Evolving Beyond Breathwork

Illuminate Shadows            Heal & Reconcile Divisions               Shift the Paradigm

Introduce Transparency                  Renew Balance                Deepen Consciousness

Explore Power Relations                  Revitalize Community

Mission Statement

To organize and hold a gathering of  practitioners working with breath-based methods of inducing non-ordinary states of consciousness (NOSC), based on the work of the group led by Stanislav Grof in the Esalen Institute. These include: holotropic breathwork, transpersonal breathing, maitri breathwork, neo-shamanic breathwork or newly emergent grofian breathwork and others.

At the request of many interested parties, we also open participation to people who use breathing methods and other tools of transpersonal psychology as tools for their profession and for their personal growth or professional development. If you are interested in the event and hesitate if you are the suitable attendee, do not hesitate to contact us. 

The meaning of the meeting is to co-create and co-facilitate an event with a commitment to, and interest in: facilitating personal and collective growth; striving to heal the divide(s); exploring the limitations, pathologies and shadows of the current breathwork gestalt; integrating or exploring other modalities; expanding personal and global consciousness, and, of course, creating the space and practicing breathwork together. We call for the gathering inspired by Albert Eistein's statement that problems cannot be solved from the level at which they were created as a meeting of independent professionals outside of any training institutions.

Objectives & Commitment

• A gathering for certified facilitators and trainees  working with breath-based methods to induce non-ordinary states of consciousness;
• A co-created meeting format generating space for the practice and facilitation of breath-based methods to induce non-ordinary states of consciousness;
• Exploring modalities in trauma therapy — the work of Ursula Wirtz, Bessel van der Kolk, Babette Rothschild, Gabor Maté and others;
• Identification, illumination and shift of shadows in the breathwork gestalt (see tentative program);
• Shamanic journeying;
• Evolve and deepen facilitation skills (via mastermind approach);
• Breakout discussion groups, deep sharing circles;
• Yoga, movie yoga, dance, meditation.

Price: 15,000 CZK/approx. 600 EUR or 655 USD - inludes accomodation + full board (10.400 CZK) and organization fees (4.700 CZK) - i.e. key note speakers, sound system rental, tissues, mandala room and other costs. Organizers work at the voluntary base.

Organisers:  Keith Harmon Snow,  Jiřina Macháčková and organizing committee under development

TENTATIVE PROGRAM LINK

Aspects in Greater Detail

Over the past 30+ years, many individuals have engaged in the theory and practice of holotropic breathwork through the Grof Transpersonal Training (GTT). In parallel, since the eighties, other breathwork methods inspired by holotropic breathwork have also emerged. These include maitri breathwork, neo-shamanic breathwork, transpersonal breathing, Grof breathwork etc. Training organizations and the individuals involved provided structure and support, education and wisdom, and made possible the advancement and practice of NOSC-inducing breathwork. The wonders and accomplishments, the compassion, dedication and the selfless commitment(s) and service of all the people who made this possible are very demanding of a deep respect and gratitude.

The long list of milestones, achievements, dedication and personal sacrifice(s) notwithstanding, the NOSC-inducing breathwork gestalt has suffered and has been setback substantially by certain obvious developments by many events, lastly by the conflict and split or schism between what can be called the European versus North American ‘schools’ of grofian breathwork.

The NOCS-induced breathwork gestalt has  been influenced by certain developments that remain obtuse, obscured or unacknowledged and, thus, from the jungian perspective, a Shadow has been developing for many years.

Many practitioners — both certified facilitators and uncertified trainees — have engaged the NOSC-inducing breathwork gestalt only to find, sooner or later, that {1} the ideals and standards were not universally or equitably applied or practiced; {2} interpersonal dynamics sometimes became major factors in one’s being embraced or shunned, supported or sidelined, chosen or not chosen to participate in “the work”, or to facilitate it, or even to be allowed to complete their training; {3} there exist prejudices, imbalances, and other power-based, gender and/or hierarchical realities that were/are the critical determining factors in any individual’s advancement within the breathwork community; or/and {4} there is really only an imagined community.

Some people have been deeply hurt by the obvious, or subtle, or invisible and unspoken realities, or by the other unacknowledged shadows — both personal shadow and organizational and collective shadows.

Some people have withdrawn from the community, others have been excluded or marginalized, and still others have been caught somewhere in between being ‘in’ with one  breathwork fractions, or ‘out’ with them, forced to declare allegiance, take sides, or otherwise negotiate what is obviously a rather hostile terrain full of smoke and few mirrors.

Some of the otherwise dedicated and enthusiastic practitioners have also withdrawn due to the conflict between leading people in the main training body — Stan Grof versus Cary and (the late) Tav Sparks — and the practitioners’ realizations of the limitations and inability ‘to grow to wholeness’ even while following the basic methodologies created by the very founders. This has also led to people’s feelings of betrayal.

Many (how many? how few?) practitioners remain wounded, disappointed, even feeling betrayed in the witnessing of the conflict and the need to figure out how to dance with it. Many questions have arisen, and many questions remain. How (and why) to trust the people who weren’t able to follow their own high ideals? How to find healing in the environment or ‘community’ which no longer offers/ed a deep trust or safety? Some found, working for some years, even decades, that recommendations like ‘take it to the matt’, and ‘trust the process’ and ‘make it vertical’ don’t solve everything and, further, that the methodology (and practice) is not as effective a panacea as is presented and assumed. Some practitioners have concluded also that the grofian method has not fully evolved in relation to other trauma therapies, and that it may never do so.

On the above basis, a few practitioners have called for a gathering of NOSC-inducing breathwork practitioners, either certified facilitators or experienced trainees (contact us, if not sure), with the objective of addressing the factors articulated above.

No matter where you might reside on (or situate yourself on) the spectrum of practitioners (certified facilitators, or trainees), we invite you to join this gathering in the interest and ideal of compassionately and comprehensively articulating, exploring, healing and integrating unaddressed shadows of the community, the training, the work. We invite everyone to bring your knowledge, wisdom, experience and art of how-to-do, and to share it and your Self with others. And, of course, we invite you to join and breathe.

We would like to propose exploring a non-hierarchical (horizontal) teaching and group facilitation style which relies upon the ‘hive mind’ mastermind approach and equitable peer-to-peer co-creation and co-facilitation concepts. We invite you to explore and discuss other modalities of trauma therapy. We invite you to join us in pursuit of becoming more conscious and better qualified facilitators, a process where individuals in the group complement and invigorate the explorations and practices. We invite you to deepen your connection to the community, and your Self, or to reconnect in the community, or with it, to renew trust, to refresh and invigorate your Self and others, and to shine light on the shadows by creating an environment of transparency, inclusion, equitability and trust where everybody is welcomed.

We invite you to experiment — we will share our facilitating abilities in ad hoc groups, where those who are willing and qualified to facilitate will hold space for those called to do their breathwork — and we will later swap tasks. Our aim is an exploration of breathwork facilitation, structures and processes in a group setting (that naturally includes a central breathwork component and opportunity), that is co-created, co-facilitated, informed by non-hierarchical, horizontal, peer-coordinated, improvisational, consensus decision-making.

We will deepen and broaden our skills, knowledge and consciousness to overcome the split in community, to renew our strength and trust. We will meet to be together, to heal, to have wonderful and meaningful time, to be joyous and become wiser.

Let's gather, spend some time together, and grow!