Rising Stars: Meet Rene Collins of Baldwin Hills

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rene Collins.

Hi Rene, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My story really began when I was 13 years old.
That’s when I saw my first Qi Gong demonstration — and it completely changed my life. I was captivated by the calm power flowing through the practitioner. It was the first time I understood that true strength could come from stillness. That moment awakened something in me — a lifelong fascination with energy, awareness, and the intelligence of the body.

As I grew older, that spark evolved into a passion for movement and expression. I became a full-time performer — professional actor, circus acrobat, and singer-songwriter — and that career gave me the space to explore my own spiritual development. Along the way, I trained in martial arts, including Capoeira, Gung Fu, Thai Boxing, Jeet Kune Do, weapons forms, and Tai Chi, immersing myself in the art of disciplined movement and energy control.

My studies expanded into Kemetic (Ausar Auset Society, Taoist and Buddhist philosophy (Zen Wellness), Western esoteric traditions like the Kabbalah, African Spiritual traditions and energy medicine — exploring how different cultures express the same universal truth: that the body is a bridge between heaven and earth, spirit and matter.

All of those threads eventually came together in what I now call Magical Intelligence Qi Gong — a synthesis of movement, breath, and creative consciousness. It’s the culmination of everything I’ve learned from both the stage and the temple — from the discipline of martial arts to the grace of spiritual practice.

Today, I help others rediscover that same spark — guiding them to move, breathe, and live from their innate radiance and power.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The Challenges or initiations to are quite numerous. I’ll give 2 such initiations.

For one thing regular wear and tear on the body. That life on stage was exhilarating, but it also pushed my body to its limits.
One night, in the middle of a show, something terrifying happened. While leaping into the air, I realized I couldn’t feel my feet. When I landed, I couldn’t feel the floor beneath me — and for a moment, I nearly fell off the stage.

After the performance, I went to the doctor. Tests revealed a disc subluxation in my spine in my neck, cutting off the flow of spinal fluid. The doctor told me that if I didn’t get surgery, I could lose control of my limbs.
That was a moment of reckoning — everything I had built my life around depended on my body, and suddenly, I could barely trust it.

The surgery was successful, but the recovery forced me to stop, breathe, and listen in a way I never had before. It humbled me. It showed me that healing isn’t about pushing harder — it’s about reconnecting to the subtle intelligence that moves through us all.

The hardest part of my journey wasn’t only the physical pain — it was the fragmentation.
After my spinal surgery, I found myself surrounded by decades of experience and study — Qi Gong, martial arts, Taoist and Buddhist philosophy, Western magick, energy medicine, and performance arts. Each held truth, yet they spoke different languages, each pointing toward the same great mystery.

During recovery, I was forced into stillness. And in that stillness, the threads began to weave together.
I saw that the same energy flowing through Qi Gong also moved through the cosmos — through science, politics, art, and the human spirit.

The Five Elements of Chinese medicine mirrored the Hermetic stages of transformation, which echoed the principles of Ausar Auset and other African-based spiritual systems rooted in divine order, balance, and resurrection. Thanks to those teachings — particularly the wisdom of Ausar Auset, which mapped the soul’s ascent through the faculties of consciousness — I began to perceive a universal intelligence uniting all traditions.

I also deepened my formal training with the Zen Wellness Qi Gong School, whose lineage extends more than 6,500 years into the early Taoist healing arts. That discipline anchored my synthesis — giving structure and embodiment to the mystical insights that had emerged through my healing.

Over time, I was able to correlate all events and activities — scientific, social, and political systems — within a single cosmological framework.
I saw that the same energetic principles guiding the breath also govern the rise and fall of civilizations, the laws of physics, and the evolution of human consciousness.

That realization transformed my struggle into synthesis. I no longer saw my path as fragmented. Everything — art, healing, magick, movement, and ancestry — revealed itself as one living continuum of intelligence.

And now, the initiation I am currently experiencing is stepping forward as a Black healer representing this lineage within mainstream healing circles — bringing ancestral wisdom, energetic science, and creative consciousness into spaces that have too often overlooked the roots of these sacred arts.

This, for me, is the living embodiment of Magical Intelligence Qi Gong — the reunion of ancient and modern, personal and universal, human and divine.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
At its core, my work is about helping people reconnect to the intelligence that already lives within them — what I call Magical Intelligence. It’s the vital life force that flows through breath, emotion, and consciousness — the current that animates every living thing.

I specialize in Qi Gong healing and embodiment coaching, weaving together ancient Taoist practices with African spiritual wisdom, martial discipline, sound healing, and creative ritual. My approach helps people overcome fatigue, emotional stagnation, and trauma by restoring the natural flow of energy in the body.

I’m known for creating transformational experiences that are both mystical and practical — guiding students to move from pain and disconnection into radiance, vitality, and purpose. My programs, including Return to Radiance and Magickal Qi Gong The Radiant Energy Qi Gong Series, combine movement, meditation, sound, and storytelling to awaken deep self-healing and embodied awareness.

I also specialize in teaching Qi Gong within the Pagan and magickal communities, helping modern witches, priestesses, and ritualists understand how energy flows through their spells, ceremonies, and seasonal rites. It’s incredibly rewarding to witness how these practitioners use Qi Gong to ground, protect, and amplify their spiritual work.

I’ve written two books — Way of the Magical Intelligence and Magickal Qi Gong: Awakening the Dragon — which explore the philosophy and practical applications of this path, offering readers tools to cultivate power, presence, and balance through energy and creative consciousness.

I’m most proud of the way my journey bridges worlds — bringing representation of Black healers and ancestral wisdom into mainstream healing circles. I stand for the integration of tradition and innovation: honoring the 6,500-year Taoist lineage I trained in through the Zen Wellness Qi Gong School, while also uplifting the principles of Ausar Auset and other African-based spiritual systems that affirm divine order, balance, and resurrection.

What sets me apart is the way I blend art, science, and spirit into a single, living cosmology.
My background as a professional actor, circus acrobat, and musician taught me how energy moves through expression — and my healing journey taught me how that same energy restores the body and the soul.

Every class, every session, and every page I write is an act of remembrance — helping people awaken the creative, healing intelligence that has always been within them, and to live from that radiant truth.

What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
In the next decade, I see Magical Intelligence Qi Gong evolving into a global movement that bridges ancient energy science, ancestral wisdom, and modern embodiment practice. The wellness industry is moving toward deeper integration — no longer separating mind, body, and spirit — and my work stands right at that intersection.

I envision a future where Qi Gong is not seen as an “alternative” practice, but as a foundational technology for human potential — a way to awaken the body’s innate intelligence and harmonize energy across personal, social, and planetary systems.

I’m currently focused on expanding the reach of Magical Intelligence Qi Gong through teacher trainings, online courses, retreats, and artistic collaborations that merge movement, music, and ritual. My dream is to create spaces — both physical and virtual — where people from all walks of life can reconnect with their life force and remember that healing is a creative act.

I also see a powerful shift happening around representation. As more people of color enter wellness spaces, I feel called to stand as a bridge — bringing forward the depth of African spiritual traditions, Ausar Auset cosmology, and the Taoist Qi Gong lineage that spans 6,500 years, all within a modern framework that speaks to today’s seekers.

Ultimately, my vision is that Magical Intelligence Qi Gong becomes a model for embodied unity — where art, science, ancestry, and spirit flow together as one current of transformation.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://magicalintelligence.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WayOfTheMagicalIntelligence/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGD4Uf0byVBkmGNTQaabQOg