Holotropic Breathwork

A New Approach to Self-Exploration and Therapy

Stanislav Grof, Christina Grof

• Verlag: SUNY Press
• Jahr: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781438433950
• Thema: Psychologie
• Thema: Psychologie transpersonnelle

In this long awaited book, Stanislav Grof and Christina Grof describe their groundbreaking new form of self-exploration and psychotherapy: Holotropic Breathwork. Holotropic means 'moving toward wholeness, ' from the Greek holos ( whole) and trepein (moving in the direction of). The breathwork utilizes the remarkable healing and transformative potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness. These states engender a rich array of experiences with unique healing potential—reliving childhood memories, infancy, birth and prenatal life, and elements from the historical and archetypal realms of the collective unconscious. Induced by very simple means—a combination of accelerated breathing, evocative music, and bodywork in a safe and supportive setting, Holotropic Breathwork integrates the insights from modern consciousness research, depth psychology, transpersonal psychology, anthropology, Eastern spiritual practices, and mystical traditions. The Grofs' work with holotropic states of consciousness has introduced revolutionary changes to psychiatry, psychology, and psychotherapy. Written in a clear, easily understandable style, this indispensable book summarizes their remarkable insights.

CHAPTER ONE

Historical Roots of Holotropic Breathwork

1. Sigmund Freud and the dawn of depth psychology

Holotropic Breathwork is one of the more recent contributions to depth psychology, a discipline initiated at the beginning of the twentieth century by the Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Since Freud single-handedly laid the foundations of this new field, depth psychology has had a complex and stormy history. Freud's contributions to psychology and psychiatry were truly groundbreaking. He demonstrated the existence of the unconscious and described its dynamics, developed the technique of dream interpretation, identified the psychological mechanisms involved in the genesis of psychoneuroses and psychosomatic disorders, discovered infantile sexuality, recognized the phenomenon of transference, invented the method of free association, and outlined the basic principles of psychotherapy (Freud and Breuer 1936; Freud 1953, 1962).

Although initially Freud's interest was primarily clinical—to explain the etiology of psychoneuroses and to find a way of treating them—in the course of his explorations his horizons expanded enormously. The range of phenomena that he studied included, besides the content of dreams and psychodynamics of neurotic symptoms, such themes as the mechanism of jokes and slips of the tongue and a number of cultural and sociopolitical phenomena—problems of human civilization, history, wars and revolutions, religion, and art (Freud 1955a and b, 1957a and b, 1960a and b, 1964a and b).

Freud surrounded himself with a group of unusually talented and imaginative thinkers (the “Viennese circle”), several of whom had their own unique perspectives and developed renegade schools of psychotherapy. While Freudian psychoanalysis became an important part of thinking in mainstream psychology and psychiatry, the so-called renegade schools—Adlerian, Rankian, Reichian, and Jungian—have never been accepted by official academic circles. However, as we will see later, in the last several decades some of them have become increasingly popular and influential as alternative approaches to psychotherapy and many ideas of their founders have been integrated into the theory and practice of Holotropic Breathwork.

2. Humanistic psychology and experiential therapies

In the middle of the twentieth century, American psychology was dominated by two major schools—behaviorism and Freudian psychoanalysis. Increasing dissatisfaction with these two orientations as adequate approaches to the understanding of the human psyche led to the development of humanistic psychology. The main spokesman and most articulate representative of this new field was the well-known American psychologist Abraham Maslow. He offered an incisive critique of the limitations of behaviorism and psychoanalysis, or the First and the Second Force in psychology as he called them, and formulated the principles of a new perspective in psychology (Maslow 1962, 1964. and 1969).

Maslow's main objection against behaviorism was that the study of animals, such as rats and pigeons, could only clarify those aspects of human functioning that we share with these animals. It thus has no relevance for the understanding of higher, specifically human qualities that are unique to human life, such as love, self-consciousness, self-determination, personal freedom, morality, art, philosophy, religion, and science. It is also largely useless in regard to some specifically human negative characteristics, such as greed, lust for power, cruelty, and tendency to “malignant aggression.” He also criticized the behaviorists' disregard for consciousness and introspection and their exclusive focus on the study of behavior.

By contrast, the primary interest of humanistic psychology, Maslow's Third Force, was in human subjects, and this discipline honored the interest in consciousness and introspection as important complements to the objective approach to research. The behaviorists' exclusive emphasis on determination by the environment, stimulus/response, and reward/punishment was replaced by emphasis on the capacity of human beings to be internally directed and motivated to achieve self-realization and fulfill their human potential.

In his criticism of psychoanalysis, Maslow pointed out that Freud and his followers drew conclusions about the human psyche mainly from the study of psychopathology and he disagreed with their biological reductionism and their tendency to explain all psychological processes in terms of base instincts. By comparison, humanistic psychology focused on healthy populations, or even individuals who show supernormal functioning in various areas (Maslow's “growing tip of the population”), on human growth and potential, and on higher functions of the psyche. It also emphasized that it is important for psychologists to be sensitive to practical human needs and to serve important interests and objectives of human society.

