Holotropic Breathwork: Self-Exploration, Therapy, and A Unique Professional Training Program
 |
 |
|
|
By Stanislav Grof and Christina Grof
Stanislav Grof, MD, is a psychiatrist with over fifty years experience researching non-ordinary states of consciousness. The Grofs are pioneers in the development of rhythmic breathwork exercises in a therapeutic setting as a tool for exploring the transpersonal dimensions of consciousness. Attend an experiential workshop with Dr. Stan Grof this January. The following is excerpted by permission from the Grofs long awaited book, Holotropic Breathwork: A New Approach to Self-Exploration and Therapy. "A must read."— Deepak Chopra.
©2010 State University of New York.
The experiences in Holotropic Breathwork sessions are highly individual and cover a wide range. They do not represent a stereotypical reaction to faster breathing ("the hyperventilation syndrome") as one reads in the handbooks of respiratory physiology, but reflect the psychosomatic history of the breather. In a group of people who have all had the same theoretical preparation, received the same instructions, and listened to the same music, each person will have his other own highly specific and personally relevant experience. And, if the same person has an entire series of sessions, the content of the experiences changes from session to session and they constitute a continuous journey of self-discovery and self-healing....
Memories of various stages of birth trauma—basic perinatal matrices or BPMs—belong to the most common experiences in Holotropic Breathwork sessions. They accurately portray various aspects of the birth process, often with photographic details, even in individuals who have no intellectual knowledge of the circumstances of their birth. This can be accompanied by various physical manifestations indicating that the memory of birth reaches to the cellular level. We have seen individuals reliving birth develop bruises in places where forceps were applied, without knowing that this was part of their early history; the accuracy of this fact was later confirmed by parents or birth records....
The repertoire of transpersonal phenomena occurring in Holotropic Breathwork sessions is very rich and diverse. It includes experiences of identification with other people, entire groups of people, and various other life forms. Transcendence of linear time leads to experiences of ancestral, racial, collective, phylogenic, and karmic memories. Encounters and identification with archetypal figures from various countries of the world, visits to various mythological realms and states of cosmic unity figure prominently in the accounts from Holotropic Breathwork sessions.....
However bizarre the sounds and external behavior might appear to an external observer, they are meaningful expressions of the breather's inner experience and they are ultimately healing, because they help to discharge withheld emotions and blocked physical energies.... Contrary to our cultural expectations, the methods used by shamans and other native healers and, for that matter, psychedelic therapy and Holotropic Breathwork, can achieve therapeutic success by mechanisms that transcend and bewilder reason....
The changes observed... are not limited to conditions traditionally considered emotional or psychosomatic.... Individuals suffering from chronic infections, such as sinusitis, pharyngitis, bronchitis, and cystitis, discovered in their breathwork sessions that the corresponding areas of their bodies were bioenergetically blocked. When the combination of breathwork and bodywork removed the bioenergetic blocks, these infections significantly improved or even completely cleared.
FEEDBACK: CLICK HERE to email comments and feedback. Please note the title of the article or the author's name. Include your own name or type "name withheld" by request. Thoughtful responses will be published in our next edition.
| Top of Page |