What is Shamanic Breathwork and How To Do It? - Go Deeper With A SOMA Breath Instructor

This video, I'm going to talk to you about shamanic breath work. That's right. So this is a very powerful breathing practice you need to do with caution, and it's best to actually do with an instructor. And our Soma breath instructors are qualified to teach you and instruct you through this technique safely. Okay, so let's actually discuss what does shamanism mean? What is shamanic? You've heard this word probably many times before, but what does it actually mean? Well, shamans originate from Russia. That word is a Russian word. And shamanism actually were the original Siberian.

Tribes, people who would use different kinds of rituals and practices to get into altered states of consciousness where they would be able to have a divine connection to download wisdom and ideas that actually you could argue was the foundations of the world's earliest religions. That's right. And over time, the shamanistic techniques kind of got spread around the world in different ways, and especially with the connection to the Aryan.

Invaders of India who brought these techniques to India. And there's some argument here whether it originated in India or whether India exported it or imported it. But what I do know is that there were these shamanic tribes and different types of rituals and practices involving the breath, from African tribal shamanism to Russian to South American to Indian. And they all kind of started emerging around the same time. But Siberian shamanism was probably the earliest that we know of. And the link to each one of these was the use of breath to invoke these alter states of consciousness.

So if we were to say that there is a thread, a common link between these ancient shamanic principles from the Vedics to the Nordics through to the Russians.

Then what I believe.

Is that what these things were, these were actually designed, these techniques and rituals are designed to work either as a replacement for or a complement to trust traditional psychedelic medicines and shamanic plant medicines. In Siberia, there was a lot of ritual use of mushrooms like amanita mascarina and other kind of shamanic plants. And also in the South American traditions, people would use things like ayahuasca and substances like that. And in India, there was also ritual use of different concoctions as well. And actually, in the Rig Veda, which is one of the world's, if not the oldest, religious manuscript, There are over 50,000 references to a plant called soma. Now, there's a really good book called Soma the Divine Hallucinogen by David L. Spess that talks a lot about this in much more depth about how these ancient tribes and shamanic cultures would use psychedelics to get into these altered states of consciousness and then how that evolved actually into breathwork and breathing tribes who used these breathwork techniques and shamanic breathing techniques alongside psychedelics also as a replacement for psychedelics. So definitely check that book out. But I'm going to share with you what I believe is the techniques that you can use to get into these alter states of consciousness. And I'll give you a little bit of a background to how I believe they work as well scientifically. So according to pranayama, and pranayama actually evolved from these Rig Veda traditions, these shamanic cultures that were using the soma ritual, who then needed a replacement for it. And the pranayama, which also is a branch of yoga and tantra. Tantric yoga was a method for moving energy around the body, Pranayama and to wake up the inner pharmacy. And in there they talk about certain techniques like Kumbhaka. Kumbhaka is the most revered technique of all. And specifically Kevala Kumbhaka, this is a technique of using rhythmic breathing to induce a state where you no longer need to breathe in or out. It's the ultimate bliss state, Samadhi, Nirvana, divine bliss, complete connection. And the idea is that through years of practice of doing these tantric yoga rituals and breathing practices, you should at will be able to control your breath in a way where you no longer need to breathe in or out. You have complete control and mastery over the breath. However, we can invoke that sense, same state by using rhythmic breathing. Okay. And I'm going to explain how you do that and what that rhythmic breathing does, okay, Mechanistically to your body, what it does to your physiology, is that it? When you're breathing in and out in a rhythm, a faster rate than you normally do, and when you're using your mouth at the same time and letting go on the exhale. So, so it's like this.

What happens there is firstly, you're breathing out more carbon dioxide than you're breathing in. Okay. And you're breathing in more oxygen than you're breathing out, it changes the ph of your bloodstream and you invoke a state of respiratory alkalosis if you keep doing this, however, when you're relaxing on the exhale, where you're.

That relaxing on the exhale stimulates the vagus nerve. And it's this combination of respiratory alkalosis and the continuous rhythmic pulsing of the vagus nerve that I believe takes you into these profound alter states of consciousness where you actually can have like out of Body experiences. You can feel like you're leaving your body completely and speaking to the divine consciousness, we get this whole body orgasmic bliss sensation building up. And when you add in the extra component of moving the energy and circulating with your pelvic floor muscles, the mulabanda, the sphincter muscles, these are the muscles you'd use if you really need to go for a pee. So if you contract them and release.

And you can even clench your fists at the same time. So you're doing this.

