The Life-Changing Benefits of Breathwork | Michael Hemmat

Breathwork

Will: [00:00:00] Metaphysics, it's a noun. The definition of which is the branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things, including abstract concepts, such as being, knowing substance cause identity, time and space. That's the definition of the word metaphysics, but then there's also this definition, abstract theory with no basis in reality, both are from the dictionary.

But there's another way of defining metaphysics way that millions of people around the world prefer to define it a way of life. Enter the skeptic metaphysician. My name is will, and I like molded from the X-Files want to believe. So I've embarked on a journey of discovery. I've talked to people deeply entrenched in the spiritual world, thrown myself into weird and wonderful experiences.

I've even joined a coven of witches all in the interest of finding somebody. Anything that will prove that there's something beyond this physical three-dimensional world. We all live in, in modern philosophical [00:01:00] terminology. Metaphysics refers to the studies of what cannot be reached through objective studies of material reality.

And this so interests me like a lot. Now I'm not talking about the actual scientific study of things, not material I'm talking about. The more esoteric studies things like reincarnation. ESP astral projection, energy healing, clairvoyance, shamanism, spell casting, spirit channeling, astrology, numerology.

Look, you get the point. We'll be diving into stuff that is so far from the generally accepted school of thought that I fully expect my mind to be blown. At least that's my hope to be fully transparent. It's taken me a long time to find a single thing that has given me physical, tangible. Uh, there's something beyond this world as hard.

And as far as I've searched, there's not much out there. That's made me a believer. So fingers crossed that someone out there will be able to prove once. And for all that, this stuff actually exists. [00:02:00] So this kind of thing, interests you or intrigues you. I hope you'll join me as I continue in my search, not going to be all mumbo-jumbo about this stuff, but rather really dive into the stock and see what can come out of it.

All of course, with the utmost respect of those, sharing their stories with us, this is the skeptic metaphysician.

Hey everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the skeptic metaphysician with me back again is Karen . Karen, thanks so much for coming on the show again today. 

Karen: Thank you for keeping inviting me keeping is that right now for keeping it, thank you for having me back it's 

Will: it's it's right today. So Karen, I'm excited to have you and our guests on the show today because it is, it's a subject that I have been.

Not only interested in, but no, I've got to get a lot better at, but just haven't gotten up off my button, gotten done. So hopefully having our guests on a show table will get me motivated to do so. What do you know about breathwork? 

Karen: Well, it depends on the context [00:03:00] you need some mints breath work or, or like 

Will: yoga breathing.

Yes. All of the above. All of the above. So breath work is it is usually kind of tied in with yoga and things like that, but. Breadth breadth to this breath work thing that having someone that knows exactly how to do it and what it's all about is going to be super beneficial. So let me introduce our next guest.

He was born in Seattle. I'm not going to say year, even though he gave it to me because. Field or the young or old as the case was probably going to be, he has his Ms and optical engineering. He left the corporate world in 2015 and committed to a spiritual path. Now he tried just about everything and he determined that the most efficient way to purge unnecessary information from the.

It's through breathwork I like that. Right. That kind of perks up your attention. Doesn't it? 

Karen: That can't be that hard. 

Michael: Well, I don't know about that, 

Karen: but I don't need equipment. 

Will: It's certainly beneficial for, at the very least, even though it may not be so easy [00:04:00] to do now, he does claim that the medicine that he calls it, a medicine has had a profound impact on his life.

And he does love to share it with others who are ready to embrace what he can. The warrior spirit. 

Karen: Well, I like that. I mean, that makes so much sense because when you breathe in, can regulate and control your breathing, it can help you feel better. It can help you relax if you're in a nervous situation. So it just makes sense.

Will: Yeah. . Welcome to the show. Thank you for coming on and sitting through this incredibly long introduction.

All right. So let's just set the table. Can you inform Karen? Just what breath work actually is? 

Michael: Well, to be fair them. Many types of breath work and they'll have different functions. And so typically you'll look at what most people are familiar with. Different kinds of yoga breathing that are either for calming the mind for a meditative purpose.

