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Unlock the Transformative Power of Breathwork | Niraj Naik | TEDxKlagenfurt
What you'll learn:
➤ How I fell into a dark spiral of depression, addiction, and burnout, even after ticking all the boxes of “success” and “positivity.”
➤ Why thinking positive isn’t enough if your actions, environment, and internal state are out of alignment.
➤ The collapse of my dream rave event (complete with 3000-capacity venue and only 300 people attending) and the painful wake-up call that followed.
➤ The illness that left me housebound for nearly a year… and turned out to be the catalyst for my spiritual and personal transformation.
➤ The surprising truth I learned: You become what you think, feel, believe and do. When your mind, body, and spirit are aligned.
(Yes, it’s a real thing. Yes, there’s science behind it. Yes, you want it.)
➤ How I rediscovered my spark. Not through fame or substances, but through music and breathwork.
➤ Why breath is the ultimate tool for rewiring your nervous system, emotions, and identity, faster than you think.
➤ The neuroscience of self-realization and how breath aligns mind, body, and soul in minutes (not years).
➤ How this inner alignment attracted both: A Cambridge University study into my techniques, and some of the world’s top DJs who now use my music to heal, not just hype.
➤ The deeper message: Even when life breaks you down, those breakdowns often contain the seeds of your greatest breakthroughs.
Here’s my TED Talk story. Buckle up.
So… my first TEDx Talk on Breathwork got banned.
Yep. Banned. Blacklisted. Yeeted off the intellectual stage.
And just like that, I joined the elite shadow club of banned TED speakers: Graham Hancock, Rupert Sheldrake... and me.
Woohoo! Bucket list ✅
Here’s how it went down:
In 2023, my incredible wife (who also happens to be an expert speaker coach, former Mindvalley host, and global stage slayer during her AIESEC days) managed to secure me a spot at TEDx Frankfurt to talk about breathwork.
Out of 1,000 applicants, only 12 were chosen and somehow, I made the cut.
It felt like winning the intellectual Olympics.
I trained for weeks.
Obsessed over every line.
Rehearsed till I could deliver it in my sleep.
The talk?
A powerful deep-dive into how your breath can literally give you control over systems you were told were “automatic”:
Your heart rate, body temperature, and even your immune system.
Science-backed.
Carefully fact-checked. German-level meticulous.
Frankfurt TEDx was thorough.
Everything was legit.
And when I delivered it?
Standing ovation. Massive impact. People cried. People cheered. People breathed.
But then came the twist:
TEDx Frankfurt submitted the talk to be published…
And TED said, “Nope.”
No clear reason. Just vague feedback and radio silence.
Apparently, teaching people how to heal themselves using a biological function they do 25,000 times a day is a bit too spicy.
Needless to say, I was gutted.
Months of work. Sleepless nights. A dream gig. All vanished into the TED void.
Then, cue what I can only describe as divine intervention:
At Mindvalley University, a lovely soul named Eithne (who just so happens to run TEDx Klagenfurt) heard my story and said: “Fancy doing another TEDx talk?”
Now here’s the twist of fate:
If my first talk had been published, TED’s own rules would’ve barred me from doing another one.
But since it was banned…
I was free!
So I took a different route.
This time, I focused on altered states of consciousness, flow states, and most excitingly the results of our Cambridge University study on breathwork, which TEDx loved!
It went down a storm.
AND I closed the event with a DJ set that turned into what they later called the best afterparty in TEDx Klagenfurt’s history.
(I accept this award on behalf of basslines and biology.)
But wait...
Plot twist number three
TED tried to block this talk too.
In fact, multiple talks from that event got flagged.
It took Eithne nearly a year of emails, negotiations, and fierce advocacy to finally get them released.
And now drumroll… my second TEDx talk on Breathwork is finally live!
The first one?
Still sitting in the Forbidden Ideas vault.
The second one?
Out in the wild and ready to be inhaled.
So… does TEDx have an unspoken agenda when it comes to transformational practices like breathwork methods, that have been around for thousands of years and are now backed by modern science?
Or are they just playing it extra safe in a world that’s forgotten how to challenge the mainstream without triggering someone’s legal department?
Who knows.
But I do know this:
Sometimes, getting banned is just the beginning of a better story.
- Niraj Naik
SOMA Breath Founder
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