Meditation breathing for solo or in groups

I disagree.

Meditation is not a 'trance state', and the purpose of meditation is not to 'quiet the mind'; that's just a phrase some people use who clearly do not understand the state of meditation, or how the mind works. It is actually impossible to quiet the mind, as it's part of the activity of the physical body and, aside from being dead, will continue to flow actively. Breathing meditation is not about controlling the breathing, but about simply observing the natural breath.

I would strongly advise people NOT to do the breathing practice described above, simply for the fact that such breathing practices should be done under supervision, as they could cause hyperventilation or other breathing difficulties in some. Doing this for 5 minutes could cause oxygen deprivation, light headedness, or other physical difficulties.

The main reason people have difficultly meditating, is not that they are breathing wrongly but, in relation to breathing, they try and control their breathing rather than let it happen naturally, thus creating discomfort. This in turn (along with other things) causes them to be distracted and prevents them from being able to enter a truly deep meditative state as they lose their initial focus of meditation.

I'm sorry to say (and I mean no personal offence), but the sort of advice given in this initial post is the sort of rubbish advised by people who have had no proper training in meditation.

I

Giles your are mistaken in what you are saying. Whoever instructed you was also wrong or ill trained. Deep breathing is extremely healthy. You maybe familiar with Yoga which has been around for 1000's of years. In Yoga all they push is correct breathing technique. You can cure many health problems with correct breathing. Diaphragm breathing vs chest breathing. All I did was mention some helpful steps.

For what reason people use it’s up to them. This is slow and steady breathing. No one can hyperventilate. You will pull more oxygen in then you have ever. 2 minutes is a great starting time. Most people will not be able to go more than that as the mind forgets and starts the casual breathing anyway. You build up to 5 minutes over time. You do not need supervision to breathe. You may need supervision for hypnosis and deep meditations but not to quiet or silence the mind.

Clearly didn't like being disagreed with.

Clearly didn't like being disagreed with.

Well...I see a newbie is a fan but has yet to post...

Clearly didn't like being disagreed with.

Indeed Crowan, however Mike has now re-instated the content of the posts so that they threads are not messed up. That member's account has been terminated as clearly their desire to remove their own content and ruin the threads indicates they are not interested in healthy discussion.

I just wish Vega had actually read what I'd written rather than just replying with things like

Giles your are mistaken in what you are saying. Whoever instructed you was also wrong or ill trained. Deep breathing is extremely healthy.

I didn't say it was unhealthy, I said that such breathing techniques should be done with appropriate supervision. Any forced breathing technique can cause issues in people if not supervised or advised correctly. And the person(s) who trained me are certainly not ill trained or wrong; they understand the importance of not just giving people instructions and leaving them to do it by themselves without supervision or appropriate guidance.

It's like telling someone to learn yoga out of a book. They're likely to injure themselves if they're not guided properly.