What effect does deep breathing have on the brain and the nervous system?

Osho, what effect does deep breathing have on the brain and the nervous system?

As soon as you begin deep breathing, the ratio of carbon dioxide and oxygen in the body changes. The very first thing that shifts is this proportion of carbon dioxide and oxygen within us. And the moment the proportion of carbon dioxide changes, transformation begins throughout the brain, the entire body, the blood, and the nerves—everywhere. For the entire basis of our being rests on specific ratios of oxygen and carbon dioxide. A change in those ratios brings about a total change. That is why I suggested you come separately; that is a technical matter. It may not interest everyone, so I will talk with you about it. Meditation practice and self-hypnosis

What is the effect of deep breathing on the brain, the heart, etc?

As soon as you begin deep breathing, the proportion of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the body will change. There is a particular amount of carbon and oxygen in our body; deep breathing will change its ratio. And as soon as this ratio changes, consequent changes take place in the whole body including the brain, the blood and the nervous system. Oxygen and carbon dioxide in particular proportions form the whole basis of our existence. And a change in their proportions changes everything. But that is a technical thing and the questioner can see me separately later on to discuss it, because everyone may not be interested in it.

Questioner: you said that the ratio of oxygen and carbon dioxide changes through deep breathing. Will you please explain how this matter is connected with the awakening of the kundalini?

There are many connections between them. One, we carry within us the potential for both life and death. While the oxygen of breath represents our potential for life, carbon dioxide represents the potential for death. When your oxygen gradually diminishes and disappears and you are left with carbon dioxide alone, you will turn into a corpse. It is like we burn a piece of wood--it keeps burning so long as oxygen is available. There is fire, there is life in the wood so long as oxygen is available to it. But as soon as its oxygen is spent, it is dead. It is reduced to ashes, to coal, which is carbon. The carbon which is left behind is nothing but dead fire. Both the elements are operating within us. If we have more of carbon dioxide, we will slide into lethargy. That is why it is easier to sleep in…

Osho, you once said that taking deep breaths changes the ratio of oxygen and carbon dioxide. How is this shift related to the awakening of kundalini?

So on the one hand he is attending to the breath twenty-four hours, and on the other he is being given medicines. A great problem arose for him, because a conflict was created in his body. The medicines were trying to make him sleep, and the deep-breath experiment he was continuing around the clock was awakening his energies. It was as if someone were pressing the accelerator and the brake of a car at the same time—you understand, don’t you? He was in great trouble. Someone told him about me, so he came. Seeing him I understood he had fallen into a kind of madness—this simply cannot be. I told him, stop Anapanasati. He said, what has that to do with it? He had no idea that if you do so much breath-work that oxygen becomes so abundant that the body simply cannot sleep, then how will you sleep! Or…

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…