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Thread: Breathing Patterns : The Breath and Altered States

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    United States Avalon Member Casey Claar's Avatar
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    Default Breathing Patterns : The Breath and Altered States

    If it is alright I am going to walk slowly into this one.


    [ A bit of prologue ]

    As part of my spiritual disciplines, I began working more seriously with the breath roughly around the turn of the century; the year 2000. It began, as it often does, much of its own. I would be out on my walks, early morning before most people were awake so that I could enjoy the solitude and quiet – which as we know, disappears all too fast as the world’s alarm clocks begin going off. On these walks I would enjoy the outside world all to myself, at my own leisure, pace and speed. — which from the beginning, for as long as I can remember has always been rather “grandmotherly”. I task you to find anyone who walks as slow as I do.

    Walks would always begin with a nice big breath. A salutation, in a sense, at the glory of the portal of the pre-dawn. The magical feeling presence of the morning gateway. I am sure it is not necessary to point anyone to, or remind anyone of this.. we all know, love and appreciate it well. That first full breath in the stunning light of the sun’s first rays remains a favorite way to start my days. That feeling we have when first waking, which is so like this – when the energy of the dream fields is still with us, is something I like to prolong in my day for as long as possible. The breath helps us do this. I engage the breath in this way so the communication of the fields, of the Inner energy system is still softly present as I head out on my walk.

    Breathing in a way in which the breath can be heard is a natural way to stay tuned—to the Inner reaching through to the outer…. There is so much we can know of ourselves in the listening of the breath. – ( the breath does speak ) – we can know if we are calm and relaxed, or perhaps more anxious, we can know where in the body we are holding tension, where in the body is needing of our attention. We can know so many things. What often I would first notice is that I was a bit out of balance, so I would equalize the inhale and exhale. I would breathe in, for instance, to a count of 8, then breathe out to a count of 8 with my steps, for as long as it took this to be effortless.

    What happens as a result, of even something this simple is astounding. It began to be as though I was being breathed. As though something else had taken over and “I” was on this sort of “magic carpet ride”. It would indeed be as though I were light as air. As though I were lightly, effortlessly floating through my experience. Were these my very first experiences of “going out”? Did I simply not recognize them as such? Magical as they were, and still are, at the time I clearly did not appreciate, to the degree I do now, that something a distance out from the usual was in play. It is easy for these initial, preparatory states to be missed. To be noticed as nothing in particular. But this is because we do not yet fully know what is laying in wait.

    Some of us never do find this out.

    Let those of us here, vow to never be among them. Let’s instead, dive in, and dive in, and dive in, even when it seems to us that nothing is happening. It is the continuing to engage that yields. And here let it also be said that the documenting of our practices, logging our experiences, journaling feelings and insights, is for those of us who are city dwellers, the very embers that do help keep the fire alive and ultimately ignite it. We begin practice and study on our own. This is stage one, the beginner. We advance, as intermediates to practicing and studying with others in group settings, while continuing our practice as well at home. The advanced practitioner, having developed insight and experience, begins teaching, sharing his/her gifts.

    Where are you along this spectrum?


    There is a famous Koan:

    First there is a mountain
    Then there is no mountain
    Then there is

    In terms of where we are in our learning—where we are in our experience:

    First there is a mountain, our physically confined experience – the spiritual seeker has reached a point of dissatisfaction with this and begins looking for more. <— but for now there is still only this, even though the opening has begun and a certain energy has arrived.

    Then there is no mountain – we are learning through practice and study that nothing is at it seems, nothing is “real”, we are not the body, we are not the breath, we are not the mind. We are something more, something prior to this. <— we want to know it but it is not yet our direct experience; this must be the most challenging of the stages. It is easy to lose momentum here but you cannot.

    You cannot stop short of the experience you are calling to yourself. The experience that is, and absolutely will be yours if only you continue to engage. Know and SEE where you are in this process and remember what is coming:

    Then there is – attainment is finally had, gloriously yours, it has broken through. There is still a world. — still a body, still a breath, still a mind — only it is not the same as before. It is and exists in a new way, and in this new way are new experiences available to you.

    It may, at this point, be found humorous that in the process of discovering what is fundamental to our being – we use what is not, our practice tools being 1 ) the body, 2 ) the breath, 3 ) the mind. Each of us do in fact at the apparent juncture hit this glitch. We are apt, at this juncture, to set a preference and/or even choose to move away from the tools we have at our disposal.

