Holotropic Breathwork is a practice that uses breathing and other elements to allow access to non-ordinary states for the purpose of self-exploration. It was developed by Stanislav Grof, M.D., Ph.D.

Stanislav Grof

Stanislav Grof is a psychiatrist, one of the founders of the field of transpersonal psychology and a pioneering researcher into the use of non-ordinary states of consciousness for purposes of analyzing, healing, and obtaining growth and insight into the human psyche...

 and Christina Grof, Ph.D. . Holotropic breathing has some similarities to rebirthing-breathwork

Rebirthing-Breathwork

Rebirthing-breathwork is a breathing technique that claims to heal suppressed emotions such as anger, fear, sadness, etc. It shares a common belief with various other therapies called rebirthing, with both groups believing that human birth is a traumatic event and that reviewing or revisiting this...

, but was developed independently. Holotropic Breathwork is intended as an approach to self-exploration and healing that integrates insights from modern consciousness research, anthropology, various depth psychologies, transpersonal psychology, Eastern spiritual practices, and mystical traditions of the world. The term holotropic means "moving toward wholeness" (from the Greek ὅλος holos "whole" and τρέπειν trepein "to turn or direct towards a thing").

The method comprises five elements: group process, intensified breathing (hyperventilation

Hyperventilation

Hyperventilation or overbreathing is the state of breathing faster or deeper than normal, causing excessive expulsion of circulating carbon dioxide. It can result from a psychological state such as a panic attack, from a physiological condition such as metabolic acidosis, can be brought about by...

), evocative music, focused body work, and expressive drawing. The method's general effect is advocated as a non-specific amplification of a person's psychic process, which facilitates the psyche's natural capacity for healing.

Holotropic Breathwork is usually done in groups, although individual sessions are done. Within the groups, people work in pairs and alternate in the roles of experiencer ("breather") and "sitter". The sitter's primary responsibility is to focus compassionate attention on the breather. Secondarily, the sitter is available to assist the breather, but not to interfere or interrupt the process. The same is true for trained facilitators, who are available as helpers if necessary.

Originally developed as an adjunct to psychedelic psychotherapy

Psychedelic psychotherapy

Psychedelic therapy refers to therapeutic practices involving the use of psychedelic drugs, particularly serotonergic psychedelics such as ergine, LSD, psilocin and DMT...

, Holotropic Breathwork is an autonomous psychotherapeutic practice which, nevertheless, retains many of the clinical precautionary measures that were implemented in the medical use of LSD

LSD

Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...

.

"Holotropic Breathwork" is a trademark

Trademark

A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...

.

Typical experiences

Participants in Holotropic Breathwork sessions report a wide variety of experiences (Taylor, 1994). From observing many people in nonordinary and expanded states of consciousness, Grof developed what he considers to be a “cartography” of the psyche, which describes four main categories of experience.

Sensory and Somatic: This realm of experience includes various hallucinatory

Hallucination

A hallucination, in the broadest sense of the word, is a perception in the absence of a stimulus. In a stricter sense, hallucinations are defined as perceptions in a conscious and awake state in the absence of external stimuli which have qualities of real perception, in that they are vivid,...

 phenomena, such as visualizing images or geometrical patterns. More commonly, participants report a greater awareness of and ability to act out somatic processes and bodily impulses, such as assuming postures, dancing or moving in specific ways, and making sounds. They may also claim to feel where energy is blocked or streaming, consistent with the belief in vitalism

Vitalism

Vitalism, as defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, is#a doctrine that the functions of a living organism are due to a vital principle distinct from biochemical reactions...

.

Biographical and Individual Unconscious: As in more traditional therapies, participants may revisit unresolved conflicts, repressed memories, and unintegrated traumas. Compared to talk therapies, the unconscious

Unconscious mind

The unconscious mind is a term coined by the 18th century German romantic philosopher Friedrich Schelling and later introduced into English by the poet and essayist Samuel Taylor Coleridge...

 material is more likely to be re-experienced than merely remembered. Participants report that this deeper processing can be more effective at clearing trauma

Psychological trauma

Psychological trauma is a type of damage to the psyche that occurs as a result of a traumatic event...

, especially as it relates to subtle ways that trauma is held in the body.

Perinatal: Along with most other Breathwork practitioners, and in disagreement with John Locke

John Locke

John Locke FRS , widely known as the Father of Liberalism, was an English philosopher and physician regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers. Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Francis Bacon, he is equally important to social...

