Breathing your way to enlightenment

[lostmente]

A while back when I was in rehab I had some interesting discussions about a course someone did based on using breathing techniques to attain states of mind very similar to your traditional experience of tripping.

It's an ancient idea I know but I'm just blown away with looking back at my most hallucinogenic experiences and how my breathing patterns were preceding them.

Now when I re enact those patterns (and maybe this is just association) the state of mind returns.

it raises a few questions for me:

1. is 5ht-2a involved in respiratory patterns?
2. is tripping a form of oxygen deprivation?
3. how long can one go with limited oxygen without brain damage?

[ThirdEyeFloond]

Not an answer to your questions, but you might want to look into Stanislav Grof's 'holotropic breathwork', a technique using hyperventilation to produce altered states of consciousness much similar to tripping. He developed it after his LSD-assisted therapy was made impossible by the anti-drug frenzy. I've never tried it myself because doing it un-assisted could be risky, but afom has been to several holotropic workshops and he has had some quite profound experiences with it, comparing it to the best LSD trips he has had.