Shamanic breathwork is a practice that uses fast, connected breathing together with drum or trance music to shift you into a non-ordinary state of consciousness, so that emotional material, memories and imagery can surface and move. It reaches a similar territory to the drum journey, but it gets there through the body and the breath rather than through the rhythm alone.
It has become one of the most searched shamanic practices of the last few years, partly because it needs no drum, no teacher in the room and no belief system. It also carries more physical risk than almost anything else in shamanic practice, which is the part most articles leave out. Here is what it actually is, where it comes from, what it does, who should stay away from it, and how to try a gentle version safely.
What is shamanic breathwork?
Shamanic breathwork is a guided practice in which you breathe deeply and continuously, without pausing between the in-breath and the out-breath, while lying down and listening to rhythmic music. The sustained breathing changes your blood chemistry and your brain state, and within roughly fifteen to twenty minutes most people move into a trance where visions, strong emotion, body sensation and spirit contact become available.
Three features distinguish it from ordinary breathing exercises. The breath is circular, meaning there is no gap at the top or bottom. It is sustained far longer than a calming exercise, usually thirty to sixty minutes. And it is held inside a ceremonial frame: an intention is set at the start, a facilitator holds the space, and time is given afterwards for the material to land.
It is worth being precise about the name. “Shamanic Breathwork” with capital letters is a specific modality developed by Linda Star Wolf in the 1990s through her Venus Rising Association for Transformation. The lowercase phrase is used much more loosely for any breath practice held in a shamanic frame. Both exist. Neither is a traditional Indigenous ceremony, and anyone telling you otherwise is selling something.
Where does shamanic breathwork come from?
Modern shamanic breathwork comes from two roots that met in the West in the late twentieth century: traditional breath and rhythm practices used across many cultures to reach trance, and Holotropic Breathwork, the method developed by the psychiatrist Stanislav Grof and Christina Grof in the 1970s after LSD research became illegal in the United States.
Breath as a doorway is old and widespread. Rapid breathing appears alongside drumming, chanting, dancing and fasting in trance traditions on every continent. Mircea Eliade catalogued dozens of them in Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy. What was new in the twentieth century was the isolation of breath as the single active ingredient and the packaging of it into a workshop format that could be taught in a weekend.
Linda Star Wolf, who trained with Grof, added the shamanic layer back in: elemental cycles, spirit guides, the language of death and rebirth, and drum music rather than the classical soundtrack Grof favoured. Most facilitators you will meet today work somewhere on that line between the two.
How does shamanic breathwork work?
It works through a combination of blood chemistry, nervous system activation and ritual context. Sustained fast breathing lowers carbon dioxide in the blood, which narrows blood vessels in the brain and changes how the cortex behaves. That physiological shift loosens ordinary self-monitoring, and the music, intention and safe container shape what fills the space that opens.
In plain terms, three things happen at once.
- The body is flooded. Tingling in hands and face, temperature changes and muscular tension are common. This is the low carbon dioxide, not a spiritual emergency, and it passes when the breath slows.
- The critic goes quiet. The part of you that manages, edits and explains loses its grip. Images, grief, laughter and old memories arrive without being invited.
- The frame gives it meaning. The same physiology inside a panic attack is terrifying. Inside a ceremony with an intention and a facilitator, it becomes usable material.
The nervous system part is worth naming, because breath is one of the few autonomic functions you can steer directly. That is the same mechanism I have written about in the piece on shamanic nervous system regulation, where drum, hum and breath all reach the vagus nerve by different doors.
What happens in a shamanic breathwork session?
A session usually runs between ninety minutes and three hours, and the breathing itself is only the middle third. The phases below are the shape most facilitators work with, whether the session is in a room or online.
| Phase | Roughly | What happens | What is asked of you |
|---|---|---|---|
| Opening | 15 to 30 min | Circle, safety check, intention set out loud | Name what you are bringing, honestly |
| Building | 10 to 15 min | Music starts, breath deepens and connects | Keep the breath circular, do not force it |
| Peak | 20 to 40 min | Trance, imagery, emotion, body release | Let it come, stop managing it |
| Descent | 10 to 20 min | Music slows, breath returns to normal | Stay lying down, do not rush up |
| Integration | 30 to 60 min | Journalling, drawing, sharing, food | Put it into words or shapes before you leave |
The integration phase is not optional padding. A breathwork session that ends the moment the music stops leaves you carrying material you have no container for, and that is when people end up feeling unstable for days afterwards.
