- January 14, 2025
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Nestled in the Rosemary District amid the activity of Downtown Sarasota is a place for calm.
“Everything is about the nervous system,” says Shannon Hunt of the faith-based nonprofit Conscious Cause, which he founded with his partner, Kristen Kruger. “We can't really function through society and ‘Go, go, go, do, do, do,’ the fast-paced world that we've been conditioned to.”
The donation-based Community Wellness Lounge and Cacao Cafe, established through a partnership with another nonprofit, Streets of Paradise, held its soft opening in December and is now open to the public.
Visitors can mix cacao, a coffee alternative known for its calming effects, and take advantage of an offering that includes vibroacoustic beds, an infrared sauna, a cold plunge and more.
However, Hunt says most central to the concept is the ability to engage with others in what he describes as a community-run and community-led space, and share in their collective experiences.
“We’re inviting the community to come in and share what has worked for them, whatever modality, whatever practice, whatever philosophy, whatever teachings, whatever lessons," Hunt said.
Hunt and Kruger both bring their own experiences of transformation to share.
Hunt comes from a past he describes as "death defying," which saw him moving between the streets and prison for 30 years, fueled by meth and alcohol addictions.
After meeting a holistic healer, Scotty King, through an inpatient program, he chose to pursue a path of recovery beyond the conventional.
"The old, outdated recovery centers, I noticed, with the Big Pharma and stuff, were keeping people stuck in their addiction," Hunt said. "They were getting people sober enough to relapse again from their big business. And then as soon as I met this guy, I learned his stuff, the clouds parted. Chains and shackles came off. I was like, I can live a life of freedom, of easy grace, of meditative mind."
Kruger comes from a similar past. After a near-death assault in 2015, she began to change her life and pursue healing, going on to live in the jungles of Peru and Costa Rica, a country where she is currently staying once again, before heading to Sarasota.
"I was guided there through my spiritual journey from Costa Rica, and Shannon and I divinely met and recognized we were from the same area in Virginia and many synchronicities, and we realized there was a divine intervention, alignment, for our union, and what we were being guided to bring to the world and really, humanity," she said by phone from a retreat center in Costa Rica.
Together, Hunt and Kruger founded Conscious Cause, their faith-based nonprofit devoted to helping people improve their lives through "ancient, modern, and elemental wisdom."
“We have now put together something that has worked for us, something that has gone from surviving to thriving, something that's got us sober, staying sober and thriving in sobriety," Hunt said. "So now we've built (this lounge) for the people that are curious, spiritual curious, sober curious, thinking of a better way.”
Providing the lounge space are Cathy Bryant and Greg Cruz of Streets of Paradise, an organization devoted to serving the community’s homeless population while fighting poverty and racism.
That nonprofit benefits from the donations raised by the lounge, while Conscious Cause serves as its wellness outreach.
Hunt says the lounge is a place for everyone, whether they have autism, disabilities, ADHD or PTSD, or whatever issues, such as trauma, homelessness or addiction, they may be facing.
It will welcome not only community members, but practitioners and facilitators looking to share their methods.
"We do one-on-one experiences, we do group experiences, and then the rest of it is led by the community, to come in and lead their gifts, their dharma, their passion," Hunt said.
Hunt says also the space is for the entire family, allowing kids to work on art activities while parents try healing modalities, and is even hosting groups like book clubs.
One thing that will ultimately draw people to spend time there are its features.
Found on a shelf are packages of cacao imported from Guatemala and Peru.
The raw material used for creating chocolate, cacao is known for its lower caffeine content than coffee, and its calming effects. High in antioxidants, minerals, and vitamins, the medical community believes it to reduce inflammation and improves blood flow.
Hunt said it will make a person feel "more connected with your higher self and with others."
"What it does is it gives you that clean, good energy," Hunt said. "Not that caffeine where you go up, crash, burn... It's not addictive."
The range of alternative therapies is something you won't come across every day. For instance, two custom-built vibroacoustic beds manufactured by Opus and inHarmony, combine vibrating motions with acoustic technology that sends sound vibrations through the body.
"This is where you just kind of drop in, and you relax and forget about the outside world for a while, and kind of realign your body," Hunt said.
Some other devices include a Centropix PEMA/PEMF mat, which generates a mild electric current known as pulsed electromagnetic field therapy; a neuroVIZR that emits different types of light said to stimulate the brain and enhance cognitive health, another light-based device called a Lucia no.3.; a Juvent Micro Impact Platform, which delivers gentle vibrations to the feet said to stimulate bone and muscle health, and meditation cushions offering similar functions to the two beds.
Guests can also take advantage of an infrared sauna and a cold plunge.
“We cherry pick from all these places around the world,” Hunt said.
Visitors can even stack modalities, mixing features together simultaneously when possible.
Hunt said the space can become a blueprint model for other locations and expressed a desire to franchise the concept in the future.
He hopes it will grow with even more programs and modalities, something which Kruger said hopes to bring to Sarasota from Costa Rica.
"(Costa Rica) was the inspiration for a lot of what Conscious Cause manifested to be, so reconnecting here, and then creating these grids and connectivity between here and Sarasota, and connecting the community to this type of healing, is definitely an intention," she said.
Currently, she said, she is looking into sourcing Costa Rican cacao, and exploring the possibility of bringing practitioners from the area to visit Sarasota and vice versa.
“I'm exploring learning how to play guitar and bring back some gifts of some medicine music and but also a deeper understanding, a deeper connection. … My wish and my intention, of my time here, is to bring back that frequency that is attuned to the healing powers of nature and spread that to our beautiful City of Light in Sarasota.”
This article has been updated.
