Dennis Lewis

Lewis was born in 1940, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.^{[citation needed]} He attended the University of Wisconsin initially,^{[citation needed]} but earned a degree from San Francisco State University in 1967, in philosophy of religion.^{[1][independent source needed]}

Lewis was the co-founder and president of Hi-Tech Public Relations, San Francisco,^{[citation needed]} which was purchased by Shandwick P.L.C. (UK) in 1988.^[2]

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

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.^{[citation needed]} His stated goal for the workshops is to help people develop natural, conscious breathing and also integrating that breathing into one's everyday life.^{[citation needed]}

As of this date,^[when?] Lewis led "harmonious awakening" gatherings, on occasion with harmonic chant pioneer David Hykes.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

Lewis believes that "breathing exercises are a dime a dozen",^{[16][full citation needed]} and often applied in manipulative ^{[17][dead link]} or even dangerous ways.^{[citation needed]} In Lewis' books, he describes ways to avoid that by safely opening up the breathing spaces of the body.^{[original research?][citation needed]} 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.^{[according to whom?]} 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][independent source needed]}

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.^{[according to whom?]} 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.^{[original research?][19][independent source needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]} The result of lower oxygen, he claims, is anxiety, tension, or irritability among other things.^{[20][permanent dead link]} There is no general agreement about the benefits of increased oxygen blood levels.^{[citation needed]} 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][needs update]} Jenna McCarthy, writing for Los Angeles Magazine in 2001,^{[22][verification needed]} maintained that good breathing increases the likelihood of a longer, healthier, more-rewarding life—physically, emotionally, and spiritually,^{[22][verification needed][dubious – discuss]} a position maintained by Lewis,^{[citation needed]} and shared by many today,^[when?] including breath therapists, breathing teachers, medical doctors, and researchers.^{[citation needed][needs update][editorializing]}

Lewis self-reports that the author Benoit Denizet-Lewis, is his son.^{[23][better source needed]}

• 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.]