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OXYGENSSIS
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OXYGENGSIS
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OXYGENESIS
HANDBOOIC


A PROPOSAL
BREATHTAKING MOME NTS
The Way to Optimal Powers
MAURICE ROWDON


OXYGE N E SIS
THE MIRACLE OF THE BREATH
A Popular Course in Breath Activation
Most people breathe incorrectly.
When the breath
is out of synch the organism is out of synch. The
organism can function 60-70% but not 100%. This is
true for athletes and performers as well as for business
people and professionals in any field.
Breath activation is the greatest turning point,
the most important single activation of one's life,
without which no one can properly survive, work, play
or love optimally.
Breath can be a passive lifeline
(as it is with most people) and it can be an active
lifeline.
They are virtually two different lives.
Contrary to popular (and most current medical)
opinion, breathing does not come naturally.
Such are
the special conditions of our society, and the degree
of oxygen-shrinkage in our global atmosphere, that


breathing is ignored, relegated to an involuntary
function, and comes to reflect rigid and over-structured
adaptations to stress and trauma, thereby perpetuating
them.
Without the activated breath, no diet, exercise,
healing system will have full effect.
In advanced age
all the exercise and intensive breathing in the world
will not achieve longevity or the successful combating
of those 'villains' of senescence, the free radicals,
if the breath is not metabolising the oxygen efficiently
and laying in a store of the protective enzyme, superoxide
dismutase (the 'heroes').
This efficiency is not
possible with passive breathing.
So-called 'deep'
breathing is an aspect of so-called shallow' breathing:
both are pre-activation.
Smoking is an attempt to capture the correct breath,
to activate the breath, in someone with chronically bad
breathing forms. The breath and not the smoking is what
has to be attended to.
Premature ageing is especially tragic in the case
of women who have devoted their early years to the rearing
of children.
In the oxygenetic technique, the post-
fertility phase in a woman is regarded as the phase
of fulfilment, for which the fertile phase was a rich
preparation. The female anatomy undergoes a change in
the glandular system, after the fertility phase, which


directly promotes new creative energy, provided the
social directive to feel finished after forty is not
obeyed.
Oxygenesis rehabilitates the nervous system and
provides the only effective means for destructuring
inner fixity, or hypertensive structuring, which is
at the root of stress and premature ageing.
Stress
is essentially mental fixity, unlike tension.
Exercise isn't enough to dismantle this fixity. Nor
is raising Vo2 Max (maximum oxygen-utilisation capacity),
which normally declines about one digit a year.
Liberation from inner fixity can only be achieved by
arousal in repose. This is the core of Oxygenesis.
In many therapies, arousal is used to provoke
primal or (hopefully) cathartic shows of emotion.
These, however, merely introduce a new ineffective
behavior to the organism, indeed, a new fixity.
Since the organism is always happy to form a habit,
screaming for 'release' will become enjoyable, but no
basic destructuring takes place.
Thought and emotion are treated as synthetic in
Oxygenesis, the result of decisions which take place
much deeper in the organism, far below the activities
of the cerebral cortex.
Eventually, in the oxygenetic
process, thoughts and emotions take a back seat.
This is largely achieved through a state of primal


or 'cellular' repose.
This amniotic state enables
the reticular self to challenge the cerebral cortex
for command.
The reticular self is best defined in terms of
the reticular formation in the medulla.
Arousal or
activating is the chief function of the reticular
function. This area receives both information from
the sensory tracts and nerve impulses from the
cerebellum, the basal ganglia and other nuclei.
The whole scope of Oxygenesis is the enlivenment
of this function so that the organism accepts for the
first time its proper guidance-system.
This is marred
and disrupted by over-cerebral surveillance, which
manifests in chronically distressed breathing forms.
The reticular self is that which nudges the cortex
awake at night on a strange sound, smell etc. It
provides the consciousness with its decisions (recent
brain researches reveal that we make decisions before
we are aware of doing so), and it flavors memories for
storage in the amydala and hippocampus.
It is the
key of 'subliminal' learning, and the frequent success
of affirmation-systems. Above all it is the key to
the immune system and what Dr MacFarlane Burnet called
the 'immunological surveillance' that protects us
moment by moment from disease.


1. This project is based on a breathing process
called Oxygenesis, which is designed to promote
optimal powers in any given field. Sportsmen,
joggers, aerobics enthusiasts, performing and creative
artists, business persons, lose at the margin whenever
the breath is not activated.
Contrary to popular (and most current medical)
opinion, breathing does not come naturally. Such
are the special conditions of our society, and the
degree of oxygen-shrinkage in our global atmosphere,
that breathing is 'forgotten' early in childhood.
Although breathing can achieve seemingly miraculous
effects when voluntary, it is generally left in its
involuntary state, which Oxygenesis calls passive'
or 'turned in'. This can be observed in many who
practise yoga as in others. It may even be present
in people practising intense breathing exercises.
Pranayama may be practised daily over many years without
the breath being activated.
Oxygenesis is a system
for breath-activation.
Most westerners breathe in the 'passive' mode,
that is without consciousness or control. In this
context 'control' does not mean cerebral control,
which can disturb the breath to the point of disruption,
leading many people into difficulties like hyperventilation.
In our day and age the breath has to be learned.
2. We can see that breath is our lifeline, and that
none of our organic functions can proceed without it,
even for a few moments.
But we have somehow left this
lifeline out of our studies,/inthe-westy
One of the chief reasons is that western modern
medicine came into being during the sixteenth century
with the dissection of the corpse (i.e. the human body
minus the lifeline).
Another reason for the failure of western medicine
in this respect was that Christianity virtually banned
Arab and Jewish medical traditions in its studies.
In the mediaeval universities medicine was considered
an inferior art, and surgery (which had been an advanced
science long before Christianity) was in the hands of
barber-surgeons and army doctors.


Jewish and Arab doctors continued to practice (in
the Vatican as in other major courts) until the eviction
of both races from Spain under Ferdinand and Isabella in
the fifteenth century.
The new Christian attitude eschewed knowledge of the
body as it did nakedness and even cleanliness (Isabella
urged Columbus to forbid the Indians in America to take
frequent baths, as they were in the habit of doing).
And at least until the Italian Renaissance the
Christian world remembered little of the Greek and Roman
medical systems. These classical systems had, for
instance, encouraged the baths as an important facet
of daily and social life, but in Christianity these
became the symbol of Roman degeneracy.
Even fresh air came to be seen as a carrier of
unspecified evils, like the darkness.
This passed
into western medicine as a theory of infection which
entirely disregarded the body's immune system. It was
a medical version of the strong mediaeval theme that
fate or providence was enacted outside the human being,
implacably, not inside.
Latin populations continued to fear draughts of
air and to sleep with closed windows until at least the
middle of this century.
3. With the culmination of this body-eschewing theology
in the statement 'I think therefore I am' in the seven-
teenth century, science in our sense, namely the study
of substance without consciousness (called matter) began.
The Cartesian doctrine held that of all the phenomena
in the universe only the human mind was linked to God
and therefore intelligent in the proper sense.
Therefore
only the thinking mind was free, while what it studied
was subject to mechanical law. Put in another way,
everything outside the human mind (including animals,
which could therefore be regarded as experimental
material without 'real' feelings) was essentially not
alive.
Western science is usually, for this reason,
described as 'materialistic'.
But this isn't an exact
description, since all cultures have studied 'matter'
as the basis of their knowledge. The qualifying
characteristic of western science was that it defined
matter as inert.
The medicine that derived from this doctrine began
to see even the human body as a fixed structure acting
under mechanical law, and therefore essentially mindless.
It is in this sense that the Christians are said to have
'lost touch with their bodies', compared to the ancient
peoples.
Thus features of the body that defied this
kind of structural analysis, like the breath, were
simply left out of account, and it seemed perfectly
sensible to study the dead body in order to learn about


the live one.
But in leaving out consciousness from matter
the theorists also left out one of its most striking
features, namely purposiveness, which kept on manifest-
ing itself in nature.
Thus during the nineteenth century two opposed
theories battered away at each other-- --that of inert
matter acting under mechanical law, and that of a
purposive force which defied and sometimes confounded
structure, thereby altering it.
Despite the fashionable acceptance, in the
twentieth century, of the evolution theory, it was the
inert-matter theory which won in the popular mind and
became an unquestioned tenet.
When it passed into
the educational system it ceased to be a theory born
in the mediaeval mind and became a universal way of
looking at things.
If asked what differentiated the human being from
the animal most people, including scientists, would
say 'They cannot think'.
There is no evidence for
this, though there is vast evidence to the contrary.
But such is the force of the inert-matter doctrine
that it has actually entered the westerner's perceptive
faculties.
4. In a word, the mediaeval doctrine was highly
cerebral, and naturally produced a scientific procedure
so cerebral that it lost touch with natural processes.
The result today is an environment manipulated to fit
the cerebral structure, but hardly thriving on that
account. In fact, the earth, the oceans and the
atmosphere (including the creatures thereon and therein)
have been hard put to survive.
The human body, in being treated as an inert
substance, was naturally affected in the same way, and
that it should forget how to breathe, namely lose touch
with its lifeline, was also natural.
If we want to know what this feels like all we have
to do is to become aware of our breath as we walk
along and ask ourselves a few questions about it---as
to what muscles it is engaging, whether it is fast or
slow or deep enough. And within seconds we shall be
lucky if we aren't choking and panting and in danger of
going into hyperventilation. This is how the cerebral
cortex feels about the breath---that it is a stranger,
an unknown, an interloper.
That is, the very lifeline
of the organism is best left to an
In the
interloper.
age of 'science' ignorance is still bliss where many
basic functions are concerned.
The starting point of Oxygenesis is precisely
here.
It says that 'activated' as opposed to 'passive'
breathing so overrides structure as to escape law and
therefore chronology, especially in the matter of old
age.


Box
BROCHRE
An emperor of China listened to his doctor
describing the symptoms of old age, among them the
depletion of the kidneys and the failure of sexual
powers. The emperor asked, 'How is it that I see some
courtiers before me who have reached an advanced age
but are youthful in appearance and have full sexual
powers?' The doctor replied, 'They have followed the
right way, their breath communicates with the world.'
That their breathing had-passedffrom-the-passiveto
the-activ or Lbridging! mode.
For the breath 1S a lifeline in a much greater sense
than the passive breather can realise.
It can stimulate
the organism to escape its tendency to fall into fixed
structures, its 'passive' tendency, so that a persistent
sense of new achievement is reached.)S The-active breath
HOHA DS
ceceiving, whi He ne passive breath is a
means-ef ticking over
La d a lway k aG
5. Without activated breath no diet, exercise, healing
system will have full effect.
In advanced age all the
exercise and intensive breathing in the world will not
achieve longevity (i.e. full powers) or the successful
combating of those 'villains' of senescence, the free
radicals, if the breath is not metabolising the oxygen
efficiently and laying in a store of the protective
enzyme, superoxide dismutase (the 'heroes'). This
efficiency is not possible with passive breathing.
Theresult isthat Millions die prematurely every-
year at the very time when the active breath should be
initiating a new phase of life. ) Hence the bitter sxpeneuce
Iheing frustration of thesewho are retired just-when-they feet
that-their careers should rightfully be-beginning- Sa t -
This is Lespecially tragic in the case of women who
CA ke
bave devoted their early years to the rearing of children.
les
For Oxygenesis, the post-fertility phase in a woman is
the phase of fulfilment, and-the factthat-she is more
oft en Enan not even today, snatched-from the scene soon
after the age of forty, partly through- -collapsein-her
own morale, means that the world is missing -quite-half
ofits creative petential.
The female anatomy undergoes
a change in the glandular system, after the fertility
phase, which directly promotes this, new-energy provided
the social directive to feel old after forty is not obeyed.
This social directive arises from western medicine's
( analysis of the body as a fixed structure, whichwomen as
well as men have accepted for centuries-past. This
structure has produced the medical equation female = fertile.
Of course it is a very serious matter when over half the
race is removed from its rightful influence at the time of
its greatest powers.
Entirely cont Fadieting medieeval-analysisinthis
respect is the fact there are over 30000 women in the
United States over one hundred years old, and the mortality
rate among women is 60% less than among men. Women over


Hhe
Ebryewel
oaygeueus rke
altkede Ibre
65 outnumber men of the same age by three million.
The myth that post-menopausal symptoms present a
picture of senescence has long been laid to rest. But
another myth survives (as strongly in women as in men),
namely that sexual powers and interest decline in the
post-fertility phase.
The evidence, on the contrary, is that in many cases
sexual desire and performance may increasé, or become
more refined and selective. To break it downtoits
physiological parts, this means: K1) the function of
the reproductive
not
Jire
system is
simply to reproduce, lal
and 2+-the-repreduetive system is the physiologicaf
i k.
site of the creative function generally. Thus in the
Dos
itity phase the female organism passes from
its reproductive role to a more generally creative one
in precisely the same way as the male organism.
When ovulation ceases, estrogen and progesterone
simply alter their pattern. Neither the hypothalamus
nor the pituitary gland cease production. In fact
they produce higher levels of ESH (the follicle-
stimulating hormone) and the luteinizing hormone.
AISO the female organism prepares itself for
estrogen-loss. First, the adrenal glands produce more
of it, together with the male hormone androgen (which is
converted to estrogen in fatty tissue). Secondly, the
ovaries continue to produce small amounts of estrogen
and androgen too. 40% of the women in their post-
fertile phase have estrogen levels as high as before
Sbe
menopause.
Eetrogen-loss cannot be shown to cause hypertension,
overweight, heart attacks, reduced hearing or vision,
and other features of what is normally seen as senescence.
Nor is it all certain even that the 'normal' or 'typical'
menopausal symptoms---dizziness, 'flashes', headaches,
numbness in the fingers---are in fact menopausal in
origin.
The vaginal lining may thin but there is no clinical
justification for calling severe thinning 'senile'
vaginitis or 'atrophic' vaginitis, as the medical profession
by tradition does.
Sexual desire is in fact governed not by estrogen
but androgen, and this is produced plentifully in the
female organism until advanced age.
6. It may not be accidental that 60/70% of the clients
of Oxygenesis, in four countries, have been women.
It is frequently the area of the reproductive system
that leads women to seek guidance about the breath.
The abdominal area may feel tight, 'neglected' vulnerable,
unprotected, ashamed, hidden, in recoil. Chiidbearing
seems to make no difference whatever in this respect.
Breath-activation is also the activation of that
area, so that it 'joins' with the rest of the organism.
Surface massage cannot achieve this. There has to be


