WHAT
IS BREATHWORK?
Breathwork
is not (Leonard Orr’s) Rebirthing, and (Orr’s) Rebirthing
is part of Breathwork
Breathwork is not meditation, and meditation is part of Breathwork.
Breathwork is not martial arts, and martial arts are part of Breathwork.
Breathwork is not yoga, and yoga is part of Breathwork.
Breathwork is not gymnastics, and gymnastics is part of Breathwork.
Breathwork is not breathing work, and breathing work will never
work fully unless it is combined with breath work.
Breathwork is not osteopathy, hands-on-healing techniques, reflexology,
chiropractic, a relaxation technique, … and so forth; and
all of these work better when combined with breathwork.
Etc!
So
what then is Breathwork?
Breathwork
is Psychoanalysis (without the theory)
Breathwork
does psychoanalysis. Yes it really does. Don't faint, don't say
‘Oh no it doesn't,’ too quickly, and please don’t
stop reading – I'm purposely starting with the most controversial!
Breathwork does psychoanalysis – but without its cumbrous
theory. Breathworkers and their clients are not obliged to have
Oedipus complexes or penis envy … but they may!
...
Breathwork
is Awareness
Now
this won't surprise any of Breathe’s readers. All Breathworkers
know this, but in other fields of therapy, people like Eugene
Gendlin (Focusing, Bantam Books, 1978) have worked out through
painstaking university level research that therapy does not work
for many people because they don't have sufficient awareness of
their body, feelings or thoughts. ...
Breathwork
is Analytical Psychology – with or without the theory
Jung (whose work is called Analytical
Psychology to distinguish it from Freud's Psychoanalysis), would
have loved Rebirthing and Breathwork. Never mind dreams and the
Royal Road (Jung said dreams were the royal road to the unconscious)
– Breathwork is the Concord to the Unconscious.
...
Breathwork
is Body Work
Well,
it has to be, hasn't it. Our breathing takes place in our body.
Through breath awareness we can find the blockages in our body
and by taking our breath to them, work with them and release them.
There is no body work that can succeed without using the breath
to support it.
...
Breathwork
is Spiritual Practice
Breathwork is spiritual practice.
Well of course it is. How could it be otherwise when trances take
us into states of Oneness and contact with the Divine. The Buddha
(around 400 B.C.E. and the Jains (perhaps 500 B.C.E. or earlier)
used the breath as spiritual practice. Yoga does the same. The
martial arts use it to get energy flowing before ever starting
the body movements. Chanting in church, synagogue and mosque is
a form of breathwork. ...
Shamanism
and the Breathwork Process
Breathwork
has its own process which tends to develop as follows:
Most clients, and certainly all who have never had any experience
in therapy before, come to us 'loaded'. They are loaded with their
emotions, pain and suffering, and usually these come pouring out
in the first conscious breath: Breathwork is conscious breathing.
I ask a new client, 'Put your attention on your breathing and
tell me what happens,' and immediately the tears that were uncried
in childhood or other traumatic experiences flow, and the sorrows
that were unfelt then become to conscious, felt and integrated.
...
Afterword:
Breathwork is not connected with torturing people
I
have frequently mentioned Orr & Ray. Theirs is the first
book on Rebirthing, as readers of Breathe use the term, and
contains many ways of working with the breath, some of them
using completely soft and gentle ways of breathing, others using
more energetic ways. It is the book that gave Rebirthing to
the world. ...
 The
term 'Rebirthing' did not originate with Leonard Orr. The practice
of making people push their way through bodies forming a tunnel
was used by R. D. Laing and called 'rebirthing'. He learned
natal therapy, which was originated in 1969 by Elizabeth Feher,
from her daughter Leslie. 'Rebirth'
is part of the process of natal therapy. I know of no physical
harm occurring either through Laing or Feher's methods. Janov
became interested in inducing birth in 1972. In his Primal Therapy,
he had the client crawl through a rubber vagina. (Feher, p.
15) Primal therapists in Zurich have used pillows in a dark
room for the same purpose: pushing them against the person who
was supposed to make his way out of them and become reborn.
This practice killed someone a few years ago! To prevent such
confusion of terminology occurring again, as far as one can,
I propose that Rebirthing is henceforth referred to as 'Leonard
Orr's Rebirthing' or 'Rebirthing Breathwork'. The term as we
have used it previously is not precise enough. The Rebirthing
we do has no relationship whatsoever with the dangerous and
irresponsible practice in Colorado which goes by the same name
and which has now been banned in that state.
Acknowledgements
I
thank Catherine Dowling for her very useful suggestions.
Bibliography
•
Feher, Leslie (1980), The Psychology of Birth: The Foundation
of Human Personality. London: Souvenir Press (E & A) Ltd.
• Fodor, Nandor (1949), The Search for the Beloved: a Clinical
Investigation of the Trauma of Birth and Pre-Natal Conditioning.
New York: Hermitage Press Inc.
• Gendlin, Eugene T. (1981), Focusing. Toronto: Bantam
Books
• Joy Manné (1994) Rebirthing, an orphan or a member
of the family of psychotherapies? Int. J. of Prenatal and Perinatal
Psychology and Medicine. (1995), Rebirthing, is it marvellous
or terrible? The Therapist: Journal of the European Therapy
Studies Institute, Spring 1995. (1997) Soul Therapy (Berkeley,
CA: North Atlantic Books)
• Orr, Leonard & Sondra Ray (1977/1983), Rebirthing
for the New Age (revised edition 1983). California: Trinity
Publications
• Taylor, Kylea (1994), The Breathwork Experience: Exploration
and Healing in Nonordinary States of Consciousness. Santa Cruz,
California: Hanford Mead.
• Taylor, Kylea & Joy Manné, Dialogue on Hyperventil-ation
between Kylea Taylor and Joy Manné, The Healing Breath:
a Journal of Breathwork Practice, Psychology and Spirituality,’
Vol 1, No 2, 1999.
• Rank, Otto (1924) The Trauma of Birth. New York : Dover
Publications, 1993 edition.
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