And that's where you go below your, your normal pace, or they have breath of fire, which is like a really activating Kundalini style of breath work. And then somewhere kind of in the middle of the pace and [00:05:00] intensity is what I do, which we call just warrior breathing only because we're careful not to step on any indigenous toes with, with this.

You know, th this style does come from Hawaiian shamanism, but I'm not Hawaiian. And it's important for me to acknowledge that because I've I want to be careful not to. like I said, step on toes, but this breath work, the, the purpose of it. And what it does for you is it is an elevated pace, slightly full breaths in and out.

And, and it allows your system to open up in ways that you are typically unaccustomed to, and, and by doing so it kind of. Sheds light on various blind spots in your, in your mind. And, and of course this is very valuable because you, you might not, you might not realize how things that have happened to you in your life are informing the way that, that you are interacting with people, the way that you talk to yourself, the way that you see your future evolving, all these [00:06:00] things that You know, you, you could've taken on things.

And this is what I say about information from your system. You know, if you got a message when you were a child that you're not good enough, or you're not worthy, then even though as a grownup, you could say I feel pretty good about myself, that little sliver of an idea, that bit of information could be stuck deep in your subconscious, that is informing you to, to self-sabotage.

And so. It would be very difficult to identify these slivers without. The assistance of, you know, typically people will go to therapy or they use plant medicines. But like, as you know, as you pointed out in the introduction I've done a lot of different things and I feel like breath work is by far the most effective.

Will: So I'm going to ask. It sounds wonderful, but how can just breathing in a certain rhythm or a certain frequency bring about all these messages? Get you, get you in touch with some of the past messaging that maybe not [00:07:00] are so beneficial to you. Like how, how does breath, how does breathing actually connect you with all that stuff?

Michael: That's a good question. And I think that. The jury is out, depending on who you talk to from a physiological point of view, this breathing technique releases indogenous DMT. So, one of the things that DMT molecule. Yeah. So, you know, with like things like Iowasca, which is a, the principal alkaloid is DMT or magic mushrooms.

The principal alkaloid is silicide bin, which is just a more complex DMT molecule. These things are neurotransmitters that allow your mind to open up and to see higher perspective, new dimensions, all these things. Well, you're, it wouldn't be meaningful to add DMT to your body unless you had DMT receptors already there, right?

Because if you added a chemical that you couldn't receive, it wouldn't do anything. So your body not only receives DMT, but it [00:08:00] produces it. And if you can stimulate the DMT through breathing, then you get all the benefits of the psychoactive chemicals without having to take the risk of doing anything illegal or contaminated or out of control.

For example, a lot of these anthropogenic medicines, you know, You consume it and you're on that ride for six hours regardless. And there's some risk there. And you know, as a facilitator we've never had someone actually say, Hey, this is too much. I need to come out. But if that were the case, I could do it.

Whereas with Any other, you know, chemicals, you, you add something to their system, they just have to write it out no matter what, they're kind of stuck, you know, you kind of throw yourself off a cliff with that situation. Right. 

Karen: Okay. So w we've talked to people before about DMT and, but for someone who's not heard any of those interviews who doesn't know, can you explain to them what that chemical is and what that does 

Michael: happen?

Dimethyltryptamine it's Yeah, it's a neuro-transmitter synthetic. [00:09:00] Well, it's not synthetic, it's it's anonymous with the serotonin and that's also not well understood. And unfortunately there was a lot of research done in the early nineties and that's where the, that famous book, the spirit molecule came out.

And and then his work, I think it was received you know, it was very well-respected clinical work, but then all the research went away. And so our understanding of. The actual role of DMT in the body is, is not is not great. And I think that there is a call now through through an organization called maps that they're trying to bring back a lot of this research because it's very important to, to people, you know, to be able to explore their own consciousness.

Now, I. Here's the, here's the thing though, as interesting as all that is, I don't need to know how my car works in order to get to the grocery store. And, and so even though I would love to really understand all that chemistry and biology you know, it's super [00:10:00] interesting as a scientist, but I but it it's so effective and it's, and it's highly predictable that That it almost, you know, I'd like to know, but I don't need to know.

Karen: And I guess I might've, it might've been too specific. I kind of was like, why is it good? Like, why are you trying to use the breath to stimulate that? Does it just help you see things better or understand? I guess maybe that's more what I was asking, not necessarily how the chemical process, but what does it, why do we want.

