SOMA - The Science Of How SOMA Works

Okay. So it's interesting to me because not all the breath work out there can get you high. So how is it that Soma gets you high? And how does it differ from something like holotropic breathwork or breath of bliss? I tried this other one on the island called shamanic breathing and that did not get me high. So.

How do we know, like you know which one to sign up for?

Yeah. Well, okay, so soma has a variety of benefits and getting high is just one of the side effects. Okay. And what I have done as a pharmacist, as a scientist is to really go deep on why breath has an influence on the body. So I can talk to you through the science of it briefly. But basically soma is a very fast track to getting that peak state. Holotropic breath work is like two or three hours of breathing continuously with music. And it's similar, but I find that it misses out a key component. It's still, it's still very powerful and you can get to very, very lucid states using it. But what I discovered was in pranayama, which is the ancient science of breath work from India, that there is the most revered technique known as kumbhaka, which is the breath hold, breath retention. Okay, so, so what happens when you hold your breath is that you literally press pause on life. So when you breathe, you create life. When you press pause on life and you press pause on your breathing, but holding it, you go into this very still, deep, meditative state. All right? And then this is when some magic can happen. So what soma is all about is actually.

Doing a series of kumbhaka in rotation. And each time you're able to hold your breath longer and longer and longer until the final climax at the end. So the first phase before that is known as this power breathing and power breathing. What you're doing is that you're actually hyper oxygenating the system. You're hypo oxygenating the body, so you're getting a lot of oxygen into the system and you're breathing out carbon dioxide and carbon dioxide. What it does is it triggers your brain that you need to breathe again. That's what carbon dioxide does. Alright, so.

What we're doing is we're actually breathing out the carbon dioxide and breathing in lots of oxygen, saturating your blood with oxygen. Okay. In the first phase, and you'll find that you're going to feel tingly and light headed. You're going to feel like there's electricity going through your body. During that first phase and we do this cyclical, rhythmical breath work to a rhythm. So I use a rhythm. I count in beats. I also use the term breathe in beats. Okay. So you breathe in rhythm, like in 2, 3, 4, out 2, 3, 4. And it's smooth and connected very deep. And what we do is we apply a component from tantra, which is the sublimation of sexual energy. The transmutation of sexual energy up into the higher faculties, mental faculties. So usually sex, that we commonly know it is used for pleasure and procreation. Sex is the most potent life force that exists. And a very famous book, Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich, he devoted a whole chapter to it, the Art of Sex Transmutation. And he talks all about the fact that we should preserve this energy. And that is the secret of success of a lot of the most world's most successful people. Tantra is also about using and harnessing sexual energy. And yoga as well. They're all sort of schools of harnessing this most potent force that we have in nature and raising it for a higher purpose. So what we do is we use special energy locks to raise this energy up and circulate around the body and activate, and we wake it up. And in fact, the ritual that you did, kasoma, has a few variations of the ritual, but the one that you do, which is a long one, which I only do at retreats as a ceremony, is known as the awakening. Because what it does is it wakes up this sexual energy. Okay. It does something else as well. So when you wake the sexual energy up and you get all this oxygen in. Okay. The next phase, which is the breath retention, the kumbhak. So the first phase is also known as bhastrika. The next phase known as kumbhaka.

So basrika is what, the first.

The power breathing.

Power breathing, yep. And is that basically like, you know, rhythmic, even, breathing as deep as you can. So a long inhale.

You breathe through your sexual.

So are you clenching. Are you activating the bunda by just kind of locking the energy up?

You're holding the muscles you'd use to hold in your urine and then letting go on your exhale.

Okay.

So you're, like, pulsing at your sexual organs at the bottom.

Okay.

