When the Psychedelic Renaissance is taking the world by storm, let’s just pause and take a breath.
Breathe
Seriously, take the maximum of 10 seconds it might take you to consciously follow the breath in through the nostrils and sigh it back out of your mouth. If you did that a bit more regularly you can train your body to release stress by lowering cortisol, slow the heart rate and shrink the amygdala responsible for our fear response. Yes really. Simple right.
The breath is accessible to us in every moment we live our life. It is powerful and limitless. We can harness it to soothe and calm us, like with that breath we took a moment ago, and we can harness it to activate and charge us through the high ventilation processes I will discuss, both ways can lead to expanded states of consciousness and have been practiced for millennia by many ancient cultures.
Some of you might think MDMA is going to revolutionise healthcare, some of you might think mushrooms are Jesus, some may think of psychedelics as pharmaceutical drugs and others as sacred medicine. So why am I here talking about the breath as a psychedelic experience? Well, because it can be equally profound and is a deeply empowering way of connecting to our own potential.
What is meant by Breathwork?
Breathwork has grown in popularity over recent years; it is often delivered at psychedelic retreats as well as a stand-alone practice in workshops and 1:1 sessions.
When I say breathwork, I am referring to high intensity breathwork such as Holotropic Breathwork or conscious, connected breathwork (CCB) that follows a structure of high ventilation breathing for extended periods through the mouth.
Holotropic Breathwork, considered the deepest dive into Breathwork, is a well-established model. The time on the mat breathing is 3 hours, you are well supported by trained facilitators and evocative, loud music. Sessions include significant preparation and integration. You swap roles with a partner, so act as both sitter and breather during a retreat having the opportunity to both offer and receive additional support.
In my CCB sessions, breathwork is 90 minutes long within a 3-hour session, music is also a carrier wave, there are specific instructions around the way to breathe, and you are well supported by experienced facilitation. Powerful and accessible as an adjunct to therapy or without committing to a longer retreat.
High ventilation breathing is quite a simple process, but a lot happens physiologically, combined with these containers these activating ways of breathing will have similar responses in the body. The subjective experiences however are significantly different as each individual accesses non-ordinary states of consciousness, the adventures here are infinite. Do not try this alone at home!
Can Breathwork really be like a psychedelic experience?
The simple answer is yes. Each session is completely unique, Breathwork has a different quality, but you can certainly access expanded states of consciousness through the breath. As a practitioner, my experience spans 10 years of supporting people to reach non-ordinary states of consciousness through the breath. I witness, and have now evidenced, that therapeutically held breathwork is a useful, meaningful and potent alternative to a psychedelic substance journey. Most people who try breathwork are surprised by the strength of the experience; many say that they can access as deep a place as with psychedelics substances and now we are seeing the evidence to support peoples lived experience.
“…breathwork is associated with larger acute psychedelic-like effects than meditation, alongside greater emotional breakthrough, insight, and self-reported behavioural change…” (Fincham et al, 2026)
I will write another article about the growing scientific research we are now seeing to support our understanding of how and why breathwork works.
What might a Breathwork session look like?
A key point is that when working with the breath we are not ingesting anything; no drug, substance, plant or fungi. It is your breath and the container that provide the experience.
The emotional & physical
I need to say this first; we do not need to have a big emotional process for a session to be useful. It could be peaceful, empty, still, soft, for these people this may offer a relief from the busy mind, maybe remembering there is infinite spaciousness within oneself. An important message for us in modern life.
However, it is common to experience strong physical sensations, tremors, rushing sensations, involuntary movement, the music moving through them, feeling hot or cold or tetany (cramping). Trauma can be released from the body.
There can be powerful cathartic release, emotions intensified and needing to be expressed; maybe you need to roar, tears may want to flow, you could meet that fear that’s been hiding in the shadows for so long and you can also feel ecstatic, elated and bursting with laughter. All the above is welcome, we agree to keep safe, but apart from that nothing is barred and your facilitators (and sitters in Holotropic Breathwork) are there to make sure you are supported in any way you ask for and may need for safety.
The mystical & transpersonal
Somatic and emotional processes are often part of a psychedelic journey, but most people associate a psychedelic state with mystical or transpersonal experiences.
Let’s be clear if you are new to breathwork or psychedelics then these experiences can sound very unusual. But they are common in both modalities and in every sharing circle I have sat in, every integration session I have delivered there are reports of the mystical. You may meet ancestors or other beings who have a message or presence to offer you, you may find yourself in a completely different landscape, you may feel like you have died and been reborn, you may experience your body or the universe on a cellular level, you may feel a sense of oneness or unity with all of creation. The possibilities are endless, impactful and often deeply meaningful if given integration space.
The biographical
Content of a biographical nature is often present. It’s not necessarily what the individual may expect. For example, one person found themselves connecting to their child as a baby, this allowed them to let go of expectations and disappointment and reconnect to the love they felt. What was a challenging adult relationship transformed into reconnection in the ‘real’ world. Another person was able to find self-compassion, understanding their unique nature and how it had been denied as a child. They began to build a stronger sense of self and nurture their own difference.
