MINDBODY FUSION
EVOLUTIONARY EMBODIMENT: Social Engagement System
EVOLUTIONARY BODY
Somatic-Spiritual Tech for the Reality Shift
PARTICIPATORY WIDSOM: SOCIAL APPLICATIONS EMBODYING COLLECTIVE WISDOM
The Evolutionary 'Body' of our Humanity
http://topdownyoga.50megs.com
http://harmoniccontinuum.50megs.com/
Introduction
In his seminal text, The Self-Organizing Universe, Erick Jantsch refers to a metafluctuation, in the 1960's, that "rocked the world." It was a time of grass roots movements and the awakening of awareness and concern in relation to the environment, the Vietnam War and human rights. It was also a time of novelty.
Consciousness exploration with alternative lifestyles, communes, drugs, music and dance, and Eastern spirituality, provided powerful new guiding images and social norms. "The basic themes are always the same. They may be summarized by such notions as self-determination, self-organization and self-renewal, by the recognition of a systemic connectedness over space and time of all natural dynamics; by the logical supremacy of processes over spatial structures, by the role of fluctuation that renders the law of large numbers invalid and give a chance to the individual and its creative imagination."
Looking back today, it is easy to understand why the metafluctuation, which changed the world in some fairly radical ways, was dampened back into the existing paradigm did not have the coherence or momentum to 'carry' humanity over the threshold of a rigid ceiling of "unchangeable" values and beliefs. Now, almost a half century later, we, the human species, are very deep in the shift.
We are precariously adrift in an instability threshold between to orders of evolution process. Indeterminacy reigns, the delicate balance of life on planet earth has been severely disrupted. The systemic crisis is existential; it can not be addressed at the level at which it was created. The environmental, spiritual, social, educational, economic, and political crisis' all have the same root. That root is a 'natural' errancy inherent in the perceptive mechanisms of the dualistic neural-mental consciousness structure.
Fortunately, in the last half-century there has been an unprecedented influx of spiritual development, and science has made great strides-cracking the codes of the mysterious quantum dynamics inherent to life, all the way down to the microstructures and processes regulating quantum coherence in living organization-in embodiment. There is the internet which has spawned a world-wide "web" of instantaneous communication, a felt sense of interconnectedness, and of intuitive co-operative synergistic species-potential. Individuals and organizations attuned to the pulse of the planet and humanity are forming a unified field of intentionality, strategy and action.
The film, "An Inconvenient Truth" is stirring the pot from the bottom, and generating a focal point for a grassroots movement of unprecedented proportion. The environmental crisis is one of the most primary reflections of how fundamentally disconnected humans have become, from the earth and themselves.
The Social Engagement System
And Top-Down Yoga
Dr. Stephen Porges' recent new understanding of a 3rd branch of intelligence in the autonomic nervous system, the Social Engagement System associated with the mammalian vagus, has provided the framework for the development of a user-friendly and precise method of beneficial self-regulation known as Top-Down Yoga. This innovation provides the possibility for an accelerated and species-constant learning curve in evolutionary development as it physiologically overrides many of the impediments which humanity faces today.
It accomplishes this by releasing constriction in key points and facilitating optimal usage of neuroanatomical structures and chemistry, translating simply into positive and dynamic states of consciousness. Easy to learn and simple to perform, this technique can be engaged by anyone almost anywhere, sitting in a chair, standing or lying down.
The cranial nerves of the Social Engagement System emerge from the brain stem. If the deep muscles of the neck are chronically tense, they become irritated. By gently introducing coherent information into the tissues and fluids of our body, rather than using force, we learn to regulate the formative processes of causation, where the information is produced which, in turn, is experienced as consciousness and the body.
The Social Engagement System is a manifestation of the synergistic functioning of five cranial nerves, organizing, integrating and coordinating looking, listening, vocal communication, facial expression, turning the head and regulating cardiac output. Its optimal and optimizing functioning leads to the emergent expression of
genuine care and concern embodied in love and social bonds.