When you do that over and over again, and you should do this lying down, and you're lying down, clenching.

Clenching the pelvic floor.

Magic starts to happen. You'll start to feel like a euphoria building up inside. You might actually feel light headed. You might actually feel kind of a nervous panicky feeling in the beginning, which will then get taken over by a bliss feeling. If you do it in exactly the same way, as I recommend, you might avoid some of the more cathartic and negative effects of things like holotropic and rebirthing, which you may have heard of before, which can actually create and release a lot of trauma in the body. However, I believe that when you use this pulsing effect of the mulabandha, the pelvic floor, and you do this letting go on the exhale.

It sends you into a more bliss state, more profound euphoric state, where you actually have a divine connection. Now, respiratory alkalosis is actually considered a negative physiological state. But I believe that when you're doing in a controlled way like this, which is basically hyperventilating, but we're doing a controlled hyperventilation, where we're doing it using vagal tone stimulation as well as rhythmic breathing to a beat. So I always use music that has a beat. That effect actually is much more profound, and it takes you into a bliss, a divine state, rather than that horrible, kind of stressful, panicky, hyperventilating state that is often associated with things are rebirthing and holotropic. Although when you have a good instructor teaching these techniques, they can actually bring you more into that divine state. But I like to go more towards that state of bliss rather than all that catharticness. But that does also serve a purpose. However, I believe this gives you all the benefits that that does. That state of catharsis and release and crying and panicking and screaming and wailing. I believe there's a positive way to achieve the same effect which doesn't rely on you having to release a lot of negative emotions to get there. However, you may still get that catharsis and expect that, and expect that that might. However, you may still get that cathartic effect. But don't freak out, okay? Freaking out and getting panicky and nervous can actually re traumatize you. So that's why I prefer to do this technique with an instructor, somebody who's like looking after you and being mindful of you. And when you have a soma breath instructor who's trained in kevalakumbaka, okay, you can have some very divine mystical experiences. This is stuff that we do also. Our retreats are soma breath retreats. Okay, so I'm going to show you now how to do this in a safe, comfortable way. And if you're just doing this and you're doing this on your own, you must do this lying down and do this in a place where you're not going to hurt yourself. We don't want to cause any harm because there is danger of this triggering in some people who may have very high blood pressure, elevated blood pressure, it can actually cause more harm than good. So definitely don't do this. If you've got high blood pressure. If you're pregnant, if you have any kind of terminal condition, you may want to avoid doing this. But somebody who's healthy and active and maybe you have some kind of autoimmune condition like ulcerative colitis, you can do this. But again, if you have some stress induced disease or illness, then do this slowly and gradually. And it's really best to do this with an instructor. Always do techniques like this with instructor. You're going to get much more benefits out of it. But I'm just going to share this with you for those of you curious about what it is. I believe that the way I've. I've translated this from the ancient text from my teachers and mentors and putting it to music that we've created, I believe is a much more profound experience. Okay, so what you're going to do is you're going to lie down.

Like this on your back.

Bring your hands into a position which, where the palms are facing the sky.

And then have just a moment of absolute gratitude.

Bringing intention, of oneness, connection.

To the earth, being supported, grounded.

And as you lie in this position, you can also just for a moment.

Tune out of your thoughts and tune in to the sound, any sound that draws your attention.

Just tune into that.

And allow the thoughts in your mind to just fade into the background, having no attachment to them.

Now, the breathing exercise is very simple.

You're going to Take.

A slight sip in of the breath.

With your mouth open.

Like this.

And just let go on your exhale.

And let go with the tone.

Now you can actually enhance the effect by clenching your fists.

And letting go on your exhale.

And now you can further enhance the effect by drawing up the energy from your mula bandha, your pelvic floor muscles, the muscles around your sphincter, contracting them up, sending the energy up and then letting go.

And you're going to do this to a beat. So with our longer sessions, we're done with music which you can get access to if you join our instructor program. We have music designed to a beat like this. So if you play a beat and I'm going to play a few minutes of this music that we've created, the shamanic journey music, just so that you get an experience and example of this. And then you can actually click on the link below this video to learn how to get access to the full, full track that you can learn. As an instructor, we treat all of these techniques with a lot of caution and we actually like to train you to do this precisely and have the music specially available to our instructors. And what that will allow you to do is again to get profound alter states of consciousness, especially when you time the breath to a beat. This is the Soma breath method. That's right. So let's begin.

So.

So let's be.

Tuning into the beats, rhythm of the drum.

Timing your inhale and exhale to the rhythm. That's right. Let's begin.

