Breathing Notes – The Key 

By Andrew Skadberg
Supporting Evidence, Essays and Experiences 

Your Breath The Key - A Free E-book
July 19, 2010
The following material has been coming together since 2007. The catalyst, I believe, was spending eight days in Jamaica with Desmond Green. The foundation of Desmond´s work is Conscious Deep Breathing (CDB). More thoughts and some insights from this time are revealed in the essays in section II.

But what is important right now is the realization that what has occurred to me on a very deep level as of the date of this writing. To Desmond this idea is simple – that our breath is the source of life – when I asked him yesterday on the phone when he discovered the truth about the breath, he said for at least his whole lifetime – at least this incarnation.

For me the process has not been so clean, or simple. I am insatiably curious. I don´t believe everything that people tell me. I have to do the research myself, and ultimately experience it. Experience is one of my “talents”, obsessions, needs?

So the process of me getting re-introduced to my breath, ironically even though I have supposedly been doing it all of my life, happened with Desmond in 2007. But this path of coming to know that it really is “a key”, or the key for opening the door to our more fulfilled and free experience, or awakening, has really come to full cognition in the past few days. (this key I believe applies at least for the majority of the human population).
As one will discover with the essays in Section II, I was immersed in the catalyst of the breath upon my first exposure to Desmond and Conscious Deep Breathing. But the process of “validating” then came in. I had to know. I had to find the evidence to support this idea. I don´t know why, but this is just my process.

In short, the epiphany I had was getting clarity on the unique character of breathing. It is both an autonomic and conscious act. Unlike our heartbeat, our liver functions, and all of the natural bodily processes that are maintained by some other power (not our mental thinking consciousness), the breath can easily be controlled – at least the pace, depth and duration. Of course these autonomous functions are maintained by the life force itself, or God, the One, Source, Creator, Buddha, Krishna, etc. We do not have to think about these things. We also, ultimately, do not have to think about our breath. But if we do, then we can control it. This in not the case with our heartbeat (there are always exceptions as in the case of Yogis), our brain functions, our lung functioning. They all take care of themselves – thank goodness.

But our breathing is something that we can control consciously. And as Desmond has pointed out and reminded me innumerable times, it is the key, the source, the flow of Spirit into my life. This puts us at the center of a breathing cosmos. Our breath, in re-cognition of ourselves as Spirit breathing consciously, unlocks the flow of Spirit into our brains and Beings in a way that is revolutionary. It is the source for true freedom from the illusionary reality that most of us find ourselves trapped within.

Together with this recognition of the breath being the key, is the recognition of this also unlocking another blockage that has been around, at least as long as most recorded “history” that we are living in. This is related to the imbalance of the male and female energies, the Yin and Yang, likely in both our individual and collective experiences.

I have known about this imbalance since I read the book The Tao of Physics in 1986. Fritoj Capra presented the thesis that there is a waveform of life that moves between the male and female energies (at least this is my recollection). As one can surmise, we have been way far into the male (Yang) energies for at least 2000+ years, but according to Capra we are moving back to the feminine (Yin). The imprinting of this idea has been with me ever since reading his book, and my observations is that most of the challenges in the world are a result of this imbalance.

Recently I have learned that I have a larger job to accomplish in the world as a possible harbinger of this re-balancing. How this is to occur is not entirely clear to me at this point, but I believe that the breath is the key, at least based upon the discovery that is being revealed in this compilation.

Desmond has outlined a “template for successful living” in his book The Practice. And then also outlined a curriculum that is described as adding “Reverence for Life”, or The 4th R – to reading, ´riting, ´rithmatic. We have combined these two books into The Global Citizenship Passport which is available for free through a project in Jamaica called the Global Breath Consciousness Institute/Self Management Institute and Reverence for Life University. I have been working closely with Desmond now for these three years, but have now really truly come to appreciate the profundity of these, apparently, simple works. The reason I say “apparently” is that there is profound depth, in these simple clear outlines. They need to be simple in order for the message to be received by the greatest number of people. There can be no exclusions because of education, creed, color, etc. The message must be understandable for all – and that is what Desmond has accomplished.

Included in this compilation are the documents that came to me recently through my research, that pulled some pieces to the puzzle together between the rebalancing, or bringing the feminine back into the equation with conscious awareness. This was revealed in the article “Goddess in Judaism” in the fact that Spirit is recognized as the female aspect of God. So, if Spirit moves through the breath, then the rebalancing is simply a matter of breathing. And as Desmond has revealed, and other´s that are included in this compilation, the issue is with our consciousness of the breathing process.

There are many other topics that could be delved into along these lines such as the dormancy of our pineal gland (which has been recognized as our connection to greater cosmic awareness) due to improper breathing, and other effects of this individual and collective “asphyxia”, but my purpose here is to present my personal insights and share a portion of the most important supporting writings.

All this discussion, I understand, is not ultimately necessary. If one just trusts the process of the breath, it really takes care of itself. However, in my particular case, and I suspect with others, it is nice to get validation. Additionally, as each of these various “breath fruits” (as per Desmond) have been picked up, I have discovered that my path seems to become more illumined. That I suspect will be leading me to the simplicity of the connection between the “light” and our “breath”, but that is a topic for later inquiry.

Why the Breath?
In my searching for answers, I have been lead to many different sources. In many respects they are different “spins” on a theme depending on the orientation of the messenger. Much of this stuff appeals to a person’s thinking. I love this stuff. For example, Eckhart Tolle’s writing.
However, at some point I ask the question “so what, now what?” After all of these ideas, thoughts, philosophies, inspirations are shared what do we actually do? The consistent answer for the starting point in beginning “a practice” is breathing. Some will argue this fact, but in my research the importance of breathing comes through abundantly clear. This is not to suggest that a person think that it is the only solution, or a place to stop. The universe is a candy store and we can choose freely of what we find on the shelves. Author's note Oct. 18, 2012 - A new presentation is available giving a summary of The Practice, and an interpretation of moving from and "image based consciousness" to a "breath based consciousness".

In the second section I present some journal entries because it was with my meeting Desmond Green, whom I might call the “Breathing Meister” that began an incredible whirlwind spiritual adventure that seems to be even speeding up as time goes on.

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