This is copyrighted material mostly from the book called:"Breathwork: Personal and Spiritual Transformation" (1991) by Steve Mensing. Warning: If you choose to do these processes you do them only with the understanding that you absolve Barry Friedberg, Steve Mensing, the web master, and his server of any responsibility for either the application or misapplication of these processes. Persons with a history of severe trauma, panic disorder, or mental illness are urged to refrain from doing this work except with a trained breathworker or energy therapist. Further those persons should have a working knowledge of either the Meridian Grasp or the Neurovascualar Nightmare Eliminator to eliminate restims, abreactions, panic attacks, or flashbacks that might occur during the duration of breathwork.

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BREATHWORK EXPLORATION

Utilizing circular breathing from Kriya Yoga and evocative music, this combination is a powerful tool for inner exploration and transformation. For one to three hours, circular breathing is done either in small groups or individually while reclining on a padded floor. Evocative music or white noise is used to explore diverse consciousness and emotional states. Circular Breathing and music exploration can be harnessed to the Meridian Grasp or the Circuit Breaker for therapeutic effect.

BASIC STEPS FOR BREATHWORK & MUSIC

Here are the basic steps for breathwork & music:

(1) Decide in advance how long you desire your breath session to go. Ninety minutes to 3 hours appear to be optimum lengths.

(2) If you want to have a sitter (Good for neophytes and a must for folks with panic and trauma histories), choose someone you trust and basically feel good around. Hopefully this person has experienced breathwork or similar consciousness work so they will understand what is happening for you. Your sitter better be accepting and attentive.

(3) Find a cool quiet place indoors where the room is darkned. Choose a place where you will absolutely will not be disturbed. Street noise is best kept to a minimum.

(4) If music is played, use audio-cassettes or CD's arranged specifically for breathwork. More on this music in a later section.

(5) Breathwork can be done with a white noise generator; an FM receiver tuned loudly between stations so you can hear a distinct hiss; or white noise tapes.

(6) Leave any music adjustments during the session to either your sitter or a third party.

(7) Lay down on a padded floor. Sleeping bags, foam matteressed, pillows, or even layers of heavy blankets work here. Have kleenex handy for runny noses.

(8) Prior to starting the circular breathing, relax and get focused. Do a central meridian trace by taking your palm and gently rub it from the very top of your head down the center line of your body all the way down to your groin.

(9) Cue up the music or white noise and get it comfortably loud. Hopefully you can feel a bit of bass in the floor. Begin circular breathing. Circular breathing connects the inhale with the exhale in a comfortable fashion. Exhale is relaxed with no control at all. If the inhale comes via the nose then the exhale must travel through the nose. If the inhale is being done through the mouth then the exhale must exit the mouth. Exhale and inhale need not be the same duration. Don't stop at the top of the breath and don't stop at the bottom. Breathe in one continuous loop. If you stop for a split second at either the top or the bottom--this oaky. We're not looking for perfection here. Keep the tip of your tongue against the roof of your mouth. Continue this breathing during the entire session. Make sure you are properly hydrated and have water near by.

(10) A sitter better not interfere with the breather's process unless invited by the breather. If the breather wants the sitter to stop, the breather simply says: "Stop."

(11) Let go and let your unconscious do the work. The key here is to: allow & permit.

(12) Close your eyes and have a valuable journey.

(13) Use the Circuit Breaker or the Meridian Grasp for letting go of any emotional challenges or blocks. (More details on these steps in later sections and tips)

MUSIC & WHITE NOISE

Breathwork is intensified by emotionally evokative music. Breathwork music is seldom chosen for beauty or enjoyment. Some breathwork music is gut wrenching, explosive, and overwhelming because the primary function of this work is to evoke emotions, imagery, and unconscious processes. This music can also assist in creating a structure and in bringing feelings to the surface where they can be fully experienced and released.

Breathwork music and sounds are played comfortably loud to facilitate emotions and imagery. The music comes from diverse origins: electronica, space, trance drumming from socalled primative societies, classical Indian (asia, western classical, and machine sounds. In choosing breathwork music, make sure it is clearly recorded and avoids singing or chanting in any recognizable language. Your stereo system better be excellent and speakers on the floor. Bass sounds work well. Your amp better be 100 watts or more when working with groups of above 10 participants.

How do you know if you have good breathwork music? Participants are active, breathing, feeling emotions, and generally having experiences if your music is on target. Unless your music is evoking emotions in the majority of participants, then the music isn't right. Remember the focus is here is not taste or beauty, it is on emotional evocation. Some participants will complain about the music. This may be due to matters of taste, sensitivity to certain sounds, or the music draws participants to emotionally uncomfortable places. Do your best in arranging your music, yet recognize no perfect music programs exist that will please everybody.

