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Reported Effects of Holotropic Breathwork: an Integrative Technique for Healing and Personal Change by Gilles Brouillette, ©1997 Gilles Brouillette

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Reported Effects of Holotropic Breathwork: an Integrative Technique for Healing and Personal Change by Gilles Brouillette, ©1997 Gilles Brouillette 1 Reported Effects of Holotropic Breathwork: An integrative Technique for Healing and Personal Change by Gilles Brouillette, ©1997 Gilles Brouillette ABSTRACT: The purpose of this research is to study the experience and effects of Holotropic Breathwork™ on personal transformation and healing as reported by participants in the Grof Transpersonal Training. With this main purpose in mind three specific questions have been explored: 1. Will participants have any experiences at the physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual levels, and will these experiences be felt or experienced as transformative and/or healing? 2. Have participants perceived any life changes as a result of their Holotropic Breathwork™ sessions and, if so, will these changes be consistent over a period of 6 months? 3. How do they express the essence of their experience in images, symbols, words, or metaphors. CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION For millennia human kind has been looking for ways or technologies to foster its own psychospiritual development. The emergence of the major religions and their persisting presence until now represent one of the most important examples of such a quest. Among the strategies developed by humankind to quench this thirst the recourse to techniques that have the capacity to induce nonordinary states of consciousness (NSCs) has been widely used. In fact, several sophisticated psychospiritual systems have used such methodologies. Among them we can find Yoga, Zen Buddhism, the Tibetan Vajrayana, Taoism, Sufism, or Kabbalah (Grof, 1988, 1992b; Smith, 1986). Various aboriginal cultures have also used such states for the sake of their own religious development (Eliade, 1964; Harner, 1980). The shamanic cultures are good examples. Today, our society has also developed its 2 own techniques which use NSCs to foster inner development, and the aim of this research is to explore one of them, the Holotropic Breathwork™ approach. In all of these systems or cultures NSCs have been induced by different methods. These include chanting, breathing, drumming, rhythmic dancing, fasting, social and sensory isolation, extreme physical pain, and psychoactive plants. The common denominator of these techniques is that they have the power to destabilize the "ordinary state" of consciousness and to make a shift into a "nonordinary state" (Bourguignon, 1973; Tart, 1975). The idea behind this need to alter consciousness is based on the recognition that people's ordinary state of consciousness (OSC) only represents a portion or fragment of the entire spectrum of consciousness available to human mind. Recent developments in modern consciousness research are suggesting that NSCs have significant healing potential and can facilitate inner exploration (Grof, 1985b). Researchers and theoreticians in different fields of knowledge like Harner (1980) in shamanism, Ring (1984) and Moody (1975, 1988) in near-death experiences, Metzner (1986) in psychedelic research, Grof (1975) and Nelson (1994) in psychiatry, Vaughan (1985a) in psychology, McKenna (1988) in ethnopharmacology, Goleman (1972) and Shapiro (1983) in research on meditation, Dossey (1989) and Siegel (1989) in medicine, to name a few, are today bringing results of research and observations which support the idea that NSCs have significant value for healing and self-exploration. Although the use of NSCs for therapeutic purposes is a recent development of Western psychotherapy it is paradoxically the oldest approach to healing used by humanity. Shamanism, considered the oldest healing art, is essentially based on the 3 use of NSCs (Eliade, 1964). "Shamanism represents the most widespread and ancient methodological system of mind-body healing known to humanity" (Harner, 1980, p. 51). At the core of my fascination and interest in this research is the idea that NSCs have been recognized by several traditional spiritual schools as well as by modern consciousness research as powerful catalysts for healing and self-exploration (Grof, 1985a). Based on these new observations it seems that entering into NSCs can facilitate a transformational process which may result in personal transformation and in psychosomatic, emotional, mental, and spiritual healing. Stanislav and Christina Grof, both researchers in the field of transpersonal psychology, have developed a modern approach for inducing voluntarily NSCs which they named Holotropic Breathwork™. "The key experiential approach I [Stanislav Grof] now use to induce non-ordinary states of consciousness and gain access to the unconscious and superconscious psyche is Holotropic Breathwork™..." (Grof & Bennett, 1992b, p. 20). This approach is defined by them as a powerful technique which brings people into NSCs as a way to promote healing and self- exploration. The technique primarily uses deeper and faster breathing and evocative music as a way to induce such states. The Grofs themselves have used Holotropic Breathwork™ in over 30,000 sessions around the world as a tool for healing and personal transformation. In addition, more than 500 facilitators have so far been trained by the Grofs and are practicing in over 18 different countries around the world. The Grofs suggest in their books that holotropic therapy is producing significant personal changes and 4 healing, but not many studies have been done so far to appreciate the approach and its potential benefits. Statement of the Problem and Research Questions The purpose of this research was to study the experience and effects of Holotropic Breathwork™ on personal transformation and healing as reported by participants in the Grof Transpersonal Training. With this main purpose in mind three specific questions have been explored using a qualitative approach in which data were gathered in four different ways: (a) the recording of people's sharing, (b) the recording of short interviews, (c) the recording of two long interviews, and (d) by consulting people's self-evaluations. Quantitative data were also gathered through Ring's Life Changes Questionnaire developed by Ring (1984). The three specific research questions explored are the following. 1. Will participants have any experiences at the physical, intellectual, emotional, and spiritual levels, and will these experiences be felt or experienced as transformative and/or healing? Data were gathered for this question by using people's sharing of their personal journey, by interviews and by people's self- evaluations. 2. Have participants perceived any life changes as a result of their Holotropic Breathwork™ sessions and, if so, will these changes be consistent over a period of 6 months? Data for this question has been gathered through Ring's Life Changes Questionnaire. 5 3. How do they express the essence of their experience in images, symbols, words, or metaphors? Data for this question have been gathered through interviews. All the trainees have participated in at least 23 Holotropic Breathwork™ sessions both as breathers and sitters. Several of them have participated in more than that, but here we are interested in people who participated in at least 23 sessions. Participants The participants for this research were graduating trainees of the Grof Transpersonal Training who were involved in the two-week long Certification Seminar held in California in September 1992. At the beginning of the certification module, I presented my research project and invited everyone to participate. Thirty-four people agreed to participate in the research. The interested participants signed a Consent Form which had been approved by the Ethics Committee of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology (see Appendix F). Nine men (26%) and twenty-five women (74%) agreed to participate in the study. The average age was 49 years old, and the range was from 32-65 years of age. Rationale of the Study 6 One of the rationales which support this study comes from my first hand experience of Holotropic Breathwork™ as a training participant in the Grof Transpersonal Training. I have myself gone through a very healing experience and I have experienced changes and positive personal transformation on the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual levels as a result of participating in several Holotropic Breathwork™ experiences during the training. Based on my personal experience I suspect that many of the participants may have gone through the same kind of personal transformation and healing. Another important element that motivates me to pursue this research on Holotropic Breathwork™ is that only a few studies on breathwork have been done to date. The work of Christina and Stanislav Grof on the healing and transformative power of NSCs is very impressive, and I felt it deserved further investigation. Grof has published in his books Beyond the Brain: Birth, Death, and Transcendence in Psychotherapy (1985a), The Adventure of Self-Discovery: Dimensions of Consciousness and New Perspectives in Psychotherapy and Inner Exploration (1988), and The Holotropic Mind: The Three Levels of Human Consciousness and How They Shape our Lives (1992a) the results of 40 years of observations on NSCs. His observations and findings have laid a solid ground for further inquiries on the healing and transformational potential of NSCs. Although many observations have been collected, not much empirical or academic research has yet been done to study the subjective experience as well as the inner transformation and healing which is said to result from the use of NSCs. This research will, therefore, make a significant contribution to the understanding
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