Remembering Iasos, the New Age pioneer who took music to a higher dimension

Via YouTube / Iasos Music

‘Imagine creating symphonies by tuning up planets [to] create beautiful chords that echo through the galaxy’

by: Günseli Yalcinkaya

Picture this: it’s 1970s California and new age music has just begun. The hippies are high and communes are cropping up in their hundreds. Alternative therapy is on the rise too, along with the introduction of therapy rooms, massage and yoga studios. The soundtrack to all this is mind-altering. Mirroring the move into mindful practices such as meditation through soothing tones and ethereal zone-outs designed for those eager to tune in and drop out. 

Around the same time, a young artist named Iasos claims he’s hearing ‘paradise music’ in his head. He describes it as “Earth reproduction of music that exists here and now in other dimensions”, and claims that it’s being communicated to him through a trans-dimensional being called Vista. The music is ambient and spacious and as clear as crystals. “Imagine creating symphonies by tuning up planets [to] create beautiful chords that echo through the galaxy,” he later writes in the linear notes to 2013’s Celestial Soul Portrait. “That’s the game Vista is playing.”

If you’re not familiar with Iasos, chances are you’ve come across his music, or at least heard music that’s inspired by his music. He’s up there with the likes of Brian Eno, Laaraji and Vangelis as one of the electronic pioneers of new age music, having immersed himself in California’s psychedelic scene in the 70s and carving out his own DIY and experimental sound: modulated flutes, steel guitars, spacey electric pianos. The kind of high-vibrational stuff that feels familiar now, but at the time was only just beginning. There are not many musicians whose work has been studied by scientists researching near-death experiences (“The Angels of Comfort”), and picked up by NASA for its healing qualities, but Iasos was one of a kind.

Earlier this week, Iasos transcended the earthly realms at the age of 77, but his legacy lives on –  his first album, Inter-Dimensional Music (1975) is still considered one of the best ambient albums of all time. From woolly counterculture to the wellness industrial complex, new age music has gone mainstream as younger generations are drawn to its healing properties. Iasos believed that music is a therapeutic force, an ethos that can be felt across the wellness industry – through sound baths, crystal healing meditations, mindfulness apps and the like. He told interviewers there was no message to his music, only “concentrated beauty patterns”: “Beauty has the effect of raising wellbeing. It’s emotionally uplifting, mentally stimulating, spiritually inspiring, and healing on the body. Beauty is healing because love is the cause, beauty is the effect.”

With everything going on in the world – rising living costs, technological accelerationism, climate change, and literal war – it’s no wonder we’re seeing new age music continue to grow in popularity. The pseudo-spirituality that was made mainstream by the hippies can be felt across the internet as people turn to the mystical to make sense of the chaotic world around them. We’ve also seen this in the psychedelics revival and the uptick in alien conspiracies – which began as fringe counterculture but is now public consumption. In this new age of digital psychedelia, Iasos’ spiritually-powered music is arguably more relevant than ever, so breathe in and out, and expand your mind.

Just One Dose of This Psychedelic Drug Can Ease Anxiety

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By Alexandra Sifferlin 

Cancer is a brutal disease on both the body and mind. Not only do treatments like chemotherapy take a massive toll, but the emotional side effects can be hard to bear. Depression and anxiety are high among people with cancer, including those in remission. But two new studies offer promising relief through an unlikely source: hallucinogenic drugs.

In two new studies released simultaneously by researchers at New York University and Johns Hopkins, doctors reveal that a single dose of psilocybin—a compound from magic mushrooms—can ease anxiety and depression for up to six months. The results have great potential for people dealing with the fear associated with a cancer diagnosis, but also for people with psychiatric disorders that haven’t responded to traditional treatments like psychotherapy or antidepressants.

The studies, both published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, are accompanied by 11 editorials of support from leaders in psychiatry, including two past presidents of the American Psychiatric Association. “Our results represent the strongest evidence to date of a clinical benefit from psilocybin therapy, with the potential to transform care for patients with cancer-related psychological distress,” says NYU study author Dr. Stephen Ross, director of substance abuse services in the Department of Psychiatry at NYU Langone in a statement.

The NYU Langone Medical Center study involved 29 people who had serious psychological distress, like anxiety or depression, stemming from advanced cancer. (Some were in remission.) Each person received either a capsule of psilocybin or a placebo capsule; in a second session, they were given the pill they hadn’t yet taken. The sessions lasted from four to six hours in a room equipped with music to listen to, a couch and a sleep mask.

