Devon, The Black Air Bender

I vividly remember the day that I met Devon.

I was at a fruit-luck. Which, for those of you who haven’t had the pleasure, is like a potluck, but with fruit.

This event was organized by my dear friend who invited many mutual friends and acquaintances. We all met up on the lawn next to the waterfront in Chelsea, Manhattan.

We all congregated on the grass and unpacked our fruit and began to feast. Suddenly, we were joined by some very cool individuals who did not arrive with our initial group.

This is when Devon and his friend Javi joined our group. We were unaware at the time that they’d been invited by one of our mutual friends, so their arrival felt serendipitous and magical. We suddenly were marched up to by these fruit-loving spirits who seemed to find us as though they knew we were there. They did.

Meeting these two individuals changed my life. I didn’t know it or think much of it at the time, Devon and Javi had very palpable energy. The most memorable and outlandish thing was that Devon was carrying a small portable blender. Without making a big deal out of it, he would accept pieces of fruit offered, and throw them in his little Mini blender and blend them up and drink them. I believe the word liquidarian or liquids only came up. At the time, I wasn’t aware of what I was seeing and didn’t think much of it beyond some weird vegan eccentricity.

I soon found out that Devon participated in long liquid-only fasts. Over periods of time that sounded hard to believe. Hundreds of days. Devon was fit, strong, vibrant, and had a presence in his eyes that can crudely be described as “extreme sobriety”. He seemed very locked in and focused, while also being effortlessly at ease and conscious.

There was certainly something unique about his presence, a calm intensity, and palpable poise to this individual. At the time, I didn’t notice or think too much of any of this… Simply chalking it up to some really cool suave individuals with an eccentric passion for fruit.

Despite finding out that they lived very close to me, I never connected with either of these two until much later.

This year was an extremely difficult one for most of us. A lot of us were able to gain monumental insights as a result of the massive shifts in society.

Introspection was necessary and rampant as everyone had the time and no alternative but to examine their priorities and lifestyles. Quarantine brought lots of changes to society and this reverberated through everyone’s life in a series of personal shifts. At this time, I was going through some massive life changes and one of the most difficult losses I’d ever faced.

I was in a state of tremendous grief. I began to see much of Devon’s content online. He had moved to Miami, Florida, an area that had been drawing me magnetically for a myriad of personal reasons as well as some smaller-scale business plans. It was mostly personal though and it was shaping up to be a very difficult trip.

I needed to go to Florida to deal with a pivotal moment in my life stemming from a heartbreaking loss. My grief was overwhelming and all-encompassing. I knew the trip ahead of me was most likely going to be devastating. And did not know what to do. I ended up calling Devon. Poor Devon! He received my call in such a state of pain and grief.

The way he handled my chaotic and grieving energy was masterful. I’d like to discuss this encounter because I believe it to be so valuable and symbolic of who Devon is and how he operates.

I’m a big believer in talk therapy. I think it’s an amazing process and provides so much value. When I called Devon, he asked me to explain my situation. I told him everything that was going on. My breathing must have been erratic, frantic, and filled with pain and sadness. Devon seemed to understand every micro-nuance of my mood and energy. I’ve seen some really great therapists over the years, who have been skilled, astute, and remarkably intelligent people. I have great reverence and respect for the field and the amount of intellect and energy that goes into effectively connecting with a patient.

All that being said, I must say, the degree to which Devon was able to connect and draw out difficult concepts was superior to any therapy session I’d ever experienced. Within one phone call, he’d made me feel as though he’d seen deep into the core of all my issues. I truly think he had. He cut straight to the source of pain, problems, solutions. And disarmed me of viewing my situation in certain non-helpful terms.

While not feeling it, Devon assured me that this pain was a tremendous opportunity, that the loss and void I was experiencing, had immense potential and capacity for transformation. Despite my difficulties and heartbreak, I reluctantly came to terms with the fact that this was an opportunity, not a tragedy. Merely understanding this did not do much to ease the pain. It was very difficult. But it gave me context to begin a long healing process.

