The most common element that nearly all of these methods share is a focus on conscious breathing, usually as a tool to help you relax before going into the method’s actual practice.  Despite this ubiquity, breathing itself is often underrated.  Having used many self-help methods over many years, I am convinced that ultimately the most valuable self-help tool is breathing itself. One of the reasons that I was drawn to the teachings of the Crimson Circle is the fact that conscious breathing is the main method that they recommend above all others.  

As humanity begins to move into new energy, many methods that may have worked well in the past are no longer as effective as they once were.  In some ways much of the new age movement can get stuck in a similar mindset to the religions that it claims to supersede, as they emphasise and hang onto their methods as gospel, when a lot of these methods were only meant to be stepping stones on the evolutionary path.

Breathing is one of the few methods that continues to be important in the spiritual realms.  This may seem surprising, as even those of us who have a conscious spiritual awareness probably tend to think of breathing as being a mainly physical exercise,  and that once we let go of this mortal coil it is no longer needed.  Apparently this is not so, as a form of breathing continues with our consciousness after death.  This should give us a clue that when we breathe there is a lot more happening than just the intake of oxygen and nitrogen and the expulsion of carbon dioxide.  Yoga and other Eastern philosophies teach that what we breathe in is the essential spiritual life force that is the connecting and empowering energy for the whole universe.  In India it is known as prana, and in China as chi or ki.   The philosophy of Breatharianism is based on this idea, such that conscious breathing of prana energy can be utilised to sustain the physical body without the need to ingest food.

Breathing consciously is the most powerful way to move stuck energy.  This can work in all four of the aspects of our beings:  physical, mental, emotional and spiritual.  Physically it releases stress and tension and helps to increase body awareness.  Due to the influence particularly of science and also Western society in general, we tend to believe that it all happens in our minds, such that we become captive to our minds and lose contact with the body.  While breathing consciously it is difficult to keep a mental focus.  This is very useful because to take away the focus on the mind for just a few minutes on a regular basis both releases mental tension and begins to break the hold that the mind can have on us to the detriment of the other three equally important aspects.  Breathing is also one of the best tools for releasing negative and blocked emotions, and it facilitates spiritual awareness.  By inhaling consciously we draw the essential life force into our whole being more effectively.  By exhaling consciously we express this divine energy out into the world.

As breathing is something that we’ve all done all our lives, you would think that we would at least know how to breathe properly.  But I have found through my massage practice – particularly shiatsu massage – that many people don’t breathe properly, including some who have practiced yoga or tai chi or similar methods that normally place a heavy emphasis on the breath.

As our lungs are located in the chest area, it is natural to think that breathing by expanding the chest is efficient.  But this is not so.  The lungs are pear-shaped, and chest breathing only draws air into the top one-third of the lungs.  To actually fill the lungs with air requires you to breathe using the diaphragm and the belly.  The diaphragm is a dome-shaped muscle that sits below the lungs, and is one of the most important and underrated muscles in the body.  It is the only muscle that works both vountarily and involutarily, keeping us breathing while asleep.  This dual ability means that the diaphragm is a link between the unconscious and the conscious mind.  The lungs themselves have no muscles, so require the diaphragm to contract downwards, creating space in the lungs which draws in air.  If you rely on expanding your chest to breathe deeply, the diaphragm does not contract downwards much, so less air is drawn into the lungs.  It is also more work to expand the chest than it is to contract the diaphragm, so the lesser amount of oxygen that is drawn in when chest breathing is also utilised less effectively.

A useful exercise is to sit or lie comfortably, with one hand on the chest and the other hand on the belly.  Loosen the clothes around your waist.  Breathe deeply, and take notice of which hand moves more as you breathe in and out.  If the hand on your chest is moving more, then you are not breathing deeply or filling the lungs with air.  Practice pushing your belly out as you breathe in, until the hand on your belly moves more than the hand on your chest.  It might feel strange at first, but you will be filling your lungs with air and providing your body with as much as 200% more usable oxygen.

