This is obviously my first post in this forum:
I realize I'm bringing up an old thread, but I feel a little responsible due to being one of the few in this thread to meet in person and study at the school where Greg got his training (taichitaocenter.com - in Oak Park, IL). I spent several years at this school a long time ago when Greg was training there - and I had pushed hands with him on several occasions - though he only seemed to push hands with the higher ups (felt like "in crowd"). I went to this school looking for legit skills - as described by the TaiChi literature - but that was very hard to find there because any serious push hands (actually demonstrating progress) was seeing as "wasting your vital energy" and frowned upon at this school. Since this is the only consistent test of skill and skill in TaiChi it was very hard to see how people were progressing, if at all. I tried my best to get a hands on experience with the master there, Waysun Liao, which I did after several months of training there by hanging around after class each time. Eventually he showed off his internal power - which I didn't believe to exist up to that point - and it was amazing and legitimate (very few people in the world have this - one touch and I was on the ground and never felt anyone stronger previously - ~70yo man). However, none of his students (the "masters" who taught at the school) seemed to be able to demonstrate these skills - and despite much practice I did not progress much besides gaining some sensitivity (which the head teachers did have a lot of). So, in my view, this primary sifu - and the author of several popular TaiChi books - was not bringing up these many dedicated students. I'm not saying it was deliberate - because these skills are very rare and take so many years to even get at a basic level. It remains that everyone, including the head teachers ("masters"), seemed to be on a fairly similar skill level - except Master Liao who actually had that elusive internal power.
The culture of the place did bother me from the beginning, but I did accept it as the TaiChi culture being passed down (and it is, as so many TaiChi schools are like this to an extent). This culture is very sycophantic, and there is a lot of enforcing of beliefs (we have real TaiChi, no one else does, but we don't show it off, and you need to act like you feel things, and do not question what anyone senior to you says). I realize that most people there are acting like they feel internal things that they did not - which was promoted by the culture - because the result of actually feeling them is the martial skill. I'm not sure how, but it seemed to promote an ego around these "skills" as well (pride in being able to feel things, since there was nothing else to show for progress there).
I should also note here that calling the teacher (like Greg) "master," and being extra sycophantic is part of most TaiChi culture (read the Chinese history about how they deliberately taught fake TaiChi to people outside of their families while they were persecuted by the government). Despite the "master" status in the culture, there is a well-documented history of significant personality flaws (severe opiate use, making students wait outside of class for years to learn anything just to show dedication, etc). That is, in this context members here should not be surprised that someone who has (possibly) achieved significant high martial skill (which is the reason for the term "master" in this case) has significant personality flaws, even in writing. Regardless of intentions, TaiChi schools still would often describe this culture as helpful or even essential if you grilled them.
This school in particular had an especially toxic culture - and there seemed to be a lot of drama and personal alliances to match the claims of an ego-free high-end spiritual school. Teachers told students that they would get the locks changed on them for no apparent reason (that they would say), so couldn't get in to teach class (which they were doing for free if I recall correctly).
-Tracy was a kind of gatekeeper for master Liao and the school - and there was a clear "who was liked" and "who was with the in-crowd" type of feel to interactions with her. She was the buffer to speak with master and had a very authoritative personality many found abrasive.
-A lot of people not getting the results Liao described, but had no problem defending all of the methods.
-Very antisocial. Very secretive (cultish feel, yes).
-Master Liao didn't much care for you if you didn't quit/sacrifice the other things in your life for him. He also didn't seem to care if you got it or not - and based on the performance of his top students - he didn't care if anyone actually got it. Either he didn't know how he got his internal skills, or he did know and would rather take the money and not tell people to do anything too difficult to get the skills (maybe out of fear of losing them as a student).
There seemed to be a lot of psychopathic behavior. I don't know if this was caused by the culture, or if the culture attracted people that already had that tendency. For example, here is another student (deemed "master") who came out of that school: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNDXl64PhPk - I'll let the video of "Master Gary Clyman" stand for itself.
The reason I bring up all this about the school is how striking the similarity between the foibles, follies, and fallacies this thread demonstrated in Greg (in great detail) are to the ones I saw everyday at the school. Despite the top Sifu's martial skills, these issues did not seem more absent from him than anyone else there. He definitely had a massive effect on everyone, including myself. It was plainly apparent that my only chance of "getting the secrets" - despite it being espoused that we were all learning them - was to be as accommodating to this culture as possible. It was apparent because I was there for years (and others, even deemed Masters, for much longer) and didn't see any internal skill - despite "crazy" experiences (it was popular for students and teachers to compete in their descriptions of their far-out experiences). In terms of any spiritual achievement - which is not a requirement for martial arts in general - there was obviously little at this school due to the amount of apparent self-inflicted suffering. There was a lot of telling the same stories over and over to themselves and others - which is tell-tale.
Here are some basic facts:
1) Tracy works as the manager of this TaiChi school
2) Waysun Liao is the master (Greg's master)
Anyway, I don't have any grand conclusions for you all. The thread speaks for itself. The only way to judge a master of martial arts (especially without video) is to touch them physically during a martial exercise. Spiritual communities and traditions come with a lot of baggage, and so do their vessels (people).