’s claim that the infant after birth is a tabula rasa

Tabula rasa

Tabula rasa is the epistemological theory that individuals are born without built-in mental content and that their knowledge comes from experience and perception. Generally proponents of the tabula rasa thesis favour the "nurture" side of the nature versus nurture debate, when it comes to aspects...

, Grof believes that the birth process is a traumatic event that leaves powerful residue in the psyche (see "Importance of the birth process" below). Participants in Holotropic Breathwork sessions report having images, emotions, physical sensations, and cognitions that convince them that they are remembering aspects of their own birth. Sometimes details can be verified with medical records. Some claim that these experiences help them release the birth trauma, including deeply held negative beliefs about themselves or the world.

Transpersonal: Referring to the possibility of accessing information outside the normal boundaries of the ego and body, transpersonal

Transpersonal

The term transpersonal is often used to refer to psychological categories that transcend the normal features of ordinary ego-functioning. That is, stages of psychological growth, or stages of consciousness, that move beyond the rational andprecede the mystical...

 experiences reported in Holotropic Breathwork sessions include past life

Reincarnation

Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...

 memories, experiential identification with other life forms, out-of-body experience

Out-of-body experience

An out-of-body experience is an experience that typically involves a sensation of floating outside of one's body and, in some cases, perceiving one's physical body from a place outside one's body ....

s, oneness

Henosis

Henosis is the word for "oneness," "union," or "unity" in classical Greek, and is spelled identically in modern Greek where "Enosis" is particulary connected with the modern political "Unity" movement to unify Greece and Cyprus....

, encounters with spiritual archetype

Archetype

An archetype is a universally understood symbol or term or pattern of behavior, a prototype upon which others are copied, patterned, or emulated...

s, and connection with the collective unconscious

Collective unconscious

Collective unconscious is a term of analytical psychology, coined by Carl Jung. It is proposed to be a part of the unconscious mind, expressed in humanity and all life forms with nervous systems, and describes how the structure of the psyche autonomously organizes experience...

.

Importance of the birth process

One aspect of Grof's extensive theory is the belief that there is a connection between a person's life experiences and experiences in the birth process. In his book The Holotropic Mind, Grof (1992) separated this process into four stages known as the Perinatal Matrices:

1. Amniotic Universe — The womb. The only world that life knows at this point. Blissful feelings of peace and joy, in a healthy womb.
2. Cosmic Engulfment; No Exit — Equilibrium disturbed; contractions begin. Unbearable feeling of being stuck in hell with no way of escaping.
3. Death versus Rebirth Struggle — Second clinical stage of childbirth; intense struggle for survival.
4. Death versus Rebirth Experience — The child is born. Intense ecstatic feelings of liberation and love. New world begins.

Professional practice

There is an Association for Holotropic Breathwork International which promotes professional and ethical practices governing Holotropic Breathwork.

There is an extensive training and certification program for facilitators through Grof Transpersonal Training. For those who wish to become certified, there are two tracks, Educational and Practitioner. Both have the requirements of attendance at seven modules and a two-week closing intensive, covering training in transpersonal psychology (including psychopathology, spiritual emergency, and addictions), as well as the theory and practice of Holotropic Breathwork. The training also includes ten hours of consultation with a certified practitioner and 150 total hours of participation in HB workshops led by Stanislav Grof or a certified practitioner (Baum and Pounds, 1993). In addition, those wishing to become independent workshop leaders (Practitioners), must apprentice at least four times at workshops with previously certified practitioners before leading groups of their own. There are currently more than 1000 trained facilitators located throughout the world, including clinicians, businessmen, public, psychotherapists, etc.