Michael: Okay. Well, well, one of the thing is that the, the argument of just stimulating DMT is, is there. And a lot of people who. In our society, we don't typically breathe properly. A lot of people, if they have accumulated stress attention, then they start to have really shallow breathing. They don't use their full lung capacity.

And so generally all their, the tissues in their body are oxygen low. And so, you know, if you have a problem with any of your organs, Then just by bringing more oxygen into your body, increasing blood flow, these have tons of healthy benefits. So it's not really about the DMT, which is a more visual [00:11:00] consciousness shifting chemical, as opposed to just being able to heal various things that are going on in your body.

Now, I think to answer the question in a more holistic way, it, the breathing. In many layers and dimensions that are beyond me effectively and repeatably allows people to see things that that they've been hiding from themselves. And, and that's really the crux of it is that, you know, if jumping jacks did it, then I'd be out there proclaiming jumping jacks.

It really doesn't matter. It just happens to be that breath work the way that we do. Show's profound results and, you know, and so that's, that's what, 

Will: so just so that I can understand that DMT, I, I do know a little bit about DMT because I've, I've looked into it and DMT really is known as a hallucinogenic type.

I mean, it can, it can be manufactured, right? Artificially. So it would be a drug at that point. There's the jury is still out. Whether or not it actually occurs naturally in or exists naturally in our brains. But a lot of people [00:12:00] say that it does no one knows for sure, but a lot of experts believe that the pineal gland produces it and releases it.

When we dream. For example, some people talk about DMT. Being the cause or might be responsible for those near death experiences that you hear about things like that. So I just want to understand, you're saying the breathing, the breath work that you do helps to stimulate DMT to emerge in your mind, and you have the same types of experiences as someone that takes Iowasca.

For example, just by doing these breathing exercises, 

Michael: is that right? Yeah, that's my assumption. You know, we're not actually testing blood in any way. Sure, but I make that assumption simply because having extensive experience with entheogens myself, as well, as you know, breathwork tends to attract people that are on the conscious exploration path.

The reports that was, I felt like I was on acid. I felt like I was on Iowasca. I felt like I had just taken my. With 

Will: breathwork with breath work. That's fantastic. Sign me up right now. Yeah. Well, that's the thing. I don't want to take a drug. I want to experience all that stuff, but I want to [00:13:00] take a drug. So if breath work is the way to do it, then I'm 

Michael: in.

Well, that that's exactly, probably it. And like my mother, for example, she is she is not. Drug person by any means very conservative in that, in that regard. And yet it's such a powerful medicine that, you know, and it's accessible to her. There's no legal issues. And and I think that there's a lot of people like that when, when we were facilitating in New Zealand, my partner.

We lived in New Zealand for a short period. We had guys coming in that were accountants, you know, they're like, oh, well, we don't do drugs, but we'll try this just because, and and it gets them into states of consciousness that would be completely inaccessible otherwise, because the safety of knowing that there's nothing illegal happening here, no one is being tricked.

No one is being poisoned. You know, 

Karen: And I said, you're not putting something weird into your 

Michael: body. Exactly. And that's always the thing that, that devalues plant medicines or any other kind of drug is that people say, oh, well, that wasn't real because I was on drugs. [00:14:00] And it's like, maybe, maybe not, but, but when it's you under your own power, nothing is added.

There's just so much more. Meet to that when you, when you have to digest, whatever it is that you learned about yourself, you know, that, that, whatever it is that you're digesting was already there. No one put anything in. 

Will: So we had someone on the show before that did you'll remember the Saudi da, Karen, who.

Talk to us about breathing a certain way to find enlightenment and things like that. And I assume it's kind of in the same general vein, but I didn't ask him this question and I kicked myself the whole night afterwards. So I'm going to ask you this, the way that he was teaching us, how to do it was really fast, kind of like right to the point where someone might say you're hyperventilating, right?

So could it just be your brain having. A lack of oxygen or perhaps too much or something that could trigger these types of hallucinations, for example, or do you feel that there's a lot more going on beyond that? 

Michael: Well, [00:15:00] so that's, that's a different style of breath work that I wouldn't I'm like, well, no, no.

