The Experience of Breath

A Video-Taped Interview: Ilse Middendorf and Juerg Roffler
Developed by Margot Biestman, Faith Hornbacher, Juerg Roffler
Executive Producers: David Wallace and Thaddeus Coberg
Studio 3, Samuel Merritt Colleges, Oakland, CA
Producer/Director: Kevin Braband

Introduction

"Breath comes and goes on its own, and with a peaceful rest we trust that the next breath cycle emerges again on its own."

This simple statement is full of richness and wisdom. It is one of nature's basic principles that we can experience in ourselves and learn about in all living creatures.

If you are interested in breath, sooner or later you will connect with Ilse Middendorf and her work.

Over the past 60 years Ilse Middendorf has developed a work called The Experience of Breath. She began searching in 1935 for the essence of a person's Self through breath. After many years of research and practice, she founded the Institute for the Experience of Breath in Berlin to train practitioners in her form of breath education. Since its inception, her work has achieved international attention for its effectiveness in bringing balance and healing to the physical, emotional, and spiritual being through breath-the healthy life-giving force.

Interview

Juerg: Dear Ilse, I am happy that we have found the time to have a conversation about breath. The breath is a very special power. How did you get in contact with it?

Ilse: It started in my childhood. I had a very strong experience when I was 11 or 12 years old. I was in my parent's garden and I was supposed to work there. But I stretched my arms towards the sky and I looked at the sun and the blue sky and suddenly a voice within me said: "You need to breathe." These words were very strong and said in a voice I hadn't known before. I was deeply touched. This experience led me to follow my strong interest in the breath as oneness of body, mind, and spirit. From early on, I had the impression that people passed over a very important part of their lives. I started to experiment with breath. Early in the morning from 5 to 7 I moved and experimented for myself in order to find out more about the breath.

Juerg: So during the day you were teaching breath and movement and in the morning you experimented with breath for yourself?

Ilse: Yes, I did that for ten years, and I even found a teacher toward the end of that time. It was Cornelius Veening, of Holland, and he gave me support and was a wonderful partner for my experiments. He especially taught me a lot about the inner value of this work.

Juerg: During what time did this happen?

Ilse: It was from the beginning of my twenties until my middle thirties. I found then that the breath has to come on its own. I am sure that I was not the only one-others found out the same-but for me it was life giving and it stayed like this. The Experience of Breath - that's the name I gave this work-evolved from the experience that breath needs to come on its own. We need to wait until breath comes, wait until it goes again, then have a little pause, and then the next breath comes on its own. This being able to wait is not an easy thing to accomplish, it means we need to be very present. Breath is usually in the unconscious, and being present in this unconscious breath, that's the big step.

Juerg: The Experience of Breath is based on the function of the unconscious breath. Could you say some more about the different forms of breath?

Ilse: There is the unconscious breath, or you can breathe with your will, or I found another form of being with the breath, which I call The Experience of Breath.

It is a natural principle that wherever we have a physical sensation and bring our presence, breath will come there, if we allow it to come and go on its own.

We let the breath come on its own, at the same time we have sensation, we are present, and we have the experience of sensation of breath movement, which processes through our whole body. This is our goal-to have this breath movement throughout our bodies. The breath movement makes the whole body permeable. You can imagine that as a logical consequence, as we process with the breath in this way, we become aware of our illnesses and difficulties, however, at the same time, we also realize that by continuing with this process, the breath brings us a sense of well being and balance, and we gain knowledge of our body.

Juerg: Breathing is part of the autonomic nervous system and accompanies every act of the body. We may think that we're fully breathing all the time, but actually, if we have worries, fears, struggles-either of an internal or external nature-our muscles become tight and inflexible and disturb the normal function of our organs and joints, causing cramping and tension and eventually, illness. However, we can reverse this process by learning about our breath in focusing, becoming sensory aware, and experiencing our natural breath movement. Through processing with breath-pain, conflict, or illness can be transformed, absorbed, and integrated as one part of our whole, and we find that breath can become our teacher within.

Juerg: We talk a lot about who we truly are and how we can grow. How do you see this in terms of breath?

