MedicalXpress published a report about breathing techniques and states of mind:
Breathwork while listening to music may induce a blissful state in practitioners, accompanied by changes in blood flow to emotion-processing brain regions, according to a study published in the open-access journal PLOS One by Amy Amla Kartar from the Colasanti Lab in the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, U.K., and colleagues.
These changes occur even while the body's stress response may be activated and are associated with reporting reduced negative emotions.
The popularity of breathwork as a therapeutic tool for psychological distress is rapidly expanding. Breathwork practices that increase ventilatory rate or depth, accompanied by music, can lead to altered states of consciousness (ASCs) similar to those evoked by psychedelic substances.
High ventilation breathwork (HVB) might offer a nonpharmacological alternative, with fewer legal and ethical restrictions to large-scale adoption in clinical treatment. However, the neurobiological mechanisms and subjective experience underlying ASCs induced by HVB have not been studied extensively.
To fill this knowledge gap, Kartar and colleagues characterized ASCs induced by HVB in experienced practitioners by analyzing self-reported data from 15 individuals who participated online, eight individuals who participated in the lab, and 19 individuals who underwent magnetic resonance imaging.
Their task consisted of a 20- to 30-minute session of cyclic breathing without pausing while listening to music, followed by a series of questionnaires within 30 minutes of finishing the breathwork session.
The results showed that the intensity of ASCs evoked by HVB was proportional to cardiovascular sympathetic activation, as indicated by a decrease in heart rate variability, indicating a potential stress response. In addition, HVB-evoked ASCs were associated with a profound decrease in blood flow to the left operculum and posterior insula—brain regions implicated in representing the internal state of the body, including breathing.
Also, despite HVB causing large and global reductions in blood flow to the brain, there was a progressive increase in blood flow during the session to the right amygdala and anterior hippocampus, which are brain regions involved in the processing of emotional memories. These blood flow changes correlated with psychedelic experiences, demonstrating that these alterations may underlie the positive effects of this breathwork.
The authors add, "Our research is the first to use neuroimaging to map the neurophysiological changes that occur during breathwork. Our key findings include that breathwork can reliably evoke profound psychedelic states. We believe that these states are linked to changes in the function of specific brain regions involved in self-awareness, and fear and emotional memory processing.
"We found that more profound changes in blood flow in specific brain areas were linked to deeper sensations of unity, bliss, and emotional release, collectively known as 'oceanic boundlessness.'"
Dr. Alessandro Colasanti, P.I., adds, "Breathwork is a powerful yet natural tool for neuromodulation, working through the regulation of metabolism across the body and brain. It holds tremendous promise as a transformative therapeutic intervention for conditions that are often both distressing and disabling."
Journal Reference: Neurobiological substrates of altered states of consciousness induced by high ventilation breathwork accompanied by music
(Score: 4, Informative) by driverless on Friday August 29 2025, @12:14PM (15 children)
For people who have never heard of breathwork before, it came out of rebirthing in the 1970s. Evidence that it does any good is pretty sparse.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by acid andy on Friday August 29 2025, @12:50PM (7 children)
It sounds like a form of hyperventilation, which is not great for you.
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(Score: 5, Interesting) by aafcac on Friday August 29 2025, @02:21PM (4 children)
Hyperventilation is fine, the worst that's likely to happen is that you pass out until the carbon dioxide levels return to normal. As long as you're not under water or in a place where passing out is an issue, it's fine. The only times I can find where it can be an issue is if it's being caused by something that is an issue. If you're doing it on purpose, you're just flat out not going to be able to maintain it long enough for there to be any issues. It's like holding your breathe, a generally healthy person can't hold their breathe so long that it's dangerous, unless they're in a position where passing out could be dangerous, you just pass out and start breathing again.
Neither, Johns Hopkins, WebMD nor the Cleveland Clinic even bother to list possible negative effects of hyperventilation.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Friday August 29 2025, @02:38PM (3 children)
My medical and biological knowledge are extremely limited, but if you are regularly depriving your brain of oxygen to the point of being close to fainting, wouldn't you eventually get to the point that the number of brain cells you've killed off will start to be quite noticeable?
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(Score: 2) by aafcac on Friday August 29 2025, @03:03PM (2 children)
Nonsense, there's little basis for that assertion. Hyperventilation pushes the oxygen levels up and scrubs carbon dioxide from the blood stream. You're not going to deprive your brain of oxygen like that. You can potentially have issues with excessive oxygen building being toxic, but again, that's very hard to achieve just by hyperventilating because the body has a bunch of nerves going to the lungs to protect against excessive variance in blood oxygen levels.
