Éiriú-Eolas - Breathing Program

[Mountain Crown]

[quote author=Corto Maltese]I was trained to touch soft palate with my tongue as this supposedly establishes circuit in the body for the flow of energy (the premise is that the energy flows from your first l chakra up your spine through your brain to the third eye and then to throat chakra, heart chakra and so on)[/quote]

FWIW-

Taoist tradition asserts that the chi circulation of an undisciplined life has a dorsal as well as an anterior upward flow, culminating at the top of the head and at the throat respectively. It is then used, wasted, trapped, or goes retrograde.

Alchemical and healing practice trained the dorsal flow of chi upward until it spilled over into the third eye center, then by "completing the circuit" through the tongue's contact with the palate it would fall anteriorly to the region of the naval, ready to begin the cycle anew.

This 'microcosmic orbit' of chi is affirmed to be regenerative for all processes physical and mental.

 

[Z...]

So maybe it is original thought.
Basically thanks to this focus on vagus and discovering profound effect of its stimulation I have a hypothesis that cats purr in order to stimulate nervus vagus.
Many people don't know that cats purr not just when they are content and relaxed but also when they are severely distressed. Very often I encountered cats who were anything but relaxed or even suffering from grave and very painful trauma such as multiple bone fractures who were purring like little machines. So maybe the vagal stimulation is the answer to the mystery of cat's purr.

 

[Z...]

here they list several reasons but vagus is not mentioned:

There are many theories to explain how the purr is generated. One study determined that purring involves activation of nerves within the voice box. These nerve signals cause vibration of the vocal cords while the diaphragm serves as a piston pump, pushing air in and out of the vibrating cords, thus creating a musical hum. Veterinarian Neils C. Pederson, author of Feline Husbandry, believes that purring is initiated from within the central nervous system and is a voluntary act. In other words, cats purr only when they want to.

Purring is an integral part of the feline communication system and occurs for a variety of reasons. It is classified with the "murmur vocalization" group, which involves sounds produced by a cat while the mouth is closed. In addition to purring, this group of sounds includes grunting, calling, and acknowledgment murmurs. Domestic cats and some wild cats, like pumas and mountain lions (almost any big cat that cannot roar), are all able to purr.

As the cat matures the meaning of the purr changes. Some cats purr to indicate contentment or pleasure, but badly frightened cats and severely ill cats also purr, and so do females while they are delivering their kittens. It is not uncommon for cats to purr when they are close to death. This final purring may indicate a state of anxiety or possibly euphoria, states that have also been described in terminally ill people.

Animal behaviorists believe that when cats purr under stressful circumstances, they are reassuring or comforting themselves, much as humans may sing to themselves or hum when they are nervous. Frightened cats may purr to communicate submissiveness or non-aggressive intentions. A feral cat may purr to signal that he will not attack and other cats need not feel threatened. Older cats may purr when they play or approach other cats, signaling that they are friendly and want to come closer.

A more recent theory about purring is that it is caused by the release of nature's own morphine-like substances (endorphins) in the brain. Since endorphins are released under circumstances of pain and pleasure, this would explain the seemingly ambiguous expression of purring. This theory jives with Pederson's reasoning, that purring is initiated in the brain, and is also compatible with the more mechanical explanations for purring, as endorphins activate one of the main action systems in the brain (so thought is translated into movement). Whatever the explanation for purring, it seems to indicate cats' contentment and is associated with improvement in their affect at times of stress. Purring is one of cats' most endearing qualities.

this also seems interesting:
[quote author=scientific american]
Although we assume that a cat�s purr is an expression of pleasure or is a means of communication with its young, perhaps the reasons for purring can be deciphered from the more stressful moments in a cat�s life. Cats often purr while under duress, such as during a visit to the veterinarian or when recovering from injury. Thus, not all purring cats appear to be content or pleased with their current circumstances. This riddle has lead researchers to investigate how cats purr, which is also still under debate.

Scientists have demonstrated that cats produce the purr through intermittent signaling of the laryngeal and diaphragmatic muscles. Cats purr during both inhalation and exhalation with a consistent pattern and frequency between 25 and 150 Hertz. Various investigators have shown that sound frequencies in this range can improve bone density and promote healing.

