Following conference, others react to teacher’s heightened state of chi

Have you ever felt really good, happy, contented? You smile at everyone, you talk freely to strangers, and the world seems just a wonderful place. You just feel high on life. (I know that sounds corny, but I bet you know what I mean.) Well, I’ve had that experience in reverse, sort of, a couple times. The most recent going home from the conference. I felt contented, calm, slowed-down, but not particularly smiley, or “Chatty-Kathy,” or oozing a love-and-peace gooey attitude. But people were soooo friendly toward me. They smiled at me, they initiated conversation, and they answered my questions for directions and help pleasantly. At the train station one young fellow offered, as he reached for my suitcase, to carry it down a long flight of stairs, not waiting for my response. I’m sorry to say I had a passing thought of never seeing it again, but he simply handed it to me and walked on.

I arrived home 11 hours later than was scheduled, due to a small mechanical failure on one airplane, which snowballed into various other delays. It wasn’t until I arrived home that I looked back on the past day with clarity. Have you ever been in a group setting and the joker of the group slyly puts a sign on someone’s backside with an obnoxious message? Well, that’s how I felt I must have looked the past day — A big neon sign on my forehead saying “talk to me, I’m friendly,” or “help me, I need it,” or maybe just a picture of a big toothy grin on my forehead. I didn’t feel any differently but people were sure reacting to me differently, in a subtle but noticeable way.

The one other time I had this experience was after my teacher training and it lasted about three days. It was kinda spooky. I really did feel like I had some kind of sign on my forehead. I know I looked in the mirror more than once to see if I looked different in some way.

Justin has said that if enough people do T’ai Chi Chih there would be peace in the world. I experienced that to a small degree. Both experiences followed a lot of T’ai Chi Chih practice with a lot of other teachers. I’m convinced there was something different about me — not that I could tell, but others could. Some might call it picking up the vibes but we know it was sensing the state of chi. Others felt it and reacted accordingly. T’ai Chi Chih is life-changing in more ways than we can sometimes perceive.