Blowing the Lid off Breathwork
In this article Josh explores yoga, prāṇāyāma, and the modern trend of breathwork.
The state of yoga is attained when a human being expands out from their physical body in all directions until they identify as their vast and rarified subtle bodies.
Through the practice of yoga, we get to that state. Yoga prescribes uplifting activities that shift our perspective beyond the obvious. We start with enacting positive behaviours, and then proceed to stretching and strengthening the body, expanding the lungs and slowing the breath, along with wholesome study and chanting.
Yoga moves us past the doldrums of things already manifested that we may lean into the excitement of things about to be manifested. By practicing yoga – in particular āsana and prāṇāyāma – we move beyond the limited identity shaped by the senses and modern materialist culture.
Yogic Identities
In yoga we use a diverse array of tools and techniques, some intellectual, others experiential. We attempt to wrestle control of life from the “monkey mind” to the version of ourselves who sees beyond sensory input and past experiences. As yogis, we gradually prove to ourselves that there is a higher self who we can identify and act as. With the greater knowledge and creative ideation this affords, our lives become more enjoyable, more secure, and are marked by confidence and clarity.
It comes as a pleasant surprise to the rational mind that surrendering control can lead to such positive results. Even more surprising is that when we do this, happiness, understanding, and appreciation converge into the same state – that’s the state of yoga. We can say that when this wonderful wordless feeling is present, identification with the subtle bodies (or the higher self) has taken place, and is now guiding our attention and actions. In this state, it’s no longer the brain scrambling to manage a complex world on its own. Rather, attention and action come from a steadier, more expansive version of us.
There are many ways to explain the subtle bodies. Let’s use the kośa-s, Since they are a staple in so many lineage. Kośa (pronounced “kosha”) means perimeter or body or field or scope.
Who Are You Being
I am annamaya kośa
This is the most dense and coarse plane of existence. It is the physical plane. Like the needle of a record player, this identity bounces around collecting impressions and doesn’t see far beyond itself. When we are identified as annamaya kośa, we look through the eyes of the body only, and feel like we exist inside our skull. People identified with annamaya often do things such as: chat to themselves and others, travel to physical places, indulge tastes, learn trades, and accomplish adminstrative tasks. This plane of extistence is collqouially referred to as “the grind”.
The joy of this kosha can be disrupted when someone is unhealthy, prone to injury, unable to rest and sleep, mentally restless, harbouring screen and chemical addictions – contending with a mess of neurotransmitters and habits.
Thus, the basic stages of yoga address this by providing behavioural advice and some exercises to free up the lungs and spine. We learn how to bend over forwards and backwards, how to lunge and jump without getting too flustered, and how to take full breaths smoothly. We want to mobilise the spine, unblock the nerves, and circulate the special nutrients found within the Cerebro-Spinal Fluid (CSF).
I am pranamaya kośa
Now we’re talking! Here we expand completely into and a little beyond the physical body – beyond the skull and the skin. When identified as pranamaya kośa, the babbling of the monkey mind eases and we find ourselves touched by the beauty of the natural world, even when we’re living in busy cities It is such a relief to be free of the tiny skull.
When operating as pranamaya kośa, we sense the movement of feelings and inclinations in and around us more completely. Even when we don’t love where we live, we take pleasure in the subtle perceptions and energy of people, animal, trees, and bugs around us.
This is the plane of sensation. It’s where we notice something interesting or unusual when we walk into a room or approach a place. We naturally gravitate to positive situations and develop greater fondness for life. We begin to realise that our personal joy overlaps and supports the joy of people near us. The sense of privacy held within the skull dissipates, and we feel energetically “on display,” and we live more intimately connected with others.
The joy of this kośa can fade if we are easily frightened by strong or complex emotions in ourselves or others. Emotions and breath are closely linked, so we train ourselves to be poised in the face of intensity.
The common strategy to accomplish this is the performance of specific, structured breathing techniques. These are usually combined with chanting or imagining mantras that remind us of our positive and expansive true nature. These practices are called prāṇāyāma (nearly the same word as pranamaya) and they involve extending the inhale, and exhale, and also holding the breath for long periods.