People had their own individual experiences with the drug. But the results were remarkable: 60-80% of people in the study reported reductions in their depression and anxiety symptoms that lasted six months after the treatment.

The Johns Hopkins study, which involved 51 adults, had similar results. They each received one large dose of the drug, and six months later, 80% of the people in the trial continued to show decreases in depression and anxiety symptoms. Eighty-three percent of people reported increases in their well-being and life satisfaction, and 67% said the trial was one of the top five most meaningful experiences in their lives.

Several people described experiencing an overwhelming feeling of love while on the drug and felt they had changed immediately. “The feeling of immense love lingered for weeks, and four years later I still feel it at times,” says participant Dinah Bazer, who was experiencing severe anxiety about a possible ovarian cancer recurrence. “My fear and anxiety were completely removed, and they haven’t come back.” 

Lisa Callaghan’s late husband, former TV news director Patrick Mettes, was also in the NYU trial. Mettes eventually died from cancer of the bile ducts, but undergoing the trial gave him a sense of peace, says his wife. “In his trip there was an evolution through all of these stages of emotional development,” says Callaghan. “He was reborn into this place of personal and universal love. He said he felt it all around him, and he felt a sense of forgiveness too.”

The potential therapeutic use of psilocybin has been recognized for years, but strict drug laws implemented 45 years ago stalled research. In the 1950s and 1960s, several teams in the United States studied psychedelic compounds for potential mental disorder treatments. But widespread recreational use of the substances became cause for concern and overshadowed the possible therapeutic benefits. In 1971, psilocybin and other psychedelic compounds were classified as schedule 1 drugs, meaning that the government believes they have high potential for abuse. This classification makes it very difficult for research to continue, despite the fact that experts argue adverse side effects from psilocybin (when used responsibly) are rare.

“I tried to understand how something this big had been buried,” says Ross. Due to these restrictions, Ross says it took the hospital a couple years to get their study off the ground.

Some of the men and women in the studies did experience side effects, like nausea and headaches, but none were severe. It’s unclear precisely how psilocybin works, but the study authors say that the drug may activate parts of the brain that are impacted by serotonin, which can play a role in anxiety, mood and depression.

Significantly more research is needed before psilocybin could be considered as a clinical therapy. The researchers stress that psilocybin in the trials was given in a very controlled environment with multiple investigators present, and that people should not attempt the drug on their own. There’s also some concern that pharmaceutical companies may not see financial incentives in single-dose therapies.

Still, many people in the medical community are hopeful. “We’re excited about finding a medicine that can be helpful to people suffering from conditions not successfully treated by standard treatment,” says Dr. George Greer, medical director of the Heffter Research Institute, which helped fund the studies. “There’s a lot of interest.”

Artificial brain turns clouds into psychedelic pig-snails

Welcome to a psychedelic universe where aqueducts surrounded by glaciers fold in on themselves. This kaleidoscopic image, created by a quirk of brain-mimicking software, started out as something much less spectacular: random noise.

The software is an artificial neural network developed by Google, called the Inception module. Just as the brain detects patterns to classify images and make sense of speech, so neural networks can simulate this ability to identify features in an image.

But like children seeing shapes when looking at clouds, the software can over-interpret what it sees. This can lead to escalating absurdities, like the red landscape above which the network processed to include tractor-like vehicles and a dog emerging from a tree. In the pictures below, hybrid pig-snails appear in the sky.

Although the surreal landscapes produced may look pretty, they aren't exactly useful. But by studying how the software processes information, Google's engineers can tweak it to optimise its interpretative skills.

Neural networks' talents aren't limited to making sense of images. They can quickly estimate the number of objects in a scene without counting them – mimicking the ability of humans and some animals – and even play video games.

A Virtual Reality Experience Gave Me Synesthesia

A Virtual Reality Experience Gave Me Synesthesia

Genuinely new experiences are rare; even new works of art, intentionally or otherwise, reference past artistic creations. But when I entered the latest version of SoundSelf, Robin Arnott's multisensory Oculus Rift experience, which fuses sound, vision, and vibration into one sublime biofeedback loop, I had to discard everything I'd seen before to describe what I'd experienced. The closest comparison could be a combination of six hours spent in an isolation chamber, a visit to La Monte Young's Dream House, and an eye-straining optical illusion— as far as personal experiences go, the term sui generis doesn't even cut it.

