Rebirthing
(This is an excerpt from a University Of Metaphysical Sciences course at www.umsonline.org,
please feel free to visit the school website)
Introduction
The Importance Of A Trained Rebirther
History Of The Movement
The Name: Rebirthing Breathwork
The Different Experiences
The Common Features Of The Rebirthing Breathwork Community
Dry Sessions And Wet Sessions
Confidence In Impact Of Birth Trauma
The View That Thought Is Creative
A Belief In Physical Immortality
Practice Of Cleansing Of The Five Elements
A Spiritual Connection With Herakhan/Haidakhan Babaji
Discussion
Conclusion
Bibliography
Written by Meenal
Introduction
"Rebirthing is a safe and powerful breathing process that releases tension from the body, freeing it, so that we may live to our highest vision and unlimited potential. The breath is the ultimate healer. It is the umbilical cord to the divine. By using a variety of smoothly connected breaths, energy which may be called Prana, Chi or Ki, or life force, is taken into the body dissolving and washing away anything that is contrary to life. When this takes place we become aware of our blocks and what has been holding us back; an inner cleansing occurs." (Alternative Medicine Glossary, Life Enrichment Magazine)
Thus, the rebirthing breathwork is a form of breathing that allows the body to cleanse itself of toxins, physical maladies, emotional issues and mental blocks and lets one advance on the spiritual path in an easy, joyful and relaxed way. The breathing pattern is simple enough to learn, involving conscious, connected breathing. The challenge is in maintaining the connected breath consciously for as long as the breathing cycle takes, which is generally between one to two hours.
While doing a rebirthing session the two dictums that need to be followed are 1) there should not be any pause between the inhale and the exhale, nor between the exhale and the inhale and 2) the inhale should not be shorter than the exhale. As the individual continues breathing, any or all kinds of thoughts, feelings, memories, sensations, emotions, images, and experiences may surface. The individual then needs to keep his/her attention on the breathing, since it is the breath that will also clear away what arises.
To take us a little closer to what one might experience in a session, here is a beautiful description by Lloyd Lalande: "Rebirthing takes you close to your real experience. What does that mean? You meet, in your body, your own patterns of energy and your own holding on and tension; sometimes all over the body, sometimes in one place. As you continue to breathe (maintain a conscious connected breath), each fades to be replaced by deeper levels, and so on. In the beginning of the session, you might feel uncomfortable – until you learn to continuously let go – to surrender to your own energy, in your own body. Once you learn to surrender, then the old patterns and restraints imposed on you by your past lift, your mind is transformed, and beyond, the universe seems to open up to you. Energy that was originally uncomfortable, of which you wanted to move away from, becomes a humming, buzzing, pulsing flow of pleasure. A flow that seems to ignore the boundary of your skin, that seems to remove any sense of isolation, separateness, or being'apart from anything. It's a sense of 'this is it 'there is nothing else'." (http://www.rebirthingbrisbane.com)
Though deceptively simple, it is a powerful technique and hence needs to be practiced with love and care. It is highly recommended that people contact a rebirther in their area and take sessions with a trained rebirther if this is a method one is interested in.
The Importance Of A Trained Rebirther
Although one can try rebirthing on one's own, it becomes rather difficult to keep one's attention on the breathing and to be able to judge the connectedness of the breath and its comparative length when one actually gets into the session. Often we may find it easier to avoid the deeper issues. We might just fall asleep or else get caught up in and identified with whatever material has come up. We could fall into our usual breathing patterns, forgetting to breathe in a conscious, connected way.
A trained rebirther is a guide and a breath coach to support us in the process of self discovery and healing. After a session, we might want to share our experiences, and the rebirther is a wonderful resource in such a case. It feels good to do the session with a gentle, compassionate person who is also sensitive to energies and nurturing of a client's needs.
The rebirther helps us in realizing the connection between who we are today and our past, along with how to go about releasing the past. The rebirther is able to get us to the point where we can rebirth ourselves. Each practitioner has his/her style. One can intuitively select his/her rebirther by trusting the vibes of the person and asking questions of the rebirther until one feels satisfied.
Thus the rebirther is a highly valuable and essential guide who will get you to the point where you can rebirth yourself on your own. This can happen when you have worked through the essential issues around your birth trauma. For most people this takes about ten sessions.
History Of The Movement
Rebirthing emerged from the work of Leonard Orr into what is now called rebirthing breathwork. [Henceforth we shall refer to it as RB for short.] Born in Walton, New York, Leonard Orr became a born again Christian in his teenage years. When he converted to Christianity and started to read the Bible, he took Jesus' words literally "He who believes in me shall never taste death," and became fascinated with the idea of living forever. He majored in Bible Study and Philosophy at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania. Orr attended seminary with plans of becoming a preacher. However, while in training to become a minister, he felt a calling to connect with the "un'churched." Pursuing this call and engaging in some of his curiosity about life, Orr soon started reading and practicing New Thought Philosophy, including Science of Mind by Ernest Holmes.
