Who is this person and why are they telling me how to breathe?
My Story
My name is Shane Cole, I’m a certified trauma-informed breathwork facilitator born and raised in Edwards, Colorado. I have been meditating and exploring the power of the breath for over 5 years, and it has taken me to many corners of the world. From meditating with buddhist monks in the Himalayas to laying in ice baths with Wim Hof in the Pyrenees, I have found that the breath is what connects us to deeper layers of our consciousness and elevates us to more authentic and powerful connections with ourselves.
I have breathed my way through dysphoria and hatred for my body. I have breathed my way through addiction. I have breathed my way to a more functional relationship with my family. I have breathed my way to an ever increasing internal fountain of love.
I currently live in Los Angeles, California, where I lead breathwork sessions at the University of Southern California. I believe that we are not defined by what happened to us, but by how we choose the respond. Breathwork is a tool to help us take our fears, doubts, and pain, and respond to them with strength, love, and forgiveness. It enables us to manifest larger dreams, awaken our inner light, and overcome trauma from childhood until now. I offer you a guided journey to deeper layers of your conscious, empowerment, and inner-healing.
America’s Dead Podcast
Featured on America’s Dead Podcast with Varun Soni, USC’s Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life
In October of 2021, Varun Soni asked me to join him on Sonos’ podcast called America’s Dead. This podcast explores the prolific band The Grateful Dead and their impact on modern American culture. Varun Soni, a leading scholar on religion, a massive dead head and my mentor was asked to speak on the religious aspect of the Dead. Sonos asked Varun if he could recruit one of his students to speak on the podcast to have a younger generation’s perspective on the Dead and that student was me.
Outside of the Hollywood Bowl before Dead and Company’s Halloween show, 3 producers from Sonos recorded an incredibly far out conversation between Varun and I on how the Dead can be considered a religion. The podcast was released Fall 2022 and it rose to the second top podcast on Apple Music for that time.
During the time of the conversation, I was deep in gender dysphoria and I was considering transitioning genders from male to female. I was using a different name, “Sage” because it was more gender neutral. While I was experiencing a lot of joy from accepting my feminine side that I had repressed for so long, I was also experiencing a lot of pain from rejecting my masculinity during this time. I have now learned how to love my natural body and accept my masculine and feminine energies and expressions. If you want to here me speak on this podcast, you can listen to it right here:
https://radio.sonos.com/shows/america-s-dead-the-dead-are-channeling-god-with-dr-varun-soni-and-sage
Breathwork Training
Certified Trauma-Informed Breathwork Facilitator trained by Owaken Breathwork
Lukis Mac and Hellé Weston are two of the most well-known and respected breathwork facilitators in the world. Owaken Breathwork was founded in 2017 and they have been hosting sold out events all over the world. They began their first ever facilitator training program last April and I was one of the select few who were accepted into their program. The 9 month program has been some of the most intense training of my life.
The 9 month-long curriculum consisted of video modules every week, with topics including the physiology of breathwork, creating safe space, somatic intelligence, transforming limiting beliefs, shadow work, integration, group facilitation, and more. Every other week, I had a breathwork journey where I experienced and embodied what I had been learning. The program contained 108 hours of learning from the modules and the live calls, excluding my homework.
Concurrently to my Owaken training, I attended a Wim Hof Retreat in Spain where I got to breathe and take ice baths with Wim Hof himself. Here are some photos of me at the retreat:
Wim Hof Retreat
Epigenetics Research
Research Assistant at USC’s Center for Mindfulness Center for Mindfulness Science
In 2021 and 2022, I was a research assistant for Dr. Rael Cahn at USC’s Center for Mindfulness Science. Dr. Cahn’s lab is working on the Modern Spirit Project with Dr. Joe Tafur. The Modern Spirit Project is partnered with the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Study. Dr. Cahn and his team are collecting saliva samples from MAPS MDMA assisted therapy patients to see if psychedelic assisted therapy causes epigenetic changes in DNA. Also, I helped collect and clean data collected from brain scans of expert meditators. Shane’s participation in this research lab deepened his understanding of the science of meditation and psychedelics. The link to the epigenetic research can be found here: https://www.modernspirit.org/research
