I was just reading in The Holographic Universe about a Dr. Grof’s studies involving LSD. Once LSD was outlawed, he found a natural way to bring about the same kind of effects via a process he called holotropic breathing. Reports from his studies say that people experience very vivid images, relive experiences (in the womb, in past lives, in future lives, as a dinosaur), they have feelings of one-ness with the universe, etc. Basically, they experience things that many people experience in LDs .
I’ve been searching on the net, but haven’t really found any how-to methods regarding holotropic breathing and was wondering if anyone out there has heard of it/ experienced it/ can share how to do it.
It is known that psychedelics exert their major influence in the brain stem. Presumably, drug induced changes in the brain stem are responsible for altering the activity of the LNG*. It is interesting to note that changes in brain stem activity occur during REM sleep and also probably during yogic breathing exercises. Yogic breathing exercises alter activity of brain stem breathing centres, which in turn could affect ascending brain stem pathways Both REM sleep and yoga practices lead to the formation of visual hallucinations. Thus, changes in the brain stem cause changes in higher visual centres, leading to the formation of visual hallucinations. Variations of imagery perceived during various ‘altered states of consciousness’ probably reflect subtle differences in brain stem changes and brain stem effects on higher brain centres.
*(Optic nerve fibres from the eyes terminate at two bodies in the thalamus (a structure in the middle of the brain) known as the Lateral Geniculate Nuclei (or LGN for short). One LGN lies in the left hemisphere and the other lies in the right hemisphere.)
I know the term holotropic breathing.saw a documentary about it a while ago.its a method used by many quite known psychologists and psychoterapists.Basically its all about rapid breathing ,best if combined with rhytmic music(drums i.e).
Few people on the chat tried it then and we had different results.I did it for around half an hour few times and got just very very strong vibrations.
But that was all.On the other hand few other people said that after getting up to drink something they saw faces of their dead relatives in the mirror or presence of other beings around.Not really scary(sorry if my description sounds like).
In the documentary i saw people indeed said(and they werent just ppl,they were guided into it by specialists,sciencists) that they have had really strong emotions involved,many of them cried while crawling on the floor,heaps of them described exact OBEs,almost all of them said it was lifechanging experience for them.Some even started to write poems and paint after(note they were not insane).
This method is also said to be excellent tool for heroin addicts.So far most drug addicts who went under this therapy had huge succeses overcoming their habits.
Unfortunately i cannot rem where is good info about it,i think i just looked for it on google.
take care
Kinda like panting?
This sounds very interesting. Just gotta find some rhythmic music. Am I supposed to breathe in time with the music?If someone answers my questions and I get around to it I’ll post my results.
It occured to me that the effects of rapid breathing look simmular to hypnagogoic hallucinations and these are associated with theta brain waves. So i looked for situations in which the brain generated alot of theta waves, which were; floating*, meditating, rythmic breathing, and sleep paralysis/rem-sleep, these states of consciousness all seem to induce feelings of relaxation and/or calmness followed by hypnagogic hallucinations.
I’m wondering if relexation is connected with accelerated breathing…
*‘floating’ is lying in a completely dark and sondproof tank filled with water (flotation tank) if you stay in it long enough your mind starts plaing tricks on you hehe, which is a pretty cool experience. see link: floatdreams.com/brainwaves.htm
There seem to be a lot of different methods that allow one to enter into this LD-like state, but what I’m wondering is if there is a method that can allow one to quickly enter into an LD. The holotropic breathing sounds like it has potential and doesn’t require years of training. But I still don’t know how to do it. Rapid breathing to music has been mentioned, but how rapid and what music and is that all it takes?
Some pretty interesting experiences… after about five minutes of the breathing, I started experiencing the most intense HI that I’ve ever had. All of the sudden, there were faces and buildings and lots of random things swirling around in the black emptiness. I didn’t know whether to continue the breathing or to try and WILD at this point. I started feelings some twitches as if WILD vibrations were about to begin. I kept with the breathing, but found it hard to continue after this point. My consciousness was very hard to hold onto (maybe b/c I did the breathing before going to bed and after I just woke up in the morning?) and whenever I would regain it, I would find that sometimes I had stopped breathing or sometimes had just returned to normal. I’m going to try again but to some trance music or something. I think that would help me keep the rhythm.
I’ve never successfully WILD-ed, but I think that using this breathing technique, I got the closest yet. Really, after 5 minutes, strange things were happening. I’m interested to find out what happens at 36.00 minutes.
I was wondering about the chemistry going on in the brain during these LD-like states and found the following: “Skeptics often glibly dismiss NDEs as a result of the lack of oxygen to the brain …”
The breathing exercises are actually super-oxygenating the blood. I don’t know what my point is, but I just find it odd that the same experience seems to be the result of opposite causes.
Okay, I’m kind of lost…but could somebody explain exactly how you do the breathing (that link was confusing). Sage, could you tell us exactly what you did, like what you did while exhaling/inhaling, were you lying down/sitting, eyes closed/open, how long was each exhale/inhale? Thanks, ben
Okay, here’s what I did… I was lying down with my eyes closed and my arms at my sides (I don’t think position is so important - just that you’re comfortable.) I didn’t have any blankets on me (again, may not be important). Breaths were a little more rapid than normal - between 1 and 2 seconds on inhale, same on exhale. The exhale isn’t forced, you just let your breath come out on its own. I think the key is that as soon as the exhale is finished, you inhale. There is no pause. It’s a circular breathing pattern, inhale and exhale are about the same length and as soon as one is done, you start the other. I’ll be interested to hear other people’s results. Good luck!
The question remains if the effect of circular/deep breathing is the result of a higher level of oxygen saturation or of a change in the balance of the brain stem breathing centres. Or maby it’s a combination of both becouse one usually gets a high feeling with a higher oxygen intake. I dont’t know if the effects of a NDE are similar to that of CBreatihng.
Is it just me, or is there acually less oxygen intake, meaning less oxygen getting to the brain, which isnt a really good thing. I dont know, I just didnt really feeling like i was getting more air than normal. I got really dizzy and disoriented
Here one can not rule out oxygen deprivation as a contributing factor. SaO2 reflects oxygen bound to hemoglobin. Hemoglobin will hang on to oxygen in alkalotic states. When oxygen remains bound to hemoglobin, the cells in the body and brain are still deprived of oxygen even if SaO2 levels are high or within normal range. The breathing may have affected the alkalinity of the brain or blood and thereby deprived the brain of oxygen. Without a pH test, it is impossible to know. Actually it could be anything from the interaction of breathin stimulation with the basic rest-activity cycle or with “higher-order” memory or attentional processes.
I can’t recall… did the author have an adress to write to in the back of The Holographic Universe? Its been a few months since I read it. Perhaps you could contact him and find out more information about Holotropic Breathing
Dug around for some info on it but found most of it was for workshops where you learn to do it. Why can’t people help people out without the almighty dollar… anyway:
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