Rhythmic Breath And Four Fold Breath, What does each one do? Options

Ave all!

What are the effects and the advantages of each of these two breathing techniques as opposed to the other? Is there a significance to the ratios of the inhale/ exhale to the held breath?

Much gratuity for your thoughts and replies,

G.L.B.

p.s. As of right now I can do neither without "losing my breath" after about 30 sec's. Just goes to show what being an out of shape 30 year old smoker will get ya! LOL

GLB, perhaps you would like to explain to those of us seeking to learn exactly what you're talking about? I've got a fair idea of what you might be talking about but I'm definitely not exactly sure about these titles.

Thanks.

Bb3,
From my understanding they are breathing techniques used to center oneself before ritual and for meditation. The "Four- Fold Breath" is described by Regardie and others writing on the Golden Dawn as a 4:4:4:4 ratio of inhale/ hold/exhale(inhaling for the count of four, hold breath for four counts, exhale for four, hold for four and the repeat). The "Rhythmic Breath" as described by Denning and Phillips and other places uses an inhale/hold/ exhale ratio of 6:3:6:3 ( or if you're like me and have trouble with that a ratio of 4:2:4:2). To me they seem very similar, but after reading about pranayama and how one can achieve different effects on the body ( both the Physical and Energetic) with different breathing techniques, I was curious as to the effects and/ or the advantages of each of the aforementioned styles.

Hope this makes sense

G.L.B.

Sorry it took so long to get back to this, but yes, I know exactly what you're talking about. I personally prefer the 5:2::5:2 ratio for rhythmic breathing. In that situation you would be taking approximately five breaths per minute, which is pretty ideal. Taking six or less breaths per minutes is one of the ways occultists train their bodies to perenially relax and reduce tension. With the four fold breath it's intesting, the total time is 16 second for one breath, sixty four seconds for four of these four fold breaths, which is pretty good, about four breaths per minute. After doing some quick calculating I discovered that after 16 minutes of doing this breathing pattern one would return to a number that's evenly divided by 60 (seconds). The number of cycles of four breaths this would take would be 15 cycles of four. This seems very good, because 15 cycles and 16 minutes is a very tarot like quality. This leads me to believe that the four fold breath is a good way to not only relax but keep the body very aware of time. Having said all that I personally prefer the 5:5:5:5 ratio but that's just me. What's the difference between the two, nothing all that great, and I would hesitate to say what the difference might be since individuals vary greatly. The obvious thing to notice is that rhythmic breathing is probably the more natural of the two. One thing that I would say about the four fold breath is that you should progress slowly. Start with 5 minutes in one day then add a minute each day.

Here's also something you might want to try that I feel may be the most effective thing. Instead of using seconds as your clocker, find the pulse on your hand and breath to the beats of the pulse. I can't say enough about this method, it seems much more personal and much more powerful.

Another exercise you might want to try is this: imagine the breath as a wave. Breath in and feel the rise, as you hold your breath feel yourself rise to a peak, then slowly start to descend as you exhale the descent becomes more and more rapid until you hold your breath and reach a bottom point where everything it's at a suspension. Then you gradually feel a rise, as you begin to inhale the rise becomes quicker and quicker. An added visualization to this would be this: watch the breath wave for awhile, then as you turn from exhalation to inhalation see an arched bridge, as your breath turns from inhalation to exhalation see a bowl. These are not seperate but one. Do this until you become totally relaxed and try to feel the moment of inner silence that happens just after you finish inhaling and after you finish exhaling, this is the highest point of the bridge and the lowest point of the bowl. Really feel yourself at those two points.

This post has been edited by Bb3: Jun 3 2006, 03:41 AM