The Vital Force Archive

Sandy McAlister urges TCC practitioners to join World Healing Day at 10 a.m. on April 30, practising with an intention of compassion rather than directing energy, citing the Global Consciousness Project.

Lorraine Lepine describes a Stone Circle in Kenmare, Ireland, where a beam of light through the center stone became a recurring practice vision of Justin Stone at the heart of the TCC community.

Lisa M. Otero asks teachers and serious students to tune in, plug in and stay connected, with concrete steps like subscribing and writing for The Vital Force, mentoring candidates and joining the conference committee.

Julie Heryet recounts how the prison's new documentation demands for Franky's guest pass and the missing inmate duckets became the very things that let the men at the Circles of Light banquet feel valued.

Cleo Royal links the give and take of Pulling In The Energy to the American Indian Potlatch tradition, and suggests TCC teachers host their own giving events.

Sandy McAlister reports the conference session on T'ai Chi Chih's future: teacher training fees rising to $525 in 2015, new scholarships for teachers who fully audit, and talks on attracting men, younger students and greater diversity.

Anita Vestal traces her teaching from a York health fair discovery in 2001 through classes in Taos, Austin, a Florida 55-plus community, and Spanish-language courses for Costa Rican mountain villagers.

Robert Montes de Oca describes seven years of volunteer classes in psychiatric acute care units, including an inmate who learned all the movements over 18 months and read Justin Stone's Abandon Hope.

Deb Bertelsen, co-chair of the annual conference, recounts the bruised hearts, venue changes and deaths in the planning group, and the lessons in teh and staying grounded that followed.

Judy George, writing as a conference planner, names what she learned holding an intention through the ups and downs of two families, and thanks Deb Bertelsen, the trainers and the Minnesota community.

Sr. Antonia Cooper recounts a seven-week European trip visiting teachers near Mantua and in West Sussex, teaching ten movements to six Franciscan sisters, and honoring teachers who work unpaid.

Paula Weiner recounts her 1995 accreditation and volunteer teaching at Sunrise Assisted Living, where prima ballerina Maria Tallchief became a devoted student who practiced Six Healing Sounds daily until her death at 88.

Pyramid poems on silence and on Justin Stone from Jeneth Rundle, Joyce Veerkamp and others, plus Sharon Sirkis on a student hearing "sushi" in the Six Healing Sounds and Terry Slaney on volunteering at a cancer resource center.

Sandra Freda visited Jerry Bumbalough's twice-weekly class at a Salinas adult day health center, where he teaches seated TCC to Spanish-speaking students with Alzheimer's beginning with "Copy me."

Justin Stone's words on renunciation and the joy of the Now are joined by memorial notes from Pete Gregory, Jerry Granok's Pyramid Poem, Jerry Bumbalough's call to teach Alzheimer's and homebound students, Neal Roy and David White.

Stephen Thompson recounts Peter Gregory's challenge to teach TCC in 12-step recovery programs, his failed attempts to enter Mississippi jails, and six months of talks before NMHS Behavioral Health Center accepted classes.

Carmen L. Brocklehurst recounts arriving at Sawmill Creek Resort for the 2011 Ohio conference, praising Lucinda Kutsko's organization, the blue satin "Love" logo, students who came to serve, and Alice Holden's lecture on joy.

Sandy McAlister recalls offering students a long list of things to visualize during Pulling in the Energy, and Justin Stone's flat reply that it is simply energy from the most distant star.

Cleo Roemele links the give and take of Pulling In The Energy to the American Indian Potlatch tradition, and proposes generous giving as a collective goal for the TCC community.

Sky Young-Wick recounts coordinating the 2010 Teacher Conference despite never having helped with a TCC event, and describes the 40-plus volunteers, deepened relationships, and unexpected joy that resulted.

Roseann Heinrich reports from the three-person Cleveland planning committee preparing the 2011 conference on Lake Erie, crediting Lucinda Kutsko's registration spreadsheets and inviting readers to register and recommit.

Sr. Antonia Cooper recounts visiting Judy Trethewy's twelve-year weekly class in Greystone Chapel at Old Folsom prison, where inmates call T'ai Chi Chih an instant vacation and describe finding internal freedom, balance and calm.

Margery Erickson recounts hosting a 1997 accreditation in her converted weaving studio and now invites TCC teachers traveling through Pennsylvania or Maryland to stay, walk the six acres, and practice together.

May Swanson recounts eight years of donated teaching at The Wellness Community in Phoenix and the Veterans Hospital, including a dying student who sat through class and felt the energy.

Anthony Pagliarulo recounts directing chi to his wife during her lung cancer treatment, learning at retreats that TCC's innate intelligence made the effort unnecessary, and later returning to teach at the Phoenix Wellness Community that first helped him.

May Swanson recalls Justin Stone's joy song and finds joy in her Cancer Wellness Community class in Phoenix, where a student named Grace, living with Alzheimer's, remembers every movement.

Two poems by Judy Tretheway written out of her teaching at Folsom Prison: one on travelling partners whose ripples do the travelling, the other on unlocking a door with movement.

Justin Stone answers his editors' constant requests for copy, notes his articles may lean spiritual as he enters his nineties, and recalls the former head of T'ai Chi Chih who quit over his insistence that the practice is a service to humanity.

Sandy McAlister counts the ripple from Linda Braga's TCC presentation to 200 people at a six-thousand-person conference, and urges students who plan to teach after retirement to start now, one class at a time.

Donna McElhose describes the 2009 International T'ai Chi Chih Conference in Nebraska, organized by teachers from many areas rather than one region, with a scholarship raffle and a barbeque songfest.