The Future of Breathwork and the Games Breathers Play
October 2007 Breath and Breathing Report
Beware of the “true believers:” those people who claim to know
what’s best for you! I think it was Thoreau who said: “If I know
that a man is coming to my house with the conscious design of doing
me good, I should run for my life!”
I dedicate this month’s report to Bruno Hans Geba. He was my
first teacher in the art of conscious living, and the man who
initiated me to breathwork in 1973. He was a noted psychologist and
professor at California State University. Bruno’s method inspired
me; and his book: “Breathe Away Your Tension” opened my
eyes, and changed my life.
I write to you from beautiful Barcelona, Spain, where it turns
out, I am on a breathing vacation! My hosts are Rubin, Larina, Fedor,
and Leo. Larina is a psychiatrist who first breathed with me in
Russia in 1991. (I love how life keeps coming full circle!)
Thank you to everyone who offered feedback and editing ideas on
my writing project. If you have not downloaded “An
Introduction to Breathwork,” it is still available
for free at
www.danbrule.com/book.php . I would appreciate your comments or
suggestions.
(For those of you who read the first draft, you may want to view
the current version.
I’ve made many changes, and I’ve added a number of new chapters.)
This month, I have a special request of my fellow breathworkers.
Please tell me:
1. What is the real role of a breathworker?
2. What do you think makes breathwork unique?
3. On what grounds is breathwork justified as a profession?
4. What do you think it adds to the field of health and
education?
5. How is it different from other self-improvement and spiritual
development methods?
Someone recently called me the “The Bruce Lee of Breathwork.” And
I think I like that! Bruce Lee was the originator of “mixed martial
arts.” He violated tradition, and crossed the line. He blended
techniques and methods from other schools into his own. He did this
when it was considered a crime to pick and choose teachers, to mix
and match teachings. He violated a cardinal rule. And by doing so,
he created a totally unique style of fighting; and he proved to be
one of the greatest marital artists in history. Not a bad role
model!
And speaking of role models, in 1979, Leonard Orr gave us the
task of inventing new names for Rebirthing. It was a great process:
very revealing. Among other things, I got the idea to call it
“Breath Therapy” and “Therapeutic Breathwork.”
But now it’s obvious to me that breathwork is intrinsically
therapeutic, and so there’s no need to direct the breathing process
in that direction. And it seems to me that to put the word
“therapeutic” in front of the word “breathwork” is a prolixity. (I
looked that word up just for this occasion! It means a superfluous
repetition.) Breathwork is therapeutic. Both words say the
same thing. And so, the additional word adds nothing.
We use language borrowed from other fields to describe
breathwork, but that does not make it something other than what it
is. Terms like “client,” “student,” “customer,” are merely useful
linguistic devices, social conveniences, familiar references. They
do not define—nor should they limit—the practice of breathwork or
the breathwork relationship.
Breathworkers truly are therapists, but not in the way that we
that generally think. I mean therapist in the original sense of the
Greek word “therapeutin,” which means “to serve.”
The tendency to control a situation in order to achieve a certain
result is a good thing, and it forms the basis of traditional
psychotherapy. But a better thing may be to do nothing! A better
thing may be to simply trust in divine intelligence, and to simply
allow the natural process to unfold.
When you earn two or three dollars a minute, the urge to “do
something” can be quite overwhelming. Some breathworkers feel that
they must at least make their client cry or shout; they must use
this or that technique, or apply this or that theory or procedure.
But in doing so, they may only serve to satisfy their own
insecurities, their pride, or their sense of professional duty.
Breathwork is unique. It operates under completely different
principles than every other helping profession or healing method. To
force breathwork into any old or existing framework is to destroy
the very essence of what it has to offer.
The sole and exclusive concern of breathwork is the awakening to,
and the development of, ultimate human potential. You are either
breathing or you are not. The “why, how, where, and with whom” you
breathe is up to you to determine together with whoever you choose
to conspire (“breathe together”). It is a co-creative life
adventure.
Quantum physics uses the term “non-specific forces” to explain
how certain things occur in nature. I think this concept can be
applied to breathwork, because the most powerful results and
benefits of it become part of us without even knowing that it
happened to us!
Breathwork is not based on the deterministic view that a specific
set of conditions can lead to only one result. We accept—because we
have experienced—that a single event can lead to any number of
different results. Direct experience is the difference between
simply believing that something is true, and actually knowing it to
be so.
Breathworkers recognize the beauty and perfection in the stream
of experiences that occur in their lives and in the lives of others.
Based on this view, we can create solutions; we can cooperate in the
great adventure of life.
Breathworkers provide an unlimited opportunity for people to
awaken and evolve. They understand that life is an open ended
process. They practice an attitude and they provide an atmosphere
where people can assume responsibility for their own healing and
growth. They create a space of trust, spontaneity, joy, friendship,
and love.
Breathworkers are not interested in curing or treating, fixing,
or even changing or healing people. They understand that people have
to do that for themselves. And, we understand that healing—like
happiness—is incidental: it is not to be pursued.
Beyond mastering a body of knowledge and a set of skills,
breathworkers need to develop insight and emotional courage; they
need to practice profound honesty and are not afraid to make use of
compassionate power.
There is never a moment when the creative process is not at work.
Breathworkers know that how you look at something determines what
you get from it. And so we don’t relate to people based on labels,
disorders, or disabilities. (Even if people relate to themselves in
that way) That doesn’t mean we ignore a handicap, a disability, a
physical limitation, or a temporary power difference. It just means
that these things don’t enter into the sacred contract: These things
don’t define the breathing relationship, or determine it’s course.
Breathworkers take nothing for granted. They don’t judge and they
don’t label. They simply facilitate the breather’s chosen process
and goals. They remain honest, open, and real. They lovingly share
their expertise, while honoring their own sacred process.
Breathworkers don’t manipulate: they facilitate (make easy,
make possible, ease, help, aid, assist, to smooth the process of.) The
“client” is free to determine what they want and don’t want to
happen—what they can or can’t do—during a session.
But breathwork also comes with a real risk. Even if you have the
most sincere desire to serve and support someone, he can still make
you part of his game to hurt himself. And there is nothing you can
do about it.
Breathwork as Recreation: Recreation means
leisure, it means regeneration. It is the process of restoring, or
giving new life to something. In Breathwork, that “something” is the
human being: it’s our real true self. The great challenge in life is
to determine who we want to be, and how we want to live; and then to
actually be that one, and live that way!
“You say that I am special. But how can that be? What does
that mean? Is anyone non-special? Can anyone be un-special?” (Guchu
Ram Singh)
Next stop Lithuania (Oct. 19-29). Then it’s on to Mexico (Nov
10).
Bien Venidos!
Dan
“The Human Flower:” a suggested group process.
A circle of people sitting on the floor, facing each other, feet
touching in the center...
Bending to touch our toes, then sitting up, leaning back, laying
down, spreading out…
Lifting our arms and legs, we stretch upward and outward…
Feet and hands, toes and fingers, tingling, reaching for the sun…
Evening comes, and the flower closes. Morning comes, and the
flower opens again.