Vocal music is best avoided where words are understood or an implied message exists. Chanting in foreign tongues is okay. Some Indian and Middle Eastern classical music is excellent because the voices serve more as musical intruments.

Powerful driving drums are extremely opening and entrancing. Since earliest man, chanting and drumming have been utilized by shamen and healers in various cultures across the globe. Chanting and drumming are well known for their ability to alter consciousness.

Often overlooked sound forms, useful in breathwork, are white noise, sound walls, and machine sounds. These sound forms create nonspecific patterns on which breathwork participants can project their own internal processes.

White noise is often a simple amplified hiss or nonspecific sound pattern. We can create white noise by tuning between FM stations or with white noise generators. Sound walls may be produced with synthesizers or music stations. Simply create plenty of nonspecific sound patterns out of clicking or various percussion. These sound patterns can be sped up to around 210 beats per minute. Sound walls are entrancing.

In using white noise or sound walls, we will hear sound and tend to weave music or even voices out of what is heard. Recording short-wave radio sounds set between stations will also generate nonspecific sound patterns as does machinery producing a complex and repetitive beat pattern.

Breathwork sessions, done with nonspecific sound patterns, are best kept to two hours maximum. Short sessions, with these sounds, are because breathworkers, hearing these sounds, tend to go immediately to their issues and feel them intensely. Some folks will feel overwhelmed by these sounds so pay attention to your participants closely if you are conducting one of these sessions.

Nonspecific sound patterns are best used with folks who have already done breathwork with traditional breathwork music. Some nonspecific sound patterns can be integrated for 5 to 8 minute periods into a regular breathwork session. Participants will report a wide range of differing emotions and imagery during the time of nonspecific sound patterns.

Music can evoke feelings of aggression, cosmic unity, ectasy, emotional and physical pain, sensuality, rapture, and love. Music can assist us past blocks and defenses. Here we let go and allow the music to resonate our entire being.

Breathwork music must sound loud enough to overwhelm its listeners, yet not hurt their ears or be physically uncomfortable.

In creating breathwork programs, it is recommended they follow a six stage pattern. The six stages are: (1) Primary stage: driving and uptempo with a pronounced beat. (2) Powerful evocation stage: driging, passionate, and primative. (3) Potent shifting stage: spirited and overwhelming. (4) Emotionally chaotic stage: emotionally overwhelming and fuse blowing. (5) Opening stage: cosmic, transforming, ecstatic. (6) Quiet meditative stage: peaceful and reflective.

In creating breathwork music and sound programs, use 90 minute tapes or 77 minute CD's. Record your music from CD sources when possible and with quality audio equipment. Your tapedeck better have Dolby and metal filters. With tapes always use Type II high bias.

PRIMARY STAGE

The primary stage contains driving and uptempo music with a pronounced beat. This stage is designed to assist folks in getting focused and in starting the process. Experience says electronica and uptempo space music works well here. Also fast marimba music does a good job. Remember: Instrumental only.

The primary stage asks us to emply individual pieces between 5 and 7 minutes in length. Some excellent 3 minute pieces may be repeated or doubled over. Feel free to edit out voices or stretches of useless music. When programming music in this or any other stages, amke sure the pieces flow smoothly into each other. Pieces, too different in style, tempo, and volume can temporarily jar the breathworker out of their journey. Choose music and sounds letting the energy build prior to release. Like a wave. Recording breathwork music asks us to be creative and innovative. Think of your breathwork music program as a 3 hour composition.

It's best to start your music program with an upbeat piece because this helps the participants to form a rapport with the music. People, new to breathwork, are very excited and anxious about the process and what will happen. An initial upbeat or happy piece will assist folks in being less fearful about circular breathing.

Here are some primary stage music sources:

J.S. Bach--Concerto for 4 Harpsichords--1st movement "Amazonia: Cult Music of Northern Brazil"--cuts 1, 2, 5. G. Johns--Bakongo Dance Party--cut 4 Planet Drum--cuts 2, 4, 6, 9 A Brief History of Ambient--(disc 1) cuts 2, 6, 7 Bacher Attar--The Next Dream--cut 4 Ravi Shankar--The Sounds of India--cuts 4, 5 Bismillah Khan--"Shanai D'Ustad Bismillah Khan--cuts 1, 2, 3. Phillippine Gong Music--any selection. Klaus Schulze--X--all cuts. Creation Rebel--"Historic Moments" Vol.2--cut 10. Bismillah Khan--"Soothing sounds of Shenai"--cuts 1, 2. J.S. Bach--concerto no. 7 for Harpsichord--1st movement. K. Schulze--Timewind-cut 2

POWERFUL EVOCATION STAGE

The powerful evocation stage contains driving and passionate movement. This stage serves as a bridge between stage one and stage three. Stage two assists the deepening process and will facilitate emotion, rich imagery, and trance. This music can come from a variety of sources: the final minutes of a fast raga; African, Carbean, South American, and American Indian drumming and chanting; machine sounds; electronic sounds; shamanic sounds. Classical Indian and Moslem singers, accompanied by drums, are useful here as are large group chants.