I mean, but I wouldn't, I don't facilitate that style, so. Okay. So that is the yoga breath of fire, kind of like, you know, and it has its own purpose. But the, the criticism that you mentioned that I agree with is that you can just be hyperventilating this very short breath. You're not actually circulating.

It just does different things and people do get high from it. Is that valuable? Maybe? I don't know. I've done it a couple of times. I didn't particularly enjoy it. The difference between that and what, and what we do is that the breathing, even though it's slightly above, so it'd be more like I'm going to breathe into the mic.

nice. That breath anywhere. So that's a 5 99 per minute. but when you show it that way, it's not that you're. [00:16:00] Really just, it's not like a sprint, you know, it's a, it's more of a marathon. And so I think breath of fire, they do for a few minutes, this we do 90 minutes and it's meant to kind of, in train your conscious mind into a different rhythm.

And maybe this is opening up a bit of a can of worms right now, but the main reason why people get so stuck in their ideologies is because of these ruts in your mind. And it doesn't take a lot to just give a nudge out of that rut. And then once you're out, you can see that rut like, oh, that's why I've been doing that this last 30 years.

And then now that you see. You're invited either go back in or change direction. And it's, that's the profound part about it is to be able to see where you've been stuck. Right. 

Will: And there's the rub because someone like me who can't sit still for 12 seconds to have to sit still for 90 minutes, just breathing.

How does someone break into it that you go into it slowly? Or do you just say. Buckle in you're in here for an hour 

Michael: and a half buddy. Yeah. And I always make the [00:17:00] joke no refunds. Right. But you know, this, this is actually much more accessible to someone like you then Then, like a meditation retreat where you are required to just sit still in the quiet for hours at a time, which has benefits, of course.

But now this is highly activating, highly stimulating. We play music, we're moving around and I play my, I, my didgeridoo is in the back and you know, we're doing a lot of things. There's no boredom by any means at all. I mean, even if you were just to sit in the room and not participate, it would still be fun for you.

Will: Wow. Okay. Well, I know Karen has had really difficult time meditating sitting still and clear her mind enough to meditate for 10 minutes. So that seems like a lot more interesting to me. Like you're actively doing something as opposed to just sitting there and breathing for 90 minutes, which, I mean, obviously we do it anyway, but 

Michael: what we do another thing at the same time, right?

Yeah. The difference is that and I guess this would be the big value of, of actually trying it. We call it warrior [00:18:00] breath because most people can't handle the intensive. It's not a matter of getting bored or checking out it's that it's too much and people have to back off. What do 

you, 

Will: what do you mean by too much?

Like what happens? Why is it too much? 

Michael: It's well, for example, let's say a. Let's say you experienced abuse when you were a child and that has caused you to have unhealthy relationships with women in your adult life. And you know that you have this way, that you see women and it's not healthy, but you can't figure out why.

Well, I would say that that blind spot is a result of not having the The courage or the willpower, or basically the fundamental tools to, to look at how painful that experience was, because that experience when you were a child could have been so excruciating that your mind just quarantined, it just blocked it off completely.

Now that resolution, which is required to have healthy relationships moving forward.[00:19:00] Demands that you, instead of you have that you have to take that thing out of a blind spot and say, what was that? How do I deal with this pain, this wound, who do I have to forgive? How do I, you know, all these things.

So, so the intensity, it's not from breathing necessarily it's that the breathing causes these wounds to come to the surface. And, and some people are like, oh shit, that wound is too deep. And then they pull out, whereas other people, and this is why I have so much respect for people that, that do this work with me is.

These deep, deep wounds come up and, and then they just stand their ground. And it's it. I have so much respect for people that can do that because it's not like talk therapy where you can always like try to weasel your way out of a conversation or Iowasca where you're just like at the mercy of the situation.

Every breath you take is you taking a stand for your own wellbeing. Cause you can give up at any time. I can't force you to breathe. You [00:20:00] know, anybody can give up at any time, but as long as you keep saying, no, my wellbeing and health is worth this. I'm going to face whatever is there. And you know, it just takes a lot of courage.