This belly breathing might need to be practiced on a regular basis for quite a time before it becomes second nature, as the bad habits of a lifetime do not usually break easily.  Western fashion and social norms are not helpful, as we are all encouraged to hold our belly in and stick our chest out.  Many types of clothing do not make belly breathing comfortable.  Since I have practiced conscious breathing I tend to favour clothes that are looser and have elastic waists.

But these minor inconveniences are far outweighed by the benefits of conscious breathing :  

Over time you will find that you will be more relaxed and calm in the face of stress.  

Breathing consciously and regularly will give you some emotional detachment from other peoples’ dramas, enabling you to act from a place of true compassion rather than being dragged into an expected emotional reaction.

You will begin to feel a stronger connection to your body and will become more aware of its needs.

In moments when your mind is overwhelming you with repetitive and negative thoughts and their accompanying fear-based emotions, being able to stop and breathe deeply will help to release such thoughts and emotions, so you will become more aware of your deeper feelings.  The diaphragm is the physical bridge through which your gut and your heart communicate.  It enables your intuition and true feelings to connect with one another. 

Conscious breathing connects us to the present moment.  When you maintain a focus on your breath it is difficult to dwell in the past or worry about the future for any length of time.

Deep breathing facilitates spiritual growth, particularly if combined with meditation.  This will become more important for all of us, as one of the results of the current acceleration in the evolution of human consciousness is that the veil between the physical and spiritual dimensions is getting thinner. More and more people are beginning to have experiences of the spiritual realms.  To be able to breathe consciously and deeply at will is the best tool for integrating such experiences.

Edgar Cayce

Channelling is a process whereby a person allows themselves to become a channel of communication for spiritual entities from beyond the physical realm.  In principle it is similar to mediumship, the main difference being that mediums tend to focus on the communication with those recently departed from the physical realm, usually with the purpose of comforting relatives and friends of the deceased. Channelling however is usually communication with entities believed to be more highly spiritually evolved, with the purpose of gaining information for education and spiritual advancement. 

Although mediumship has been widely practised throughout recorded history, channelling is a relatively new phenomenon in the Western World.  The first widely recognised channeller was Edgar Cayce (pronounced ‘Casey’), sometimes referred to as the ’sleeping prophet’. Born in Kentucky in 1877, he exhibited psychic traits as a child, but was a devout Christian with a desire to become a preacher. However at the age of 23 he developed laryngitis and was unable to speak above a whisper for several months, such that for a time he gave up hope of ever speaking normally again as doctors and specialists were unable to cure him.  He gave up his job as a salesman and began a career in photography.  

A travelling stage hypnotist called ‘Hart, the Laugh King’ heard about Cayce’s condition and offered to hypnotise him in an attempt to effect a cure.  This was done publicly and to the amazement of all Cayce was able to speak normally while hypnotized.  Hart several times tried post-hypnotic suggestion that the voice would continue to function after the trance, but the laryngitis returned each time he awoke.  

Al Layne, a local self-taught hypnotist and osteopath, offered to help. He suggested that Cayce describe the nature of his condition and cure while in a hypnotic trance.  Cayce described his problem as a “psychological condition producing a physical effect.”  He stated that the condition could be removed by suggesting to him while in the unconscious state that the blood circulation increase to the affected areas. After Layne made the suggestion, the upper part of Cayce’s chest and his throat turned bright red and the skin became warm. Twenty minutes later Edgar spoke again, stating that before Layne awakened him the suggestion should be made that the blood circulation return to normal. Layne followed the instructions. When Cayce came out of the trance, despite being completely unaware of what he had said, he was able to speak normally for the first time in almost a year. 

Layne himself suffered from a chronic stomach condition, and asked if Cayce would do a reading for his condition.  Cayce felt obliged to help, and in the trance state accurately described Layne’s condition and prescribed a cure combining natural medicines, dietary changes and exercise.  Within a week Layne felt so much better that he implored Cayce to continue doing readings, arguing that he had a moral obligation to help people.  Cayce was wary, having no prior knowledge of medicine and a suspicion of the psychic process due to his religious beliefs.  Layne was insistent and after much prayer, Bible reading and consultation with his family, Cayce finally agreed.

