In the 1970’s in California, Leonard Orr and Stan Groff experimented with what was ultimately coined breathwork. Leonard Orr’s Re-Birthing Breathwork philosophy developed through his work with Haidakhan Babaji. Samadhi Breathwork, my version, is an off-shoot of Re-Birthing. Mahavatar Babaji was my first teacher with the capital T and my time at Babaji’s ashram in India inspired me to add Samadhi to Breathwork, to offer a structure for awakening based on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali and the teachings of the many Amerindian Elders I work with.
Yogiraj Gurunath Siddhanath defined Samadhi in this video as an ecstasy of expanded consciousness with no thought at all. There are several levels of samadhi that build on each other as consciousness builds in a practitioner over time. It supports the process of moving through contemplation to meditation to an experience of pure awareness.
Cultures worldwide use conscious breathing techniques to support meditation practices, to heal mental and physical ailment and to sharpen, cleanse, focus and calm the mind. Shamans journey through the breath to the other worlds. Conscious breathing is known in the west as pranayama, a yogic term. Samadhi Breathwork is for those interested in accessing the unconscious through the breath which is not the main focus of the yogic version.
I’ve been practicing meditation since the late 1970’s. I trained in Clarity Breathwork, also an off-shoot of Re-Birthing in 2004 and my meditation practice took a quantum leap as a result. I’d accessed the deepest meditative states I’d ever had, instantly. It’s not to say that all the meditation I’d had didn’t give me a boost, but my experience of facilitating Breathwork for nearly 20 years has taught me that that what generally occurs over time and with practice in meditation can happen instantly in Breathwork. I’m as excited now as I was in 2004 about sharing this incredible technique that helped me cure chronic pain, release stress, dis-ease, aches and pains and fear, increased my ability to be compassionate and loving, ignited my intuition, built chi (energy) and disappeared the negative beliefs and limitations that held me back in life.
The biggest question in beginning meditation is can someone get past an agitated mind to experience it? Honestly, most of the time, no. In Samadhi Breathwork, most of the time, yes. If you want to stop trying to meditate and meditate Samadhi Breathwork is for you. If you are looking for what I was looking for in 2004, give it a try. Even in the first session of Samadhi Breathwork it’s possible to become a human being instead of a human doing and it’s possible to release a life-time of chronic pain. It’s possible to experience freedom which, for me, is what enlightenment is all about.
The mind is like a moving train, it’s nearly impossible to catch. Samadhi Breathwork is your ticket to catching a train at a scheduled stop so that you can slow down. Do yourself a favor – buy a ticket, put your baggage down, your feet up and arrive at your next destination energized, refreshed and relaxed.