Will: so I assume there's a lot of emotionally charged, like people I'm assuming you've seen a lot of emotions where there's anger or sorrow or a deep pain, it all gets expressed during the time that they're 

Michael: breathing. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's, it's very intense. We see crying, wailing, you know, the body is unbelievable in the sense that the way that the.

Emotional bind store in the body, which I don't, I couldn't say how I know how they store, but how they release is so exotic. It's unbelievable. Like people's bodies will contort in certain ways or they'll sweat or they'll get cold or they'll sneeze or they'll shiver or or, you know, the, the all, all various.

Will: You're bringing up a lot of things that, that came up during our Kundalini activation process. Right. That a lot of the same things I'm wondering if some of this breath work actually is what maybe activating that Kundalini[00:21:00] and making the same types of things happen with you in terms of the body contortions and things like that.

Michael: Yeah. So my, my understanding of that with relation to Kundalini is the. These, these binds in the body just kind of hold you still. And then as they come out, the body just kind of has to relax in whatever way that it does. And so the Coonelly energy is it's like, um, imagine you have an old garden hose, that's all twisted and kinked, and then you turn the water way up.

Then it's going to force that garden hose to go. Right. But before it goes straight, it's going to flop around all crazy. And so that same thing happened with, I mean, we don't, we don't say Kundalini only again because someone, oh, where did you get your certification? Blah, blah, blah. I'm like, we're not part of that.

You know, I don't, I don't have a plaque, you know? so we just don't use that. So we just don't use that terminology only for that reason, but yeah. You know, in that way of speaking, it, it is the Kundalini energy. It's that, that [00:22:00] spiritual energy that's, that's allowing the the pressure on these things that are stuck to move.

Right. 

Karen: So when you're doing this for an hour and a half, is it, I guess for someone who's new to it, is it physically hard? Like, cause it seems like it'd be very tiring or is it energizing? Like 

Michael: that's, you know, So what's interesting is that the first, maybe five to 10 minutes, people find themselves mostly psychologically challenged in that sense, because the shift from their normal state of consciousness consciousness to this shamonic state, it can be a.

It can be kind of disorienting and there's fear involved and there's certain resistance. Self-sabotage all these things and there's a lot of negative self-talk. So a lot of the introduction prior to starting is warning people that that's going to happen. Yes. You're going to talk yourself out of it.

Don't listen to that voice. You hear, you know, we're here to help. This is going to be great. You know, just keep breathing, stay focused, keep breathing, let it go. And there's a lot of that. [00:23:00] And the interesting thing that happens is that roughly five to 10 minutes in the internal momentum of the body just completely takes over.

And so most people, even though the, someone could be thrashing around on their left and wailing crying on their right, there'll be completely unaware of any of that because there's so. Internally focused. And it's not something that they have to do. They don't have to ignore anyone. It's just that if you do this breath work, as we guide it this engine just turns on and then most people, they completely lose track of time.

90 minutes goes by and we say, okay, it's time to go back to normal breathing, blah, blah, blah. And oh wait, how long were we in it? You know, Because in that space, time is kind of wonky anyway. So, it it's, it's not difficult to keep it going. It's just that, that initial step into that space.

That's usually to get over the hump. You're good. Yeah. Well, but then you get over that hump into that space and then things come up and then that's, and then there's, it's a challenge, but [00:24:00] in a completely different way, 

Karen: like an emotional challenge. 

Michael: But, but because you, you have this heightened sense of awareness, your ability to process emotional wounds also goes.

 And so that's what makes it meaningful. If, if someone were just to point out to you that you were traumatized as a kid, it's not very helpful, but but to have that reality brought up and then also to give you maybe a sense of. Expanded heart consciousness. There's, you know, whatever, just, just more empathy or towards yourself or the perpetrator.

Then that, then that allows for um, easier processing. 

Karen: Oh my gosh. I totally want to try 

Will: this. No, we're a hundred percent going to try it. We're we're doing this. It sounds a lot like it would be, it would be very beneficial for. Well, yes, but specifically mental health professionals. So is this something that mental health professionals would per chance incorporate into their [00:25:00] practices or is this kind of like a taboo thing that maybe isn't an end isn't endorsed by the.