Individual pieces at this stage better be no longer than 5 to 6 minutes. The rule can be broken if the piece offers a few complex changes. Shorter pieces can be doubled or repeated. Be prepared to edit out music portions halting the flow. Let the energy build and build because this can help produce spntanious releases.

Here are some sources of powerful evocation atage music:

Excursions in Ambience (Vol.1)--cuts 1, 5, 7, 8. Excursions in Ambience (vol. 2)--cuts 4, 6. Excursions in Ambience (Vol. 3)--cuts 2. K. Schulze--Irrlicht-cut 1. Baraka-- cuts 1, 4, 8, 9, 10, 11. The Big Bang (vol.1) cuts 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 15. The Big Bang (vol.2) cuts 2, 4, 12, 13. The Big Bang (vol.3) cuts 3, 4, 9. Klaus Schlze The Essential 72-93-(dic 1) cuts 1-7. Cosmic Couriers 1--Other Places--cut 1 M. Stearns--Sacred Site--cuts 1, 2, 4, 6, 9, 10. Global Celebration: Dancing with the Gods--cuts 1,2, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 13. Global Meditation: The Pulse of Life.--cuts 1, 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 11.

POTENT SHIFTING STAGE

The Potent Shifting Stage contains powerful drumming from various cultures, street passions, machine sounds, classical Indian vocal music, space music, gong music from S.E. Asia. The music is complex, pounding, and flows. Keep the music pieces here between 5 and 7 minutes in length.

Here are some sources containing Potent Shifting Stage music:

*"Golden Rain: Balinese Gamelan Music"--cut 2. *"Voodoo Trance Music: Ritual Drums of Hati"--all cuts.
*"Olatunji: Drums of Passion"--cut 2. *Prem Das et al--"Sonado Tambores"--cuts 1, 3.
*Prem Das et al--"Journey of Drums"--cut 6 *"Phillipine Gong Music" (Vol. 1 & 2)--all cuts.
*"Maruga"--cuts 1, 3. *M. Uyttebrock--"Drums of Passion"--all cuts.
*M. Uyttebrock--"Distant Drums Approach" *Spirit Drummers--"Magic"--all cuts.
*"Guem"--cuts 1,3,5,9,10. *Maruga & Big Black--"Sangoma Drums"--cuts 1,2,4.

EMOTIONALLY CHAOTIC STAGE

The emotionally chaotic stage may contain gong music, powerful classical music, movie soundtracks, chanting, electronica, and experimental music. These pieces are aimed at evoking powerful emotions such as fear, depression, ecstasy, rage, guilt, and the like. The music builds and then lands hard on the nerve fibers. It can be violent and jarring at times. The timpani and other bass percussion instruments dominate as do brass.

When creating stage 4 music sections be prepared to edit heavily. Focus on the gut wrenching and nerve frazzling. Go for the throat! The object here is to overwhelm the participant until powerful emotions are brought to the surface. Keep pieces about 4 to 7 minutes in length. Build and release. Build and release. The music has the structure of a volcano.

Here are some sources of emotionally chaotic stage music:

Balinese Monkey Chant (Ketjak). Mussorgski/Ravel--"Great Gate of Kiev" from "Pictures at an Exibition". Stravinski--Rite of Spring--movements 8, 14. Bach/Stokowski--Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. Max Steiner--King Kong--cuts 1, 2, 4, 10, 12. Tchaikovsky--Violin Concerto in D--1st movement. Rachmaninoff--Isle of the Dead. Beethoven--Symphony No.6--4th movement. Scriabin--Poem of Ectasy Bruckner--Symphony no. 8--3rd movement. Liszt--Les Preludes Liszt--Prometheus. Liszt--Mazeppa Shostakovitch--Symphony No. 10--4th movement. Strauss-Death and Transfiguration. Strauss--Alpine Symphony--movement 19 Verdi-Requiem-Des Irae. Sibelius-Prelude to the Tempest. Liszt--Battle of the Huns Berlioz--Royal Hunt and Storm from the Trojans. Rimsky-Korsakoff--Massacre at Kershentz from "The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitzeh. Gluck--Dance of the Furies from "Orphee Et Eurydice". Tchaikovsky--Manfred Symphony--2nd movement. Tchaikovsky--The Voyvode.

