Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by egometry 2733 days ago
Can you point to anything scholarly about Holotropic Breathwork? I'm curious, but my searches turn up very... "crystal woo-woo" stuff. :(
1 comments

Stan Grof developed it as an alternative to LSD psychotherapy after prohibition.

Basically the framework I formed looked like this:

Depression and other mental illness are very often caused by an adaptive response to trauma.

Trauma heals in the space of non-ordinary states of conciousness in the right set and setting.

There are numerous paths into non-ordinary states, including psychedelics, EDMR and Breathwork.

Breathwork uses loud rythmic music and hyper ventilation in a supported group context to induce a useful non-ordinary state.

I should say, I thought this was woo woo bs. But holy shit, it will take you on a journey- I was blown away. And also it was super useful to integrate the MDMA sessions.