Our March ’25 Soul Portals guest views Qigong energy practices and his musical vocation as intertwined spiritual paths. In this episode we will explore how Qigong can inform the healing arts, specifically in the context of Hua Gong (the style of Qigong that Loz Speyer practices, as a proponent of that school and lineage). Part of the podcast interaction will be experiential – a short participatory exercise for attendees.
Hua Gong is an artistic style of Qigong focusing on health and spiritual development. The practiceawakens and cultivates the vital subtle energy or Qi (Chi), which opens a flow of Qi through the body and surrounding energy field and can have profound benefits for health and well-being.
For Loz, finding Hua Gong opened up a way forward – further elucidated in his compositions for improvisers based on the Five Animals Qigong forms – and lately in a series of workshops combining Qigong and improvised music, using sonic and rhythmic exercises that do not require prior musical training. The two practices combine to guide the group in attuning to the collective energy field.
Music Albums:
“Five Animal Dances” by Inner Space” – https://spherical-records.bandcamp.com/album/five-animal-dances
“Clave Sin Embargo” by Time Zone – https://spherical-records.bandcamp.com/album/clave-sin-embargo
“Open Territory” by FreeTrio – https://spherical-records.bandcamp.com/album/open-territory
Course Content
Organisation
This learning is avaibale in the FREE Student Hub
Presenter
Cedric M. Speyer, M.A., M.Ed., RP, is an author, Registered Psychotherapist, and presently a mentor to coaches, counsellors, and therapists. He pioneered E-counselling in Canada, overseeing 100K online cases before establishing InnerView Guidance International (IGI). The vision of IGI brings together the historically separate domains of mental health and spiritual awareness in a new synthesis for the helping professions.
Dr. DeeAnna Merz Nagel has co-created Essential Soul Care®, a psychospiritual model that includes a book, an Oracle deck and a certified practitioner course. She is a psychotherapist, clinical supervisor and coach and integrates the healing arts into her teachings. Her doctoral studies focused on multi-faith spiritual direction.
Loz Speyer is a musician (trumpeter, composer, teacher) and Qigong practitioner, from a Jewish family spanning a wide political/religious spectrum. As a longstanding student of Qigong master Zhixing Wang and a qualified teacher in the Hua Gong school, Loz has been leading workshops with his own students for many years, with a specialism in the Five Animals Qigong.
As a jazz musician, composer, and improviser, Loz leads and composes for two groups (Time Zone and Inner Space), touring and releasing albums with both since 2002, and is involved in various improvisation groups, including collaborations with artists and dancers. He spent some years living between London and Santiago de Cuba, resulting in a fruitful collaborative project. He teaches trumpet and ensembles in schools, and music workshops for adults at all levels.
In this podcast series, Cedric Speyer and DeeAnna Nagel engage in conversations with psychospiritual trailblazers, amplifying their voices of wisdom and exploring their unique perspectives on human wholeness. Through their sacred journeys and professional endeavors, these individuals are ‘portals’ through which we see wider vistas of the soul journey. While their names might not grace network news or mainstream podcasts, their insights introduce invaluable aspects of ‘soul work’.
