Introduction

Zeta Blue is a compendium of scientifically backed resources for Breathwork facilitators. It is mostly focused on Conscious Connected Breath (CCB), but the information is applicable to other forms of breathwork as well.

​

Why?

The first time I tried breathwork, I was told to “open my heart chakra to receive crystallized rays of quantum energy”. Even though I had developed a basic tolerance for new-agey hippie woo talk, I was still a scientist, and this experience left me with a feeling between skepticism and disdain that took me almost a decade to shake off.

Many years later I found an amazing breathwork facilitator in Berlin, and realized that breathwork can be taught and practiced without the esoteric overhead — and that none of the the many amazing benefits require you to subscribe to any spiritual or mystical framework.

Over the years, I became a breathwork facilitator myself. As a cognitive neuroscientist and professionally curious person, I have a strong urge to understand what’s going on during my breathwork practice. In other words, I wanted to know:

​

How does conscious connected breath affect the body and the mind?

This write-up is concerned with the physiological effects of conscious connected breath, and how these physiological changes result in the perceived effects of sensory arousal, tetany, altered states of consciousness, and others.

The quick TL;DR is that while the purely physiological responses like tingling, burning, and cramping are very well understood, the psychological responses are very much not. In general, there’s a big explanatory gap between what’s happening on a biochemical level (more of this neurotransmitter and less of that), and how that produces the perceived subjective effects.

Mostly, this is due to experimental limitations (most people show a regrettable reluctance to having their brain sliced open while conscious enough to explain which effects of breathwork they’re feeling), and we might be many years to decades away from a solid physiological understanding of altered states of consciousness. I will update this guide as I find new information.

I should note that I’m not a physician, or biochemist, or active researcher (anymore), so please take everything with a grain of salt, add reach out to me if anything is unclear, or you invariably know something I don’t.

As a final note, I don’t think a deep understanding of the physiological and biochemical mechanisms of breathwork is essential for a safe, healthy practice, and I don’t explain on of this in breathwork sessions I facilitate. However, I want to support other facilitators that share the same curiosity as me and strive to understand the science of the breathwork their teaching.