As Arnott lowered the new Oculus Rift onto my head, fixed headphones onto my ears, attached two microphones around my voice box, then positioned my back against a flat, soft subwoofer, I didn't know what to expect. This wasn't helped by the facts that SoundSelf began with a black void, and that the ambient sounds of the room I was in that could barely be heard through the headphones.

Arnott told me to hum monotones and hold them until I wanted to try out some other notes. If I modulated my voice too much, he cautioned, the experience wouldn't work as well. So, I hummed— and suddenly, a brand new, fifteen-minute cavalcade of kaleidoscopic, geometric shapes and colors burst and drifted into my field of vision, merging with my voice, and the vibrations coming out of the subwoofer.

Some people might say that SoundSelf is a “mind-melting experience.” This, in my opinion, isn't quite accurate. The game, which Arnott describes as something like a trance or virtual meditation, doesn't melt the mind so much as activate and elevate consciousness to a new type of reality. Melting implies mental overload or breakdown. SoundSelf, on the other hand, pulls the user into a beautiful and dynamic multi-sensory reality, one that creates a sense of calm peacefulness.

The word “psychedelic,” in Arnott's opinion, is a horrible aesthetic crutch that's overly used when talking about non-chemical trips. SoundSelf, comprised of original software written in C++ (one that builds the system, the other that visualizes sound), clearly isn't meant to be a virtual substitute for mind-altering chemicals. Since the game is the result of arranged computer code, its new realities are fundamentally different. Arnott's hope is that in a few years developers and users will create a new vocabulary for trance-inducing virtual reality experiences.

“With SoundSelf, it's such a difficult thing to describe, and one of the only things I can try to leverage a little is the 'star gate scene' in 2001: A Space Odyssey,” said Arnott. “So, the way I try to pull that into the description is I describe it as 'an odyssey of light and sound' and try to make people make the connection.”

Arnott, who created sound design for the mind-bending experimental games Antichamber and The Stanley Parable, originally became interested in gaming during his time at New York University's film school, Tisch. In his last year at NYU, the school founded the NYU Game Center, which he describes as the current equivalent of the university's film school in the 1980s. This game center helped hurdle Arnott down his current course in experimental gaming experiences.

Before working on the above games, Arnott created his own, Deep Sea, where the player, underwater and blinded with a gas mask, fights a sea monster that he or she can only hear. Arnott used two little microphones embedded in breath-in/breath-out ports to allow the computer to sense players' breathing.The player aims and fires a weapon, hoping to hear the creature cry out in pain. More often, the only sound the player hears is “their shot disappearing uselessly into the void.”

Deep Sea is ultimately, as Arnott told me, about being “vulnerable.” Though it was very much a game (as well as an installation piece), its concept and design would have a big impact on the SoundSelf development process.

Arnott also explained that his game design background allowed him to think about SoundSelf's user interaction as “flow,” which he said game designers have down to a discipline. Flow can be thought of as a player interacting in the moment with the game system. Side effects of these systems' interactivity, Arnott said, are trance states. So, what he is trying to do with SoundSelf is combine gaming's interactivity discipline with what monks are trying to do with singing bowls or mandalas. A clash of two different technologies, as it were.

Originally, Arnott programmed SoundSelf's visuals himself. Never too confident when it came to designing visuals or deploying color, it took about a year before Arnott felt he was proficient at programming dynamic shapes and movement. Eventually Arnott enlisted programmer Evan Balster to help broaden SoundSelf's current visual palette through C++ programming, which had to visualize the game's music as geometry in a generative way.

When Arnott finally started offering demos at gaming conferences like E3's Indiecade booth, the input he got was invaluable. It also proved that SoundSelf challenged gamers in ways they'd never been challenged before.

“There is a lot of interesting things to explore other than what it feels like to be powerful, such as what it feels like to be weak,” said Arnott. “With SoundSelf, when gamers come into it they realize that it's an interactive system responding to their voice, and they'll try to take control of it. They'll try to explore it and understand what it does, playing it like an instrument or using it like a gun in a shooter game, and it doesn't work like that.”

Arnott said that this type of gamer will then give up. But when they finally do let go, they find they're able to fully fall into SoundSelf's virtual reality.

Maybe because I am not a rabid gamer, my entry into SoundSelf's latest virtual reality experience was smooth. That I immediately let go might have also had something to do with the fact that I knew the game had close analogues with non-gaming, mind-bending experiences.

