Shamanic Breathing Mega-Thread

[mikeyy]

Had to swallow a few times kinda fucked up my rythm.

 

Euphoria passed quick.

Edited April 11, 2018 by mikeyy

[blazed]

19 minutes ago, mikeyy said:

Had to swallow a few times kinda fucked up my rythm.

 

Euphoria passed quick.

Just keep going and get back into rythm.

The effects last 20-30 minutes for me.

With meditation it can take a while to get into a no-mind state, with this it's pretty much instant.

[pluto]

13 hours ago, lmfao said:

@Leo Gura what's the point of the tribal drumming music? 

The Vibrations I'll let you figure out the rest.

[Privet]

I could only manage 20 minutes.

Here are my effects:

• Spasms in the wrists, they became really locked closer to the end
• Spasms in the face muscles
• Little spasms in the body, like I'm a little epileptic
• Noisy extremities
• Euphoria
• Better appreciation of music, I was literally crying because of the music that I used in the background
• Relief in the inner emotional tension, also manifested as crying (I can relatively easily trigger tears lately so it's not very unusual)
• Reduction in fatigue
• Better concentration
• Laughter, when I finished I just couldn't stop laughing for a couple of minutes, it felt like as if your bicycle started turning left when you turn the helm right, kind of laughing because of the confusion and something unexpected but not threatening, this laughter was felt throughout my body, my whole body was shaking a little
• It seems that it created an ego backlash, although I also meditated a lot during the last week so it's hard to say what exactly caused the backlash (addiction relapses, depression etc), I also was a little manic couple hours after the breathwork

Edited April 12, 2018 by Privet

[okulele]

I listened to this podcast today. Anahata is supposed to be an expert on Shamanic Breathing. She suggest adding her twist to it, which is asking yourself a question in the mids of the breathing (I guess something like: "Why am I angry at my father?" or "Why do I have anxiety about finances?")

I haven't tried it yet, but it seems like a good tool. She talks about it in the first third of the video if you want to check it out.

[Bird]

I'd like to share my experiences. I've done this 4 times this week.

First time

Did it for 30-60 minutes. I think I was breathing wrong because I didn't feel much except some tingling.

Second time

Did it for 60-90 minutes. This time it got deeper, I felt a lot of pain everywhere as if I was releasing a lot of hidden pain. I went running a bit that morning and I felt a bit of pain from the muscle tissues involved in the running, but also the diaphragm. I heard a noise, not so much of that high pitch sound you hear when you go from a noisy to silent room, but instead more like a sound with increasing reverb. I shook my head to stop it, I got a bit scared.

By the end of it I started to slowly go back to normal breathing, and waited up until everything went back to normal. On the meantime I couldn't move my hands at all, while arms, and to some extent legs, with some difficulty.

I took a long, deep, beautiful breathe before sitting up and it felt like I've never breathed this effortlessly since I was a kid.

Third time

I forget. Did I do it that day or not? I am confident I did but I have no memory of it. Should have taken notes daily instead of waiting until now.

Fourth time

This one got me scared. I went deeper with the breathing, as if I was trying to relax my body on every exhalation.

Before the 45 minute mark I was breathing and half crying with every exhalation. It felt like I was getting something out there which I thought at the moment it was going to help me a lot, so I kept trying to look for it.

By the 45 minute mark my hands were in too much pain from being completely curled, thumbs inwards, other fingers closed, but specially my left hand small finger completely stretched out. On top of that, I suddenly hear my Mac do the booting sound twice and I panicked: is this coming from my head? why is my Mac restarting? Why is it restarting twice immediately?!

I promptly ceased to breathe like this and started to use my nose, trying to use a more slower paced breathing, like I'd do when meditating. At some point I felt really bad so I immediately went back to breathing with my mouth open but slowly and less deeply.

Part of me was fearing that "I would stay like this forever" and the other part was like "psh this is absurd, it's just like when your leg falls asleep, we've been through this hundred of times by now". Still I panicked I couldn't move, and I kept repeating myself "It's going to be okay. This is just a moment..." and the such over and over.

After this I still have my hands shaking. Not sure what I can say about this, other than it's clear that I am always scared and this proves it. Another reason why I can't do psychedelics - I'm just too scared of anything that pulls me out of normal - and can't figure out exactly why.

