The following is copyrighted material from "Breathwork: Personal and Spiritual Transformation" (1991).

TRANCE DRILLS

The following drills may be employed to better access unconscious processes and incidents.

What is a trance? Let's undergo a very brief exercise that can demonstrate what an altered state or trance is like. Pay close, but relaxed attention to the following directions:

TRY NOT TO IMAGINE A RED ELEPHANT!

Oooops! Very likely you had a brief glimpse of a red elephant. That glimpse was a mild trance experience. Funny how we often imagine things we tell ourselves to avoid.

Other forms of trances can be seen in everyday experiences like laughing at the punch line of a joke or the ludic trance of reading stories and imagining what is happening. We can certainly all recall being in a very good movie and sitting on the edge of our seats in full identification with a screen character. We vicariously felt their feelings. And at the end of the show we got up from 2 hours of being entranced and walked out to the lobbey taking in almost a new world. Dreams are like the deepest form of everyday trance. Daydreams are lighter trances so now you know you've been there and done that.

EVERYDAY TRANCE DRILLS

In recalling the following everyday trance experiences, you may want to assist yourself in developing trance by doing the following:

LEFT NASAL BREATHWORK

(1) Find a comfortable chair or recliner in room where it is quiet and where you will not be disturbed.

(2) Sit down and wriggle around a little bit until you are even more comfortable.

(3) Allow your eyes to close. You imagine peering upward through your eyebrows as you gently pinch your right nostril closed.

(4) With your right nostril closed, allow your breath to flow freely in and out of your left nostril. Breathe deeply, slowly, and fully from your belly. Gently tap your palm on the leftside of the top of your left hand. Do this 20 times slowly.

(5) You may allow your body to let go and relax further. Scalp... forehead...face...jaw...neck...shoulders...upper arms...lower arms...hands...fingers...upper back...lower back...chest...stomach...groin...buttocks...front thighs...rear thighs...knees...shins...calves...feet...toes...You may scan your body briefly for any remaining tensions and feel them let go.

(6) You may remove your fingers from your right nostril and allow your attention to leave the the slow moving breath of your left nostril. You unconscious knows how to do the breathing for you.

(7) You can allow any imagery you desire to occur. A drill. A memory or daydream about the past or future is fine. Your unconscious can pay attention in its own way. Always see the experience. Feel the experience. Hear the experience. Smell the experience. Taste the experience.

(8) You may set time aside to play with Left Nasal Breathwork as it becomes more and more natural to you. Each time you experience it, you will improve your trance making skills.

Tips on Left Nasal Breathwork:

* You've experienced innumerable trances in your life. The feelings of them vary from person to person. It's often described as a highly pleasant and serene experience.

*Always choose a spot where you will not be disturbed.

* Trance is requires us to let go and permit. Never force--just allow. This goes for feelings as well.

*We really don't require any special word patter to ourselves. Just full attention. We are letting go to our unconscious. Slow brain waves increase with trance training.

*Keep in mind that imagine means different things to different people. When some folks imagine, they picture things sharply and clearly. Some other folks may feel things more in their body or hear better. Examples: When asked to imagine a beach, some people may picture the sand, sun, and ocean while other folks feel warmth and a gentle breeze. Still other people may hear breaking waves and gulls crying. Many of us mix all these senses together with either feeling, hearing, or seeing predominating. There is no one best way to experience Left Nasal Dominance Breathwork trance making.

EVERYDAY TRANCE DRILLS

The following drills mirror simple everyday trance experience. We are usually in a mild trance when we perform these activities on automatic pilot. These everyday trances are excellent ways to begin accessing the unconscious and its storehouse of learnings and incidents.

In doing these drills, you may want to heighten them by doing Left Nasal Breathwork in its step by step fashion. However, these drills will evoke trance even done alone.

CROSSING A STREET

After you begin to cross a street, what do you see?
When you cross a street, what do you hear?
The moment you cross a street, what do you feel?
Crossing a street, what do you smell?
Just as you cross a street, what do you taste?

DRESSING IN THE MORNING

As you dress in the moring, what do you see?
When you dress in the morning, what do you hear?
The moment you dress in the moring, what do you feel?
The instant you begin dressing in the morning, what do you smell?
Seconds after you start dressing in the morning, what do you taste?

LISTENING TO A FRIEND ON THE PHONE

When you hear a friend on the phone, What do you hear?
After you hear a friend on the phone, What do you see?
Seconds after you hear a friend on the phone, what do you feel?
As soon as you hear a friend on the phone, what do you smell?
Hearing a friend on the phone, what do you taste?

BRUSHING YOUR TEETH

As you brush your teeth, what do you hear?
When you brush your teeth, what do you see?
Right after you start brushing your teeth, what do you feel?
When you brush your teeth, what do you smell?
During teeth brushing, what do you taste?

TAKING A WARM SHOWER

When you take a warm shower, what do you see?
After you start a warm shower, what do you hear?
Right after you begin a warm shower, what do you feel?
As soon as you take a warm shower, what do you smell?
Seconds after you bein a warm shower, what do you taste?

GOING ON A LONG WALK

When you go on a long walk, what do you hear?
As soon as you go on a long walk, what do you see?
After you begin a long walk, what do you feel?
The instant you start a long walk, what do you smell?
Right after you start a long walk, what do you taste?


TRANCE EXTENDER DRILLS

The following imagery drills can aid the deepening of a trance. However, just everyday trances combined with left nasal dominance breathwork will help in retrieving incidents and memories.

SLOWING DOWN TIME

Can you begin to image the slow and deep tick-tock of a grandfather's clock
Can you hear it?
See it?
And as you hear each slow tick-tock, you can let go or relax even more.
After you experience these tick...tocks slowing even more, can you begin to notice how time is slowing down?
Crawling down time.
Slowing ever so gradually...more.
It is almost like time is frozen
Too the point of you losing all sense of time.
What ever that was?

THE ISOLATION TANK

Can you imagine yourself floating peacefully and serenely in water at body temperature.
In comfortable darkness.
Can you feel it?
Hear it?
See it?
You can faintly hear your slow moving heartbeat.
And your consciousness appears to be suspending in space.
Floating and drifting
Peaceful images may drift through your consciousness
And allows you to drift down even more
And you grow deeper relaxed with each slowed heartbeat.
An image begins to appear.

UNCONSCIOUS CUES

The following are common trigger words for recalling incidents and memories from the unconscious:

Kindergarden First grade through 12th grade Teachers Former homes Mothers Fathers Holidays Churches Synogogues Mosques Ashrams Institutions Wars.
hospitals Forests Trees Graveyards lights bosses husbands wives uncles nephews cousins aunts diseases colds injuries favorite cars family cars rooms fights athletic teams Losing something winning colors shapes books music fairness unjust supportive courage late out of control agreement paying attention insecurity fun
health talent death pain loud noise suffering creation stress annoyance addiction love starved serious dependent dishonest lying arrogant intolerance jealousy sex
awkward panicked fearful angry abandoned obsessive stubborn irresponsible unbounded sloppy depressed perfect deserving poor self-control abused vulnerable defective explosion flash unloveable unpopular alienated unsafe weak worthless
treatment office garage basement unchangeable self-centered strange old slow blind defensive all-knowing punitive procrastination fatigue deterioration body revolting sleepless empty accused betrayed stuck pursued threatened vertigo
depressed lost domineering quit suspicious numb pained stressed overwhelmed frustrated found lost success excitement pressured water heights airplanes ships
failure machines electricity animals dogs cats books storm bank account high speeds intoxicated freedom popular skilled criticism substances