Before long, Orr was teaching other people that their thoughts affected the outer world, and began to gather a bit of a following. As all of this was going on and with no knowledge of yoga or breath'work disciplines, he noticed that he was spending more and more of his time in the bathtub relaxing, literally staying in for hours everyday. He began to have many flashes of memories of being in the womb, or being born. Over a period of time, Orr relived his birth trauma and primal death urge through rebirthing. "My mother had already delivered six children and did not want another child," he said, describing his experience. "I was the last—an unwanted child whose existence upset my mother. To please her, I tried to kill myself. I tried to hang myself on my umbilical cord. But I failed. I was a breach birth, with the cord wrapped around my neck three times."
Not quite understanding what was going on, Orr watched this process for a few years and came to some kind of an understanding regarding his birth and how it had influenced various subliminal decisions of his. He regarded these insights as highly valuable and then offered to help other people remember their birth memories. Orr did this by having them relax through breathing with a snorkel in a hot'tub while floating face down, usually supported by two or more people. He noticed that a certain breathing rhythm would occur, which led to the start of the RB technique out of water, also known initially as dry sessions.
Orr developed this process between 1962 and 1974 as he discovered that modifications to breathing practices could bring about improvements in health, mental clarity and emotional well'being. All the while, Orr was fascinated with the idea of not experiencing physical death, which he termed "physical immortality," and read, studied and searched for all the information that he could get on the subject. Thus he discovered ancient Indian yogis and their practices of yoga, pranayama and cleansing rituals with the five elements.
Development of rebirthing as a full'fledged therapeutic modality in its own right peaked in 1974, and has extended from that point since. Orr, accompanied by fellow researchers, refined it into a system that can be practiced in the context of a professional therapy session and can also be 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. Currently Orr's institute, Rebirthing Breathwork International, is one among many who offer RB trainings and workshops. As the movement has grown to have trainers, rebirthing breathwork has also diversified in its forms and labels.
The Name: Rebirthing Breathwork
There are at least two views as to why the term "rebirthing breathwork" is used. The tamer, more acceptable view is that a session can make you feel so relaxed and refreshed that it is as if you are born anew, hence the term. Many toxins get cleared and the breather is left cleansed and pure. One feels utterly relaxed and at peace, and experiences energy flowing without thoughts, in bliss, fully awake, alert and alive. Leonard Orr even calls it a direct experience of God.
The second view claims that rebirthing is named as such because it allows one the opportunity to connect with one's birth and work through the earliest issues surrounding one's birth. Most of us have had a far from ideal birth experience. It is believed that the first major challenge and trauma that a person goes through is the time and act of birth. Frequently the source of our deepest blocks stem from the beliefs that we formed as we faced the experience of coming out of our mothers' wombs into the world. (We will go more into this a little later.)
However, the term "rebirthing" did not originate with Leonard Orr. The practice of making people push their way through bodies that formed a tunnel was used by R. D. Laing and called "rebirthing." He learned natal therapy, which was originated in 1969 by Elizabeth Feher. "Rebirth" is part of the process of natal therapy. Dr. Arthur Janov became interested in inducing birth in 1972. In his Primal Therapy, he had the client crawl through a rubber vagina. Primal therapists in Zurich have used pillows in a dark room for the same purpose: pushing them against the person who was supposed to make her/his way out of them and become reborn. This practice killed a woman called Candace Newmaker a few years ago in Colorado. The Rebirthing Breathwork community is found to reiterate that they have no relationship whatsoever with this dangerous and irresponsible practice, which goes by the name of rebirthing and which has now been banned in that state.
Many who have practiced or taught RB have brought to it their own style. They have blended it with their own ideas and techniques and in some cases made it unrecognizable. In fact, because of some of the things done under the label of RB, many rebirthers began to withdraw and disassociate with the name. New names were invented or the technique was absorbed into other types of work, but given no specific reference. Various rebirthing schools were started by a number of rebirthers, and the movement has become quite fragmented. Some of the new names include: source breathwork, cellular memory release, spiritual breathing, clarity breathwork, integrative breath therapy, pranic breathing, transformational breathwork, revelation breathing, conscious breathing, circular breathing, connected breathing and so on.
There is at least one thing that stands out about the various styles and approaches to RB. There is a central recognizable, identifying mark of the RB movement and that is the "rebirthing technique." The RB technique is a breathing process. It is a breathing lesson. It is a clearly defined, easily recognized breathing exercise. It is a specific method of breathing with a definite set of instructions. Every rebirther in the world knows the "rebirthing breath,'' and no matter what other differences they may have, or what other ideas or processes they add to it, the breathing technique is the same. Many people use the rebirthing technique intuitively, in their own way, for specific purposes, within certain contexts, and with varying results. However the commonalities are:
- Conscious, connected, circular, and rhythmic breathing.
- No pauses or gaps between the breaths.