Conclusion

I might give it another shot in the near future. For the time being, after trying so many different things, what I like the most is just calming my mind and be still. I'm just aware that alone might not be enough, so I'm always on the lookout for something now.

[eskwire]

Just did it. Fresh trip report.

30 minutes

Hands and face tingled

Face tensed up

Breathing pattern inconsistent

>>>Expectation - a bunch of trauma would come up and I would bawl over the sadness in a self pitying way

>>>Reality - I cried at the end and started speaking. To paraphrase the best I can:

"I do have friends and family and community, I just won't let it into my heart because my heart hurts so much. I can be disappointed but their hearts hurt too - and we don't know how to heal hearts right." 

>>>Then I laid there trying to be mindful.

I felt grateful for a friend I met today and Leo. "Tropics of Love" by Black Heart Procession was stuck in my mind - I had been listening to it on repeat the last couple days unconsciously while driving. I thought about messages I wanted to send friends and family - which is interesting because I have been telling people to leave me alone lately. I haven't wanted to talk.

>>>The last 2 days were spent at a conference for Community Health Workers and I will say that Leo's channel is the best god damn community health project I could even dream of. Thank you, Leo. ?

 

Addendum:

Perhaps this opened my heart chakra? Breathing that way is a lot of activity in the chest.

Edited April 14, 2018 by eskwire

[TruthSeeker47]

Yesterday was my second time doing it, and I increased from 20 mins to 30 mins.

I felt pretty weird during it like my hands were cramping, my chest also felt very tight.

After the 30 mins I felt like I had escaped my ego and for a split second I felt like myself as a kid, and then the memories and responsibilities of my current life flooded in and it was really depressing having to experience the change in my self and all the layers of bullshit my ego puts on my awareness.

Later that night I had REALLY bad diarrhea, like the worst I have ever had and I felt like I also wanted to vomit but thankfully I didn't.

When I went to bed I had a minor panic attack and I felt like If i stayed in one position, my heart would explode or I would have a seizure or something.

Definitely a powerful experience but i'm not sure if it's safe for me.

[eskwire]

9 minutes ago, TruthSeeker47 said:

Yesterday was my second time doing it, and I increased from 20 mins to 30 mins.

I felt pretty weird during it like my hands were cramping, my chest also felt very tight.

After the 30 mins I felt like I had escaped my ego and for a split second I felt like myself as a kid, and then the memories and responsibilities of my current life flooded in and it was really depressing having to experience the change in my self and all the layers of bullshit my ego puts on my awareness.

Later that night I had REALLY bad diarrhea, like the worst I have ever had and I felt like I also wanted to vomit but thankfully I didn't.

When I went to bed I had a minor panic attack and I felt like If i stayed in one position, my heart would explode or I would have a seizure or something.

Definitely a powerful experience but i'm not sure if it's safe for me.

Whoa, what's your current life like?

[blazed]

Don't know if there are any long term negative effects but i like it.

Other than the effort of breathing constantly for 30 mins it's quite easy, I enter a state of a no mind very easily after the breathing.

I also get the munchies and food taste great after it, just like you would expect on drugs.

I don't get headaces doing it for 30 mins but I do get headaces doing it for 45mins +

Maybe you need to work your way up to it so you don't get migraines, you could always play it safe and do it for 15 mins etc, doubt you could get any negative effects from such a short session if you're an healthy individual.

[eskwire]

9 hours ago, Mikael89 said:

I just watched the video..

I'm so disappointed.

I think this shamanic / holotropic breathing thing is bullshit.

Yes, it has effects, the effects come from the brain getting less oxygen than normally, so not good effects.

I hope you guys don't actually think that your brain gets more oxygen with hyperventilation, just google search "hyperventilation".

I really lost respect for Leo now. I feel sad. But I guess just because Leo is wrong in one thing it doesn't mean that he is wrong in all things.

Although he seems to be wrong in many things.. Healing, chakras.. I'm asking myself: "What if he is wrong with everything?".

I really believed in the other stuff like for example enlightenment, non-duality, and absolute infinity. But now I will maybe reject even all those things.