    It is a temporary choice, for as long as they are in effect they are what we have,—working with them is in some way requisite. As some are aware, I leaned into Kevala Advaita Vedanta, which aligns with the idea of liberation within the lifetime, and exhibited the inclination toward working with the breath, breathing patterns, energy portals.



    What I was learning I began teaching.

    I dove into the primordial sound AUM, experiencing at great depths the vibrations, or reverberations of the seeds : A : U : M : in fact, through the many breathing patterns I chose to explore, I naturally inclined more directly in toward the(ir) sound. Into working with sound itself, directly, and this “inclination” has since taken me into experiences such as the OBE, the fully conscious shift from our 3D physical frequency of reality into additional frequencies, as well as a capacity to hold myself at the zero point of the shift itself which allows me to experience what I call “synchronous states”. In layman’s terms, a capacity to be in many places all at once. In other terms, to parallel process incoming data from multiple fields.

    Quote Merging with Sound

    In the beginning my conscious OBEs all began with a sound. Have you heard the sound of the blood flowing through your veins? That’s the sound. I began hearing it dramatically and it would quickly raise way up in pitch. then the space, either in front of me or in front of my closed eyes would begin warbling. An invisible yet tangible presence would come through, merge with me and I would witness myself slowly stop breathing—until I was no longer in this physical matter reality.

    Later I did spontaneously begin doing this with any and all sound(s)… With the birds chirping, the leaf blowers blowing, motorcycles revving, planes flying overhead, anything and everything. Rather than try to cut myself off from the sounds I opened myself up to them—welcomed them in—let them spread through the entirety of my field until I was the sound—until I was experiencing myself as fast sound vibration. And I would shift. -delightfully into multiple fields.
    Now I have skipped through quite a large body of experience, taking place between where we began, taking morning walks at sunrise and beginning the practice of pranayama — to the fully conscious shift into the OBE. I hope, however, that I have given you a feeling for where our interests and inclinations can and do take us when rather than give in, possibly indefinitely put on the brakes, we instead proceed. Even when it seems like nothing is happening. Even when we are going through the hardest of times. Realizing, deeply feeling that sense of ourself that tells us there are miles to go. That there are steps still needing to be taken. And we find ourself picking up the one foot, placing it in front of the other. Until again we are stable on the path.

    We are Seekers, and this indeed is our greatest joy.


    __________________________


    I will add more of the breathing practices and patterns I g r a d u a t e d through below.

    They may in some way be helpful.


    Casey
    "Love is what is left when you let go of everything you no longer need." —Raj

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    United States Avalon Member Casey Claar's Avatar
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    Default Re: Breathing Patterns : The Breath and Altered States

    This past year I started a project to remaster all the audio to yoga breathing practices I used to teach in class. These recordings were originally made back in roughly 2006-7, in Erich Schiffmann's infamous yoga room, at the back of his Santa Monica home. The acoustics in there were great. You could hear a pin reverberate if dropped. For this reason the process of recording offered a challenge.. getting the audio perfect with no extra sounds creeping in ( no coughs, clearing of the throat or even audible between breaths, lol ). This is done old school, just me sitting in the empty yoga room, with a 2003 hand held audio recorder. No editing. Each clip is recorded all in one go. The music in the background is from the CD "Deuter, Himalaya". This is the newly remastered video version of "The Ujjayi Sound" : ( I hope you will enjoy it ) : ( no more still images in 240p! ) :



    The Ujjayi Sound
    A guided practice bringing awareness into the subtleties of the Ujjayi breathing sound.
    "Love is what is left when you let go of everything you no longer need." —Raj

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    United States Avalon Member Casey Claar's Avatar
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    Default Re: Breathing Patterns : The Breath and Altered States



    Plavini Pranayam : The Breath that makes One Float

    A breath highly suited to those who wish to explore their own consciousness. For those ( potentially ) ready to lift up and out through the out-of-body-experience. Please note that not everyone should practice breath retentions. Proceed at your own pace. Follow the length of your own breath. If any dizziness occurs, return to following a natural, rhythmic breath until you are ready to continue.
    "Love is what is left when you let go of everything you no longer need." —Raj

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    Default Re: Breathing Patterns : The Breath and Altered States

    Thank you for the nice thread. The wingmakers materials also talk of the "Quantum pause breathing technuiqe" .Can you please desvribe to us how it differs to yours. Or is it exactly the same.

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    United States Avalon Member Casey Claar's Avatar
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    Default Re: Breathing Patterns : The Breath and Altered States

    Hello, Bubu, you are welcome.