This association between the frequencies of cats' purrs and improved healing of bones and muscles may provide help for some humans. Bone density loss and muscle atrophy is a serious concern for astronauts during extended periods at zero gravity. Their musculo-skeletal systems do not experience the normal stresses of physical activity, including routine standing or sitting, which requires strength for posture control.

Because cats have adapted to conserve energy via long periods of rest and sleep, it is possible that purring is a low energy mechanism that stimulates muscles and bones without a lot of energy. The durability of the cat has facilitated the notion that cats have "nine lives" and a common veterinary legend holds that cats are able to reassemble their bones when placed in the same room with all their parts. Purring may provide a basis for this feline mythology. The domestication and breeding of fancy cats occurred relatively recently compared to other pets and domesticated species, thus cats do not display as many muscle and bone abnormalities as their more strongly selected carnivore relative, the domestic dog. Perhaps cats' purring helps alleviate the dysplasia or osteoporotic conditions that are more common in their canid cousins. Although it is tempting to state that cats purr because they are happy, it is more plausible that cat purring is a means of communication and a potential source of self-healing.
[/quote]

 

[Marcus-Aurelius]

Taoist tradition asserts that the chi circulation of an undisciplined life has a dorsal as well as an anterior upward flow, culminating at the top of the head and at the throat respectively. It is then used, wasted, trapped, or goes retrograde.

This reminds me of a sensation I had the first time I did the pipe breathing. I was on bed in a semi sleeping state and I felt something flowing upward along my spine and when it arrived in my head, it just exploded in lights as I saw it in mentally.

 

[Gaby]

So maybe it is original thought.
Basically thanks to this focus on vagus and discovering profound effect of its stimulation I have a hypothesis that cats purr in order to stimulate nervus vagus.

I hypothesized the same ;) Notice that the info from pet place says that "One study determined that purring involves activation of nerves within the voice box." I don't know cat's anatomy, but in humans nerves withing the voice box are branches of the vagus nerve.

 

[Psalehesost]

The other day while doing the meditation I had a short experience which only lasted a couple seconds. I had just been thrown into a cage-like pit with a bunch of other men and another man swung a large weapon at me, like an axe or a club or something. I felt as if I was a slave, being killed by someone, but it was so short and all that was clear was the intensity.

Interesting that Sky had a similar experience that he noted a couple of days ago, which may or may not be related:

During the Beatha, an image came to me of a tall, short-haired, blue-eyed, blonde woman, holding a big butcher's knife walking towards me, with an angry expression. That was bizarre and I didn't recognize her. I didn't focus on it but made a note of it, so I went on concentrating on my breathing. Thought I'd throw this out there.

Maybe these are past life memories, or maybe they're symbols of something else.

The few first time I did the breathing exercise I had once a brief vision, I witnessed a Roman legionary cutting the throat of a woman because he had been paid to do so...:|

Maybe it's just a symbolic representation of something else indeed.

On another note, I noticed that I was doing the breathing exercise more mechanically than before, my mind wandering instead of concentrating on the breathing, which I still could follow by the way.
I also feel much more tired in the morning, like I haven't slept much and dreaming often and intensely during the night.

At first I didn't think seriously of posting it, being simply a mental image (strong, though with little detail) and around the same time and afterwards during three-stage breathing (which may simply be a psychological reaction) feeling a bit tense in and strange on the outside of my throat - I saw in my mind's eye an image ("located" where my head is) of a man's head with a noose around his neck.

This time, I was breathing more mechanically, drifting off into irrelevant thoughts a number of times and feeling a tinge of sadness and a mental tension when I snapped out of it and re-focused. A tinge of sadness also came after the meditation.

I was a little bit clogged in my nose this time, and so had a hard time properly doing the more intense beatha due to limited air inflow.

 

[gaman]

Around 75 percent of the time I do any the slower controlled breathing exercises (meaning excluding warriors breath), I have the panic type feeling of not getting enough air. Mostly I've done the pipe breathing and the prayer meditation except for one full meditation session.

Would this type of panic feeling just be because I'm very overweight? Or is there something else to it? Maybe I'm not relaxed enough? I saw earlier in this thread that others had some type of panic reaction (not sure if it is the same nature) but that it seemed to go away after a few exercises.

 

[Seamus]

A: Humans should remember the hermetic maxim can go both ways in some respects. Those who are destined to "meet" themselves in the future can now do so with greater facility due to these efforts. We once said that "you in the future" could "rewrite" cosmic programs... that goes for others too. They are now learning the programming language.

