Can this technique be practiced as a form of psychotherapy without any religious belief?

Is any religious belief required, or can this technique be practiced as a sort of psychotherapy?

No religious belief is required. Just practice it as a psychotherapy. As I see it, belief has become impossible. You can only force belief, but you cannot believe. It is not possible now. If you believe it is okay; but for ninety-nine percent of the people, it has become impossible to believe. We can only force belief but that becomes a repression again, so I am against it. Don't believe. Just take it as an experiment. If something happens, that will become your belief. But no belief is required as a precondition to do it. You can conclude with .a belief but you cannot start with a belief. And there is no need. If a thing is scientific, belief is never a requirement. You are not the body; you are not the mind. You are one. But the old traditions of the past have divided you. They have created a…

Is there some kind of hypnosis involved in the technique?

The moment a person begins to experiment with this method there is no question of belief or faith, there is no question of hypnosis. The contrary is the case: we have hypnotized ourselves into believing that we are normal and sane human beings. This is the hypnosis! The whole world is a great madhouse and we have hypnotized ourselves into thinking that we are sane, normal. But the insanity that is hidden in the background always tries to come out: it erupts, it explodes out of us in dreams. It explodes out of us when we are intoxicated. LSD or mescaline cause an explosion of madness, but the explosion does not come from the LSD or mescaline, and dreams do not create the madness either. Drugs or dreams just uncover your self, the authentic being that is within you. That is why, for a sadhaka, a seeker, it has been…

Osho: That sentence is beautiful. Be still means don't make yourself still. Be still means be still. Don't make any effort to be still, just be still. And if you are doing something to be still, then the stillness will simply be a created, cultivated stillness not the real. Question: "Be still and know.... " Osho: Then you know ultimately -- there is no sense in prolonging the sentence -- be still, and you know. There is no question of knowing. It comes by itself. Just be still.... QUESTION: EVERY MAN SPEAKS FROM HIS OWN EXPERIENCE, HIS OWN LEVEL, RIGHT? ISN'T IT POSSIBLE THAT THERE MIGHT BE A TECHNIQUE THAT WOULD WORK THAT PERHAPS YOU HAVEN'T EXPERIENCED.

Osho: No, no, not at their expense. Tell them about this method. They themselves will feel it. They will certainly feel the change, the transformation. Let them practise it--just as an experiment with their disturbed mind, their doubts. Let them experiment, just as an experiment. If 'something' happens, then the practice goes by itself. There is no need to convince them. And, the anarchy that is within must be exploded. It should not be stilled or cramped down. It must be expressed in total intensity. The calmness, the serenity, the Nirvana comes not by stilling the mind but by explosion. Then the stillness comes but it is not a cultivated composure. Express what you are, totally. Of course that means madness, because we are mad. So, if you express it, the madness will come out. Even you yourself will feel strange about it, unknown to yourself.

Question: it is an interesting coincidence that your meditation technique of release through intense chaotic breathing evolved at the same time that certain chaotic therapy techniques were happening in the west, such as r.d.laing's theory that schizophrenia is not something to be fought, but something to be experienced voluntarily. Laing has said that you cannot be sane until you have been non-sane or insane. Then there is wilhelm reich's use of sexual energy to release body blocks that coincide with neurosis; this technique was the inspiration for the therapy which is called bio-energetics, a

Ordinarily, it may look very difficult to be non-neurotic in a neurotic world. It is difficult in a way. If you get too serious, it is very difficult. If you start fighting with insane men and you start fighting with everything they have created, it will be difficult. But you can fight only if you are still insane. Otherwise you will laugh; there is no need to fight. There is no need to fight! You will laugh! Then you will act. A wise man is an actor; he is not serious because there is no need to be serious. You know that all around you are madmen, so there is no need to be serious with them. You can act, and only if you act can you help them. There is a proposal of R.D.Laing's that doctors in asylums for the mad should not be there as doctors but as…