Integration: The Mandala of Being

In the vision of Stanislav Grof and Christina Grof, Holotropic Breathwork does not end when the music fades or when the breath returns to its ordinary rhythm. The session opens a threshold. Integration is the path that follows.

If the breathing session reveals the hidden architecture of the psyche, integration is the slow and respectful process of allowing what was revealed to take its place within the larger pattern of one’s life. It is the art of relationship with experience.

The holotropic state may bring encounters with biographical memories, perinatal imprints, archetypal realms, ancestral currents, and transpersonal dimensions. These experiences can arrive as beauty, terror, ecstasy, fragmentation, revelation, or profound stillness. Without integration, they may remain powerful episodes suspended in memory. Through integration, they begin to shape character, choice, and direction.

Within the Grofian framework, the psyche is understood as a living, self-organizing field guided by a deep inner intelligence. As Stanislav Grof reminded us, “The psyche has a remarkable self-healing intelligence.” Integration grows from this trust. What emerges in expanded states is approached with curiosity and humility, with the understanding that even the most disorienting material carries movement toward wholeness.

The Mandala: A Universal Form

At the end of each Holotropic Breathwork session, participants are invited to sit quietly with paper and colors and draw a mandala.

The word mandala comes from Sanskrit and can be translated as sacred circle or centered whole. Across cultures and centuries, circular symbolic forms have appeared in temples, rituals, cosmologies, and sacred art—from Tibetan thangkas and Hindu yantras to the rose windows of Gothic cathedrals and the medicine wheels of Indigenous traditions.

The circle is one of humanity’s most universal symbols. It represents wholeness, totality, the movement of life around a center. Day follows night. The seasons turn. Birth, death, and renewal shape the rhythm of existence.

In the field of depth psychology, Carl Gustav Jung observed that mandalas often emerge spontaneously in dreams, visions, and artistic expression during times of deep psychological transformation. For Jung, the mandala symbolized the psyche’s movement toward integration—the emergence of a deeper center that can hold the many aspects of the self.

Within Holotropic Breathwork, the mandala becomes a simple yet powerful bridge between the expanded state and ordinary consciousness.

As Jung noted in the Red Book:

"The Mandala is the centre. It is the exponent of all paths. It is the path to the centre, to individuation."

Giving Form to the Inner Journey

Immediately after the session, participants draw their experience within a circular space.

There is no expectation of artistic skill. The purpose is not to create a beautiful image but to allow the experience to take form.

Colors, shapes, symbols, fragments of scenes, abstract movements, or even empty spaces may appear on the page. Some mandalas are filled with intense color and motion. Others remain sparse and quiet, holding only a few lines or gestures. Sometimes an image that seemed chaotic during the session suddenly finds a place within the circle. At other times the drawing itself reveals something that was not consciously noticed before.

The circle acts as a container.

Within its boundary, seemingly unrelated elements can coexist: light and darkness, birth and death, rage and tenderness, animal forms and cosmic imagery. The mandala does not demand immediate interpretation. Instead, it allows the psyche to continue its process of organization.

What appeared overwhelming during the session may begin to settle into relationship. Fragments become part of a larger pattern.

In this way, the mandala becomes a mirror of the psyche’s integrative movement.

The Mandala as a Bridge

The drawing is not merely a record of what happened. It becomes a companion for the days and weeks that follow.

During integration, participants may return to their mandala with fresh eyes. Sometimes a symbol that initially seemed mysterious begins to resonate with events in daily life. A color, a shape, or a gesture may reveal connections between different layers of experience—biographical memories, perinatal passages, archetypal imagery, or transpersonal encounters.

The mandala invites ongoing dialogue.

Placed on a desk, revisited in journaling, or reflected upon in quiet contemplation, it continues to speak. Over time it can reveal patterns, transitions, and inner movements that are not immediately obvious.

It is not unusual for participants to see their mandala differently weeks or even months later. What once seemed chaotic may reveal an unexpected coherence. What once felt like darkness may show the first traces of transformation.

The Mandala of Integration

Gradually, connections appear. A childhood memory resonates with a mythic image. A birth-related constriction softens through embodied awareness. An encounter with death reshapes one’s relationship to life. The extraordinary begins to inform the ordinary.

Integration unfolds across multiple dimensions.

Psychologically, it supports the assimilation of intense material into a coherent and resilient sense of self while preserving its depth.

Somatically, it allows activation to settle and expand into greater nervous system capacity, widening the window of presence.

Existentially, it invites revision of outdated narratives and opens space for choices aligned with one’s deeper values.

Relationally, it influences how we love, set boundaries, create, and participate in community. What has been touched inwardly seeks expression outwardly.

In the careful integrative work articulated by Kylea Taylor, the experience itself is only one phase of the journey. Insight asks for grounding. Vision asks for embodiment. Expanded states reveal possibilities that require ongoing attention and ethical responsibility in daily life.

Within the Grof Transpersonal Training, integration is cultivated as a continuous practice woven throughout the training process. Facilitators learn to accompany this delicate phase with discernment, sensitivity to spiritual emergency, and respect for the autonomy of the inner process. The aim is to support experiences in finding their rightful place within the whole person and within the context of community.

The Slow Turning of the Circle

Integration is not a single step. It is a gradual unfolding.

Just as the mandala forms around a center, life itself reorganizes around what has been touched in the session. Insights settle into choices. Emotions reshape relationships. Symbols slowly reveal their meaning.

Over time, what once felt overwhelming or ineffable becomes part of one’s lived orientation.

The breath opens the door.

The mandala holds the experience.

Integration shapes the life that follows.

Foundational References

Carl Gustf Jung: The Red Book

Stanislav Grof. The Adventure of Self-Discovery. SUNY Press, 1988

Stanislav Grof. Psychology of the Future: Lessons from Modern Consciousness Research. SUNY Press, 2000

Kylea TaylorThe Ethics of Caring: Honoring the Web of Life in Our Professional Healing Relationships. Hanford Mead, 1995

Kylea Taylor Considering Holotropic Breathwork: Essays and Articles. Hanford Mead, 2007