Which is where all the. The power restored. We're waking this up and we're circulating it. And what this power breathing also does is it moves the largest lymph gland in the body. The lymph is our detox mechanism in the body, and it can only be activated through movement. That's why exercise is so important for our overall health. And so you basically just by breathing in this rhythm, you move this and you create this flushing out, cleansing of the body as well naturally. So that's what Batrica does, and it optimizes blood flow from your heart to your brain. Okay? So you get this optimum blood flow. And this group of scientists called HeartMath Institute, they did a lot of studies on this rhythmical breathing. And they found that just through rhythmical breathing, you get into this state of coherence, especially if we use intention as well. When we combine intention with rhythmical breathing, we can actually optimize the blood flow from your heart to your brain. And what this does is it creates a harmony around your body between all of the physiological functions, your hormonal system, immune system, your blood circulation system and your respiratory system. And you create this harmony. And it's a very, very powerful feeling that you get from it. You feel very cleansed. Then that prepares you for, for the next phase, which is the breath hold the comeback up phase. So then you breathe in and you breathe all the way out, and you hold your breath with absolutely no air in the lungs for as long as you possibly can.

So on the exhale, on the exhale, okay?

And you're gonna hold your breath, and you're gonna hold your breath for as long as you possibly can. And what happens now is because you've kind of tricked your brain by getting rid of the carbon dioxide, your brain actually allows you to hold your breath for longer. All right? And there's a, there's some additional benefits to doing this. So you hold your breath for long periods of time and you press pause on breath, press pause on life. You go into this very deep, still meditative state. During this state, your brain waves drop, you go into these low alpha levels. And what happens is you can actually reprogram and communicate with your unconscious mind. And this is where the magic of manifesting happens. You can use visualization techniques and things that supplant your intentions, set your intentions and supercharge them. And what it is, that's a very powerful self hypnotic method. So hypnosis has a very magical effect. Okay? You can actually hypnotize yourself into reaching your goals.

By actually learning self hypnosis. But this is like self hypnosis on steroids. It's like the most powerful way to reprogram your unconscious hard disk in order to guide you towards where you want to go.

Okay, so I'd love to break that down a little more because you Mentioned brain waves. So I'd love to understand the connection between brainwaves, the unconscious mind, and getting what you want.

Yes.

Yeah. How is it that if we activate the unconscious mind, we can get more of what we want than if we were activating our conscious, logical minds and just kind of, you know, creating a strategic plan and implementing and going for it in a very logical, irrational kind of way?

Yeah. So, okay, so this is like one of the most important things that I think has been discovered is the fact that we have many different brain waves that we operate in and we have predominant brainwave frequencies at any time, depending on the state. And the frequency that is associated with what the hypnotherapists use to get your subjects into, to plant suggestions is known as the low alpha brainwaves. It's the alpha brainwave spectrum and the theta crossover.

Right, interesting.

It's around 8Hz and below between 6 and 8Hz is like a sweet spot where you are.

Like seeping into unconsciousness, but you're still conscious. You're consciously able to program your unconscious mind. You can self hypnotize yourself. Okay. By using positive affirmations or using visualization techniques.

So I've noticed there's a number of different products that are out there that are known as brain entrainment technologies. Binaural beats and isochronic tones are two of the different types of technologies. And it seems like there are different brainwaves for different types of optimal effects or goals. So, you know, so when it comes to. So the alpha theta, which you mentioned was like 6-8 Hz is the best for repatterning your unconscious mind.

The alpha brain, that state, the low alpha brain between alpha and theta, that crossover.

Got it. And then what are some of the other ones?

So yeah, then there's beta brain waves, which is your normal waking state. That's when you're like active and you're doing stuff that if that goes on for too long, can create stress in the brain. That's like when you're like too active.

When you can't shut off your mind.

Can'T shut off the mind. It's your, your like conscious state. Right. Then you have the, the alpha brainwave state, which is the low alpha brainwave state is more like the dreamlike creative thinking state. It's your natural kind of calm, relaxed and people will often daydream during this state. Now the theta state is a bit. Is lower and this basically is associated with deep meditation. Or it's also that lucid state when you are half asleep and half conscious. You know, it's that, like, Wait, that time when you couldn't have, like, lucid dreams, and then you have the unconscious state, which is a delta brainwave state, which is when you're in deep state.

Got it. And, like, that is the most restorative.

That's a restorative.

Okay, got it.

But the thing is, we produce every single brain wave all the time. Okay. We're always. A brain is, like, always producing.

A mixture of different frequencies. So I've actually now moved towards more like, using breath as a way to induce trance breath and just rhythmical music. I. I don't use technology as much. I find that this is even more effective. But if you combine it with isochronic tones, which is what I do, it's a very fast way of getting to these deep brainwave states.

Interesting.