Altered states of consciousness induced by breathwork accompanied by music

I run a psychedelic breath work group called BioMythic.com and we've worked with YC founders and teams and other Unicorn's like Bombas.

Happy to offer a free virtual session for founders if there is interest here, as our work is always gifted.

There's no generally good way to vet stuff like this. My recommendation: if you're interested and haven't done it before, find a friend (or friend of a friend) who has and ask them for a personal recommendation.

If you want to take a low-woo course on it, here's one: https://www.nsmastery.com/ (I know Jonny, but I'm not affiliated and I haven't taken his course.)

There should be some sort of, like, trusted bureau that gives a woo-level ranking to these things. Massage therapy boards and such are too busy unsuccessfully rooting out human trafficking on the other side of the self-help spectrum.

As an aside, and in all seriousness, how well would this works for a self-medicated functional alcoholic who thinks breathing exercises involve rolling a cigarette first? Does one have to be one of the self-congratulatory "healthy" and swear off vices to benefit from this, or is it something you can do before you head off to the bar?

Holographic breathwork was developed as a result of psychedelic prohibition by Stan Grof. He was having great luck with LSD for alcoholism and then prohibition stopped that research. Breathwork was developed as a way to induce the same states of conciousness and it’s proved to be effective.

Basic idea is addictions are largely driven by unresolved trauma and breathwork / transpersonal practice is a way to allow the nervous system to release and shift into a healthier state where the desires to numb with substances diminishes.