Product Details

• Format: Color, NTSC
• Number of tapes: 1
• VHS Release Date: December 31, 1998
• Run Time: 70 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 1893634000
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #370,683 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Does fitting exercise into your schedule stress you out? T'ai Chi & QiGong: The Prescription for the Future, Volume 1 may be your solution. Bill Douglas, author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to T'ai Chi and QiGong, gears this 75-minute video toward reducing stress, increasing flexibility, and opening creative channels. Along the way, you get everything moving--from your lungs on out to your fingertips. And before long, you'll even be Grasping the Bird's Tail like a master.

The first volume of the T'ai Chi & QiGong series starts with an in-depth explanation of origins and terms. The three segments that follow--sitting qigong, moving qigong (a warm-up), and the introduction to standing movement--lay the groundwork for a lifelong practice. By moving with focus and imagination, Douglas points out, you become closer to a state of "wakeful rest." Douglas's low-key teaching style enacts this goal; he's friendly, relaxed, and casually paced. And he teaches how to "move from your dan tien" without confusing you. Like Douglas's teaching, the production of T'ai Chi & QiGong is simple. No superhuman forms, no rigid instructions, no high-tech gadgets or effects--just Douglas, in a park or plain studio, demonstrating breath, gesture, and pose. --Emily Bedard

Book List Magazine, Sept. 2001

"excellent steadily paced introduction - Personable instructor, introduces sitting qigong, tension relieving warm ups, t'ai chi movements [with] soothing directives."

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to feel great!, October 30, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: T'ai Chi & QiGong: The Prescription for the Future (Volume 1) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I bought this video because of new interest in QiGong. The movements I had been doing left me feeling that my body was glad I was being gentle with it. Now, after going through this video several times, I can only descripe the effect of the QiGong movements by saying that they leave my body feeling in bliss. The depth of the relaxation encouraged by the movements and Bill Douglas's lack of competitiveness is profound. Because of the success of this, I have even started the T'ai Chi movements, something I had not intended to do. The videos group a small numnber of the T'ai Chi movements together in one lesson, and breaks them down into small pieces which are repeated several times. The process seems to be working, things are starting to flow. I find the book (The Complete Idiot's Guide to T'ai Chi & QiGong) and the video complement each other nicely.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely User Friendly and Fun Approach to Tai Chi & Qigong, August 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: T'ai Chi & QiGong: The Prescription for the Future (Volume 1) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Unlike many videos, this one doesn't expect you to be a rubber spined gymnist. In fact the only requirement this video series demands, is that you "relax" "breathe deeply" and "have some fun!" while playing T'ai Chi.

There is no rigid, austere, somber, critical instruction to make you feel inept, clumsy, and stressed out. The focus is to help you feel "at home" in your body, realizing that you are PERFECT now, even as T'ai Chi & Qigong help you become more and more perfect.

Having said that, it follows the same in depth approach to learning these profound mind and body health tools as in the related book, The Complete Idiot's Guide to T'ai Chi & Qigong. In reviews on the book, Top T'ai Chi masters lauded this approach because it takes complex Chinese Medical concepts of effortless flow of Qi, and makes them simple and tangible to both novice and expert using modern cultural metaphors and concepts including cutting edge discoveries in physics and medicine.

A quite unique approach. I think you'll like it.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real TAI CHI instruction, full of the historial benefits!, February 19, 2000

By 

David A. (Stafford, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: T'ai Chi & QiGong: The Prescription for the Future (Volume 1) [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This video was actually much better than I expected! I do not have classes locally and my work schedule does not allow me to attend classes if there were any around here. I am VERY pleased with the video and stongly recommend that you also buy the book written by the producer of the video. Although you certainly don't need the book to learn Tai Chi, I found it enjoyable to read and very informative. The video is slow enough even a dual left footer like me can follow the movements. My comlpiments to Bill Douglas, excellent job and very easy to follow and understand! My stress level always goes down during my Tai Chi sessions. If you are thinking about learning Tai Chi and don't have classes nearby or like me can't attend on a regular basis then you will like these videos. He repeats the "tricky" parts and breaks the whole thing down into small "bite size" pieces. No, he's not a "movie star" but just a 20 year veteran of Tai Chi instruction that explains it in "plain english" and slow enough so that even I could figure it out easily. Add up the cost of classes and figure in gas and time and the videos are really a deal! I don't recommend many books or videos (actually first video I've ever recommended) but I would not hesitate to buy this video or recommend it to my friends and family. Two Thumbs UP! (more if I had them)