Altered states of consciousness induced by breathwork accompanied by music

This is a really strange comment section. The average person sharing their experiences seems very unlike the average HN user.

I feel like I can barely relate to those people, and understanding what they're saying is nigh impossible. The definitions of most things are really vague - even the article of this thread only defines breathwork as "cyclic breathing without pausing, accompanied by progressively evocative music". So... faster breathing while intensifying music is playing?

One issue for me is how anything connected to these topics seems to attract a healthy mix of rational observation, psychedelic users and religious people (old and new). Deciphering which is which is really difficult without already having a foot in the door on this topic.

Let’s talk about the willingness of so many to hijack an unconscious process (breathing), This forces you to reflect on control, and then plunges you into a recursive semantic loop: Did I do this? Or did this happen to me? This is the basis of consciousness hacking through sign activation. It only gets stranger.

It's like you're doing meditation, and thinking "I shouldn't be thinking". But you can't be conscious about being unconscious. Or something like that.