Except for the first exercise below, the "no sound" exercise, don't try these advanced breathing techniques until you have all the basics mastered and especially until you have the chest and belly moving properly.

No Sound

For some people the 'ah' sound serves as almost a distraction. So much effort is put into making the proper sound that it effects the rhythm of the breathing. The person concentrates on making the proper sound and in doing so is unable to let the breath process proceed smoothly.

There is no harm in dropping the sound. This is done for either of two reasons. One, is when you are concentrating so hard on the sound that it is disrupting or might be disrupting your breathing. Then drop the sound so that you can focus on the feel of natural full breathing. You breathe all day long and all night long and you do not concentrate on it. It should be the same in these exercises. At first concentration is necessary because you are learning to breathe in a proper manner. But in time the whole cycle should become so natural that it does not take any mental focus. It simply feels right.

The second reason is after you have mastered the normal breathing and sound, it can be productive to just pay attention to the feel of deep breathing with rhythm. With no sound there is less of a tendency to have a pause between an inhale and an exhale. They just follow one on the other.

'Ah' With No Throat Sound

This is one of the most interesting aspects of proper breathing. Yet I have held it to near the end of Part One of the book because it is one of those things which is easy to say but seemingly difficult for most people to do.

One of the very strange things about deep breathing is that while in fact it is done by the diaphragm and the rib muscles, still most people breathe with their throat. How, you might ask? Well, right, you can't breathe with your throat but still that is how most people approach their deep breathing. If that seems strange, listen to the Sounds of Reichian audio. You can hear it there.

So, how? Well, people treat a deep inhale as though they were inhaling to the throat and even more on the exhale; they control the exhale by tensing the throat muscles.

How can you tell if you are doing that and what can you do about it? That's what I address here.

Let's start with the inhale even though this is less of a problem than the exhale. The issue here is to see where you are putting your focus during the inhale. Since the inhale is belly then chest it is usually the case that the belly breathing is easy while the chest breathing is throat-controlled. There are exceptions where the chest is easy and the belly difficult, but that is not as common.

In learning to breathe without breath sounds, start with focusing during the inhale on your belly, that is drawing in the air and then your chest that is drawing in the air. Recall that you do not inhale as such, you simply balloon out the belly and then expand the chest. The air comes in by itself (to fill the vacuum) rather than you drawing it in. If you need to: (1) drop the 'ah' sound on the exhale and (2) do belly only breathing, then chest only breathing. Get the distinct feel of how you are not inhaling as an active process, rather you are ballooning the belly and expanding the chest as the active processes.

Now the more difficult one, the exhale. Here there is a very definite indication of how you might be breathing with your throat rather than with the body. The indication is a soft rasping sound during the exhale after the 'ah' sound. In other words the exhale produces a sound from the throat. This throat sound can be heard on the Sounds of Reichian audio.

Try this. Take a deep complete breath through your nose. Do you hear any sound during the exhale? Now take the same complete breath through your mouth. Now do you hear a sound during the exhale? You shouldn't. It is the same breath, the same inhale and exhale whether done through the nose or done through the mouth.

When your throat is open during the exhale and you are not trying to control the exhale from the throat, then there is no sound at all except the sound of the air itself. This sound is almost inaudible. If you can distinctly hear the exhale while it is happening, then you are still breathing from the throat. Instead of allowing the relaxation of the diaphragm and the natural fall of the chest to expel the air, you are attempting to control the outflow of the air from your throat.

While I call this exercise 'ah with no breath sound,' it does not in any way compromise the exercise if you drop the 'ah' sound. The issue is learning by experience that the body can be trusted to do its job without you having to control it or make sure it does it right.

It may surprise you to find that you are afraid to just let the air exit in a completely uncontrolled manner; to simply let the body (belly and chest) be the controller.

The thought of letting the body take care of everything without conscious control and monitoring is especially difficult for people who have issues with suspicion, control, doing it right, or a lack of trust that they will do things properly if they do not control each aspect of it. You can see how mastering this exercise can have a profound effect on your nature. To let go of issues that interfere with living life pleasurably instead of by having everything just right.

Rhythmic Breathing

This is the last of the exercises in Part One of the book. But don't expect it to be mastered easily. The work you have done above on the 'ah with no breath sound' is an essential preparatory step for this exercise. Here you are going to go the last step, to fully letting go of control.

They way I describe this is to say: think of a pendulum. It swings back and forth on a constant arc, each swing takes the same amount of time and the time of the up stroke in one direction is the same as the time for the up stroke in the other direction.

The other way to look at this is that the inhale causes the exhale which causes the inhale which causes the exhale and so on. The deeper the inhale gets the more the body wants to exhale and the deeper the exhale the more the body wants to inhale. There is no longer even a trace of the idea of first inhaling and then exhaling as two separate steps. Breathing is simply continuous, deep, and rhythmic. The feeling you will get throughout your body when you do this properly is not capable of being put into words. Our language simply lacks words for this feeling. The best I can say is that this feeling of freedom and simple rightness is felt throughout the body, not simply in the belly and chest.

By the time you have mastered this last step you will more than likely have discovered profound changes in yourself.