Intro
Contents
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Historical Roots of Holotropic Breathwork
1. Sigmund Freud and the dawn of depth psychology
2. Humanistic psychology and experiential therapies
3. The advent of psychedelic therapy
4. Abraham Maslow, Anthony Sutich, and the birth of transpersonal psychology
Chapter 2: Theoretical Foundations of Holotropic Breathwork
1. Holotropic states of consciousness
2. Dimensions of the human psyche
3. The nature, function, and architecture of emotional and psychosomatic disorders
4. Effective therapeutic mechanisms
5. Strategy of psychotherapy and self-exploration
6. The role of spirituality in human life
7. The nature of reality: Psyche, cosmos, and consciousness
Chapter 3: Essential Components of Holotropic Breathwork
1. The healing power of breath
2. The therapeutic potential of music
3. The use of releasing bodywork
4. Supportive and nourishing physical contact
5. Mandala drawing: The expressive power of art
Chapter 4: The Practice of Holotropic Breathwork
1. Use of holotropic breathwork in individual sessions and groups
2. Setting and interpersonal support system
3. Theoretical preparation of participants
4. Screening for physical and emotional contraindications
5. Practical instructions for breathwork sessions
6. Preparation for the session and the relaxation exercise
7. Conducting holotropic breathwork sessions
8. The spectrum of holotropic experiences
9. The role of the facilitators
10. Mandala drawing and the processing groups
Chapter 5: Integration of the Breathwork Experience and Follow-Up Work
1. Creating conditions for optimal integration
2. Easing the transition to everyday life
3. Conducting follow-up interviews.

4. Using various methods complementing holotropic breathwork
Chapter 6: Trials and Tribulations of Holotropic Breathwork Facilitators
1. Encounter with the military junta in Buenos Aires
2. Competing with the exhibition of Doberman pinschers
3. Culture-bound challenges for holotropic breathwork facilitators
4. Technological ordeals in holotropic breathwork sessions
5. The pisspot, oinking piglets, and smoldering Kleenexes
6. Supreme ordeal Down Under
7. Conducting holotropic breathwork in adversarial settings
Chapter 7: Therapeutic Potential of Holotropic Breathwork
1. Healing of emotional and psychosomatic disorders
2. Favorable Effect on Physical Diseases
3. Effect on personality, worldview, life strategy, and hierarchy of values
4. Potential for healing of cultural wounds and historical conflict resolution
Chapter 8: Therapeutic Mechanisms Operating in Holotropic Breathwork
1. Intensification of conventional therapeutic mechanisms
2. Dynamic shifts in the psyche's governing systems
3. The therapeutic potential of the death-rebirth process
4. The therapeutic mechanisms on the transpersonal level
5. Healing as a movement toward wholeness
Chapter 9: Physiological Mechanisms Involved in Holotropic Breathwork
1. Biochemical and physiological changes
2. Holotropic breathwork and the "hyperventilation syndrome"
The relationship between hyperventilation and various medical conditions
Hyperventilation in psychiatric patients and observations from holotropic breathwork
"The hyperventilation syndrome": Fact or fiction?
3. Psychodynamics of psychosomatic disorders
Specificity models of psychosomatic disorders
Non-specificity models of psychosomatic disorders
Individual response specificity models of psychosomatic disorders
Current situation in the field.

Insights from holotropic breathwork and other experiential therapies
Chapter 10: Past, Present, and Future of Holotropic Breathwork
1. History of holotropic breathwork
2. Holotropic breathwork and the academic community
3. Benefits of the holotropic perspective
4. Holotropic states of consciousness and the current global crisis
5. The global psychedelic Renaissance and Grof ® Breathwork
Appendix 1: Special Situations and Interventions in Holotropic Breathwork Sessions
1. The experience of choking and of pressure on the chest
2. Experience of muscular tensions and spasms
3. Problems related to blockages in the genital area, sex, and nudity
4. Overactive, erratic, and aggressive behavior
5. Working with demonic energy
6. Excessive self-control and inability to let go
7. Working with nausea and the tendency to vomit
8. Standing and dancing in the sessions
9. Reliving the memory of biological birth
Appendix 2: Holotropic Breathwork and Other Breathing Techniques
Appendix 3: About Grof® Legacy Training
Resources available for Grof ® Legacy Training for teachers and students
Bibliography
Studies of holotropic breathwork
Index.