the inner massage of breath-movement. The health
not only of the reproductive system but the liver,
the intestines, the colon depends on this. The massage
is provided by the sliding movement of the diaphragm,
which is designed to move into the two elastic sheaths
protecting the lungs easily and smoothly.
There are
specific exercises for this, as we shall see later.
This is an example of where the breath makes it
possible for the body to escape fixed structure.
In the case of men, abdominal regeneration through the
breath will achieve the same end of 'releasing' the
reproductive system. Macho chest structures designed
to assert 'I am fearless' simply mask 'I am fearful'.
They may also lead to asthma, the swelling of the ribcage
in emphysema, chronic congestion of the lungs through
over-development of the thorax and paradoxical breath-
ing. In women the same effects may be reached---the
ribcage and shoulders swell to hide or compensate for
the abdominal situation.
The fixed structure, however physically it may
express itself, however unaware it may be, is in the
last analysis mental.
This is particularly spectacular
in the case of advanced age. If the fixed-structure
picture of old age offered in large part by the medical
profession is adopted by large numbers of people,
the story will to a surprising extent enact itself.
The breathing will continue to be passive at the very
age when, if activated, it would induce a new lease of
life in the proper sense---a new creative role.
EROCHURL
In a cautious, but for many doctors revolutionary,
article in the September 10 1982 issue of the American
Medical Association Journal, Dr Walter M. Bortz 11, the
1983 president of the American Geriatric Society, came
up with the idea that exercise in advanced years could,
given optimal health, prolong life without difficulty
to its Hayflick limit of 120 years.
It isn't, however, according to Bortz, the exercise
per se that does the trick as the fact that the organism's
VO2 Max will be raised to the proper level. VO2 Max
means maximum oxygen-utilisation capacity, or the
capacity that transports oxygen to the cells. This
normally decreases by about 1% a year. But it can
be increased from 29 to 44 in 70-year-old people by
means of exercise, thus regaining, in Bortz's view,
'40 years of lost vo2 Max'.
HIsstudies of maximum oxygen-utifisation capacity
were touched off some years ago by his observing that
a limb kept in plaster for a considerable time will
look, even in a young person, withered and old. Now
A young person who is bedridden will lose 10-15% VO2 Max
in a matter of weeks. So, says Bortz, what withers
the arm or leg is the lack of exercise, both local
exercise in the limb itself and general exercise of the


body.
Lean muscle declines in the old---but it does
in the young too when they are bedridden. And in
young and old it returns with exercise.
Older people have trouble metabolising sugar
glucose---but so do young people who are forced into
inactivity.
At this point we should return briefly to the
inert-matter principle.
When imperial Rome was in
decline, the new Christian ideas entered it as perhaps
the most miraculous reactivation recorded in modern
history.
They saved the empire.
Where the emperor
had been the pope now was. Where political government
was, spiritual government now was. The cross took
the place of the eagle all over Europe.
The Roman
roads now linked domains and monasteries and churches.
It was inevitable that the new ideas should almost
at once be seen in terms of power---imperial power.
They were trimmed, codified and modified in such a
way that they became an official body of ideas, namely
an orthodoxy, while all opposing or even simply different
ideas became heresy. The civilisation based on that
imperial power became increasingly fixated in the
orthodox/heterodox mode of discussion.
The result
today is that an increasing amount of research, even
that strictly within the official precincts, is kept
defensively at bay.
In answer to Bortz's researches into the connection
between VO2 Max and longevity, Dr Robert R. Krohn,
pathologist at Case Western Reserve university (cleveland),
said, 'It's pure crap.'
He added that exercise couldn't be shown to extend
life-span (which Bortz had never claimed). He observed
that blood vessels stiffen, the lungs lose their
elasticity and collagen builds up in the tissue
irrespective of exercise (which Bortz had never denied).
Dr Denham Harman, founder of the American Ageing
Association, also took part in the 'discussion' and
argued, as he had often done before, that it is the free
radicals which play havoc in advanced age, namely the
result of 'normal' metabolism.
Bortz hadn't denied
that either.
It is certainly no news that exercise doesn't
prolong life. Laboratory mice exercised when young
and immobilised when old, laboratory mice exercised
only in old age and laboratory mice exercised all their
lives tend to die at the same time.
So both sides in the argument seem to have some
conclusive research behind them.
Indeed, a careful
look will show that both sides are right. Only they
haven't decided on the common factors necessary to make
even a discussion possible.
For instance, while laboratory mice tend to die
at the same time, whether they exercise or not, their
lifespans can be lengthened.
If you remove a mouse's
spleen in old age you can double the lifespan. You


can lengthen the lifespan by injecting T-cells from
young mice, and by drastically restricting diet.
the fixed-structure picture of an inevitable, implacable
program of old age and death may be true as an observation
of what happens, but not intrinsically true at all.
Dr Harman's statement, 'We are programmed to die.
There isn't a whole lot one can do about it' has an
ecumenical ring.
What Bortz was saying---and his opponents disregard-
ing---was that depressed VO2 Max is maybe a universal
feature of senescence, and that it is this factor,
rather than that of exercise, which should be extrapolated
for further thought.
It is here that Dr Richard Cutler's gerontological
researches into the role of superoxide dismutase (the
protective enzyme that fights the free radicals) becomes
important. He has conjectured that the human organism
may be capable of laying in a store of this enzyme, but
that such a store will be impossible if the organism is
in stress.
This could mean that if we exercise in stress,
if apart from exercise we live in stress, the body will
increase its VO2 Max through exercise but not benefit
in other respects, especially in the matter of longevity.
Stress is much discussed newadaye, and enters into
much research. But rarely is-it defined. Por elearly
it isn't the same as tension, thoughtension-willoften
ge-withit. Tension-is defensiveself-tightening.
Stress is felt to be imposed from outside. Work conditions
can be 'stressful',
Stress holds the attention. It differs
from tension in being amental fixity.lu, fhere are
conditions that
one set of people Stressed and Aiile H
aliay
make *
another set not A
Themoment the mind takes -an
dsp
unearing-attitude-te the irritants twhich may requi
heroseoffort) thestress eeases-and peace sets in.
Ia Some gerontologists claima 7h the problem of
senescence is the problem of stress, itis surely for fL
ien
the-reason EEhat fixity of habit and outlook fsupported Tahas AE a a
by-secietyle ixed judgement of the-elderly as-without
funetion) increasee
ge * Fitost peopie
Wher
retirement a said
kHH ithas become-nothing but
fixity. And the human organism thrives on constant
arousal and change.
7 As structures multiply around us, and require
self-structuring on our part, however temporary, the
stress, like the strain in weak supporting beams, grows k
Ifsomedne who leads a life of strict schedule wants
to know whether fixity has claimed him, all he has to
do is to try to initiate writhing, undulating and twisting
movements all over his body, and he will soon perceive that
fixity is far from mental alone, and that it can invade
the cells as surely as collagen or lipofuscin in advanced
age. Indeed, these substances may well be regarded as


I 3
the physical results of many years of unbroken fixity.
Here we can return to Dr Bortz and his observations
about limbs in plaster.
These limbs are so fixed for
so long that they became aged in appearance, even in young
people.
Apparently exercise alone isn't enough to dismantle
fixity. Nor is raising the VO2 Max.
They will increase
quality of life perhaps, but the fixed program of youth/
old age/ death will remain unchanged for as long as the
organism has failed to find its liberation from the fixity.
This liberation can only be achieved by arousal in
repose. This is the core of Oxygenesis. If arousal is
used to provoke primal or cathartic shows of emotion it
will fail in its effect.
Indeed a new fixity will set in.
Since the organism is always happy to form a habit, scream-
ing for 'release' will become enjoyable. Far from any
liberation taking place, there is new imprisonment.
Bodywork therapists have shown great confusion in
this area. Many believe that by releasing or relieving
tension they reduce stress.
In fact they increase it in
many cases. The result is that, despite growing public
scepticism toward verbal or analytic forms of therapy,
the analysts and psychotherapists continue to claim by
far the larger and most loyal public.
In Oxygenesis arousal and repose are induced hand
in hand, and the one will not take - place without the
other. ) If activity---for instance, floods of tears--
intervenes, as it often will in early sessions, the
process is temporarily undone, for the simple reason
that emotion has replaced arousal as the 'special effect'.
Thought and emotion are treated as synthetic in Oxygenesis,
the result of decisions that take place much deeper in
the organism and which have no inbuilt power to resolve
themselves.
Eventually, in the Oxygenetic process,
thought and emotion take a back seat.
This is largely
achieved, as we shall see later, by the amniotic state
and the amniotic half-sleep that follows. This is the
first signal that the reticular self is beginning to
challenge the cerebral cortex for command.
But if the subject is invited during arousal to
express emotion or talk about his or her mother, the
internal action cannot take place, and the fixity remains
as it started, a cellular condition which no thought or
emotion can reach.
Oxygenesis is really a home package for destructuring
the organism in minimal time, once the initiation-by-
arousal has taken place.
It requires no movement, no
external props, only a place to lay one's head, and the
power to breathe. It destructures principally by means
of a process of elation.
This is why it is an excellent do-it-yourself
kit for top performers, whether they are in politics,
business, athletics or ballet. Fixity is always ready
BROCHRE


to claim people at the height of their careers or
powers, for the very reason that relentless schedules
and goals overrun them.
The Oxygenetic system is designed not to release
or remove tension but to perfect it, so that it comes
about only in situations where it is needed. We
cannot do without tension: it is one of our ways of
accumulating energy.
In the same way we cannot do
without some degree of sickness. The ideal offered
by many therapists of a perfectly balanced organism
is simply the thought-picture induced by fixity.
Most doctors know that people who are always complaining
of little ills are seldom those who succumb to big ones.
For sickness is nothing more than a natural system for
destructuring, so that a new deployment of energy may
be possible. The common cold is a perfect example.
We notice that it tends to happen only when we have time
for it, not when we are in peak activity.
Naturally, breath-initiation will eliminate most
sickness for the good reason that destructuring is now
taking place in another way. Still, it holds that the
organism must, in order to maintain its immunological
efficiency, do battle from time to time.
In effect, then, Oxygenesis raises VO2 Max without
exercise, and in conditions of repose.
Since hair color
is sometimes affected, it seems possible that this process
succeeds in laying in a store of superoxide dismutase,
for this enzyme is almost identical with the chemical
responsible for hair color in the human organism.
Where the organism is failing to metabolise oxygen
efficiently, or where too much is required (as in the
case of extreme obesity), the protective enzyme will
lose out. The immune system will falter (at any age),
and optimal functioning is out of the question.
Where to breathe, how hard to breathe, what rhythm
to breathe in, what inhale/exhale ratio to establish,
these are some of the simpler factors involved in
utilization efficiency.
To the 'passive' breather they
are of little meaning.
Such a breather would, in many
cases, be hard put to say why nose breathing is preferable
to mouth breathing, and on what occasions mouth breathing
is preferable to nose breathing.
He would opt, most likely, for the greatest fallacy
today about the breath---one that was surely produced by
'passive' breathers: namely, that we should get as much
oxygen as possible. And he would have most yoga teachers,
aerobics enthusiasts, breathe-away-your-stress pundits,
and perhaps most athletes, behind him. For most people
seem not to know, and many doctors to forget, that oxygen
is, highly toxic.
alas


CHAPTER EXCERPTS
(FIRSTDRAFT)


THE BASIC BREATH


HOTAL
Myths about the Breath
Iamy-exporience, when you ask people what they
think 'breathwork' is about they sakofanid tell you kab
it involves deep breathing.
It seems to them perfectly
natural that we should breathe as much as possible,
given that fresh air is so good for us. And we've all
pad
heardof shallow* breathing.
The fact that shallow
breathing (whatever - a a may mearr) is considered bad
seems to imply that its opposite, namely deep breathing,
must be correspondingly good.
And-it-certainly does feel good to take in as much
air as the lungs willhold (provided it goes incomfort-
ably, which isn't always the case). One realises,
taking sucha breath, that unfortunately one doesn't do
enough of it. Which makes 'breathworkers' necessary--
simple people who sit you down and make you breathe more.
There can surely be no harm in that, though as surely
there's nothing very complicated or clever about it
either.
healky S
So the story is---deep rather than shallow, long
ereslts
ALr ukto
rather than short, powerful rather than slight, These
are the goals.
To most people it would probably seem unthinkable
that,en-thecontrary, deep breathing can be bad, and


shallow breathing not only highly beneficial but the
normal and healthful pattern of the breath during times
of repose.
It is an astonishing fact that people who have
been overbreathing all their lives, either because they
breathe With the wrong muscles or because they subscribe
to the deep-breath school favored
aerobic enthusiasts;
sportsmen and some yoga-teachers, grow dizzy within
seconds of beginning to breathe regularly in the
s.ie
thoracic area.
They may have breathed heavily_all their lives,
and in the same thoracic area, but the moment they
embark on regular breathing in a state of repose,
that is without accompanying exercise, their brain
fluid gives them urgent warning signals that something
is wrong.
Indeed it is. They are over-ventilating
for the simple reason that most of their lives, despite
(or rather because of) their mighty heaves and sighs,
they have been under-ventilating,
Such people, despite theif efforts to fill the
lungs to capacity, are in fact low in oxygen-utilization
capacity, and it will take some time to adjust their
organisms to the new supply.
The point about this
new supply, taken in repose and not in exercise, is
not at all its quantity but the fact that for the first
time itis being metabolised efficiently. For the
chief fact to know about most 'deep breathing' is that
it is done in tension, the more deliberate and controlled
it is.
Thus the deep breather is one and the same person
as the shallow breather.
If you breathe too little,
you want to breathe too much. So you alternate between
the two, with the result that the breathing never finds
its proper autonemic-level. The-shallow-breathing,
thatis the poorly metaboliced-onygeny sets-up-a-demand
for more oxygen,-which is then-metabolised just-as poorly.


