– updated September 2026
Uncontrolled stress in the world of our outward-facing consciousness sparks a take-off into the empty breath. It synchronises the heaviness of this low-frequency world with the lightness of the high-frequency world, felt through inward-facing consciousness. In this synchrony, we feel light even under stress.
From Duality Hack #9.1 in the free eBook Alexius’ Duality Hacks.
Foreword
Whether a dream leaves us stressed or relaxed, both states are make-believe. The dream world isn’t real – yet neither is our waking world. Every experience is make-believe, because awareness of something requires more than one, and reality is that which is One.
Consequently, the following description of inward and outward-facing consciousness is as illusory as anything else involving more than one. Yet its purpose isn’t to strengthen belief in more than one, but to facilitate its undoing. Alexius’ Duality Hacks do this by using elements of belief in more than one to reveal that there is no more than what is One.
Within this context, below you’ll find a quick overview of these two modes of consciousness. Next, Alexius invites you to use uncontrolled thoughts and feelings to spark a take-off into the empty breath, a state of not-knowing that brings indifference and undoes belief in more than one.
The difference between inward-facing and outward-facing consciousness lies in how much the brain has turned nothing into something that we experience as something substantial. Inward-facing consciousness refers to experiences the brain has not fully turned into something substantial, so they appear abstract and internal. Outward-facing consciousness refers to experiences the brain has fully converted into something. As these experiences make us feel like we’re in a substantial external world, they appear tangible and external.
The abstract and the substantial-looking world
We see, hear, feel, and taste an abstract world through inward-facing consciousness. We sense a material world through outward-facing consciousness. The material world seems external and tied to locations, while the abstract world feels internal and unconfined. Thus, they are called inward- and outward-facing consciousness.
Outward-facing consciousness immerses us in a world bound by time and space. Hence, we constantly seek thoughts to define these concepts. In contrast, inward-facing consciousness, with its immaterial character, has nothing to define. Thus, it requires little thought to experience.
Thankfully, the empty breath synchronises these consciousnesses. This alignment makes the anxiety-inducing nature of outward-facing consciousness abstract, so the experience becomes peaceful rather than unsettling. Read more about this in Duality Hack #9.8, which is dedicated to the inward- and outward-facing consciousness. In this hack, we continue with how to spark a take-off into the empty breath.
You can’t experience the abstractness of inward-facing consciousness without also experiencing being someone within the external, material world of outward-facing consciousness. Thankfully, the empty breath can synchronise these two worlds in a ratio where you’re hardly aware of being material, yet still aware enough to experience the abstractness of inward-facing consciousness. [Photo: Alexius]
To spark a take-off into the empty breath
If you aim to become or achieve something specific, you are single-minded, not dualistic. Hence, because you are out of sync with duality’s nature, you feel restless. You can resolve this by joining the duality flow, which settles you in a dualistic world. See Duality Hack #8.8.
You can also ease your restlessness by taking a brief break from duality. To do this, do not avoid or edit the feeling of restlessness – instead, follow its uncontrolled energy until it sparks a take-off into the empty breath.
This happens so fast that you hardly notice entering a state of not-knowing. In this state, the empty breath synchronises the low-frequency world of outward-facing consciousness with the high-frequency world of inward-facing consciousness. Therefore, the once-overwhelming energy of restlessness, now perceived from the high-frequency world, no longer disturbs but refreshes you.
Simply put, when your reactions to the external world are seen through inward-facing consciousness, it’s as if the outside world no longer holds the same power over you. Of course, this distinction between external and internal is just a belief – like dreams, every experience actually takes place in the brain.
Still, as Alexius’ Duality Hacks are written in the context of the belief that our experiences are real, we continue within this context, using the distinction between the external and internal worlds to undo it.
Where is the empty breath?
The brain constructs all our experiences. However, these experiences are not founded on sensory information, as the brain claims (Duality Hack #1.2). According to science, the brain receives nothing because the world, including the brain, consists of empty space. Therefore, the brain twists nothing into an experience of something, making us feel substantial in a world experienced as outside us.