SPIRITUAL OPENING STAGE

The spiritual opening stage contains music that is uplifting, cosmic, and transforming. The music can be drawn from classical music, electronica, and space. Often this music is heavy on choruses and strings. Here we are opening up to resources and unitive states.

With the spiritual opening stage, we should focus on the blissful and the uplifting and keep our pieces between 5 and 7 minutes in duration.

Here are some sources containing spiritual opening stage music:

J.S. Bach.--St. Matthew Passion"--movements 1, 68. J.S. Bach--Mass in B Minor--Gloria, Ossana. Beethoven--Missa Solemnis--Gloria, Kyrie. Mozart--Great Mass--kyrie, Gloria. Cherubini--Requiem in D Minor--Agnus Dei. Bruckner--F Minor Mass--Gloria, Agnus Dei.

QUIET MEDITATIVE STAGE

The quiet meditative stage contains peaceful and felective music. This music comes from very slow classical, classical Indian ragas, electronic music, and Japanese koto music. Quiet meditative stage music may possess up to 10 minute pieces. This music is simple and slow. Cellos, flutes, harps, Indian sarangis, Japanese kotos, violins, and pianos work well here.

Here are some examples of good quiet meditative stage music:

Pachelbel--Canon in D for Strings and Continuo Michael Stearns--Encounter-cuts 1-6-10. Ram Narayan--Rag Shankara/Rag Mala in jogia Bocherini/Stokowski--menuet Mascagni--Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana Massanet--Thais: Meditation Kalliwoda--Romance from Oboe Concerto Handel--Largo from Xerxes Beethoven--Larghetto from Violin Concerto in D Mozart--Adagio from Violin Concerto No. 5 Beethoven--Romance for Violin & Orchestra No. 1 Beethoven/Stokowski--Moonlight Sonata Bach/Stokowski--Come Sweet Death Bach/Stokowski--Arioso Sibelius--Swan of Tuonela Mahler--5th Symphony--4th movement Barber--Adagio for Strings Albinoni--Adagio in G Minor for Strings & Organ Vaughn Williams--Fantasia on a Theme from Thomas Tallis Vivaldi--Largo from the Spring from Four Seasons. Bach--Air on a G string Tchaikovsky--Waltz from Swan Lake Tchaikovski--Waltz from Serenade for Strings Shubert--Ave Maria

TIPS ON BREATHWORK

*When strong emotions begin to emerge, employ the Meridian Grasp hold in the feeling mode. The Circuit Breaker is also a good choice for this inner adventuring.

*Circular breathing balances the body's subtle energy systems, breaks down blockages, and frees suppressed emotions. This form of breathwork breeds acceptance and full integration of feelings.

*If you suddenly go into the restim or strong overwhelm mode, simply employ the Neurovascular Nightmare Exterminator.

*The air volume in breathwork regulates our ability to experience our emotions. Too little air makes experiencing our feelings weak and too much air leads to overwhelm. Slow inhalations keeps our focus on our feelings.

* Keep your right palm over your heartbeat area as this tends to better integrate feelings and keep them in the body. We're less likely to dissociate out of our body with this palm to heart position.

*Never control the exhale--just let it go.

* Remain aware of what you're experiencing. Emotions are a good focus. Watch them emerge and fully feel them.

* Slow inhalation increases focusing ability. Fast inhalation increases awareness of the overall experience.

*Until you've gained enough awareness of an emotion to integrate it, breathe slowly. When you are right in a feeling, speed your breathing up comfortably to bring about integration. Remember: speed has only to do with inhalation. Exhalation is just letting go.

* Start breathwork sessions with full slow circular breathing. Full slow breaths can be used when you are greeting a new emotion after you've just release one. Large volumes of air helps you become aware of an emotion. Slowness of breathing makes for easier focusing.

*Fast/shallow circular breathing is best used when emotions grow intense. Shallow breathing makes the emotion easier to stand and speeds the integration process. Always keep your attention on the emotion.

*Fast/full circular breathing is used when emotions appear to be taking you out of your body. Examples: Fatigue, tiredness, daydreaming. Keep your right palm over your heartbeat.

* During most breathwork, keep your breathing moderate.

* As you grow more experienced with breathwork, your breathing will naturally adjust to the circumstances.

*Remember--never switch back and forth between your nose and mouth during breathing. Do all one(nose) or the other (mouth).

* If you're focused on an emotion, located above your navel, then breathe from the upper lungs. Emotions, located below the navel call for lower lung breathing.

*If you notice you are holding back breathing in either your upper or lower lungs, then breathe through that area.