Ilse: Breath is a fundamental force within ourselves. The Experience of Breath is based on our ability to sense. When we develop our ability for sensation, to be present and to sense, then we have, through presence and sensation, access to the soul. So when I sense my breath movement-that means I grow wide and swing back with the breath. This breath movement creates a sense of well-being, which is transmitted to the soul. The soul transmits it further to the spiritual. That means that whenever we are working with breath, soul and spirit are always included. Every breath cycle participates in the whole. This is actually a goal for us-that we become one.

Juerg: So it is breath movement that is the key element for the whole work.

Ilse: Yes, finally yes.

Apart from the chemical exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide which takes place in the lungs and bloodstream, breathing means, above all, movement.

Juerg: Could you say more about breath movement? How do you experience it? How does it happen? How does it develop?

Ilse: This is a very important question. So far, most people have not realized the importance of breath movement. Breath movement happens, for example, when I let my hand unfold from the center of the palm. This brings inhalation. Then I release my hand back to its initial position, and in this way my exhalation happens. Then I have a short pause after exhalation. I grow wide and I swing back. I receive my breath through my lungs, and when I open myself, breath movement travels through my whole body, and lets me grow wide, it stretches me, and then my exhalation brings me back to the starting position, where I sense my pause. And this is not just a physical experience. There is a strong connection to soul and spirit within that experience. I receive the substance from which I live, and I give it back in a new way, after I have integrated it. I now again give birth to it in a new way. I'm giving birth to exhalation, and in the pause after exhalation I can stay with myself and wait until I'm given the new substance. What I've just described addresses the body, mind, spirit as one. This has really deep meaning.

Ilse's Breath and Movement Work

Ilse: Movements coming out of the breath are the essence of the Experience of Breath. Breath movement is a primal movement-growing wide and swinging back, the primal movement of life. We listen to this primal movement of the breath and then we embody it through sensing and being present with it. As a consequence, movements are created that have specific meaning and come out of our own essence of Self. Whenever I work with The Experience of Breath I am addressing myself as a whole person, in my spiritual, emotional, and physical being, and this shows in the movement out of the breath. The Experience of Breath encompasses body, soul, and spirit. And the movement then, is the language of this trinity.

Juerg: It encompasses the whole.

Ilse: It also encompasses a whole life. You can work with this until the end of your life. And I am surprised after all these years that I have behind me, I can still receive new things.

Juerg: That is wonderful. I would like to go back to the state of being breath aware that you talked about earlier. In our society people usually know very little about this state of being. What help would you offer people to achieve this state of being?

Ilse: A whole path of The Experience of Breath has evolved around this. You know yourself, how long it takes to open yourself and your body for the breath so that it becomes permeable. There are many things we could mention out of this whole work-for example, we want to get to know the lower space, the middle, and the upper space and how to differentiate between them. It doesn't involve controlled breathing. Experiencing breath movement-growing wide with inhalation, and swinging back with exhalation to the original position, the lower space is created. This principle applies for all three spaces-the lower, the middle, and the upper. And since we're experiencing these spaces as one in body, mind, and spirit, each space also has a meaning. The lower space is our vitality, the middle space is our Self-what I am-, the upper space then, is the unfolding of all of this, and when someone has matured on this path, this will show in the back of the neck and at the base of the skull.

Juerg: Ilse I would like to ask you a personal question. What is your vision? How do you see the future of working with the breath?

Ilse: I sometimes feel we are the first of a new age and I hope very much that this new age can be developed and can come through now. It sounds utopian, but I see this happening now, and for the next two thousand years. Now we are a few, maybe a handful of people who are living with the breath. They carry the breath as a state of being within themselves. You can sense through the breath if something is out of balance. You can sense potential illnesses and disturbances and you can do something about it. The Experience of Breath creates well- being. Also thoughts and the meaning of life become different. We will go through major transformation and my vision is that people will live more in peace through the balance of the feminine and the male principle. If we allow the masculine principle to continue to be dominant and if the feminine principle continues to stay unconscious, I am pessimistic about the future, but if we allow the feminine principle to unfold into consciousness and become substantial and meaningful, and to stop imitating the masculine principle, then gradually a balance can happen between the two, and this will change life on earth-not just individually, but for the whole culture. This will take time. Right now people seem to be scared to look at themselves and take responsibility. As soon as they realize they are responsible they usually back off. With this vision there is a lot to do. And we need to be very patient.

