Breathwork

the science behind conscious connected breathing

The importance of breathing as a means of enhancing our well being, and the many and varied ways and techniques of using the breath, go back to the very origins of the human race itself. It is central to the practices of qi gong and yoga. However, the form of breathwork we will be discussing here has its origins in the work of Stanislav Grof (holotropic) breath, and Leonard Orr (rebirthing) birth. We’re concerned here only with the latter.

Orr apparently discovered the technique in his bath tub, and so rebirthing initially was only done in water. It was believed that being submerged in water more faithfully reproduced the effects of being in the womb. The first rebirthers would breathe through a snorkel and attempted to capture the total birth experience. However, it works just as well when lying on a mattress or on the floor. Indeed rebirthing can be done sitting, or even standing. I kid you not, I’ve done it both ways!

When this form of breathwork began in the 1970s they discovered that it seemed to evoke birth or womb memories, hence the name ‘rebirthing’. This is a slight misnomer as not everyone experiences birth memories. I’ll be perfectly blunt here, the breathing technique is more a line to the divine than a line to the birth. But, that was the thinking at the time, after all it was in its developmental stage then, and so we’re stuck with the name. The term can be misleading too, in that some people think they have to ‘re-enact’ their birth or some other childhood trauma during a breathing session. Hence they engage in various forms of drama, that can include ‘acting out,’ screaming, threshing their limbs about and so forth. But often this play-acting is merely a way of avoiding dealing with whatever the breath is bringing up. The holotropic school encourage venting one’s feelings in a loud and often dramatic way. Rebirthing takes the opposite approach. In rebirthing we have a maxim that says “drama does not release trauma”. Instead what we need to do is ‘complete it in our body’ and then release it. We complete it by ‘breathing it’.

After Leonard Orr the next big name in rebirthing was Sondra Ray. A pioneer of the craft and in my mind one of the most awake people on this planet, her book Rebirthing in the New Age is a seminal work on breathwork. I’ve never met Leonard but I’ve worked with Sondra, who in recent years has moved beyond the constraints of the original theory and now pioneers Third Dimension and Ascension work. After Ray, Jim Leonard and Phil Laut are important figures. They started the Vivation movement, which took rebirthing away from its spiritual or mythic roots and placed it in the realm of Rogerian psychology. This was a welcome move at the time, but again, the trend to pare rebirthing down to fit with current psychiatric and psychotherapeutic practice can have its own inherent drawbacks. I don’t agree with reducing rebirthing to an academic discipline, as this infers that it needs something to complete it. It doesn’t. This form of breathwork contains everything we need to bring us to a higher consciousness, and, in my opinion, leaves any psychotherapy you wish to compare it with at the post.

When we focus exclusively on one part only of any discipline we contain it, even suggest limitation. So if we approach rebirthing primarily with the intention of recalling birth memory an expectation is set up, and the problem then is the rebirthee will go searching for that experience. And if they don’t get it they will assume they’re doing it wrong. Disappointment sets in, and they may decide the whole thing is not worth bothering with. Trust me, you can never do it wrong. When you breathe whatever’s meant to happen for you will happen, for example, some of your scripts may come up, or something important that needs to be dealt with. In searching to replicate someone else’s experience we are in danger of missing our own. Of course, you may experience birth memories, if it’s meant for you to do so you will, but don’t make that important. And don’t make it the reason to try rebirthing.

People starting off should not do it in water, in my opinion, until they are very familiar and comfortable with the technique. But it is beneficial when you’re ready. Warm water (not too hot) can bring up womb-like feelings, not necessarily actual memories, while cold water (never freezing) usually confronts us with fear. Also it’s important to stress that you should not try to rebirth yourself in the beginning. Not because it's dangerous, you can’t do any physical harm to yourself, but because conscious connected breathing usually brings to the surface a lot of emotional stuff, ancient hurts and wounds that we bury in the body. Now if you’re new to this work and if you’re on your own this can be overwhelming, and may even reinforce old trauma. So, it’s important to work with a professional rebirther. Besides, the technique cannot be learned from a book, I give you only a brief outline of the technique here. When we bring old scripts and trauma to the surface we need to know how to release them. This is important. Later, of course, as you become more efficient in the practice you will be able to do it by yourself.

As rebirthing spread and gained popularity, certain features and idiosyncrasies, which might be very loosely called ‘a theory of rebirthing’, evolved. I will flesh these out for you below. However, it is important to emphasis that this is not a doctrine. Nothing is prescriptive. You do not have to believe all, or indeed any, of the theory in order to experience the many benefits this powerful tool can give you. The theory could best be described as a loosely connected set of observations, rather than hardset beliefs. There are five in all, and we will call them the five pillars of rebirthing breathwork. These are birth trauma, personal lie, the unconscious death urge, parental disapproval and other lifetimes.

The anecdotal commentary around the five pillars is my own opinion.

please go to birth trauma

please go to personal lie

please go to parental disapproval

please go to the unconscious death urge

please go to other lifetimes