Within a few years after Abraham Maslow and Anthony Sutich launched the Association for Humanistic Psychology (AHP) and its journal, the new movement became very popular among American mental health professionals and even in the general public. The multidimensional perspective of humanistic psychology and its emphasis on the whole person provided a broad umbrella for the development of a rich spectrum of new, effective therapeutic approaches that greatly expanded the range of possibilities when addressing emotional, psychosomatic, interpersonal, and psychosocial problems.

Among the important characteristics of these new approaches was a decisive shift from the exclusively verbal strategies of traditional psychotherapy (“talking therapies”) to the direct expression of emotions. The therapeutic strategy also moved from exploration of individual history and of unconscious motivation to the feelings and thought processes of the clients in the here and now. Another important aspect of this therapeutic revolution was the emphasis on the interconnectedness of the psyche and the body and overcoming the taboo against touching that previously dominated the field of psychotherapy. Various forms of work with the body thus formed an integral part of the new treatment strategies; Fritz Perls' Gestalt therapy, Alexander Lowen's bioenergetics and other neo-Reichian approaches, encounter groups, and marathon sessions can be mentioned here as salient examples of humanistic therapies.

3. The advent of psychedelic therapy

A serendipitous discovery of Albert Hofmann, a Swiss chemist conducting research of ergot alkaloids in the Sandoz laboratories in Basel, introduced into the world of psychiatry, psychology, and psychotherapy a radically new element—the heuristic and healing potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness. In April 1943, Hofmann discovered the psychedelic effects of LSD-25, or diethylamide of lysergic acid, when he accidentally intoxicated himself during the synthesis of this substance. After the publication of the first clinical paper on LSD by Zurich psychiatrist Walter A. Stoll in the late 1940s (Stoll 1947), this new semisynthetic ergot alkaloid, active in incredibly minute quantities of micrograms or gammas (millionths of a gram), became overnight a sensation in the world of science.

In clinical research and self-experimentation with LSD, many professionals discovered that the current model of the psyche, limited to postnatal biography and the Freudian individual unconscious, was superficial and inadequate. The new map of the psyche that emerged out of this research (Grof 1975) added to the current model of the psyche two large transbiographical domains—the perinatal level, closely related to the memory of biological birth, and the transpersonal level, harboring among others the historical and archetypal domains of the collective unconscious as envisioned by C. G. Jung (Jung 1959a). Early experiments with LSD also showed that the sources of emotional and psychosomatic disorders were not limited to traumatic memories from childhood and infancy, as traditional psychiatrists assumed, but that their roots reached much deeper into the psyche, into the perinatal and transpersonal regions (Grof 2000). This surprising revelation was accompanied by the discovery of new, powerful therapeutic mechanisms operating on these deep levels of the psyche.

Using LSD as a catalyst, it became possible to extend the range of applicability of psychotherapy to categories of patients that previously had been difficult to reach, such as alcoholics and drug addicts, and even positively influence the behavior of sexual deviants and criminal recidivists (Grof 2006c). Particularly valuable and promising were the early efforts to use LSD psychotherapy in the work with terminal cancer patients. Research with this population showed that LSD was able to relieve severe pain, often even in patients who had not responded to medication with narcotics. In a large percentage of these patients, it was also possible to ease or even eliminate difficult emotional and psychosomatic symptoms, such as depression, general tension, and insomnia, alleviate the fear of death, increase the quality of their life during their remaining days, and positively transform the experience of dying (Cohen 1965; Kast and Collins 1966; Grof 2006b).

4. Abraham Maslow, Anthony Sutich, and the birth of transpersonal psychology

In the 1960s, the observations from the research of non-ordinary states of consciousness—analysis of experiences from psychedelic sessions and Maslow's study of spontaneous mystical experiences (“peak experiences”)—revolutionized the image of the human psyche and inspired a radically new orientation in psychology. In spite of the popularity of humanistic psychology, its founders Abraham Maslow and Anthony Sutich grew dissatisfied with the discipline that they had themselves fathered. They became increasingly aware that they had left out an extremely important element—the spiritual dimension of the human psyche (Sutich 1976).

Maslow's own research of “peak experiences,” the therapeutic use of psychedelics, widespread psychedelic experimentation of the young generation during the stormy 1960s, and the renaissance of interest in Eastern spiritual philosophies, various mystical traditions, meditation, and ancient and aboriginal wisdom, made the current conceptual framework in psychology untenable. It became clear that a comprehensive and cross-culturally valid psychology needed to include observations from such areas as mystical states; cosmic consciousness; psychedelic experiences; trance phenomena; creativity; and religious, artistic, and scientific inspiration.