The alternation between the two takes place because
the organism simply couldn't survive on either ofthem
alone.
In yoga schools, encounter groups, Reichian and
rebirthing sessions all over the western world people
are invited to bombard their organisms with as much
oxygen as they can take in, usually without directions
as to rhythm, intensity and velocity,, or area (thoracic
or abdominal), or whether through the nose or through
the moutho And even when there are directions of this
kind they are frequently the wrong ones, with no valid
or physiological principle behind them.
But because the results of such strenuous breathing
are more often than not dramatic, the exygen-loaded
clients) are deeply impressed, believing that when they
cry, tremble, feel acute anxiety or elation or depression
) kere
or actual physical pain or partial and momentary murewa
redootn
paralysis, they are undergoing important changes,
gops
especially in the matter of "getting rido of Atrasho
er-tgarbace" hrumalie stales,
Recentlya young man-who-had-eopfessed to many
murders of girls said he always chose dark ones_because
his mother was dark---and he did it to get rid of his
own_trash'. Butthe fact is that themore you do
certain things, the more you want to do them. The
nervous system becomes habituated. This is partly
its job, to adapt sensitively to new habits, and
support them. Thus it can be habituated to strongly
arousal breathing patterns; and the resultant drama,
especially if thedrama is enacted in a group, where
the exhibitionist element comes into play may influence
the organism to live in a state of over-excitementy
And this can be a life-shortener. We have all
noticed how over-excitedpeople seem to bugn themselves
out easily. It is_the same process. We have to


ufhile inmoil
remember that when we breathe strenuously without
exercise we are pouring energy into the body which
ponils,
that body wishes to use beneficially, if it can. But
it-muot-be-sivon-tinee If we jump up or start talking
about our childhood traumas or follow group directions
we will not only disrupt that energy and render its
full effects impossibley but we-shalt create for ourselves
a new tensione theugh-we-may-represent this teourselves as a
azhigh - Ca
- a a-eathartiereactien
The moment, however, that we allow the organism
to enjoy repose in-theaftermath-ofstrenuous breathing
Hes
(first repese/has to be learned) systematicallyt, we Befu -
sxkener ce
realise that there is in fact ne-trash or-igarbageL kol thup
in the human system, only in our thought-processes,
inte
boam
and-thetove have at our disposal a miraculously subtle,
indeed-porfeet instrument which only has to be refined
Ao hoyt tat
andrealigned in order to werk-to
This-refinement-musttake place gradually,aand-over
a period of at least ten weeks. Maybe even that period
will be too short a time. If we fail to master the
subtle elements of the breath before we move into
arousal patterns we willhave perplexingand distressing
expériences, some of which may have a lasting physical
effect. Mucal eongestion may result. The: organism
may become so insensitized tobreath that even arousal
ceases tobe achieved after a time. If there is panic
during a hyperventilatory experience nausea or depression
may continue for aweek or more afterwards. And, above
all, if breathing becomes associated by the organism
with fright or panic, it may set up a protective
resistance which will make even the simplest exercises
asource off mental-distress.
A dog takes an average of 28 breaths a minute,
a cat 24, a horse 16 and a tortoise 3. The higher the
rate of breathing, the lower the lifespan. Medical


istempt Heis aliinalss stala aclase
Sttu 87414.
sa an
Dayguer
syst Ite Coca acun guidelive Rel
unjue t moxy. 2: Lo
recliig becanse Aue Hapitcuf
alnad, calai te
- L se
regends, Jhatan
5 cesehal
nirillare, uts fail.
belel
7 l tact sepane uus hoyle pu cense,
fu niclue, L auil G E E8 ttl
1 = el he unl trauma may
uome rand apper Str irynec
k sccame acuotor tenselve,
hew deta clma
(oxtroues -
de eryua h
L ta
praaoy
trpta
tetact
mphee guidel
los X - te delzhiala -
à d a trin
aypase. FAD ng3
Cerhal Lviglin : 4 tiviy
pue, can yh ttre lun. niin
hace, 2 sul havigelmi
Beranus Hhe loy
cipr.
Caran Ker
tatngie
2 ccilrides y-
aboleruce asc La guided. a
L unlt,
nun the pr luck
Lfr, aud d i spwrv itt wz


biologists have concluded that those animals with
the smallest oxygen-requirements live longest (the
tortoise, the elephant, the human being).
A human being takes an average of 15 breaths a
minute, which is close to the rate of a horse. But
the faet-ie-that human lifespan is very considerably
longer than a horse's.
So there must be a difference
in the way the human being metabolises his oxygen.
He seems to make a little eft go a long way.
As rhinologists---specialists of the human nose--
have pointed out, there has to be a reason why our
noses protrude while those of other animals, including
our closest cousins, theprimates, do not. And the
apertures of the nose are by no means as big as they
could be.
Indeed, they are extremely small compared
with the other canals designed for the transmission of
Nagn
oxygen---the windpipe and the bronchii.
And, narrow as these two apertures of the nose are,
they seem to be designed more to encumber and inhibit
the passage of air than to facilitate it. The inner
surfaces are formed into three so-called turbinates,
which are there, as the name suggests, to make the in-
coming and outgoing gas es turbulent.
They are
protuberances shaped like shells and they determine the
heat and moisture of each breath before it enters the
lungs, in an exquisitely efficient air-conditioning
system. Having lost their heat and moisture to the
incoming breath, the turbinates are then warmed and
moistened again by the hot outgoing breath so as to
be ready once more to condition the next incoming shaft.
The fact that the human nose protrudes renders
this air-conditioning efficient in two particulars,
first, : it ensures that the corridors through which
the breath passes will be as long as possible, and, second,
it ensures that the turbinates, being so close to the
outer surface of the nose, will cool immediately after
the inbreath has entered, and therefore moisten when


the hot outbreath comes through.
There must be sound physiological reasons, too,
for the fact that the nose has two apertures and not
one. Western researches-have only sust begunin-this
matter,though-eriental breath-teaeheachers arguethat -the
apertures-have differentfunetions The Indians refer
to the right aperture as the 'sun' aperture, and the
left aperture as the 'moon' aperture, while the Chinese
refer to them as yin and yang, as we shall see later.
Thus, much evolutienary thought has been given to
the human breath-mechanism.
It seems that every
attempt has been made, over the aeons, efthat-evolution,
to refine it, that is to reduce the need for quantities
of oxygen rather than increase it.
Thisiswhy nearly ali-the-exereises describedin
this book---as well as in the Oxygenetic process---reguire
nose-breathing exclusively.
As we shall see, the mouth
is a 'special effects' aperture, required for a sudden
rise in oxygen needs (as when we do strenuous exercise
or have to respond to subtle messages from the nervous
system by yawning, laughing, coughing etcy. In Oxygenesis
mouth-breathing is used on rare occasions for sudden
dynamic effects, and then only as a çlimax to nose-
breathing, and in very small doses,
Needless to say, if a person breathes habitually
through the mouth, or heavily and irregularly through
the nose, there will negative (but really protective)
consequences in the form of lung congestion.
Mucus
is a device for protecting the air-sacs in the lungs
against particles and bacteria and inflammation. It
is an essential part of the immune system, clear-
ing the body of toxic substances. And it is amazing
what we can do to this delicate process by wrong breath-
ing patterns. The whole immune system may in the end
be-affegteds--naturall
e lifeline has-ceasedto
fofficient one. / Allergies eenstant-eelde(to
facilitate theevaeuation 3of toxic material in the
stored-and-over-produced mucus*, aswell a more serious
Aosl a à pudicad
Cause a bt


dummp
Inndk Lope h
- Ls POC Cold, we eftmc t
- toxu s1-8.
cenditiens-ar: ising from-the decline in the bodyis
powers-ofimmnolegical-self-surveillance. Asthma
is simply congestion glorified with a medical name,
which unfertunetely induces its sufferers to think
n Strco à 3 7
i Cean
they have a 'disease'. What
have is chronically,
Veheyna
ogestun La
Lol
disturbed ereat Aing a
sufferer -onee tola mu E
with a certain amount of |pride, that he had never once
breathed through his nose, and was unable to do so.
That is, he had never used the breathing machinery
at his disposal, and coulan't benefit from the breath
except in a minimal way, tendering it the thinnest of
lifelines, instead of the greatest. Of course this
affects not simply the immune system but growth, mental
and physical.
That this person was small and in constant
mental distress was no surpfise. Yet he scorned the
very idea of breathing exércises. This is perfectly
logical, for he had never tasted the fruits of proper
breath, but regarded it as a deadly strain, a source
of panic and fear, a lifeline that threatens constantly
to be cut, so weak is it.
Yet where the air-sacs are still elastic, however
encumbered with mucus, the asthmatic condition can be
coaxed away, a gently and patiently, over a period of
months or perhaps years
Css
Ibe
pyety
* dafeusss a 3 CL bets thee ahales.
1 alwgy
Inthe same-way, smoking,arises Srom-chronically
passiveor traumatic breathing, simple inability to
tise the bresth-machinery
subtlety-and-precision.
FyuyThe act of smoking reallycimitate proper breathingg
and arises frem-a-deep Erustrated desire for-the
laberating-effeete-of-preper-breathing of which-the
organism, for one CR sen or another, has been-starved,
sineechite hood.
Of course smoking creates dreadful havoc in the
lungs. We have 300 million air sacs in the lungs,
all of which should inflate and deflate regularly to


admit oxygen for the surrounding blood capillaries,
and to eject carbon dioxide from the capillaries so
that it may be breathed out. Not only does the
smoke paralyse the air sacs, so that they no longer
inflate or deflate, and lose their elasticity for good
(emphysema), but it has a decimating effect on the
millions of hair-like cilia which by means of a constant
waving motion shift mucus from the lungs to the throat,
either to be expectorated or swallowed and passed out
through the digestive system.
A smoker will often, in the act of smoking, make
an exhale such as he never normally makes. The smoke-
inhalation,to may be incomparably better than his
usual inhalations. Thus it is his chronically 'turned-
in' or passive breathing habits which have to be corrected,
not, in the first instance, the smoking habit itself.
Smoking is a substitute for the pleasures of breathing,
or rather an attempt to enhance them; and once these
pleasures have been mastered the habit simply falls
away, as an inhibition of pleasure, precisely as it was
Le acee
once the opposite. Once s>ulfle loclein
Also smoking does offer the nervous system---
when depleted through inefficient breathing--: --nomentary
freedom from a customary, if hidden, stateof fret
and isolation. For, just as the activated breath
may be said, in the words of the Chinese emperor's
doctor, to 'communicate withthe world', so chronically
passive breathing patterns create a sense of isolation,
for which smoking offers a temporary bridge or lifeline.
Therefore the smoker frequently experiences detachment,
concentration, timelessness when he smokes. The fret
abates,
In this he is the cousin of the heavy breather,
the deep breather, the mouth breather.
The same
assault is made on the delicate air sacs. Mucus
Ite uoke
Rassn altach
Li b oke -
Li alveoli, rat had, Ln


congestion is the usual result, especially in the
case of the mouth-breather. The bronchii can become
inflamed, through constant unncessary dilation, and
the body's air-conditioning and filtering system is
bypassed.
So the concept of taking in as much oxygep as
possible, at all times, is against the verystructure
of the breathing apparatus, which has provided, first,
a highly refined air-conditioning and filtering service,
and, second, lungs so elastic and extensive that they
will respond to every signal from the nervous system
with an instantaneous adjustment of the breath. The
neurotransmission activity in our brain is said to be
more complicated than what would take place if' everyone
in the world was in simultaneous and constant telephonic
communication with everyone else, with wofld-order
depending on an instantaneous exchange of information,
and the instantaneous power to translate this information
jnto action.
The lungs are the chief support of this
action.
Not only are theyélastic, they cover a huge
area despite being contained within the ribcage. If
flattened out they would cover the floor of a/small
apartment. There have to be many air saçs because
of their delicate construction. They are so tiny as
to be invisible to the eye, and their walls have to
be sufficiéntly thin to permit oxygen to enter the
blood gapillaries, and carbon dioxide to be received
back
There is the question, too, of the toxicity of
oxygen when the human organism metabolises it.
For one thing, the so-called free radicals, the
some
call
'villains of advanced age', as many gerontologists ser
them, are produced by this metabolism. As age-advanees,
these-meleeleculesstart-winning their fight-against-the


protective enzyme, superoxide dismutase, whichis
also-metabolised fromoxygen.
HhL
Tue ay - Either we produce ever smaller doses of this enzyme
as we grow older, or we lose the power to store it in
quantity.
This allows the free radicals to settle on
the body's fatty acids and produce lipofuscin, a pigment
that can occupy as much as 30 percent of the human cell,
thus rendering even more inefficient the oxygen/carbon
dioxide exchange, this time at the cellular level, to
and from the bloodstream.
bosdsisiin
Fixed-structuren thinking says that this process is
Le a
Aprogrammede, imdeed-se-simply the natural process of
growing oldy in chemical terms. But, C doesnetin-any
way-eccount-for this process in-chemical Lor in any
other-terms. Leonard Hayflick established that the
Andrs Tey
human cell can divide and become_twe fifty times in
all, before it dies, That gives us a cellular lifespan
of 110/120 years.
How is it that we invariably fail
to achieve this Hayflick limit? And. how is it that
so many thousands do achieve it?
The medical claim is usually that longer lifespans
are due to genetic or special characteristics.
But
these 'special' characteristics are precisely the ones
we have to examine so that we may extrapolate them and
use them for the race as a whole. For an increasing
number of people find it ridiculous to retire at sixty
or sixty-five, and become aware of a 'second wind' which,
because it has no place in fixed-structure medicine,
frequently deflates, The problem won't walk away,
however---by the year 2000 every one in two Americans
will be over 50. Twenty years after that, every one
in two Americans will be over 65. Perhaps it will
be seen that the utility-ceiling which society sets for the
human being is in large part the determinant of his
lifespan.
So far no one has proved that exercise improves
the enzymic situation in advanced years, though invariably
1. Lipo i fatty, fuscus = dark, dusky.


it improves health and quality of life. The
The semitdogin
lifespan tends to remain unaffacted. 7 Br Richard
Cutler, the-gerontologist maintaing't that the key to
producing or storing large quantities of superoxide
(A pontachoe
doials)
dismutase may welt Hiie less in exercise per se than
the attainment of repose, which in people of advanced age
is no easy matter, aud - c allonitue stta ntgre.
This-is-where Oxygenesis comes-in. It makes a
clear distinction between muscular relaxation and the
cellalus
state-of repose. It says that you can be relaxed
outwardly but hypertensive, and that while you may
habitually relax yourself from the outside in (that is,
in the muscles) you can only achieve cellular or primal
repose by relaxing from the inside out, and for this
certain breathing patterns are essential.
Now-during the oxygeneticprecess hair-color may
changeand gray or ite heirgradued disappear.
This will take two or more years, and requires steady
breath practice, as well asexercise and the right
dietary principles. Superoxide dismutase is closely
1inked to the chemical responsible for hair pigmentation
in our organisms. Thus certain breathing patterns
practicedin primal repose may indeedlay in a store
of the protective enzyme, and affect longevity where
éxercise alone cannot do it. Of course doctors are
perfectly correct to point out that sudden exereise at
an advanced age_may produce a heart attack That is,
until-tengion is-redueed-and-vo2-Max-graduallyraised,
exercise will not be beneficial:
When we breathe forcefully without guidance, when
we suddenly bombard the organism with vast quantities
of oxygen, when we habitually breathe in a heavy and
grabbing way, when we fail to exhale sufficiently, when
we breathe with the wrong muscles or in the wrong rhythm,
when we breathe to get heightened effects without having
first secured breath-initiation, we are trying to jump
the repose-finding phase, with the result that the
organism may suffer many of the distresses associated


with acute stress.
The_exercisesin-this beek-are-designed-toset
that repose principle' inmotion, through the breath,
because it cannot be broached in any other way.
Once
primal repose has been achieved, strenuous forms of
breathing, without movement, maybe undertaken safely,
and the ecstasies and sense of mastery to which they
lead-mey-be-enjoged-and-utilized.
1. In Oxygenesis this means not relaxation but the
internal destructuring process.
This is why it is
frequently difficult of attainment by/people of advanced
age.


