Leonard Orr

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Leonard Orr (born circa 1938) is an American spiritual leader best known for developing Rebirthing-Breathwork, a 'system' or technique of breathing that can help one to overcome the "trauma" of being born. Leonard claims to have met twelve immortal yogis, including Babaji or Herakhan Baba, the Mahavatar of the Kriya Yoga lineage brought to the West by Paramahansa Yogananda, author of Autobiography of a Yogi and founder of the Self-Realization Fellowship. Many people within value the tool of rebirthing, yet his idea of physical immortality has not gained wide spread acceptance. He is also one of the earlier proponents of "prosperity consciousness" the idea that the state of one's mind, and beliefs about oneself are a key factor in "manifesting" more money. Perhaps his most controversial idea is the pheonomena he calls "emotional energy pollution," in which other people's "death urge" and "unconsciousnees" can infect someone who is more spiritually pure. Leonard claims that when he spends too much time around less conscious people, that he oftentimes feels drained, depressed and sometimes even suicidal, from having absorbed their negative energy.

Contents

[edit] History

Leonard Orr was born in Walton New York. During his teen years, he became a born again Christian. When he converted to Christianity and started to read the Bible, he took Jesus' words literally "He who believes in me shall never taste death," that anyone who believed in Jesus literally would not die.

He attended seminary with plans of becoming a preacher. However, while in school, he Leonard said he felt a calling to be a minister to the unchurched. Pursueing this feeling of a calling and some of his curiosity about life Leonard soon was reading and practicing New Thought philosophy (such as Science of Mind and Ernest Holmes).

Before long he was teaching other people that our thoughts affect the outer world, and began to gather a bit of a following. As all of this was going on, he noticed that he was spending more and more of his time in the bathtub, literally staying in for hours everyday, and that he was beginning to have flashes of memories of being in the womb or being born a lot.

Not quite understanding what was going on, he watched this process for a few years and then offered to help other people remember their birth memories. He did this by having them relax by breathing with a snorkel in a hot-tub while floating face down.(usually supported by 2 or more people) He noticed that a certain breathing rhythm would occur, which led to the start of the Rebirthing-Breathwork technique out of water.

All the while, Leonard was fascinated with the idea of not experiencing physcial death- which he termed "physical immortality," and read, studied and searched for all the information that he could on the subject.

(work in progress)

[edit] Rebirthing Technique

Leonard has written many books regarding the rebirthing technique

Still, he does maintain that a certain breathing rhythm is the key to Rebirthing - he calls it "connected breathing":

  • there is no pause between in inhale and exhale,
  • the inhale is very deep, so that you fill even your belly and the top of your lungs,
  • the exhale is done in total relaxation, surrendering to the gravity, not controlling the process to empty your lungs.

This total relaxation during the exhale is critical for avoiding unpleasant body sensations like tension or even cramps.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] External references

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../l/e/o/Leonard_Orr_964b.html"
In other languages