By that type of 

Michael: person. Well, I think that it's just it's very new to a lot of mental health professionals and like I mentioned maps, you know, it's a, multi-disciplinary something, but with psychedelics, that's their big thing. And there's just something about Western culture that people just much prefer to take a pill than to do anything.

And, and so, maybe from the clinical point of view, dosing, somebody with a pill or an injection or whatever The people just like that. I don't know. I don't, I don't, I hate that. You know, I think 

Will: it's probably because it doesn't take 90 minutes. 

Michael: Well, not necessarily, you know, 

Will: I I'm I'm I kid of course I'm teasing.

It's certainly putting in your own work. I mean the benefits are exponentially greater than, than taking some sort of narcotic or an injection for something 

Michael: I th the journey. The journey on like ketamine is an hours plus and like, MTMA is, I dunno, maybe a couple hours. [00:26:00] But, but the, the introduction to that space is very, very fast, very easy.

And yeah, you're right. Maybe that's, that's why it's accessible. But, but like I said, I think earlier There's something about, you know, getting awareness on these blind spots, but there's also something about saying I'm in charge of my life. I get to say how my life is going to go. I get to choose to be happy.

And you, you don't really have to go through that with the other things with breathwork you do, because every time you, every time you're challenged, every single breath, it's an opportunity to either stay the course or to give up on yourself. And so just that, even if you don't have any other mystical experiences, just that practice of.

Being there for yourself, you know? That's extremely valuable, but there's a guy's name is Stan Grof. He's a clinical psychologist. Psychotherapist, I think, I dunno. He started doing therapy with LSD in the [00:27:00] sixties, and then when it became illegal, he founded what's called holotropic breathwork, which is very similar to what we do.

And he was doing. As far as I know, he might even still be doing it. The guy's probably like in his nineties now. And, and he pioneered bringing breathwork into psychotherapy. So, so it's been around. I just I think that there are just other, you know, opinions about the clinical nature of it or the accessibility of it.

It's big pharma, well, 

Karen: charge you for it. So I'm going to 

Michael: promote it. Well, yeah. You know, people ask me all the time. Oh. Because of course we, we charge for our events. 

Karen: But you're not, you know, nobody has to buy 

Michael: breath. Right. And people say, oh, can I do this on my own? Yes, please, please do this on your own.

It's like, you You don't only go to the dentist twice a year and have them clean your teeth. Please brush your teeth every day. Yeah. 

Will: you bring, you bring up a good point. The names I have, I'm sorry to interrupt, but you have these events and I'm going to ask you about those in a [00:28:00] second, but you let's say I go and I experienced something.

One of these with you then. I come home and I put what I've learned at your event into practice. Is this something that should be done on a daily basis? Is there the transformational piece? Is that what I expect? I go to your event and suddenly I become a new person or does it take time to develop this, this type of I don't know, spiritual growth or enlightenment 

Michael: building up 

Karen: effect.

Is that like a one-shot? Is that what you're asking? I guess one shot I'm fixed or do I have to continue to work on this? 

Michael: That's a good question. It, in a sense it's both and I'll I'll, I'll explain why. So.

We experienced different kinds of wounding. Sometimes it's like, like if you're in a car accident, for example, that is a single acute wound that could threaten your sense of safety. Another kind of wound is like, if your mom always told you that you. Like throughout your childhood. I don't know. I'm just but, but then there's like these kind of [00:29:00] slowly accumulating, more insidious wounds that just take a longer time to unwind now with, with the acute trauma style of wound, you might be able to go into a session and just be like, oh my God, I can't believe that.

I see that now. And then, and then that wound in its entirety can be extracted from your system. And then there's really no nothing else to do. But with these slowly accumulating wounds you know, if you're a minority and you're feeling prejudice against you, you might, you might have that experience on a daily basis for your whole life.

And it could take a lot of time to unravel it. And so. Scenario. What's more likely is that you, you see that you've observed absorbing these ideas about yourself. That aren't true. And, and then it's an ongoing practice of remembering that these ideas are not true and that can be difficult, you know, and that could be a lifelong practice of of disregarding other people's opinions about you.

So, so it could be [00:30:00] both. 

