There should be some sort of, like, trusted bureau that gives a woo-level ranking to these things. Massage therapy boards and such are too busy unsuccessfully rooting out human trafficking on the other side of the self-help spectrum.

As an aside, and in all seriousness, how well would this works for a self-medicated functional alcoholic who thinks breathing exercises involve rolling a cigarette first? Does one have to be one of the self-congratulatory "healthy" and swear off vices to benefit from this, or is it something you can do before you head off to the bar?

Holographic breathwork was developed as a result of psychedelic prohibition by Stan Grof. He was having great luck with LSD for alcoholism and then prohibition stopped that research. Breathwork was developed as a way to induce the same states of conciousness and it’s proved to be effective.

Basic idea is addictions are largely driven by unresolved trauma and breathwork / transpersonal practice is a way to allow the nervous system to release and shift into a healthier state where the desires to numb with substances diminishes.

>Does one have to be one of the self-congratulatory "healthy" and swear off vices to benefit from this, or is it something you can do before you head off to the bar?

This is... well it's much more of a direct physical response so no you don't need to have any particular uh mental states or be self-convinced of some woo.

Have you ever hyperventilated until you felt lightheadded? You can do this on purpose right now with no training or conditioning your thoughts or anything and there you go, you've got neurological effects from breathing.

This technique is just advanced "hyperventilating until you feel lightheaded".

If you've got a medical condition you might want to reconsider or be very careful about getting the right information before you try.

What's the woo-issue? If you go on a $30,000 retreat to find yourself, first off, where'd you get $30 grand to do that with, but if you're going to spend that much on that, does it really matter what mystical energy the shaman believes in? So it's machine elves vs Gaia vs we're living in a simulation. It's not like there are numbers for this kind of thing. Before I went in, I scored 78 on the "how lost am I", and then at place A, for $30,000, and 1 month, I was only scoring 20 on the "how lost am I" scale, so $517 per point. Place B is $300 per point on the "how lost am I" scale, but takes more time.