Deliberate hyperventilation technique linked to mental break before police standoff

A British Columbia judge has sentenced a man to about 75 days in jail with time served, saying that despite his attempts to murder police officers in a standoff, a single mental health break likely triggered by holotropic breathwork led to the offence. A doctor said in a psychological assessment for the court that he couldn’t conclude the exact cause of Daniel Hackl’s mental break, but found “it was most likely triggered by ‘holotropic breathwork,’ a practice that Mr. Hackl had taken up around the time of his decompensation and which he practised more than once a day,” said the ruling released online June 24. A 2015 study out of Denmark says the breathwork is a psychotherapeutic practice involving hyperventilation, or deep overbreathing.The study found it can “induce very beneficial temperament changes, which can have positive effects on development of character, measured as an increase in self-awareness.” However, that wasn’t the case with Hackl, who the court heard had no criminal record and was living an “ordinary life” up until May 22, 2023, when a police emergency response team surrounded his home during an armed standoff that saw him shoot at officers, grazing one in the neck. His friends and family had become concerned in the weeks before the hours-long standoff with police, which culminated in his house in Chilliwack, B.C., being burned to the ground. His family believed he wasn’t eating, and that he appeared emaciated.His roommate had “grave concerns” after Hackl claimed he was God or Jesus and feared for his safety because Hackl had firearms, including 3D-printed handguns and a large stash of ammunition. Though no officers were seriously injured, thanks in part to a ballistic shield protecting them, Hackl was charged with attempted murder and pleaded guilty in January.Justice Jasmin Ahmad sentenced him to four years in prison, less the time he already served while awaiting trial, three years of probation and a 20-year ban on possessing firearms. The ruling said that when Hackl came out of the home as it was engulfed in flames, he was naked except for body armour, and he surrendered to the police “while laughing.” Hackl’s mental state quickly improved with medication, it said, and a psychologist’s assessment found that his mental health crisis was most likely triggered by the holotropic breathwork he took up around the time, and possibly also linked to his cannabis use. Ahmad found that the case warranted a “significant downward departure” from the normal sentencing range for such offences. The Crown had asked for a five-year prison term.But Ahmad said an additional year on the sentence would “serve no meaningful objective.”Hackl’s future “risk to the public is virtually nil,” the judge said. “However, the unique circumstances of this case—primarily being the singular incidence of mental health decompensation that led to the offence—makes this case an exceptional one,” the judge wrote. “I am satisfied that due to the role of Mr. Hackl’s mental illness, the primary objective is that for rehabilitation.”

Deliberate hyperventilation technique linked to mental break before police standoff

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