CrhL
Understandlpy the Bellows
S c ewt
Therers another-Hoagt myth about breathing-- - à E
and-this ore-is upheld by theAmerican-Lung-Association
and the respiratory departments of most hospitals.
Breathing, it says, just comes naturally. You don't
have to think about it. Indeed, the more you think
about it the more likely you are to disturb it. So
the-best-thhingieteleaveit in the dark,rather like
a-eomfortable guperstition.
Infact The opposite is true.
While thinking
about it may put the breath at odds with itself for
a few-moments,_not thinking about it, especially in
these days of oxygen-shrinkage in the atmosphere and
increasing respiratory problems, Tie eun ght dangereue-
No, the breath has to be thought about, but in the
right way, with the right information. Being both a
voluntary and involuntary function, R gives-usa
perfoet-opportunity-to make our thinking fruitful
ThatisA new breathing habit adopted consciously
and deliberately will, with training, become autonomic.
So all we are doing when we voluntarily think about
anar à
our involuntary habits is revising and reforming
themo
e thntrbnce-relogated again-to the involuntary-


Trifa a
hutt I uloot Castui patin G
DLLL
function, they-arenoo-tonger "passive)
was das
rhonin ir eanar inslutan
rtgtect
fta s rabhn I ttaah 2 .v goi.
Our bodies are equipped with a two-part
bellows system in which the two parts are interactive
and interdependent. And it is on the way this bellows
system is used that the efficiency of our
Ws -
breathing
glen
depends.
Certainly no preat
is possible
without an awareness of this muscular structureA andtane
ghN cassTG clicns
witheut flexibility in
aser
The two parts are the ribcage and the abdomen.
We-maycall the ribcagen worked by the two-layered
intercostal muscles (one layer for contraction and the
Tesis :
other tayer for expansion), our special-effects box.
Its ability to expand and contract at a moment's notice
means that we can---to take one special effect-- jump
up from bed and within seconds be consuming 100 times
the oxygen we needed when lying down: we need that for
jogging munup and assyiy à L hesving
The ribcage is thereforé rather like a concertinag
Its axlethe spine. Like a concertina it sucks air into
a vacuum when expanded, and emits air on contraction. Tue
snees
swenhe wé hall see Tater, the intercostal muscles work in
conjunctign with the diaphragm, a dome-shaped myscle
ywa, 13. dasar
domss - 1 a. Ti bensele -
which risés, in andout-of the Chest cavityl separated
from it by two layers of tissue called ple
which
act as a protective,smeothly yielding wall against the
diaphragm.
Thus when the diaphragm rises into the chest
cavity it gently closes the concertina so that spent
air is emitted, and when it draws back into the abdominal
area again it opens the chest cavity to create the vacuum
to suck air in.
We don't actually see this diaphragmic movement
from outside, except in so far as it makes the ribcage or tte
and
the abdominal area rise or fall. And-at-thispoint-we
hant 1
haveto-motice a peculiarity about this arrangement which
is precisely the thing that make the ribcage a Aspecial


effects boxt.
When we pull in the abdomen, that is
contract the abdominal muscles, we make the diaphragm
rise into the chest cavity and emit spent air. When
we expand the abdomen we draw the diaphragm down again
to recreate a vacuum.
But there are occasions when
we contract the abdominal muscles, that is move the
diaphragm into the chest cavity, not to'emit air but to
draw it in. To make this possible, the intercostal
tahenes t A
muscles must comeinto play.
They expand the chest
as we inhale, Thus Fhe diaphragm is actually inside
the chest cavity while we are inhaling---the reversal
of the normal process by which the same operation
means emitting, not admitting, air. It is this
apparent contradiction that create/the special effects.
We inhale against the diaphragm when we breathe high
in the chest.
Paradoxically, this allows a great
charge of oxygen when it is needed, and clearly the
fact that this charge enters the upper rather than
the lower lung determines the "special vf nature of its
effects.
This will become clearer in the course of the
exercises. All we need to note ferthe time being
is that the ribcage or thoracic area must be different-
iated from the abdominal area because of the difference
ofeffects. He'is a matter almost entirely overlooked
by the medical profession, and even by breath teachers.
We cannot use one area to achieve the effects of the
other. Mixing and confusing the two is the source of
alt the disturbed breathing patterns known to man, hat
hot k asmel, LLe Ls las
- tor - Fot
donky mfyeu
Another spectal effect of the Wspecial effects
boxn, apart from allowing a sudden increased charge
snddas
of oxygen, is arousal. When we, find ourselves in a
a dangerous situation,and-feel-under immediatephysical
threat, we gasp with an open mouth.
That is, we need
to increase oxygen supply at once.
Simultaneously our


abdominal muscles contract, our shoulders go slightly
higher and our other muscles tense. All this means
that the breathing is now high in the chest. We are
ensuring that we have maximal energy available for
$fight or flight as_thepsychologistehhaveealledit.
To facilitate this, the bronchii in the lungs dilate
to make the oxygen passage even easier and more plentiful,
an extra supply of blood is sent to the skeletal muscles,
and the heartrate increased.
We could even call the ribcage the arousal area,
and the abdomen the vegetative. The ribcage is the
place where intense regular breathing will induce
heightened states, a sense of receiving objective
messages 'from outside', a buzz of inner electricity,
a sense of great self-command, an illuminated or mystical
past
state.
These are some of its marvellous repertoire
of special effects.
w a aal A
The mouth is designed to be used/only sacoongunctson
with_these-special effects since-all-emergency-needs
forextra oxygen-eupply-will-involve thechest. For
instance, When we yawn, itistheinterercostal-museles
that-semeinteplay. When we cry, too> the breathing
showcon
will rise into the thoracic area and the pereon-erying
will give the impressionsef 'heaving' with-theshoulders.
Laughter, shouting, sneezing, coughing all require a
similar actionphenn-ndatr are special effects.
Clearly, thoracic-or ribcage breathing has something
to do with excitement, while abdominal breathing,
relying as it does on the soft movement of the diaphragm
into the chest cavity, without the use of either the
intercostal Orabdominal muscles (we-only-deliberately
expand-er-sontraentraet- thece-in-order to admit-eremit
more air than usual) Fhas something to do with calm.
It is so untrue that breathing just comes
naturally that a vast number of people (and they may
well be on the increase) breathe ras-the-doctors-say,
paradoxiçally. That is, they breathe habitually in
the special-effects area, the area of excitation, and
in meathy *


almost never in the calming area. Yet when they
were born they were obliged to breathe in that area,
a J
since their thoracic or intercostal area had npt
caris
properly developed. Thus If we observe animals and
small children we shall see the smooth rise and fall
of the abdominal area in sleep, punctuated from time
to time by a long sighing and stretching breath which
involves the ribcage so that the upper lungs will not
fail to be exercised in the eight or so hours of
immobility.
The effect of paradoxically reversing the right
Wamonif
breathing process is ef-course mest-traumatic for the
organism.
Even-H -steep the matter-remains uncorrected.
to * Taes
And,paradoxieally againa the person who breathes in
this way feels starved of air. The result is constant
gasping and heaving, and despite the heaving no sense
of relief.
The abdomen becomes a 'forgotten' area-
ad senmel secaenes
and with it perhaps-not-onty sexual but oreative-energy.
PofThe paradoxical breath is the most passive of all
passive forms. The abdomen may feel over-vulnerable,
raw, sensitive to touch.
Insomnia, constipation may
be frequent because the quiet inner massage of the
abdominal breath is missing. There will be centinual
undercurrents of fear and foreboding (which-belong,of
couroqy-to-sroummil. And A tendency to over-excitement
(6ften pleasureable will sometimes be the result.
Ask a paradoxical breather if he or she has experienced
unaccountable mystical or heightened states and the
answer will invariably be yes. I1. i like feltif tte
Reufie 9 - am> Inathi i a lac
uehiunng umfulum
Although we use the expression 'abdominal breathing',
and though the abdominal muscles are from time to time
involved, what we are really referring to is the simple
rise and fall of the diaphragm that takes place invisibly.
This causes the abdomen to rise and fall.
So we often
call such breathing diaphragmic.


Some Chinese breath teachers say that women
habitually breathe higher than men, more diaphragmically,
so that the lower wings of the ribcage make a slight
spreading movement. This, some people think, is
nature's way of facilitating preg nancy conditions.
But it is difficult to see how the lower lung can
be fully ventilated unless the diaphragm descends fully
to make a vacuum for it. And in my experience women
breathe in precisely the same area as men when in deep
repose, provided ofcourse that the breathing patterns
is proper.
repas
This soft and gentle form of/breathing connects
with the parasympatheticnerveus-system-and-the
autonomie-funetions- --the-digestive and reproductive
yyims.
precbsses. This is why there will seldom be a change
alme. wy
ogavAr awareness hr abdominal exercises, In the Fire
Exercise (demcribed-iater), the cheeks will frequently
flush, tingling or rawness will be felt in the glands
of the neck, and there may be some heat in the lower
back.
But there will be no arousal effects unless
the-brenthing-iz taken-totthe-point-ofhyperventilation-
For the abdominal area is where we live, where /
the unconscious Shysiaky precesses and_immune Jens c
system/are served.
Regular breathing in the abdominal
area will at once influence the PH level of the blood,
after excitement or trauma.
rilruce esrca
The special-effects box* on-the-other-hand
connects with the sympathetie-nervervous-system-(fight-or-
fligh2fah and with the neurotransmitters. Naturally,
if breath-teachers begin initiates with this special-
effects area, provoking powerful arousal before
bellows-flexibility has been attained, some harm may
be expected in the form of restless sleep, fear,
cramps etc. And the problem which the breath was
designed to clear up will not only remain but be
exacerbated.
The reason for this is that the bellows system


depends on repose for proper functioning, that is,
the soft and yielding movement of the diaphragm
which can be relied on to take place even in sleep.
Without bellows-flexibility this is impossible.
The
organism cannot experience primal or cellular (as
opposed to muscular) relaxation---naturally, since the
lifeline isn't in full function.
Copatsontn
Andonly-by-beingcombined with-astate-ofreppose
will arousal-breathingstimulate the immune systemto
do its silent-andinvisible-werk-o repair-and-prevention.
When the breath hooks upr with thisstate, Dr Macfarlane
Burnet's'immunological surveillance becomes a reality
which can be felt and observed. Eor the body experiences
warm, tingling sensations, or sharp spasmodic pains,
fho as peueu,
or dull throbbing aches precisely where therapoutie
works-neode-to be done- The immune system is indeedd
'surveying' the whole field of the organism and---what
is even more remarkable---choosing its therapeutic
priorities, beginning with the more urgent and ending
with the least.
luch
Some years ago I worked with a young psychoanalyst
in Rome who'd been involved in a car accident, severat
months before
In the second session he experienced
acute darting pains in many parts of the body, and
these were in what seemed to him a definite sequence.
When I asked him if he could account for this he replied
that the pains felt like a 'fleeting recall' of the blows
he'd received in the accident, except that he was now valine
aware-of-the-faet, threugh-this recall, that he'd been
hit in many more places than he'd previously realised.
alsel While experiencing the darting pains he was aware
of a pleasureable component as well, a sense that heal-
ing was involved. The only pain to persist in later
sessions was in the head, where he'd received the great-
est injury. Finally this disappeared too.
If a therapist nudges his client awake at the
very point where this process is beginning---on the


as-famire
grounds that sleep or drowsiness represent (to
follow the Reichian model) 'resistance', this
miraculous process, based as it is on a superb electro-
magnetic self-management systém, cannot take place.
And An exchange of words about phallic narcissism or
Aeus
uncompleted mother-severance will not substitute for
it. A elicu LTEN wlo hod lae giine Reicluis
Jso
I've heard of rebirthers, fusihg a simple arousal
technique) urging their clients to 'breathe---just
breathe'f without instructions as
or where.
ptohoy thals
Thus They will sonclimes rebirth a person in the
abdominal area, where no arousal will be effective.
And many will,(like some Reichians), use the mouth
instead of the nose, a ascactloss - srous proçeeding in the
Coecss
cti
L AE
early sessions especially
the elient-has beer
breathingparadoxically most of his life.
The toxic
0 Hes
situation twhich there mustbe, as - resultofthe
hasos
paradoxical breathing) is worsened, and a form of
COPD may even come about, if the production of mucus,
désigned to protect the sensitive air sacs against
inflammation, becomes too great.
I've even heard of a licensed therapist urging me
his client, fanother licensed therapist) to raise both
the abdominal and thoracic area for an inbreath through
the mouth, A which-ts a sheer physical impossibility.
Somerebirthers and therapists-willshake
a client awake justas he is entering a state of deep
NSh
reposej--because they believe not in the power of the
breath toeffect changes in the organism but in the
powerof the cerebral cortex. On the contrary,it
is the cerebral cortex that must be 'dethroned' from
its attempt to monitor and control processes it has
no power over. As we shall see later, it is the
reticular self that must be given its rightful and
natural command of the organism, through the breath.
tee at htue
huakip Co -pla
d U
ys -
had
mont, sam Lajess
real
the hzath
Snice
bauius
h rek,n.
attlade
hore
n a
nerogike


How to do it
To acquaint ourselves with the bellows system
we should lie down in a quiet room and settle ourselves.
Settling ourselves means,/ in breath terms, getting rid
of what the doctors call/ the 'oxygen debt' created by
exercise (even the smallest exercise, such as walking
from a chair to the bed). The debt is what makes us
go on breathing heayily after we've stopped running:
the exertion has created a need for extra oxygen which
the breathing apparatus must satisfy before the body
can once more enjoy repose and minimal breathing.
When we no longer feel the need to take slightly
longer breaths than usual we should take a fairly full
(but not complete) breath and hold it.
With the breath held, we should retract the
BB1
abdominad muscles and simultaneously expand the ribcage,
thus:
Almost at once we should reverse the operation,
contracting the ribcage and expanding the abdomen,
thus:


