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Rebirthing-Breathwork
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Rebirthing-Breathwork
Complementary and alternative medicine Classifications
NCCAM: Mind-Body Intervention
Modality: Professionalized
Culture: Western
Rebirthing-Breathwork is a form of alternative medicine mainly consisting of
a breathing technique. It shares a common belief with various other
therapies called Rebirthing, with both groups believing that human birth is
a traumatic event (see birth trauma) and that reviewing or revisiting this
event, in some way, can have therapeutic benefits. However, the techniques
used in Rebirthing-breathwork are very different to those used by these
therapies.
History
Rebirthing-Breathwork grew from the work of Leonard Orr. It was named
rebirthing because when Orr first started doing this kind of work, he
noticed that he would often have what he believed to be memories of his
birth. Orr developed his process between 1962 and 1974, as he (without any
(then) awareness of yoga or pranayama disciplines) discovered that
modifications to breathing practices appeared to bring about improvements in
health, mental clarity and emotional well-being.
Development of Rebirthing as a therapeutic modality in its own right peaked
in 1974, and has been extended from that point since. Orr, accompanied by
fellow researchers, refined it into a system that can be practised in the
context of therapy session and taught to clients over a series of sessions.
Proponents estimate that, since 1974, more than ten million people worldwide
have learned the process, with more than one hundred thousand people
completing practitioner training.
In Orr's Rebirthing-Breathwork, the main breathing technique is a connected
breath, where the breather does not pause between inhale and exhale.
According to believers, this causes a build up of oxygen in the blood and a
build up of prana or life energy. Breathing sessions are done lying down and
usually last one to two hours.
Beliefs
The assumptions behind rebirthing is that human birth is traumatic, due to
ignorance and misunderstanding on the part of most medical professionals
(and parents/family) and that humans never forget their birth, they just
suppress the memory. Rebirthing-breathwork practitioners believe that in
addition to cerebral memory (based in the brain), humans also possess
cellular memory, which is distributed amongst the body's cells, tissues,
organs etc.
They believe that the trauma suffered during birth, and the specific nature
of this trauma, has a deep effect on one's psyche and shapes one's
perception and experience of life, self and the world in ways of which one
is mostly unaware (For instance, someone born by forceps delivery might rely
on others to pull them out of destructive situations.) Practitioners believe
it is possible to gain recall of aspects of birth, gestation and early
childhood and to release the accompanying emotions; such release can
generate a positive paradigm shift and life transformation based on a change
in the experiences they believe one subconsciously attracts.
Rebirthing-breathwork teachings state that it can increase in the client or
solo practitioner's human potential, inner peace and mental clarity. The
practitioner can manage the challenges of life more easily. Believers say
those who practice rebirthing-breathwork can gain greater insight into the
human condition and the purpose of their existence; a greater sense of their
personal relevance to the world.
Human breathing, practitioners say, is almost universally inadequate;
virtually all people are suppressing large amounts of emotional, physical
and mental "tensions", and require relatively high levels of CO2 in their
blood in order to keep these tensions suppressed. They feel that the major
causes of all human illness are these accumulated tensions; the practice of
rebirthing-breathwork techniques they believe can detoxify the system and
release such tensions. They profess that this can cause physiological
transformation, to the point where prevention or permanent spontaneous
remission from illness becomes possible.
Practitioners feel rebirthing provides a direct, replicatable, physical
experience of Divine Love through the saturation of the body with prana.
The philosophies which accompany Rebirthing appear to be a loose, intuitive
mix of western metaphysics, gnosticism, hinduism, buddhism, and (what some
may argue to be) original Christian teaching. Early writings of Orr and
Sondra Ray expressed belief in Immortalism.
Criticisms
While it is clear that prenatal events can have an influence on the
subsequent development and life of the child through developmental or
hormonal factors, and there can be physical complications of birth, there is
little scientific support for the claim that the birth process is inherently
psychologically "traumatic". Studies comparing children born by caesarian
section to those born through the birth canal have not found statistically
significant differences.
Scientific evidence to support the idea of cellular or other "non-cerebral"
memory is not widely acknowledged, although believers in such theories have
presented cases some find convincing.[1] There is no scientific evidence
that any birth memories can be recovered. In fact, the available research
strongly indicates that the human brain is unable to form conscious memories
until approximately the age of two. There is, however, strong evidence that
false memories can be planted (either inadvertently or deliberately), as in
false memory syndrome.
There is little consensus for the position that normal breathing in a
healthy human is inadequate and no evidence that maintaining high levels of
O2 has any effect on the suppression of tension. High levels of end tidal
CO2 which is a result of insufficient respiration may have been linked to
hypertension and elevated anxiety,[citation needed] but far from reducing
anxiety, hyperventilation, a form of over-breathing, is a symptom of panic
attacks or lack of relaxation.
1. Currently no well-controlled studies demonstrate the effectiveness of the
technique, but there is psychotherapy research underway at the University of
Queensland School of Medicine, evaluating the effectiveness of Breathwork in
treating depression and anxiety.
2. An unrelated technique, also named "rebirthing", sharing some beliefs but
developed decades after Orr's work, resulted in the death of Candace
Newmaker.
Unrelated techniques also called rebirthing
Other largely unrelated therapies which are sometimes called Rebirthing also
go by the names compression therapy, cuddle time and holding-nurturing
process. Rebirthing is considered by such practitioners to be an appropriate
strategy for treatment of attachment disorder.
The term "Rebirthing" drew unfavorable attention in 2001 when several
therapists using techniques strongly opposed by most rebirthing-breathwork
practitioners, were sentenced to 16 years in prison for suffocating a
10-year-old Colorado girl during a session. Among other techniques, the
session involved wrapping the girl in a sheet and having adults sit on her
to simulate contractions and motivate the girl to "emerge from the womb".
Rebirthing-breathwork is not this form of 'rebirthing,' which is sometimes
used as part of Attachment therapy.[2] Under Candace's Law, this practice
was outlawed in the state of Colorado. .[3] [4]
Practitioner's of Leonard Orr's rebirthing now often use the suffix
breathwork, naming their technique rebirthing-breathwork, to differentiate
themselves from these other therapies.
References
1. ^ Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine - Candace
Pert (Simon & Schuster, 0684846349
2. ^ http://cmx.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/11/1/76
3. ^ http://www.rebirthingonline.com/rebirth/sondraray.html
4. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4206910,00.html
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