- The inhale is active, while the exhale is passive. The breath is consciously pulled in and deliberately let out.
- One breathes in and out through the same channel (that is in and out of the nose or in and out of the mouth.)
- The lesson is to breathe energy, not just air.
The technique involves a continuous, uninterrupted flow of breath energy. There is no holding, forcing, pushing or blowing. The speed, depth, rate, and volume are intuitive, but generally fuller and freer than "normal."
The Different Experiences
The main differences in using the connected breath fall into three categories. First, whether the breathing session is done breathing through the nose, the mouth or a combination of the two. Second, whether it is done with the emphasis on slow, gentle breaths using only about 20 percent extra lung capacity or with a relatively quick and energetic pace, using full lung capacity and filling the lungs all the way up to the top. The third difference is the length of the breathing session, which can vary between 20 and 120 minutes.
Nasal breathing is using a connected breath only through the nose. Due to the structure of the nasal cavities, the main bulk of prana (the energy we breathe along with oxygen) is directed to and thus stimulates the third eye/higher mental chakra and the crown/spiritual chakra. Our awareness shifts into these aspects of our being and their corresponding planes. What then happens is that all the stresses, pains and conflicts of the physical body and plane are transcended. We rise up above our issues. Unfortunately, transcending our issues does not actually mean dealing with them on a deep and permanent level. It's similar to meditation. Anyone can shut themselves off in a room and meditate and bliss out for a while. But when it's time to come back out of the room and into the world, our partner, parents, workplace, boss and so on are still there, and we get plugged straight back into the same issues. Nothing may have been transformed.
When, on the other hand, we breathe connectedly only through the mouth, the main bulk of prana goes down into our lower chakras. These chakras house all the emotions of fear, anger, sadness and the shame that binds them. We don't end up transcending our pains and stresses; we go deeply into them. To truly heal past traumas and their associated emotions we must feel them. This is why mouth breathing sessions are transformative in nature. When you let yourself feel these past hurts at this level, the stored emotional energy is released, and the actual foundation of energy that's behind who you are changes permanently.
The reason this shift occurs at such a profound level is because one of the lower chakras that's opened up is your physical body chakra. Your physical body is where all your old, painful childhood memories and their associated emotions are held, which means these memories are released at the points where they are anchored to your physical vehicle. Rebirthing breathwork gives us a whole new appreciation of memory (especially body and cellular memory), the unconscious, and the depth of trauma to the body'mind that occurs during a soul's passing through various life experiences.
The second major distinction is the rate and depth of breathing. For most beginners, slow and gentle connected breathing (usually called intuitive breathing) builds only a moderate amount of energy in the bodymind. Alternatively, faster, energetic breathing using the full lung capacity, bringing the air all the way to the top of the lungs, results in a much greater buildup of transformational energy in the body'mind, opening up the chakras and energy bodies much more readily and profoundly. This enables a much deeper and more powerful cleansing to take place.
The third major distinction is the length of the breathing session. A full emotional energy cycle takes about 45 to 90 minutes, with the average being about 70 minutes. A full emotional energy cycle is the length of time it takes to go from activating deeply buried memories to bringing them to the surface and releasing them as much as is possible in one sitting.
Some rebirthers may at times use some energy or bodywork to help release any build'up of tension, and/or verbal guidance and positive affirmations to hold a space of total safety, possibility and relaxation. The intention of a session is to be as present and open as possible with whatever arises and wishes to be transformed.
There are also differences regarding the practice of group rebirthings or only individual sessions. Leonard Orr is strictly against group sessions. He finds that there is too much emotional energy contamination in such proceedings, but many practitioners find it a useful device to teach many at the same time. They also have members break up in pairs and do sessions on their own and report back to the group for clarification and sharing. During Orr's trainings he has many rebrithers conduct the individual sessions, and the group gathers together to share post sessions.
The Common Features Of The Rebirthing Breathwork Community
Whatever the name they used or the alterations made, rebirthers also tend to adhere to certain common notions and values apart from the rebirthing breath technique. All rebirthers may not necessarily adhere to each of these principles but most follow the majority of them. At any rate these commonalities are what seem to define the rebirthing community. The most important among them are:
- Practice of dry sessions and wet sessions
- Confidence in impact of birth trauma
- The view that thought is creative; the use of affirmations
- A belief in physical immortality
- Practice of cleansing of the five elements
- Faith in or a spiritual connection with Herakhan/Haidakhan Babaji
Let us go into each of these one by one.
Dry Sessions And Wet Sessions
A certain number of sessions are done out of water, lying on a mattress on the ground or on a bed. When the rebirther feels the person is ready and the breath is coming without any major blocks, wet sessions are undertaken. Wet sessions usually happen in a large tub or pool and often there may be two rebirthers involved to support the client from both sides in the water. Sometimes a snorkel is used but if the person is uncomfortable with that then the neck is supported and just the nose is kept out of the water.
