Group Rebirthing or Group Breathwork

Twenty years ago, I noticed the casualty rate on group-breathwork sessions (group rebirths) and began suggesting to those who insist on practicing in this way to, at least, have organizers give each participant one high quality private Rebirthing Breathwork session before a group workshop, and preferably 10 private sessions.

The casualty rate means 1) Some people go to a mental hospital as a result of group rebirthing because they did not have the complete attention of the breathing guide and did not have a completed energy cycle. 2) More commonly, many people have come to me and my fellow rebirthers after a group rebirth (in an LRT, for example) and said that they didn’t want anything to do with rebirthing ever again. They were totally freaked out by the drama in the room as well as what they felt themselves. 3) It is totally unfair to seduce an un-experienced person into a group rebirthing experience, who has no idea what is going to happen to them. 4) I noticed that the facilitators of group rebirths had no idea of the impact that the energy, which flies around the room, has on their own energy body. So how could they expect the clients to understand and deal with such an overwhelming experience? I had to rehabilitate the energy bodies of some rebirthers who indulged in group rebirthing, as well as some of their clients. And, of course, most clients who felt damaged by group rebirths, were never helped because they didn’t pursue it.  So, the group rebirthers only see the survivors again. They usually don’t see their own casualty rate. And to the extent that they are motivated by ego, power and greed, they don’t want to see it or acknowledge it.

Here is my compromise: if people have had 10 high quality individual private sessions with a high quality rebirthing breathworker and they then choose to participate in a group session, then this is fair because they are responsible and they are making an informed choice. However, some people like group sessions because of the power of the group energy and other people hate group rebirths because they feel they get dirty in group rebirths. It is the opinion of some people that group rebirths can become an addiction for emotionally dependent people.  But some successful people like them because of the power and the drama.

I also suggested organizing one-year seminars in each Conscious Breathing community, to increase the quality of the Rebirthing Breathwork Movement.

My advice was followed for a while, but then dropped-out due to greed, power games and control issues between organizers, managers and leaders. My advice was also inhibited by superficial relationships. To have a One Year Seminar definitely moves relationships beyond the superficial. To meet with the same people for a whole day one day per month is a high quality experience.

My advice was also ignored because the power of rebirthing breathwork is so easy to implement and some people are willing to pay for it even if they don’t know what they are doing, which means that they may never learn the ability to breathe energy as well as air and they may never discover the healing power of the breath. To seduce people into one-time dramatic experience, no matter how transformative, doesn’t really solve the problem of adult education and making people spiritually self-sufficient. High quality rebirthing is not giving people a one day or a week-end hype. It is about giving people the ability to heal their mind and body with conscious connected energy breathing and other tools.

Once a person learns the connected rhythm, anyone can make money from getting others to do it. Breathwork can give people the greatest experience of their lives. And people who master it usually say that it is one of the most valuable abilities they ever learned. And they use it daily. Ten high quality private, as gentle as possible sessions is the responsible and most efficient way to teach it. 10 high quality sessions also needs to be supplemented with the idea of spir puf, underst of the en body, and the practices with fire, water and earth. Rebirthing, for me, has always had two basic definitions: One is learning the ability the breathe energy as well as air. The other is to unravel the birth-death cycle and become a conscious expression of the Eternal Spirit. The second definition is not a superficial goal. It takes forever and involves the un-going support of spiritual community. The annual rebirthers’ conventions are expressions of the community nationally as well as worldwide, sometimes locally. The conventions are a place for un-going training and learning. 

Participating in the Annual Rebirthing Breathwork International Convention is a responsible way to improve the quality of the movement and supply on-going training for breathworkers.

I give the same suggestions now, again:

I suggest making One Year Seminars free and autonomous from a spiritual point of view, as I do, with any successful Rebirther doing the leading when organizers and members invite them. This is the way it was in the beginning, before greed and control ruined the spirit of freedom and loving support. Coordinating One Year Seminars through RBI guidelines and mutual support in no way conflicts with this freedom, but improves it for us all. Cooperating always accelerates success for all. The financial considerations and the money game around the One Year Seminar is also constructed by the participants, based about their level of prosperity.

