{"id":862,"date":"2016-02-08T23:26:07","date_gmt":"2016-02-09T04:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ottawaholotropic.ca\/what-is-holotropic-breathwork-2\/"},"modified":"2024-07-12T16:33:54","modified_gmt":"2024-07-12T20:33:54","slug":"what-is-holotropic-breathwork","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ottawaholotropic.ca\/en\/what-is-holotropic-breathwork\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Holotropic Breathwork\u00ae?"},"content":{"rendered":"

An inner exploration tool<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Stan Grof (Image courtesy of Conscious Lifestyle Magazine)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Holotropic Breathwork\u00ae\u00a0(HB), from Greek \u00ab\u00a0holos<\/em>\u00a0\u00bb \u2013 whole \u2013 and \u00ab\u00a0trepein<\/em>\u00a0\u00bb \u2013 turning toward \u2013, was developed in Esalen, California, during the 1970\u2019s by Stanislav Grof<\/a>, a Czech psychiatrist, and his wife Christina Grof. With Abraham Maslow and Anthony Suttich Grof is one of the founders of the transpersonal psychology field and a most renowned researcher in the use of modified states of consciousness for exploring, healing and transforming the human psyche.<\/p>\n

Modified or ho<\/strong>lotropic states of consciousness<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Since thousands of years shamans are using modified states of consciousness to heal the body and the soul. A research over near 500 cultures studies by anthropologists \u2013 more than half of the world\u2019s cultures \u2013 has shown that 90% of these cultures have integrated in one way or another\u00a0 modified states of consciousness1<\/sup>.\u00a0 These states of consciousness are at the very heart of the mystical branches of\u00a0 the main world religions\u00a0: Sufism in Islam, yoga in Hinduism, Cabbala in Judaism, the Christian mystics of the desert. Various cultures and religions use a variety of techniques to achieve those modified states of consciousness: sacred medicinal plants, meditation, <\/strong>prayer, fasting, isolation, sleep deprivation, chanting, drumming, dancing, extremes of temperature, mutilation, vision quests and of course, the breath<\/strong>. These states of consciousness can also occur spontaneously when someone is going through a spiritual “emergency”<\/a>.<\/p>\n

HB provides a safe container and without any substance, only with the help of the breath supported by evocative music, gives us access to modified states of consciousness that allow us to contact dimensions of our being otherwise out of touch.<\/p>\n

Grof\u2019s cartography of the psyche and Inner Healer<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Grof has developed a cartography of the psyche that helps interpreting and integrating what has been experienced. He proposed three wide territories that can be explored.<\/p>\n