* Pay attention to any muscle tightening during a breathwork session. This can occur around the mouth and in the hands. Sometimes this tightening happens elsewhere. In most situations this occurs because we are attempting to control the exhale. This control often can be seen in forcing the exhale or holding it. The energy surplus in the body may be causing these odd contractions. These tightenings may also be defenses against letting go to painful emotions. Really there's nothing to resist. Relax and breathe through the tightness. Clarity and acceptance soon follow.

* Proper circular breathing won't cause hyperventalation. Hyperventalation comes through forcing or blowing the exhale.

*Holding or forcing the breath can be seen in: Sinus congestion, throat constriction, Bronchitis, Asthma, Tight diaphragm, hardness in external intercostal muscles, holding exhale.

* When the body is fully relaxed, tense areas come to awareness.

*Stay away from scratching itchy spots during breathwork--these areas may be feelings oriented in nature.

* Keep in one comfortable position.

* Breathing becomes more relaxed as we release feelings.

* Tightening muscles, jiggling, altering position can defend us against feeling.

* If you feel "too relaxed", just let go further.

*Relax at the point of emotional integration. Fully feel it with no intention of getting rid of it or keeping it.

* A fetal position can help integrate strong fear or sadness.

* Bodily sensations such as tingling, numbness, and even bodily sounds can be targets for Breathwork.

* Stuck in a feeling? Pay attention to it and use either the Circuit Breaker or the Meridian Grasp.

*Feelings can change. They are sometimes supressed into layers. When feelings integrate they either disappear, transform, or cease to be important.

* Parts of an emotion may get activated separately. These are the aspects. You may recall different parts in a timely order. The first time it happened may pop up for you.

* Keep your attention on your entire body when breathing. Some feelings come easily and others come slowly. Take whatever comes first.

* Avoid trying to keep out noise and sound. Distractions and the feelings they elicit are grist for the mill. Keep your attention on the distraction. Observe the detail. This can bring up more.

*If you feel sleepy or fatigued, speed up your breathing for a bit and tap on the area above your thymus. Always do this work when you're well rested, but some tiredness is natural if you've been breathing for 2 hours straight and swimming through a lot of deep water.

*Focus on tiredness and fatigue. This can soon bring up other feelings. See what happens.

* Avoid making fists or bending your arms or legs because this can create energy blockages.

*Daydreams and thoughts can block feeling. So can gabbing. Feel your feelings.

*Expressing an emotion will stop integration. Feel it.

* Laughing generally shows integration.

*Warm water tub breathwork is great for those persons who have difficulty feeling their feelings. These are the persons who generally know their emotional status by examining their thoughts.

*If you notice feelings you hate or don't like--thank them for being there. They are useful feedback for what's going on in our life.

* Let go of attempting to hurry up and force a feeling through. Just accept it being there and fully feel it. Hurrying an emotion will quickly block it.

*Do whatever you can to accept all parts of yourself whether you dislike them or find them painful, strange, or ugly. Remember it's all energy. You're just calling it something negative.

*Trying to make something go away will block it and create tension. Don't "try" to integrate. Struggling to integrate tenses us up and defeats the natural process.

*When you integrate something, you accept it. It's no longer a negative experience for you.

*Breathwork need not be done perfectly. Integration occurs without effort.

*Avoid ending yoursession if you still feel a mass there. If you activated it--allow it to clear. Be prepared to take a little extra time.

*Warm water baths can speed up repressed emotiona.

* Common blocks to breathwork: (1) Not wanting to be alone. (2) Not knowing how to do this process well enough. (3) Fearing errors. (4) Not knowing if we processed something all the way through. (5) Not making time to do this work.

*Images and feelings always change--they have starts, middles, and ends. This process builds optimism and courage.

* Do you yearn to adventure alone? I do my breathwork this way, yet doing it alone is not best for everyone at first. Some folks get bogged down and frightened and never really let go. They give up. If someone was present for them, their difficulties might not seem so large.

Before you do breathwork alone, ask yourself if you are basically positive about your life and have faith in your ability to stick through the rapids until you come out the other side. If yes, then do breathwork knowing your resources are with you.

* "This isn't working" is a familiar chant for persons just starting breathwork. Over and over they repeat: "This isn't working." Gradually this phrase becomes an experience of deep frustration. Get into the frustration and really feel it. Pay full attention to it. When it eventually blips out, you will likely have an unusual experience.

*Some folks find breathwork difficult when nothing is happening or they are experiencing quiet and uneventful periods. These are periods of r&r. Our energies are building. Enjoy these periods while you can. Demandingness can slow the process or if you're lucky become a feeling to fully experience. In short your frustrations can be an opening for you. Feel them. This is where your unconscious is giving you a toehold.

