Cain Velasquez described prison as a period of solitude that gave him an opportunity to reflect, accept responsibility, and help other incarcerated people. After spending nine months in solitary confinement, he later served time at a California prison where educational and personal-development programs were available.
In an interview with Shawn Ryan, Velasquez said he initially planned to keep to himself and focus on returning home. He then reconsidered how he could use his experience to support others.
“When I got there, there’s two ways of doing this. One, keep my head down, just do my thing, don’t talk to anybody, get out, or I can try to help,” he said. “I can try to share myself. I can look past what people have done in the past and know that they’re on the road to get back to where they need to get back to.”
That led him to introduce Ascension Breath, a practice he developed by combining different breathing techniques. He said the idea came from people who were interested in the inner experiences associated with plant-based ceremonies but did not want to participate in those ceremonies themselves.
“I learned Ascension Breath from putting these different breathing practices together,” Velasquez said. “Because after my plant medicine ceremonies, people that I talked to about doing these certain medicines, they didn’t want to do them. So I had to learn. Okay, now everybody wants to go down this road of learning in this way. And that’s okay. But what’s a good way in the middle? Something that isn’t plant medicine based.”
He said the prison program became successful and continued after he left. According to Velasquez, participants practiced the program three times a week. A monthly day of healing also included yoga, breathing exercises, sound healing, and Reiki.
“We do sound healing as well. Come in. So we’ll do a whole day of it. We do Reiki. They do a whole day of it,” he said. “Just help somebody out, you know, help release their traumas, get a better understanding, help them get in tune to themselves a lot more.”
Velasquez presented Reiki as part of a wellness program, but Reiki’s proposed energy field has not been scientifically detected. A blinded experiment published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that practitioners could not identify the supposed field more accurately than chance. Reported benefits may instead reflect relaxation, expectation, or placebo effects.
Velasquez also said he was discussing bringing Ascension Breath to San Quentin State Prison for both incarcerated people and staff. “I’m just helping out any way that I can,” he said.