Since the brain always takes one second to twist empty space into our current experience of a substantial world, we join the empty breath, residing in nothing, by mentally going back one second to the nothingness of our present experience.
Just before we reach it, we pass through the abstract domain of inward-facing consciousness, the brain’s first step in moulding nothingness into something. Then, about a second later, the brain has turned that abstractness into our current experience of being a physical person in the material world of outward-facing consciousness, reading this.
Be aware that being in empty space – unprocessed by the brain – is a non-physical experience you have while experiencing a world that seems material. However, you don’t perceive the material world through outward-facing consciousness but through the lens of inward-facing consciousness. Thus, you experience the physical world as you do a painting.
Connecting with the empty breath has nothing to do with appearance – it’s about being a medium for nothing. This requires only a willingness not to be something specific. [Photo: Alexius]
The less you know, the easier it is to connect with the empty breath
Accessing the empty breath doesn’t require a deep understanding of inward- and outward-facing consciousness. After all, these are just conceptual constructs trying to explain the impossible: that the brain spins something from nothing. You don’t even need to know you’re stepping back a second in time to encounter the empty breath.
You access the empty breath simply by not trying to stop or alter thoughts and feelings. Their unleashed energy then sparks a take-off into the empty breath, bringing about a state of not knowing in one second. If you fear being swept up by the unbound speed of thoughts and feelings, acknowledge that fear as it is – its raw force then sparks a take-off into the empty breath.
Unedited issues ignite a take-off into the empty breath
Just as unexpressed erotic energy builds up and finds release in ecstasy, unaddressed tensions in the body or psyche, if left unedited, spark a take-off into the empty breath. For instance, unaltered depression explodes in anger, igniting a take-off into the empty breath. Music can set the stage, too. Try All Will Surely Burn from the album Burn by Sons Of Kemet’s.
However, tensions and emotions from the low-frequency world of outward-facing consciousness don’t magically disappear when you connect with the empty breath. They don’t bother you anymore, though, because the empty breath synchronises them with the high-frequency domain of inward-facing consciousness.
This doesn’t mean you must stop taking headache medicine, for instance. Such remedies can help you relax, so you don’t try to escape feelings such as fear. Instead, use that unbound energy to spark a take-off into the empty breath.
Alexius’ writings on the empty breath are not based on second-hand knowledge. They come from his 60-year exploration of it, showing that the empty breath brings not something, but the bliss of nothing.
To connect with the empty breath, you don’t need mantras, positive thoughts, or special environments. Nor do you need to avoid anything or suppress thoughts. On the contrary, uncontrolled thoughts are the fuel that sparks a take-off into the empty breath, no matter what or where you appear.
The experience of the empty breath
Taking off into the empty breath may feel like a tender explosion of accumulated thoughts and feelings. It happens at the top of your head, expanding it with nothing.
Then, you discover the engine of the empty breath and the swing of it, or maybe you start surfing the empty breath as described in Duality Hack #9.4. Either way, connectedness with the empty breath is a state of not-knowing. So there’s no awareness of being someone confined by time and space.
Consequently, the descriptions of the empty breath in Duality Hack #9.4 rely on memories. These surface when Alexius returns from being nobody in a state of not-knowing to the conscious experience of being somebody in the outward-facing consciousness’s world of something.
There’s no right way to feel the empty breath. You may not sense it at all, as its main feature is indifference, which is not a feeling (see Duality Hack #9.5). Still, simply not being pursued by thoughts or worries is a huge relief.
If you feel confused about how to connect with the empty breath, please don’t try to clear the confusion. Instead, stay with it until chaos sparks a take-off into the empty breath. Then you can’t help but laugh.
Should you still want clarification and feel disconnected from the empty breath, refer to the following hacks in Duality Hack #9.1-10.
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