Hello, I am Bassam Younes

 

A Journey of Integration, Awakening, and Service

I was born amid Lebanon’s civil war in the 1970s. My early life was shaped by paradox — Islamic roots, Catholic schooling, and the constant question of what unites all things. One day, as gunfire echoed in the distance, my father said, “God made everything.” I remember asking, “Who made God?”
That question became the thread of my life — an inquiry into the divine, the invisible, and the truth that lives in every breath.

When I was twelve, my family fled to the West. The shock of war and displacement left me with undiagnosed trauma, and I drifted through my teens on the streets of Redfern, drinking with others searching for the same sense of belonging.
At seventeen, grace arrived unexpectedly while I was watching a documentary about Edmund Hillary conquering Everest. Something in me stirred — a deep knowing that I wanted to celebrate my possibility, not just survive.

A dusty copy of Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet soon found its way into my hands and changed everything. Those words opened a doorway to a lifelong study of spiritual masters and the inner world.

In my twenties, I worked as a model — a front-row seat to the illusion of glamour. Yet behind the lights and the lens, I began to sense the stillness that lies beyond appearances. Moments of awakening came in Paris at 22 and again in Bali at 26, where I felt the silent pulse of something vast and real.

At 27, while living in Thailand, a magazine article clarified meditation for me. I had tried before and hated it, unable to sit with the residue of old trauma. But this time, something clicked. I began a daily practice that anchored me to the presence beneath the noise.

A few years later in Miami, I came across Gurdjieff’s Fourth Way and Ramana Maharshi’s teachings on non-duality. Suddenly the pieces came together. Every path, every teacher, every scripture — all were pointing to the same essence within:
“La ilaha illallah.” “I am that I am.” “If your eye be single, your body shall be filled with light.”

Rebirthing Breathwork & the Inner Revolution

In 2000, I began guiding meditation groups. Yet I noticed that for many, sitting in silence felt almost impossible. The body was holding too much unprocessed pain. Years later, while training under Leonard Orr, I discovered Rebirthing Breathwork, and everything changed.

It was the missing link — the inner plumbing that clears what’s been buried, so that our divine light can shine freely again.

From Crisis to Clarity

In 2013, I hit rock bottom. I was heartbroken, homeless, and stripped of everything I thought I was. Then, one early morning on Bondi Beach, something miraculous happened. In less than a minute, despair dissolved into freedom.
I realised the living truth of the scripture: “Seek ye first the kingdom of heaven within.”

Since then, I’ve facilitated more than 90 retreats in over 20 countries, sharing Rebirthing Breathwork as a pathway back to presence, wholeness, and the simple joy of being.

Today

Today, I teach Rebirthing Breathwork: The Integral Orr Method, guiding others to remember who they truly are — beyond trauma, story, or striving. My work bridges East and West, science and spirit, intellect and intuition.

This path has taught me that awakening isn’t about escaping the human experience — it’s about fully embodying it.

“Without Rebirthing, meditation is like trying to find stillness in a storm. Breath clears the way for light to enter. Then — now — meditate.”