Reviews of Exploring Holotropic Breathwork

Midwest Book Review

A unique, invaluable guide

The price tag of Exploring Holotropic Breathwork: Selected Articles From A Decade Of The Inner Door is weighty indeed but so is the information packed within its covers. This guide gathers well over a hundred field reports related to a non-drug altered-state work. Over eighty authors trained in breathwork published these articles between 1991-2002, providing a foundation of important information to practitioners in fields ranging from medical to spiritual areas. From work with trauma survivors to work with lupus and HIV patients, this details a range of effects of breathwork and offers invaluable advice on how it can blend with traditional and alternative therapies. A unique, invaluable guide highly recommended for the new age health library.

James A. Cox, Editor-in-Chief
Midwest Book Review
May 1, 2003

Chris M. Bache author of Dark Night, Early Dawn

An essential volume for libraries, schools, and serious collectors of transpersonal and clinical theory.

Exploring Holotropic Breathwork is an excellent book on the theory and practice of Holotropic Breathwork and represents an important contribution to the literature. In addition, it addresses many challenging aspects of spiritual practice not often discussed outside circles of committed practitioners. Thus, there is a "hands on" quality to this volume that is both refreshing and inspiring.

Since 1988, more than 800 persons from 36 countries have completed Stanislav and Christina Grof's training program in Holotropic Breathwork, a widespread, non-drug psycho-spiritual practice that the Grof's developed after therapeutic work with psychedelics was no longer legally sanctioned by our culture. Holotropic Breathwork employs evocative music, deepened and accelerated breathing, and focused bodywork to enter powerful non-ordinary states of consciousness.

This volume contains 144 articles published in the training program's in-house journal, The Inner Door, between 1991-2002. Most of the 85 authors are professionals in medical, academic, therapeutic, and spiritual fields who are here sharing their insights and experiences with other practitioners. Most of the articles are short (3-4 pages) and therefore efficient in their delivery of information. They cover a wide variety of personal and professional topics that emerge from the breathwork.

Anthologies as large as this one (600 pages) all too often are ponderous tomes, unwieldy and tedious to use. Not so here. Kylea Taylor has done an excellent job of shaping her material into a well-organized and easily accessible reference work. Each article is annotated in the Table of Contents (very useful) and collected into categories that are well aimed. The reader will find articles on Holotropic Breathwork and shamanism, trauma and addiction recovery, Kundalini, astrology, other breathwork systems, and more. The result is a rich compendium of information written by insiders about the nuts and bolts of Holotropic Breathwork, with many anecdotes of physical, psychological, and spiritual healing, and placing Holotropic Breathwork in dialogue with other systems of healing.

As valuable as the individual contributions are, what I enjoyed most about this book was the opportunity to enter the community of Breathwork practitioners and "listen in" to their conversations as they processed their experiences and pushed the boundaries of their disciplines. One gets the sense that one is following a social movement that is consciously breaking new ground, watching them take risks, and listening as they learn from each other's experiences.

There are too many excellent articles to pick and choose favorites, but for its historical significance alone I would draw attention to the articles discussing the role of natal and transit astrology in deep therapeutic work (many written by Matthew Stelzner). This is truly paradigm breaking work. Rick Tarnas' discussion of Stan Grof's natal chart is not to be missed.

In sum, Exploring Holotropic Breathwork is an essential volume for libraries, schools, and serious collectors of transpersonal and clinical theory.

Review by Chris M. Bache
Youngstown State University
May 28, 2003

Gunnel Minnet, in Scientific & Medical Network Journal

One of the important reference books in this field

The Inner Door is the publication of the Association for Holotropic Breathwork International and from it; Kylea Taylor has selected articles from 85 authors and professionals in the Holotropic Breathwork field. They cover a wide range from an introduction to Holotropic Breathwork and related theories, to a practical overview of the technique, as well as a previously unpublished article by Stanislav Grof. It also includes various specialist aspects of Holotropic Breathwork such as trauma recovery, addiction recovery and psychiatric issues and physical healing. From that it moves on (reflecting a common pattern in breathwork) to more transpersonal aspects such as living life, astrology, kundalini and shamanism to other spiritual systems. The final chapters compare Holotropic Breathwork with other breathwork systems, its past and present, its relationship with research and its representation around the world.