Reactions and contraindications

In a section entitled "Focused Body Work", Grof (1988) writes: "The last component of holotropic therapy, the focused body work, is used only when it is indicated. There are many sessions with a smooth course where no interventions are required. In some of these sessions, the hyperventilation does not trigger any difficult emotions or unpleasant physical manifestations and leads to progressive relaxation and to feelings of an ecstatic nature. In others, emotional and psychosomatic distress develops, but continued breathing brings about quite automatically a good resolution and good integration of the session" (194). He goes on to say that there are "only a few situations when focused body work is necessary in the early phases of holotropic sessions" and that "the main indication for the use of focused body work is a situation during the termination period of the session (usually after about an hour and a half to two hours) in those individuals where the breathing and music did not bring a complete resolution" (194) He points out that the "work on such problems is desirable, since it brings the session to a cleaner resolution and better integration, but it is in no way mandatory" (194-5). It is in this context that Grof refers to the exteriorization of "the various forms of physical discomfort associated with the emotional distress" (195). At this stage, "it can be helpful to use certain interventions that cooperate with the process, deepen it, and intensify it ... massage or pressure in the areas that are tense or painful, or offers of specific resistances that increase existing tensions ... Among the reactions that might spontaneously occur under these circumstances are violent shaking, grimacing, coughing, gagging, vomiting, a variety of movements, and a wide range of sounds that include screaming, baby talk, animal voices, talking in tongues or a language foreign to the client, shamanic chanting, and many others" (196)

Contraindications to be considered include: serious cardiovascular problems, glaucoma, severe psychiatric illness, and pregnancy (202); while special precautions are recommended in the case of epileptics (203).

He points out that caution is required in the case of individuals with a history of psychiatric hospitalization. Such procedures are "not without certain risks" and "if the process gets to be too active and extends beyond the framework of the sessions, it can require special measures" (251). Elsewhere, he writes that "experiential work with severely disturbed individuals requires a special residential facility with trained staff where continuous support is available for twenty-four hours a day; it should not be conducted on an outpatient basis" (204).

Research

Grof (1988) admits the experimental nature of the process in the context of an adventure of self-discovery. Referring to his partnership with his wife, he comments: "Our own experience with this technique has been limited to experiential workshops lasting up to four weeks. We have not had the opportunity to subject it to rigorous evaluation in controlled clinical studies, comparable to my research in psychedelic therapy" (xiv). Later, he adds: "It is important to realize that holotropic work is completely open-ended. It is best to think about it as an ongoing research project and psychological experiment ... The training of the facilitator should never be considered a fait accompli. Holotropic therapy is a process of continuous learning, rather than mechanical application of a closed system of concepts and rules" (207).

Research by Holmes et al. (1996) concluded that holotropic breathwork combined with traditional verbally oriented psychotherapy led to “significant reductions in death anxiety and increases in self-esteem” relative to just traditional psychotherapy.

In a theoretical review article, Rhinewine and Williams (2007) offer the hypothesis that holotropic breathwork operates via a biopsychological mechanism that results in experiential exposure to feared internal representations, and consequently in extinction of covert avoidance behaviors. The latter disinhibitory process, experienced by the breather as "catharsis," may correspondingly result in therapeutic progress among patients who had previously shown limited gains in verbal psychotherapy, as previously demonstrated in Holmes and colleagues' (1996) study.

Criticism

Holotropic Breathwork has been subject to criticism, on points of medical and spiritual concern.

• In Ken Wilber
  Ken Wilber
  Kenneth Earl Wilber II is an American author who has written about mysticism, philosophy, ecology, and developmental psychology. His work formulates what he calls Integral Theory. In 1998, he founded the Integral Institute, for teaching and applications of Integral theory.-Biography:Ken Wilber was...
  
  's "Eye of Spirit" (1996) he criticizes Grof's assertion that in order to access transpersonal states of consciousness a person must necessarily first regress to the perinatal state to resolve the trauma of (and/or around) birth. Wilber states that while this is sometimes the case, it is so only in a limited number of cases.

• In 1993 the Scottish Charities Office commissioned a report into the technique, having received complaints concerning its implementation at the Findhorn Foundation
  Findhorn Foundation
  The Findhorn Foundation is a Scottish charitable trust registered in 1972, formed by the spiritual community at the Findhorn Ecovillage, one of the largest intentional communities in Britain....
  
  , a registered charity. The report was written by Anthony Busuttil (Regius Professor of Forensic Medicine at the University of Edinburgh), whose opinions caused the Findhorn Foundation to suspend its breathwork programme. In its report on the event, The Scotsman
  The Scotsman
  The Scotsman is a British newspaper, published in Edinburgh.As of August 2011 it had an audited circulation of 38,423, down from about 100,000 in the 1980s....
  
  also published several critical comments concerning Holotropic Breathwork as a form of therapy, made by Dr Linda Watt of Leverndale Psychiatric Hospital in Glasgow. In response to literature about breathwork supplied by the newspaper, Dr Watt expressed professional concerns that the hyperventilation
  Hyperventilation
  Hyperventilation or overbreathing is the state of breathing faster or deeper than normal, causing excessive expulsion of circulating carbon dioxide. It can result from a psychological state such as a panic attack, from a physiological condition such as metabolic acidosis, can be brought about by...
  
   technique might cause seizure or lead to psychosis
  Psychosis
  Psychosis means abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality"...
  
   in vulnerable people. (The Scotsman, 14 October 1993).