And we should continue alternately raising and
lowering each area until we feel the need of another
breath.
This exercise must be done with the breath held.
The moment breathing begins (and at first you will find
it does, involuntarily) it will assume autonomic control
of the muscles.
After all, it has had a lifetime of
command in this respect.
And it is precisely this
command that the exercise is challenging.
Frequently the two areas will become confused
and lose touch with each other, with uncertain, spasmodic
movements, especially if this is the first time the
two sets of muscles have been formally introduced to
each other.
Like two neighbours who have been living
side by side for a lifetime and are suddenly presented
to each other, they may experience a moment of dizzy
confusion at the confrontation.
A minority of people simply will not be able to
move the areas independently of each other at first.
Sometimes the areas will refuse to move at all. The
muscles may be impossible to control, quite as if the
cerebral cortex had atrophied in part of its motor
function.
The two areas may be so Zocked together, so
inextricable one from the other, that it may take
weeks of practice to achieve the minimal flexibility.
But without bellows-flexibility there cannot be
proper breathing. The special-effects area will be
confusing its work with that of the vegetative area,
and vice versa.
Indeed, the whole body will reflect
this stiffness, and the immune system will be
functioning at lowest capacity.
It is indeed such a simple exercise that many
of those who practice it will think it too simple to
contain the secret of a wholly changed life, though
this is what it does. Dancers, athletes, singers,
top performers in every field may find to their


surprise that their muscles are not immediately
responsive to each other, and that therefore their
breathing patterns have not been supplying a full
service to the organism.
In approaching the breath for the first time
we should first become aware of the subtle and manifold
ways inwhich the central nervous system is modulating
itto adjust toxic flow, emotion and energy expenditure.
To anyone trained to watch and hear the breath,
Jimm,
every trauma, doubt and anxiety is written there---in
the sound, the rhythm, the volume and the regularity
2 trewuth,
was loxe
fox unsks
as well as in the
mevements.
otherwise/
bellows,
Coughing, sneezing, sighing, laughing, crying,
gasping, yawning are all effects produced by the
nervous system so that the organism may deal optimally
Hes
Cn Jios
with tts ever-changing a
sactions
ne outside
world.
Breathingnneeds are signalled by the nervous
system through the respiratory center near the center
of the brain, and also through the tiny aortic and
carotid bodies on the major arteries. The oxygen/
carbon dioxide exchange is attentively monitored.
In this epoch, responding as we are obliged to do
to all kinds of stzausfifrenteronmente, we require
hei - che ledt
the constant use of emergency-systems, some-of-which-
disod
may-involve chrenie-malformation-ef the, breathing
l tee
patterns, Aloss of all sense of what 'natural'
ftis:
wcay
breathing is, sothat Ehe organism may find,a nddest
albeitatwisted-ene, of surviving in desperate
circumstances. 'Grabbing' the inhale with open mouth
semergecy
is perhaps the most common of thes9, I strategies.
A person who has lost his or her mother in child-
hood may express an undercurrent of sorrow oranxiety
in a 'braked' outbreath or a sudden panic-stricken
gasp for air which may interrupt sleep or impel the


sleeper to sit up, eyes staring.
Our emotionsa are- a lenguage-by-meane-of-whieh
we can observe just-how-subtly-the - nerveus-system
plays A the breathr
When we cough we unconsciously squeeze our
windpipes to an eighth of their usual size so that
we may then emit spent air with such force that it
will carry unwanted particles and bacteria with it.
The speed of the wind through the windpipe during a
cough is five hundred miles an hour. A sneeze
achieves a similar effect but incorporates the nasal
passages, chatis the filtering system) as well.
When we yawn we open our mouths to draw in more
oxygen than usual, and probably our bronchii dilate
as well. We then exhale the breath in an unusually
long sighing manner while simultaneously relaxing
our muscles.
This is
order to façilitate sleep
A in mas 1
or prepare for new energy-enbendittrey When we
h 7
laugh we expel air in sharp bursts, breaking up the
exhale in such a way that there are a series of
abdominal contractions, which send the diaphragm
repeatedly into the lung cavity to facilitate the
shunting outbreath.
If laughter is a powerful health-
aid it may ve
be because the exhale is a detoxifying
actions, H
te-foreeful-emission-hae-semething
tedo
bedyls produetionor endorphine
In theease f7 meurosis Eshallow* breathing 2 t
typ
(let-usaccept the ambiguous-term
the_moment)
is designed to reduce emotion, as Wilhelm Reich
cleverly observed. Strong breathing creates strong
mansnes
emotion, and insheneurotic strong emotionjcreate;
strong anxiety, which the organism must therefore
avoid, > ftal Nmy haeelliy Fou asa * ltranad
When in acute distress we cry.
Thatis The
nervous system attempts to reduce emotion by squeezing
the bronchii (in an opposite movement to that needed
for arousal, yawning etc), thus limiting oxygen-supply,
while simultaneously producing discharge-reflex in the
sngoe das
- digeturi Tru demand
Sx ra
mpry SPby
xos


Jile
% Au
k Css disturhd and huglu up,
llood os sa h he tea.
fhc
wwhe urie
- - 11 La do 6 pangutpn
doann h
junier
rhe, away
wrlkip
Kh hou sl
Itun u.
- porne-patn,y
hunger.


eyes.
Only when the emotion has been reduced, and
the convulsive heaves (attempts to take breath against
the constriction set up by the bronchii and the throat)
have ceased will the nervous system permit us to return
to normal breathing. +HP Jachreose st t noel
bhh langhte L
1e as -gt
enmte
tom
2 mpt
dridfs
N sma huhi- gre Iterfen
But
ermal breathingh tl
Realiy
the breathing adequate for the needs
ce aaax
of any given moment.
There is no one breathy Aswe
have-seen, the nervous system is constantly modulating
it for changing circumstances.
Bral
Onthe pther hand we do have long periods of repose
EvRo
and sleep, tryd Jaring these periods the breath must be
the right one if we are to glean from it the full
recuperative and regenerative effects.
So-thereisa
basic-breathing-pattern And-we-can say that-ithas
to be in the abdominal-regiony since-in-repose-
we-won't-beseekingspecialeffeets, unless itis
sneese-er-asighoralaugh, in which case the thoracic
area is_momentarilyinvolved.
So here is a basic-breathing exercise, which should
follow the attainment of bellows-flexibility.
Lying down, we should now practice raising and
BB2
lowering the abdomen without moving/ the ribcage. At
first we should do this, as we did the flexibility
exercise, while holding the breath.
This will make the
exercise relatively easy. The moment we incorporate
the breath, however, the ribcage may develop ideas of
its own and move with that breath despite all efforts
to control it. This simplest of all exercises frequently
shows people how little command of their own muscular
structure they have.
Incorporating the breath in this instance means
breathing in as the abdomen rises, and breathing out as
it falls.
There should be no use of/the abdominal
muscles in this. It should feel as if the breath is
Kale
- Xu
/ ca (t shoud


raising and lowering the abdomen, from inside.
This
isn't far from the truth, since the movement of the
diaphragm is what determines abdominal movement in
this case:
/MBREATA
OUTBREATH
Sometimes we shall need another person to observe
whether the ribcage is moving, because our breath is
locked so deep in involuntary habits that it goes its
own way.
Tying a scarf round the chest may help us
to eliminate movement gradually. This movement may be
a slight rise of the ribcage during the inbreath or a
kind of surreptitious kickback effect, hardly perceptible,
just after the inbreath.
To help ourselves in this respect we should take
a gentle breath in the thoradic area from time to time,
so that the bellows-system, unused to discipline, may
feel no restiveness.
At first, in this exercise, we may have a strong
sense of constriction, particularly if we have been
breathing paradoxically most of our lives, or half-
paradoxically (a bit of this and a bit of that). We
may feel that breathing quietly in the abdominal area
is simply not enough for us. In this case we have a
sure sign that our breathing patterns have been incorrect.
The more constriction we feel) the worse those breathing
patterns have been. And if we feel 'This can't be the
right way to breathe' we should practice this one
exercise for many days, before moving on to the others.
One of the first steps in breath-initiation is
listening to the
This means
Annhute
breath.
learning the
difference between the inhale and the exhale, between


the noisy breath and the silent breath, bet tween
the long breath and the short breath, between the
long exhale after a short inhale and the short exhale
after a long inhale.
The inhale and the exhale are distinct operations--
and not simply in the lee 4a Lts Sthice hpe pulls the oxygen in
wrile
sein
and the other lets the carbon dioxide out. The inhale
marginally raises the heartrate, the blood pressure, the lrdy
temperature, the metabolistic rate.
The exhale marginally
reduces all these. The inhale intoxicates, the exhale
detoxifies. The inhale excites, the exhale calms.
The inhale gives a sense of rising, starting, the exhale
a sense of falling, ending.
This is why the exhale is
a source of special anxiety for many people, creating the
fear that if they don't hurry or shorten it they won't
get the next breath in.
The-anxiety-ofseemeone who lost his mother in early
childhoodisoften-expressed
braked' outbreathor
a sudden fasp for ir which may interrupt sleep, as we
saw
ew pages back-
The
S muek like
* ee
rte space, ereating the fear that, going
the breat!
neverreturn.
Fory #
wmid
person the universe cannot be trusted, and constant
vigilance, constant alertness are required to navigate
ths dag.
safely through life. There is a feeling of not being
able to accept, of constantly fighting, even against
oneself, because of the lack of sufficient trust to make
acceptance possible.
This may produce a fear to fall asleep or lose
consciousness.
Dozing may be accompanied by sudden
starts back into the alert state. h
We in-the-west tend to emphasise the inhale at the
expense of the exhale, showing that the belief in large
intakes of oxygen has been with us a considerable time,
perhaps centuries.
It belongs to the over-active,
over-alert type of society, while the emphasis on the
outbreath litcharacterises peoplels brcathing-in-the.
pasrpe - Jd
east) belongs to less active, even Bassive temperaments.


honlare hesh : ivswed. Tnc ilnath the
lueh
20th Hoeint and
msle caoppo. hustav.
the tarsat a rmst,
be custail Ju,
nthuth hios
mscke aluon
HLa Hanae cend cidminl
visliall
huie. A stt 2
nWag
tnctire J-
Turn tho sotogels
uelre
le-ni a
beah, H, the husale 09
tixed
drat
ttoac
A alln
altrhe hatave
hrth.


In the course of these exercises we shall be
eliminating both the inhale grab, its element of
urgency and even panic, and the cut or rushed exhale.
In all breathing the exhale should be marginally
longer than the inhale.
If we monitor our breath
while running, or immediately after running, we shall
find that the rhythm and intensity of our breathing is
entirely out, of our control. This must be so, for-
kas
Fhe organism to deal with t urgent chemical readjust-
ments necessary during and after exertion, without-the
risk of-interferenee. It gives us a good chance to
find out what natural breathing is. One of the first
things we-shall-note is that-the-eutbreath-is-marginally
longer than the inhale, and-that more weight is put
fe malinelt,
into
Mastering the exhale is one of the most
serms
important steps in disentangling hidden traumas-or
anxieties from the breath, and leaving it untrammeled
to do its perfect work.
We may also notice when we are panting heavily
after exertion that our breaths are not broken from
each other but run continuously from inflow to outflow,
without the epiglottis tightening to stop the flow,
as it does when we hold the breath, cough etc. The
point about this is that the soft 'joins' between
inbreath and outbreath are usually by no means so
soft as they are in such heavy exertion-breathing,
umnl
where we cannot exercise control.
Our basie breathing
pattern may, in a word, be jagged and interrupted.
In Oxygenesis these joins are called curves and
they are most important not only to an understanding
of the breath but to the achievement of repose. No
arousal breathing should be undertaken, indeed nothing
strenuous should be attempted in breath-exercises,until
this repose principle has been won. We-shall-see later,
when-we-come to-a-full-treatmentof arousal breathing,
heyler
that Gurves aren't as easy to achieve as we, expected,
and that-Ehey/require some concentration, aud achaulin.


reo
The best way, to find out what the curve feels
hahe 3
"bry Sla.
like is to/de ne tapposite, Fhat is, make an-inbreath,
close the epiglottis/ open-it-again-and make the
outbreath, thuss
dode
meg
OUTRREOTH
INBREATH
The two are broken-and-separater Now ide should
try joining the two smoothly, so that there is an upper
BB3
curve where the inbreath rises to meet the outbreath,
and a lower curve where the outbreath falls to meet
the new inbreathe
IABREA TH
OUTBREATH
(By the way,we refer to an inbreath 'rising'
because thisis how we visualise it entering the
thoracicarea, towardthe top of the head, while the
outbreath 'falls' to the point of departure again.
But more of this later).
We shall discover a strange thing about these
curves, namely that during them we are neither breathing
in nor breathing out nor holding the breath.
There is
a pause, a gap, but a peculiarly active one, in which
breath is going on while, paradoxically, it is clearly
not doing so.
YPerfecting the curvest, aswe shail
see,when-we eome-te-the exercises is an important
step in breath-initiation and one which has preoccupied
breath masters since ancient times.
Another feature we may notice when breathing
heavily and regularly after exertion is that the breath
is noisier than usual, which may give us some ideas
as to the meaning of noise as against silence in the
breath.
The athlete's heavy breathing can be heard
by others, whereas his basic breath cannot. He can
hear his own breathing at all, or most, times.
is a slight rushing sound in his ears.
So we come


CONTINUE
HERE
to the question, how much of our breathing should we
hear, and how much not?
The first thing to realise is that a noisy breath
differs from a silent one by its velocity. The faster
the passage of air through the nostrils, the greater.
the noise.
But noise doesn't necessarily mean
A # tor
quantit efficiency. After running, our breath is
rapid and regular and noisy because we require quick
supplies of oxygen,
In repose, however, this need
ceases, and the breath quietens, until it may become
almost silent in the ears. infrey
This silent breath is one of maximum efficiency.
There is no danger here of inflaming the bronchii
or disturbing the delicate air sacs. The ingress of
particles and bacteria is minimal because the inbreath
is slight and gradual, and the filtering system of the
nose is thoroughly used. And it is the silent breath
that achieves the 'hook-up' between repose and breath-
ing that is so essential to the proper working of arousal
patterns, as well as to daily basic breathing.
The oxygen/carbon dioxide exchange takes place on
two levels, and it is most important that this be smooth
and easy.
At the first level the oxygen enters the
blood capillaries surrounding the air sacs in the lungs,
at the second level it passes from the bloodstream into
the cells. On both levels carbon dioxide is given in
exchange for it. Now if the organism is tense it is
difficult to see how that double transaction can take
place efficiently. This is something to remember even
when we are running.
In a tense state we shall run
less far, less quickly. We shall feel the fatigue more
easily. Itisonly-a-matter-ofreminding oneself-that
exygen is essential
avery-bodilyfunction, andte
averlook the key
the -whole-eperation-is-elearly 1
unwise. In lunon
The capillaries, the bloodstream, the cells, all
reflect an 'on guard' attitude, indeed they are the seat
of cellular (as-opposed-to musculart-tensiont-thesecelle


Whwk Mcy Leeus
say, even in dstwardhyrglayed çircumstances, 'I feel
fadcs iwhice esentie
uneasy'. For This is the way hypertension,that wwb.
ke-tensionin-the-cells, as-eppesed to muscular tension,
conuays-itself. Muscular tension is relatively easy
to get rid of, but muscular relaxation is often a mask
for hypertension, Lve frequently-neticed this ir
mysessions withbodywerkers.
Their art S indueing
4 Ahats
selaxation The body * loose and yielding. But
he- hidden hypertension-may be
the greater- forthat.
Indeedit-was the factor thatledthem-to their werkr
Practising the silent breath is a first step to
conquering hypertension, as LrTs the Mideald breath
which the organism should gradually learn to take as
tte Wuth
its model, though jft cannot and should not be used dusing
lways ta-silent breathi8ofcourse quite-inadequate
for physieal activityy?
Lying down with the eyes closed we should inhale
BB4
and exhale smoothly in the abdominal area, agalh without
movement in the ribcage, gradually eliminating all sound
in the ears.
This may induce a tensing-up at the
beginning, because the muscles try to do the work of
the breath, simulating the external action while the
diaphragm fails to move inside.
So little or no. breath
comes through.
This is therefore an excellent exercise for perceiving
that all breath is created 'from inside', not induced
The man>elas Serue tta oxgeual T >fin,
by muscular action. Breath and the movement of Sfchee
diaphragm are synonymous. Therefere A11 depends on
tye
the way shadcshesn moves into the chest cavity, and
out of it again. If we simply raise and lower the
abdomen, without much breath coming through, it means
that the diaphragm is stationary, and no vacuum is being
created in the lungs for the oxygen to be drawn in.
Many people, when asked how breath gets into the
body, show some confusion.
They say 'The nose pulls
as get
it in' or 'It gets sniffed in'. They have no awareness
of the bellows-system, and the way a vacuum is created
di-flragn : Itae key


tey son
in the lungs for each breath. But once peple beeome
awareofitthey see that there (really/ is no need for
violent muscular effort and heaving for breath purposes.
The soft movement of the diaphragm does all. The
silent breath is a demonstration of this, and the more
we 'listen' to the silent breath, the more we understand
about the nature of breathing ingeneral.
ts rilesst Inth
While doing this-exercise we should also pay some
attention to the 'curves', above and below. We should
see that they are smooth, which means that the abdomen
must rise and fall with no bumps or breaks.
The behavior of the abdomen, by the way, will tell
us a lot about ourselves---whether we feel a secret
vulnerability toward others, or confusion as to our
role in certain things, or a sustained state of inner
alarm, or a sorrow so deep that it has virtually passed
into the tissues, no longer apparent to the conscious mind.
Asanextension-ofthis exercise-we should-graduelly
BB5
lessen-the-extentoftthe-breath, -and thus the riseand
faltof-the abdomen- This undulation should nowbe
- a hoe it
veryslight. The rhythm should be much like the
ebb and flow of water heard from a distant seashore.
It should have that regularity, that slight emphasis
on the ebb or fading away (of the exhale), and above
all there should be a sense of the breath being a
phenomenon much like the ocean tide itself, detached
and distant.
Phis-ean-be done- with
light-noise inthe ears.
But-the analogy of be distant-tide should-hold,
At-this point we should introduce a slight pause
at the end of each exhale, so that, like the tide, it
really dies away into silence for a moment.
The
organism should be felt at rest during this moment,
especially in the pelvic area, with a melting sensation
Pon
gpigf
as the breath Éalls, spends h .One should think of this
as completing the exhale properly, laying it to rest.
Here we have our basic breathing pattern. This


> Te rmakutre Mai i Hae a
the muts b revesug th
rpais
uldonm Kaliv. Rendeiy
auo6th lt lus ta hn
octois
geural apnanining


deap
is how we should breathe at all times of,repose.
If we practice it enough, when sitting or reading or
lying down, it will gradually pass into the organism
as a habit functional even in sleep.


