Imagine unlocking psychedelic-level insights without ever taking a drug.

That’s the goal of the world’s first DeSci postdoctoral fellowship hosted at a university (University of Sussex).

It investigates a link between breathwork and altered states of consciousness.

ResearchHub Foundation is a decentralized organization that aims to align incentives in academia, making science more open. https://tinyurl.com/RHF-Home

Research already shows high-ventilation breathwork (HVB) can produce states nearly identical to medium–high doses of psilocybin.

The difference?
 
No pills. No plants. Just breath.

Most research on altered states focuses on pharmacological methods (LSD, MDMA, etc.), but there’s growing interest in non-drug approaches like breathwork because they are safer, more accessible, and acceptable medically, legally, and culturally.

Breathwork practices have been used globally for thousands of years.

Despite widespread use and strong anecdotes, research on HVB is still lacking.

The gaps:
• Limited scientific studies
• No deep study of lived experiences
• Outdated tools that miss key effects 
• Focus only on experienced practitioners

This research fills the gaps by:

• Exploring movement-informed breathwork
• Interviewing expert breathwork practitioners
• Running the first full literature review on HVB
• Conducting controlled sessions with first-timers
• Creating new tools to better measure breathwork effects

By studying breathwork systematically, this study explores a free, non-drug way for people to heal themselves of conditions like chronic pain, stress, and emotional trauma using nothing but their own breath.

This research marks the beginning of the world’s first DeSci Postdoctoral Fellowship hosted at a university, a 5-year, $500K grant designed to scale Dr. Fincham’s Breathwork Lab.

Want the full details? Here’s Dr. Fincham’s preregistration👇

This research marks the beginning of the world’s first DeSci Postdoctoral Fellowship hosted at a university, a 5-year, $500K grant designed to scale Dr. Fincham’s Breathwork Lab.

Want the full details? Here’s Dr. Fincham’s preregistration👇
https://new.researchhub.com/fund/4086/breathworklab-desci-fellowship

Dr. Fincham from @BSMSMedSchool is leading this research into high-ventilation breathwork (HVB), a technique that induces altered states similar to psychedelics.

His pioneering breathwork has been cited by Andrew Huberman and many others.