Considering Holotropic Breathwork: Essays and Articles on the Sociological, Therapeutic, and Spiritual Functions and Effects of the Grof Breathwork

About this book

In her essays, articles, and research collected for more than a decade, Kylea Taylor observes, discusses, and theorizes about therapeutic and sociological functions and effects of the breathwork system developed by Stanislav Grof, MD and his wife, Christina Grof. A good deal of the material focuses on the healing potential of Holotropic Breathwork for addiction recovery and trauma recovery and the mechanisms which make it effective for participants. In one article she deeply considers the ways in which one learns about oneself from the practice of sitting for another in Holotropic Breathwork (or sitting for anyone having strong cathartic emotions). Taylor's groundbreaking early 1990s research using Holotropic Breathwork in a residential center for substance abuse recovery is published here for the first time in its entirety. In another she describes the kinds of states seen in Holotropic Breathwork participants and compares them to the specific yogic sleep and meditation states for which Sanskrit has names. In her most recent essay, Taylor describes Jung's Fourth (Inferior) Function as the gateway for non-ordinary states of consciousness and transformative spiritual emergency. Other articles consider how we sponsor the unexperienced experience (Ivor Browne's term for unfelt trauma) and the ways in which the art process of SoulCollage(r) is useful for integration of non-ordinary state experience.