5 Elements Breathwork is not hyperventilation. Healthy breathing occurs with a
balance between breathing in oxygen and breathing out carbon dioxide.
Hyperventilation is a medical condition in which one starts to breathe very fast,
thereby disturbing this balance. Exhalation is more than inhalation causing a
rapid reduction in carbon dioxide. Subsequently there is a reduction in blood
supply to the brain. Such a condition leads to symptoms like breathlessness,
lightheadedness and tingling in the fingers. Hyperventilation only occurs as an
occasional, panicked response to fear, stress or phobia.
On the other hand, 5EB is a rhythmic continuous connected breathing where
inhalation is longer and is followed by quick relaxed exhalation. Breathlessness,
a symptomatic of hyperventilation, is not a characteristic of 5EB. People who
suffer from hyperventilation do not experience profoundly positive change and
transformation as experienced in 5EB.