In SoundSelf's design, Arnott attempted to reach the six qualities of a spiritual experience: a sense of unity, an intuitive sense of deep truth, sacredness, positive mood, transcendence of time and space, and ineffability. Arnott was interested in how these qualities can be experienced across cultures in a number of different ways, and wondered if it could be done in a virtual environment. While he said SoundSelf doesn't achieve an intuitive sense of deep truth or sacredness, he believes the game hits the other qualities pretty well.

Having experienced SoundSelf, I would agree. While the fusion of beautifully rendered, three-dimensional visuals, monotone singing, and the subwoofer's vibrations was indescribable, it didn't produce feelings of deep truth or sacredness. But this might have more to do with VR being in its infancy than any real faults with SoundSelf's design or concept. In the future, it could be possible for Arnott and other virtual reality developers to reach those lofty goals.

What is encouraging is that there were moments in SoundSelf, especially when the visuals resembled soft or silky holographic shapes, where I felt a sense of unity. In these moments, SoundSelf's synchronized input and output—the humming, the virtual shapes flying around, and the vibrations—combined to produce a feeling that I was in another space, but still simply existing in or seeing just another aspect of reality within the cosmos. 

Equally as important, the game induced a beautiful and seamless trance that made me forgot that I was in virtual reality. Though fleeting, the moments were powerful; something for Arnott and his team to build on in future SoundSelf iterations. The only other way to try and describe SoundSelf is by comparing it to a synaesthetic experience, where sight, sound, and other sensations blur into one.

“Synaesthesia is one of the dragons I'm chasing, which puts you off balance in the way you perceive things,” said Arnott. “With SoundSelf, the hope is that you experience a oneness of self while you're also experiencing a oneness of sensation.”

While SoundSelf is not pure synaesthesia at this point, technological advances in devices that create virtual sensations—from sound to touch, though perhaps not smell—should help Arnott further refine his virtual odyssey. And when the Oculus Rift consumer model comes in the near future, then we can all trip the light fantastic in SoundSelf's ever-evolving world.

For more info and to stay updated on SoundSelf, head over to the game's homepage.

Holotropic Breathwork

Holotropic Breathwork^[1] (from Greek ὅλος holos "whole" and τρέπειν trepein "to turn or direct towards a thing"; meaning "moving toward wholeness") is a practice that uses breathing and other elements to allow access to non-ordinary states for the purpose of self-exploration. It was developed by Stanislav Grof, M.D., Ph.D. and Christina Grof, Ph.D.^[2] Holotropic breathing has some similarities to rebirthing-breathwork, but was developed independently.^{[citation needed]} Holotropic Breathwork is intended as an approach to self-exploration and healing that integrates insights from modern consciousness research, anthropology, various depth psychologies, transpersonal psychology, Eastern spiritual practices, and mystical traditions of the world.^{[citation needed]}

The method comprises five elements: group process, intensified breathing (hyperventilation), evocative music, focused body work, and expressive drawing. The method's general effect is advocated as a non-specific amplification of a person's psychic process, which facilitates the psyche's natural capacity for healing.

Holotropic Breathwork is usually done in groups, although individual sessions are done. Within the groups, people work in pairs and alternate in the roles of experiencer ("breather") and "sitter". The sitter's primary responsibility is to focus compassionate attention on the breather. Secondarily, the sitter is available to assist the breather, but not to interfere or interrupt the process. The same is true for trained facilitators, who are available as helpers if necessary.^{[citation needed]}

Originally developed as an adjunct to psychedelic psychotherapy, Holotropic Breathwork is an autonomous psychotherapeutic practice which, nevertheless, retains many of the clinical precautionary measures that were implemented in the medical use of LSD.

"Holotropic Breathwork" is a trademark.

Contents   [hide]  1 Typical experiences 2 Importance of the birth process 3 Professional practice 4 Reactions and contraindications 5 Research 6 Criticism 6.1 Responses to criticism 7 References 7.1 Works cited 8 External links

Typical experiences[edit]

Participants in Holotropic Breathwork sessions report a wide variety of experiences (Taylor, 1994). From observing many people in nonordinary and expanded states of consciousness, Grof developed what he considers to be a “cartography” of the psyche, which describes four main categories of experience.

Sensory and Somatic: This realm of experience includes various hallucinatory phenomena, such as visualizing images or geometrical patterns. More commonly, participants report a greater awareness of and ability to act out somatic processes and bodily impulses, such as assuming postures, dancing or moving in specific ways, and making sounds. They may also claim to feel where energy is blocked or streaming, consistent with the belief in vitalism.