    I am assuming you are contrasting "the quantum pause" with the technique immediately above your post ( ie: plavini ), these are each indeed very different.

    PLAVINI

    Deep, full, quick! audible inhale through the nose
    Hold for as long as you comfortably can; ( my own holds are roughly 30-60 seconds or more )
    Exhale comfortably through the nose

    QUANTUM PAUSE

    This is similar, but different in key area to Samavritti *I will post that next, I tried yesterday but some wonkiness was happening. The QP pattern is :

    Inhale 4-6 seconds through the nose
    Hold 4-6 seconds
    Exhale 4-6 seconds through the mouth

    I would not recommend the quantum pause. It is critical, for one, that both the in and out breath pass through the olfactory system at the back of the nose. It also leaves out the suspension at the bottom of the breath. Two components which are highly key. I see it myself as an almost adulteration of Samavritti.

    ______________________________________




    Samavritti is the breathing technique through which I learned to enter the Inner breath. It gradually induced the state of kevala kumbhaka (stillness), a natural cessation of the breath in which no perceivable in/out breath occurs, yet, through which, Radiance shines. This happened for me through the process of making the sound and length of each component of the breathing cycle to be same until there was no discernible difference, — until I could no longer tell the inhale from the retention, exhalation or suspension and where I was in the cycle. It is a natural concentration in and expansion out into the zero point we commonly know in OBE circles as the the "Void".
    "Love is what is left when you let go of everything you no longer need." —Raj

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    Default Re: Breathing Patterns : The Breath and Altered States



    Bhramari Pranayam

    Close the eyes, relax the whole body, keep the teeth lightly parted and the mouth closed. To begin, take a deep breath in, exhale fully, and at the very bottom of the breath swallow. Now, plug the ears with the index fingers and inhale deeply and slowly through the nose while making a snoring or buzzing sound, like that of a bee. Retain the breath for a comfortable duration, concentrating on vital energy flowing into the area just above the navel. Exhale through the nose making a humming sound. Continue for 5 to 10 minutes.
    "Love is what is left when you let go of everything you no longer need." —Raj

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    Default Re: Breathing Patterns : The Breath and Altered States

    Hi Casey,

    Starting with a confession, I had never read this thread before today. Something just happened that led me to search for topic titles with the word "Breathing" and this thread was top of the list.

    I was sat at my desk idly musing on how the world has everything upside-down and back to front etc...

    I imagined a depiction of, say a solar system, ordinarilly it would be almost entirely dark with a few little dots of lighter material to represent the planets and a larger one for the star. Now look at the negative image of the same picture. There is a mass of light everywhere with a few spots depicting coalesced matter. They are little black dots of almost nothing in a field of energy.

    It suddenly struck me that energy is not manifested through the destruction of matter but rather, matter is born of energy.

    What has this got to do with breathing, I'm getting there. When we breath in our chest cavity fills and expands. If you really begin to focus on that process you can actually feel far more than your chest expanding. One gets the impression that breathing in is an expansion. I suspect this is upside-down thinking and back to front reasoning. When we breathe in we are coalescing, maintaining the matter. When we breathe out we are expanding into the infinite. When we expire (the final breath) we leave the body behind and rejoin the infinite.

    So I began to pay attention to my breathing with those thoughts in mind, in (coalescing), out (reaching out into the infinite), I felt really good in less than a minute. I will have to practice this some more.

    PS: Drinking beer and smoking as I type this = long way to go........

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    Default Re: Breathing Patterns : The Breath and Altered States

    Hi, Ewan, so sorry for the delay in replying, I am rather grappling these days with the state of the body.


    Quote PS: Drinking beer and smoking as I type this = long way to go........
    Ha! .....the old familiar adage, the journey of a thousand miles >> ( begins with just one step )

    It would seem you have taken a very good one, the most critical one, the first.. I enjoyed reading your initial observations.

    The inhale, as it is said, brings us more in the world, while the exhale brings us increasingly more deeply into the self. Indeed it is true. You might find it interesting working with ratios, as well as bringing more of your attention into the ends of the breath --- the top of the inhale, the bottom of exhale. <-- lingering in these areas, at these thresholds can teach us a great deal. When working with ratios you can make the length of your inhale longer than that of the exhale. For instance breathing in to the count of 6, breathing out to the count of 4....and observe the effect. Then reverse this, breathe out to the longer count and in to the lesser....and observe the effect.

    I do hope you will continue to play.

    I find that logging my observations quickens and extends the effect.

    A boon to be sure, without doubt.
    "Love is what is left when you let go of everything you no longer need." —Raj

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