Really.. I'm baffled and confused: How can so many people even believe in this stuff? People are reporting spasms, cramps, ringing ears, headaches, and so on. It's obvious this is bullshit, yet people don't see it.

What have I gotten myself into? Maybe everything from Leo is bullshit?

My mom have done shamanic/holotropic breathing and now she often get severe migraine, like 4-5 days per week, she will probably have it for the rest of her life.

And it's like she have got dumber over the years..

Jeez. I just realised the connection between her headache and breathing stuff while I was writing this message. I never thought of it before.

This might be a scandal, I'm sure the video will cause physical damage to many people, and maybe mental.

 

When did your mom do holotropic breathing and when did her headaches start? How do you mean she's gotten dumber? Has she had more children? That also has an effect on brain function. What are other possible contributing factors? 

If we want to be more careful about assuming it's fine, let's ask more questions. 

[Source_Mystic]

Please look at the link and do more direct research before taking up this practice. 

 

[blazed]

1 hour ago, Mikael89 said:

I don't know/remember when she started with the stuff and when her headaches started.

No she haven't had more children.

Yes Leo is telling you to hyperventilate, the breathing is much faster than normally.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperventilation

"Symptoms: dizziness, tingling in the lips, hands or feet, headache, weakness, fainting and seizures. In extreme cases it may cause carpopedal spasms, a flapping and contraction of the hands and feet."

"Hyperventilation can also be induced intentionally to achieve an altered state of consciousness such as in the choking game, or in an attempt to extend a breath-hold dive."

So you can also choke yourself to get very similar effects: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choking_game

"imagined approximation to a near-death experience."

https://www.emedicinehealth.com/hyperventilation/article_em.htm#hyperventilation_symptoms

"A feeling of being outside yourself.

Seeing images that aren't there.

Spasms or cramps of the hands and feet."

 

Enough lack of oxygen in the brain will cause brain damage.

 

This is so stupid I can't believe it.

What the fuck?

What happened Leo. 

Most of your credibility is destroyed now.

"Don't know if there are any long term negative effects but i like it."

People like choking games too.

So as long as you stay under the threshold for getting migraines the whole thing is a good thing?

This is insanity. You guys have lost it.

 

Leo gave a full disclaimer to the potential dangers to this technique, maybe you missed it. So if people decide to take a risk you have no say in that.

Might as well go outside and start preaching to all the smokers, junk food eaters, people that do dangerous sports,  people who take drugs... etc. etc.

Wim Hof The Iceman does similar techniques, the guy is much healthier than the average person, he even resisted a virus injected directly into him in a hospital setting and the doctors were baffled, he has a documentary about it.

As you can see in this above video he says "light headed, and tingling".

This is the video of showing parts of the research and positive test results.

Edited April 14, 2018 by blazed

[moon777light]

HOLY.FUCKING.SHIT.

 

SHAMANIC BREATHING REPORT: ENDURED 15 MINUTES, BARELY.

 

HOLY FUCKING SHIT.

 

I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to explain this. What did I just go through. I am typing this still semi covered with blankie blankie blankie hahahah

Udddf hoooooog now im lauhging uncontroallably

Oh my god oh my god.

Okay my hands are all tingly my hands I had to looka t hem for a while t make sure theyre theree. OHH MYY GOOOODggdwq

 holy shit my laughing osunds os weird im semi laughing semi maoning.

My entire abdomen feels so fucking weird, it feel slike its explanding, like something inside, like a balloon inside expanding.

 

First thing that happened, IMMEDIATE RUSH of HEAT TO HEAD., my head felt as w=if it was 30,000 degreeeeess oh my god and pounding in it. That was prolly 45 seconds. Then the chest. The MOST INTENSE CHEST SENSATiON AS IF A WEIGHT OF 5 KILOS  HAS BEEN PUT ON MY CHEST and it started vibrating. Im trying so hard to type, very difficuly,ifhdzvrfg

 

THEn that continued for few minutes. HAS

Ff

AHHH.

