Master Jim Nance continued...

Energy Connection: Did your injuries continue to bother you?

Oh, yes, and that was one of the reasons I was searching for a teacher?to grow spiritually and to heal physically. Many people showed up to guide me. I would study with a spiritual leader who would recommend a path. I would try that path, meet another guide, and be directed again. A friend and spiritual leader told me about Katagiri Roshi at the Zen Center in Minnesota when he found out I was getting interested in soto zen, so I came to Minnesota and found a community.

Energy Connection: Why did you leave that community?

I had to stop practicing zen because of my back. I was studying with a healer, Karmu, at the time and ended up moving into an interest in shamanism. Karmu told me I also would be a healer, and when I said I wasn?t sure about that, he?d just smile and say, ?Ah, lad, don?t worry about it. Don?t think about it. Everything will be just fine.? 

Energy Connection: So did you settle down to study some more?

Actually, I got married. My wife wanted to see Africa, so I decided to take the trip with her and make it a spiritual experience?a chance to study shamanism, which I did in 14 different African countries. My wife and I were divorced shortly afterwards and I then connected with another African shaman, and also a Mayan one, and studied for another two to three years.

Energy Connection: A Chinese man! Are we getting closer to qigong?

Yes. About this time, a friend mentioned a qigong master from China?Chunyi Lin. Chunyi was actually in China at the time, but I began studying with a group of people interested in qigong. I went to see Chunyi when we got back?this was when he was seeing people in his home?and after 20 minutes or so, almost all my physical problems were gone! I knew I had really found something.

For years after that, everywhere he went, I was there. I treated the study of qigong like the study of kung fu, in which it?s said of your master, ?Where he goes, you go. What he does, you do.? I?m sure Chunyi thought I was a nut. After years of this, he finally asked me if I was interested in learning more.

About that time, we started accidently showing up at the same time and the place?the same parking spot at the mall, for example. It was very, very coincidental and seemed full of meaning. We began working together more and more. I had decided to give up a materialistic life, and Chunyi thought I was a bit different in that I didn?t embrace society in the way that every other 45-year-old man did. He thought I was an innocent.

The core of all this is that my life continued to move me in this direction. I would have emotional, physical, and spiritual issues I would constantly have to confront?usually as the result of some traumatic experience that would knock me down. I had to learn how to get up, and as long as I did, my life moved me toward Chunyi.

Energy Connection: What do you like best about qigong?

That I have the opportunity to serve people. It?s very fulfilling to be of service.

Energy Connection: What would you say to a person who is skeptical about qigong?

Watch the people involved and let them model what it means to them to be involved in qigong.

Energy Connection: If you weren?t involved in qigong healing, what would you be doing?

Looking for something that would give me the opportunity to do the kind of work I do now.

Energy Connection: Tell us about your family.

Well, my parents were different. They were real Renaissance people.

My mother directed her children toward things that other parents in our African-American neighborhood didn?t. We were the only African-American kids in gymnastics, for example?this was Iowa in the 50s! I took accordion and tennis lessons, and a Mrs. Gross came to our house to teach us German. All this seemed normal to me at the time, but I realize now that it wasn?t!

My mother had many different interests, including learning about all religions. She knew African-Americans who had achieved success, such as  opera singer Leontyne Price, who attended Wilburforce University with her.

My father played baseball with many of the guys who were in the old Negro leagues, and he also played semi-pro football for the Chicago Cardinals.

He had so many life experiences:

• For a time he was a hobo, earning his money by catching poisonous snakes to sell for their venom. He would dangle his hand in front of the snake and when it got ready to bite, he?d reach around and grab it. He also spent some time in the rodeo and could do fabulous rope tricks. Kids from all over our neighborhood would come to watch. In one trick, he would lay out a rope straight from our house to the one next door and, just by shaking it, would be able to make knots all down its length.
• He was a butcher.
• He drove in the Red Ball Express in the army during World War II.
• He was a close friend of Hollywood character actor Don Defore, who used to bring other actors and interesting people back to Cedar Rapids for visits.
• He was a key person in the integration of the union at his company, after lots of in-fighting.

Energy Connection: What do your family and friends think of your work?

Everyone who knows me says I?m doing exactly what they thought I would be doing.

Energy Connection: You get a lot of requests to work on animals. How do you feel about that?

I really enjoy working with animals?it?s a big part of what I love to do. I don?t have companionship with animals or children at the present time, but I?ve worked with thousands and thousands of children and I love pets.

Energy Connection: Is there anything else you?d like to add to this article?

Yes, something that?s really important to me. Over the years I?ve been able to experience many communities, but I feel as though this SFQ community has positioned itself to hold the highest focus in its heart. As a result, it?s been my honor, my privilege, and my gift to be involved with it. I?ve never experienced a community quite like it--it has restored my faith in the human experience and in our celebration of life.

Also, wherever I?ve gone in life, I?ve been privileged to meet very special people who have been there to help with what I needed at the time. I think of that as a real gift I?ve been given?to always have had that support. I?m thankful for that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

 In April of 2005, Sydney James "Jim" Nance was certified as a Second Degree Spring Forest Qigong Master by Master Chunyi Lin, the creator and founder of Spring Forest Qigong. Master Nance was the first of Master Lin's students to have ascended to that level. He is also believed to be the first African-American in history to be certified as a medical qigong master.

Master Nance has a B.A. in elementary education and an M.A. in career counseling. He worked with students and inner city youth for more than three decades.

A little-known fact: Master Nance also was a blues singer and will occasionally treat co-workers to a few bars of delightful, soulful music.

It?s difficult to imagine him without a smile on his face.