ז׳ שבט ה׳תשפ״ו | January 25, 2026
Breathwork? We’ve Been Here Before
In the past few months, I’ve been hearing about people attending breathwork sessions as a solution for help and happiness. All this breathwork frenzy brings back memories from Call of the Shofar, twelve years ago.
By Mendy G.
In the past few months, I’ve been hearing about people attending breathwork sessions as a solution for help and happiness. Until now, I kept my feelings on the topic under the rug. However, after Rabbi Shea Hecht came out publicly, I’d like to share my own humble concerns about it.
All this breathwork frenzy brings back memories from twelve years ago. In 2014, many Anash were caught up in the Call of the Shofar (COTS) retreats. At that time, Rabbonim, Mashpiyim and mental health experts weighed in decisively against attending these retreats.
What does all this have to do with breathwork sessions?
For me, it’s déjà vu. One of the main exercises at COTS retreats, as shared by COTS attendees, was… breathwork!
Here is an account of that exercise, which was published by one of the COTS attendees:
“This exercise is very simple. And yet the most insane of all. Simcha asks us to breathe through our mouths very, very deeply. He shows us how to do it. After 20 or so breaths… it seems our brain function became impaired. We become totally uninhibited. Anything goes. I really am embarrassed to say this. But one attendee went outside and took off his clothes…and just stood there, arms to the heavens…maybe he thinks he’s a navi in deveikus with G-d… I don’t know. But I’m quite sure a lot of us did believe these spiritual highs were spiritual highs connected with coming closer to G-d.”
The attendee continues with an account of his own behavior:
“I was jumping and throwing myself into the wall. Pretending I was a conductor with a big log. Imagine 35 people doing the craziest stuff all in the same room. It was surreal. The place was a complete madhouse… Everyone passes out on the ground when it’s over.”
The account is quite dramatic. It corroborates what I heard from others.
At that time, Raphael Aron, Director of Cult Consulting Australia, released a professional report on the practices and beliefs of COTS. He points out health issues with inducing a level of euphoria that creates trance-like states of mind.
He also points out that breathing techniques are central to Buddhism, to the extent that “one of the most widespread Buddhist practices for developing attentional balance is mindfulness of breathing.” Quite concerning to me.
Should we be attending breathwork retreats? I definitely won’t be.
COMMENTS
What you are describing is a well-known physiological response to acute voluntary hyperventilation, especially when done rapidly and through the mouth. Several mechanisms act together to produce the cognitive impairment, emotional disinhibition, and altered state you noticed.
First, carbon dioxide (CO₂) is washed out of the blood. Deep, rapid breathing expels CO₂ faster than the body produces it, lowering arterial CO₂ levels (hypocapnia). CO₂ is a primary regulator of cerebral blood flow. When CO₂ drops, cerebral blood vessels constrict, which reduces blood flow to the brain. Even modest reductions can impair executive function, judgment, impulse control, and self-monitoring—hence the feeling that “anything goes.”
Second, the drop in CO₂ raises blood pH (respiratory alkalosis). This alters neuronal excitability and interferes with normal synaptic signaling. People commonly experience lightheadedness, depersonalization, tingling, emotional lability, and a sense of being mentally “offline.” These effects are not psychological in origin; they are direct consequences of altered blood chemistry.
Third, oxygen delivery paradoxically worsens despite breathing “more.” Hemoglobin binds oxygen more tightly at higher pH (the Bohr effect), which makes it harder for oxygen to be released into brain tissue. So even though blood oxygen saturation may remain high, tissue oxygen availability decreases, compounding cognitive impairment.
Fourth, frontal-lobe inhibition is reduced. The prefrontal cortex—responsible for restraint, social filtering, and self-consciousness—is particularly sensitive to reduced perfusion and alkalosis. As its regulatory influence weakens, limbic and emotional circuits dominate, producing disinhibition, impulsive speech, laughter, crying, or behavior that later feels embarrassing or “out of character.”
Fifth, mouth breathing amplifies the effect. Nasal breathing normally slows airflow, preserves CO₂, and engages parasympathetic pathways via the vagus nerve. Rapid mouth breathing bypasses these stabilizing mechanisms, making the physiological shift faster and more extreme.
In short, the effect is not mystical and not subtle: you are temporarily altering brain blood flow, pH, and neural control systems. The resulting state can feel intense, liberating, or chaotic depending on context and personality.
A brief safety note: repeated or prolonged hyperventilation can provoke syncope, panic reactions, or arrhythmias in susceptible individuals.
These physiological effects are similar to the lack of oxygen experienced by prolonged wearing of face masks….
If anyone is still wearing a facemask these days, they are actively impairing their brains…
defintiely seems to be written by ai, which explains the liberal perspective it gives, vdal…
I think the articles should be focused on eliminating the void that caused people to go to COTS and breath work. Why are people so overwhelmed? Empty? Lost? In pain? Struggling to show up?
Have you ever thought about what happens when a person were to stop breathing? He will not survive.
In any high tense situation, what would you find yourself doing? Chances are you’ll hold your breath (Probably without even being aware).
If your friend was having a hard time and is extremely stressed out, you tell him to breathe.
people don’t have a hard time breathing because they are having an anxiety attack, they have an anxiety attack because they aren’t controlling and being intentional about their breathing.
So throughout your day to day life, when you find yourself being intentional about your breathing, (not just breathing going on in the background because you need it to live), you will find yourself to be a lot calmer and more composed even in situations where you would generally be on edge and really stressed.
Back to COTS, the main concern was never about breathing, because breathing is the key to living. The idea of bringing religion into COTS is what concerned most of the Rabbonim, not teaching people how to control their breathing. So bringing down the idea of breath work based on your misunderstanding is a) Wrong b) could be destructive. You’ll be surprised how many esteemed and renowned Rabbonim and speakers attended the COTS and have never looked back.
So yes, it is not for everyone, it was never meant to involve religion, rather just simple and basic health.
It wasn’t the breathing that caused that behavior you mentioned, rather that person had all that going on yet was so trapped and the breathing finally let that out and released it.
It helps everyone in their own way, yet using the same method that keeps us alive – Breathing.
So before we jump to conclusions on whether the COTS was good or bad, lets not get breathing mixed up in all this and understand that Breathing is the way we live and how we can take control of our emotions!
It’s brainwashing, plain and simple. Techniques that are common to some of the most extreme cults. The result are often narcissistic thinking, destruction of relationships including alienation from friends, siblings, spouses, the breakup of families, and lost souls that descend into depression and inability to cope with society at large. You can’t ban this type of destructive and cultish enterprise in a free society, but you can educate people so there don’t fall prey.