Breathwork can offer movement and change in the connections and wounds of relationships where there has been stuckness and pain. Stan Grof includes what is called the perinatal in his understanding of non-ordinary states of consciousness, content from our birth or growth the womb may arise physically or metaphorically, for others a death and rebirth of parts of the self or ego may occur, often leaving people feeling more empowered.
Accessing expanded states through breathwork can be incredibly powerful. When provided in a therapeutic container including preparation and integration, with the relationship as priority, creating safety, clear boundaries, addressing expectations and intentions and beginning the process of adopting the ‘in and through’ mentality so key to the outcomes of an expanded state experience, then we can let go into where Breathwork can take us.
Why choose Breathwork?
Breathwork can be considered as an opening, a dive into the psyche or a step into the holotropic realm. It is a way of exploring the territory, your territory in relation to expanded states with a sense of agency, to practice the art of surrender and to build self-confidence. You can’t untake a substance/medicine/mushroom, you are in it for the whole ride and sometimes this can generate anxiety and resistance, both of which can have an impact on the therapeutic potential of engaging with psychedelic work.
When working with the breath I encourage adjustments so we can touch the edges of the window of tolerance- the area that we feel safe, but not push ourselves into overwhelm, to engage with our capacity and avoid retraumatization through pendulation and titration. Listening to the body and if feeling overwhelmed to a point of intense discomfort to utilize soothing breathing techniques, practicing reaching out for support, something that can be so challenging to do for many. This permission to steer the session offers an opportunity to self-regulate, to discover edges in getting needs met and responses to expanded states and to begin a dialogue with their presenting material. Working with psychedelic medicines does not allow does not allow for this level of autonomy, we are in relationship with whatever medicine we are engaging with instead.
Breathwork can be particularly useful for people who are new to psychedelics or expanded states, who have had previous challenging experiences or significant life events since their last journey or simply who want to feel the potential of the breath. If there are certain mental health diagnosis, or elevated fear, anxiety, overwhelm then breathwork can be a way to offer a deeper relationship with themselves in expanded states before, or instead of, ingesting a psychedelic substance.
As with the psychedelic experience breathwork can allow for content that has a strong emotional charge to travel from the unconscious into a conscious process. It can be as unpredictable, subjective and ineffable as a psychedelic experience and is often so far from any preconceived expectations, but we are able to change how to breathe.
Breathwork is a Psychedelic Experience
The word psychedelic literally translates from Greek as ‘mind-manifesting’ or ‘soul-revealing’. You do not need a psychedelic substance to reveal your soul or dive deep into your psyche. Conscious, sustained breathing alters the blood chemistry, it quietens the Default Mode Network (DMN), this is the same process in psilocybin or LSD.
The result of this can be highly similar experiences to psychedelic substances; deep emotional states, powerful somatic states, bliss or interconnectedness.
Breathwork has an advantage and that can be named as sovereignty. When you engage with a plant medicine, your body needs to process this until it passes. With Breathwork, you are the driver. You can slow your breathing and apply the brake.
Whether you are seeking trauma processing or have a curiosity for expanded states of consciousness, this legal, simple and accessible option is already within you, you just need to find a safe container to practice it in, then open your mouth and breathe.
Liz Lilley
I am a Psychotherapist and have been working in clinical research at King’s College London as a Lead Therapist on Psilocybin studies for Depression and PTSD since 2000. I am a Mentor and Trainer for Psychedelic Therapists AND I am a Breathwork Facilitator offering 1:1 and group sessions. I have witnessed many psychedelic psilocybin sessions and breathwork sessions. I have also had the privilege of listening to people share their experiences afterwards, that combined with my personal experiences of both methodologies, I stand in a good position to compare the two. It really is remarkable the places we can travel with the breath.
Whilst we are slowly moving toward clinical use of psychedelic substances. Safe, accessible places to have these experiences are still hard to come by, come with risks and uncertainties and often involve a significant economical investment. Breathwork is legal, accessible and can be rolled out to a large scale. It is available now in the UK, it benefits from being able to be delivered in group settings which allows for affordability. As a society within a mental health crisis exploring low cost, accessible and effective ways to access expanded states of consciousness for therapeutic process seems like an essential next step.
I would love to see more people utilising breathwork as part of the preparation for psychedelic experiences, but also for it to be recognised as a stand-alone expanded states of consciousness process that be engaged in as part of an ongoing therapeutic relationship – I already offer Breathwork-Assisted Therapy and if you are interested in exploring this for your personal process or you are a therapist looking for mentoring and guidance of how to offer this practice then please do reach out.
An exploratory study of breathwork-induced altered states of consciousness in experienced practitioners: the airways to alteration (A2A) trial(https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2026.1851882/full)