Iwahge
The Gentus Behind it All
The-abdominal ea
he seat ofdefences-and
fears-of whieh-we may be
censeieus-until-we
begin-teee-eeneentrate- on that area We are probably
all familiar with the experience, at some point in our
lives, of habitually flinching in the abdominal area,
feeling an undue sensitivity on touch, even pain.
For this reason some people overbreathe in the
abdomen, developing vast bellies which may not be
particularly muscular.
They may even try to achieve
arousal in that area, which is rather more paradoxical
than,paradoxical breathing.
In my experience such
people have often suffered ebject-loss in childhood, A
particulariy the death of the mother, or mental with-
drawal on the part of the mother.4they amounttethe
same-thing
tar astraumatic-effect-goesh The-back=
groundisoneof severeemotional-neglest.
I recently asked a client to do some abdominal
exercises and she told me, 'Irealise thatkaising my
abdomen to the fullest seems rude to me, reprehensible.'
Despite the fact that she'd had several children,, that
ardomarea
area had- remained reluctant to expose itself, which of
course put'a cautious and-self-demeaning mark on this
tadyts whole personality.
wom
The exercise I asked her to do tseuseful-ene-to
les ndt cmee H


intreduee-at-this point.
It differs fromthe
previous abdominal exercises (00) only to the extent
BB6
that itis slower and the abdomen is raised during
the inbreath to its fullest extent, that is with the
help of the abdominal muscles.
This is agood way of
perceiving the difference between breathing 'from inside'
and, as now, assisting the diaphragm with the muscles
of the abdomen.
Whenthe abdomen contracts for the
exhale the same-operation occurs in reverse: the
abdominal muscles are used to draw the belly into a
hollow (as deep as the abdomen-in-full-expansion was
high). We should breathe, for this exercise, witha
Eairly-leng, asy rhythm, until-we-become-tired.
Anexteneneienef this-exerciseinvolves the_whole
a 1
peluic-region, and I call it 'the crotch exercise'.
BB7
Instead of expanding the abdomen upwards or vertically
for the inbreath, we expand it in a more downward
direction, that is toward the crotch, in such a way
that the expansion is felt not only in the sexual and
anal area but in the lower back and the posterial cheeks.
This isa-deeply satisfying exercise,the-enethat
gives the frequentry neglected abdominal area full
*recognition*, sharpening awareness in both the evacuative
aay
and sexual systems and helping, subdue the shame
te las f
traditionally attached to both.
(Eor-this-reasenit-
may-at-first-eause-some-mental-nauseat
On the ease, contentment and softness of this region
sexual enjoyment (and the ability to provide it) depend.
Just as breathing has to be learned 'from inside', so
sexual enjoyment is derived from a process of inner self-
Maag
cahe
nourishment, such as-burebestty denies peopte from early
childhood.
This is the only real aphrodisiac. Sexologists
rightly concentrate on social skills in their seminars,
that is the ability to make and receive a sexual approach,
but frequently leave out of account/the simple capacity
to enjoyx ith-which the client-maynot-be-endowed
Paradoxical breathers, for instance, invariably have
sexual difficulties which they wrongly attribute to
Hefurt Hae Ihe doci
LoVh Cas


congenital dysfunction, sexual molestation in child-
hood etc. It is the breathing that has been disturbed
by childhood experiences, and the breath,-aswe shall
see is an essential aspect of the sex-act. perhaps even
its-keys
Tautness in the abdominal region makes it impossible
to abandon the body to someone else. A blocked, dull
or nauseous feeling behind the sternum will have the same
effect, and the two often go together.
Both are due
to the lack of a basic breathing pattern on which all
breathing forms, from arousal to deep slumber, can hinge.
When the lifeline is out of synch, everything else is.
When people enter sexual contact to prove themselves
good performers they often come unstuck because the
determination kills the enterprise.
If contented lovers
were compared with performing lovers it would be found
that the/breathing ofthe former is quietand rhythmic
and smoothy while that of the/fiter" is noisy and irregular,
with much use of the open mouth long before it is needed
(in climax. The stroking motions of the hand, the en-
twining movements of the hips, the sighs, gasps, spoken
endearments, the kissing, biting, all have a rhythm
connected with the breath.
To perceive the difference between performance
and easy enjoyment in breath-terms we should take five
AB1
quite rapid breaths in the ribcage area (so that the
ribcage expands for the inbreath while the abdomen
contracts), and then try to repeat these breaths in
the same rhythm but without the slightest sound. We
shall find that, to keep up the rhythm, we will be
forced to turn the breath into a kind of muscular show,
with little air actually coming in. The work will be
done by the abdominal and intercostal muscles, while
the diaphragm within is doing almost nothing. Perfoomed
enjryh
noisy, msral : p usel


This is bécause sound inbreathing means velocity, as
we have seen. The greater the sound, the greater
the speed.
So that for silence we must have a slow
rhythm, necessarily. Above all, we need, for the
silent breath, thatsense of working the breath Afrom
Anside'.
Working from outside, through the muscles,
will destroy it. And much-the same can be said about
sex,
Smell too is a source of the deepest enjoyment in
sex, and is certainly a mode of sensual recognition
between lovers accustomed to each other.
Just as some
mothers would be able to recognise their children blind-
fold, by smell, so it is with lovers.
For smell (which will never be right between a
couple not suited to each other) is part of the processy
in-love-making, of 'exchanging the breath'.
On the
whole, humans have lost this universal animal habit,
except in the love-act.
If you want to calm an animal
or induce trust in it exhale and remain in apnoea (with-
out breath) for a moment or two. If you blow gently
on an animal's face it will be taken as an intimate token
of confidence and love, and will usually be received
with a flattered look of gleaming eyes and ears laid
back. A primate, introduced to a human, will beckon
him and blow gently on his face, and wait to receive
his breath in the same way. He will scent the breath
and find out what he wishes to know about the stranger.
Fear can be smelled on the breath, being highly toxic
in its physiological manifestation.
The breath of
a disturbed, unharmonious person can never be sweet.
The stink in animal experimentation labs is due to the
terrors unichthe in-whic
animale-live.
I once 'took' the breath ofthe famous Koko, the
gorilla who learned the American Sign Language, and it
was as sweetas flowers in May, whichI took to be a
tributeto the care of her owner Dr Penny Patterson.
Ofcourse-betweenlovers-aceustomedteeach-other


Dirngaal cuh-heu a J the hewlelt.
and-right foreach other, the-mutual-rhythm-ef the
breath-establishes itself involuntarily. When-people
"meltlinto-eachootherls arms, the breath will-be unified
ithe same-way-
The breath.is (also)of prime importance in the control
of the orgasm. Withdrawal in order to prolong pleasure
is much easier when the breath is in charge.1 With
withdrawal the abdomen (in male and female) should be
relaxed and an easy breath taken in thatarea, without
movement in the ribcage, until-the excitement has
subsided and a new cycle of sensual exchanges can-be
begant Mis withdrawal can be internal, that is,
without disturbing penetration. The excitement is
simply reduced by the breath, (by directing the breath
to the abdominal area.
Pre-orgasmic excitement will make the breath rise
to the ribcage, as more oxygen is required and the
special-effects system is touched off. As orgasm
approachest oxygen-needs increase, so-that the mouth
opens and a panting breath takes over, high in the
lungs, as during exertion or-running.
sw/Erom the first moment of love-making the
HuE *
breath is the key. Once it begins the breath of the
couple 'mingles' and the faculty of smell undergoes a
subtle change as if a common breath were now established,
a common smell, not another's.
Breath can thus unify, and be a unit between two.
In certain "primitivel voodoe-like ceremonies the
breath is frequently used to induce a sense of mastery,
accompanied by sexual excitement.
This results in
random sex which is by no means as random as it appears
to the onlooker.
The partners are in an identical
state and their choice of each other is determined by
this, not haphazardly.
Inthe-event-ef-one partner requiringmdnuat
stimulation after the other's orgasm and special
fantasiss to induce orgasm, the smell of the other
person will quickly becomethat of 'another'.
There


will be no breath-mingling because the breath is no
longer irunison. Naturally, since the fantasy has
taken the place of the lover's body.
The need for special stimulation neednot be due
to the partnersbeing unsuitable for each other.
'abnormality' of this kind need be feared, once the breath
has been engaged. If the climax is a feared event, then
runity' can be enjoyed during the preliminaries, and
there are excellent orgasm-withholding teehniques which
prolong these, so that the orgasm isrendered less
important and therefore less demanding.
It maycease
to be'the climax'.
It-remaine-true that/If a person hasn't found his Re
ohs
true breath, it will be difficult to find his true mate.
This isn't as arbitrary a statement as it sounds.
The
body which relies on disturbed breathing patternsi and
is inflexible in the bellows-system U laeks fullcontror
ofitself, Mrmhdsomso-that 1
it doesn't quite know what
it wants, what is good for it, ormhottis, much less
how to recognise, seek or find the fitting mate. As
we all know, this eannotbe
It has
done-eerebrallz a a -
to be a matter of autonomic-or I magnetic' lattraction.
The reticular activating system in the brain-stem
warns us during sleep of the presence of danger.
There
is also logic in this warning system. For instance,
if you live in a city you will not wake up every time
a car rushes by outside.
The RAS will let you alone hare
because it knows that, in your present situation, that
sound is safe.
But go into the depths of a forest and
sleep there---ancif a car rushes by right outside the
cabin door the RAS will have you sitting up and staring
in less than a second.
Sigmund Freud talked a great deal about the
unconscious; and the shock of his ideas for the west
lay essentially in the message, 'You are far from being
rational creatures, as you think or flatter yourselves


7 Eopnity Ure wedli loue urg
teel ctinis pmend I ah 9 lls
cliaups TM san, hc suld e Ls
lud Afet LA
i 1 a show -
sroarly
fins te l-eloved.
dalibaly
bewe guided 5 uany
Shice nailtu ft
nfeere 2
leuss
Las Has J
- - s urners
pet . o
aughiin The xect


that you are. You are much more the servants of
desires, habits and fantasies of which you are mostly
unconscious, and over which you appear to have no
control.
Indeed, a good way of masking these wild
forces is to give them a rational form, whenever
they threaten to express themselves. This is a
rationalising, but not rational, process.' h
At a time-tfin the first decades of this century,e
when_rationalism was regarded as unimpeschable and the
litmus test of allexperience, thismessage was a great-
blow to human-pride, anetherCopernican-revolution,
and Freud and his followers weren't thanked or liked
forit.
Recent brain researches have completed the dethroning
processh They support the contention that the cerebral
cortex is by no means the controlling factor which our
civilisation has increasingly, since the sixteenth
century, tried to make it, in-linewithoneofthe-deminant
themes-efmediaeval-thought. In fact, we make decisions
before we become aware of them. The neurotransmitters
begin preparing for an action before we have consciously
decided to make it.
Sometimes we may even tense ourselves for a loud
bang or explosion before it has happenea, and without
prior warning of its being about to happen. This is
a warning from the reticular self much like the animal's
awareness of approaching danger or storms (sar in the ates
lusone elf Laa R
animal the reticular self still works, amongother
1. The relationship between thoracic or arousal breathing
and the reticular self is particularly apt because arousal
or activating is the chief function of the reticular formation.
This area inside the medulla receives both information from
the sensory tracts and nerve impulses from the cerebellum,
basal ganglia and other nuclei.
This is the source of its
control of the cerebral cortex.


Lo 4,
- citium 2 Ire Creudii ryma
Ha : wu Ae nientl sicknen
a daimad I cuase. Thua, i
akmal
aaad Jaad
ohL
poun,a
k serd the pareit ak k
rakmal.


