Breathing with the Rhythm of Nature
Join us for a six-minute electrical reset. (Audio track + movement instructions)
Plugging in to the universal life force is the most important thing we can do every day. At least that’s what Ikuko Osumi Sensei would unequivocally advise, and she was the greatest healer of 20th Century Japan.1
Sensei called this life force seiki, and regarded it as the source of healing, wellbeing, and relational harmony. It’s an electrical-like current that pulses through every living thing. While seiki is always present, to maintain optimal vitality our relationship to it must be regularly revived and renewed. Plug in, tune in, wake it up! Do it for health, do it for healing, but also do it because this sacred current renders us more caring, inspiring, and relationally wise rather than consumed by frustration, exhaustion, despair, selfishness, or anger.
Osumi Sensei taught that seiki is best nurtured through effortless, spontaneous movement: a simple, daily “seiki workout” that is performed seated on a bench. There is no preset sequence or choreography to follow. One simply surrenders all purposefulness and lets the body move.
In recent years, Brad and I took the traditional seiki exercise, dusted it with Kalahari sand, and pan-fried it in music. The result is something we call Ecstatic Sound Movement—a daily retreat to the higher playground of spontaneous movement and soulful sound. Ecstatic Sound Movement sets free our body’s natural wisdom that lies beyond the reach of conscious mind.
Gloriously, this practice requires no words. Before language and written doctrine there was only sacred emotion + sound + movement—the holy trinity of spiritual renewal. Let’s travel back in time together to join the ancestors for a brief plunge into the primordial pulse. Reset! Our journey today will take only six minutes and twenty-one seconds (though you may wish to repeat it more than once).
Your movement instructions and the accompanying musical track are below.
But first, we share the brief dream in which they were received. It’s one of several dreams from last summer in which Osumi Sensei instructed us in matters of “spiritual electricity,” which then became the primary focus of our recent Guild season. That resulted in the expansion of our Ecstatic Sound Movement audio library and movement repertoire, and also the launch of “Electrical Grand Rounds,” a new means of coaching in matters of electrical conductance that is still evolving.
Brad reports:
We found ourselves in the special room in Tokyo where Osumi Sensei transmitted seiki. She was excited, and her Japanese words flowed like the fast rapids of a mountain stream.
Without understanding what she was saying, we soon realized that Sensei was instructing us through a seiki transmission.
As she spoke, my breathing changed. It became smooth and in sync with what I can only describe as the “rhythm of nature.” I don’t know what that means, but those are the words that came to mind.
With each inhalation, an electrical current rocked steadily and smoothly back and forth as it climbed up my spine. Then with each exhalation, the current rocked side to side again while traveling back down.
Up and down, back and forth—this rocking current continued to ascend and descend with each breath. It felt effortless, rejuvenating, and healing.
Then Osumi Sensei spoke one word in crystal-clear English: “Concentrate.”
I could sense that in this context, concentration was not about focusing my mind but surrendering fully to what was happening. It meant dropping all expectation, anticipation, and self-observation.
Inhalation and exhalation, up and down, rocking side to side—this grew into electrical bliss.
I finally woke up from the dream and continued to feel the transmission taking place within. In an ongoing state of electrified joy, I mystically heard an audio track that was different than anything I had heard or composed before. I vowed to record it the next day.
Audio Track & Movement Instructions
Do this on a bench or sturdy chair that allows you to be upright and move freely.
1. Before you listen to the track, take a brief moment to begin breathing with the rhythm of nature. Don’t think about what this means; just do it. (Hint: breathe smoothly, naturally, and without effort.)
2. Then play the track below. Know this: the sound is also breathing with the rhythm of nature. Let the sound guide your movement. A gentle rock, sway, or wiggle may be all you need, although there are no rules other than to be in sync with what you hear. As you breathe, listen, and move, the electrical current circulates through you. You’ll notice the sound is sometimes fast and sometimes slow, like a river flowing through different channels and landscapes. Free your body to respond to these acoustic variations.
In summary: Breathe, listen, and move to stir up the electricity within.
Enjoy tinkering, and please let us know how it goes in the comments! Remember: concentrate. Concentration is surrender to breath, sound, and movement. Let’s go and let the current flow:
(You can also find this track on Soundcloud)
Warm (and humid) greetings from the Deep South,
Hillary & Brad
(And thank you for hitting the heart button!)
P.S. If you want more music, movement, and electrical conductance, join us in October for the next season of the Sacred Ecstatics Guild.
Posts you may have missed
See our book, Seiki Jutsu: The Practice of Non-Subtle Energy Medicine
 | A guest post by
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Confession: when I'm consumed with frustration, exhaustion, despair, fear, or anger (a state which sets in about 30 seconds after reading the headlines), usually the LAST thing I want to do is turn on a musical track and move. I'd rather stew, tackle a bunch of tasks, or surf the internet for a more pleasant distraction. This habit persists, even though experience has taught me that six minutes of surrender to sound + movement puts me almost instantly back in touch with eternity in a way no thinking or talking ever can.
Six minutes and twenty-one seconds of wordless surrender to the current and my whole being is realigned with the source and force of creation.
It’s an experience my rational mind cannot comprehend, and therefore it continues to doubt it. When faced with the clear need for an electrical (rather than psychological) reset, I re-face the same crossroads all over again to follow the wisdom of the ecstatic saints rather than my Idiotic Logic Generator. Even after all these years, my dear mind insists that nothing is beyond its reach and that it will be waiting for me with lots of important thoughts once all this movement nonsense is out of my system. It means well.
But if I waited for my conscious mind to conjure the motivation to put on a track and move, I’d be waiting forever in a lifeless, un-plugged state. So I put my faith in the lineages of ecstatic movers and shakers, let go of myself, and then get breathing, listening, and moving with the rhythm of nature. And then I’m home again (until the connection comes unplugged a few hours later and I must come back for another round).
Reset!
Every re-listen is new, hearing surprises I "missed" before. Swaying. A half-word or tone murmuring up from me. Swaying. Thank you, Osumi Sensei and lineage...what a wonderful way to be alive!