Because of its wide range the book offers a very good introduction as well as an overview of Holotropic Breathwork. The fact that the technique is presented in a number of short articles by many different authors, all with their own expertise, provides the reader with a very varied view. The grouping of articles reflecting various aspects makes the book easy to use as a general reference source for Holotropic Breathwork as well as other breathwork techniques.

Although some of the articles are aimed for more 'in-house use', this book is an absolute must for breathwork therapists of all kinds. It will probably remain one of the important reference books in this field for a long time to come.

~reviewed by Gunnel Minnet,
former General Secretary of the International Breathwork Foundation and author of Breath and Spirit

This review was published in the Scientific & Medical Network Journal, No. 83. Winter 2003 (p. 70)

Joy Manne, from The Healing Breath

An Indispensable Breathwork Reference

In her preface to this outstanding collection of articles on Holotropic Breathwork, the editor, Kylea Taylor humbly calls The Inner Door a "newsletter." It is much more than that, as this collection of articles amply demonstrates. The Inner Door would be much better described as a valuable journal which publishes informative, high quality articles on Holotropic Breathwork™ (HB). It goes much deeper into theory, practice, and issues than does the usual newsletter.

Holotropic Breathwork was invented by Stanislav and Christina Grof. It has by far the most developed theoretical bases than any other form of Breathwork. Its richness shows in the diversity of sections in the Table of Contents: "Introduction to Holotropic Breathwork;" "Holotropic Breathwork and Related Theory;" "Practicing Holotropic Breathwork;" "Holotropic Breathwork and Trauma Recovery;" "…and Addiction Recovery;" "… and Physical Healing;" "… and Living Life;" " … and Astrology;" "… and Kundalini:" "… and Shamanism;" " … and Therapeutic Systems;" "… and other Spiritual Systems;" "Holotropic Breathwork History and News;" "Holotropic Breathwork and Research;" "Global Holotropic Breathwork;" "Holotropic Breathwork Forms." Within these sections "Eighty-five different authors have contributed a total of 144 articles and poems, five informed consent forms, and three research questionnaires." (p. 8) Each article has an abstract.

What among all this richness can a reviewer choose to illustrate the quality of this book? In the first article, "Radar to the Infinite: HB and the Integral Vision," Martin Boroson, the author of Becoming Me (www.becomingme.com) defines HB:
A technique … in which clients gain access to a non-ordinary state of consciousness through deep, fast breathing. This process is strengthened by evocative music, and is supported by a considerable degree of preparation and personal attention. Clients lie on a mattress and close their eyes, but are free to move their bodies, or cry, scream, sing, chant, shout, move, spit up, meditate, laugh, yawn, etc., as the inner experience demands. In this state of consciousness, clients can remember, discover and explore any level of the spectrum of consciousness. (p. 30).

In HB there is the client who receives the session, and the Sitter who accompanies it. Sitting is of fundamental importance. There is an inspiring article by Jack Silver that compares sitting to meditation:

My first Breathing experience was not memorable; my first Sitting was unforgettable. ... I looked up and was overwhelmed with emotion. My heart had opened up, and I was caring not only for my Breather (my beloved), but the room as well. I felt I was sitting for the World. The joy, exaltation, pain and sorrow of the World flowed through me as I witenessed. Later I mused that the real teaching was the Sitting, the Breathing only a means of distracting our attention away from attainment-oriented practices, while the effect of directed attention, compassion-in-action, and opening of the heart occurred and became manifest. ("Here I Sit" p. 313ff)

It is essential in HB that the Sitter offers no interpretations. Cary Sparks ("COEX Systems and Biographical Trauma: Working Multi-Dimensionally in HB") points out that

most Western psychology is attached to causes of trauma being rooted in early biographical events (thus) it can be difficult, even when we have grown to understand an extended cartography of the psyche, to see outside of a one-dimensional paradigm." (p. 46f)

By not interpreting the client’s experience, situations where Facilitators have a limited interpretation of emerging material … and impose it (p. 48) are avoided. This carefulness is an essential part of the sensitive, well-thought out practice of HB.

