When Bir Akal (Agnes Tengerdy) mentioned to me recently that she was hosting a rebirthing session at Ignite Yoga Studio in Livingston with a Hungarian rebirthing therapist, I was intrigued. I’d heard of rebirthing before, but I didn’t really know what it involved. So I called my sister, who is my go-to expert on all things spiritual (she’s traveled to India a few times, is a healing touch practitioner, and did a stint on an ashram). And she said, “Oh, sure. I’ve done it several times and it was great!”
            I decided to find out more and share with you, dear readers, before the sessions take place next week (January 18th and 19^th; check the website for the details).  I asked Bir Akal about her personal experiences with the process and she said her first rebirthing session was  “one of the most fantastic experiences of my life. I had so many visions and I saw things and solutions clearly that I was questioning before about my life.”  Of course, she adds, everyone’s experience is different. A lot depends on how open you are to the idea of past lives or the importance of the womb stage.

            What about the rebirther (the person who walks you through this)? Bir Akal says she met Trans-personal breath-work and yoga therapist Marta Szilasi several years ago in Budapest, Hungary, where they both owned yoga studios. Bir Akal moved to the U.S. about three years ago, but kept in touch with Marta, who conducted a rebirthing session at the retreat Bir Akal ran in Hungary last year. “The participants loved it,“ she says, “they had questions and they got answers to why they had certain problems, why they had difficulties with men, and other issues. So I wanted to offer it at Ignite and asked Marta to come.”            

           During the session, Bir Akal explains, Marta leads the participants through a breathing pattern called holotropic breathing, a continuous inhale and exhale with no pause in between. Participants rest comfortably on their backs, breathing in sync with music. Marta, who learned the technique from a Russian physician, “has a wealth of knowledge,” Bir Akal says. “She is a warm, energetic presence and she helps you to understand everything that is happening. In fact, I’ve never come upon a question that she couldn’t answer.”

              Rebirthing, according to Bir Akal, is a powerful and extremely renewing method in holistic medicine. It clears and heals the subconscious and the psyche from “unknown or unrecognized blocks and patterns.” It is said to help with anxiety, stress, panic attacks, phobias, vertigo, chronic headaches, and a host of other physical and emotional problems.

            “I think the most amazing part about this process is that it is truly healing on that level that we don’t like to tap into because we’re scared. It’s unknown, it’s unconscious, it’s subconscious, it’s so hidden, and we suffer on a daily basis on the surface with allergies, pains, and all kinds of things that can be traced back to birth or even before in the womb period when we heard our parents speaking. We take on the pain, the fear, the discomfort that our mother or father is experiencing and when we are born we already have that and we have no idea how but we somehow can’t get rid of it. And this is exactly the time to face and acknowledge it and consciously exhale it out and let it go. We often find the origin of our uncertainty or low self-esteem through the process by hearing our parents or remembering their thoughts; whether they were expecting us or not, or maybe they were but as the other gender. Rebirthing gives us the chance to finish our birth emotionally.”

            If you’re open to the idea of rebirthing, check out the website as there are still  some spots left as of this writing. Each session is limited to 22 participants and lasts about two hours. (A heck of lot faster than most labors!) Hope to see you there.