Tehn handds slightly tingl tinglt tingle loldololol. BAHHHHH

Then tingly around my mouth. But no spasms or cramps as some have described. I opened my eyes a bit and eVErything was BLUE. Then closed right after. Continues. I don’t remember that much all I remember is fighting the urge not to check the GOD DAMN TIME thenn at the end I don’t know what happened but iSTARTED WITHERING WITHERING EVERYWHERE AND MOANING "ARRRRGEEEERRRRRR" "ARRRRREEERRRRRR""" AND I STARTED KICKING THE BLANKET AND I FLIPPED THE OTHER WAY AND I BANGED MY HEAD FUCKING 2 OR 3 TIMES IN THE FLOOR THEN Kept outting my head on the pillow then I flipped back and kept withering. OH mygod now when I am trying to get a picture in my head and rememorize the douns I was making holy shit. I l=SERIOUSLY LOOKED LIKE I WAS BEING INVADED BY DEMON. Whats the word for it? Possessed!!!! Forgihdougbv

AHHH. Im still recovering  the moment I started typing this paragraph/entry whatever was literally right after I got up.

 

BEWARE! BEWARE! BEWARE!

WHEN I CLICKED "STOP" on the stopwatch on my phone, I missed the button and so accidentally restarted a timing, because after I finally collected myself to a semi-stable state I looked at my phone and it was at the 12 minute mark!!! I thought I paused it and was maybe, maximum 2 minutes on the floor before I got up. 2 minutes! But I looked at it was 12 minutes!!!! I have no idea what state I was in, and honestly I am somewhat scared. To do this next week. I watched leos dark side of meditation vid but 1 year ago, so maybe I should rewatch it again. Im so scared that something bad is going to happen because what I did was literally just 15 minutes. Imagine 30.40. I was reading everyone elses experiences before this and no one had this severe reaction. What if a demon really tried to posses me lol. But when I watch those suepr intense holotropic sessions, I see some people like fully seizure, eyes rolled back, withering thing. One woman literally was basically having an intense orgasm. Now I feel better, and I feel heat, if you will, on the right hemisphere of my brain.

Edited April 14, 2018 by moon777light

[moon777light]

i am now drinking water, and have calmed down. I feel also very hyper. I forgot to add that in the final moments when i was withering on the floor i felt very anger. I just remember saying "gggrrrr" through my teeth and making very angry overexaggerated facial expressions. Before i did the shamanic breathing i was very scared as to whether this is good for me or not. After, my view is the same: im scared as fuck. I have never in my life taken psychedelics and what happened here in this simple short exercise, omg, i cant even imagine what it would be like taking psychedelics. One part of me is freaked the fuck out, like leo said the good thing of this technique is you have control, no you dont!!! well sort of. after i finished the 15 minutes session and started breathing normally again, i thought it took 2 minutes for me come back to myself, but apparently 12 minutes passed. Also i live in an apartment with people below me, above, me, and next to me on 2 sides. I wonder if they could hear anything lol . I was banging the floor a lot too. I cant imagine what it would be like in those 40+ minute sessions i would start breaking furniture lol. And the other part of me says to continue because obviously this brought up some deep emotion shit, and one of my biggest goals this year is to deal with my emotional baggage. 

[InfinitePotential]

@moon777light nice! Doesn't facing your fears and coming out alright on the other side just make you feel so alive. This will pass and things you'll be back to normal in no time, perhaps feeling a bit more fearless and courageous.

Be sure to compensate all that over breathing with some under breathing. Wim hoff advocates this after performing such exercises. I find this exercise from "enlightenment through the path of kundalini" to be incredibly calming:

(Always with the nose) "breathe in naturally (NOT deeply) to the count of 1,2,3... breathe out naturally (NOT forced in any way) to the count of 4,5,6...   Then, hold your breath on empty lungs to the count of 7,8,9,10,11,12....20,21... (make sure you are not breathing in inadvertently). Repeat over and over to establish a rhythm. The longer the break from the outbreath, the sooner your anxiety will calm down". I'd add that you shouldn't hold it so long that you need to gasp for air on the next inhalation, and that you should relax your body as much as is possible during the outbreath and hold. 

Extraordinarily effective and seems like a perfect exercise to perform after shamanic breathing (which I've yet to try cause I'm such a wuss ). Do it while walking and you'll be unstoppable.

As for the demons, nothing to fear, it's all you and nothing can posses you without your consent (not that it isn't next level scary af). It is recommended to send them love and compassion and wish for their healing. You can always say no to them.

