Shamanic Breathing Mega-Thread

[Antonius]

I did holotrophic breathing a few times before for 15-20min so I somewhat knew what I was getting into.

Yesterday I did it for 30min, lying on the floor with meditative music like Leo recommended. I got through the whole 30min with minor problems and it was pretty intense. I mostly felt massive amounts of energy moving through my arms and my chest was getting extremely tight. The headspace is unique and weird, a lot of old memories popped up and I sort of remembered how I felt when I was a kid. When the session ended I kinda heard some voices so I went to turn on the lights because I can't handle that shit yet and just laid there buzzing, it was very peaceful. My chest went from extremely tight to feeling very open and free.

I can't say there was anything negative about the experience because even hearing voices is just something that's supposed to happen, but I had a problem with holding my arms spread out because it cut off my blood flow and combined with all the energy flowing it felt like they were gonna fuckin' disintegrate.

[PsiloPutty]

@see_on_see   I did it for 45 minutes yesterday. I can't be sure, but I'd say the psychedelic-ish stuff started at around 20 minutes. As with actual psychedelics, I'm guessing everyone has their own experience with this. 

[Recursoinominado]

 

Can i do it on my bed instead of on the floor? My bed is the spacious location in my house to laying down and spread my limbs.

[dude]

@Recursoinominado Yes why not, I do it on the floor because my bed is not that big. You must have space tho or you could roll off your bed.

[Leo Gura]

8 hours ago, see_on_see said:

how do we know if this thing is healthy and safe long-term? Do you know of anybody who has practiced it consistently for years? 

There are no guarantees, but Stan Grof has been teaching similar techniques for many years, with thousands of people participating. If it really damaged your brain, I'm pretty sure he would stop teaching it and people would have sued him long ago.

The only way to know is to try it gradually for yourself. You will feel if it is hurting you or healing you. Just don't ask the question from a fear-based ego-mind perspective.

I don't feel any damage from it. But you guys are all reporting unqiue experiences, so I can't guarantee your health.

This is stuff that requires a willingness to experiment in a careful manner.

What's nice about this techique is that you can make it as gradual as you like and stop at any time, unlike with psychedelics.

[egoless]

20 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

You will feel if it is hurting you or healing you.

How would you? There are plenty of things which hurt you but you don't feel it straight away. I don't think oversupplying brain with excess oxygen is healthy in long run. But hey, who I am to judge. This is not my proficiency  

Edited April 9, 2018 by egoless

[dude]

Just now, egoless said:

How would you? There are plenty of things which hurt you but you don't feel it straight away. I don't think oversupplying brain with excess oxygen is healthy in long run. But hey, who I am to judge  

You're actually depriving your brain of oxygen lol.

[Recursoinominado]

Holy shit! Just did 30 minutes and calling it a trip its not a overstatement (I am experienced with psychedelics).

At first my hands and head were tingling, and soon my whole body was tingling. When I stopped, my whole body was buzzing and tingling like a never felt before, my mouth and hands started to close spontaneously, I felt like I didn't have much control over my body, my breathing almost stopped and I freaked out for a second but decided to surrender to the experience. Definitely a powerful technique. I am excited to go deeper. 

It is a problem to use it daily? I saw Leo's video, I know what ego backlash is, as long as it isn't creating any trouble in my life, can I do it more often than once a week? 

[Andre Quinonez]

Is there any evidence that it is damaging for the brain?

[TruthSeeker47]

Does doing a deep breath meditation cancel the effects if you do it afterwards? I did a 20 min shamanic breathing session, felt really cool and had a few deep memories arise, but after i did my normal meditation which is deep breathing i felt like thee effects wore off

[Elisabeth]

2 hours ago, see_on_see said:

But if thousands of people have done it for years with no real issues then it's cool, that's what I wanted to know. 

 

It's not like all of them have been doing this for years. With Grof's technique, thousands of people have done a few 3 hour sessions. (Also, I believe you don't have to breath a straight 3 hours with no pause there.)

But people have done Wim Hof breathing for years consistently. That's something like a 10 min session each day. They are fine, I believe.

My bf has done ~20 holotropic breatwork seminars over the course of the years. He's had some ego-death experiences. One of my good friends did ~8 sessions over the course of the last five months. She has therapeutical support from the facilitator. She's changing very noticeably, working on her addictions, dropping her defences and becoming more sensitive. She also has mild symptoms of a psychospiritual crisis, seeing auras, talking animals etc. (Leaving brain damage aside, the technique absolutely can destabilize your psyche.)

Known contraindications are: cardiovascular problems, glaucoma, aneurysma, recent injuries, pregnancy, some kinds of epilepsy. (They won't let you take the seminar if you have this stuff.) Severe asthma, and severe mental illnesses can also be a problem. 

[PsiloPutty]

@Spacious Wait a sec, exactly how much cannabis did you flush?    

Ha, just kidding, sounds like you had a great thing happen. Mine was good, but I can't say I had a samadhi experience like yours. 

[Nahm]

@Spacious ??

[Charlotte]

12 hours ago, see_on_see said:

But if thousands of people have done it for years with no real issues then it's cool

Thousands of people smoked cigarettes for years until it's links to cancer become known ?

[Samra]

12 hours ago, dude said:

You're actually depriving your brain of oxygen lol.

What is the mechanism for this? When you breath from mouth , the levels of oxygen and CO2 changes or something? I only ask because i passed out for couple of seconds for my first try, so i wonder if I did it right. Can the same effect be achieved through heavy nasal breathing? I guess i try that out myself.   

[Timotheus]

6 minutes ago, Charlotte said:

Thousands of people smoked cigarettes for years until it's links to cancer become known ?

Pff, the loss of 5-10 years in life expectancy equivalent to smoking would still be worth it

[Charlotte]

@Samra "Low carbon dioxide levels lead to narrowing of the blood vessels that supply blood to the brain. This reduction in blood supply to the brain leads to symptoms like lightheadedness and tingling in the fingers. Severe hyperventilation can lead to loss of consciousness."

Referring to hyperventilation.

Edited April 10, 2018 by Charlotte

[Charlotte]

@Timotheus  Fair enough, completely up to you 

[Spinoza]

21 hours ago, Socrates said:

Wait a second, isn't this exactly the so called "runner's high"? We just recreate it on a home setting.

It makes perfect sense since when you run you have this exact same breathing pattern. 

It's exactly what i thought when i tried it, i used to run everyday for years, (it's the same way of breathing)

After trying the breathing technique, at the end i felt exactly like if i did an outside running   

[Charlotte]

I genuinely think if you do this everyday you could injure yourself in some way, depriving your brain from oxygen everyday (even in small amounts) are bound to have negative effects