Rebirthing, Breathwork and birth memories

Rebirthing, Breathwork and birth memories
 
Leonard Orr was a leader in personal development workshops in the late 1960s when he had a regression to his birth during a prolonged bath in a hot tub. He had been investigating the “thought creates reality” concepts – the subconscious mind and its effect on our lives. For some time he thought it was the water that brought on the regression – not only for him, but for others who asked him to be with them during a prolonged hot tub. The water was approximately womb temperature, and it was recommended not to stay in the Japanese hot tub for more than 20 minutes.
 
After some time, Leonard realised that the conscious breathing people started when they got in the tub brought on the release of body memory, mostly birth, or a part of the birth where there was difficulty. The personal development movement was ramping up in California in the late 60s and early 70s, and many people began to feel and realise they were not experiencing personal freedom in their lives. Collectively, many people came to the conclusion that they had blocks and that subconscious thoughts were creating patterns and limits on their expression. This movement spread as many who began participating in conscious breathing experienced a regression to birth or an early event, and saw more freedom and choice in their lives. Leonard became busy, and interest grew. He wanted to call the movement “Conscious Breathing”. But because of the phenomenon of many clients regressing to birth – or early infancy – it became known as “Rebirthing”
 
These days, clients participating in the Breathwork Mastery RBM technique of full, conscious, connected breathing sometimes experience regression. It can go back to any point in their past, including in-utero recall or seemingly past-life experiences, which are used symbolically. The main value of regressing is to discharge the infant or foetal response to early events, including at the time of birth.
 
If you were having a session and went back to re-experience a significant early painful or traumatic event, it is for you to discover how, when, and why you created limiting beliefs in the past, and to review whether those beliefs still have to be true now. They usually aren’t, and we can resolve them partially or fully. There are different ways. One is releasing the emotional charge from past limiting beliefs and patterns that still affect or limit you now (emotional release). Another is purely energetic release through realisation. Others release or resolve through changes in body sensation alone, or in combination with the other two levels.
 
A valuable aspect of this process is recovering sub- or unconscious information from past events. Once we get an overview of past situations or see them from an adult perspective, we can partially or fully resolve the incomplete event or decision in the Breathwork Mastery RBM sessions.
 
At all levels, being present to what we couldn’t be present to in the past is enormously valuable. During past traumatic events, we contract to the event and freeze or leave the body. Recovering vital energy locked into fear patterns from moments of intense stress or subtle impression is beneficial. We can also retrieve powers and abilities that died off early. This process ultimately helps resolve the very issues those traumatic or subtle events produced.
 
New conscious patterns and beliefs about life and people are born in Breathworkreathwork sessions. This also explains the name “Rebirthing”. It is like giving birth to yourself as who you say you are – not as who you are from your circumstances and inherited beliefs. You are reborn with reclaimed energy and understanding. Not everyone will automatically, always regress to a birth memory in a session. However, there will always be some renewal. Sessions are most likely to include birth memories when you are in transition in your life, changing a relationship, or experiencing a similar major change. I have found that no one can make a body memory of birth occur in a breathwork session. It comes up spontaneously, as part of the process. It is not a common experience in these years. However, many clients do give birth to who they say they are through breathwork. Although this would validate keeping the name “Rebirthing”, it does not communicate well. So Breathwork has become a global term for the process that has morphed from Rebirthing.