George Thompson

George Thompson is a filmmaker and teacher of tai chi, qigong and Daoist philosophy. In 2017, aged 22, he arrived at a small tai chi school in China's Wudang Mountains, where he became a disciple of Master Gu and a 16th-generation lineage holder in the San Feng Pai tai chi tradition. He has since sat yearly ten-day Vipassana retreats in the tradition of S. N. Goenka and counts the systems thinker Jeremy Lent among his mentors, joining personal practice with care for the wider world.

He founded Balance is Possible!, a small international team that makes films and runs the Wudang Taoist Wellness Academy, an online school where Master Gu teaches tai chi, qigong, Daoist meditation and philosophy. His YouTube channel offers tai chi walking tutorials, explanations of the Tao Te Ching, wu wei and yin and yang, and full-length documentaries such as The Subtle Art of Losing Yourself. His teaching is playful and practical, mixing movement, breathwork, meditation and philosophy. He leads retreats, a weekly class in London and talks, and teaches on The Shift Network.