Ray Kelly discusses the controversial subject memories of abuse in "’Mask Memories:"

Isn’t it interesting that when we have an experience of being raped by a tribe of aborigines in a ceremony of coming of age, we can easily call it a Second Matrix or Third Matrix experience. We can call it a ‘past life,’ and we can otherwise dissociate from it. We experience the terror and the futility, the horror and the grief, but then we can rationalize that it was something other than our current life. However, when a trapped experience or a struggle with rape of physical abuse puts the face of someone that we know on it, we automatically see it as real. For some reason, because we can identify someone, it is no longer a metaphor. Does this mean it is not real? I do not know. Sometimes, in my opinion, neither does the person having he experience, even though they may swear it is real. (p. 90)

Kelly’s choice when his clients ‘remember’ abuse by a known person is to have them do five more breathwork sessions before any confrontation. This is a very wise article, and a very wise approach.

HB is more than "just a method." Ken Sloan intelligently discusses "Breathwork, Community, and the Spiritual Path." (p. 139ff) Anne Høivik, shows the importance of poetry and art in "Ways of Integration." (p. 162-165) And as HB is also a method, there are advanced trainings for practitioners which deal with particular problems: Ingrid Pacey’s articles "Using HB with Multiples" (p. 184-187) and " Breathwork with Trauma Survivors: Ten Years Later" (p. 188-193) are among the many examples.

What about physical healing? Does Breathwork heal? is a question that is often asked. Many articles attest to the healing value of breathwork.

What about when one partner does Breathwork and the other does not? This is sensitively addressed by Carolyn Green in "Relationships Post-Breathwork. (p.330f)

What about how to cope after doing deep work? How to integrate after an HB session is explained in "After the Group" by Ingird Pacey and Wendy Barrett (p. 571-574) and "Integration and Aftercare" by Lynda Griebenow and Scott Egleston (p. 575f).

Stan Grof has given suggestions for eight research projects for HB that could be applied to any form of breathwork. ("Suggested Research Projects" pp. 517-519)

I could go on, but I won’t. If you are interested in any kind of Breathwork, you will have to read this book. It may be long, but the articles are short, pithy and very interesting, every one of them! I read it through from beginning to end. You may like to dip into it. If you are a breathworker – Holotropic or otherwise - it is indispensable to have this book, as a reference volume to look up issues that concern you and your client, and discover ways of working with them.

A reviewer is supposed to find something to criticize, but I don’t really. Articles are well, but not excessively supplied with references. There is a good Index. Maybe Max Rossler's article "Premonitory Vision in HB" (pp. 115f) should have been in the Shamanism section? Articles written to compare HB with Rebirthing come down in favour of HB – but what else could happen in an HB volume? I myself do not see this as a choice – why deprive oneself? I see it rather as a "both – and" situation!

Maybe there should have been more illustrations of the mandalas that are a feature of HB sessions besides the one the cover by Daria Kulenkamp? This would, of course, have put up the price of a book that already seems expensive, unless we count the pages and measure the excellence. Grof has already proposed, in "Suggested Research Projects," that slides of mandalas should be collected. I would like to encourage Kylea Taylor, who has written some of the most important books and articles in Breathwork, to produce a book on this subject alone. It is surely worthy.

This is an essential source of information and reference book, not only for HB, but for all forms of breathwork. It sets the standard and should be required reading for all Breathwork trainees, no matter which form of breathwork they practice. Its editor is to be congratulated. Her love and respect for her discipline is shown in the physical beauty and grace of this book from the cover picture, through the quality of the articles whose abstracts facilitates its use as a work of reference, to the faultless editing. Breathwork, in its great diversity and efficacy, needs and deserves many more books of this quality.

~Joy Manne
in The Healing Breath
July 23, 2003