The Duality of Man - A Tale of Two Diaphragms
Considerations
There are some important concepts here that need to be discussed for breathwork. From this, we will ascertain several things.
While the chest diaphragm is essential, the lesser-known one is also important.
The dynamics of blood waves & pressure and thoracic extension can be extended using special methods.
How muscles interplay with one another to maximize the blood wave
Regulation of brain centers with the regulation of breaths, therefore the regulation of our very being and ability to act with flexibility in space and time
Although I won’t mention it explicitly here, holding your breath (in the way most people do it) is probably negative. I will expand on this more next week, although you should be able to deduce what I mean from the following.
Muscles are not just about strength; how they interplay is most critical. How, and how well. How tense certain muscles are, how this tension constricts circulatory action and the gaseous balance of the body. Understanding this is one of the pillars to changing your physiology.
Some of this talk will introduce some basic anatomy. A rudimentary understanding of the interplay of human anatomical parts is critical. Most people reading this are high IQ enough to benefit from this. It will help you “feel and understand” what is really going on when you take a breath, and how this plays into what a good breath in fact is.
Structure
Okay, so what have my good readership and I established so far?
We now know that the ANS (Autonomic Nervous System) is a large part of the subconscious and conscious regulation of our peripheral nervous system. It regulates all as we act in time and space, according to its interaction with the external environment. Of this system, there are three parts that exert different influences on our organs, musculature, vascular system, and brain.
I discussed in my Hara ebook the general idea that the very ancient component of the PNS, the “Enteric Nervous System,” in terms of how deep abdominal breathing stimulates it.
We also know how the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems interact with one another; fight or flight responses, stress responses, and of course, down-regulation and associated activities like digestion and everyday maintenance. The idea of the accelerator and the brakes.
We all know that we tend to have the pedal to the metal. Motor pathways render sensory inputs and outputs, as tissues interact with neuronal networks - and vice versa.
Finally, in this work, we now know that besides gaseous exchange, breathing and thoracic pressure stimulate the vascular system and the volume of blood being pushed through the system, heart rate, and this signals to the system to apply the brakes or not. This is why we practice breathing in such a way; it is a form of conscious control over the entirety of our system.
In general, different tissues are dominated with motor pathways associated with a dominance of one or the other system, as required by our physiology.
Yet, there is a certain subset of anatomical areas that have neither dominance - that is to say, we can at once exert conscious control and have our bodies take the reins subconsciously also - and as you’ve heard in my discussions with Kevin, this is a very complex thing to speak about and model. However, in general, it is generally accepted that these are areas such as the eyes, the face and throat, and diaphragms.
I say diaphragms because there are indeed two: the one in our chests that we’ve spoken about, that we can take control of to maximize the amount of blood drawn into the lungs, but also the lesser-spoken-about pelvic diaphragm, pelvic floor.
In a breathing system like the Hara or Tanden of the Japanese, much attention is given to the pelvic floor, and its role in stimulating abdominal pressure, in much the same way as the upper diaphragm stimulates thoracic pressure.
In both instances, the recognition that this is occurring allows us to take conscious control of the blood volume being pushed around our circulatory system.
And thus, we learn to consciously breathe, To control our bodily state. To become less reactive, to create more space for a range of behaviors that would have never been available to us.
As we discussed last week, the creation of a “space” between your body's functioning and “you” or awareness is a critical step in the entire work of transcendence.
Demons Bro?
There is a reason why all systems that attempt to change consciousness or induce long-term brain change seem to focus on these dual areas. Soft eyes in meditation, breathing for diaphragm, Hara, or Tanden of the Japanese. This is no accident. It's simply because the ancients noticed the behavioral impacts regulating these dual sites consciously has.
It is only in our lonely, autistic, retarded society that we continue to arrogantly ignore these truths. Even people online - arrogantly, self-assuredly ignore it and think they're better than it.
Well, I have news for you - this is you; you cannot ignore it.
So how do you want to live?
Like a frightened, fundamentalist freak chimp? Ranting about demons, evil, and esoteric pyramids? Trying 5 gorillion supplements to try and master some abstract chemistry goal in your body? Getting into stupid, vapid arguments online as a hobby? I'm sick of it.
Or do you want to exert control over yourself and begin the work of transcending this wretched animal that we all are?
I'll tell you this - if you want to see a demon, for real, you need only look into a mirror. This is the real demon that needs to be overcome. Ask any animal on this planet.
Gravity, Posture & the Feelz of Sinking
I have measured now that blood volume throughout the circulatory system is significantly higher in a seated, integrated upright position than lying down. Interesting to note then all meditative traditions insist, if possible, on remaining upright! They key seems to be finding the centre of gravity. Here’s where Kevin’s work seems to have cracked the code for me. More on that in future essays.