Word spread and Cayce began to do readings on a regular basis, asking only for donations from those who could afford it.  It was discovered that he only needed the name and location of a patient to prescribe a cure, and he began to receive mail requests.  He had much success and his fame spread, and he continued to give readings on a regular basis.  Even though he was reluctant for a while, his success began to convince him that he had a gift from God. One of his readings stated that whilst in the trance state the conscious mind becomes subjugated to the subconscious, superconscious or soul mind; and communicates with like minds, and the subconscious or soul force becomes universal. From any subconscious mind information may then be obtained.  

At one point he was persuaded by oil prospectors to give readings on possible oil sites, but these were unsuccessful.  The readings stated that the readings were never to be used for financial gain, and he came to the conclusion that he would use his gift only to help the distressed and sick.  

After over 20 years of giving mainly health related readings, he was asked by Alfred Lammers, a wealthy printer and student of metaphysics, to give a philosophical reading.  In the reading he mentioned a past life of Lammers, and upon waking was shocked to hear this, as it conflicted with his religious beliefs.  This led him to much soul searching, and in a reading he was advised to read the whole Bible whilst keeping the idea of reincarnation in mind.  He came to believe that the idea of reincarnation was not incompatible with Christianity and actually gave him a deeper appreciation of the purpose of life.

In 1925 Cayce realised a long held dream, moving to Virginia and setting up a hospital where trained medical staff would treat those he gave readings for. He also began to do ‘life readings’, looking at peoples’ past lives and how that affected them in their present lives.  These readings expanded to include mental and spiritual counsel, philosophy, spirituality, meditation, dream interpretation, intuition, history and ancient civilizations, prophecies and relationship advice.

In 1931, the Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.), was formed as a research body whose goal was to investigate and disseminate the information contained in Cayce’s readings.   As his fame as a psychic grew, many skeptics came to Virginia Beach to expose him as a fraud, but in time all were convinced of the legitimacy of what he was doing.   Thomas Sugrue, a staunch Catholic, investigated what he thought had to be trickery and ended up writing ‘There is a River’, Cayce’s first biography, published in 1943.

Cayce pushed himself to do more and more readings to keep up with the demand, and this began to take a toll on his health.  He died in 1945 at the age of 67.  It is estimated that he gave over 20,000 readings, although only 14,000 of these remain today.  Although he died long before the emergence of the New Age movement he remains a major influence on many of its teachings.  These days it is probably his prophecies that get the most attention.  Many – though not all – have come true.  His readings stated that prophecy is only given as a warning, that the future is not fixed and that human free will makes virtually everything possible.  Therefore a successful prophecy is one that has been averted, and is definitely not a sign of a fake, as some skeptics have claimed.

For more information on Edgar Cayce, visit:

Association for Research and Enlightenment (A.R.E.) - Edgar Cayce biography

I have a strong memory at around the age of five or six of asking my father why he spent so much time reading and studying, and not out playing football as I liked to do.  Up until that moment I had thought that grown-ups knew everything, so it puzzled me that he would spend so much time with his head stuck in books.   His answer was that he was searching for the truth.  At the time I was very impressed, and thought that that must have meant that he was someone really important, as if he had been charged with the responsibility as a seeker of ‘The Ultimate Truth’ by the rest of humanity.  I was surprised though that he didn’t already know it, as he seemed to be able to give an answer to almost every question that I had asked him up until that point.  But it must have struck a chord with me, because since then I have had a drive to know the higher truths, especially the big picture questions of what exists beyond this physical world and what happens to us when we die. Over time I was also impressed by his persistence, because I soon realised that most believers learn enough to have a simple understanding of what they believe, without further questioning.