*Always stay with your negative experiences in breathwork and they will transform. Images and feelings always change. Painful trances will pop up if you stay with them, breathe into them, and give them full awareness for no intention of getting rid of them or keeping them.

*Thoughts are not direct experience, yet they can greatly flavor our experience. Cold. Unbearable cold. Warm. Lukewarm. Ugly city. Beautiful city.

*Sometimes the base of the spine might feel like it was on fire or as if a powerful energy was snaking upward through it. This feeling of intense vibrating energy may surge to the cranium prior to an intense sense of ecstasy. Watch for some powerful alterations in consciousness here.

*Lots of questions and mental chatter during breathwork can keep us from feeling and experiencing. Bring your attention back to your breath or your feeling.

* You will notice energy flow in your body and tingling sensations.

*Breathwork can release traumas and tensions in your body. These leads to feeling better and having a clearer mind. Health may improve and you may experience shifts in how you think.

*Some persons, new to breathwork, may fear going crazy. This common fear has no basis. Going crazy or psychotic is an ability most people lack. Anyone can become very upset, but hardly any of us can become psychotic (schizophrenic/bi-polar manic-depressive, etc.)because we lack the problematic brain chemistries or brain allergies. If during breathwork, you believe you are going bonkers and can't stand it, just stay with the process. You can stand anything. You certainly can learn to stand your uncomfortable feelings as you remain in the process from start to finish. Utilize the Neurovascular Nightmare Exterminator or the Meridian Grasp to shut down the flight/fight area of the brain and deintensify your situation. Feelings and images change when you stay with them, breathe into them, and give them full attention without trying to get rid of them or keep the.

*Staying with the fear of going crazy will assist you in moving past the block in the path to ego dissolution and rebirth. Letting go of the smaller self or feeling very upset is not the same as real death or really going crazy.

*Sometimes people notice the following cues just prior to ego loss. They are tingling, weighty feelings, lightness or heaviness, sense of body dissolving, ear pressure, experience of being tiny or gigantic, nausea, spasms, trembling, and shaking. Some or all of these cues may be present. If you experience these cues, merge with them and pay full attention to them.

*At times our internal biological flow may sound extremely loud. Gurgling. Stomach sounds. Heart beating. Blood flowing. If you find this distracting, bring your attention to the sound and listen closely.

*Let your thinking continue when it appears. Thinking subsides when you leave it be. Bring your attention back to your breathing or your feelings.

*Flashbacks, where we relive parts of your lives, can occur. We also may experience lives outside our general experience. Whether they are actual lives or vivid fantasies, it does not matter. Pay attention to them and feel them.

*Birth experiences and being reborn are interesting. I take an "I don't know" attitude toward their reality. In altered states our reason and reality checking are suspended. Real or fantasy, experiences of birth and past lives are valuable on a psychological level. After such events persons often view life in a new and positive manner. Such events lead to a positive outlook and feelings of wholeness. In altered states it is easy to create false memories. Studies on hypnosis bear this out. Our mind are quite capable of creating false memories of events that never happened. I've had many, many past life experiences in altered states, yet I remain dubious about their authenticity because I have yet to bring confirming evidence back. My mind is open here. I know the power of confabulation in theta or hypnogogic states.

*Mental chatter is not letting go. Tensing up or halting your breathing is not letting go. Believing you can't stand something is not letting go. All the previous examples of not letting go can be targets.

*Letting go is becoming loose and limp. Letting go is allowing thoughts to pass through your mind without attempting to hinder or stop them. Thoughts slow down if left alone. Thinking about thoughts stirs up more thoughts. Bring your attention back on your breath or feelings.

*If you have thoughts or feelings about death, give them your full attention. A sense of rebirth can arrise from paying full attention to death. Let go and trust the process to help you emerge from the other side.

*Permit your breathwork to take you where it will. Trying willfully to go someplace other than where your unconscious desires to go will slow or stop your process. The unconscious knows what you require. Wherever you go during breathwork is the right place.

*Some folks compare their breathwork experience with other people's and this can be frustrating. We all have different paths and trances. Some breathworks bring great fireworks and some are quiet times of contemplation and patient waiting. We have many seeds within us and they bloom with attention and times set aside.

*Some of us will interpret during stressful experiences. Better pay attention and let go of interpreting and thinking than to lose the experience. We can interpret and think to our heart's delight after we've completed the breathwork session. We can create many wonderful stories and explanations to fit the facts. Or better yet we can accept what happened. If we interpret, we do what many humans love to do. Folks enjoy asking the question and then fill in the gaps. During breathwork it's best to leave questions barking on the front steps. Breathwork delievers experiences which explain themselves directly.