Q: (L) A number of people on the forum have talked about the zoning out thing, the, ya know... while still awake seemingly, losing all awareness of self and just kind of zoning out. What is this phenomenon?

A: See previous answer and think of it as spending "time" with the higher self/teacher instead of wasting the ability to dissociate on futile illusions. Also remember that "time" spent in this process utilizes this "soul ability" as it was originally intended. It taxes the soul greatly to be embodied.

...

A: The next phase will be rebuilding soul communities. Wait. Message to all: Do not give up! Patience pays! It took millennia for the blocks to be created and put in place. You can break them in a matter of months! Do it!

Q: (L) So, you're just saying that people should focus right now on doing the exercises and just be patient? Is that it?

A: Yes.

Q: (L) Well, I had suggested to everyone that they should do it together - I mean, the whole program on Mondays and Thursdays. And then the other parts of the program as needed, especially the meditation every day if possible. Is that the best way to break it into daily practice and then weekly intensive practice?

A: Yes. And doing it on the same day leads to community building! But, you should be doing the program on the same day also rather than "chatting" with us. That is a separate thing.

Q: (L) Is that why I felt so tired and exhausted on Monday night that I just couldn't do it? I mean, was it something that made me know that that was separate?

A: Not exactly. You are, as always, the object of concerted attack. Best to ask your group to be awake and paying attention to reality during the sessions.

Q: (L) So, when everybody was doing their meditation and breathing, I was effectively deprived of protection. Is that kind of it? Unless of course I was involved with them in the same activity...

A: More or less.

I just wanted to post this excerpt from yesterday's session transcript in case anyone following this thread missed it, there are some important points regarding the breathing program.

 

[Johnno]

Around 75 percent of the time I do any the slower controlled breathing exercises (meaning excluding warriors breath), I have the panic type feeling of not getting enough air. Mostly I've done the pipe breathing and the prayer meditation except for one full meditation session.

Would this type of panic feeling just be because I'm very overweight? Or is there something else to it? Maybe I'm not relaxed enough? I saw earlier in this thread that others had some type of panic reaction (not sure if it is the same nature) but that it seemed to go away after a few exercises.

I've done the breathing for the first time since I caught the flu and I must admit it was a little uncomfortable as my lungs aren't back to 100% capacity. I didn't experience this before in full health.

So in my experience anyway, it's more a symptom of not being able to breathe properly and lung function than anything else.

 

[gaman]

I've done the breathing for the first time since I caught the flu and I must admit it was a little uncomfortable as my lungs aren't back to 100% capacity. I didn't experience this before in full health.

So in my experience anyway, it's more a symptom of not being able to breathe properly and lung function than anything else.

Thanks, Johnno. I'll keep at it and maybe it will go away. I'm also working to get this belly to go away -- can't hurt methinks :)

 

[Johnno]

I've done the breathing for the first time since I caught the flu and I must admit it was a little uncomfortable as my lungs aren't back to 100% capacity. I didn't experience this before in full health.

So in my experience anyway, it's more a symptom of not being able to breathe properly and lung function than anything else.

Thanks, Johnno. I'll keep at it and maybe it will go away. I'm also working to get this belly to go away -- can't hurt methinks :)

Yes, it may level out a bit once the breathing becomes more natural rather than forced. The heart rate and available oxygen may also be a factor. Actually the feeling I had was similar to a feeling I had when I used to do a bit of skin diving, when I knew I was running out of air and there was quite of few metres of water before I got to the surface.

 

[RGG]

I find this breathing program and following meditation to be exactly what I've been needing and searching for. I love that it is practical in its application and has immediate results that are tangible and cannot be dismissed as figments of my active imagination. It is positively exceeding my expectations.

But for all of the positive benefits, I have seen a down side or balance (depending on point of view of course) that is negative. Since I have started this program I have noticed a serious increase in attacks from my external environment. They all seem to becoming from the males in my immediate family oddly enough-right from the baby who has been crying at night and impossible to console to the 4-year old who is ornery, belligerent and rude to my own husband who is in a most negative mood. At any one time I would expect these behaviors as normal and pay little attention but to have all three of them at once seemingly on cue was just too much to disregard. Now I have been very consistent about doing the whole program every night since it became available except for a handful of days that were missed. I'm wondering if the positive energy generated (maybe even too much at one time) is being balanced by negative energy in my external environment and it's a little to much to integrate all at once. If this is so maybe I should slow down a bit??? Alternatively it could just be orchestrated to cause me to stop. Has anyone experienced anything similar? I would like some input from others on this to make sure this makes sense because I don't want to be derailed in any way.

