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Boston,

Excellent question. I'll explain the different types of breathing and differentiate them from hyperventilation. Then I'll explain what I'm guessing you're experiencing.

Normal Breathing
When you're breathing normally, you don't breathe very deep, and you spend a second or two pulling in air, and a second or two breathing out. There's no gap between the breaths. As long as you consciously breathe this way, you're doing exactly what The Presence Process is asking of you. The Presence Process recommends deeper breathes at a normal speed, but said it's not required.

Varied Types of Breathing
This type of breathing is either normal breathing, as described above, or slight variations on breathing. Sometimes, I breathe at the same speed, but I breathe deeper. Sometimes, I breathe normal, except I speed up my breathing just a little--about 1 second for inhale, 1 second for exhale. Sometimes, I breathe deep really deep, but not so quick. Sometimes, I breath really deep and sort of quick. Most of the time, I breathe either normal, or I breathe deeper, or I breathe deeper and a little faster. A person can actually breathe pretty quickly without hyperventilating.

Hyperventilation
When you're breathing about 3 total breaths (3 inhales and 3 exhales) in a second's time, you're breathing too quickly and you'll hyperventilate. That type of breathing is usually pretty shallow.

If you're purposely breathing extremely fast, like the hyperventilating described above, then you're correct--you're causing yourself to hyperventilate. The simple fix is to slow your breathing to a normal pace.

If you're breathing normally, or even slightly faster than normal, the only way you're going to hyperventilate is if anxiety surfaces and your automatic reaction is breathing really fast. This can easily happen to people who experience anxiety or fearful situations. They either stop their breathing altogether, or they start breathing really quickly. Kids can do either. So, when those fears from childhood surface, your reaction might be to breathe really fast, causing hyperventilation. Or, it's possible that the anxiety is causing you to think you're hyperventilating, but you're actually not. Like I said, a human can breathe pretty quickly without hyperventilating. It takes very rapid, forced breaths to hyperventilate.

If this occurred to me while breathing, I would put my focus on the emotions and the felt resonance (if I feel them) and then calmly control my breathing to a normal pace. If I feel nothing while this rapid breathing is occurring, I'd calmly slow my breathing to a normal pace, then ask, "What is the emotion and the felt resonance that's causing this reaction?" Then I'd wait and see if it surfaces into my awareness. If it doesn't, I don't worry about it. I'll feel it when the time is right, which could be days or weeks later.

Here's a link to the audio of how one breathes in TPP. It takes a little while before the breathing is loud enough for you to hear. I think the audio slowly fades in for some reason:

TPP Breathing