'REBIRTHING' is Conscious Connected Breathing and learning to consciously breathe energy

Leonard Orr
- founder of Rebirthing Breathwork

Rebirthing, also known as 'Rebirthing Breathwork', or 'Conscious Connected Breathing' is popularly considered to be a therapy. However, according to its 'discoverer', Leonard Orr, this is not the best way to understand it. According to Leonard, Rebirthing Breathwork is basically the ability (or process of learning) to breathe energy as well as air. So why then is it considered to be a 'therapy'?

Rebirthing sessions have repeatedly been observed to have the most profound and wide-ranging healing effects that one could possibly expect to obtain from any form of therapy. In fact it frequently exceeds all expectations and seems to have literally miraculous effects.
These effects are not due to the Rebirthing guide. It could even be said that the effects are not due to the 'technique' itself either.

The seemingly unbelievable effects of Rebirthing Breathwork are actually just the natural result of energy, or 'lifeforce', flowing through the body. The technique and the 'Rebirthing guide' are only useful of course as long as one does not have a full healthy flow of energy in the body.
If a full flow of energy were to be sustained, it would be perfectly natural to be in complete, vibrant health. This is of course true regarding any technique, practice, or therapy. They are useful to bring about a restoration of balance, or to introduce a missing element, and are therefore only useful as long as there is some kind of 'problem'.

Nowadays, with the levels of stress and environmental pollution that people have come to consider normal, it is very difficult to find someone who is in a balanced, healthy state. We tend to all have our own unique form of physical, emotional or mental imbalance, and it's only when we get symptoms of 'illness' as such that we consider that there is a 'problem'... otherwise life just goes on - 'business as usual'. 

We rarely seem to ask ourselves what it would mean to live in vibrant health in all aspects - physical, emotional, mental, as well as spiritual - but we seem to be perfectly equipped for health - we are a natural marvel - a dynamic, regenerative, restorative, psycho-physical system. We only get out of balance when our outer or inner environment is incompatible with our needs.

When we restore 'healthy', or appropriate, conditions, we come back into balance and health. This is the natural power of the body, although sometimes we forget and get distracted by the modern mechanical way of describing living systems and begin to believe that by taking this or that medication or doing this or that therapy we will get 'fixed'. Anything that is truly therapeutic, and not just palliative, is working by restoring balance.

Rebirthing is the same, it is not a miracle-cure for anything - even though this is sometimes what it seems to be. But it tends to be extremely effective at restoring the balance, and therefore efficiency, of our body's regenerative systems.

Perhaps what distinguishes Rebirthing Breathwork from other practices, as well as its effectiveness, is the ease with which it can be learnt. The technique couldn't be simpler, but it takes a little experience to become accustomed to this 'new' way of breathing - to integrate it as a new learned habit - so that it starts to come naturally. It is generally considered that after 10 sessions with a trained Rebirthing Breathwork guide, the ability to breathe energy as well as air will have become an integrated skill.
However, even professional Rebirthing guides feel that they can benefit from a guided session, especially in times in their life when they are facing greater challenges and have more stress to release.

The role of the 'Rebirther' is simply to guide the participant/client into a relaxed and continuous conscious energy-breathing cycle, and help them maintain that consciousness throughout the session, thereby bringing about a far more effective use of the breath than we ever achieve in 'normal' breathing.

Beyond the physical, emotional and mental benefits, there is also the powerful spiritual experience that is frequently experienced during, or at the end, of a Rebirthing session. What is meant here by 'spiritual'? ...that which relates to our essence - our core - that which we are even without the mask of the body, or of our personal history and our 'personality'. 'Spirit' is that which is at the centre of our Being... or which is Pure Being Itself.

The feeling that arises through the practice of Rebirthing Breathwork -  cultivating this connected rhythm of breath and energy - is a natural high... an ecstasy... a feeling of communion with Divine Grace. It is a feeling of pure love at the core of our being - a depth of peace that truly surpasses all understanding.


To book your session or to find out more about Rebirthing with Peter, write to panmandala@gmail.com.

Hyperventilation and 'tetany'

Normally, our breath can be shallow - in which case we will be receiving too little fresh oxygen, or it can be too deep or too fast - in which case we may even get an overdose of oxygen.
The question sometimes arises, "Does Rebirthing involve, or lead to, hyperventilation?"
'Hyperventilation' is a medical term for the effects of 'exagerrated breathing'. It usually refers to a breathing pattern that is accompanied by a state of anxiety. In such a state one may find themselves inhaling so much oxygen that they become dizzy and have cramping sensations in some muscles (specifically the 'peripheral skeletal muscles') due to a process that is triggered by low levels of carbon dioxide. This condition is called tetany and it is quite common for some practitioners to experience it in the first sessions.

It is sometimes claimed that if Rebirthing causes tetany, then it is because it is a form of hyperventilation. This seems logical, however, if the technique itself were the 'mechanical' cause of the tetany then one would expect to always develop tetany when applying the Rebirthing Breathwork technique, but the experience of tetany tends to subside after the first few sessions, specially after one learns to release one's anxiety through the breath.
Given this fact it seems to make more sense to associate the tetany with the presence of anxiety combined together with the low carbon dioxide levels, rather than attributing it only to the technique alone.

Leonard Orr, in his writings on Rebirthing has suggested that the tetany effect may be due to a release of birth trauma, which is of course difficult to verify objectively, but the fact is that it doesn't tend to arise after the first few sessions, which would seem to at least confirm the idea that it was arising due to something that has later somehow been cleared.

It should be remembered that Rebirthing Breathwork, as traditionally taught by Leonard Orr, involves a relaxing use of the breath and when one learns to release one's anxiety through the breath, it has been repeatedly found that the tetany or any other discomfort or pain - even chronic problems such as rheumatism, or asthma - can pass by themselves over the course of one, or several, sessions.