The Vital Force Archive

Roberta Taggart describes the six-week pro bono program she began in 1999 teaching twelve special needs children in a Newark public school, with guidelines, foot massage routines, and the speech pathologist's observations of calmer behavior.

Noel Altman reports that teacher Susan Haymaker is teaching TCC classes for Dr. Michael Irwin's four-year NIH-funded study of 200 seniors over 60, measuring immune response to shingles.

Hannah Hedrick, a former AMA executive, lays out the folder a teacher should assemble for a hospital interview: benefit statements, the AMA Cultural Competence Compendium entry, Dr. Scotti's letter to Justin Stone, and research citations, speaking of symptoms rather than diseases.

Richard Detert and two university colleagues tested 35 education professionals who learned T'ai Chi Chih at a weekend workshop, measuring stress manifestations and well-being after four weeks of journaled practice.

Letters from readers, including Theda Gillespie's call for a teacher at a Napier high school, Tonya Setzke's request for menopause research, and Sr. Marie-Ann Main's schoolchildren asking for their morning tape.

News briefs report planning for the July 2000 Conference at Xavier Center, the Arthritis Foundation's formal statement naming T'ai Chi Chih, a Texas osteoporosis ad, and Dr. John Moth's cellular research on vashanas.

Susan Patterson recounts how Dr. Tahir Bhatti's back pain study at UCSD led Dr. Michael Irwin to test TCC's effect on shingles vaccine response and immunity in people over 60.

Susan Patterson recounts how Dr. Tahir Bhatti's grant-funded study on T'ai Chi Chih and chronic lower back pain led to a three-minute CBS Morning News clip and 650 calls.

Carmen Brocklehurst surveys T'ai Chi Chih's reach in 1998: teachers in 42 states and abroad, HMO prescriptions, corporate classes, nursing CEUs, Folsom Prison teacher training and the PBS series.

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.

Carol Krucoff's San Jose Mercury News column, reprinted here, reports a Johns Hopkins study of 62 sedentary adults over 60 in which t'ai chi lowered systolic blood pressure nearly as much as aerobic exercise.

Lisa Lytle reports from Duke Cheng's Buena Park studio on growing American interest in t'ai chi and chi kung, citing NIH falls research and students managing asthma and diabetes.

Drs. Lumsden and Matire, with research assistant Baccala, introduce primary care physicians to t'ai chi ch'uan as a low-impact adjunct therapy for osteoarthritis of the hip and knee.

Teacher news reports 83-year-old John J. O'Connor's accreditation at Mahwah, Justin Stone's first East Coast visit to Convent Station, Marlene Brown's six-day Kentucky wellness retreat, and Patricia Herbig's call for medical evidence of TCC's benefits.

Dr. Tahir Bhatti describes his UCSD School of Medicine fellowship grant to test T'ai Chi Chih against routine care for chronic low back pain, teaching 11 movements in six-week sessions.

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.

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.

A state-by-state roundup: seated TCC on local TV at Casa Sandoval, Marianne Merritt's classes for California prison staff and inmates, a University of Cincinnati research grant, hospital wellness and community college classes, and an April Seijaku retreat.

Roberta Taggart summarizes a Times report on William Haskell's federally funded Stanford study testing t'ai chi and other unconventional therapies against aging, measuring balance with eyeglass-mounted devices and stress indicators in saliva.

Synopses and excerpts of four newspaper and magazine pieces on TCC, covering Sister Marian Massman in La Crosse, Sister Antonia Cooper and Edie Budney in New Jersey, Bonnie McKenzie in San Jose, and Elissa Maguire on muscle and posture.

Lisa Langer's piece from OT Week describes t'ai chi as an occupational therapy intervention, citing studies on postural control in the elderly, rheumatoid arthritis patients, and NIH-funded balance research at Northwestern.

Excerpts from Evanston's Daily Northwestern quote teacher Amy Hackenberg and students at the Evanston Athletic Club and Levy Senior Citizen Center, plus a St. Joseph's Hospital study finding balance gains in nine elderly practitioners.

Chris McLain traces the miscommunication that dogged the 1991 "On the Family" conference, including a transport committee missing Justin's flight, and poses questions on certification, honoring teachers, and students' healing crises for the 1992 Vallombrosa gathering.

A Center for Healthy Aging newsletter near Chicago praised T'ai Chi Chih for lowering blood pressure and cholesterol, and announced a 12-week class taught by Nancy Meyer and Hannah Hedrick with an optional research study.

Chris McLain reports that she and instructor Colleen Heising are working with Dr. Alberto Pontillo of the Fargo Veterans Hospital on the first research study of T'ai Chi Chih and Alzheimer's.

Jean Katus summarizes early returns from 133 teachers answering question 15 of the teacher survey, listing what teachers most want students to grasp, from practice itself to serenity within activity.

A news item submitted by Corinn Codye reporting that Dutch insurer BERG-Diensten cut auto premiums 30 to 50 percent for Transcendental Meditation practitioners judged lower-risk drivers.

Julie Attaway's Desert Sun report compares Jacques Moramarco's T'ai Chi Ch'uan classes in a Palm Springs park with Tais Hoffman's trial T'ai Chi Chih class at a Palm Desert senior center.

In an April 1976 letter to Justin Stone, John Burchard reports a 65-pound weight loss, blood pressure falling from 140/95 to 120/75, and informal readings he took on three hypertensive students.

Hannah Hedrick and others were filmed for a videotape on AIDS therapies, Pam Towne taped half-hour teaching shows for public access TV, and Dorothy Marks filled two classes after a newspaper article and radio interviews.