Biographical and Individual Unconscious: As in more traditional therapies, participants may revisit unresolved conflicts, repressed memories, and unintegrated traumas. Compared to talk therapies, the unconscious material is more likely to be re-experienced than merely remembered. Participants report that this deeper processing can be more effective at clearing trauma, especially as it relates to subtle ways that trauma is held in the body.

Perinatal: Along with most other Breathwork practitioners, and in disagreement with John Locke’s claim that the infant after birth is a tabula rasa, Grof believes that the birth process is a traumatic event that leaves powerful residue in the psyche (see "Importance of the birth process" below). Participants in Holotropic Breathwork sessions report having images, emotions, physical sensations, and cognitions that convince them that they are remembering aspects of their own birth. Sometimes details can be verified with medical records. Some claim that these experiences help them release the birth trauma, including deeply held negative beliefs about themselves or the world.

Transpersonal: Referring to the possibility of accessing information outside the normal boundaries of the ego and body, transpersonal experiences reported in Holotropic Breathwork sessions include past life memories, experiential identification with other life forms, out-of-body experiences, oneness, encounters with spiritual archetypes, and connection with the collective unconscious.

Importance of the birth process[edit]

One aspect of Grof's extensive theory is the belief that there is a connection between a person's life experiences and experiences in the birth process. In his book The Holotropic Mind, Grof (1992) separated this process into four stages known as the Perinatal Matrices:

1. Amniotic Universe — The womb. The only world that life knows at this point. Blissful feelings of peace and joy, in a healthy womb.
2. Cosmic Engulfment; No Exit — Equilibrium disturbed; contractions begin. Unbearable feeling of being stuck in hell with no way of escaping.
3. Death versus Rebirth Struggle — Second clinical stage of childbirth; intense struggle for survival.
4. Death versus Rebirth Experience — The child is born. Intense ecstatic feelings of liberation and love. New world begins.

Professional practice[edit]

There is an Association for Holotropic Breathwork International which promotes professional and ethical practices governing Holotropic Breathwork.

There is an extensive training and certification program for facilitators through Grof Transpersonal Training. For those who wish to become certified, there are two tracks, Educational and Practitioner. Both have the requirements of attendance at seven modules and a two-week closing intensive, covering training in transpersonal psychology (including psychopathology, spiritual emergency, and addictions), as well as the theory and practice of Holotropic Breathwork. The training also includes ten hours of consultation with a certified practitioner and 150 total hours of participation in HB workshops led by Stanislav Grof or a certified practitioner (Baum and Pounds, 1993). In addition, those wishing to become independent workshop leaders (Practitioners), must apprentice at least four times at workshops with previously certified practitioners before leading groups of their own. There are currently more than 1000 trained facilitators located throughout the world, including clinicians, businessmen, public, psychotherapists, etc.

Reactions and contraindications[edit]

In a section entitled "Focused Body Work", Grof (1988) writes: "The last component of holotropic therapy, the focused body work, is used only when it is indicated. There are many sessions with a smooth course where no interventions are required. In some of these sessions, the hyperventilation does not trigger any difficult emotions or unpleasant physical manifestations and leads to progressive relaxation and to feelings of an ecstatic nature. In others, emotional and psychosomatic distress develops, but continued breathing brings about quite automatically a good resolution and good integration of the session" (194). He goes on to say that there are "only a few situations when focused body work is necessary in the early phases of holotropic sessions" and that "the main indication for the use of focused body work is a situation during the termination period of the session (usually after about an hour and a half to two hours) in those individuals where the breathing and music did not bring a complete resolution" (194) He points out that the "work on such problems is desirable, since it brings the session to a cleaner resolution and better integration, but it is in no way mandatory" (194-5). It is in this context that Grof refers to the exteriorization of "the various forms of physical discomfort associated with the emotional distress" (195). At this stage, "it can be helpful to use certain interventions that cooperate with the process, deepen it, and intensify it ... massage or pressure in the areas that are tense or painful, or offers of specific resistances that increase existing tensions ... Among the reactions that might spontaneously occur under these circumstances are violent shaking, grimacing, coughing, gagging, vomiting, a variety of movements, and a wide range of sounds that include screaming, baby talk, animal voices, talking in tongues or a language foreign to the client, shamanic chanting, and many others" (196)

Contraindications to be considered include: serious cardiovascular problems, glaucoma, severe psychiatric illness, and pregnancy (202); while special precautions are recommended in the case of epileptics (203).