In the first OYS in San Francisco, I stated that my goal was to train so many leaders and teachers and gurus that I would work myself out of a job. I have usually had more students and business than I can handle, and I still do. I am glad to share as much of this with anyone and everyone as they can handle also! It will take at least a few million rebirthers to create Heaven on Earth, get everyone breathing fully and freely and doing enough spiritual purification to maintain aliveness on the planet.

Everyone on the planet deserves the high-quality support that One Year Seminars are capable of providing - including you and me! We all deserve the quality of Life that can be stimulated by millions of high quality support communities.

Here are some more thoughts about group rebirthing.

In the beginning of the Rebirthing Breathwork movement when I was still discovering and perfecting it, I experimented with group rebirthing. It didn't take long for me to abandon the practice, for the following reasons:

     1. It is low quality work.

     2. I can only fully be with one person, with all my experience. NO ONE can give a high quality session to more than one person.

     3. To the extent that we are healing birth or family trauma, group Rebirthing is counterproductive. In addition to the eight biggies of human trauma, it may be the ninth - group rebirth trauma.

     4. Group Rebirthing may be dramatic, but it is unfair to overwhelm the uninitiated with an experience that they are unprepared for and there is no way unsuspecting or inexperienced people can be prepared for it.

     5. I respect people enough to feel that everyone deserves the total attention of an experienced guide in a private personal setting.

     6. I have noticed that group Rebirthing wrecks the energy body of the Rebirther and assistants also. And most people do not know enough about spiritual purification to adequately clean themselves afterwards. Some rebirthers stopped leading group rebirths because they couldn’t handle the pain in their own energy and physical bodies.

     7. Thus, group rebirthing is too messy and too low quality for me to desire to be associated with it.

     8. Furthermore, I have noticed that the people who do it are often motivated by greed for power and money. It can create a cult phenomenon. It looks like we are serving more people for less cost to them, but the loss in quality is not worth it for the ones who become casualties. And high quality rebirthing breathworkers who multiply themselves by high quality training are the ones who actually reach more people. Multiplication is faster than addition. The idea of serving more people with groups turns out to be an illusion.

     9. I have also noticed that most people who do group breathwork do not complete ten sessions. This type of casualty may be more unconscious and more difficult to measure.

    10. This practice of group breathwork by come and go leaders also sabotages local rebirthers in building their successful practices. Itinerate gurus may drain the money and the support and the client relationships, by a high cost weekend hype that doesn’t serve the participants in the long run. But they don’t know this until after the damage has been done.

    11. It only takes a little intelligence to redesign a Rebirthing workshop to turn it into a high quality experience that supports everyone, but you have to create a private space for each team. This means when I lead a one day rbg workshop, I have a ratio  of 1 rbr for each client, or one for each 2 clients so that they can receive a sessions and watch a session,,,first subjective and then objective experience. But each team has only one new person doing their first session and this person must receive a session before watching a session because of negative transference and other factors.  Each team has to have a private space. Large homes are ideal for this. In my workshops, the number of participants is controlled by the ratio of breathworkers and the space.

    12. Group Rebirthing tends to create cult mentality. High quality and supportive individual relationships do not. They make people more free.

    13. After everyone involved has had at least 10-20 sessions and can successfully give sessions to themselves and others, they are experienced enough to do anything they like – but I feel it is unfair to push group-breathwork on inexperienced people.

In addition to all this, in a few states, Rebirthing is illegal if it is done using any kind of force or forcible restraint that can cause harm or death to people. Group pressure or even peer pressure that gets created in a group situation could be interpreted as force. Group Rebirthing has damaged the reputation of Breathwork from the beginning, in spite of my resistance to the practice.

Obviously, teaching the 20 Connected Breaths exercise in groups is harmless. This is recommended.

Business people who are chasing success and can’t stop and take care of themselves go into denial, become stiff, and sometimes lose compassion and sometimes misuse the power that people give to them. I know that you desire to share the spiritual gifts that you have received with others. We have to practice what we preach and always be concerned about our own healing so that we can be an example, and teaching by example is best. Please go for high quality work rather than get yourself trapped by money.

Our own spiritual purification process is most important because a high personal presence is the greatest gift we can give to humanity.

Truth, Simplicity, Love,

Young Len Raja