The Vital Force Archive

Paul Ciske recalls the breeze he felt between his hands at a cardiac rehab demonstration, his 1991 accreditation with Steve Ridley, reversing his arms in Working the Pulley, and the veil lifting in a Hong Kong park.

Pam Towne led seven teachers through a Zoom Seijaku accreditation in February, with participants Yuko Voss, Patty Stupca, Michelle Sarubbi and Sally Sherwin describing grounding, healing and beginner's mind.

Sandy McAlister calls on teachers to fund travel and hotel costs for overseas colleagues attending the 50th anniversary Teacher Conference in Albuquerque, and to sponsor candidates at in-person Intensives and Accreditations.

Guy Kent recounts Justin cutting short his accreditation presentation for comparing TCC to "T'ai Chi in the park," a lunch about stock charts and guilt, Saturday teisho readings, and Justin's tears over a critic who renamed the movements.

Lisa Otero counts the hundred-plus students who have come through her five classes in 15 years, including a new athletic student she misread completely, followed by Annie Braudy's discovery of soft hands.

Daryl Isenberg describes her twice weekly practice group in Ajijic, and Hannah Hedrick recounts how Theda Gillespie sold her the book in 1985 only on the promise she become accredited.

Laurin McDonald recounts the first 800 hours of teaching after her 2018 accreditation, from a chance encounter at a business showcase to classes in wheelchairs, a mosque, and her Seijaku accreditation in 2021.

Rosalind L. Braga recounts Justin Stone's 1998 talk at Folsom Prison, where the words "your joy is my joy" won over inmates and guards, and traces the weekly classes and inmate teachers that continue in 2023.

Lisa Stroyan compiled accounts from April Leffler's October 2023 Zoom accreditation, where 12 candidates from three countries worked from tree-frog "suction cup" feet upward and shared their "green banana" takeaways.

Fusun Sulzbach traces her on-again off-again practice from her 2002 accreditation presentation through a divorce, retirement, a gym class closed by COVID, and a June retreat in Oceanside that renewed her daily routine and ended her sleep medication.

Marcella K. Levie treats Justin's Graceful Conclusion between movements as a moment of coming home, followed by Sharron Gonzalez on the value of in-person accreditation courses over Zoom and on making daily practice a habit.

Sue Kenney recounts how a 2001 Vital Force article led her to teach at Folsom Prison, walking the metal detectors, gold coin checkpoints, cell blocks and yard to reach a chapel class of thirty men.

Ann Rutherford recounts joining Justin Stone's Turiya meditation group in 1996, being hospitalized after touching an ungrounded student's feet, and Justin's call for teachers to loosen up.

Tara Stiles, accredited by Justin Stone at Green Gulch Zen Center in 1978, recounts a beach seal watching her practice, her 'chi drawing' crayon exercise, and letting a joyful student flow uncorrected.

Newly accredited, John Marquez compares himself to an artichoke shedding layers, and finds that demonstrating movements while talking, correcting, pacing and counting is harder than he expected.

Sharon Sirkis collects four jokes first printed in March 2001, including a student named Murray who joked about the draft board and a beginner worried she was doing variations on the variations.

Caroline Guilott recounts her 1999 Albuquerque accreditation, Justin Stone telling her "Higher dear, higher" and "There is nothing to do," and the roadside open house that began it all.

Linda Robinson recounts her 1999 accreditation in Albuquerque, the presentation to bereaved students that grew from her daughter's death, and the sitting period she adds after each class.

Janet Oussaty recounts her 1999 accreditation at the Carmel Retreat Center with Ed Altman, how a Japanese friend's talk of ki led her to TCC, and teaching the practice at her university.

Margery Erickson recalls hiding behind a tree at her first outdoor class, hosting her accreditation in her home weaving studio, and Justin shaking his head at her Daughter in the Valley.

Carolyn Pogwist describes her post-accreditation difficulty putting T'ai Chi Chih into words, and how one-on-one work with a breast cancer survivor in radiation treatment taught her to teach beginners.

Nancy Jo Bleier recounts her 1997 accreditation in Albuquerque under Ed Altman with Justin visiting daily, teaching seated sessions to stroke and mental health patients, and starting monthly Practice by the Sea in Sitka.

Johnnie Marquez came to T'ai Chi Chih for balance after stumbling off a stationary bike, resisted his teacher's repeated suggestion to seek accreditation, and describes how Zoom practice, an Intensive and pyramid poetry changed his mind.

Hannah Hedrick recounts her 1985 classes with Theda Gillespie in Mexico, the unprepared California accreditation Justin embraced, and the s-e-l-f breath guidelines she developed for students with COPD.

Christeen McLain recalls recognizing an alpha brain wave state while going Around the Platter with her teacher Jean Katus in 1975, and later dropping a grounding exercise that made students fall over.

Lisa Stroyan, after auditing accreditation courses and a Zoom intensive, counsels a hesitant candidate and argues that accreditation is a class to be met with an empty cup, not a test to pass.

Linda Braga recounts seeing a newspaper photo that led her to Valerie Lawson Smith's class, her 1985 San Leandro accreditation with Justin Stone, Partner Practice teaching, and the frigid Green Gulch retreat.

Pat Hill of Golden, Colorado recounts finding a T'ai Chi Chih class taught by Steve Ridley in 1985 after her marriage ended, her 1986 accreditation in Santa Clara, and the backyard training sessions she later ran for candidates.

Paula Haraldson set four intentions for her accreditation course and found grounding the hardest, especially when fatigue from a brain injury left her unable to teach a movement she knew well.

Bianca Lee's poem traces the move from hiding fear and imperfection to trusting the group that caught her, closing with accreditation week as a beginning rather than an ending.