The River of Life Process: Dr Mayer derived the River of Life method from microcosmic orbit breathing, a Taoist breathing method first brought to the West by Richard Wilhelm (1931). Dr Mayer’s River of Life method (Mayer, 1982, 1996, 2007, 2009a) adds a visualization of water to microcosmic orbit breathing. As a person is breathing in he or she imagines energy or a river traveling up the governing vessel and on the exhalation one imagines a river traveling down the conception vessel to the belly (tan tien). This method induces a trance state that in Taoist terms opens the practitioner to experience the sea of elixir (Wilhelm, 1963). This transcendent state is used to help facilitate the practitioner release stress, mind-body energy blockages, and blocked life issues within the context of psychotherapy and behavioral healthcare. In addition, Dr. Mayer (1982) added a transmuting dimension to the River of Life by having a person focus (Gendlin, 1978) on a blockage that emerges in the river of their felt experience of flowing down the river. Then in the Bodymind Healing Psychotherapy method the person uses various methods (such as cognitive restructuring, psychodynamic methods, self soothing) to transmute the life issues and energy blockages involved.The River of Life process is a synthesis of a shamanic journey to the underworld with Western psychotherapy and Taoist alchemy.
To experience this psycho-spiritual method you can listen to the CD The River of Life available from this website. Or, to learn more about its applications, and read case illustrations about it’s use for insomnia, hypertension, chronic pain, trauma, etc., please see Dr Mayer’s books, Bodymind Healing Psychotherapy: Ancient Pathways to Modern Health, or Energy Psychology:Self-healing Practices for Bodymind Health