"Social bonds" are scientifically described as a powerful form of learning regulated by long-lasting changes in the endocrine system and brain. Regulation of cardiac output induces a positive state of immobilization, actualizing a conservation of precious life energy, and reinstating the warm-blooded current of heart 'consciousness' as the central organizing principle and mechanism.
Through re-uniting the ancient, primordial cerebrospinal system with the newest and most evolutionary advanced component of the somatic continuum, the Social Engagement System, Top-Down Yoga generates a reconfiguration and mood stabilization-in social engagement. It is an embodiment practice which optimally circulates cerebrospinal fluid throughout the body while activating the potent neuropeptide "messenger molecules" coordinating almost all physiological and emotional processes of the body on a cellular level.
When the cranial nerves of the Social Engagement System are not functioning optimally, autonomic conditions associated with reptilian intelligence drive the system toward dysregulation and mood collapse. A large majority of humanity is suffering from chronic stress, anxiety or depression.
Top-Down Yoga self-regulation transforms these condition at the root level of formative causation. It is an autocatalytic process which generates an instantaneous functional shift in neuroanatomical continuity, awakening regenerative capacities, knowing knowledge and a pleasurable felt sense of well-being.
A new model for evolutionary advancement
"In an alive, multilevel reality, the issue should be to keep precisely the highest level open to novelty." --Erick Jantsch
The old model of the autonomic nervous system presents only two branches, the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. That model has been shown to be incomplete as it only describes the autonomic
components we share in common with reptiles. The 3rd branch of intelligence, as found in mammals, introduces an autonomic alternative beyond the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems, which is emergent, always fresh and new, always embodied in the now moment.
An unrecognized condition of neurological inefficiency can feed feelings of resignation and lead to further dys-regulation and mood collapse. Many who are suffering with these symptoms unnecessarily turn to prescription drugs. Top-Down Yoga provides an alternative, which effectively utilizes ones own internal evolutionary resources. A system, whether it be an individual, a society, or species, which is chronically stuck in a less then optimal autonomic state, simply lacks the resources of energy, awareness and inspiration necessary to adapt
to challenges, internally and within its extended environment.
On the other hand, a society or species that has integrated these intuitive motor behaviors of self-regulation into long-term memory embodies an emergent autopoeitic landscape of species-constant learning and behavior. So-called "consciousness" transforms into radiant collective wisdom, which arises as a field-like property of natural light that is the evolutionary 'body' of our humanity.
Top-Down Yoga directly activates the most potent positive neurochemistry in the human. The simple movements and postures generate an unprecedented novel context to explore beneficial evolutionary learning and collective wisdom. They also serve as an excellent aid in preparing the organism and psyche to rest in deep meditative equipoise, and accomplish the crucial mind training necessary to embody dynamic wholeness. Through utilizing embodiment practices which "bind" the ancient and most evolutionary components of the somatic continuum, we may, in he words of Dane Rudhyar, "begin again together."
The Harmonic Continuum
The Harmonic Continuum is an ever-evolving, ongoing movement supporting the emergence of new social applications, which embody collective wisdom. The initial inspiration for the Harmonic Continuum was to create a context for popularizing the new understanding of the Social Engagement System as well as the simple practices of self-regulation for optimizing humanities latent potentials, as are evidenced in our physiology.
Exploring www.climatecrisis.org, the website for the film "An Inconvenient Truth", and following the links to www.lauriedavid.com, this author had an insight into an expanded potential role of the Harmonic Continuum. A broader endeavor became clear. The Social Engagement System's essential capacity for jump-starting humanity's return to an intelligent evolutionary mainstream speaks to the heart and mind of every human being.
The Harmonic Continuum ceremonies will introduce powerful and coherent new guiding images and social norms, which introduce new social applications embodying collective wisdom. This new base-line reality of collective wisdom, is a necessary prerequisite for gaining momentum in a movement which will have the strength and rigor to collectively address the challenges we face creating a socio-human - environmental
symbiotic co-evolution. It is becoming increasingly clear that reestablishing such a symbiosis will become a pressing and essential factor in our healthy survival.
