The Vital Force Archive

Beverly A. Ward traces her path from first classes with Stan Corwin and Vicki Schroeder through a retreat, intensive and accreditation, then a 2050-mile drive to conference.

Stephanie Bass traces how a friend's offhand mention of a T'ai Chi class at the Y led her to Maggie Peltier, to teaching despite her doubts, and to trusting the inner knowing Justin Stone called Prajna.

Chris Norkus reprints her reply to a woman with no teacher nearby, recounting flying from Charlotte to Washington for her first lessons, eleven years of solo practice, and accreditation in Albuquerque in 2001.

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.

Ann Sollars demonstrates tension versus softness in knees, wrists and shoulders to spark beginners' first recognition of held tension, and Chris Norkus describes building TCC community from remote practice, conferences and two weekly sessions.

Stan Corwin and Vicki Schroeder split a beginners' course in Hendersonville, halfway between them, alternating sessions one through seven so each traveled half as often and students gained two teachers.

Harriet Marquit connects softness to Working the Pulley, which she likens to a machine that keeps moving without us, and describes beach practice where sinking sand moves her along and porpoises appear during Pulling In The Energy.

Dee Goss recounts learning T'ai Chi Chih from Harriet Marquit after retiring to Hertford, practicing summer mornings on the marina docks amid wind, jumping fish and curious onlookers, plus her take on Working the Pulley.

Chris Norkus draws on Norman Cousins, Bill Moyers and Jim Rohn's apple-a-day analogy to argue that TCC's cumulative circulation of energy builds health rather than repairing illness after the fact.

Chris Norkus contrasts his 1920s-style board-breaking martial arts training, which left him with cracked skin and bruised joints, with circulating chi in T'ai Chi Chih, and offers Earl Nightingale's million-dollar body as a way to explain intrinsic energy to Western students.