Prāṇāyāma helps us feel a greater range of emotions more comfortably, supported by positive symbols and instructive aphorisms. The process is very much like inflating a balloon – our capacity for diversity increases and we shed the knots and tensions that humans might otherwise carry.
I am manomaya kośa
When we identify as manomaya kośa, we realise we are expanded far beyond the body – beyond even the Earth. We overlap with the manomaya kośa of all other beings. Proximity no longer matters. Your thoughts are free to wander and can be sensed or “picked up” by others, and their thoughts by you.
All thoughts are always available to anyone. Your personal will sculpts your path – the thoughts you choose to focus on, believe, or reinforce create your experience. There is a fundamental ignorance called (avidyā) – this is the belief that every thought passing by your consciousness was generated by your brain.
Manomaya kośa is an exhilarating plane! As manomaya, we can travel to any place in the world, we can be a place, no matter how large or small. We can be an event, no matter when it was or shall be. And it’s as easy as imagining it, thinking from that place. This is a key practice of yoga: deliberately using thought and imagination to shape the way you want things to be. It is uplifting and freeing.
It could get overwhelming! Thoughts are so subtle and fast. You might wonder: What was I just thinking? Was that my thought or someone else’s? Was it my higher self or my ego? Why do I hear my dad’s voice in my head? Why does someone call right after I think of them? What about when I accidentally imagine something bad—can I trust my thoughts?
If you react with fear to weird sensations or inner voices, you can snap back into identifying with the anxious, neurotic brain. Luckily, we already set ourselves up with years of daily āsana and prāṇāyāma practice!
A person so consistently identified as manomaya is switched on. They may not always act conventionally (though they can), but they tend to make life look easy.
ā no bhadrāḥ kratavo yantu viśvataḥ
Rigveda 1.89.1
Let noble thoughts come to me from all directions.
The path of expansion using classical yoga is very reliable. Just as research shows that stress shortens physical life, the same is true on a subtle level – it also shortens your time in the expanded state of yoga. If you want to stay in that state longer, keep practising.
What’s the Best Practice?
The premium, most effective way to expand beyond the skull, beyond the skin, and beyond our immediate surroundings is a daily haṭhayoga practice. By the word haṭha, we imply other words like: Ashtanga, Vinyasa, Tantra, Kundalini. The labels can be messy. If you’re curious, see our What is Yoga page for more.
Regular practice mobilises the spine and opens the central suṣumṇa channel, allowing amṛta (and its correlate, psychoactive Cerebro-Spinal Fluid) to circulate more freely than usual. Around 500mL of CSF is generated and flushed out of the body every day!
Doing yoga changes us from being “stiff” to being “flexible” in many ways. The small personality blends with the larger self, who is calm and clear, and who possesses knowledge and intuition from afar.
The key is to consistently practice. This lets us enter the pan-physical and non-linear paradigm almost without noticing. Happily, this state is totally compatible with family life. While some degree of rattling and “breaking free” is part of the process, our predominant experience is characterised by free selection and universal access.
This is in fact the meaning of the word ad hoc: “for the specific situation at hand and for no other”. Our actions and responses become contextually relevant and bespoke for the moment, rather than dictated by tradition, habit, or panic.
The stability of daily practice affords spontaneity and dynamism in the rest of our life.
Mr Grof and Mr Hof
As we move through the kośas with steady haṭhayoga practice, including pranayama and asana, we build a foundation that’s grounded, safe, and expansive. But not all breathwork is the same, and it’s worth looking closely at some popular modern techniques.
Modern breathwork is often seen in contemporary studios or wellness spaces, sometimes partnered with things like cacao ceremony, plant medicine, and ice-baths. Put simply, this is usually a form of prolonged mouth-breathing while lying down. This kind of hyperventilation, often lasting 20 to 60 minutes, has hallucinogenic effects.
The trippy qualities of hyperventilation have been known in the West for many years. Stanislav Grof’s method, called Holotopic Breathwork, was developed in the 1960s as a substitute for LSD after it was outlawed in Czechoslovakia. More recently, Wim Hof’s method blends elements of prāṇāyāma and Tibetan tummo, adapted through free-diving training to push the limits of cold tolerance and CO2 saturation.