Former Canadian ambassador and planetary elder Jim George's book, "Asking For The Earth", views the present ecological and spiritual crises as 2 sides of the same coin. He relates the environmental / global warming issue to a spiritual crisis, being the underlying cause for the separation that has allowed us to get so far away from our own good.
This clarification is a solid foundation for integrating the inner and outer dimensions of the work to be addressed within the single sphere of life's meaningfulness. The Harmonic Continuum brings these two foundational dimensions together as a context for inspiring the timely reinvention of the social, educational, economic and political dimensions as well.
Beyond large ceremonial events and films, The Harmonic Continuum practices can be utilized in all domains of human endeavor. Whether for liberating the individual from stress, anxiety, depression or PTSD, in the family, office, schools, for elderly care, in prisons or, during peace negotiations, in the Senate, Congress or White House, wherever and in any context, they always bring positive benefit.
Shift-in Action
The success of the film, "What the Bleep Do We Know" demonstrated the passion of millions to further understand the interrelationship between frontier sciences, spirituality and social dynamics. The Social Engagement System and The Harmonic Continuum embody a renewed level of learning and morality.
Ceremonies, which celebrate the wisdom 'body' of our humanity, through a collective mediation of our morphic
potentials, provide an aquifer of fresh inspiration and a coherent and intuitive path of action. Live simulcast events in which embodiment practices, music, dance and comedy combine, providing a skillful new form of "social engagement" awakening an accelerated evolutionary learning curve.
We envision a new genre of films, documentaries, dramas and comedies, which ignite the innate human skills of adaptation, and encourage participation in new social, environmental, scientific, political and economic 'applications' of collective wisdom. In order to carry vision into action the most fundamental key is the recovery of the openness, freedom and coherence of simply being. This is consistent with Prigogine's theory of so-called "dissipative structures", or, a "new order through fluctuation."
It is the most fundamental key because, as Erick Jantsch states, "Evolution is basically open. It determines its own dynamics and direction." "The linking back to origin," which is not localizable and basically open, "not only restores strength, but also create the possibility of recognizing and bringing into play ever new (autopoeitic) chreods, new developmental lines." Thus, inner reconfiguration leading to an embodied openness and freedom realigns the human with its true nature.
The pulse of unity within the rich diversity of our humanity will guide us as we cross the pending thresholds and come to re-embody the wisdom that is our birthright. This is all possible of course, and it appears more and more that what is required is simply removing the impediments to this.
The indication is that, like nature, the human mind is, prior to traumatic imprints and imposed mechanizations, well organized and in harmony with itself and its environment. It is clear that the most efficient mode of effecting a widespread shift toward an eco-sociological symbiosis is by re-instating the natural processes that govern this in the individual. We are fortunate that the simple and scientifically validated techniques for this are available now.
Sample Top-Down Yoga Exercises
TOP DOWN YOGA EXERISES, Lorin Kiely
Here are a few isometric exercises for releasing tension in the deep muscles of the neck - the scalenes and sub-occipitals - thereby relieving irritation on the vagal nerve. Then, a subtle adaptation in spinal movement while breathing enhances the flow of CSF while inhibiting the acitivation of the sympathetics, thus generating a new central algorhythm that I call Loving Love. It is consistent with completion stage yogic practice in Dzog chen and Mahamudra.
Exercise 1, 2 and 3 are for releasing tension in the deep muscles of the neck. This will create more open space for the head to naturally remain more aligned with the entire spine in its dynamic balance with the gravitational axis. It will also relieve pressure on the Xth cranial nerve, the vagus.
1) Sitting near the edge of the chair, spine upright, feet flat on the floor. Inhale, turning he head to the left as far as comfortably possible without creating a stressful sensation. When you have reached that point, rotate the face up toward the ceiling by putting isometric pressure in the sub-occipital muscles at the base of the skull.
Gently tip the chin up. Hold it up and turn the head, with micrmovements, a tiny bit further toward the shoulder WITHOUT the head loosing its upward rotation. Hold the position for 20 to 30 seconds.
