Deep Breathing Can Create Psychedelic Bliss in Your Brain, Study Shows

A study recently found that deep-breathing exercises induce similar patterns of blood flow to the brain seen in patients using psychedelic substances like psilocybin.

This altered state of consciousness matched one first described by Freud, and was characterized by blissful feelings, positively experienced depersonalization, and the sensation of unity.

Breathing exercises like high-ventilation breathing or holotropic breathing have been growing in popularity as forms of neuromodulation that can combat overactive feelings of fear, stress, anxiety, and helplessness.

Exactly why these exercises, known collectively as breathwork, have such a profound, almost psychedelic effect in the brain however, is not known.

To that end, Amy Amla Kartar from Brighton and Sussex Medical School in the UK