Comparing Effects of Intense Breathwork to Meditation on Altered States of Consciousness (A2A)

June 17, 2025 updated by: Guy Fincham, University of Sussex

Airways to Alteration: Investigating the Impact of Breathwork & Meditation on Conscious State

This study aims to investigate the impact of high ventilation breathwork (HVB) and meditation on altered states of consciousness (ASCs). The study will compare the effects of a single guided HVB session to a single guided body scan meditation session. The primary aim is to explore the impact of HVB and meditation on ASCs, while secondary aims relate to mental health and wellbeing.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The study is a randomised controlled trial (RCT) involving up to 24 healthy adult participants who have prior experience with HVB. Participants will be randomly allocated to either the HVB or meditation group. The study will assess outcomes such as altered states of consciousness, mystical experiences, emotional breakthroughs, and overall wellbeing.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

24

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United Kingdom
    • Sussex
      • Brighton, Sussex, United Kingdom, BN1 9RH
        • University of Sussex

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Healthy adults in Brighton and the surrounding area
  • Prior experience practising high ventilation breathwork in the form of conscious connected breathing
  • No history of adverse events during such prior breathwork sessions.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • History of hypotension
  • Hypertension
  • Respiratory or cardiovascular problems
  • Fainting or syncope
  • Epilepsy or seizures
  • Panic disorder or panic attacks
  • Cerebral aneurysm
  • Pregnancy (and possibility one might be pregnant, trying to get pregnant, or are breastfeeding)
  • Breathlessness
  • Bradypnea
  • Tachypnoea
  • Any mental/physical issues affecting the ability to engage in breath control activities.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Other
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Meditation
Single guided body scan meditation session.
Behavioral: Meditation
Single guided body scan meditation session.
Other Names:
  • Body scan
Experimental: High ventilation breathwork
Single guided conscious connected breathing session.
Behavioral: High ventilation breathwork
Single guided conscious connected breathing session.
Other Names:
  • Conscious connected breathing

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Altered states of consciousness
Time Frame: Immediately after the intervention.
Five Dimensions of Altered States of Consciousness Scale. Comprises five subscales: oceanic boundlessness, dread of ego dissolution, visionary restructuralisation, auditory alterations and vigilance reduction. Scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more profound altered states of consciousness.
Immediately after the intervention.
Mystical experience
Time Frame: Immediately after the intervention.
Mystical Experience Questionnaire Brief. Comprises four subscales: transcendence, positive mood, ineffability, and mystical. Scores range from 0 to 20, with higher scores indicating a more profound mystical experience.
Immediately after the intervention.
Emotional breakthrough
Time Frame: Immediately after the intervention.
Emotional Breakthrough Inventory. Scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating greater levels of emotional breakthrough (reflecting a better outcome).
Immediately after the intervention.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Psychological insight
Time Frame: Post-intervention (one week after the intervention).
Psychological Insight Scale. Scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating greater psychological insight. An additional item separately evaluates self-reported behavioural change resulting from a psychedelic experience.
Post-intervention (one week after the intervention).
Depersonalisation
Time Frame: Immediately after the intervention.
Cambridge Depersonalisation Scale (State-Version). Scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating greater levels of dissociative symptoms.
Immediately after the intervention.
Fatigue
Time Frame: Baseline and post-intervention (one week before and after the intervention).
Shortened Fatigue Questionnaire. Scores range from 4 to 28, with higher scores indicating more severe fatigue.
Baseline and post-intervention (one week before and after the intervention).
Sleep-related impairment
Time Frame: Baseline and post-intervention (one week before and after the intervention).
PROMIS Item Bank v. 1.0 - Sleep-Related Impairment - Short Form 4a (score range: 5-20; higher scores denote worse outcome). Data scored using a T-score transformation according to PROMIS Sleep scoring manual on: www.healthmeasures.net
Baseline and post-intervention (one week before and after the intervention).
Mental wellbeing
Time Frame: Baseline and post-intervention (one week before and after the intervention).
Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale (SWEMWBS) (score range: 7 to 35; higher scores denote better outcome). Total raw scores are then transformed into metric scores using the SWEMWBS conversion table on: www.warwick.ac.uk
Baseline and post-intervention (one week before and after the intervention).
Depressive symptoms, anxiety, and stress
Time Frame: Baseline and post-intervention (one week before and after the intervention).
Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) - stress, anxiety and depression subscales (score range for each: 0-21; higher scores denote worse outcomes). Score on DASS-21 then multiplied by two to convert it to the longer form DASS-42 final score.
Baseline and post-intervention (one week before and after the intervention).

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Psychedelic experience predictiveness
Time Frame: After completing consent form to participate in the study.
Imperial Psychedelic Predictor Scale. Scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores donating higher predictiveness of having a psychedelic experience. Additional items assess rapport.
After completing consent form to participate in the study.
General experience
Time Frame: One week post-intervention.
Open-ended, free text.
One week post-intervention.

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of Sussex

Collaborators

DMT Quest
ResearchHub

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

February 17, 2025

Primary Completion (Actual)

June 8, 2025

Study Completion (Actual)

June 16, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 24, 2025

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 31, 2025

First Posted (Actual)

April 8, 2025

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 18, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

June 17, 2025

Last Verified

June 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • ER/GF221/9

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

YES

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • STUDY_PROTOCOL
  • SAP

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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