Come out of the position and rest, either sitting or lying down for a Few minutes. Simply be aware of the felt sense of your organism as a whole.Then repeat the process on the other side.
2) Sitting near the edge of the chair, spine upright, feet flat on the floor. Inhale turn the head to the right as in the first exercise. Lift the top of the head-up and draw the chin-in toward the spine thereby rotating the face toward the floor. Refine the position of the head with micromovements as in the first exercise. Hold the posture for 20 to 30 seconds.
Come out of the position and rest either sitting upright or lying down for a short while. Simply be aware of the felt sense of your organism as a whole.
3) Sitting near the edge of the chair, spine uprught, feet flat on the floor. Inhaling turn the head to the right as far as it is comfortable. Keep the chin-in and raise the top of and sides of the head-up. Keeping the top of the head up, look over the right shoulder and hold the eye muscles without moving. As you continue to lift the top of the head-up, hold the eyes and eye muscles in immobilization with awareness and relaxation for 30 seconds.
Close the eyes and slowly turn the head back forward. Rest for a few minutes either sitting upright or lying down. Then repeat the process on the other side.
4) Oceaning breathing - Riding the Tides, does not engage the arms and legs, or the sympathetic nervous systems. It is based on an adaptation of spinal movement while breathing which generates an optimal condition of rest, relaxation and regeneration of the organism as a whole.
Gently lifting the soft palate of the roof of the mouth while INHALING into the lower belly and subtly drawing the throat back. Imagine that you are making a curved bow, straight. Continue inhaling raising the top of the head-up and flattening-down the back. The sitz bones will roll-back.
At the top of the breath the spine, from the crown to the tip of the coccyx is aligned with the gravitational axis of the earth. Pause there and gently hold the breath at the navel.
Release the throat while maintaining the your vertical axis EXHALE, as You roll forward on the sitz bones.
Simply cultivate mindful participation, synchronizing and timing the motor behaviors which facilitate the circulation of conscious awareness in the unbroken sphere of total present awaeness, over and over again.
THE BIG DRAW
Ah, Ah, Ah
Once having liberated the vagal and deep muscles of the neck, and adapted to the renewed sine wave of spinal undulation, tried them all sitting, standing and lying down the, bring your awareness into the muscles which regulate the movement of the eyes. Spread it evenly throughout and observe the heart rate and breathing. With the spherical cavity of the eyes totally relaxed, very subtlly and sensuously, gentle draw the eye muscles back just slightly, and hold them-in, in a state of i m m o b i l i z a t i o n, with awareness and relaxation for 30 - 60 seconds.
This activates neuropeptide intercommunication via the smart vagus - vagal brake -in the sinoatrial node, pacemaker in the heart. I believe that this is the master switch by which organismic intelligence decouples from time and space, and attains a biological state of quintessential rest.
Hold and observe the increase in radiance radiating from the still point that has no localization. Afterwards, for a few minutes DO NOTHING, not even observe. Remain no where at all. Do not even fixate on the bliss.
DIY TDY
TOP DOWN YOGA
TOP-DOWN YOGA is an emergent process for self-regulation arising from the new paradigm of ENERGY MEDICINE. The simple motor behaviors employed in the process are homologous with certain key aspects of completion stage yoga in the Tibetan meditational practices of Mahamudra and Dzog Chen.
These easy to learn simple motor behaviors can be performed sitting in a chair, standing or lying down with a pillow under the head.
Very important cranial nerves that emerge from the brain stem become irritated if the deep muscles of the neck are chronically tense. By gently introducing coherent information into the tissues and fluids of our body, rather than by using force or pressure, we learn to regulate the formative processes underlying the experience of consciousness and the body.
Simply holding the body, head and eyes in specific positions for just 30 seconds immediately begins to expand the consciousness in a direction of comfort and ease.
TOP-DOWN YOGA is an embodiment practice which optimally circulates cerebrospinal fluid throughout the body while activating the potent neuropeptide "messenger molecules" coordinating almost all physiological and emotional processes of the body on a cellular level.