Grof’s technique resembles bhastrika, a classical yogic prāṇāyāma. Where Grof encourages long sessions of intense open-mouth breathing, classical yoga prescribes bhastrika in short bursts of a few minutes, followed by kumbhaka (breath retention). This duo would be repeated several times, and a mantra or mandala of significance would be simltaneously held in consciousness. Traditionally, this practice would only be offered to well-prepared students under the guidance of an experienced teacher.
These techniques aren’t rocket science, and just as yoga doesn’t own particular stretches or handstands, it doesn’t own hyperventilation. I think the yogic approach to stretching and bodyweight exercise is fantastic! The classical approach to prāṇāyāma is par excellence too. Aside from being effective and sustainable, yoga is really good fun.
We should also be wary of dogmatic approaches. Some 20th-century yoga lineages have been criticised for gatekeeping traditional prāṇāyāma and exaggerating its risks.
Yoga at its best is avante garde, it is the irrepressible experimental science. Yoga has endured for thousands of years because it is by definition diverse, pluralistic, and always up for debate.
But the rise of hyperventilation-based breathwork raises questions of safety, scope, and informed consent.
Informed Consent and Scope of Practice
Does Grof’s technique bear enough resemblance to pranayama to be covered by a yoga teacher’s insurance? Possibly not. Occurring in a yoga studio doesn’t automatically make something yoga. One might ask if the Japanese bondage art of Shibari could be classed as yoga since, as with Iyengar Yoga, it involves people dangling from ropes attached to the wall.
Inducing hallucinogenic states can cause harm, and the effects can be difficult to predict. In Gregor Maehle’s landmark book, Pranayama, he recounts a personal experience in the 1980s—practicing an intense, bhastrika-like breathing method for 90 minutes in a loosely-supervised group setting.
“We were instructed to lie down and breathe very deeply up into the chest, a process that was to be continued for over an hour. Soon after I began, some very powerful sensations took over and I began screaming, convulsing, beating and kicking.”
For Gregor, the result was a traumatic catharsis that led to an 18-month depression. “This process was called a cleansing and releasing… I don’t know what exactly got stirred up that day and whether it was the birth trauma or not. Whatever got stirred up did not get released, and on that afternoon I entered a depression that was to last for 18 months. Within a day I turned from a jolly young fellow into a dark, brooding, pessimistic character.”
Gregor unwittingly participated in a process, without adequate preparation, of forcing Kundalini up through existing blockages and closed chakras. We should be cautious about inducing psychedelic states in our yoga students. Modern science now supports psychedelic therapy, but always with trained clinicians present and strict controls. Yoga offers its own gold standard: consistent daily practice, self-guided progress, and an inner journey from annamaya to prāṇamaya to manomaya and beyond.
As one of our Senior Members put it: “Traditional pranayama is such a beautiful practice, so velvety and deep, it can do such wonderful things, such a nurturing practice… This other thing I see on social media, people writhing on the floor. I don’t know, it seems like tough love.”
Bhastrika is extraordinarily effective when introduced responsibly, it demands deep respect, proper training, and a well-prepared practitioner to harness its power safely. Without disciplined preparation, forceful activation can unleash psychological turmoil, burning through blockages chaotically. The methods of classical yoga are well proven, gradual and steady yet ever evolving and experimenting.
Ultimately, there are no barriers other than those we place upon ourselves. We create our burdens, and we’re the ones who must learn to release them.
“Buy the ticket, take the ride…and if it occasionally gets a little heavier than what you had in mind, well…maybe chalk it up to forced consciousness expansion: Tune in, freak out, get beaten.”
Hunter S. Thompson
About the Author
Josh Pryor is CEO of Yoga Australia and a Level 3 Registered Teacher. A specialist in Mysore Style yoga, Josh’s approach is light-hearted and enthusiastic. Josh is the author of two books, including The Seer Sets the Seen: Cosmic Keys to Manifestation, a new translation and commentary of Dṛg Dṛśya Viveka, a 14th century text on the nature of the subtle body.