[eskwire]

4 hours ago, Mikael89 said:

It doesn't really matter that he gave a disclaimer.

It's like: "It can be dangerous to cut your wrist with a knife, now go and do it. I do it too."

I don't really care if one person is healthy despite depriving his brain on oxygen. 

Maybe he would be even healthier or equally healthy without the breathing stupidity. Or he might just be a scam or whatever.

 

Ok I will stop posting about this subject.

Your reaction is too hysterical to take seriously. Wim Hof is a rather famous man, with many people who do his technique, and he has been studied. Your metaphors are hyperbolic and inaccurate. I am sensing you are overreacting to this because you have issues with your "dumb" mom who has done this. Chill out. 

[Leo Gura]

A few pointers for you guys:

1) This question of whether oxygen is being increased or decreased is really irrelevant. Don't get hung up on that. What matters is if you feel the technique working for you. If you feel like it is harming you, then don't do it. For me, it feels healing. Obviously people can have all sorts of health conditions which might make this technique inappropriate, in the same way that running 2 miles on a treadmill is inappropriate for many people. But for most healthy people, it is healing.

Medical doctors and academics can say all sorts of things. But the proof is in the actual doing of the technique. Do not listen to people who have not actually done the technique. Spiritual techniques tend to be hardcore. They can also be counter-intuitive, breaking conventional medical, physiological, and materialist paradigms. Case in point: most medical researchers still do not understand psychedelics for example, so don't expect them to understand a technique like shamanic breathing.

With naive thinking, a doctor could easily classify running a marathon as unhealthy and physically dangerous, pointing to isolated factors like: "There is less oxygen in the blood than normal" or "There is more CO2 than average", "The muscles are producing lactic acid which is damaging to the body", "The heart beat is near heart attack levels", "The body temperature is near fever levels", "Dehydration is too high", "The immune system is under great stress", etc. This doesn't say much. Normality is no sign of health, and doctors usually just parrot whatever medical ideology they are subscribed to. They have zero spiritual understanding. Their understanding of human physiology is materialistic, crude, and linear. They have no sense of the subtle, energetic, psycho-somatic, or metaphysical aspects of human physiology.

2) Don't fall into the trap of mistaking difficult emotional and physical sensations as "negative" or a sign of physical damage. It's very easy for a noob to misinterpret muscle burn at the gym as a sign of physical damage, for example. A little bit of pain can make the ego come up with all sorts of excuses. Your shadow and emotional trauma are wired deep into your mind, brain, and body. Releasing this deep trauma can feel painful, uncomfortable, difficult, scary, etc. Negative emotions arising is a sign of HEALTH, not sickness. It means the technique is working just as it should. This is called spiritual purification, and any serious spiritual technique has the potential to release very deep, painful, and scary thoughts and emotions. Facing your own lies, delusions, and ego-death is not rainbows and butterflies. With that said, you need to learn to intuit how much spiritual purification you can handle at a time. Going overboard is not good. Make sure you only bite off as much as you can chew.

3) If 30 minutes of this techniques brings up a lot of physical challenges, pain, and emotions in you, then all that probably means is: you have a lot of emotional baggage to work through. For me, for example, 30 minutes of this technique feels intense, but there is no negativity, no pain, and little emotional baggage arising. For me, 30 minutes feels rejuvenating and empowering. It feels like an intense workout. Perhaps akin to running a marathon.

4) Don't judge a spiritual technique unless you've actually done it with an open mind.

5) Keep in mind, the ego is very sneaky. Any technique which directly threatens it, it will tend to demonize and reject. This is true of psychedelics and many other radical methods.

6) The more effective a spiritual technique is, the more challenging it will be, and the less your ego will want to do it.

7) Use common sense. Don't hurt yourself. Search your heart for whether this is healing or hurting you. As an example, after an intense workout at the gym, you should have a sense of whether you hurt yourself or strengthened yourself with that session.

I am no doctor and this is not medical advice. You are 100% responsible for your own well-being. I like to practice hardcore and experimental techniques which may not be suitable for certain people. If you want to be 100% safe, then stick to 100% conventional materialist techniques (which basically means: no spirituality for you).