Despite having to go to Church and Sunday School every Sunday with my parents, they were not particularly pushy with their religious beliefs, and we were given space and time to form our own belief systems.  When I was around the age of 11 or 12 I asked Jesus Christ into my heart.  I had been doing a Bible correspondence course for children, and one particular lesson was written in such a way that it led the reader to a point where the invitation was made to seem the most logical thing to do.  And so without really understanding the full significance, I got down on my knees beside my bed and prayed, and asked God to forgive my sins and Jesus to come into my heart. This made me a Christian, according to the lesson.  At the time I think I felt a little nervous buzz, but apart from that not too different from before – a little cleaner perhaps, though that feeling probably only persisted until the next time I was told off for doing something wrong…

Some time a bit later, a few weeks perhaps, I was sitting one Saturday afternoon in the backyard of the family home in a small country town in New South Wales, Australia. As a child I would daydream a lot.  My father would often chide me for ‘living in cloud-cuckoo land’.  He had just erected an old wagon wheel (as pictured) in the garden, in order to grow plants up it.  I can remember staring at the wheel for quite a while, getting lost in a daydream, trying to work out what I really felt about this Christianity thing and what God was really like.  The wheel must have had a bit of a mandala effect on me, and I heard what seemed like a voice in my head.  However it was nothing like the voices that are usually there chattering away, expressing my thoughts and usually sounding like me or someone else with whom I might be having a mental conversation.  As I can’t remember specific words I would probably now describe it more as a deep resonating sound that seemed to come from all directions inside my head, as if I was wearing a set of headphones.  This sound seemed lift me into an altered state, to almost instantly transmit knowledge to me, rather than speak actual words. Somehow I knew that this was the ‘voice of God’ – or someone very close to Him at the very least!

As if in answer to my questioning, the voice ’said’ that life is like the wagon wheel, that I then seemed to be merging with. God is the hub of the wheel, the centre of all life.  Humanity is the rim of the wheel, and all the religions and philosophies are like the spokes of the wheel.   Each of us are born at a particular place on the rim, close to a particular religion or belief system, that points toward God at the centre.  As we look down the spoke towards the hub, the religion gives us a glimpse of the divine.  But each religion only gives a small facet of the whole picture.  In order to gain a truer picture of God one would have to travel around the wheel and see God from every angle, looking down each spoke.  

The voice finished and I returned from that trance-like state to a normal state of awareness.  At the time there was little doubt in my mind that this knowledge was somehow greater than anything I had learned up until that point.  But although I was aware of the existence of other religions, my experience at that early age had only been of Christianity.    And so I did not have a big enough frame of reference in which this knowledge was able to sit comfortably.  I tried for a time to assimilate it, but the weight of the Christian teachings that surrounded me made it impossible.  For the rest of my teenage years I committed myself to Christianity, and resolved to at least try and understand it well before exploring other spokes.  I remember slight feelings of guilt towards ‘the voice’ as over the next few years – when the memory occasionally came back to me – I would somehow distort the wheel to make Christianity the only essential spoke in the wheel, or some similar vain rationalisation.

From my late teens into my early twenties I felt more and more the constricting and often conflicting limitations of Christianity, and began to explore other belief systems.  I was particularly inspired after seeing the movie ‘Ghandi’, by his politically effective and compassionate non-violent approach that encompassed all religions, and started to read about the Hindu and Buddhist religions.  But ultimately I found that their texts just seemed like other versions of Christianity.  There were some seemingly deep truths, but it was mostly cultural histories and largely irrelevant and incomprehensible rules. I was usually left feeling that it might have made more sense if I had actually been there at the time.  So for a lot of my twenties I put the big questions on the backburner as anyway I was having too much fun to get serious. There was plenty of time for that later…

Once I left Christianity at the age of 22 however, the memory of that first experience came back more clearly and probably more often.  I no longer had a reason to distort it.  And fuller significance of the experience has only come in more recent years.  I see now for example how that as the spokes get closer to the hub, they get closer to each other, as higher truths of many belief systems share many similarities.  Also that even if one travelled all around the rim the picture would be still be incomplete, because it is impossible to see all of the hub from the two-dimensional perspective of the rim.  To see the centre of the hub where the axle sits, for example, one would have to leave the rim, perhaps by stepping out of the confines of physical existence… And ultimately these days I would say that if one were to use the word ‘God’ – something that I try to do as little as possible as it is loaded with many different meanings for each person – it would more accurately describe the whole wheel.