*Hallucinations do not signal our mental deterioration. Here we are enetering our unconscious processes where dreams are made. Hallucinations come in a wide spectrum of feelings, sounds, smells, imagery, and tastes. Some may create fear which is good. Stay in the hallucination no matter how powerful or overwhelming it seems to be. Let go of attempting to will it away. It's energy like everything else. The lake of fire is the light of heaven when viewed through a different framework. Stay with it and feel it fully with not intention of getting rid of it or keeping it.

*Tighten up and fight the flow and you will increase your confusion and painful experience. Let go, float with the current, and pay attention. Willing and suppressing away thoughts, images, and feelings will only make them stronger during breathwork.

*Stay with being overwhelmed and it will pass. You can handle staying with it. Staying with it leads to a powerfully rewarding transformation. Pay full attention to your discomfort. Don't try to push it away or flee from it. Keep paying full attention to it. Soon it will blip out on its own.

*No one literally dies or goes crazy from letting go. Believing we can't take it is the mind's last bluff at attempting to hang on to the old ways of viewing self and the world. In breathwork when the ego dies we are reborn into a new perspective derived from wholeness. However, if you feel totally overwhelmed, you can feel safe knowing you can slow the process down by breathing very, very slowly from your belly and using the Neurovascular Nightmare Exterminator.

*During breathwork music and sounds can be intense. Some appear like raw molecular sounds. Others can be ultra intense ringing, lapping, clicking, groaning, and the like. During breathwork we become extremely focused on whatever our attention is upon and this blocks competing stimuli. This blocking leads to intensifying our senses and feelings.

*At times we may experience tensions and cramping in our bodies. Feel these fully and let them speak to you in images, feelings, and felt senses. Often they have much to say. You can heighten them by applying either finger or palm pressure to them. Sometimes they require strokes to get the energy moving. You or your sitter can do this.

*Sometimes we find ourselves dissolving into a river of energy or light. Go with this flow. Fighting this stream of energy may create panic where we feel we are dying or going bonkers. Just pay full attention to it without trying to get rid of it and you will come out the other side in good shape.

*At times you may lose all distinction between yourself and your environment. Here no language or symbols exist to divide or unify. Everything is isness.

*We may undergo a deep identification with our breathwork group. Their thoughts seem like our thoughts and our feelings are their feelings. A sense of group mind exists. The room may grow louder with human sounds. Were those our sounds? The surroundings may appear to share the same consciousness--a group consciousness connected to the universe.

* Stay with your restlessness and desire to be elsewhere. Breathe into it and feel it.

*If you are doing breathwork alone, choose a time that fits best for you. If you're a night owl, then do it at night. If you are a day or morning person, then do the breathwork then. Follow your natural body rhythms and you will be more in the flow during your breathwork.

*Mentors or wise persons may emerge from your unconscius to give you information during your voyage. Listen up.

*Many of us don't accept the dark side of our human nature. During a breathwork a state can emerge where we feel possessed by something evil. Feelings of filth, depravity, and darkness abound. Our hands might even seem like claws or talons to us. We might feel the urge to hiss, growl, spit, or contort our faces. If this darkness takes place, stay with it and fully feel it. Have faith you will emerge out the other side clean and whole. A part of you will have been accepted and integrated.

Evil, like other negative qualities, better be accepted if we are to deal with it constructively. Evil suppressed is evil that emerges in our lives. Recognize and accept evil so you can move to contructively replace it. Staying with evil and letting go to it in acceptance can lead to a rebirth. Passing from the dark to the light is a powerful and liberating experience for many.

*In unifying experiences, during breathwork, we gain a sense of unity and have breathtaking positive moments. Our notion of space and time go out the window. All life seems sacred and apparent paradoxes are unified. Our reality seems clearer and less filtered by attitudes and residuals from previous experiences.

*Odd things happen during breathwork. Your body may move in strange patterns. Powerful energies may stream up and down your body. You may feel the urge to speak in tongues or bellow deep animal sounds. You may even hear voices or undergo reptillian movements. At times there can be visions, humming, buzzing, heavenly music, hellish scenes, scents, perfumes, intense sexual feelings, growing large or shrinking. Some folks even report going back in time before they were born. Real or flights of fantasy, these experiences are extremely useful when you go through them and discharge their emotional charge. Odd stuff can have a positive perspective shifting quality like meeting a major challenge or crisis. You can grow from odd stuff.

*When breathwork sessions are over, the growth continues. Sometimes for days after breathwork, your unconscious will still be shifting the furniture around.

*Feelings of superiority or knowing it all are traps. Beware of silly pride. No one deserves elevated recognition for his or her growth. However, pat yourself on the back for being courageous and sticking through overwhelming times.