What are the benefits of shamanic breathwork?
The reported benefits are emotional release, access to buried memory, a felt sense of contact with guides or with something larger, and a nervous system reset that many people describe as feeling lighter for days. The research base is thin and small, so it is honest to separate what is measured from what is reported.
What controlled research supports so far is modest and mostly about slower breathing. A 2023 randomised study by Balban and colleagues at Stanford, published in Cell Reports Medicine, found that five minutes a day of structured breathing improved mood and lowered physiological arousal more than mindfulness meditation over a month, with slow cyclic sighing performing best. That is not the same practice as an hour of connected breathing, and it should not be presented as proof of it.
What practitioners consistently report, in my own circles and in the wider literature:
- Grief that finally moves. People who have not cried in years often cry here. The breath gets underneath the explanation.
- Contact with guides or power animals. For some people breath opens the door that the drum does not.
- Release held in the body. Shaking, heat, cramping in the jaw or hips, and then a noticeable softening afterwards.
- Perspective on a stuck question. The intention you set at the start is often answered sideways, through an image rather than a sentence.
- A quieter baseline. Better sleep and a longer fuse in the days that follow are the most common practical reports.
Shamanic breathwork supports therapy and medical care. It does not replace either. If you are working with trauma, please do this alongside a therapist who knows you are doing it, not instead of one.
Is shamanic breathwork safe, and who should avoid it?
For a healthy adult in a well-held session, shamanic breathwork is generally safe, but it is not harmless, and there is a real list of conditions for which it is contraindicated. Sustained hyperventilation raises blood pressure, alters heart rhythm and can trigger fainting, tetany and, in vulnerable people, psychological crisis.
Do not practise intensive connected breathing, and speak to your doctor first, if any of the following apply to you:
- Pregnancy
- Cardiovascular disease, uncontrolled high blood pressure, a history of heart attack or stroke
- Aneurysm, in yourself or in your close family history
- Epilepsy or a seizure disorder
- Glaucoma or retinal detachment
- Severe asthma, when your inhaler is not with you
- Recent surgery or a recent physical injury
- A diagnosis of psychosis, schizophrenia or bipolar disorder
- Osteoporosis
Two practical rules on top of that list. Never do intensive breathwork alone the first several times, and never do it in water. Both of those are how the small number of serious incidents in this field have happened.
Tingling hands, a tight jaw and clawed fingers are common and not dangerous, and they resolve within minutes once you slow the breath. Chest pain, a racing heart that does not settle, or genuine panic are signals to stop, breathe normally through the nose, and tell the facilitator.
Shamanic breathwork or shamanic journeying: which do you need?
Choose breathwork when something is stuck in your body and needs to move. Choose journeying when you have a question and need an answer. They reach overlapping territory by different routes, and most people find one of them fits their nervous system far better than the other.
| Aspect | Shamanic breathwork | Shamanic journeying |
|---|---|---|
| Main tool | Connected breathing plus music | Steady drumbeat, around 4 to 7 beats per second |
| Body involvement | Very high, often physical release | Low, the body stays still |
| Control you keep | Little, the material chooses you | A lot, you steer and can return at will |
| Best for | Grief, held trauma, emotional stuckness | Questions, guidance, meeting a power animal |
| Typical length | 30 to 60 minutes of breathing | 15 to 30 minutes |
| Safe alone | No, not at intensity | Yes, once you know the practice |
| Physical risk | Real, see contraindications | Very low |
If you are new to all of this, start with the drum. A journey to the Lower World gives you a gentler first taste of a non-ordinary state, with a return path you control.
How can you try a gentle version at home?
You can practise a short, mild version safely on your own, as long as you keep it under fifteen minutes, stay lying on the floor and stop the moment anything feels wrong. This is not a substitute for a facilitated session. It is a way to meet the practice without the risk of the full intensity.
- Check the list above first. If anything on it applies to you, do not do this without medical advice.