When rebirthing was first invented, all the sessions were done in a hot tub. The precise breathing technique had not yet been discovered and people were generally encouraged to simply submerge themselves in a hot tub and using a snorkel, to breathe. The water and the attentive loving presence of the rebirther seemed to trigger memories and activate the breathing. People would get all jammed up (often with hyperventilation symptoms). They were then removed from the tub, placed on a massage table, and various mind and body processes were done to explore and unravel the fear and tension that had been triggered by the tub session. It was learned that the water brought up too much too fast for people. Without breath awareness and breathing skill, the rebirthing sessions were needlessly dramatic, intense and uncomfortable. Now, wet rebirthing, when done after several dry sessions, acts to open up deeper layers of the healing process, and offers the experienced breather a whole new level of growth and transformation.
Both dry and wet sessions are offered by virtually all rebirthers. The dry sessions are done with the client lying down on a mattress at ground or bed level. The rebirther sits by the side, observers the breath of the client, and offers directions, suggestions and instructions whenever required as the case may be. Wet sessions are done with the client entering a bath tub, large tub, or any other shallow body of water. Clients may use a snorkel and breathe with their heads down (that is recommended) or they may lie on their backs and stick their nose out of the water to breathe. These days, the general practice is to have at least 7'8 dry sessions before going in for a wet session. Wet sessions are often seen as the climax points in the rebirthing training workshops. Much significance is attached to them, and it is important to do them with someone you trust. All thoughts and feelings the client has in the tub are important. Specific ideas like "I can't" and "I'm afraid" are quite common. And so are thoughts like "Yes!" and "I am ready!" Moments of timelessness, feelings of being rushed, mystical experiences, unconsciousness, powerful images, insights, impressions of all kinds, urges to push or withdraw, and everything in between: these are all normal during wet rebirthing.
The amount of time spent in the water depends on many things. This is an intuitive, organic process that is self'regulating. Often a clear sense of completion is reached in the tub, but just as often, the session is completed out of the water. Getting out of the water is like leaving the womb. It is an important aspect of this process, and almost always relates to birth. It can trigger a whole new cycle in the process. Were you ready? Did you want to stay longer? What did you think as you left or were removed from the water? What were your feelings and emotions? These are some important considerations that the client might be encouraged to review.
The session is completed by spending time after the tub experience integrating the session. Dialogue, feedback, and sharing the experience are important. Dreams, new ideas over the next few days, coincidences, contacts, and events that follow the session are part of the experience. Hence, it is very useful to keep a journal, and if one can maintain contact with a support community it is additionally beneficial.
Confidence In Impact Of Birth Trauma
In the cases of a "normal" delivery, the baby needed to push through the narrow vaginal walls and was squeezed and forced to eject out. Having lived in relative silence and in a fairly dark environment floating in the warm amniotic fluids, the neonate had to come out into an often jarringly noisy, brightly lit and dry environment. There was a sudden onslaught of various stimuli of different kinds. Once out, the doctor often inserted various medicinal drops in the nose or tapped one on the back to get the breathing started and so on and so forth. All well meant, but probably not quite what the baby needed.
Additionally, any strong feelings and emotions that the mother might have been going through were also experienced by the new born (all through the pregnancy). If the mother had been anaesthetized the baby also carries it in his/her emotional body. If the mother went through a caesarian section, then the new born might have issues around being able to handle challenging tasks, as s/he was not allowed to participate actively in the primary task of being born. (Such issues may surface much later in life.) Other complications in delivery are reflected in other ways, but the individual always carries it in his/her emotional body memory.
These experiences imprint our sub'conscious and often leave us with some negative impressions of life that carry over to our present. The RB process is designed to release the trauma and any consequences thereof. As clients get comfortable with the rebirthing breathing pattern they frequently have a fairly vivid recall of their birth and know exactly what happened and are able to release the emotions around this experience, which makes it all the easier to let go of the early decisions formed at the time of birth.
While Orr was discovering the importance of subliminal decisions at the time of birth and arriving at his own conclusions regarding the possibilities of accessing birth memories, the French obstetrician Dr. Frederick Le Boyer was developing some new revolutionary techniques to deliver babies that were safer and gentler. He was perhaps the first to effectively convey the importance of trauma'free childbirth to the wider public. His book Birth Without Violence (1975), helped popularize the practice of placing newly'born infants in a tub of warm water, known as a "Leboyer bath," to simulate the familiar pre'natal environment of warm amniotic fluid.
From intense observation of newborn reactions to birth, he devised various ways with astonishing results of making the transition from internal to external as smooth as possible. He would dim the lights, have little sound, place the child on the mother's stomach, and wait for the child to breathe on its own by not cutting the umbilical cord until it had stopped pulsating. The newborn is held delicately, and not jerked upside down as a welcome. The baby is then placed in a tub of warm water to relax and experience pleasure outside of the womb. The results from this were that "Le Boyer babies" hardly ever got sick or cried and were much calmer and happier! He made a half'hour documentary film called Blissful Birth showing the evolution of the newborn baby, from a state of primal panic, to one of calmness and joy, and he produced a record to play to new babies to calm and soothe them.
Interestingly, in 1976 Leonard rebirthed Frederick Le Boyer. Apparently, he was easier than most to rebirth, and he had a great "breathing release," which as a result of releasing his birth trauma, enabled him to be more helpful to mothers delivering their babies with even more ease, especially if they had also been rebirthed in stages leading up to giving birth.
Orr contends that most babies who were delivered in rooms with harsh lights, yanked upside down and spanked, and whose umbilical cords were cut prematurely and separated from their mothers too quickly, undoubtedly made negative decisions about life and themselves as they struggled to take their first breath. This dominant thought or negative thinking pattern, which he calls the personal law or "personal lie," is the one core belief that we get addicted to because we survived on this thought and it runs our life. The personal law or lie might include decisions like, "Life is a struggle. The world is a hostile place. I am not good enough. I can't make it on my own." The purpose of rediscovering this subconscious pattern that we formed at birth is to breathe it out of our cellular memory, and replace the negative thought with a positive affirmation or "eternal law."
Thus for rebirthers the term "birth trauma" is much broader and includes the entire mental processes around birth as well. Their belief is that at the moment of birth (and even before), we form impressions about life, courselves and the world around us. Many of these impressions are negative and limiting, and yet we carry them with us throughout our lives on an unconscious level. They form themselves into thoughts and beliefs that limit our natural unfolding, and prevent the full, free, expression of our human potential and our divine purpose. These early conclusions and forgotten decisions support our dysfunctional habits and self'sabotaging tendencies. They drive our emotional behavior and they actually cause or contribute to many illnesses and injuries. They influence our perceptions, control and direct our focus, and to a great extent determine our experience of reality. This primal pattern is what is known as birth trauma to many in the rebirthing community.
A major problem with limiting thought and behavior patterns is that people have been living their life based on them for so long that they have become core beliefs that they won't even question. "That's just how I am" or "that's just my nature" are the common responses to being confronted about these beliefs. Hence the term "personal lie" is rather appropriate. Rebirthers explore one's birth situation and early childhood to help ascertain beliefs that one might have formed then. One then formulates appropriate affirmations and works with them to counter the negative messages with positive ones. The rebirthing breathwork helps in clearing the old stale energies and the affirmations infuse fresh positive energy in those spaces so one may not again fall into the old traps. Facing one's most negative thought, most limiting consciousness factor, can be very scary, yet very liberating.
The View That Thought Is Creative
In any case, even when rebirthers are looking at a narrower definition of the birth trauma, they do believe that thought is creative. Essentially this means that we are creating our reality through our thoughts. It is necessary to pay close attention to the inner monologue that is constantly going on in our mind and to transform that so we can function optimally and live happily. It is imperative to have positive thoughts so we do not sabotage our goals and our life through our negative thinking, since as we think so it shall be. The self'fulfilling prophecy is always at work.
The practice of affirmations is a parallel activity to the RB sessions. Through informal chats and sharing the rebirther identifies the core negative beliefs of the client and s/he is encouraged to practice affirmations to counter and replace them. The client is encouraged to work with personal affirmations by writing them down over and over again and also simultaneously noting the corresponding thoughts that surface so as to witness them and not block them out. These thoughts and feelings are written on the opposite page of the notebook and the subsequent affirmation integrates the former doubts and fear. The affirmations are practiced until no contrary chatter arises in the mind and the client is totally accepting of the belief held in the affirmation. Generally a client is asked to work with a particular affirmation for a month at the least.
Affirmations can be used in a variety of ways; recording the internal chatter that arises as a result of an affirmation is just one of the ways. When combined with relaxation they are not unlike "sankalpas" practiced in yoga'nidra. Affirmations are made up depending on the client's situation and issues at hand, and they are kept as simple as possible. Although the list of affirmations is endless, some of the more common ones are:
- I am loved for being who I am.
- I am a divine being.
- I am valued and respected as I am.
- It is safe to breathe fully and freely.
- I am accepted for being the gender that I am.
- I am capable of giving love and light to others.
- I have great value just for being myself.
Connected with the practice of affirmations and the belief that thought is creative is a seminar that Leonard Orr invariably includes in his trainings titled "prosperity consciousness." It challenges scarcity consciousness and invites one to think in terms of abundance, prosperity and plenty on many levels including money, success, love, fulfillment and longevity. When the rebirthing group assembles collectively many life supportive affirmations and assertions of physical immortality are said aloud by each and every member consecutively.
A Belief In Physical Immortality
As recounted earlier, the growth of RB has been simultaneous with Orr's interest in physical immortality. Orr and most rebirthers maintain that physical mortality is a learned concept, and in dying, we often repeat the patterns in our families. We don't need to die, but we choose to die, just as we choose to live. It is a logical extension of the theory that thought is creative and that we create our lives with our thoughts. Hence we end our particular life'cycles with our thoughts, although we could choose to continue living in a healthy and happy way forever.
Orr and many around him follow the concept and practice of physical immortality passionately. Orr claims he liberated himself from his death urge in 1967, and since then, he became fascinated with studying life extension, longevity and what he calls "youthing." There are several interesting, if a little quaint, practices around confronting the popular and erroneous notion of death (and aging) through the common usages of language. One does not say how old one is, but rather how young one is. Aging is replaced with youthing and so on.
Orr in his quest for immortality has met seven immortals (to date). Quite a few of these are yogis in India. His definition of an immortal is one who is more than three hundred years old. He arrived at this definition when he realized that most of the authors of books on physical immortality that he had studied were dead.
In fact, there is an interesting anecdote around this. Orr was waiting for the second lecture in a series of lectures on physical immortality at the Hollywood Church of Religious Science. However, the speaker, a minister called Harry One, who had written "How to live forever," did not show up. Everybody, including Orr, was waiting and wondering where he was. It turned out that he had died in an automobile accident on the way to the lecture! Given that in Orr's view there are no accidents, but that some unconscious death urge of the writer had manifested in the fatal incident, he decided not to trust anyone who taught physical immortality unless they were at least three hundred years old.
Orr realized that just the belief in physical immortality was not enough to stay alive forever. He felt there was a missing component that glued it all together. To actually break the death habit and experience our full aliveness, there is another factor that we have to deal with, and that is called our unconscious death urge. This is a real psychic entity that can be isolated in your own mind and destroyed. It is composed of anti'life thoughts and beliefs, such as "Death is inevitable. Being born and dying are beyond our control," or even "People are out to get me and harm me," and we absorb this programming from our parents, ancestors and society. Thus parental conditioning including "the parental disapproval syndrome" is part of the issues encountered while working on one's death urge. The parental disapproval syndrome is where parents unconsciously betray their children's love and trust, by being disapproving of them and withholding their love to control them.
Orr thus believes, "Rebirthing as unraveling the birth/death cycle takes longer than learning to breathe energy...it involves personal liberation from birth trauma, infancy consciousness, family patterns, and the death urge. It involves mind and body mastery." To learn how to deal with the death urge, he met with as many immortals as he could and studied their practices. These include purification of the five elements. Orr continues to challenge people to defy their death urge by defying their thoughts on the inevitability of death and motivates people to follow the cleansing practices to live happily and forever!
Orr asserts that all death is suicide, and that physical death is involuntary purification for people who don't practice it voluntarily. The idea that death is inevitable has killed more people than all other causes of death combined. Death is a grave mistake, probably the gravest one we make.
Practice Of Cleansing Of The Five Elements
In order to live consciously and to reaffirm one's will to life, it is crucial to practice the cleansing rituals of the five elements. The five elements are what our bodies are made of: earth, water, fire, air and mind/thought. Orr is very strong on using the five elements to cleanse one's aura and to overcome the death urge. Although one might have worked through one's birth trauma at the deepest level and confronted the death urge from parental disapproval and so on, one still needs to continue the purification practices on a daily basis since not only does one uncover deeper and deeper layers, but also one is influenced by the energies of the people around us.
Orr defines love as the practice of helping others to process their unconscious negative energies. He speaks of "emotional energy pollution," which can occur when we interact with people who have not worked through their death urge; in other words, people who are not living very consciously. So, as we live in the world, we are constantly exposed to negative energies and hence need to work with the five elements on a regular basis.
Earth: Conscious healthy eating preferably vegetarian if not vegan. Grounding practices like drumming also help in the connection with the earth. Orr maintains that when we eat non'vegetarian food we also imbibe the death urge of the animal that was killed for our benefit.
Water: Drinking healthy unadulterated water, bathing twice daily and as much as possible, and practicing rebirthing in the water. (Some rebirthers can get fanatical about access to a bath tub.)
Fire: The group invariably organizes a fire ceremony (what the Hindus call a Havan) at least once in the training and usually most evenings are spent by a fireside. They maintain that people enjoyed much better health when sitting by the fireside and that this was a common practice in homes.
Air: Conscious connected breathing as in the sessions or any of a variety of pranayama exercises can be used. We have talked of RB at great length already. Thought: Positive thinking is crucial to living fully and freely and overcoming the death urge. That we create our reality as per our thinking is the ideology of the rebirthing community, as of many other mystical schools. We have already discussed this in some detail. Sometimes Orr includes love among the basic necessities and at other times not. Similarly, the fulfillment of bodily desires is at times included in this list and at other times dropped.
A Spiritual Connection With Herakhan/Haidakhan Babaji
This is the most difficult to articulate, although I experience it as a clear and strong connection. Faith or a spiritual connection seems by its nature to be beyond words and to defy articulation. Anyhow I shall attempt to express the inexpressible! It is easiest for me to identify this connection with the form of Mahavatar Babaji made popular in Paramhansa Yogananda's book "Autobiography Of A Yogi." He is a source of spiritual strength and light in my life. Although I have visited the Herakhan ashram in northern India, I am not sure about my connection with that form (Bhole Baba). Perhaps they are the same and my mind plays games, or perhaps they are different energies and my link is more with the former.
Most rebirthers consider that they are the same energy in different forms. This is not surprising, given that Orr has met Babaji in at least two different physical bodies. When Orr first met Babaji at his ashram in Haidakhan or Herakhan, India, it was not the same body that appeared to him in Houston, Texas (Babaji in the interim form). The above mentioned form is different from the form/body he occupied from 1970 to 1984, when he was also known as Bhole Baba. Several members of the rebirthing community have visited the Haidakhan ashram, met Babaji (Bhole Baba), and have been inspired and deeply affected by him.
According to Pola Churchill (http://www.polachurchill.com/biographychapterfive.html), Leonard Orr studied with Babaji for a month during the year 1978, and in Babaji, Leonard Orr found an actual immortal to be with. According to Churchill, Leonard Orr "initially thought he was certain to be several hundred years old, but he discovered him to be nine thousand and sixty'eight years old! This dated him older than Adam and Eve who were dated at 4000 B.C. Before Leonard met Babaji in the flesh, he had figured out that breathing in cooperation with the mind was the key to the health of the body and the mind. He had concluded that the Breath of Life could be the 'Fountain of Youth' and therefore the key to eternal life of the body, as well as the mind. Since Babaji had mastered the eternal life of the spirit, mind and body, though thousands of years old, he had the appearance and integrity of a young man… Leonard had tested his ideas upon thousands of the world's greatest minds, but he was the first genuine immortal that he had met. Leonard said, 'Does rebirthing produce Mrityunjaya? (which means victory over death) Babaji said: 'Rebirthing produces Mahamrityunjaya.' (which means supreme victory over death) Leonard then said, 'You mean, since prana is eternal, the body with prana is eternal?' Babaji said: 'Of course.' And walked away as if the subject were mundane. To Leonard the confirmation of his ideas from an actual immortal was a big deal. But to Babaji, Leonard concluded it has been simple and obvious for thousands of years. To him it was a stupid question! Babaji, called rebirthing a western form of prana yoga. It is not Kriya Yoga, but is the substance of Kriya Yoga. Rebirthing and Kriya Yoga are two totally different breath techniques, with different results, but they compliment each other gracefully."
The rebirthing breathwork is often considered as the simplified (for Americans/westerners) version of Kriya yoga. Kriya yoga requires immense discipline and involves a very complicated set of breathing practices and rituals. It is the school of yoga practiced by the lineage of Mahavatar Babaji, Lahiri Mahashaya, Yukteshwar Giri, and Paramhansa Yogananda. "Kriya Yoga is a very specific system of Yoga that was revived in modern times by Lahiri Mahasaya, c 1861. Paramhansa Yogananda brought it into widespread public awareness through his book Autobiography Of A Yogi. The system consists of a number of yogic techniques that hasten the practitioner's spiritual development and help to bring about a profound state of tranquility and God'communion. Yogananda writes that, 'The Kriya Yogi mentally directs his life energy to revolve, upward and downward, around the six spinal centers/chakras (medullar, cervical, dorsal, lumbar, sacral, and coccygeal plexus) which correspond to the twelve astral signs of the zodiac, the symbolic Cosmic Man. One'half minute of revolution of energy around the sensitive spinal cord of man effects subtle progress in his evolution; that half'minute of Kriya equals one year of natural spiritual unfoldment.'" (http://www.wikipedia.org)
So, given that RB is derived from this intensely powerful technique and assuming it has even one'tenth of its efficacy, it is still a hugely effective spiritual aide. In fact, many advanced practitioners of the RB claim spontaneous awakening and awareness of the chakras. This may be because the breath and energy get drawn to the chakras as one gets deeper and deeper into the practice or it may be because the kind of people who are drawn to practice rebirthing are those that are serious about their spiritual development and have already practiced several other forms of meditation/cleansing rituals and are thus ready for the kundalini rising.
This connection between kriya yoga and rebirthing is especially important for me because I came across the RB training soon after I had decided to learn kriya yoga. When the workshop came my way I decided that the universe was telling me to go for the easier and more westernized approach rather than the traditional technique, as I believe my life purpose also involves a lot of interaction with the western world.
Discussion
For me, as for most practitioners, rebirthing is per se an intensely powerful spiritual experience. It is most effective for me when I do a session in the presence of another qualified and gifted rebirther rather than on my own. I have had visions of being in the womb on some occasions. I have also experienced physical sensations corresponding to a passage through the vagina and corresponding images. It requires a strong intent and a high level of motivation to get in contact with one's birth, but a session can be useful even when one does not directly access birth memories. In the least, a session is relaxing and insightful. At its optimal, a session is a direct experience of God in the body. In any case, it is an opportunity to go on an inner journey of exploration and discovery. When I am offering sessions to others, I find that it is a way to be more present in the here and now. It is a powerful cleansing technique and can shift one's energy onto many different planes.
As I continue this inner journey I can (and have) come to the point of self'realization where I am not identified with any of the objects of awareness, but with awareness itself. The breath is then breathing itself and one is just aware. By this time the body is experienced as waves and waves of energy. The climax of the breathing cycle is not unlike that of an LSD trip, but here one has not contaminated the body with the psychotropic substance. It is said that LSD opens up the ajna (third eye) chakra but weakens the heart center. The breath has no such adverse effect. The conscious, connected breathing is the breathing pattern of a newborn baby while sleeping. It is the most safe, relaxed and natural pattern of breathing that allows one to connect to the state of "Being" to use an expression from Eckhart Tolle. I consider my experiences with rebirthing to be very valuable and powerful and remain grateful to Leonard Orr and others of the RB community for this technique.
My personal criticism of the rebirthing framework is that if you accept that thought is creative then any beliefs/tenets/theories you have are true only because you think that they are true. For example, if rebirthers maintain that one ought to practice the cleansing of the five elements then it is so only because they think it is so. So rebirthing breathwork itself is effective only because you think it is so. Or even the circular logic of thought being creative because one thinks that is so! It becomes rather difficult to identify the objective/absolute truth of anything. This does take us into epistemology and the validity of any knowledge, but that is how it is. However, if I put aside these philosophical speculations and rely instead on subjective experience, then I vouch for RB and therefore include it in my therapeutic practice.
The other criticism is not directly related to the breathing technique but rather to the theoretical framework offered by Leonard Orr and most of his followers. It is very loose at best and at worst confusing and not without a few contradictions. Different people practicing RB have brought their own understanding and explanations to it, thus creating a far more complex and complicated picture. I see this as a step in RB's evolution. Over time, the most consistent and effective theory will survive, and the others will most likely fade away.
Yet another concern I have regarding RB is more to do with the RB community, as at times it seems to be a cult following of Leonard Orr. Orr has many controversial and unconventional views on several topics, and it is not within the framework of this course to go into each of those. Suffice to say some RB practitioners may at times seem to be fanatical about certain practices. One needs to stay clear about one's position in terms of what one wants to follow and what one does not wish to get into. By and large the RB community is filled with gentle, understanding, compassionate and warm human beings who are interested in alleviating suffering through the use of this technique.
Conclusion
Leonard Orr tells us, "Rebirthing is good for anyone who is breathing or who has a body. It teaches people to relax and breathe better. Breathing is totally harmless, but the human mind is not. Therefore, it is important that people learn how our mind works and how to process our mind and feelings. Don't forget to notice that we have to Live in our mind whether we learn Rebirthing or not. And it is much easier to Live in our mind when we can breathe properly and relax anytime we like. We can breathe into and release our feelings. We can relax out of any kind of intense emotion or physical pain when we have this simple powerful skill of Conscious Breathing." (http://www.rebirthingbreathwork.com/aboutrb/discovery)
The rebirthing breathwork technique is a powerful tool for creating lasting peace, greater insights, and heightened mental clarity. It can especially be helpful for anyone interested in changing the core belief that is created at birth through the trauma that oftentimes occurs as part of this experience. Rebirthing not only allows us to release the traumatic impressions that occur around birth, but this also helps us to change the way that we view ourselves and the world. The resulting positive affects can touch all aspects of our lives and even extend the amount of time we are able to live.
Other benefits of rebirthing breathwork as found in www.wikepedia.org include:
- Significant improvements in relationships ' intimate, family, social and professional.
- Greater ability to manage the challenges of career and life in general.
- Elimination of negative patterns which had been limiting one's success in life.
- Significant and lasting benefits to health and general well'being.
- A sense of deeper insight into the purpose of one's existence; a greater sense of one's personal relevance to the world.
Let us end this course with these words by Leonard Orr: "Rebirthing'Breathwork, aka Intuitive Energy Breathing or Conscious Energy Breathing, is the ability to breathe Energy as well as air. It is the art of learning to breathe from the Breath itself. Rebirthing is perhaps the most valuable self'healing ability that humans can learn. We cannot have disease and relaxation in the same space at the same time. Relaxation is the ultimate healer. Every breath induces relaxation. Therefore, breathing is the basic healer. Conscious Energy Breathing is the most natural healing ability of all. This ability involves merging the inhale with the exhale in a gentle relaxed rhythm in an intuitive way that floods the body with Divine Energy. Rebirthing also means to unravel the birth'death cycle and to incorporate the body and mind into the conscious Life of the Eternal Spirit—to become a conscious expression of the Eternal Spirit." (http://www.rebirthingbreathwork.com/aboutrb/whatis)
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