Dennis Lewis

Lewis was born in 1940, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He attended the University of Wisconsin initially, but earned a degree from San Francisco State University in 1967, in philosophy of religion. ==Career==

Lewis was the co-founder and president of Hi-Tech Public Relations, San Francisco, which was purchased by Shandwick P.L.C. (UK) in 1988. As an adult, Lewis studied with Mantak Chia, with whom he studied self-enquiry, yoga and pranayama. As of April 2008, Lewis had conducted "Authentic Breathing" workshops and retreats at venues such as the Esalen Institute, and at the National Qigong Association conferences. His stated goal for the workshops is to help people develop natural, conscious breathing and also integrating that breathing into one's everyday life. As of this date, Lewis led "harmonious awakening" gatherings, on occasion with harmonic chant pioneer David Hykes. He describes those gatherings as helpful for seeing and going "beyond the boundaries of the conditioned mind—the habitual constellation of thoughts, emotions, sensations, beliefs, and judgments that each of us calls 'myself'," and claims they can help people "awaken to who they really are". In the gatherings he employs self-enquiry, natural breathing, qigong, meditation, and special self-sensing and awareness practices. ==Writing==

Published works Works edited • Sacred Tradition & Present Need (out of print, co-editor with Jacob Needleman). • On the Way to Self Knowledge (out of print, co-editor with Jacob Needleman). Works authored • . This dated edition also corresponds to . :* . This dated edition also corresponds to . A frequently cited edition, to which Mantak Chia contributed a preface. :* . This dated edition also corresponds to . The most thoroughly previewed of digitally archived editions (through March 2026). • Free Your Breath, Free Your Life (Shambhala Publications, 2004). • Natural Breathing (audio program, Sounds True, 2005). • Breathe Into Being: Awakening to Who You Really Are (Quest Books, 2009). Discussion In Toropov and Hansen's book ''The Complete Idiot's Guide to Taoism'', they distinguish Lewis' approach from the "soupy, impractical... melange of ideas [of others] that have little to do with core Taoist principles", and recommended Lewis' approach to traditional Taoist breathing practices:A few [groups] actually meet the dual requirement of short-term practicality and consistency with traditional Taoist ideals. ... We propose, as one representative... Authentic Breathing Resources, a San Francisco-based clearinghouse for information about ... [materials] developed by author Dennis Lewis. His book The Tao of Natural Breathing is probably the best and simplest resource [as of 2002] for incorporating traditional Taoist meditative breathing practices. Lewis' breathing instruction and practices have also been recommended to augment meditation techniques, as well as to improve singing ability, as a support for recovery from injury, for stress reduction, and for greater calm, presence, and clarity. Critique and rebuttal In a 2004 critique of New Age literature by Jeremy Carrette and Richard King, Lewis is cited as drawing upon the traditional Taoist interest in longevity, but his writing is also categorized as an example of the "flattening out" of subtle cultural and philosophical religious ideas for the commercial and modern self-help and personal development movement. In the preface and introduction to The Tao of Natural Breathing, however, Lewis states that his intention in this book wasn't just to explore "the relationship of breathing to health and inner growth" from the Taoist perspective, but also from his "observations and discoveries" from Advaita Vedanta, the Gurdjieff Work, Ilse Middendorf, Feldenkrais, and others, along with scientific principles from anatomy, neurochemistry, and physiology. ==Teachings==

Lewis believes that "breathing exercises are a dime a dozen", and often applied in manipulative or even dangerous ways. In Lewis' books, he describes ways to avoid that by safely opening up the breathing spaces of the body. His techniques employ a mix of mindfulness and awareness practices, movements, postures, touch, and sound, with a stated emphasis on learning how to exhale fully and effortlessly. He writes in his articles and books that when the exhalation is full and natural, the inhalation usually takes place spontaneously in the most appropriate way for the demands of the moment. Lewis claims that most people are unaware of their breathing until they have some kind of major problem; this lack of breathing awareness, he believes, and is a manifestation of a larger issue: a general lack of self-knowledge and self-awareness. Reflecting the teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff, Lewis maintains that people often live unconscious, mechanical, disharmonious lives, unaware of the miracle of their own being. In his writing and teaching about breathing, Lewis maintains that many people habitually hyperventilate—by which he means taking rapid shallow breaths from the top of the chest instead of breathing more naturally with the entire abdomen and back—and that this reduces carbon dioxide levels in the blood too rapidly, causing an oxygen shortage in the brain and body. The result of lower oxygen, he claims, is anxiety, tension, or irritability among other things. There is no general agreement about the benefits of increased oxygen blood levels. Mary Purucker, a pulmonary specialist in the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, stated to writer Linda Bren in 2003 that there were no long-term, well-controlled scientific studies that support claims of benefit for increased oxygen in healthy people. Jenna McCarthy, writing for Los Angeles Magazine in 2001, maintained that good breathing increases the likelihood of a longer, healthier, more-rewarding life—physically, emotionally, and spiritually, Note, the device being sold is termed an "EWOT system", a part of the title that was earlier omitted from the citation, masking the commercial nature of the website. The page to which readers were linked, with firther outlinks to therapeutic claims for the device being sold, closes with a paragraph-long "Disclaimer" stating that "This Website Does Not Provide Medical Advice".--> ==Personal life==

Lewis self-reports that the author Benoit Denizet-Lewis, is his son. ==Further reading==