2whs
Banipids/
poctmicse.
things, through the fur, te seuseptlsmell letco which
nwtongandousrtneha_husawusen-oma-candestiosaneyh
Webbe,
The nature of memory provides further evidence
that the cerebral cortex has a relatively small,
though-ofcourseessential, function in the overall
perceptive apparatus.
The two memory sites, at the
base of the brain, the amygdala and the hippocampus,
present memories to the cerebral cortex already
packaged with emotions of sorrow, regret, fascination etc
which the cortex has done nothing to manufacture, and
of which it can frequentiy give no rational account
whatever.
Indeed the cortex seems to have little choice as
to what memories will be presented to it, and in many
cases where the memory returns again and again as a
simple image it cannot explain why it should have more
hold on the mind than any other. Clearly a most
eventful life is going on far below the level of aware-
ness, so that we can no longer say that awareness itself
provides order and sequence. On the contrary, that other
world, seems-tobe hidden from us, and
our
beyond
conscious control, though it is surely what we must
mean by the ego proper.
The existehce of a guiding, even wise, presence
in every human, creature, becomes evident in any prolonged
Keik
breathwork. fhe way the nervous system 1B RSOA the
form, rhythm and intensity of the breath is the first
clear demonstration that a control is being exercised
on our organism at every,
but it is by no means X
l6, aloo pomentlbut tos
aad
cerebral control.
nd deed stCAla meticulous A complicated
tacte
C à a -
the 810.
of con
L vork ng threugh instantaneous
no cesye
messages sent-and-reeeived along the neurons, and
2 logic d44
involving something like 400 chemicals in the
tLv S
brainy
Lan aeis, and a feedback system working through the glands, d
would be far beyond the cerebral cortex to maintain


eu unhhosfl- 1
p-tin
Huis Coufler myota
even for a moment.
Thus.Fhe objective of any thorough breathing
system should be to reach the point, through bellows-
flexibility and gradual modulations of rhythms and
Ruidsi
acce B dd
intensity, where the ste bjeet X1 ne
n ces kind of
personalintreduction
G that is in
faet-the-true ego
This is achieved not by dramatics, not by cathartic
or primal sereams-and enactments, but by silence and
immobility.
Only when expectations, emotions and
thoughts have been silenced will that atterego, the
reticularself, emerge, ilellgria evoke all kind, 1
Feritis tension that expects and demands dramatics
bub
from the breath ttensionin-both-therapist/teacher-
funen
andsubjecth pramatics provide instant release, a
sense of having arrived at the heart of the probleno
but the organism remains as doggedly possessed by
that problem as before, if not more so.
I remember a wild-eyed man coming to see me in
San Francisco.
He said he'd undergone just about
every major therapy and personal growth technique known,
hio
and devoted himself to nearipaifine internationally
established gurus. He could do anything and everything,
he said.
He could scream, cry, rage most convincingly,
tutf
re T
dest therapistts-hopes. To my
astonishment, when I asked him to demonstrate for me
his habitual breath, he went through just about every
kind of breath on the map.
'You see,' he said.
'I can do anything. The
only thing is, after all these years, I'm still not in
touch with myself!'
s a LAs yet
Justas Sreath.consunicates with the inner-world,
so it is the source of our communications with the
outside worldo and-itisusefultoobservehewtthe
reticutarself,that-resident-geniusin every-ereature,


frene/2ymLUK
Amic Mosley
I Pabmera Squr
Hore
Suncx
BN3 2JA


processes this communication Leach day of our lives
without our being aware of it.
Throughout the animal kingdom this is so: breath
is in all sensesa communication.
Animals-use it to
communiçaté with each other---perhaps more subtly and
exhaustively than we yet know.
asp
And ll doprecisely, the same,incorporating-sound
Yo Ma ke
inthe breath by means ofthe vibrations of the vocal
aad seng.
chord---to make languagek We can experience the coming
about of language from the breath by saying a few simple
words or consonants to ourselves, observing what happens
to the mouth and tongue, and the velocity of the breath
that makes the desired sound possible.
Manyof theexercises in this, book are -this same
breath/tengue/lips activity broken down-to-simple forms.
Eorinstance, e shall
looking at hissing exercise--
the J we ak many-hundredé ef-times a day is here
redueedte
ingle-mevement.
In speech we modulate the breath in the subtlest
way. To pronounce 'A' we make a mini-cough, closing
the epiglottis for a fraction of a second, with the
breath close behind, ready to flow through and complete
the sound.
'B' is the closing and opening of the lips
for the breath to pass through at greater velocity than
in 'A'. 'C' is the delicate touching of the tongue
on the palate inaslight-U-shape, to allow the breath
to pass through in a momentary hiss.
is a momentary closure, blocking the breath, but this
bordl,
stsckir
time with the tongue *r against the forward palate,
riy,
the
Podly
soihat
breath must break through-
to reate the
right sound. The word 'who' requires a slighter and
longer breath than, say, 'ha'.
'When' requires a
pout that opens subtly for the breath to whisper its
way through, and is closed by touching the palate
lightly with the tongue.
'Th' is a sound made by air
through a narrow outlet, formed by the tongue and the
upper teeth.
'Shame' is made by a similar quickly
constructed barrier, and is closed by a meeting of the


lips to resist and then permit the outbreath.
is differentiated from 'D' by the breath's greater
velocity---it almost pushes the tongue from its cleaving
position at the palate, while in 'D' the tongue, in
the same position, is visited by a slighter wind.
'H' requires a more open mouth than usual, and a long
outbreath without velocity.
'p' differs from its
brother 'B', like 'T' from 'D', in that it needs a
greater wind-force through the lips.
'U' is made by
the sides of the tongue against the palate, followed
by a pouted opening of the mouth for a rushing outbreath.
Words and syllables and consonants are, then,
breath or mini-wind aided by grunts in the throat.
The sound of wind in the branches of a tree, or through
an almost closed window, humming high and then low,
is a similar action.
But unlike wind-sounds, human
language is the effect of a deliberate manipulation of
mouth-structure and wind-velocity, so rapid and subtle
that the cerebral cortex would be incapable of reproducing
it. That is, to think out how to shape the mouth and
tongue and modulate the breath for certain syllables
would create hardly a word a minute. Word-forming
is as unconscious as digesting, precisely as learning
the language as a child is. The reticular self--
that genius we rarely pay homage to---is responsible
for all, so responsible indeed that the cerebral cortex
may never become aware of what is going,, from first
speech to last breath.
(E ail de 1 aC l: 6 stusttiif autdiquis cal
Poetry, dramatic moments on the stage, any use of
the word to heighten emotion or perception relies
squarely on the breath, its rhythm, velocity and intensity,
more than on the rational or analytic modes.
An actor with a good command of the breath will
hold an audience while another actor inferior in this
aspect but superior in understanding, timing etc will


aune a 5 cosd tue
Co ta
Dus dert,
dec
Mose uife
nLs
s ccording
ceviup a venchic,
ronuil
wh -lu.
d-pliie
lasw noltaip.
1 Shice wn
charcg
lhe 4o hides fn
The heah :
Atuonie 1ia,
rtul
be LTelir * P63
2 ak unk in s,
a stalueru
l dirree
Lens ul, A hiliv f uhy
a, A unina hain tr Lalune
umhcing ie nunle,
mimenlons tra
twn 2 L gaus
Imt, plank,
tt sr
mherha
cletochenind
- u>> enltiy
u bast
sole
plaged -
I the
n dindtins
Jo sn
phacer
mierd
phenme


lose it. For the bréath of the actor influences the
breath of the audience---that is, they are swept along
by him, the autonomic factor takes over. An actor
who has difficulty with the breath,oris-a-ehronic
hot
passiveor inturned-breathes, can never have this strange
hypnotic authority. Therefore breath-initiationis
ofespecial-importancete performers-using-theveieer
Coordination of the breath with movement---whether
of the limbs or the vocal chords---has to be successful
if there is going to be an aesthetic effect on watchers
or listeners.
This coordination applies to almost everything
we do. If you talk to someone or listen to
earphones while jogging, your breath will be out of
synch, and you will easily tire. The breath should
be coordinated with the rise and fall of the feet,
and this will come about naturally if we are properly
relaxed while running.
In the same way a dancer cannot hope to achieve
proper effect on an audience if, for instance, he or
she is holding the breath continuously during perform-
ance. A stiffness will betray itself, and only training
in the soft, regular, abdominal breath, alternating
with arousal breathing, will eliminate this.
A surprising number ofsingers breathe incorrectly.
I have known just two Oxygenesis sessions with a singer
make a remarkable difference in tone and projection.
If the breathing necéssary for singing remains un-
supported by proper breathing patterns, especially during
sleep, much performance quality is lost.
Really breath-initiation means being introduced
to the reticular self, and yielding to its superb
administration.
There is some magic at work here.
The introduction takes place without words, without


movement. Yet some undefinable wonder has taken
place. People say 'Ieel I fit into my own skin
for the first time'
All the rigorous breathing exercises in the
world, all the dramatic ravings under/a mule-driving
breath fanatic, cannot replace this most moving of
seachanges.


SPECIAL EFFECTS


The Arousal Breath
No breath-initiation is possible with the basic
breathing pattern alone, however stabilised.
Our
breathing apparatus seems to demand an equal division of
labor between the abdominal and thoracic regions, and
it is to the latter---the special-effects box---that we
now have to turn.
What is arousal?
When suddenly frightened we open
our eyes wide for clearer attention and observation,
we open our mouths to admit a plentiful, if short,
gasp of air, our abdomen contracts and we breathe high
in the chest, our bronchii dilate to facilitate the
new demand for oxygen, extra blood rushes to the skeletal
muscles and the heartrate goes up. We are ready to
'fight or flee'.
When we induce a similar physiological state in
an utterly immobile position, lying down with our eyes
closed, the energy thus aroused has only one avenue
of escape---back into the body, where it works in
various ways.
Therapeutic effects sometimes result.
Heightened and sometimes ecstatic states are induced.
The brain may suddenly become optimally efficient as
an information"-receiving apparatus (much like a radio
in that the information comes from 'out of the blue').
All this is achieved by not fighting or fleeing.


In an objectively dangerous situation we would
be standing or in some alert position. But/in a
prone and composed state the organism uses the breath
for inner action, as opposed to outer action.
We ruin this internal action if we seek dramatic
or cathartic effects, and twist it into outer action
again. AXso if the organism is invited to enter
fight-gr-flight situations aftificially it will soon
becone used to this form of momentary emotional release,
and return to it again and again, at home as in sessions.
When placed under stréss, however artificially this may
be induced, the adrenal gland becomes used to manufacturing
hormones at an accelerated rate, and to targeting its
synthesised çhemicals at certain other organs to protect
them. If/tepeated too often, this depletes the gland,
especially in vitamin C, and wears out the cells. This
means that it can no longer deal efficiently with real
stpéss, or fulfil its vital function/as part of the immune
system (healing inflammation etc)o
At present the medical profession tends to relegate
all arousal techniques, without specification, to the
area of 'hyperventilation'.
It is a word that covers
a multitude of meanings, though its physiological one---
the insufficiency of carbon dioxide in the organism--
remains the basic definition. But there seems to be
little agreement about symptoms. o
Before we examine hyperventilation---and its brother,
the 'tetany effect'- --we should remember that all special
effects can be takén too far. Laughing, coughing,
sneezing, chronic paradoxical breathing, if continued
indefinitely, will produce drastic toxic results.
Ifwe take arousal breathing too far it can become
hyperventilation or tetanic paralysis.
This is why
the arousal exercises in this book must be followed
with extreme care. The number of breaths advised


should never be exceeded, unless in the presence of
a breath master. The exercises I am recommending are
of a preparatory nature. They are also designed for
people who cannot find a competent breath teacher, and
who must therefore approach arousal very gradually,
over a period of months. Thus the emphasis in these
exercises will be on the power to self-monitor, and
how to secure this.
At this point we should return to our earlier
distinction between stress and tension, which are
often wrongly lumped together.
Tension is essential
as a means of self-protection under threat or in danger,
or for the accumulation of new energy.
Stress is a
mental state which goes together with tension but is
by no means synonymous with it. What we have to do
in the Oxygenetic process is to perfect tension so that
it is available to us when we need it, and not in
situations for which it is quite inappropriate. What
we have to do with stress is to destructure the fixity
which is its chief mark.
Many people have said that
the breath can heal everything. But this is only true
if the destructuring process has been successful, and
this may take a considerable time, and involve treading
many different paths.
Later in this book I shall be talking about the
work of Emily Conrad Daoud in Los Angeles. Her 'micro-
movement' workshops induce motion in the body where no
motion was thought to be possible before. Incorporating
such movements into one's life after the breath has been
activated is probably the best destructuring procedure
one could undertake.
In this way the twd extremes,
the two poles between which the organism seems to
operate most beneficially, that of total immobility and
that of vigorous motion, is achieved. Thel subtlety


Duick
of the immobile experience is matched and balanced
by the subtlety of the micro-motions.
Emily, by the way, has some intriguing breath-
patterns which she uses in her group work and which,
despite their frequent use of the mouth, afe perfectly
safe, since a) movement is involved and b) abdominal
breath'is used.
Clients often say 'I feel a peculiar link with
the ancient world through the breathing, as if I knew
what it was liketo be ancient.'
Usually they can't
define thefeeling much more than this. Yet the feeling
is precise, a kind of sensory conviction without images
or historicatreference,
We seeiate sense of bodily-form-with the ancient
world, eertainly
Greeceand-Rome, if not Egypt.
and
Aneancient werld-was fully informed about the
functione-ofthe-breath-seems-evident-from-language.
tal balis
owund 'Spirit' is derived from,spiritus, the breath.
'Inspiration' comes from inspirare, to breathe in, and
'aspiration' from aspirare, to breathe out: these words
Le >nla
& s S
addqtntely define the difserencé between the inhale and
wss Climere SX Sc>e rtus 4 sa Ioe sha L
the exhaleo. as- TYE appears through special-effeets-breath-
antist wwn
ing. The Greek pneuma meant air or spirit, and perhaps
approximated in meaning to the Sanskrit
h Ia The
wwy
prana,
Arabic/rih means tair' and ruh means 'soul'.
The
2 N md,ov
Greek psyche is related to psychein ('to breathe') and
physa ('bellows'). In the Greek view the soul entered
the body with the breath, which came 'from the
whole',
carried by the wind. Thus Greek gods were often the,
offspring of virgins impregnated by the wind(i Batuli!
Here we come to what is perhaps /the chief destryétur-
ing element in the arousal breath, and thaf is the state of
f Cestaii beq- Sir ss € y4kel
A ko Ix
4 dhdv


elation. Of allyspecial effects it is the moat
distuptive of fixity. Just as the special effèct of
laughter clears the head, induces a satisfying discharge-
reflex in the eyes, exercises the abdominal muscles to
the point where theyl ache (we 'hold our sides'),
releasea congestion in the nose, brings a healthy flush
to the cheeks and endows the whole body with a sense
of contendment and easy communicatiàn with the world-
all kixity is gone---, so itlis with exygenetic elatian
on a deeper,subller, mare enduring ldwel.
'spinp' Ae teul. vuiginel tque hen Ite
Bruth : 6 hruth 1 LEy
the Lo wc
tm talleeri Telp, m
bacluu


THE TWO-PART BREATHING SYSTEM
SPECIAL EFFECTS
AUTONOMY
thoracic
abdominal
inbreath
outbreath
mouth
nose
intoxicating
detoxifying
purposive
transforming
sympathetic
parasympathetic
inspiring
aspiring
therapeutic
vegetative
exciting
calming
left nostril
right nostril


CHAPTER BRE AKDO W N


1. THE BASIC BREATH.
i) Fixed-structure thinking has discouraged bellows-
flexibility. Myths about the breath: overbreathing.
'Breath comes naturally'.
Oxygen not an unqualified
good in any quantity.
ii) The two-part bellows system. The meaning of the
upper part and the meaning of the lower part. The
upper---special effects; the lower---basic breathing.
iii) How to make the bellows flexible.
Becoming aware
of the breath and how the nervous system constantly acts
on the breath, modulating and conditioning it according
to ever-changing needs. What is normal breathing?
The distinction between the inhale and the exhale, the
silent and the noisy breath.
The 'curves'.
iv) The abdominal exercises. The abdomen and sexuality.
Smell, 'exchanging the breath' in animals and humans.
Control of the orgasm through breath. The functions
are all controlled by the reticular self. The breath
elicits this 'alter ego'.
The importance of the exhale.
Ten exhale
exercises.
Curtailed or incompleted exhale often the
cause of hyperventilation, rather than the inhale.
The exhale menaces a disturbed organism with the threat
that there may not be another inhale if it (the exhale)
is too long.
vi) Meditation and kundalini practices on the basis
of disturbed breathing patterns are unwise. The use
of the breath in ashrams, often mistaken. The oriental
meaning of meditation the opposite of what that word
(from meditare, to ponder) means for the west. Dhyana,
meaning the cessation of all outward impressions, is
achieved in Oxygenesis as the amniotic state. The
basic breath is a necessary support-system for all
'special effects'.


