About Dane
My youth was pretty stereotypical for a young man growing up in Southern California-- an avid outdoors-kid from an early age, becoming an Eagle Scout at the young age of 13. As a teen, I enjoyed skating, surfing and generally enjoyed life. I have always had an independent streak, and was attracted to the counterculture my entire life, choosing to attend college at UC Santa Cruz, home of a Banana slug mascot! I have also been called an iconoclast on more than one occasion, and one can see how Santa Cruz was a perfect fit for me at the time.
​As a late teen, however, something began to stir in me. I began to ask some of the typical questions of philosophy and started to read some of the old classics like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Siddhartha by Hesse and Dan Millman's Way of the Peaceful Warrior.
Things really accelerated, however, when the local Christian Campus Crusaders seemed to really have it out to convert me. Determined to prove them wrong on their own terms, I began voraciously studying theology and philosophy. I went through a litany of books spanning philosophy to every major world religion. Ironically, as soon as I started reading all of these books, the Crusaders seemed to leave me alone! In retrospect, I now believe that this was the Divine choosing me and knowing that I was ever the contrarian, the only way for me to open up to spirit would be through trying to prove someone else wrong!
Somewhere along the way, however, I realized I was no longer studying to argue, but part of my seeking deeper meaning. As I was reading many texts such as the Bible, The Quran, the Dhammapada, etc I always felt like something in them would be "close" for me, but there was always something missing. That is, until I read the Bhagavad Gita. It is no hyperbole to state that reading that book changed my life and set me on a completely unexpected route. And since that time, over 30 years ago now, I have been a Vedantin. This philosophy set me on a course to marry my wife, multiple trips to India and spending time in many ashrams and visiting holy sites all over Asia. I did this all the while attending medical school and becoming a pediatrician, initially with the idea of performing Seva for the poor in an international setting. As part of this, I became Yoga teacher trained for 200 hours at the Sivananda Yoga Peetham in Kerala, India under Swami Govindanada and 300 hour yoga therapy training under Dr. Omanand "Guruji" at Paramanand Yoga in Indore, India. As a pediatrician , I also wanted to get Kid's yoga trained and did so in Los Angeles under Hi! Yoga training (Now called School yoga) with an emphasis in the Kundalini style of Yogi Bhajan.
Shortly after all of this, frustrated by corporate medicine, my wife and I started an integrative medical practice called Raising Sages Integrative Pediatrics. Initially it was intended to be a yoga-therapy and functional medicine/ Ayurvedic-style practice for kids. However, it ultimately grew into a busy integrative primary care practice and as part of this I became heavily involved in the Autism community and eventually merged the practice into another autism/ functional medicine specialty practice. With time, though, I realized that doing this work was not ultimately my dharma and I left this style of practice behind.
Ultimately, I have decided that I want to spend as much time as possible on my sadhana and on teaching others what I have discovered in studying the Vedic literature and Yogic philosophy. This has long been my passion and I have more recently started a local social group in the Austin, Texas area called Vedic Satsang ATX. Additionally, I am currently laying the foundation for what I hope can be an opportunity to teach the various areas of Vedic thought through the Dharma Prescription, so-named after an epiphany that the world's problems will never become better unless each of us learn to live our true Dharma.
