Chih for an hour on the morning of her abdominal surgery, let her fears fall away, and went home from the hospital two days later.

J. J. Barbour recounts how a compound fracture at nineteen, surgical shoes and a leg-shortening operation left his right leg curved and painful, until years of T'ai Chi Chih straightened it.

Three short items: Lucy Hocking's doctor unwittingly prescribes heel-ball-toe rocking for her sprained ankle, Roxann Post's mother mishears T'ai Chi on the phone, and a ten-year-old student adds the "A's".