The only situation in which a healthy person can wind up with low blood oxygen levels from hyperventilation is if they scrub so much co2 out of their blood that they stop breathing for a bit. But, even in that case, you'll start breathing shortly thereafter, we're not talking about asphyxiating on nitrogen here.
(Score: 2) by acid andy on Friday August 29 2025, @03:34PM (1 child)
I am only going by what I read on Wikipedia, so it certainly could be nonsense.
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(Score: 2) by aafcac on Friday August 29 2025, @11:39PM
You'll note that that's rarely life threatening and generally a kidney issue. It's not something that you're going to get by just hyperventilating for the period of time that one would be during that specific type of breathwork where the rate of respiration and the rest has returned to normal within a few minutes.
(Score: 5, Informative) by mcgrew on Friday August 29 2025, @03:00PM (1 child)
No, it's nothing like that (at least if they're talking about Prana Yoga). In Prana Yoga, the breathing is timed. The Prana (breathing) and Hatha (stretching) go together.
It's nothing like hyperventilation.
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(Score: 2) by aafcac on Friday August 29 2025, @03:06PM
Mostly, but there is at least one form of breath work that involves hyperventilation. Most breath work though does not. And even for that form, it's not like you're going on forever, it's like a couple minutes of brisk breathing and you should remain conscious the entire time, even if a bit faint.
(Score: 5, Informative) by HiThere on Friday August 29 2025, @12:53PM (3 children)
It's probably thousands of years old. Most schools of yoga involve one form or another of breath work. Patanjali's written work on it is dated to at least the 2nd century AD, and possibly over 400 years earlier. And he was reporting on an existing tradition. It's also in the western mystical tradition, but I'm not sure how old that is.
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by aafcac on Friday August 29 2025, @02:24PM
Even in conventional western medicine, basic breathwork comes up a fair amount in the context of anxiety and panic. The main question is really what set of advantages can be demonstrated scientifically, which ones can't and which ones just aren't any good.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by looorg on Friday August 29 2025, @05:09PM
As noted a lot of Yoga, Tai-Chi or just any kind of (easter-) martial arts are big into breathing exercises. For focus or just mental training. If it leads to an altered state of consciousness tho. I guess it depends, it might be considered as such. It can be relaxing and calming at least. So you can influence things like breathing, blood pressure and so forth. At least temporarily. Something as simple as just close your eyes, slowly inhale thru your nose, hold, exhale thru mouth. Trying to slow down your breathing. Relax. Repeat for as long as needed.
Less sure about any claims of elevating your state of consciousness to another level or getting deep and profound insights from some realms beyond or within or whatever the usual claims are. I guess I'm just not Buddha enough or have not found the right tree to sit under.
Hyperventilating into a bag does something to. Since you are basically rebreathing air. I don't think it's great for you but it has a apparent calming effect on some. I guess hyperventilation can or could lead to oxygen starvation of sorts and that could lead to the "fun" altered state of consciousness, that is before you pass out or get brain damage. Not recommended in that regard.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Thexalon on Saturday August 30 2025, @05:53PM
There's at least hints about mystical practices in ancient Greek writing, only some of which involved hallucinogens, so at least 2500 years or so. And of course India and Greece weren't all that separated, especially once that kid named Alexander barged through Persia. According to a friend of mine, these kinds of practices are still widespread around the Mediterranean, although obviously vary quite a bit depending on where you're talking about.
In my experience, there's a lot of different techniques that can get you into that zone, and it's definitely worth doing at least occasionally. Pick the way you find works the best for you.
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(Score: 5, Interesting) by mcgrew on Friday August 29 2025, @02:56PM (1 child)
For people who have never heard of breathwork before, it came out of rebirthing in the 1970s.
It was called "prana yoga" thousands of years ago, and the knowledge that it can alter consciousness is as old. I learned this in 1974 when my USAF doctor prescribed yoga for my arthritis.
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(Score: 4, Informative) by sjames on Friday August 29 2025, @06:39PM
It's much older than that. It's more like basic Pranayama from yoga. Many use it as a way to enter meditation. It can easily take 15 points off of your systolic blood pressure, which is very useful for many people. The practice is literally older than Western medicine itself and unlike some things has proven out over and over.
The study in TFA provides some validation within the framework of western medicine and clues to the mechanism of action.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 30 2025, @09:49PM
I'm reminded of a Terence McKenna quote [ytscribe.com]: