Frequently Asked Questions (Techniques & Tools)

ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE

This is an e-mail with Mike's responses inserted.

Larissa: I was just reading your web site and realized that you don't seem to understand what the Alexander Technique really is about. If you would study F.M. Alexander's life more closely you would find out that he was known in his time as the "breathing man."

Mike: So am I.

Larissa: And the funny thing is that he was not even teaching people to breathe!

Mike: I know, that is partly my point.

Larissa: He was and we Alexander Technique teachers are teaching our pupils to become aware their harmful unconscious habits that will interfere with their bodies functions, including the breathing, walking, biking, scratching your head and so on.

Mike: Ah, yes. I have always thought of Alexander technique with this in mind. Great stuff.

Larissa: With a good Alexander Technique teacher, a pupil can learn to redirect the energy by letting herself widen and lengthen instead of contracting into herself and so pressing the lungs and intestines as well as preventing the legs and arms to move freely. Now there is much involved in this, and few lessons are needed to get the full understanding.

Mike: Not true. One lesson/session is quite adequate to get huge change. Repeat HUGE. Many more factors needed then widening and lengthening to accelerate this breathing improvement as quickly as it can be done. Why take longer? The body can be changed rapidly without pain. Take it as far as it can go each session/time. The breathing gets better and the entire body adjusts around it to physically balance and energize.

Larissa: So it is in learning any new skill.

Larissa: Good understanding of the Alexander Technique in the guidance of a skillful Alexander Technique teacher and putting the understanding into practice will among many things improve breathing, but please note, it is a side product not an end in it self.

Mike: I understand, but that is sad for people who do not breathe well or want faster progress. They need more then the "Alexander Technique" allows for, as wonderful as it can be.

Larissa: Like they say "breathing is so easy a child can do it." We only need to get out of the way and stop interfering.

Mike: I respectfully disagree. Many need radical and rapid improvement lest they get lost to the inadequacies of teachers who know little of accelerating breathing development and subject themselves and their students/clients to the risks of illness, drugs and steroids that await those with undetected breathing under-development.

Larissa: (Well, of course, singers and actors and so on need to do something with their voices. That is part of their training, but here I am talking about just ordinary day-to-day breathing when we speak, walk, run, do our daily chores.)

Mike: Learn to breathe optimally, and they happen automatically. I come from breathing that also helps the rest of the body come into alignment. You come from the body alignment that helps breathing. Different emphasis. I integrate many things that do not exist in Alexander Technique.

Larissa: One can teach different breathing techniques, but if a pupil still has harmful unconscious habits, for example pulling their head back and locking their neck, the pupil WILL do the breathing exercises with the pulled back head and a locked neck. Pulled back head goes with shortened back which restricts the ribs to open up and side ways, and so on and so on...

Larissa: Here is only a taste of what the Alexander technique is about. It is a very hard to understand, and people who want quick fixes will not stick with it!

Mike: Optimal breathing is not about quick fixes or only breathing exercises. It is about hands-on diaphragm development techniques, exercises, breathing exercises, ergonomics, nutrition, attitude, making sound and respiratory spiritual psychophysiology.

Larissa: Our training is 3 years, and it is intense with anatomy lessons and lots of practical work to first improve our own use and then focus working on pupils.

Mike: I welcome your integrating Optimal Breathing Techniques into your Alexander Technique work. Many New Yorkers are adding Carl Stough's work into Alexander Technique. My work is similar in some ways to Carl's, but I believe it is as much or more beneficial for many. The length of my training is evolving, but so far 5 years seems to be a minimum.

Larissa: Alexander Technique is only 100 years old, and unfortunately some of the training schools in the world are not really Alexander Technique...sad but true. My teacher John Nicholls was trained (over 20 years ago) by Walter Carrington who F.M. Alexander himself asked to continue his training school after he would die. My other great teacher Carolyn Nicholls is soon starting with other highly regarded Alexander Technique teachers setting standards for A.T. training schools so each student gets the best possible training and that the public can get the right idea of what we are about.

Larissa: I would like to ask you kindly NOT to put together Alexander, Feldenkrais and Yoga. Alexander Technique is nothing like Yoga or Feldenkrais and it would be sad to give that impression to the public.

Mike: To me, they have striking similarities in the way they adjust the body to open up to easier breathing. Since I've worked with all three, I'll have to pull rank on you in this regard.

Larissa: Lots of voice work, breathing work, singing teachers and the like are doing work with the Alexander Technique teachers. Both ways it is rewarding.

Mike: I agree that Alexander Technique is valuable. It is just not breathing-specific. My work is. That is all I say about it.

Larissa: If you tell me which State you live in, I could tell you a good Alexander technique teacher that can clarify to you what we Alexander people are teaching to our pupils.

Mike: I have worked with teachers already. You have not worked with me and obviously know little of what I teach. We have a space in a class in...this next weekend...if you want to opt in. I just know you will like it a great deal. Optimal Breathing School

Larissa: With Great Respect, I wish you a nice day and hopefully I will hear from you, Larissa

BREATHING PROGRAM

Mike, I purchased a program for deep breathing it's breathing and positions. the breath consists of inhaling deeply though the nose then when of you can't take in any more oxygen you take in 3 more sniffs then exhale through the mouth then push out for three more puffs. I've been doing this for a month and haven't had any results other than feeling like I can't breath comfortably, I've read a couple of books on deep breathing and am aware of the benefits yet whenever I try them I don't feel any better no energy no calmness nothing just more tired. did you say you shouldn't exhale through your mouth? even when doing deep diaphragm breathing? I really would like to feel better and have more energy please tell me what I'm doing wrong

From Mike:
What program is this? Sounds like a real rip off. A distorted kind of pranayama exercise, many of which are terribly dangerous. I would like to review it. If you send it to me I will exchange it for one of my tape sets.

Send me your self test results along with this breathing exercise in whatever form it came in.

Send to:

Optimal Breathing Box 1551 Waynesville NC. 28786

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BREATHWORK & OPTIMAL BREATHING

Mike,

Thanks for the reference. I am wondering about how what you are doing and describing relates to shock, trauma, and emotional release.

From Mike:
Dear Doug

Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks PhDs focused a lot on pre and peri-natal aspects in Radiance Breathwork trainings I took in 1990 and 1991. It mainly address what someone thinks was going on then. I am more interested in what is happening now. In present time.

I am trained in, among others, Rebirthing, Radiance Beathwork, and Reichian techniques. I have been studying the breath for some 27 years. Too often these "breathwork" emotional releases come too quickly and cause the individual to suffer from over or under exposure to energy they have no way to process/integrate/deal with or never get to in the first place. You can't just tell someone to "integrate the experience" It might take years for some people. Some never integrate it and seem weird or too different. I cannot, as an accountable professional, trust the process to so much luck or wide swings of results.

I find that when people integrate the mechanical breathing improvement approach with the energy work, the client transitions easier, smoother. with more groundedness, inner strength and peace. And the work sticks better because I have rearranged the way the hundreds of internal influences/mechanisms of the breathing drives the nervous system. Plus they "stay in their body" a lot more and they like that because it feels right and whole.

The body was designed to breathe in a certain way. Some people believe I mean that in a mechanistic way. This could not be further from the truth. You must have the rhythm and internal coordination working to optimize breathing's flexibility and maximum potential. If you build a tuba and try to play it like a guitar you are going to have difficulty. Few really know what optimal breathing looks, acts, sounds and feels like. (The belly breath idea is a kindergarten level approach.)

Optimal Breathing's modality design implies sensitivity (without fragility), flexibility ( without overcompensation), expansion (at individual tolerable levels), spontaneousness, focus and internal strength. One must not only release the negative energy. One must also rebalance the nervous system. It does not rebalance by itself with just the emotional release process, though there is often progress in that direction. On the contrary, the release process often opens up energetic, respiratory psychological cans of worms that need professional assistance with, especially after decades of unbalanced breathing.

The mechanical breathing function either aids or inhibits emotional/nervous system balance, including catharsis. It absolutely must be addressed in a clear and accurate, non-hyperbolic fashion. Plus when it is improved quickly in the way it was designed to function optimally, the body stays in balance and is not so subject to wild swings of emotion. This helps ALL modalities as all modalities are in some way affecting or effected by the way we breathe. I am particularly fond of Optimal Breathing because I can replicate it from person to person. So could you too, with my training.

Mike

FALUN GONG

From Mike:
Falun Gong has been taking some heat in China. Arrests and censure form the authorities. They are calling it a cult. So I printed an Excite news article I got when I preprogrammed them to send me articles about "breathing" and included the URL about the arrests See archives about "Trouble Brewing in Tiananmen Square" and sent it out to my subscriber list. One percent of the list canceled. One person complained about "was this a political e-zine?" No it is not. All along I was referring to "breathing free" which is VERY American and I am an American, tried and true. And partly because of that I am reminded of the Tibetans and how THEY have been murdered (over a million) and suppressed.

Here is one reply about the subject.

Dear Mike:

Very interesting to me since I recently read a blurb in a magazine about someone who cured Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome with Falungong. Because of the article, I ordered a book on it (still backordered by one of my book distributors).

Blessings.

B

From Mike:
Anytime you breathe more than you usually do you create the possibility of healing. Not the probability because many breathe very poorly and to try to breathe too much too soon can cause them more rapid decline; but definitely the possibility.

Falun Gong says it is superior. (I have the book.) This is ego talking. My friend psychologist Michael Mayer tells me there are over 1,400 different styles of Chi Kung or Qi Gong in the world. At least. I do not believe the head of Falun Gong has tried ALL of them so that he knows he is BEST. This "superior" attitude may be drawing negative attention. I am unfamiliar with the FC agenda but I do know that developing one's internal powers and then combining many people for a single cause or the betterment of the group will threaten any autocratic system. Especially if it is suppressive in nature already which China clearly seems to be. It Could be a political party in the making. I do not think the present establishment will permit that.

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LEARNING TO BREATHE ON THE INTERNET

Can I learn to breathe optimally on the net?

From Mike:
Learn online? Not hardly. Perhaps to get interested enough to take proper action. Too many factors to address properly. Timing, repetition, inner sensing, visualizing etc.

Most any way one changes their breathing will be beneficial,. for a while. But only for a while. I am always concerned that if people tried one or two things and got, none, mediocre or even sometimes beneficial results they would think that the breath is not all that important. Sleeping, breathing, food, exercise, attitude, ergonomics are ALL equally important. Don't shirk on ANY of them.

That is why I do not allow people to dabble with what I deem as quick-fix stuff on the net. My approach is a systems approach. Holistic and systematic.

If you want a powerful exercise then go to Tips for Optimal Energy but understand that this is just one approach amongst several others. You can scan the results page for more insight into the big picture.

Keep breathing,

Mike

MORPHINE

To: COPD@HOME.EASE.LSOFT.COM

I just received a post from a correspondent who tells of her mother's death, less than 24 hours after being admitted to a hospice. It appears they "eased her suffering" (from emphysema and cardiac complications) with morphine.

It was suggested that I post a message about the danger of morphine, etc, in treating pulmonary patients.

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OXYGEN BARS?

What about them? An oxygen bar opened up on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, AP reports. O2 offers customers a 20-minute shot of oxygen for $13. For $2 more, the oxygen can be spiked with lemon, lime or orange. Proponents of recreational oxygen blasts claim it eases headaches, boosts alertness, fights fatigue and reduces stress. "It gives you a nice little buzz," The club has had a steady flow of customers since opening last month. A club room has disc jockeys and dancing on weekends, and yoga classes and nutrition lectures are in the planning.

From Mike:
EXCESSIVE oxygen can have a suffocating effect. Though the oxygen bar can, if properly managed, raise the consciousness around breathing, it may simply profit by it and leave a wrong impression with the customer. The body and the mind, if you don't use them you lose them. If you don't use the natural breathing mechanism it weakens over time. This O2 bar seems to be another byproduct of the "quick fix" attitude of "modern" medical science. It may encourage more alcohol consumption due to it's limited ability in remedying a hangover. Clearly the Yoga and nutritional classes planned will do some significant good if the teachers are adept at the breath. Most think they know it and most clearly do not. My take on it is how well the bar introduces other health factors and uses the O2 aspects in a responsible conservative manner.

An oxygen bar is probably not excessive intake of oxygen and may even benefit. For cost effectiveness contact a hyperbaric oxygen chamber manufacturer like Tampa Hyperbaric and you will probably learn that the amount of oxygen you get in a hyperbaric oxygen session (Michael Jackson was photographed inside one some years ago) would cost thousands of dollars via the oxy bar way. Not a very efficient way to get more oxygen. Learning to breathe better is much more efficient. I am also experimenting with the Gamow Bag which looks like it might function like Reich's Orgone (energy) Accumulator.

Mike

I question YOUR INFORMATION ON O2. SEEMS VERY LIMITED AND LACKING IN THE BASICS OF HEMOGLOBIN AND THE UPTAKE OF O2. I CANNOT UNDERSTAND WHY YOU CANNOT UNDERSTAND WHAT THE BASIC CONCEPT IS AND FORGET ABOUT ALL OF THE COLORS AND LIGHTS AND AROMAS AND SEE THAT THE O2 IS THE KEY TO GOOD HEALTH. AS AN OWNER OF A O2 BAR, I AM STILL PUZZLED BY WHAT I SEE AS JUST PLAIN LACK OF UNDERSTANDING OF THE PROCESS THE BODY USES IN THE UPTAKE OF O2. YOUR BREATHE CLASSES ARE ONLY PART OF THE PROGRAM NOT THE ANSWER TO WHAT IS WRONG. I MIGHT ADD NEITHER IS A VISIT TO THE OXYGEN BAR BUT BOTH CAN HELP AND DO. COME OUT TO SEATTLE TO CHECK US OUT AND EVEN READ SOME OF THE INFORMATION WE HAVE ON THE MATTER. THE INFORMATION THAT YOU GIVE PEOPLE SCARES THEM AND FOR THOSE THAT TRUST AND BELIEVE YOU, YOU ARE DOING THEM A DISSERVICE STATING THAT O2 BARS ARE A WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY. THEY WILL NOT AND THUS FAR HAVE NOT ENCOURAGED PEOPLE TO DRINK, WHAT A STUPID COMMENT, COME OUT HERE AND SEE. JIM

From Mike:
Dear Jim

Learning to breathe better is many times senior to sitting in an oxygen bar. It even works while you sleep. If you are interested in helping people, then sponsor an Optimal Breathing workshop in Seattle and let that be a way to draw people to your ideas and values. We can work together if you can get off your victim/antagonist position. Also, I am working on a video that you can show and sell and train people to work with in your bar AND at home.

[never heard from him]

Mike

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OZONE

Hello Mike, I've been getting your regular emails for a couple of years now and have enjoyed them greatly. I have a question that I wonder if you could address concerning ground level ozone. I'm not sure where I heard it but several years ago I heard a physician talk about the fact that ozone is actually an oxidizer. That is to say that it bleaches (in a sense) in the same manner as does peroxide or chlorine bleach (chemically, more akin to peroxide, of course). Probably so. Under certain conditions. Specifically, what it oxidizes are the sensitive areas of our lungs (the name?). I am aware that ground level ozone is officially classified as an "Irritant," (I have met people that are "irritants as well but in many ways they are wonderful human beings) :-) "which I'm sure it is, In great enough quantities by ratio to the fresh air available, yes. But it can also be used as a disinfectant. but the big, and little publicized, news is that ozone can do significant damage to our lungs if one is exposed to significant amounts of it through exposure to air containing high concentrations of ground level ozone and/or the inhalation of large amounts of air containing more moderate amounts of air as a result of strenuous physical activity. Anything to excess is negative. Ozone is easily gotten to excess but not always. It depends what it is in relation to. Ozone is thought of as entirely negative due to its ability to grab and combine with an extra molecule such as particulate matter in exhaust emissions. But it is also used in pool filters instead of chlorine and to kill mold and air-born germs in a breathing atmosphere. But I would not want to breathe it without a constant exchange of fresh air as the ozone can get toxic pretty quickly. The application of ozone is the critical part, not that it is bad for us ALL the time, because it is not. Walk out of doors after a strong electrical storm and smell the ozone fresh air. I wish it was like that ALL the time. Sit in the warm pool at Harbin Hot Springs in California (they ozone the water to clean it) and watch oxygen bubbles cling to your skin and feel your energy increase as the oxygen (O2) is absorbed into your body through your skin. I believe the oxygen bubbles come from the O3 that has lost a single molecule to have it release the extra O2 into the water.

Could you comment, confirm, publicize this topic? Thanks! Incidentally, the television news reported that the monitoring station in Acadia National Park here on the coast of Maine (traditionally a problematic ozone region due to its down wind, "down east," geographic location) recorded its highest ozone levels ever, yesterday 7/2. Thanks for helping me learn more. Again, ozone is being attracted to particulate matter and so it shows up like Mighty Mouse to "save the day". But it brings with it its own natural "magnetic" attraction to debris and therefore gets made guilty by association. Get Ed McCabe's Oxygen Therapies to study the issue more deeply. Digestive enzymes Mr.White, thank you for your recommendations. I have reread your stuff on enzymes and your testimonial on the weight loss links. I assume you have used the Health Nuts formulation of enzymes for yourself. I am wondering if you are taking them indefinitely, or if you used them until you had certain results. My concern is sustainability. I like the idea of learning how to breathe and use sounds for a regular practice, and adding enzymes to help me regain digestion health, but I am concerned about what it will mean in the long run. Later days, Shirley M

From Mike:
Dear Shirley: Enzymes are for a lifetime. They do not remain but are used in the process of daily cellular function. In my opinion to the degree your diet is not 100% raw is the degree you should take the enzymes. And 100% raw would be better but that is rarely attained. This is not like a vaccination. You must, like breathing, replenish the digestive enzyme supply either from raw living foods or a supplement. I need to ad that there is NO supplement that will entirely replace raw living foods. On a day-to-day basis, I even take digestive enzymes with a protein drink as I want to add them into my body for digestion of other foods. They seem to build up a reserve. #571 Optimal Digestion

OZONE THERAPY & IRREGULAR BREATHING

I'm from LA, but I'm going to be in Germany for the summer and I was going to enlist in ozone therapy to address the problems that irregular breathing causes. What is your advice? Do you know of any breathing/singing (I'm a vocalist) coaches in Germany or surrounding countries?

From Mike:
Ozone therapy will not address unbalanced breathing. It will only mask the cause. Fix the irregular breathing first with our Recommended Program at level 2. Then take the ozone therapy for health and well being.

PEAK FLOW METERS

You honor me with your concerns. I agree that the medical industry is blind to the healthy optimal breath. The breath measuring meters can actually make the problem worse by tightening up the rib cage on the forced inhalation and the exhalation as well. I am not convinced that the peak flow is an adequate measure. Many people with good peak flows have not had the internal sense of power of people with much less peak flow. There is something to be learned here.

From Mike:
Try this. Let a breath come in. Let a natural in and out breath occur. Begin at the bottom of the exhale, an extended exhalation. Force the out-breath slowly making push out much of the remaining air as you comfortably can.

Use the stomach muscles to squeeze the last bit of breath out and then let go and allow the breath to enter without "helping" it. Do you become more relaxed? Repeat for 10 minutes. Does your inhaler use lessen even slightly over a few days? If you become nervous this will not work for you in this way. Diet is also very important.

The Voldynne 500 is a better way to measure your breathing volume. Even it is not deep enough for most really good breathers.

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PULSE CONTROL AND BREATHING

When pulse is high, How can you lower it by a breathing technique. Is there a breathing technique that can calm you enough that it effects your pulse? If you could get this info. to me I'd be greatly appreciative.

From Mike:
Try the Tip #1 on Reducing Anxiety Responses. Also try to breathe with the animated logo on all pages of the web site.

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Mike

A RIGHT WAY TO BREATHE?

Dear Mike:
I ran across your web page and I was reading how important breathing can be. I read the following at

http://www.breathing.com/articles/weight-loss.htm

"I have seen hundreds of people start a daily breathing routine and lose weight. The danger is that they may be doing a breathing exercise that actually locks up the breathing so that the long-term effect can be harmful."

From Mike:
Not in the slightest. This is a common misconception even among medical professionals. There are at least 200-400 muscles and thousands of nerves that need to be working in balance for breathing to be good or optimal. Tighten both fists, or stand on your toes or tighten your legs or bend forward and watch your breathing go a little or a lot shallower. Posture and other various tensions and nerve restrictions strongly influence the natural breathing function. Plus, anything you do the same way long enough will restrict its freedom. Your breathing is the same. Practice makes permanent, not perfect.

How can there be a right way to breath and a wrong way?

There are 2-300 muscles and thousands of nerves that need to be working in balanced synchronicity for breathing to be good or optimal. Think of singing. Some can. Some cannot. Singing is nothing more then wind passing by membranes causing them to vibrate, in a very special way. If you can breathe right, you can sing. But if you sing, you do not necessarily breathe right. Any high-quality pop, jazz or opera singer will affirm that.

This has me very worried. And are you saying that if I were to do your breathing that you teach that it would speed up my metabolism and help me burn fat off like a exercise without the sweat and all?

I am saying that is has occurred hundreds of times. No guarantees. Just strong probability. Not necessarily without the sweat but that can occur. Metabolism is "heat" in the form of increased fire. Sweat comes from heat.

Yet if I were to choose to exercise with weights, walk, etc. That it would just be like a added bonus?

Definite added bonus. Recommended program

SACRAL BREATHING?

Mike. I tried something different with my patients today. With those that had an anterior sacral base (top of sacrum tilted > anterior) I had them do your ssss exhale exercise. I was looking to see if with this exercise the sacral base would right itself, without my chiropractic intervention. Results: Yes! In all but one of the 10 or so cases. It usually took repeating the exercise twice to get the sacrum back in alignment. And the pts often commented on how much breath they then had, and more fully realized the adverse affects of not having full, deep breath. Just thought you'd like to know :) What originally brought this concern to my attention was seeing your retirement community workshop attendee's sacrum so jammed up. I was concerned that day that she couldn't begin to get benefit from your work when her sacrum was so jammed anteriorly. But after you worked with her, her sacrum had let go some of its adverse tenacious hold.

From Mike:
The way I explain the breath to many is that it is connected to every part of the body. I series f tubes, pouches, rings and sphincters, all interconnected and interdependent in varying degrees. As you get in touch with the various parts you can reestablish the interconnections and allow one to let go of excessive tensions and restrictions in optimal ease and flow. A tight body part when loosened will reflect itself in a deeper breath.

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STUDY THE BREATH

From Mike:
Exhaling through the mouth is very bad information.

We uptake most of our oxygen during the exhale. The size of the nostrils creates back-pressure that holds air in a little longer so that the O2 has more time to be extracted from the air in the lungs.

The more you can function by breathing in and out through the nose the better except when singing or extreme states of fight, fight, freeze, faking it or fun. including sex). Then you will need to take in a lot of air and need both nose and mouth.

If you inherited your very large father's lungs and your very small mother's nostrils you will have to breathe in AND out through the mouth more often or always. This is an extreme and rare example but it illustrates better the issue of volume and air intake hole size.

Mike

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SURGERY -- GENERAL -- BEFORE AND AFTER

About six years ago, I had heart surgery. After the operation my breathing was good. I was only taking one aspirin a day.

Somehow, other medications were added. Now when I bend over, move or walk fast I get out of breath. I have started taking herbs, adding one at a time, and my condition is getting better. I can't understand why my breathing got so bad, when my heart was what they operated on?

From Mike:
There is good reason science calls it the heart-lung system. Surgery is traumatic. Often helpful but traumatic nevertheless. General anesthesia shuts down the entire body. Suppresses every function there is. Breathing is one of those functions. It happens to be a very important one. More so than the heart, but few people realize that. Read "Oxygen Crises."

I believe that surgeons should be having their patients given breathing training before (when possible) and after a surgery. I would study the breath and nutrition if I were you. Get our #176 Rapidly Improving Your Breathing Video that has specific exercises both effective and safe for most pre and post surgery. Make sure you clear them with your M.D. first.

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VIPASSNA

From Phillip:

In vipassna you just watch the breath and bodily sensation without trying to alter or judge looking at all with non attachment.

It is hard to really compare to your work...although maybe to say that "when one is really able to watch the breath, one notices that the breath self regulates... when we let go into just what is, without attachment and surrender to that... then the truth is able to move through us without inhibition, whether that means better breathing, better digestion to ultimately deep peace with all of life, we can see the beauty in everything."

Going to order new #130 Better Breathing Exercise #2 from the website. I gave mine away.

I have missed practicing and feel drawn to practice again.

PM

From Mike:
Very nicely put. Sounds friendly and familiar.

Lately I've been using a combination of computer and digitally based breathing training devices as a sort of a carbon dioxide and oxygen measuring tool that also functions in a biofeedback way. I have seen that many do not breathe right even when they appear to the look, sound and feel, to do so.

I had long ago learned that many people cannot just watch the breath independently of influencing it. There are distorted "physical," "mentally driven," and/or "biochemically altered" breathing patterns that have been almost "set in cement" that alter the "natural ebb and flow of optimal natural breathing" in all phases of mechanical breathing, gas exchange, and intercellular chemistry.

Some of this breathing pattern disorder relates directly to carbon dioxide and uptake/distribution of adequate oxygen. It also influences intake of cosmic and chi forces and emotional experience(s). This Unbalanced Deep Breathing (UDB) must be addressed to ensure the balance, ease and flow of ALL other mental and biochemical activities. Back to the autonomic nervous system again.

I have created several training methods that use these insights to help train the person into a more optimal breathing pattern. This is making a HUGE difference in the way they see, feel and react to their world. Problems with anger, fatigue, seizures, palpitations, somatics, mental clarity and focus and a host of others are reduced or eliminated. Very quickly, by comparison, to anything I have ever experienced, including Vipassna.

So I strongly suspect this new use of technology will be an aid to those having any difficulty with vipassna.

I'll be presenting the new combo in the August festivals and other gatherings,

Blessings,
Mike