Ha.

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And as the rhythm and the music progresses, you can even speed up the rhythm and the groove, doing it double speed.

Ha.

That's right. You're going to feel this tingly sensation. You're going to feel this charge building up in your body. Keep breathing, keep connecting. Breathe through any tension. Breathe through any pain that you may be building up. Breathe through that tension. And you know that this euphoria is going to spread all around your body. And then as you get the end of this 30 minute to an hour sequence, you're going to take a breath in and you're going to let go.

And you're just going to relax. And you may not feel the urge to breathe in or out. This is called Kevala Samadhi oneness. You're just going to completely relax, feel the divine connection.

You may feel that you don't need to breathe in or out.

And then at the end of this, you may feel like you want to take a deep breath in and hold your Breath in.

Or breathe out and hold your breath out and experiment with breath holds in and out.

Moving the energy up and down the body.

And each time you do this, you may want to increase the length of time of your rhythmic breaths. You may go from starting with 10 minutes to then building up to 20 minutes, to 30 minutes, up to an hour, doing a little bit gradually more and more till you get very comfortable with getting into these profound autostatical consciousness. That's right.

So.

Report back how you feel doing this. You may find that after 10 minutes, 15 minutes of doing this to a rhythm, you may find you're ready to begin doing this with an instructor. So sign up for our instructor training. The comments below. Learn how to become an instructor or where to find an instructor so that you can do this safely, comfortably, and you can do this online. Our Soma breath training is designed for you to do this online through the power of Zoom technology with a trained instructor to make sure you're getting the divine guidance that you need. And what the instructor will also do is plant powerful hypnotic suggestions as you're doing the rhythmic breathing that will help you stay in that divine state rather than go into that dark state. It keeps you uplifted and that's when you get the full cleansing and therapeutic benefits of a shamanic breathing exercises like this that we call kevalakumbaka. Okay, so much love and positive energy the day ahead. Happy experimenting. But remember, it's best to learn from a master. So some important points before you do. A shamanic breathwork exercise like this is very powerful and it can actually create tetany, which is this cramping up of your hands and even your face. And this is caused due to the respiratory alkalosis, hypercapnia, actually a normal physiological response as long as you don't overdo this. It actually can be a positive stress that actually makes your body stronger. However, it can be quite freaky and it can also put you into a hysterical state, a panicky state. So that's why it's best to do this with an instructor. And it will stop you from over freaking out and getting traumatized. And it's important as well to breathe through that pain. That's another useful benefit of having an instructor, because they can help you release that pain and breathe through it. And actually with several sessions of this in a row done with in a safe, effective way, you can actually release a lot of this tension, this resistance, and your body expands and it's able to handle the stress of this hyperventilation even more. It becomes more adapted to it. So this is actually a sign that you're getting adapted to the stress of, of this positive stress that you invoke. And this means that the tetany can actually fade away after several sessions. All right? But in the beginning, when you're a new beginner to this, it can be quite alarming, quite shocking, this feeling. Also, it can actually elevate your blood pressure, your heart rate. So if you're somebody who has blood pressure problems, elevated heart rate, suffers from a lot of stress, then you may want to avoid doing these very high stress, invoking breath techniques or do it with an instructor. So you're doing it in a safe way. If you're young, fit and healthy and you want to deep dive into breath work and really start to experiment with the power of the breath and what it can do for altered states of consciousness, then this technique I've shared with you, I believe is the most powerful way to do shamanic breathing exercises, is going to take holotropic to another level, rebirth into another level. Because what you're doing is you're doing rhythmic breathing precisely to a beat, and you're bringing the emphasis on the exhale, okay. And stimulating the vagus nerve. And I believe it's that rhythm associated with the stimulation of the vagus nerve, being completely relaxed and surrendering to it, and the use of affirmations and powerful rhythmic music that is this powerful combination that takes you into the most blissed out, elevated states of consciousness. And it's also why I believe I have revived this ancient tradition, this breathwork tradition of Kevala Kumbhaka, that allowed the ancients to. To actually move away from being dependent on plants and substances for their health, bliss and happiness, and to get into the alter states and also as a tool for them to explore consciousness even at a deeper level, Combining certain plants and rituals with breath work to have an even more powerful spiritual experience. So happy experimenting. Much love to all my somis. If you want more training like this, then remember to subscribe to the video YouTube channel and also sign up for a master class. Learn how to become an instructor, Go deeper and stay tuned for more videos like this in the future. Much love and positive energy for the day ahead. Peace.