Spirituality always involves some degree of danger and risk. You have to determine for yourself what you are comfortable with and how deep you're willing to go. If you think that meditation or yoga cannot get as intense as shamanic breathing, that's just because you've haven't really experienced hardcore meditation or yoga yet. And certainly this shamanic breathing is peanuts compared to a deep psychedelic session. I've done psychedelic sessions in which I've physically died. Good luck explaining that to a doctor.

FYI, any technique that can produce ego-death or awakening is capable of eliciting in you deep fear and powerful emotions. Because are are literally facing your own death. That is no small thing.

Spirituality takes courage, but also intelligence. Be fearless, but also don't do anything stupid like physically harming yourself.

You can call it hyperventilation if you want. But then by that logic you can also call awakening insanity. So what? You could also call weightlifting: tearing of your muscles. And you could call sex: exposure of your immune system to foreign diseases. And you could call eating a slice of pizza: ingesting cancer-causing poison.

[Vipassana]

4 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

A few pointers for you guys:

1) This question of whether oxygen is being increased or decreased is really irrelevant. Don't get hung up on that. What matters is if you feel the technique working for you. If you feel like it is harming you, then don't do it. For me, it feels healing. Obviously people can have all sorts of health conditions which might make this technique inappropriate, in the same way that running 2 miles on a treadmill is inappropriate for many people. But for most healthy people, it is healing.

Medical doctors and academics can say all sorts of things. But the proof is in the actual doing of the technique. Do not listen to people who have not actually done the technique. Spiritual techniques tend to be hardcore. They can also be counter-intuitive, breaking conventional medical, physiological, and materialist paradigms. Case in point: most medical researchers still do not understanding psychedelics for example, so don't expect them to understand a technique like shamanic breathing.

2) Don't fall into the trap of mistaking difficult emotional and physical sensations as "negative" or a sign of physical damage. It's very easy for a noob to misinterpret muscle burn at the gym as a sign of physical damage, for example. A little bit of pain can make the ego come up with all sorts of excuses. Your shadow and emotional trauma are wired deep into your mind, brain, and body. Releasing this deep trauma can feel painful, uncomfortable, difficult, scary, etc. Negative emotions arising is a sign of HEALTH, not sickness. It means the technique is working just as it should. This is called spiritual purification, and any serious spiritual technique has the potential to release very deep, painful, and scary thoughts and emotions. Facing your own lies, delusions, and ego-death is not rainbows and butterflies. With that said, you need to learn to intuit how much spiritual purification you can handle at a time. Going overboard is not good. Make sure you only bite off as much as you can chew.

3) If 30 minutes of this techniques brings up a lot of physical challenges, pain, and emotions in you, then all that probably means is: you have a lot of emotional baggage to work through. For me, for example, 30 minutes of this technique feels intense, but there is no negativity, no pain, and little emotional baggage arising. For me, 30 minutes feels rejuvenating and empowering. It feels like an intense workout. Perhaps akin to running a marathon.

4) Don't judge a spiritual technique unless you've actually done it with an open mind.

5) Keep in mind, the ego is very sneaky. Any technique which directly threatens it, it will tend to demonize and reject. This is true of psychedelics and many other radical methods.

6) The more effective a spiritual technique is, the more challenging it will be, and the less your ego will want to do it.

7) Use common sense. Don't hurt yourself. Search your heart for whether this is healing or hurting you.

I am no doctor and this is not medical advice. You are 100% responsible for your own well-being. I like to practice hardcore and experimental techniques which may not be suitable for certain people. If you want to be 100% safe, then stick to 100% conventional materialist techniques (which basically means: no spirituality for you).

Spirituality always involves some degree of danger and risk. You have to determine for yourself what you are comfortable with and how deep you're willing to go. If you think that meditation or yoga cannot get as intense as shamanic breathing, that's just because you've haven't really experienced hardcore meditation or yoga yet.

Gurdjeff one said dont mess with your breath but fuck Gurdjeff 

[InfinitePotential]

22 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

A few pointers for you guys:

1) This question of whether oxygen is being increased or decreased is really irrelevant. Don't get hung up on that. What matters is if you feel the technique working for you. If you feel like it is harming you, then don't do it. For me, it feels healing. Obviously people can have all sorts of health conditions which might make this technique inappropriate, in the same way that running 2 miles on a treadmill is inappropriate for many people. But for most healthy people, it is healing.

