There was a famous experiment of 2 students putting each other in a deeper and deeper hypnotic trance. At a certain point they stopped communicating with words, experienced same dreamscape and communicated telepathically. They refused to go any deeper fearing they would not be able to come out of such alternate reality.
Researchers at Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience and the Global Brain Health Institute found that focused breathing affects levels of noradrenaline, a natural brain chemical messenger. When you’re stressed, you produce too much noradrenaline, making it difficult to focus. When you’re feeling lethargic, you produce too little of it, which also makes it hard to focus. The researchers measured the study participants’ breathing patterns, their attention span, and activity in an area of the brainstem called the locus coeruleus, where noradrenaline is made. They found that those who focused well on a demanding task had better synchronization between their breathing patterns and attention, as opposed to those who had poor focus and inconsistent breathing patterns “This study has shown that as you breathe in, locus coeruleus activity is increasing, and as you breathe out it decreases. Put simply, this means that our attention is influenced by our breath and that it rises and falls with the cycle of respiration. It is possible that by focusing on and regulating your breathing you can optimize your attention level and likewise, by focusing on your attention level, your breathing becomes more synchronized.” All this, plus much more, goes on in Transcendental Rebirthing.
Breathing is traditionally thought of as an automatic process driven by the brainstem. But new and unique research, involving recordings made directly from within the brains of humans undergoing neurosurgery, shows that breathing can also change your brain.
Breathing at different paces or paying careful attention to the breaths (meditation), were shown to engage different parts of the brain.
Questions that have baffled scientists in this context are: why are humans capable of volitionally regulating their breathing, and how do we gain access through breathing, to parts of our brain that are not normally under our conscious control.
Additionally, is there any benefit in our ability to access and control parts of our brain that are typically inaccessible? Given that many therapies and various types of spiritual exercises, involve focusing and regulating breathing, does controlling inhaling and exhaling have any profound effect on behavior?
This recent study finally answers these questions by showing that volitionally controlling our respirational, even merely focusing on one’s breathing, yield additional access and synchrony between brain areas. This understanding may lead to greater control, focus, calmness, and emotional control.
The study was conducted by post-doctoral researcher, Dr. Jose Herrero, in collaboration with Dr. Ashesh Mehta, a renowned neurosurgeon at NorthShore University Hospital in Long Island.
The findings provide neural support for advice individuals have been given for millennia: during times of stress, or when heightened concentration is needed, focusing on one’s breathing or doing breathing exercises can indeed change the brain.
Exercises involving volitional breathing appear to alter the connectivity between parts of the brain and allow access to internal sites that normally are inaccessible to us.
But then, Transcendental Rebirthing practitioners knew that all along!