*Changes in us can bring about changes in how we realte to others and even to whom relate. We may be distanced by others who don't share our changing life view. We may feel closer to others who share similar values and who are on the same emotional wavelength.

* If you feel like you're going to die during breathwork, let go and do it. Stay with these very intense feelings and you will be transformed as you are reborn out of a trance. Fear of death and going crazy are two of the most common blocks encountered in breathwork. Through your trance filters your emptiness feels like death. This is a powerful illusion. You can stand chaos, disappearance, and uncertainty. Know your unconscious processes will evaporate these filters if you allow yourself to stay with and pay attention to this very fearful event. Don't try to avoid or hold onto thise feelings. Just pay attention to them and be with them. Death in breathwork leads to a rebirth into essence or essential being, a non dual state.

*Breathwork can be heightened by any devices assisting us into a theta state. Such devices are ganzfelds (goggles providing a wide featureless view), light/sound brainwave machines, biocircuits, and floatation tanks. These devices help shut out external stimuli and increase breathwork's intensity.

*For several hours or even a day or so after breathwork,some folks may feel emotionally raw and open. During this time of vulnerability, it is important for breathwork participants to treat themselves in a kind and loving manner. For many solitude is best. Also those emotions left unbound are grist for energy work with the Circuit Breaker or Meridian Grasp.

*Avoid napping during breathwork, yet if you must, then do it briefly. Napping can help us avoid feelings. An ice cube on the neck or just sitting up will often make you more alert.

*Avoid getting up too quickly from breathwork because you will be in an altered state and your legs will be a bit unsteady. This unsteadyness is related to a change in blood flow and hemispheric dominance.

* Let go of grading or judging your experience. When feelings or images come--simply oberve them or feel them. No rejection or clinging. When you evaluate or categorize experiences, you give them power. You add something to them or subtract something from them. Just observe them or feel them and see what happens. If you have to label them, call them energy.

*Don't depend on anything dramatic happening. Use what comes your way by being with it. Surrender to whatever is happening. Your journey occurs in its own way and in its own time.

*Dwelling on irritation, pain, and discomfort can help us protect old habits or block us from experiencing major emotional pain. If we begin to experience tension and anxiety, our pain and discomfort might increase. Bring your attention to the pain and discomfort and really feel them. We can stand it. We can become one with the pain. Be aware when we focus on the music being too loud or not right. Or the cramp in our side that annoys us. And the light that's too bright or the floor that's too hard. Often these signals tell us we may have a challenge feeling our feelings.

* Boredom may be produced by expecting excitement or that something might happen. It's best to ride out the boredom and just breathe through it. You will learn you can stand it. Boredom passes.

* The most common blocks to breathwork progress are: (1) Struggling to maintain certain feelings or sensations. (2) Fear of dying, suffocating, losing control, or going insane. (3) Low tolerance for pain or frustration. (4) Restlessness. (5)Lack of belief in the process or outcome. (6) Low tolerance for feeling unnatural. (7)Fear of experiencing unconscious images, thoughts, or previous traumas. (8) Fear of change or having new emotions. (9) Demand for instant progress. (10) Fear of loss of emotions. (11) Fear of staying in an altered state forever. (12)Demand for perfect breathwork. (13) Fear of failure. (14) Concern about changing relationships with others. (15) Fear of not being able to share reality. (16) Having too many things to do. (17) Waiting for the right time, right mood, or inspiration to do breathwork. (18) Being too upset to do breathwork. (19) Forgetting to do breathwork at a certain time. (20) Being too tired to do breathwork. (21) Fear of losing sense of self.

* Avoid drugs or alcohol for at least 3 days prior to a breathwork session. Drugs and alcohol will make your experience mushy and reduce the amount of energy you have available. Lack of energy can retard your progress.

* Sometimes the feelings breathwork brings up seem alien at first. Breathwork will not feel right because we are entering altered states of awareness and are opening ourselves up to wholeness, loss of the smaller self, and repressed feelings. With breathwork we face uncertainty. With this new terrain come feelings of awkwardness and newness. After several sessions we will likely feel more at home with uncertainty.

* Never let fear halt your progress. Keep breathing through it and apply the Meridian Grasp or the Neurovascular Nightmare Eliminator if your fearful feelings are overwhelming.

* If you are in a dream state during breathwork, and the dream begins to fade, you can "spin". Spin like a top in your imagination. Feel the spin. Soon you will be involved in your dream again.

* After you've done a number of breathworks with music you may want to go on either with just white noise or no sound at all. The circular breathing journeys will seem to intensify and deepen without the structure of music. Music will seem inhibiting at this point. Your unconscious will supply everything you require. New emotions and untapped experience will appear.

Thanks to Steve Mensing