What is Holotropic Breathwork
"Western
science is approaching a paradigm shift of unprecedented proportions, one that
will change our concepts of reality and of human nature, bridge the gap between
ancient wisdom and modern science, and reconcile the differences between
Eastern spirituality and Western pragmatism."
-Stanislav
Grof from “Beyond the Brain”
Holotropic Breathwork® is a powerful practice of self-exploration and healing that integrates the latest insights
from modern consciousness research with anthropology, various depth psychologies, transpersonal psychology,
eastern spiritual practices, and mystical traditions from around the world. It
combines breathing practices and evocative music in a safe set and setting, allowing
individuals to access states of consciousness that have the potential to
transcend space, time, and linear causality, and activates the natural
inner healing process of the individual's psyche. The process is simple yet
profoundly transformative. With the inner healing intelligence guiding the
process, the quality and content brought forth is unique to each person and for
that particular time and place. It can bring about transformation at all levels
of self.
We all have encounters which occur in our personal history - from the
circumstances of our birth to the daily conditions and conflicts we encounter
in the world. And for many there may have been experiences an emotional, physical,
or even spiritually traumatic nature. These events can create constrictions
that impede the flow of our creative energy and prevent the natural process of
our development. These
constrictions may keep us from attaining our true personal potentials, restricting
our connection with our community, or even with ourselves, and stifling the
natural intelligence of spirit that allows us to experience the fullness and satisfaction to life.
Consequently, we may experience difficulty in our lives, in our interpersonal
relationships, or from a general loss of interest of awareness of one’s life
purpose to a constriction from new experiences and interactions with others. We may also feel stress, anxiety, or physical discomforts that
conventional medicine cannot relieve. The power of the breath offers us a
direct way to resolve these problems by accessing our own internal power for
change. It helps us achieve our full potential by helping us to overcome
feelings that we are stuck, trapped, blocked, or burdened. Focused release work
may also be used as needed within the session to allow release of blocks anchored
within the body that manifest during the work, or to facilitate the ongoing
process. Other important components of this practice include creative
expression through artwork, and group sharing to help integrate and complete
the breathwork process.
Holotropic Breathwork®
was developed by
Stanislav Grof, M.D., Ph.D., and Christina Grof. Dr. Grof is an internationally
renowned figure in the human potential movement, a founding member and chief
theoretician of transpersonal psychology, and a pioneer in the field of
consciousness studies with more than fifty years’ experience researching the
healing potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness. Christina Grof is an
innovator in transpersonal approaches to addiction and is the author of
"The Thirst for Wholeness" as well as co-author with Dr. Grof on such
title as “The Stormy Search for the Self: A Guide to Personal Growth through
Transformational Crisis” and “Holotropic Breathwork: A New Approach to
Self-Exploration and Therapy.”
Through his
ground-breaking scientific research conducted in Prague and later at Johns
Hopkins University, as the Chief of Psychiatric Research at the Maryland
Psychiatric Research Center in Baltimore, Maryland, Dr. Grof came to understand
that significant transformations of the psyche can occur in non-ordinary states
of consciousness that were not possible with other forms of therapeutic
practice. For this reason, he developed a safe and effective way of using one’s
own breath to induce these states. While other forms of breathwork have been
developed based on his ground-breaking work, most have removed many of the very
features that make Holotropic Breathwork™ so effective,
and it remains the gold standard against which the others must still compare themselves.
It has been estimated by the Grof Foundation, that in the decades since the first
training group graduated in 1988, approximately 100,000 individuals have
experienced Holotropic Breathwork. Internal research suggests participants, on
average, return for on average a minimum of 10 sessions each; thus at least one
million Holotropic Breathwork sessions have taken place the past two decades. Events
in the US and abroad have drawn in crowds of participants as large as several
hundred to experience this work. Over 37 papers by scholars and researchers in
many countries have been written to address and examine the healing potential
of Holotropic Breathwork; these include peer-reviewed articles, dissertations
and scholarly papers.
“I
lived for over ten years at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, where I
was the director of programs, and in the course of those years virtually every
conceivable form of therapy and personal transformation, great and small, came
through Esalen. In terms of therapeutic effectiveness, Grof’s was by far the
most powerful; there was no comparison.”
-Richard
Tarnas, from “The Passion of the Western Mind”
"Seekers
consistently relate that every aspect of healing they have encountered
in their holotropic journey has been generated, not by the fiat of some
external individual, group, or technique, but from a mystery at the core
of their deepest selves."
-Tav Sparks, from “The Power Within: Becoming, Being, and the Holotropic Paradigm”
Click here to watch an excerpt from a presentation by Dr. Grof:
For additional information about Holotropic Breathwork, visit the FAQ page at the Grof Foundation
