“Breathing Embodiment: A Study of Middendorf Breathwork” by John Donald Howard

"Breathing Embodiment: A Study of Middendorf Breathwork" by John Donald Howard

"Knowledge derived from direct experiences of breathing, sensing, moving, and touching is traditionally held to have no authoritative moral or intellectual significance. Such an approach devalues embodied human experience and narrows the field of rationality. This book challenges that traditional view, arguing that it at the root of many of the crises that we face today. It takes as a starting point an experiential breath awareness practice based on sensing subtle bodily movements that occur with breath as it is allowed to come and go on its own. While describing this minute awareness practice the book evokes the relation of that activity to larger issues posed by social thinkers, psychologists, and cross-cultural theorists. It provides what Don Hanlon Johnson describes as ‘an engaging and brilliant analysis … a seamless blend of experiential practice with profound intellectual analysis’, invaluable for anyone concerned with embodiment, whether in somatic practice, health, sport, performance, or other fields of human endeavour."