Will: these events that you put on so I guess I need to ask, is it better to do this in a group setting or One-to-one 

Michael: basis. It's, it's very personal. You know, from a financial point of view, it's a lot more cost-effective for people to just do in a group.

And I personally think that group participation is better simply because and speaking as from the perspective of a man. It's more difficult for me to express myself emotionally than my partner, who is a woman now for me to be in a group and to have some pain come up, like maybe something with my dad and anger.

And then I hear another man in the room. Cry that would maybe make it easier for me to cry. He's kind of in a sense, giving me permission. And, and there is that cascading effect in, in groups where someone cracks and then that allows other people to kind of ride that wave of, of expression. Now that being said, some people.

Are so shy with their emotions that they will absolutely not express anything unless they're [00:31:00] just me and you one-on-one and that, and that's worth it to them. 

Will: Right. And I that's what, where I was headed. I guess some, some folk might feel actually less inclined to share, to allow themselves to let go. If there's other people around, then if they're on their own, now, are these always in person or can you do some of these things 

Michael: remote?

I want to back up just a second real quick. In the groups we play music loudly and we also require everyone to where I cover. And so, you know, even though you're a group, you're very aware of that other people around when you start we do encourage people to stay in their process for the most part.

So it's not like. And everyone's laying on their backs. So it's not like you're interacting. We, and we, we don't allow people to like touch each other. So we Scott your space amount. I know that you don't 

Karen: feel like everyone's watching 

Michael: you. Yeah. And we can easier. Yeah. This is not a voyeuristic experience if someone's having a problem or it sounds like they're having a problem, that's our business as facilitators to take care of you, stay with your process.

And the main [00:32:00] reason is that people will trick themselves to say, oh, out of my own compassion and love, I need to spy on this person. It's like, no, no, no, no, no, no. Don't avoid what's going on with you. And attention to your own stuff. We got this. That's why we're here. 

Will: So it does sound an awful lot, like the Kundalini activation process that we experienced Karen in that retreat a while back it, same thing we laid on our backs out.

Our eyes closed as a lot, very loud music playing. It's a very, it was a very personal experience, but we didn't do any kind of breathing. I can imagine. That adding the element of breathwork into it could, would probably have made it exponentially more powerful. Yeah. So then, so then back to the question on whether do we have to go to Hawaii to do this, or can we do this from the comfort of our own home?

Michael: You know, another popular guy who does this as a whim Hoff, and he has, if you go on YouTube, he has a, a breathwork style. That's. Similar to what we do, but it's, it's good enough to start with, I think. And I guess the main difference is that the, the way that we facilitate, isn't just coaching the [00:33:00] breath work itself.

We both do. And I hate to use this term, but like what most people consider like Reiki you know, bodywork ish kind of things. Plus I play the ditch on people and around them and we have various other shamonic instruments, some behind me on this table that, that help, And so there is that added benefit.

Now that all being said, when COVID first started, we moved completely online and we had people reporting profound experiences, like just as good as when we were doing them live. And so we did that for awhile. but to be honest, it's, it's not as much fun for me. Sure. 

Will: Yeah. But if someone really wanted to experience this with facilitators that knew what they were doing, like you and your partner this, this entails flying to Hawaii, is that right?

Michael: Yeah. I mean, we, we are open to doing remote sessions. If somebody were to contact us and say, Hey, we'd love to do a remote session. I mean, we don't turn anyone down for it for any reason.[00:34:00] 

Even if somebody said I have a really hard time with something and I can't pay you, I don't care. It's not about the. 

Will: Wow. So we've talked a lot about the, the very intrinsic and physical benefits to the mind and the body. What kind of spiritual now obviously clearing some of the mental hurdles that you have will help you spiritually.

Anything that has come across to you at the, have people spontaneously Astro projected, for example, or did they experience past lives or did they suddenly become one with everything or anything like that? That breath work could potentially lead to 

Michael: all of it? Yeah. Every men. Yeah. I mean, like I said, you know, They is you know, going back to the DMT kind of perception of what's happening, anything that can be experienced with psychedelics is fully accessible with breath work.

I mean, I'd even argue that just even meditation, all of it's accessible, but but specifically with breath work the oneness of everything, astral projecting moving [00:35:00] forward and backward in time, experiencing multiple phases of time simultaneously like all that stuff now while that's all awesome.