In my work, I have noted several things working with both:
The amount of blood, according to my sensors, being pushed all tissues around in an upright position (measured using infrared sensors tracking blood flow through capillaries) is up to 1.5x (!!!) the volume noted when lying down, with each revolution of blood through the capillaries.
Brainwaves, after at least 5 minutes of seated meditation, waves are far more structured and balanced, whereas lying down in a non-sleep state, the brainwaves remained relatively disordered.
Heart Rate Variability is qualitatively better sitting up - HRV is universally bad (i.e., not efficient) when lying down.
After settling down into a “para-sympathetic groove,” I induce Tanden or pelvic floor breathing; I can increase blood volumes significantly more than if I breathe only consciously inducing thoracic pressure.
This may seem obvious since gravity is involved in what we are as bipedal beings. Nevertheless, the evidence is clear to me.
Finally, I won't go into too much detail here since elaborating further would blow up much of my IP, and I'm sick of people online stealing it - no sour grapes, of course - but areas of dual control heavily influence the quality of all these metrics in very interesting ways.
I call this the “sinking exercise,” in which, on the out-breath, I encourage clients or myself to induce the “sinking sensation,” which is really relaxation, on the exhale ONLY. This magnifies the efficiency of the blood flow even further.
Until recently, the influence of posture was unclear to me. You should book a call with Kevin since posture IS an absolutely vital pillar in all this work.
For me, I differ from most practitioners practicing slow breathing techniques. They focus entirely on timing and thoracic pressure. this is only one piece of several section of human body segments interacting.
This is incomplete for the reason I’ve discussed above. The Zen monks and the Japanese are right in this regard. The abdomen is the seat of man.
And unless you have head physiognomy like Marc Andreessen - you can forget about evolving into a telekinetic being that doesn’t require a body - you’ll be like the rest of us. So we need to get it right.
Try This at Home
A few exercises to encourage your understanding. This is an old trick I learned in a Zen monastery outside of Kyoto. There was a German monk there who taught me this. He said my “Hara was too soft”. At the time, I didn’t get it. I thought soft breath was always good.
Anyway, 15 years later, here we are. The largest basic count this side of the equator finally gets it and its utility:
To feel out the pelvic floor for abdominal breathing, try the following:
Spend 5 minutes slowing your breath down.
When feeling slow, on the exhale, practice forcibly bulging out the lower abdomen and inhale at the same time.
On the exhale, forcibly contract the lower abdominal muscles and push all breath out.
Don’t experience discomfort. If there is any, stop.
Do this for as long as you can tolerate. Maybe 3-5 minutes.
On completion, naturalize the breathing and simply focus on slowing it down as is comfortable.
Note results once you feel finished.
Did the breathing maintain its depth or did you revert to shallow and fast immediately? What did you notice at the time of the exercise? If this was a habit, what do you think your mentality would generally be like? If you can change your mentality and conscious experience, what does this say about what you think yourself is?
Final Words…Some Things Coming up…The Bioindividual Podcast…News etc
So there you go, all the world's problems now resolved.
I’m working on a course at the moment, with 100 lessons. It’s going to reveal a structured methodology for fixing your breathing up for good. To really drill it down, you’ll need to come visit me - but this will at least get you almost all the way there. If you’re interested in this, let me know.
In the future, I look forward to integrating posture practices into this also. I’m investigating my posture at the moment and studying the nature of the center of gravity and how it impacts breath. Because it does.
This is the quest of overcoming - if we can overcome anything, it is overcoming our biology - or rather integrating it, controlling it, and riding it as a mighty steed. Unfortunately, you cannot read your way through this great task.
Hope you got something out of this week's podcast and the brain orgasm idea. This sounds sexier than it is, and I personally don’t recommend you go hard enough where something that mental is induced. I forgot to post some pictures that Reich used that I mentioned; I have posted them below.
Next week, Kevin and I will have yet another fruitful conversation on cultural brain hemispheric dominance and its consequences for the human race - and tie in the infamous Dr. Christopher Hyatt, who is at least one half of the framing of the so-called “brain orgasm”. The other half being Israel Regardie.
We’ll do a bit of a dive into Hyatt’s philosophy on brain-change-willed. Kevin worked directly with Hyatt for a little while, and I worked with one of Hyatt’s students for some time. So it will be a rich discussion.
And tie in how everyone is a literal autist these days. I’ve been inspired by Master and his Emissary….what can I say?
Finally, your comments and likes are appreciated on the YouTube for the bio-individual channel. Apparently, it helps the algorithm if you call us wankers, geniuses…whatever else. We do want to try and make this channel work, so all of your engagement is appreciated as we expand and grow this thing.
Until next week, you moufbreathers
Reich Diagrams references in episode 4 of podcast:
I forgot to ad these to the video as I said - see below diagrams referenced:
Diagram 1, energy flow and character:
Diagram 2, Energetic Segments:
Diagram 3, Structure of Tension and Armour:
