Breathwork teacher, Master Dowser, Reiki Master, Rebirthing practitioner: Sven Carlson brings unrivalled skill, wisdom and experience to his healing work. He favours a blend of key modalities, namely breathwork, meditation & dowsing, to unlock the subconscious mind. It is here that we clear old patterns and investigate the root causes of disharmony across all levels of our being. Sven shares the nuts & bolts of this transformational formula, and how you can apply it in your life...
My path into holistic healing was not one I planned. I started in deep sea rescue, then trained as a firefighter paramedic – work I did for a good number of years before an injury on a roof changed everything. Nine surgeries later, I was living with a disability and looking for a different way forward.
That search led me to a type of bodywork called the Rolf Method of Structural Integration. I experienced it, it helped me tremendously, and so I trained in it. It is a holistic, hands-on way of working with the physical body – and it opened a door I have never stopped walking through.
How it all began to connect
A few years into that work, around the mid-1990s, I began to notice something. I kept looking at people's breath – or more precisely, at the absence of it. The inability to breathe in a truly efficient way. Shallow, restricted, just-enough-to-get-by breathing. I trained in breathwork and incorporated it into my practice, then explored a few other modalities of an energetic and holistic nature.
Then, about 20 years ago, my wife Susan and I heard about dowsing. We studied and trained in it together.
Over time, something became clear. These different modalities - bodywork, breathwork, meditation, dowsing - were not as separate as they appeared. Beneath the surface differences, they all pointed toward the same thing: the subconscious mind.
That has become the through-line of everything I do. The theme running through all of it is finding ways to create permanent change - not surface change, not temporary relief, but genuine transformation at the core. And the core is almost always rooted in the subconscious. When we bring what is buried there into conscious awareness, we have real methods to clear it.
Why the subconscious matters so much
Most of us spend the majority of our lives in what is called Beta state - the active, analytical, conscious thinking mind. Beta has its place. If you are driving in rush-hour traffic or managing a demanding situation at work, you need to be in Beta. It keeps you sharp and responsive.
But Beta also gets in the way of a great deal.
You can be sitting on a park bench on a beautiful afternoon, entirely alone, with nothing demanding your attention – and find yourself in a full argument with yourself. Should I have done that? I can't believe I said that. What was I thinking? That is the conscious thinking mind. It does not rest easily. And when it is running at full volume, it makes it very difficult to hear anything deeper.
Alpha state is different. Alpha is the relaxed, clear, intuitive mind. It is the subconscious. It is also – and this is important – the healing state. When somebody is doing genuine healing work, they are in Alpha. When a medium is working, they are in Alpha. When a practitioner of any truly effective therapeutic modality is at their best, they are in Alpha. That is the frequency at which real communication and real change become possible.
Learning to access Alpha – reliably, consciously, at will – is one of the most valuable things any of us can develop.
Breathwork: The most direct route in
The most important thing I can share about breathwork is something that might surprise you: I almost do not like calling it breathwork at all. Because this particular method of breathing is not an exercise or a technique. It is the way we are meant to breathe 24 hours a day. It is the most physiologically efficient way to breathe. We are simply not doing it.
The reason most of us don't is that a pattern gets established very early in life – often at the moment of birth itself. The birth experience sets up this default of shallow, restricted breathing. And that default, once in place, tends to stay.
The consequences are twofold. First, not breathing well creates tension in the physical body. Second, when we are already carrying a little tension and then encounter something stressful, shallow breathing or breath-holding amplifies it. It compounds the very thing we are trying to move through.
Conscious connected breathing is a form of breathwork that interrupts that pattern. It is a way to drop into Alpha - that subconscious, intuitive, healing state - in around 12 to 15 minutes, even for those who are entirely new to it.
In the beginning, it takes conscious effort. You have to think about your breath. The change does not happen overnight. But gradually, something shifts. You reach a point where you notice when you are not doing it - because the pattern has been planted in the subconscious and has begun to become normal. And once it becomes normal, the effects are significant.
The person who is in control of their breath is in control of their life. They are centered. They are calm. They are not at the mercy of every passing stressor or anxious thought.
And this is something you can practice anywhere. You can use it standing in a queue at the bank. Nobody around you knows you are doing it. It is not hyperventilation. It is simply our natural way of breathing - reclaimed.
Affirmations: Planting seeds in the right soil
Once we know how to drop into Alpha, we can begin to use that state purposefully. One of the most effective ways to do this is through affirmations - but not in the way most people use them.
Here is an example. Say someone wants to lose weight. They create the affirmation: I am slim and healthy. The problem is that the conscious mind immediately contradicts it. They know they are not slim - that is why they want to make a change. So a quiet internal argument begins, and the affirmation loses its power before it has a chance to take root. This is why so many affirmations simply do not work: the conscious and subconscious minds are pulling in opposite directions.
The solution is simpler than you might think. Instead of saying I am slim and healthy, simply say: slim and healthy. There is no statement for the conscious mind to argue with. The seed is planted cleanly in the subconscious - and when we pair it with genuine visualisation and faith in the process, it grows.
The key is always to bypass the conscious mind's interference and speak directly to the subconscious. That is where lasting change lives.
Dowsing: An ancient form of subconscious inquiry
Dowsing is, at its heart, a form of prayer. It is a shamanic way of working with energy, with intention, and with the deeper intelligence of the subconscious mind.
When prayer is truly effective - when it moves beyond the surface wish and becomes a genuine act of faith - it does not come from the conscious mind. It comes from somewhere deeper. The conscious mind is too likely to immediately add: Wouldn't that be nice, or Yes, but... and undermine the whole thing.
Dowsing works through intuition - that quality of knowing something before you know why you know it. Something arrives, seemingly out of nowhere, from the intuitive subconscious mind. Through dowsing we are able to get to the core of what is actually going on in a situation and make adjustments at the level of frequency, vibration and energy.
It takes a little practice and experience. But it is one more avenue into the same essential state - a way of moving beneath the noise of the analytical mind and working with what is real.
Why these three things belong together
When I first began teaching these modalities separately - breathwork as a stand-alone course, dowsing on its own - I noticed that students would often arrive at the same questions regardless of which door they had entered through. Because all roads, in the end, lead to the same place.
The breathwork drops you into Alpha. The affirmations plant seeds in that receptive state. The dowsing accesses the intuitive subconscious to identify what needs clearing and invite in what is needed. The Dive into the Void meditation is another vehicle for the same journey - using breath as a way of exploring the subconscious directly.
What I have come to understand, after decades of working across these different modalities, is that effective healing always involves the same essential movement: from the hyper-vigilant, over-thinking, Beta-state mind into the calm, receptive, subconscious Alpha. Every modality that genuinely works is finding its own way to make that journey possible.
This is what I want to share - not just one technique, but several different angles on the same truth. Because different things speak to different people, and the more doorways we have available, the more likely we are to find the one that opens most naturally for us.
Experience the power of breathwork, meditation & dowsing
You are warmly invited to join Sven Carlson in his ground-breaking online course, The Power of Breath. This course is open to anyone. No prior experience is necessary.
If you are entirely new to breathwork, meditation or dowsing, this course offers you accessible, practical ways in. If you have already done some work in one of these areas, the course will branch out into new directions and deepen what you already know.
Whatever brings you - curiosity, a sense that something in your life needs to shift, an interest in developing your intuitive or healing practice - I hope the work meets you where you are.
The subconscious mind is not a mysterious or inaccessible place. It is closer than we think. We simply need to learn how to get quiet enough to hear it.
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