Not as a "Martial Art" or to become one with the universe...but as a method of maintaining mobility and flexibility into your dotage?

Er, asking for a friend.

Engage.

Yes.  I practiced tai chi and ba gua zhang for about 5 years in the 90's.

I did a short stint with a Sifu that taught Hung Ga Kung Fu. Old school style, not movie style. Lots of Chin Na. (Holds, breaks, joint dislocation, break bones, etc.) No pussy footing around.

He was also a big proponent of Tai Chi, but his had an aggressive style to it. Where it would be smooth and relaxing one moment and then an explosion of energy and power the next.
I learned a couple forms from him, but then moved, so we lost touch, and I stopped practicing. Definitely has it's place in every warriors repertoire of training when done right IMO.

What benefits did you realize?

Also, how hard was it to find a proper instructor?

Finally, did you stop practicing?

Had a guy at work telling me that a lot of the moves called or welcomed jinn (demons) into you. And that a lot of the masters that have tremendous power get it from the demonic posession. He said he had somewhat of a similar experience that scared him so he stopped. I wasnt sure what to think of it. I used to do it just for calming and to help with balance/cordination and endurance strength. Had stumbled onto this article and others after he told me that.

http://www.thejinn.net/chi_jinn_my_story.htm

My Mom (in her 70's) and one of her friends started doing it a few months ago.

Said it's really helping with joint pain/flexibility.

Seriously?

No.

That's exactly the crap I'm not talking about.

For me  it was form of meditatiion while moving. Great  for relaxation and balance. First couple of classes where kind of boring to me. Then one day I went I was stressed as hell, came out feeling like a new person. The instructor moved away or I would still be doing it.Never encountered any demons like the poster above mentions. Although there was a crazy hot redhead that took the class, that might count.

My 7 yo daughter is doing belt testing in CKD right now. 

She's little tiger! I feel bad for her 11 yo brother. 

My father is 78 with 4 fused vertabrae.

He swears by Tai Chi fir mobility and balance

Tai Chi is like a knife. Depending on your intent and training, you can make a meal to feed a family, or you can be Jack The Ripper.

For the exercise and mobility, just about anyone that can teach you one of the basic forms will work. You can do much of it yourself via video if you don't want to hang out with old people in the park. If you change your mind about your focus, find a qualified teacher.

Chun Kuk Do?

Does it require continuous instruction or can you learn a form and practice it alone?

Must you learn many forms to realize the benefits?

I agree. I always enjoyed tai chi the only reason i havnt done it latley is im too busy doing other stuff. Ive always felt realy good doing tai chi

I wandered the earth for a while, fighting injustice and righting wrongs.  Used quite a bit of Tai Chi then, although most folks refused to call it that.

I remember playgrounds back in the old country filled with elderly Asians doing tai chi.   Always looked interesting to try.

Just learning a basic 24 form is good until you get better. Id rather go somewhere with an instructor. I have some videos that are decent from master wong, but he also tries to teach it for fighting and for meditation. So its more of a yin and yang

I was in my early 20's, so I didn't exactly get any benefits from it that I could tell externally.

But it was really interesting.  We'd start the class doing qi gong standing.  Which was standing in a horse-style stance with arms down the front of the torso and your hands against the front of your thighs.  And we'd just stand there and breathe and kind of meditate.  After practicing it for a while (by which after a few weeks of coming to class), my body starting heating up, like you've been exerting yourself, but you haven't.  I would actually start sweating.  If you came close to the the instructor, you could feel the heat radiating off him.  The more you practiced, the faster and easier this heat would start up.  I guess this was chi.

Then we'd do some qi gong movements, and then start in with the ba gua movements.  Practicing that made me really flexible.  Here's a video of ba gua practicioners.  The moves the old man is making at 1:30 is more like what we practiced, we didn't spar.  The 2 younger guys are applying the ba gua movements into actual fighting, which is great. The video get's going at 1:00 after a bunch of intro:

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My instructor was kind of unique, as he was an Alaskan guy who was the top student of a Chinese sifu.  I knew him because he was a schoolteacher of my friends and they'd talk about the cool internal martial arts he did.  I didn't really seek out to learn bagua.  I just knew it was sort of like tai chi and I was into yoga at the time.  I totally lucked out, because Kevin my teacher is a very western, no-nonsense intellectual type guy who thought internal martial arts was all bullshit (he was into karate and aikido) until he met Sifu, who was a bonafide traditional Chinese master of internal martial arts.  Taking tai chi and bagua from other teachers, you could see the difference.

Yeah, I haven't practiced since the late 90's.  I don't think Kevin teaches any more.  He got mad at our class because we never practiced on our own time.  I think Sifu quit teaching for the same reason.  Nobody's serious enough about it.

Unfortunately,the way you died overshadows all that............

He died doing what he loved...

Other martial arts people I've known over the years, believe it works for them. Especially ones who have injuries from training, sparring or just getting older.
I tried it, I really didn't give it a chance, western attitude not believing meditation really does shit for anybody.

I think regular stretching, daily moderate work outs with cardio will achieve the same thing.

As a caution, I wouldn't advise considering taking this and convincing yourself you're taking a martial art that involves real life self defense. In order to defend yourself with any martial art you need physical contact with others and a lot of it, I've heard people over the years claim that Tai Chi is a good self defense art, but never used any of the techniques in sparring.

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I was investigating pizzagate.

I have a ways believed that proper technique that can be applied from the u conscious mind trumps any power that takes time to summon and channel.  I can just imagine a fight wherein one of the combatants requests a time out in order to summon his chi...sounds like a great way to get a broken jaw or nose.

I ordered some Tai Chi chili boneless wings at Oggie's last week.  They were pretty good.

Demonic possession is real, and terrifying.
Altered/trance states makes people vulnerable.

What?

I'm in!

He's full of shit. Just like a million and one other "Martial Artists".

Tai Chi, when done correctly is very beneficial, just like other exercise/meditation systems.

What you see, when watching someone practice it is barely scratching the surface of what's actually happening. Lots of isometric forces, breath control, meditation and focusing of the mind, stretching. Kata, in other arts performs similar stuff.

It's not about self defense or combat in the least. If you try to own someone with  your chi, you're getting stomped. But, it can be very centering and helpful for the body particularly for those who can't do more rigorous exercise and still good for those who can.

In the 80s I was taking MA classes after school.      Tai Chi was also a class there,  and I remember an older lady that used to take it.     Seemed really relaxed.    

Sleep is an altered state. You afraid of that?

No. But thanks for asking.

Only on Arfcom can you ask a question about Tai Chi and end up with Freddy Kreuger in the thread.

IKR?

Choi Kwang Do

There's a name I haven't heard in ages!

Is GM Choi still alive? I used to love the pictures he'd use in his ads. It looked like he was dislocating his pelvis to kick above and behind his head. It always reminded me of a monkey

Wow, this is exactly what I was taught at 3:08

Look at her go at 16:05! Ba gua is one of the coolest things I've seen in my life.

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Interesting.

Wife does it and karate.  Karate for a long, long time.

That's the mindset of a certain group of people. They say the same thing about yoga.