Table Of ContentINNER WORK IS THE HERO’S JOURNEY:
MYTHIC INTERPRETATIONS OF HOLOTROPIC BREATHWORK
A dissertation submitted
by
DENNIS R. ARCHAMBAULT
to
PACIFICA GRADUATE INSTITUTE
in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the
degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
in
MYTHOLOGICAL STUDIES
with emphasis in
DEPTH PSYCHOLOGY
This dissertation has been
accepted for the faculty of
Pacifica Graduate Institute by:
______________________________________
Patrick J. Mahaffey, PhD
Chair
______________________________________
Dana C. White, PhD
Reader
______________________________________
Julie Lapham, PhD
External Reader
JUNE 25, 2010
©
Copyright by
DENNIS R. ARCHAMBAULT
2010
ii
ABSTRACT
Inner Work is the Hero’s Journey:
Mythic Interpretations of Holotropic Breathwork
by
Dennis R. Archambault, PhD
Individuals engaging their psyches through depth exploration act
heroically. This process of individuation is arduous and provokes
unceasing variations of issues for resolution. Success is not quick, easy,
or assured, but this personal dedication to a fully manifested life often
leads to a higher level of consciousness and a sense of meaning.
Myths worldwide narrate imaginal stories of cultural heroes who
discover their deepest truths. It takes a hero’s courage to make
decisions, even everyday ones, and none is more profound than that of
embracing experiential, psychic exploration. Heroic inner workers
nurture manifesting spirits through psychological rebirths.
From personal experience, few deep healing modalities upwell
mythic imagery for their psychic insights and personal truths as
successfully as Holotropic Breathwork. The most profound trauma
revealed is often that from birth itself, which is too often compounded by
societal unconsciousness.
The survival of endangered life forms on our beautiful, blue water
planet rests on this modern hero’s journey of personal exploration. Deep
psychic wounds must be healed. If we are to prohibit the use of
iii
weapons of mass destruction, we must act consciously individually and
collectively.
Unconsciousness is historically manipulated for personal political
power by “Dark Numinosity” archetypes [evil exploiters of humans by
individuals who have a profound understanding of human psychology,
with its inherent spirituality]. Demanding loyalty, promising complete
fulfillment, rigidifying society into a militarized worldview, offering quasi-
religious rituals and ceremonies, and producing transcendent
experiences, they infect the social body with psychic epidemics that lead
to wholesale death and destruction. Thwarting this predatory impetus to
slaughter may very well depend upon individuals who embrace inner
work, and with gained consciousness inform their fellow humans of
psychologically healthier courses of action.
Engaging inner work is the modern hero’s journey, and it
manifests a life blessed with meaning. This is our time, self destruction
our peril, and survival of all living species our imperative.
iv
DEDICATION
This dissertation is dedicated to my soulmate, Jeanne T. Trudeau,
PhD. She is always there in support, in sickness and health, and for
better or worse.
I want to acknowledge Stanislav Grof, MD, PhD, for his
encouragement of this study, his ready access throughout the writing of
this dissertation, his personal involvement in developing the chart of
mythic images and personages arising from each of the Basic Perinatal
Matrices, and his sharing a copy of his extensive BPM slide show.
I also want to express my deep appreciation to my Dissertation
Chair Patrick J. Mahaffey, PhD, who assisted in refining a focus to this
study and who helped to finalize the academic structure of this immense
body of material.
My deep appreciation also goes to Dana C. White, PhD, and Julie
Lapham, PhD, who were my readers and who provided invaluable
suggestions and feedback which assisted in clarifying and polishing each
chapter.
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Chapter 1. Introduction .........................................................................1
Review of the Literature ..............................................................14
Organization of the Study ...........................................................59
Chapter 2. Holotropic Breathwork Practice and Methodology ...............62
Practice ......................................................................................62
Methodology ...............................................................................70
Chapter 3. Mythic Interpretations of Inner Work as the
Hero’s Journey ...........................................................................79
Chapter 4. Mythic Interpretations of BPM1 ..........................................95
Mythology of the Womb ..............................................................98
Mythology of Paradise ..............................................................101
Mythology of the World Tree .....................................................104
Chapter 5. Mythic Interpretations of BPM2 ........................................112
Mythology of Being Swallowed ..................................................120
Mythology of Unending Suffering ..............................................123
Chapter 6. Mythic Interpretations of BPM3 ........................................132
Mythology of Aggression ...........................................................141
Mythology of Fire ......................................................................145
Chapter 7. Mythic Interpretations of BPM4 ........................................155
Mythology of Rebirth ...............................................................158
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Mythology of the Cosmic Egg ....................................................169
Mythology of Breath .................................................................175
Chapter 8. Conclusion .......................................................................179
Dark Numinosity Archetype .....................................................192
Fostering Consciousness .........................................................200
Table. Mythic Images in Holotropic Breathwork BPMs 1-4 .................202
Works Cited .......................................................................................203
Credits...............................................................................................219
The style used throughout this dissertation is in accordance with the Modern Language
Association Style Manual (second edition, 1998) and Pacifica Graduate Institute’s
Dissertation Handbook (2009-2010).