 

[Justin]

So far I have only done the full meditation/breathing program twice…but with very good results!! I would have done it more but was out of town in a situation where there were always people around and there was no quiet place to do it.

For the first time doing the exercise I had no expectation except “this is practice” to make sure that I was doing it correctly according to the instructions. At the end of the first session I cried for longer and harder than I can ever remember, and I am generally not very emotional!! During the crying I felt mostly deep sadness and loss, but could not identify the source of any of these emotions. After the crying stopped, I felt a deep sense of calm and wonder and joy, like the logical mind had taken a break for once. It's a very hard thing to describe and something that I've never felt before. The second time I did the program I had pretty much the same experience. After the meditations I found myself really relaxed and not analytical at all (completely unusual for me)!

Laura's voice is very soothing, peaceful and comforting. I did a fair amount of dissociating during the exercise, but focusing on the breathing kept me from straying too far off into long dissociative periods. At times during the bioenergetic breathing I was smiling and laughing to myself at nothing I could identify (the predator's mind perhaps??).

In everyday life I am not very emotional, so the fact that I was able to open the emotional center so well with this exercise is really encouraging! Generally I'm very emotionally stable on the outside and was never taught that emotions are normal and natural. I keep my emotions to myself and was conditioned to sublimate them and not express them. Like many others, I was raised in a narcissistic family where we were taught that emotions were unimportant and irrelevant. In fact, it was not until much into adulthood that I could even recognize and categorize emotions and their sources. Doing the Work has been enormously helpful in that I can now at least watch my emotions pass through and recognize and categorize them. It's quite strange that I lived for so many years with no knowledge or awareness of emotions…I was taught to ignore them, so have had to learn this very basic skill.

I can see from just a few sessions of the meditation that it is very powerful and enormously useful for freeing emotional blockages and opening the emotional center. And it's really fun too! I particularly like the times when I start laughing and smiling but can't exactly rationalize why. :D

One thing that I have noticed is that it seems easier lately to distinguish between “I” and “it” and lately when I recognize “it”, I can laugh at “it” to myself more quickly. This is really encouraging!

I've also been saying the Prayer of the Soul every night before I go to sleep, for as many times as I can before drifting off into sleep.

Pipe breath and belly breathing have been really useful lately …whenever I feel anxiety now I do both and it really helps!


Thank you so so much for providing this wonderful meditation/breathing exercise!!! :D

 

[Laura]

For Tigersoap: When you get to the point that you can do the breathing more or less mechanically, then it is time to begin to focus on the meaning of the words of the prayer. If you just approach them with the curiosity of a child who really wants to know, you may have interesting results.

 

[Meg]

I thought I’d share my experiences so far.

I have had a lot of rage and anger, some depression and fatigue. It has prompted me to observe myself more during the day and to deal with issues from my childhood that I was ignoring.

I have had acne appear on my upper chest which started when I completed the first ‘session’. Extreme tingling or vibrations in my feet, legs and the rest of the lower body that manifest mostly during the 3rd stage of the round breathing. In one session, I heard someone pound very loudly on piano keys.

As far as the zoning out, for some reason, as soon as I go “off” a shock or something, brings me back. I can't attribute it coming from any part of my physical body. It's a quick “conscious shock(?)” back to present. It may be a way to keep me from disassociating, which I do quite a bit. Or it could be "the dark side" trying to keep me from "zoning". :/


I did have a strange dream during a nap after the meditation. In the dream, I was in a home that I thought was mine. I had just finished dealing with some loud guests. I walked outside and saw an elephant, down the street a little, sitting on the ground, near a chain link fence. I think it had something in its mouth or it had white tongue. Once I saw it, I ran over. As I was running over, the elephant disappeared. Once I got to were it was sitting, I saw that it had reappeared behind the fenced area and was scampering off to a covered barn type area with two black cats! Now that’s entertainment.

Thanks again to all involved in putting this together. It's been quite a remarkable experience so far.

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