Medical doctors and academics can say all sorts of things. But the proof is in the actual doing of the technique. Do not listen to people who have not actually done the technique. Spiritual techniques tend to be hardcore. They can also be counter-intuitive, breaking conventional medical, physiological, and materialist paradigms. Case in point: most medical researchers still do not understand psychedelics for example, so don't expect them to understand a technique like shamanic breathing.

With naive thinking, a doctor could easily classify running a marathon as unhealthy and physically dangerous, pointing to isolated factors like: "There is less oxygen in the blood than normal" or "There is more CO2 than average", "The muscles are producing lactic acid which is damaging to the body", "The heart beat is near heart attack levels", "The body temperature is near fever levels", "Dehydration is too high", "The immune system is under great stress", etc. This doesn't say much. Normality is no sign of health, and doctors usually just parrot whatever medical ideology they are subscribed to. They have zero spiritual understanding. Their understanding of human physiology is materialistic, crude, and linear. They have no sense of the subtle, energetic, psycho-somatic, or metaphysical aspects of human physiology.

2) Don't fall into the trap of mistaking difficult emotional and physical sensations as "negative" or a sign of physical damage. It's very easy for a noob to misinterpret muscle burn at the gym as a sign of physical damage, for example. A little bit of pain can make the ego come up with all sorts of excuses. Your shadow and emotional trauma are wired deep into your mind, brain, and body. Releasing this deep trauma can feel painful, uncomfortable, difficult, scary, etc. Negative emotions arising is a sign of HEALTH, not sickness. It means the technique is working just as it should. This is called spiritual purification, and any serious spiritual technique has the potential to release very deep, painful, and scary thoughts and emotions. Facing your own lies, delusions, and ego-death is not rainbows and butterflies. With that said, you need to learn to intuit how much spiritual purification you can handle at a time. Going overboard is not good. Make sure you only bite off as much as you can chew.

3) If 30 minutes of this techniques brings up a lot of physical challenges, pain, and emotions in you, then all that probably means is: you have a lot of emotional baggage to work through. For me, for example, 30 minutes of this technique feels intense, but there is no negativity, no pain, and little emotional baggage arising. For me, 30 minutes feels rejuvenating and empowering. It feels like an intense workout. Perhaps akin to running a marathon.

4) Don't judge a spiritual technique unless you've actually done it with an open mind.

5) Keep in mind, the ego is very sneaky. Any technique which directly threatens it, it will tend to demonize and reject. This is true of psychedelics and many other radical methods.

6) The more effective a spiritual technique is, the more challenging it will be, and the less your ego will want to do it.

7) Use common sense. Don't hurt yourself. Search your heart for whether this is healing or hurting you. As an example, after an intense workout at the gym, you should have a sense of whether you hurt yourself or strengthened yourself with that session.

I am no doctor and this is not medical advice. You are 100% responsible for your own well-being. I like to practice hardcore and experimental techniques which may not be suitable for certain people. If you want to be 100% safe, then stick to 100% conventional materialist techniques (which basically means: no spirituality for you).

Spirituality always involves some degree of danger and risk. You have to determine for yourself what you are comfortable with and how deep you're willing to go. If you think that meditation or yoga cannot get as intense as shamanic breathing, that's just because you've haven't really experienced hardcore meditation or yoga yet. And certainly this shamanic breathing is peanuts compared to a deep psychedelic session. I've done psychedelic sessions in which I've physically died. Good luck explaining that to a doctor.

FYI, any technique that can produce ego-death or awakening is capable of eliciting in you deep fear and powerful emotions. Because are are literally facing your own death. That is no small thing.

Spirituality takes courage, but also intelligence. Be fearless, but also don't do anything stupid like physically harming yourself.

Word af Leo. 

There seems to be parallels to this technique, and fasting / dry fasting. Both bring out "psychedelic like effects", negative emotions, heighten awareness, go against mainstream medical advice, bring you to the brink of death, etc. With a possible difference being that fasting appears to be extremely physically healthy, when done correctly. And fasting of course has been used extensively throughout history for spiritual purposes. 

Would be very interested to hear if you've tried any fasting before, and your thoughts and experiences from it. For me personally it's had an amazingly positive impact on my health and well-being.