Holistic Health Practices/Part 11

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What is Breath Awareness?

A significant number of religions and psychotherapies employ “proper breathing” techniques as a supposed regulator of physical and psychological health, or for purposes of so-called spiritual (occult) enlightenment. Because breath awareness methods are often influenced by Eastern or occultic philosophy and practice (e.g., yoga) and because they are frequently designed to alter one’s consciousness, they are also encountered in the many occultic forms of transpersonal and fringe psycho­therapy. Eastern mystics and yogis have long claimed that the breath is a vital tool for altering one’s consciousness. Concentration on the breath and regulation of its “flow” are necessary to attain occult enlightenment. For example, the yogic practice of pranayama attempts to use the breath to regulate the control of mystical life-energy “underneath” the breath, prana. The end goal is occultic enlightenment which frequently involves spirit contact and/or possession. Breath awareness methods have little to do with cardiovascular exercise. They are what the name implies – breath awareness or breath meditation.

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