In 1967, a small working group, including Abraham Maslow, Anthony Sutich, Stanislav Grof, James Fadiman, Miles Vich, and Sonya Margulies, met repeatedly in Menlo Park, California, with the purpose of creating a new psychology that would honor the entire spectrum of human experience, including various non-ordinary states of consciousness. During these discussions, Maslow and Sutich accepted Grof's suggestion and named the new discipline “transpersonal psychology.” This term replaced their own original name, “transhumanistic” or “reaching beyond humanistic concerns.” Soon afterward, they launched the Association of Transpersonal Psychology (ATP) and started the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology. Several years later, in 1975, Robert Frager founded the (California) Institute of Transpersonal Psychology in Palo Alto, which has remained at the cutting edge of transpersonal education, research, and therapy for more than three decades.

CHAPTER TWO

Theoretical Foundations of Holotropic Breathwork

Holotropic Breathwork is a powerful method of self-exploration and therapy that uses a combination of seemingly simple means—accelerated breathing, evocative music, and a type of bodywork that helps to release residual bioenergetic and emotional blocks. The sessions are usually conducted in groups; participants work in pairs and alternate in the roles of breathers and “sitters.” The process is supervised by trained facilitators, who assist participants whenever special intervention is necessary. Following the breathing sessions, participants express their experiences by painting mandalas and share accounts of their inner journeys in small groups. Follow-up interviews and various complementary methods are used, if necessary, to facilitate the completion and integration of the breathwork experience.

In its theory and practice, Holotropic Breathwork combines and integrates various elements from depth psychology, modern consciousness research, transpersonal psychology, Eastern spiritual philosophies, and native healing practices. It differs significantly from traditional forms of psychotherapy, which use primarily verbal means, such as psychoanalysis and various other schools of depth psychology derived from it. It shares certain common characteristics with the experiential therapies of humanistic psychology, such as Gestalt practice and the neo-Reichian approaches, emphasizing direct emotional expression and work with the body. However, the unique feature of Holotropic Breathwork is that it utilizes the intrinsic healing potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness.

1. Holotropic states of consciousness

The remarkable healing power of non-ordinary states of consciousness, which was known and used in ancient civilizations and native cultures since time immemorial, was confirmed by modern consciousness research and therapeutic experimentation conducted in the second half of the twentieth century. This research has also shown that the phenomena occurring during non-ordinary states and associated with them cannot be accounted for by the conceptual frameworks currently used by academic psychiatry and psychology. Because this issue is essential for understanding the Holotropic Breathwork, we will precede our discussion of this method with a survey of the theoretical challenges that non-ordinary states of consciousness pose not only for psychiatry, psychology, and psychotherapy, but also for the basic metaphysical assumptions of Western science.

Let us start with a few semantic comments. Our primary interest in this book is to explore the healing, transformative, and evolutionary potential of non-ordinary states of consciousness and their great value as a source of new revolutionary data about consciousness, the human psyche, and the nature of reality. From this perspective, the term altered states of consciousness commonly used by mainstream clinicians and theoreticians is not appropriate, because of its one-sided emphasis on the distortion or impairment of the “correct way” of experiencing oneself and the world. (In colloquial English and in veterinary jargon, the term alter is used to signify castration of domestic dogs and cats.) Even the somewhat better term non-ordinary states of consciousness is too general, since it includes a wide range of conditions that are not relevant from the point of view of our discussion.

Consciousness can be profoundly changed by a variety of pathological processes—by cerebral traumas, by intoxication with noxious chemicals, by infections, or by degenerative and circulatory processes in the brain. Such conditions can certainly result in profound psychological changes that would be included in the category of non-ordinary states of consciousness. However, they cause what can be called “trivial deliria” or “organic psychoses.” People suffering from delirious states are typically disoriented; they do not know who and where they are and what the date is. In addition, their mental functioning is significantly impaired. They typically show a disturbance of intellectual functions and have subsequent amnesia for these experiences. For these conditions, the term altered states of consciousness is certainly fitting. These states are very important clinically, but are not interesting from the therapeutic and heuristic point of view.

In this book, we will focus on a large and important subgroup of non-ordinary states of consciousness that are radically different from those just described. These are the states that novice shamans experience during their initiatory crises and later induce in their clients. Ancient and native cultures have used these states in rites of passage and in their healing ceremonies. They were described by mystics of all ages and initiates in the ancient mysteries of death and rebirth. Procedures inducing these states were also developed and used in the context of the great religions of the world—Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity.

The importance of non-ordinary states of consciousness for ancient and aboriginal cultures is reflected in the amount of time and energy that the members of these human groups dedicated to the development of technologies of the sacred, various procedures capable of inducing them for ritual and spiritual purposes. These methods combine in various ways drumming and other forms of percussion, music, chanting, rhythmic dancing, changes of breathing, and cultivation of special forms of awareness. Extended social and sensory isolation, such as a stay in a cave, desert, arctic ice, or in high mountains, also play an important role as means of inducing this category of non-ordinary states. Extreme physiological interventions used for this purpose include fasting, sleep deprivation, dehydration, use of powerful laxatives and purgatives, and even infliction of severe pain, body mutilation, and massive bloodletting. By far the most effective tool for inducing healing and transformative non-ordinary states has been rit...