And I completely agree, and I love to do it. We actually discourage it in the group because because as I think you, you already mentioned. When you have less of a psychological burden on your system, all those other things start to just evolve and present themselves in a natural more organic way.

Anyway. So, so would you rather like take a rocket off to the moon or would you rather just slowly become lighter and lighter that you can just float to the moon whenever you want? Right. You know, and, and so that's the way we, we. Go about it. When someone comes to me to come to us, like, oh, I want to trip my, you know, and they're like, okay, well, you'll learn when you come in.

So, you know, we're not going to say no to you, but But that's never the point, the point is the point is to alleviate these burdens and, and that process has so many more benefits than just, you know, [00:36:00] getting your kicks. Sure. Yeah. So 

Karen: talking about some of the other benefits, we'll, I'm sorry, I'm going to bring this back to the earth.

I 

Will: know. Bring me down 

Karen: now. You touched on how it can help you physically. So, but. Much of an impact of if someone has chronic back pain, can this help with that? I mean, can, can you show results 

Michael: in that regard as well? Yeah. So that's a good question. I think it, it comes down to your, your understanding of why people have chronic problems.

And so from our perspective, The reason why people have chronic problems is because there is what I would call like a a sliver in your system. That's keeping the wound from closing. So your body is unbelievably resilient. And if you get. It will heal in a few days. And, and if your immune system is strong, there's no infection.

It just heals very quickly. But if you get a cut and you put something in there, like a little rock or something, it's, it's going to take forever to heal if it ever does. And it's probably going to get infected. [00:37:00] And so my perception of chronic problems is basically that a wound occurred and there's something keeping it open.

So, I wouldn't say like if you've had a. Back pain that after one session, it will completely go away. It might, that would be great. And it does happen sometimes, but what's more likely is that whatever is keeping that wound open will be removed. And then now the body's natural course of healing will occur.

Will: Got it. Wow. Yeah. Since this is absolutely fascinating. I had a little bit of an idea what we be talking about, but never in a million years that I expect it to go down this incredible rabbit hole that we went down to. 

If, and we're sadly woefully short on time, but if there's anything that you wanted to make sure that there's one thing that you would want to make sure our audience gets what, what would that final comment from you be?

Michael: Oh man. The universe loves you. I mean, everything is actually working out for your favor. It's a matter of seeing it that way. [00:38:00] There's so much available to you. There's so much there's okay. Let me change it. All the beings that you cannot see are standing behind you, pushing you forward. And the more you trust in that, the happier you're going to be in the easier things will get.

That's amazing, 

Will: amazing. Michael. If someone wanted to reach out to you, what's the best way for them to do that, 

Michael: Through the website. So www dot warrior, breath.life. Yeah, that's, that's the best. 

Will: Okay, well, I w I'm going to go ahead and put in that direct link on our show notes. So if you are interested in reaching out to Michael or his partner or interested in experiencing the events that they put on you could certainly go to skeptic, metaphysician.com and click the link direct link.

They'll take you directly to their website. I'll also add some social media links in there in case you want to reach out to, to us as well. Michael Thank you enough for coming on the show. You've opened up our eyes to something that we didn't have any idea was quite as in depth as it 

Michael: really is. So thank you.

No, thanks for the opportunity. I appreciate it. 

Will: And [00:39:00] Karen, thanks for sharing this journey to discovery with me. 

Karen: Thank you for letting me be here. I learned so much. I'm so excited about this. 

Will: I can't wait to do this breath work with you. We're going to fly. We're going to Hawaii.

Michael: Love. 

Will: Is there an age limit to all this? I should have asked that. Well, how, how young can you be in how old can you 

Michael: be as young as, as young as people want. I mean, as long as they can follow instructions and the age there's no limit there.

We've had people coming in and net 80 and and for the, and for people at, at hot, at a advanced age, The experience of calm when you're close to death is is a critical life skill. 

Will: . All right. Well, thank you, Michael. Thanks again for coming on and sharing your expertise with us. I look forward to seeing you when we're 80 out there in Hawaii, hopefully before that, 

Michael: hopefully before. 

Will: and thank you listener for coming along in this journey of discovery with.

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