Due to the technology of advanced brain scanning, researchers can observe and map neurological changes during enhanced states of consciousness. What we have learned is that the results are not that much different with breathwork, meditation or when using psychedelics. This largely has to do with an area of our brain known as the default mode network (DMN). The DMN helps constitute our sense of self and is the part of our brain that is especially active when we remember, plan, and self-reflect. Its job is to keep us safe! But the DMN can also keep us stuck! 

Psychedelics, Breathwork, Meditation Have This in Common

In psychedelic and meditative brain states, researchers have found similar changes in our DMN when using LSD, psilocybin and ayahuasca, as when we are in deep meditative states or doing Integrative Breathwork. In each case, the DMN relaxes its strong and persistent grip and allows a greater capacity  shifting perception. And perception is everything.

The quality of our life is not determined so much by what happens, but how we perceive it – what we tell ourselves about the experience. Intentionally using psychedelics, doing breathwork, or a consistent meditation practice can help us gain deeper awareness and reframe our experiences. They can open up the TRUTH to us….our truth….and that truth is always with us.

Meditation Creates Dual Awareness

Plant medicine or other psychedelics can sometimes have a strong effect physically, emotionally and psychologically, and can certainly take us on a bumpy ride. Even with the optimal preparation, set and setting it can even be terrifying at times. An established meditation practice of just a few minutes a day can substantially support our ability to observe the shifts and changes in our journey with greater dual-awareness and self-compassion. 

All experiences, pleasant or unpleasant, have a beginning, a middle, and an end. Discomfort can be observed with curiosity and kindness as it arises and passes away. We can notice the stories and interpretations that show up without judgment…or at least less judgment. We can walk through each doorway in the journey saying “Yes” to it all, knowing that the medicine and psyche will not give us more than we can handle.

Breathwork as a Dress Rehearsal

Doing Integrative Breathwork (similar to Holotropic Breathwork) is a wonderful “warm up” or “dress rehearsal” for a psychedelic journey as it also encourages our DMN to relax and, as Stan Grof pointed out, allow an internal radar to find material in our psyche with a strong emotional charge to surface for processing. Integrative Breathwork is a great warm up because it is a much shorter arc that the participant is completely in charge of.

Using Meditation and Breathwork for Integration

When doing the all-important integration after our ceremony, meditation helps us unpack our experiences and weave the insights we gained into our lives, as the capacity to observe with greater clarity helps us clear away what is not serving us. Continued breathwork sessions support the process of opening, amplifying and reaffirming  what is healing and transformative, and what is great about breathwork is that we can do it as frequently as we want to….unlike psychedelic journeys.

We are learning so much more about the intersection of psychedelics, meditation and breathwork. Explore the possibilities!