Deep Breaths

This week I take the quick out of quick breather and talk for 39 minutes. Topics include Synergistic Press, Buckminster Fuller, Myron Stolaroff, the Sequoia Seminars, Drawing it Out by Sherana Frances, Meduna’s mixture, Rachel Yehuda, Bessel van der Kolk, Gaza and Ben Sessa.

Links and screenshots are below in order for your further exploration…

Please note, I do not cover Bessel van der Kolk's comments in depth, but I should highlight that he later apologised:

“Van der Kolk sent an apology letter to participants, retracting his claim about the war in Gaza and tracing the reaction he shared to his early life. He was born in the Hague in 1943.

“I want to express my deep regret for talking about what is happening in Gaza being equivalent to what the Nazis did in the 1940s,” he wrote. “It was a gratuitous, offensive, inaccurate and completely unnecessary comment, rooted in my own identification with children in bombed out cities during, and shortly after, World War II.”

Also note that I went on the so-called “Birthright” trip in 2007. I was ignorant and regret going, though I did learn a lot.

* Synergistic Press and Stolaroff

https://online.ucpress.edu/ch/article-abstract/69/1/36/31895/Sequoia-Seminar-The-Sources-of-Religious?redirectedFrom=fulltext

https://online.ucpress.edu/ch/article-abstract/69/1/36/31895/Sequoia-Seminar-The-Sources-of-Religious?redirectedFrom=fulltext

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/the-british-journal-of-psychiatry/article/medunas-mixture-surreal-ecstasy-or-perplexing-abreaction-psychiatry-in-history/676A1DF9DF23987A91BA6487A6470AF7

https://www.erowid.org/experiences/exp.php?ID=80817&utm_

* Can you remember your birth on LSD?

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00213-025-06771-5

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/14793387/

I meant to quote from the preface to The Way of the Psychonaut, but I started reading from Holotropic Breathwork by accident and just went with it. Here’s the preface I meant to read:

https://www.primals.org/articles/lake.html

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0022399978900454?via%3Dihub

http://heidelpost.de/buecher/praenatale_psychologie/PP_PDF/PP_14_1-2_Kafkalides.pdf

https://www.stangrof.com/images/joomgallery/interviews/PDF/Interview_-NovaConsciencia_Brazil.pdf

* Rachel Yehuda and Omega Institute

https://www.jta.org/2025/08/19/united-states/renowned-trauma-expert-bessel-van-der-kolk-banned-from-teaching-at-omega-institute-over-antisemitic-comments

* Ben Sessa

My complaint to the UK medical board re: Ben Sessa’s LinkedIn post from March 2025.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deeepbreaths.substack.com

In order of mentions in this quick breather…

* NY Post on Dave Asprey and Grof:

“It felt like tripping balls — my mind was on a hyperdrive tour of the universe. But there were no drugs involved,” Asprey wrote about his first experience in “Heavily Meditated.”

The article from the Cleveland Clinic that gives an entirely misleading, simplified overview of Holotropic Breathwork:

2.

https://psychedelicalpha.com/news/one-year-after-fdas-mdma-rejection-insiders-and-observers-reflect

https://www.psychedelicarchive.com/archive/psychoanalysis1957

“This article holds significant historical importance as it represents one of the earliest documented attempts to integrate the use of psychedelic substances, specifically LSD, into the framework of Freudian psychoanalysis. Alvarez de Toledo outlines the theoretical foundations and practical applications of this “combined” therapeutic approach, followed by two case studies presented by Fontana and Perez Morales, which serve to illustrate the potential benefits and challenges of incorporating LSD into psychoanalytic treatment.”

3.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deeepbreaths.substack.com

Welcome to the first audio recording for my Substack, Deep Breaths, about Holotropic Breathwork and Stan Grof's influence on psychedelic therapy.

Today I am going to speak about two different topics. The first will be about the recent allegations that are going before the California Medical Board against Phil Wolfson, a well-known ketamine assisted psychotherapy doctor. And the other is Joe Welker's most recent Substack post on psychedelic candor [Psychedelic Priest Deposed by the Episcopal Church]…”

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit deeepbreaths.substack.com