He points out that caution is required in the case of individuals with a history of psychiatric hospitalization. Such procedures are "not without certain risks" and "if the process gets to be too active and extends beyond the framework of the sessions, it can require special measures" (251). Elsewhere, he writes that "experiential work with severely disturbed individuals requires a special residential facility with trained staff where continuous support is available for twenty-four hours a day; it should not be conducted on an outpatient basis" (204).

Research[edit]

Grof (1988) admits the experimental nature of the process in the context of an adventure of self-discovery. Referring to his partnership with his wife, he comments: "Our own experience with this technique has been limited to experiential workshops lasting up to four weeks. We have not had the opportunity to subject it to rigorous evaluation in controlled clinical studies, comparable to my research in psychedelic therapy" (xiv). Later, he adds: "It is important to realize that holotropic work is completely open-ended. It is best to think about it as an ongoing research project and psychological experiment ... The training of the facilitator should never be considered a fait accompli. Holotropic therapy is a process of continuous learning, rather than mechanical application of a closed system of concepts and rules" (207).

Research by Holmes et al. (1996) concluded that holotropic breathwork combined with traditional verbally oriented psychotherapy led to “significant reductions in death anxiety and increases in self-esteem” relative to just traditional psychotherapy.

In a theoretical review article, Rhinewine and Williams (2007) offer the hypothesis that holotropic breathwork operates via a biopsychological mechanism that results in experiential exposure to feared internal representations, and consequently in extinction of covert avoidance behaviors. The latter disinhibitory process, experienced by the breather as "catharsis," may correspondingly result in therapeutic progress among patients who had previously shown limited gains in verbal psychotherapy, as previously demonstrated in Holmes and colleagues' (1996) study.

Research by James Eyerman, MD (2013) ^[3] reported results of 11,000 clinical patient experiences and 482 individual patient reports, and showed the 'procedure was well received. No complaints of adverse reactions were recorded during the sessions nor afterwards on the clinical units.' Eyerman goes on to conclude that Holotropic Breathwork 'offers significant benefits in terms of emotional catharsis and internal spiritual exploration, according to the participants. The lack of even one single reported adverse sequelae in more than 11,000 Holotropic Breathing in-patients over more than 12 years, indicates that Holotropic Breathwork could be considered a low-risk therapy to assist patients with an extremely broad range of psychological problems and existential life issues.'

Criticism[edit]

This article's Criticism or Controversy section may compromise the article's neutral point of view of the subject. Please integrate the section's contents into the article as a whole, or rewrite the material. (November 2010)

Holotropic Breathwork has been subject to criticism, on points of medical and spiritual concern.

• In Ken Wilber's "Eye of Spirit" (1996) he criticizes Grof's assertion that in order to access transpersonal states of consciousness a person must necessarily first regress to the perinatal state to resolve the trauma of (and/or around) birth. Wilber states that while this is sometimes the case, it is so only in a limited number of cases.

• In 1993 the Scottish Charities Office commissioned a report into the technique, having received complaints concerning its implementation at theFindhorn Foundation, a registered charity. The report was written by Anthony Busuttil (Regius Professor of Forensic Medicine at the University of Edinburgh), whose opinions caused the Findhorn Foundation to suspend its breathwork programme. In its report on the event, The Scotsman also published several critical comments concerning Holotropic Breathwork as a form of therapy, made by Dr Linda Watt of Leverndale Psychiatric Hospital in Glasgow. In response to literature about breathwork supplied by the newspaper, Dr Watt expressed professional concerns that the hyperventilationtechnique might cause seizure or lead to psychosis in vulnerable people. (The Scotsman, 14 October 1993).

Responses to criticism[edit]

Grof disputes many of the medical criticisms of Holotropic Breathwork, arguing that they are based on misunderstandings of the physiological and psychological processes involved. In his paper reviewing the literature on the effects of faster breathing, he concludes that "The fact that during rapid breathing symptoms surface and become manifest is not a pathological phenomenon...With skillful support and guidance, the emergence of symptoms during hyperventilation can result in healing of emotional and psychosomatic problems...". (Grof 2003)

Rhinewine and Williams (2007), reviewing the medical literature on hyperventilation in the context of a theoretical article on Holotropic Breathwork, state that "The procedure of voluntary hyperventilation has proven to be safe after medical screening for contraindicating conditions, and has been demonstrated across numerous studies to be helpful in treatment of anxiety as a tool for diagnosis and desensitization."