Juerg: We talked about breath as a mediator between masculine and feminine principles. What are the processes with The Experience of Breath to achieve this goal?

Ilse: We actually did find a specific approach and when I first taught it in a group we were all very touched by it. We call it "the cave work". For this we let our hands grow wide and swing back. The movement of the hands adapts to the natural breath rhythm. The caves of the hands develop certain power between one another. And this we apply to all the caves through out the body-here, here, and here: the cave of the back, the cave of the mouth, the caves of the eyes, the caves of the head, etc. Then a strongly feminine state of being is created. We experience a moist warmth, and we don't feel like addressing ourselves to the outside world. And as a consequence of this, we now very much long for a change. Let me demonstrate that change. We take eight fingers along the spine upwards. This creates a breath movement that has an uprising and unfolding direction.

This is a real release after having been enclosed in that inner membrane ball. This now is the conclusion and the complement. The feminine is complemented by the masculine, and respectively, the masculine returns to the feminine. The spiritual becomes embodied in a very strong way. This is a totally different view than the usual.

Juerg: So through becoming aware of the feminine the masculine can evolve. And how does it return to the feminine? What is your experience?

Ilse: I need to go back to mathematics, where it says that two lines are bent in infinity, and come back to the starting position. And the same here-one lives through the other, the feminine through the masculine, and the masculine through the feminine. The feminine is more the container, and the masculine is more the direction.

Juerg: This is a big and fascinating topic. If the balance between masculine and feminine has been established, does this result in becoming more deeply aware of the Self in its substance?

Ilse: I am very much involved in working on substance as a deep spiritual, emotional, and physical experience. I have known for some time that there is a deeper power which has come through into the world to create something new. That also includes what we have mentioned-balance between masculine and feminine principles. But it is a power which also brings in the partnership with the Divine. Here we finally come to the point. Breath in partnership with the Divine can actually be experienced. Taking a breath, I am breathing, but at the same time, there is the "yes" from the higher power, and this is always so, even the smallest breath cycle has it. Once you have sensed it and experienced and accepted it, you continue on that path because it's deeply fulfilling and peaceful. And since you have asked me my vision, I have to tell you that this results in a future without wars.

Conclusion

Ilse Middendorf currently lives and works in Berlin, and maintains a full schedule-leading workshops and training practitioners throughout the world. In 1986, Advanced Seminars of Berkeley, California sponsored the introduction of Professor Middendorf's work to the United States with her close associate, Juerg Roffler, who founded The Middendorf Breath Institute in San Francisco in 1989, and directed the first training program leading to the certification of Middendorf teachers in the United States. Since then two groups of certified practitioners have graduated, and the three-and-one-half-year training program continues-with a new training group beginning every year and a half. In addition, the Middendorf Institute of San Francisco offers weekly classes, intensive workshops, individual sessions.

Developers: Margot Biestman, Faith Hornbacher, Juerg Roffler

Middendorf Breath Institute of San Francisco

Executive Producers: David Wallace and Thaddeus Coberg

Studio 3, Samuel Merritt Colleges, Oakland, CA

Producer/Director: Kevin Braband

Studio 3

Script Translators: Gryta Coates, Mani Littman, Juerg Roffler

Script Editors: Margot Biestman, Faith Hornbacher

Funded by: The Breath Center of San Francisco, a non-profit organization for the advancement of Middendorf Breathwork

The International Association of Yoga Therapists, January 1995

"Middendorf Breathwork: The Experience of Breath," by Margot Biestman and Juerg Roffler, chapter from a book on body and breathwork, to be published by Station Hill Press, NY, 1997.

The Middendorf Breath Institute
830 Bancroft Way
Berkeley, CA 94705

Phone and Fax: 510-981-1710