- Set the room. Floor, blanket, cushion under the knees, phone silent, forty minutes where nobody will come in.
- Name your intention out loud. One sentence. “Show me what I am not letting myself feel about my father.” Specific beats vague.
- Choose the music. Twelve to fifteen minutes of steady drum or trance rhythm, then something slow. Set it up before you lie down.
- Breathe in a circle. In through the mouth into the belly, then the chest, out through the mouth with no push. No pause at either end. Slightly deeper and slightly faster than normal, not frantic.
- Stay with it for ten to twelve minutes. Tingling and warmth are expected. Let images come without chasing them.
- Return slowly. Breathe normally through the nose for five full minutes, still lying down. This part is not optional.
- Write before you stand up. Three sentences at minimum, however fragmentary.
Afterwards, treat yourself as though you have just come back from a journey, because you have. Eat something, put your feet on the ground, and use whichever of the grounding techniques works for you. If you want a structured way to build this into a daily rhythm rather than a one-off experiment, the 30 Days of Shamanism course walks you through breath, candle, drum and journey one small ritual at a time.
What I have learned facilitating this
The first time I breathed like this properly, I went in with a tidy intention about clarity in my work. Twenty minutes later I was sobbing about a friendship that had ended eleven years earlier and that I would have sworn I had made peace with. My hands were clawed, my jaw would not open, and some very rational part of me was noting all of it with mild interest while the rest of me came apart.
What stayed with me was not the intensity. It was the ordinariness of the days afterwards. I slept properly. I stopped rehearsing an old argument in my head on the drive to work. Nothing dramatic changed, and something quietly did.
Since then I have held this practice for a lot of people, and the thing I say most often is this: the breath does not decide what comes up, and neither do you. That is the whole risk and the whole value. Which is exactly why the intention, the facilitator and the hour afterwards matter more than the technique itself.
Frequently asked questions
No, though they are close relatives. Holotropic Breathwork is Stanislav Grof’s method, uses a specific soundtrack and works in paired sitter and breather roles. Shamanic breathwork grew out of it, adds drum music, spirit guides and elemental symbolism, and is usually less formalised. The breathing itself is very similar.
Ninety minutes to three hours in total. The connected breathing itself usually runs thirty to sixty minutes, with the rest given to the opening circle, the slow return and the integration afterwards. Be suspicious of anything advertised as a thirty minute complete session, because that leaves no room for landing.
Not at full intensity, and not until you have done several facilitated sessions. A short, mild version of ten to fifteen minutes at home is reasonable for a healthy adult. Long, forceful breathing alone is where people get hurt, because there is nobody there if you faint, cramp badly or hit material you cannot hold.
That is tetany, caused by low carbon dioxide in the blood from sustained fast breathing. It is uncomfortable and it looks alarming, but it is not damaging and it resolves within a few minutes once you slow the breath and breathe through your nose. It is not, despite what you may be told, a sign of energy blockages leaving.
No. It can open material quickly, which is useful, but opening is not the same as processing. If you are working with trauma, depression or anxiety, treat breathwork as something you do alongside professional care, and tell your therapist you are doing it. Facilitators are not clinicians unless they separately trained as one.
A full facilitated session once a month is plenty for most people, and some go once a quarter. The integration takes longer than the session. Short, gentle breath practices of five to ten minutes can be daily. Doing intensive sessions weekly tends to produce experience collectors rather than deeper practice.
Where to go from here
If the contraindication list gave you nothing to worry about, try the fifteen minute version at home this week, with one honest intention and something to write on afterwards. If it did give you something to worry about, work with the drum instead, which reaches similar country with almost none of the physical risk. Either way, the practice that changes you is the one you come back to, not the one that impressed you once.
About the author. Carolin Mallmann is a shamanic practitioner, coach and NLP trainer based in Portugal. She has been practising and teaching core shamanism for over a decade and guides students through journeying, soul retrieval and daily practice at One Shamanism. You can find her trainings and journey circles at shamanism.one.
This article is for information and does not replace medical or psychological care. Shamanic breathwork complements therapy and medical treatment, it does not substitute for either. If you have a health condition, speak with your doctor before practising.