vii
Chapter 1
Introduction
Inner work is the hero’s journey. Individuals engaging their
psyches through depth exploration act heroically. This process of
individuation is arduous and provokes unceasing variations of issues for
resolution. Success is not quick, easy, or assured, but this personal
dedication to a fully manifested life often leads to a higher level of
consciousness and a sense of meaning.
Myths worldwide narrate imaginal stories of cultural heroes who
discover their deepest truths. It takes a hero’s courage to make
decisions, even everyday ones, and none is more profound than that of
embracing experiential, psychic exploration. Inner workers nurture
manifesting spirits through psychological rebirths.
Psychoanalyst Carl G. Jung, in The Red Book, asked himself “what
is the myth you are living?” (Shamdasani 197). He did not know the
answer. Those who do inner work probably cannot answer either; thus,
they undertake an adventure into their unconscious. The unknown
becomes known with persistent effort, and enlightenment and healing
ensue. The hero of great deeds becomes an illuminating paradigm for
others to follow for a life path into primal realms. The superpersonal and
transcendent energies that populate the invisible realms of this mythic
world become visible forms that the human mind can contemplate.
Those engaged in inner work discover that their personal images are
often found embodied in mythological characters who behave as they do
2
in the present, and many find within themselves the wish that they could
act with impunity as did mythic gods of antiquity. The value of such
figures is in identifying with them. It takes deliberate effort to allow that
which upwells from the psyche to be fully experienced, and perhaps re-
lived through them. Inner work is inherently risky and “by descending
into the unconscious, the conscious mind puts itself in a perilous
position, for it is apparently extinguishing itself” (Jung, CW 12: 437).
Deep healing needs time to incorporate increasing levels of consciousness
before one can gaze directly upon inner divinities without being consumed
by the immense and sometimes destructive power they can unleash.
Friedrich Nietzsche describes today’s hero in his poem, “Between Birds of
Prey,” when he writes that Zarathustra sought the heaviest burden and
found himself (Luchte and Leadon 90). In “Faust,” Goethe warns inner
workers that “through solitudes you will be whirled and driven” (47: 152).
The seeker’s path to wholeness, to consciousness, is nearly always
complicated by his or her past which resists change and new
integrations, and which also obstructs access to Self. Emile Durkheim
appears to concur when he writes that “we hold to the profane world by
all the fibers of our flesh; our senses attach us to it, our life depends
upon it [and] we cannot detach ourselves from it [without] painfully
wounding our instincts” (351). In the end, determination alone, to grow
into consciousness by overcoming psychic hindrances, seems to be the
hallmark of today’s inner worker hero.
3
Inner workers discover many issues for transmutation in
breathsessions, including personal faults, guilt from hurtful behaviors,
moral weaknesses, ongoing “sins” of omission and commission, among a
host of others. Consciousness does carry a heavy price, yet it also
affords life-enhancing gains in developing one’s character, maturing an
ability to discern good from evil, cultivating an acceptance of personal
responsibility, increasing self-nurturance, and evolving a communal
identity. These are the fruits that inner workers can harvest from depth
exploration.
This dissertation interprets images that arise mythically in one
healing modality, Holotropic Breathwork (HB), through which “it is
possible to induce profound changes of consciousness by techniques
which involve breathing” (Grof, The Adventure of Self-Discovery 170).
Psychiatrist Stanislav Grof and his wife Christina Grof developed
Holotropic Breathwork in 1976. They integrate perspectives from
modern consciousness research, anthropology, and various depth
psychologies. The word holotropic (from the Greek holos = whole and
trepein = to move toward) literally means “moving toward wholeness.”
This method utilizes the spontaneous healing potential of the psyche
(human’s innermost essence), and its energy becomes available in
nonordinary states of consciousness. Induced by deep and accelerated
breathing, evocative music in a special setting, focused body work, and
artistic expression, Holotropic Breathwork participants journey into their
Description:Myths worldwide narrate imaginal stories of cultural heroes who discover their .. end of Pompeii, and the biblical Armageddon. These images are of coordinating mythologies, is that the “social unit is not the carrier of religious writes (159); however, the Navajo Nation independently developed