Devon helped me replace many of my thoughts about what I was going through with helpful but brutally difficult yet tremendously beautiful life wisdom. The lessons Devon taught me, I didn’t want to learn. I had to though. I still have to.

Devon’s deep understanding of my pain, grief, and situation, was the result of his fluency in breath.

Chris Rock said that Dave Chappelle is the most fluent person he’s ever met in the language of comedy. This sentence changed my life. I have aspirations to be a comedian and understood early that comedy was a language, with rhythm and timing and tone and breathing and numerical tricks, sounds, thought processes, and patterns, etc.

Devon is the most fluent person I have ever met at the language of breath. And breathing is the essence of life! What I am proposing is that the way Devon interacts with breath gives him abilities that human beings have ceased to regularly tap into. Devon merely helps human beings connect with a natural state of existence.

This is not foofy speculation of supposed healing powers. This is a deeply knowledgeable individual who is having his brain scanned by the University of Miami’s neurological department. The reason being? Devon has continued to grow stronger and gain physical mass, despite consuming an entirely liquid and pranic (breath) diet, for over 400 days. This means that Devon is tapping into human and biological processes that Western metrics are still grappling to understand.

Many Eastern forms of healing or philosophies are dismissed as “new agey” or anti-scientific by Western culture or other ways of thinking. Western science struggles to keep up with and validate many of the neurological truths behind Eastern philosophies. Validating Eastern methodologies through clunky bureaucratic Western processes leads to arrogance. In fact, even within the field of breathwork, Devon is quite vocal about the difference between breathwork as practiced by '“eastern” versus “western “ society.

Stating that “Breathwork done in the west is just people getting high off oxygen”. This differs in principle from what Devon seeks to teach his clients and students, which is to increase the rate of Carbon absorbency. (Devon is quoting a teacher of his here, as this is not his original quote).

Devon has opened up an entire world to me. I have seen such stunning emotional mastery and wisdom from him. It is truly otherworldly. Devon is a very spiritual person, but he is deeply rooted in scientific thinking. He is engaged with the works of Nikola Tesla, a brilliant individual who believed humans could eat electricity. Even creating one of the only audiobooks from one of Tesla’s manuscripts.

As crazy as this may seem, Devon has introduced me to concepts that will have you questioning everything! I’m not done writing about Devon. I have a lot to say about him. I am no expert in breathwork; I’m not even a good student. In fact, my commitment to Devon’s teachings has been sub-par. I am only grasping the tip of the tip of the iceberg. However, I must say that the tip of the tip has been transformative. I will address some of his teachings more specifically in the future, as they are many and varied.

I didn’t know anything about breathwork and still don’t, but I understood through yoga that the capacity for healing and fighting through and coping with difficult emotions resided in the mastery of one’s breath. I was aware of the power of struggling to calmly breathe through physical and mental pain. My intense dedication to Yoga equipped me with some understanding of the power of breath. Devon revolutionized all of these concepts and leads a life I find poetic and masterful.

I started doing yoga because of comedy, which I explained to Devon. He understood this concept immediately, despite its unorthodox nature. The reason being, Devon has taught breathwork to countless high-performance individuals in varying fields who have improved their performances as a result of training with Devon. Training seems like the wrong word to call it. Despite there being a physical element to this, Devon’s teachings are almost a rewiring of how to understand the world and how we maneuver and exist within it. Devon doesn’t talk a lot. Devon’s mastery of his emotions and dedication to his field is similar to incredible and results in seemingly effortless communication on his end.

I cannot overemphasize enough what stands to be gained by exploring some of Devon’s teachings. Regardless of your situation, there is something he can help you optimize and teach you. Every session I had with him was a very poetic, soulful experience. It was both easy and pleasurable and at the same time difficult and growth-inducing.

Happy Solar Return to an epic individual dedicating himself to empowering people to return to various aspects of biological alignment. I owe so much to Devon. “Thank you for sharing the breath”.