Dennis Lewis

Dennis Lewis (born 1940) is a non-fiction writer and teacher in the areas of breathing, qigong, meditation, and self-enquiry.

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.^[1]

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.^[2]

As an adult, Lewis studied with Mantak Chia,^[3] including on the subjects of Taoism and Qigong, and with Wang Shan Long, and with Bruce Frantzis. His main teacher in the Gurdjieff tradition was Lord John Pentland,^[3] from whom he learned breath-awareness practices as part of Gurdjieff's overall teachings. Lewis also worked with Advaita Vedanta teacher Jean Kline,^[3] with whom he studied self-enquiry, yoga and pranayama.^[4]

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".^[5] In the gatherings he employs self-enquiry, natural breathing, qigong, meditation, and special self-sensing and awareness practices.

• 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).

• Lewis, Dennis (1997). The Tao of Natural Breathing: For Health, Well-Being, and Inner growth (illus., reprint ed.). San Francisco, CA: Mountain Wind Publishing. ISBN 0965161102. Retrieved April 8, 2026.. This dated edition also corresponds to ISBN 9780965161107.

• —, — (2006). The Tao of Natural Breathing... (illus., reprint ed.). Berkeley, CA: Rodmell Press. ISBN 193048514X. Retrieved April 8, 2026.. This dated edition also corresponds to ISBN 9781930485143. A frequently cited edition, to which Mantak Chia contributed a preface.
• —, — (2016). The Tao of Natural Breathing... (reprint, revised ed.). Boulder, CO: Shambhala Publications. ISBN 1930485778. Retrieved April 8, 2026.. This dated edition also corresponds to ISBN 9781930485778. 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).

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.^[6]

Lewis' breathing instruction and practices have also been recommended to augment meditation techniques,^[7] as well as to improve singing ability,^[8] as a support for recovery from injury,^[9] for stress reduction,^[10] and for greater calm, presence, and clarity.^[11][12]

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.^[13] In the preface and introduction to The Tao of Natural Breathing,^[14] 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,^[14][15] 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.^[14]

Lewis believes that "breathing exercises are a dime a dozen",^[16] and often applied in manipulative ^[17] 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.^[18]

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.^[19]

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.^[20] 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.^[21] Jenna McCarthy, writing for Los Angeles Magazine in 2001,^[22] maintained that good breathing increases the likelihood of a longer, healthier, more-rewarding life—physically, emotionally, and spiritually,^[22] a position maintained by Lewis, and shared by many today, including breath therapists, breathing teachers, medical doctors, and researchers.

Lewis self-reports that the author Benoit Denizet-Lewis, is his son.^[23]

• Lee, Irwin (2004). "Daoist Alchemy in the West: The Esoteric Paradigms". Esoterica Journal. VI. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University: 31–51. Archived from the original on December 15, 2004. Retrieved April 7, 2026. [Quoting from the 1997 edition of Lewis' The Tao of Natural Breathing:] Another of Mantak Chia's students, Dennis Lewis has also written a 1997 work on Daoist breathing techniques and practices which he compares to certain breathing techniques and ideas that he studied with John Pentland, the English teacher of the Russian Gurdjieff system... Lewis attributes John Pentland (d. 1984) with teaching him "how to think from the perspective and sensation of wholeness" and thanks Jean Kline, an Advaita Vedanta master, for helping him to understand the "that love and consciousness are at the very heart of being."... Lewis, blending Western esotericism with Vedanta, is particularly interested in Ji Nei Zang (Chi Nei Tsang) a Chia healing technique using an "internal organ Qi massage" with breathing techniques to clear tensions and illness from the body. He has been certified by Master Chia in Ji Nei Zang and combines his work with Gurdjieff breathing techniques to break down the "buffering mechanisms" (Gurdjieff) that inhibit connection with deeper self-awareness and good health. / Following Gurdjieff's maxim that "without mastering breath, nothing can be mastered", Lewis gives a warning that correct breathing is an art and science that needs to be thoroughly studied to be correctly applied. Correct application leads to "deep inner relaxation and a freedom from willfulness," whether one is a Daoist, a yogin, or a follower of Gurdjieff, that in turn allows for true, natural breathing and a "return to the expansive emptiness of wu-ji."... Citing Gurdjieff, Lewis writes that learning wholeness requires first seeing that one is not whole but often fragmented and imbalanced; the discovery of balance cannot be forced, it requires inner quiet, clarity, calm, and learning to "follow the breath without interfering," listening to the body, and practicing the three breaths of balancing, cleansing, and energizing... Lewis notes that, reflecting Gurdjieff's ideas, both attachment to and identification with particular images, ideas, emotions, sensations, or actions can create severe limitation and disharmony, inducing poor breathing habits. These habits of identification and attachment, according to Gurdjieff, "reduce our impressions of what nature transmits to us as energy, the flow of life, slowing us down, creating poor health and leading to exhaustion."... For Lewis, this "energy" is Qi, the fundamental life force according to Daoist teachings. Lewis goes on to discuss inner alchemy, the Daoist meridian system, whole body breathing, the expansive and smiling breath, and various systems for the circulation of ji-breath in the body.... A very important scholarly secondary source. [Emphasis added.]

• Official Website