SPECIAL EFFECTS.
vii) The arousal breath.
Its connection with
hyperventilation. The physiological definition of
arousal.
How it is used in Oxygenesis.
viii) The therapeutic effects.
Superoxide dismutase
and senescence. Ageing in men and women has a common,
not a gender-determined cause. Oxygen and the human
cell. Oxygen and the enzymes.
ix) The meaning of the 'tingles'.
Arousal electricity.
How to monitor arousal.
The arousal exercises.
Breath retention and its importance a) for
metabolism b) for the proper management of energy
and c) as a follow-up from arousal.
Involuntary breath-
retention bad, voluntary breath-retention good, because
in the former the primal repose is missing. Combined
with light-visualisation, breath retention most potent
for effortless performance and influence.
xi) What are optimal powers? In the Oxygenetic process
they are seen as the reticular self made manifest, once
the breath has destructured the organism sufficiently
for that self to assume control without interference
from the cerebral cortex.
Signs of the 'emergence'
of the reticular self.
xii) The importance of elation in the destructuring
process.
The ease with which, once the breath has
been activated, inner elation can be secured within
moments. Meditation---the misunderstanding of this in
the west as a 'haven' experience which may actually lower
the quality of daily life by contrast. The Oxygenetic
process tells us, on the other hand, that everything is
already supplied to us that we could possibly want,
and that beyond-life goals originate in suicidal longing.
True meaning of meditation dhyana, i.e. 'cessation of
all outward impressions', which in Oxygenesis is the
amniotic state. This is not withdrawing in effect.
xiv) Oxygenetic elation a) induces satisfaction with
immediate circumstances b) charges these circumstances
with a power often wrongly sought as 'other-worldly'
and c) provokes a new deployment of energy and


initiative.
This may be accompanied by a sense of
receiving information (the 'antenna effect').
xv) The Oxygenetic process suggests that objects,
bodies etc are simply the shapes, colors etc of spirit.
This is why the ancient world identified spirit with
breath and made it the same word. It is also perhaps
why we associate elation with certain periods of ancient
history, and why in Egyptian, early Greek and Etruscan
sculptured heads there is a common rapt smile, absent
from late Greek and Roman heads.
BREATHTHTAKING MOMENTS will use the breath exercises
as a means of exposing the theoretical and physiological
background.
The Oxygenetic process will therefore
unfold for the reader in the form both of a practical
experience, through the exercises, and an elucidation
the effects of these.
Exercises will be referred to as BB1/2 etc (Basic
Breathing exercises), AB1/2 etc (Arousal Breath
exercises), RB1/2 etc (Retention Breath exercises),
and AN1/2 etc (Alternate Nostril exercises).
These will be listed as an appendix with a brief
description and a page-reference.
LENGTH: 60/80.000 words.
ILLUSTRATIONS: some color plates, otherwise B/W
action photos.
Diagrams.


WORKHOR
Rrr Bnnt
We'm te spois mecie BICARY
lelen wa Mar 21 - nh Ih
Bitige
hut u Cor ueus
laiie -
Ite Llitu ( haha
Gaillac uu
Iuie,
Our mucigri batis he 1ese3)
repien rtue
ure urle
Lxcenin mdenl Iun 5
Salzi It Costile lur 1 (Ca
hni CItes cnvilive, It
hohn and Itze aneyhie).
Zs -
(s vaplice l-n
nflere.n henls
hiid
haw feue uH lau
Itein hew
Luua afese,
WC - Lau


Wokustop N
4. Becun 2 Ae hon-
enlleni
ure
mwn Ite uovr
<pme par : te OW arrie
neeni
refler. juiden
11 relenly '
L clo u6.
hur l cle, lado
suiu 7,
hunhl
wol- Lo juidu
S yelss
anel
A a
2 t blte.
hii,
ipaied uud has C
Ux u I- lats :lz juiduc
6 tamalt
- ay
aninel,
enol ttai
ymll pyai uoy.
6. Au uleiti
Pan hed
Hiclins


WORUHON
taphy i, Lc Aeu hn hes
albourd le alms
anl
trgolte. h iIs be Canr 5 3
(nndl / tte hoL
lued
dodaie
el ha ne iC
adruce 4 it
a a
trr hrls.
(, ha uar ulr Larrd,
her, f hen Ityr,e Itcte o
Velicle Hada
hol
Herlue
a mre
c) mepuiel
guile
So THEY
CoMF I LATER.
L 4
denile
aulys J- 5
ply sobrly
latils


"Tan aduil
Lvir
K defuel
au cn
Soi (
ha ru h
we L stl 2 mise - -
OLE
Fu ail enu c ue (
clunael:
i sl hho It
cum Itc l
Ludola
u. hidole -f be au
heid
Canusl Ie Is a
L1 a coue diriuner.
Teee fhe highig inpoluu the uttralt and the
uppe cusne 1 *e inlnath: He ihelt L pullig
i,tentnat
aud trefhe
Cmuce beliind tue
inuul Jusn
hay
betwrea
tiges uk the alese k wuk ke toti
ullone and Hutax
dial geba
Srilmen agtond wth the Le lne und cill
ligke,


6XYGENSSIS
TINGAE Flak lans
rijoms t. tiing -
forke
thi
Gas a beurgie 2 a
Rulis?
Ler me
hea
duls accefie Aac 'iL : A orfpe
mitig poitnmen
Muy, Shatu
ox3ge
J fiv :.
'spint ha bea
plegel ut 5 n
We hooe ho wd
+ sultle air,
sub-tte hreith'
i.e. PRANA.
Bri I Ca doss Ita
oxyge 1 - RB - - e
is'c tt -&
facw. 'd -
wn d -Jomut: luur act
VL ws hiudl. Ce all depend Ate
hay achire
j-mipate C thelige Unili hehj, uay askiy
d tue
tte 7 a
guidue, hes pout; -
anlinel, d tui. 1. al ce mmad tte ceschal
Cortex - the Lendpurto d castai cneitie
actih


mealmamn
lus 47
mdlan VAM
paas
L wokl Nuer
OXYGENESIS
Cause uuinel
huth diitahne: ctyenu + batt - is
Cutts tte cord s hre
finc Cle : C sugple
GH deth (sullmate).
'The Yun tT : m', hac' (K Rencu)
Mal Yoga he is Leurrl pere Juil
1 tih k l :
PRANA 1
Pranajaun.
'sulite
Itl - telthra ttc ulc, axype l a
Veluide d il areller C


The aniua recine
fmkoi bevr au:
+ alestien ha
Oxy Poencet ceryand sith a-. Heupyei
let te haid 2o, dot
EA argttes
Maduen.
The auiual. wiei te
animal?
31 Uhei ciilislos?
Doci iui
traloi bolro
halve
doc vlin I Colro tm untore X
6 fhw do Inoognise uysey's
Nidsnas Me Le
n Ca
uule
U L cumuy the aumal
Tue'l't cmuen nk heiy: lhs
the 'l' tae Pauspses the wm
sio
tims
nmit pail -
jun
uynig doun and smntuls dea,
A Jun -Hering, A Ldividid
- Bu
tihs Hhati Les!"
Snn. und
alt
i ixie tt ha lear tuc prope.
5H ny lray. leuplai Rouenld ikay 7 Cie
dic kuv he hr
thu
docsu malte gt


Herce fte
Camies
hes ta the
cufan
bet unst
heire
sith He
mami uG
un ld I
5 WHAT
Githu the
THINKING -
I1i
hind He st huads k lodk 2-pact
Kce ntr.es
: whe Anstie ualant
5 nficstes A
Jhi
entablatios
pelugly:
Houe hear 4 the ulthe undut
The
wrhlen A cii Hal se
as -
detaclmer tn te
inel
IL :
actuilg a Mrclp aumm. huuchoi,
ud Ley LA Lo ha we H
A Q
fui
i D a


Onygeneri
I Uer
dcel i a asgulat n wo 2
Coppie 2
can
disinen d Ie Jauday
hu n e
it tle
Slads: Y need
LoL L un qu eef
- Ca rxtra
Beip Uho cau vee the >itualo:
hoL A
mevver fon fa lul ne
And cntaclap
te rxtin heiup i a ixcitip werk : f ItL
Beip
alre doure 1 castare ercnwape
d uranlly 2 pMau ced : Inates Jruer:
heip unde
yek iL La l be Suokad, a
s7u,
mtoile also.
MIT-CHONDRIOCS a
Ic STrny h.mp4 >ialagy).
2ne like u hau t. put - A pas 2
pediila k jurcsine. +
Anel Itre
Juctuien atou
hou pidine alnudy
Itiar.
Or prm Thay chares Ttue g2ha a do swoty
we Con uel kewr. be Couze 5 cou Lee slbore
Aren. A te hesma R mul hure loy - a
valis poen.
Onygeush eine saliy
uzl nue -
UNGUDED curd UNKEAL wP cauuo L
Hon ixcapt L a pursine a autmate achris.


) OXYGEVESIS
I Drny dink
2 dead -
uan
pea
gilel I ha tt
ponton, ) aga
Ssuctin
tre
blea
pele
ttur
Yme
the
tiige
tie
hachoonl
Her stijuls oiled
eyp
(4wrd) Stehes n Hhe tn
( duce
SICC
eud 2 The silac mty:
Rute cien all
uead h Ce
Jnliw
hau - ell ueeel (- le
Dun
k T
deinde
Ao uu,
Cohhot SThAf iil
ttu el el 2 BONSAGE C
Jht
een kve. CLIN ler
- Budy
. To klin
oxges
S B
The clunif magz
hutig
* unr luin knd hrolve, mitioion i
IFAEL
T desse 2
Mystares


OXYGEMISIS
pfa the Silur hut (quiroy):
Lut u Ink kim daily al thi,
Har tLE iende I unal -
Ka6 Vu
alr, sxivt ntad s to
ak (av
mtniu UL w Cel n Uo diin N os Gr,
hel us cioore ttre wml sturi
huser hhh Jue Cer. dee dua
anol Lur
Car Les te tult
and i L IEe peit Juc
sppli il /om chni
eu soiy - h
Hel lli areyri
unt
unde -awch cahaig.
deni defeul w
J beive alcre
5 c du
Mertin - ne 9 E Ueluiclo, C 18 .
lE - stal tton 1
hipite jepine
dinbes i Meep. we - Co a CSAVER)
hir pm de Itze
t clone
wel.e
lihe sehine
Steohel
MnTS
Glji DPr
heen
unde csorke Craeps Ca a8 waraee
melit helitl LE hol Cle


uL A
pnent elt a
TH h
Cu unhhbls Hac
5 hntk de
( hsnit L
BILL MOYERS
YoToultehy
15/40 Buondu , C
OXYGI ENESIS WORkdae
Iue Mad Apr
(Emilpaiandst ixapt)
% efm Xiaiis, a
nlel Tlue uce U ha
uyrfical
ceered
indiltid
kbe
Col lter & 2u
husleder
derse, Y
Spe
mysticil
Oua,
te umid
Jiined :
Eucruse 2 the H4
hold + zm.
Tue
ile wh, Itre Jeveh Aug
cll
te uls paxe
Jive
Ie dense
uad) A Desulk
emcuuny
Riuer
I Ranobanin.
thi
t Cu km!
tun
clend 2
V Le
ha - Thikuip tmiu.
ttu TlL
th cdual vern
ju H
k isijJe, :
srd, d mytril
riotali 5 senk Ll tte
Shelisw.
Duhie ts Joud hottug
Ti walike 4 -
cedicval thoslogiin
He la n 2
TL 3 a
Tol
Mebac


Au thais wa feke. a, the ueadt rhrn
hatral derse: the mypertin wG uohyiou
7ta. aninel'
tupits L iH Hie safforni 2
idca.
llarelg c nfveu ( *e ngeu Hale
- Jire h
ceir (siles breatt, 7 asn wosis)


Oxygener
Tue fine st : I
defive mekdwis
LAING ie
Pycatin lasked tt a - I kefinilo and
Caldi's Jindl re utie he rad lek It. Buddlin
prackii
SATISAMPAJA MA whice. he Trunale o
BARE ATTENTON, i.e. altawim nthos
auy
perace 2 mental A encotimal iv hodily A
behavinoal -caral
IV: uo ffesl beiy told Clcas
mind -ly allasir all Itiget I
hmrie
pun
is -ill ents a stute n cnbol, i
EmA
Snice Are : no tu Bae Thre nad paicaly
tte weston heind, : Gerl nAt tur alal
ets
la-yu, acol hot hoi toyse L, d -
- C stce
2-cyounen
Qec : Jly K.D. haiup
clinlle dcfinlcn Jil ssnludbon uwd
Cmlk, >tt tieep.
H 6 s umyg h coupen - Le ith Srrud'. tres
noziatn >xcypt i the iihal
Aupafigied
ttre
Thoze Hn
Thatoee A - 0 C
ae Le frendis
2lutt
e mpemied olo.
Ctala 4
xyal
he hrrth Co tlu I
it ti stt
aucl
uns
tro-ntci
Iat
Ce P Ttu
1 hs Ingun
2 recig duns
4 ree. n,h l ha -
ex, P Ito
anol
how las sevu,
nolonal
l hetue
ol bahanowal


2 Lueve violul; Aneninefe.


Oryuns
Fhe
peyp
loshad -
stmil
ute
ohni tuce
cutur. Lh cR
/ do
busher hou tlue cill
yur
give L Ca hoton 2
lub
tue
hiis,
tom ?
rafince, hoC ttoru, uot CLL iden
THE
SILENT
BREATH: T wy tine
ixaniie Jhe Ae dill wcu C betisen
co hoiay cand
Co Wer muth, ud
d- LL nal hat. lni
cill mahe t I a o X +
h get te mpisu.
Isnu lor doiy uttuy Lure thc i 2 t
Sliguru dange. Ranc :
ead tr dangr :
paotice Prcemin te Icad H Jr
hosmhon
Teen ai tro uts nie
Sie uone marifer - tta
prachice 2 oxaguen. A
stG 2 relaxati,
ur 2 well beiy, te
h sustau
Los
aitai neslg derinp cahis samm, Crixe, suce A
Can Lpr
it mol sta ) tre sd
a L tthe ton
te allainl
aque, 2
hai pgo.y cu
foomaboi.