• Independent philosopher Kevin Shepherd (1995) argues that the spiritual practices which Holotropic Breathwork claims as inspiration can only be correctly understood in the context of their original cultures. In particular, he questions the motives and wisdom of facilitators providing Holotropic Breathwork in a commercial context.

• In volume 3 of her autobiography, mystic Kate Thomas (1992) quotes extensively from correspondence relating to the controversy at the Findhorn Foundation. In this, and subsequent writing (1998, 2000), she expresses the view that Holotropic Breathwork interferes with the process of spiritual evolution in ways that she claims facilitators are unqualified to recognise or deal with.

Responses to criticism

Grof disputes many of the medical criticisms of Holotropic Breathwork, arguing that they are based on misunderstandings of the physiological and psychological processes involved. In his paper reviewing the literature on the effects of faster breathing, he concludes that "The fact that during rapid breathing symptoms surface and become manifest is not a pathological phenomenon...With skillful support and guidance, the emergence of symptoms during hyperventilation can result in healing of emotional and psychosomatic problems...". (Grof 2003)

Rhinewine and Williams (2007), reviewing the medical literature on hyperventilation in the context of a theoretical article on Holotropic Breathwork, state that "The procedure of voluntary hyperventilation has proven to be safe after medical screening for contraindicating conditions, and has been demonstrated across numerous studies to be helpful in treatment of anxiety as a tool for diagnosis and desensitization."

Works cited

• Baum, L. and Pounds, B. G. The National Directory Of Psychotherapy Training Institutes. New York: Routledge, 1993.
• Castro, S. "New Age Therapy - higher consciousness or delusion?" in The Therapist, Winter 1995, 14-16.
• Castro, S. Hypocrisy and Dissent within the Findhorn Foundation: Towards a Sociology of a New Age Community. New Media Books, 1996.
• Curry, E. Patrick "Carl Jung, Stanislav Grof, and New Age Medical Mysticism" The Scientific Review of Alternative Medicine, 2002, 6(2): 86-7.
• The Forres Gazette, “Breathwork on course to make a comeback”, Dec. 4, 2002.
• Grof, S., The Adventure of Self-Discovery. SUNY, 1988.
• Grof, S., with Bennett, H. The Holotropic Mind: The Three Levels of Human Consciousness and How They Shape Our Lives. HarperCollins, 1992.
• Grof, S. "Physical Manifestations of Emotional disorders:Observations from the study of non-ordinary states of consciousness" in Exploring Holotropic breathwork: Selected Articles from a Decade of the Inner Door. Taylor, K [Ed.] Hanford Mead, 2003
• Holmes, S. W., Morris, R, Clance, P. R, Putney, R. T., “Holotropic Breathwork : An Experiential Approach To Psychotherapy”, Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, Vol. 33(1), Spring 1996. pp. 114–120. 1996
• Rhinewine, J. P., Williams, O. J. "Holotropic Breathwork: The Potential Role of a Prolonged, Voluntary Hyperventilation Procedure as an Adjunct to Psychotherapy". Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, Vol. 13(7), September 2007. pp. 771–776. 2007
• Ths Scotsman, New Age meditation course cancelled on medical advice, 14 October 1993.
• Shepherd, K. R. D. Minds and Sociocultures: An Analysis of Religious and Dissenting Movements, Volume One: Zoroastrianism and the Indian Religions. Philosophical Press, 1995.
• Taylor, K. The Breathwork Experience: Exploration and Healing in Nonordinary States of Consciousness. Hanford Mead, 1994.
• Thomas, K. The Destiny Challenge: A Record of Spiritual Experience & Observation. New Frequency Press, 1992.
• Thomas, K. "Turning the spotlight on a questionable therapy", a letter to the Forres Gazette, 20 October 1993.
• Thomas, K. The Kundalini Phenomenon: The Need for Insight and Spiritual Authenticity. New Media Books, 2000.

External links

• Association for Holotropic Breathwork International