Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art

A recurring theme in Nestor’s work is that breathing is both an art and a science. In the Introduction, Nestor describes breathing as a “lost art” (xx)—techniques that have existed for centuries and even millennia. Nestor attributes the rediscovery of these lost breathing techniques to a “rogue group” of “tinkerers” whom he calls “pulmonauts” (xx): “Civil war surgeons, French hairdressers, anarchist opera singers, Indian mystics, irritable swim coaches, stern-faced Ukrainian cardiologists, Czechoslovakian Olympians, and North Carolina choral conductors” (xx). Essentially, pulmonauts use artistry and science to push the boundaries of breathing, “redefining the potential of the human body” (xx).

Using successive examples, Nestor vividly demonstrates the transformative powers of breathing as an art form. Carl Stough uses highly unorthodox methods to help singers, musicians, athletes, and emphysema patients reach their full breathing potential. But the artistry of Stough’s work makes it difficult for others to replicate: “He was doing so many things at once […] The sensitivity of his hands, perfect pitch of his ears, the natural knack for instruction—all of it” (66-67). Even Nestor concedes that Stough’s methods are a “bizarre spectacle” that are just “too far out there” for conventional medical practitioners like pulmonologists to use (67-68).