Embryonic Ocean Breathing, an aspect of TOP-DOWN YOGA, is a subtle adaptation in spinal movement, which mirrors the process of breathing during embryonic development. It embodies the two basic trends in the autopoetic development of the nervous system; uniting the neurons in a compartment (nervous chord) and concentrating a greater neuronal volume in the cephalic end (cephalization).
The synergistic functioning of five cranial nerves having to do with looking, listening, vocal communication, facial expression, turning the head and regulating the beat of the heart, generate the warm-blooded intelligence leading to the emergent expression of love, in self-regulation and social engagement. Neuropeptide intercommunication
of the same five cranial nerves utilized in healing autism, chronic states of stress, anxiety, depression, ADD and other human maladies, are utilized in awakening the highest yogic states of awareness in Kriya and Kundalini yoga, Qigong and Dzog chen.
WHOLE BODY ENTRAINMENT & RESONANCE
The ancient evolutionary intelligences inherent in 'body’ consciousness are, phylogenetically, a more primary cognitive domain then the neural-mental ‘brain’ consciousness. It is this 'wisdom of the body' which, as an neuroanatomical 'order' of organismic awareness, leads us to an understanding of what lies beyond that which we know how to analyze. It is also the originary source-point of our collective embodied resonance/intelligence.
A SPECIES-TYPICAL GENETIC CODE
The Social Engagement System is a species-typical genetic code. In the direct lived-through experience of its field-like qualities, 'consciouness' arises as a radiant collective property of the body of our humanity. As such, it is the mechanism provided by evolution for the radical irrealization of the cognitive obscurations inherent within dualistic perception.
The function of the nervous system diversifies tremendously, and evolves with the increase in variety of modes of neuronal and neuropeptide interactions. The more complex the activity, the greater is the ground for evolutionary learning.
The Social Engagement System is the crown jewel of neural evolution, the fruitional cephalic endstage of neocortical development, and simultaneous explication of precoded innate intelligence for the endogenous unfolding of a collective phase in human evolution.
The same processes that transform our internal condition also provide a powerful influence on how we respond in social engagement. These processes release certain "messenger molecules", such as oxcytocin and serotonin, which self-soothe and calm our internal state. They also generate the emergent "warm-blooded" intelligence, which embodies genuine care and concern for others. When the body re-members these optimal conditions we move forward in our evolutionary journey, both
individually and collectively.
The best medicine to cure our individual and collective dis-ease is our own precious energy in-form-ation, self-regulated by morphic resonance.
Organismic awareness is felt sense of morphic potentials. The autonomus, felt sense of original experience creates a field of meaning, which is the meaning of life. Life itself provides all the answers as we create and recreate ourselves each moment. The efficacy of these simple natural processes, when experienced, will be believed.
We are describing a new synthesis that is occurring in living organization. Recent new understandings in the biophysics of embodiment indicate self-regulatory capacities inherent in the human organism which give rise to optimal neurobehavioral states supporting well-being, social engagement and evolution. are universally accessible.
A recent new understanding of 3rd branch in the autonomic nervous system, the Social Engagement System, presents a species-typical genetic code, and the principles and mechanism for actualizing a new autopoeitic landscape which utilizes morphic resonance as the principle and mechanism of communication via collective intelligence. This synthesis in autopoeitic self-organization provides the basis for designing an autocatalytic, emergent participatory knowledge system integrating science, spirituality and sociocultural evolution.
SES
THE AUTONOMIC NERVOUS SYSTEM
"The old interpretation of the autonomic nervous system describes two stages. Behaviorally, the first stage, parasympathetic, is associated with immobilization behaviors such as feigning death and also for rest and restoring the body. The second stage is characterized by the sympathetic nervous system that is capable of increasing metabolic output and inhibiting the visceral (sub-diaphragmatic) vagus to foster mobilization behaviors necessary for ‘fight or flight’.
The third stage, unique to mammals, is characterized by a myelinated vagus that can rapidly regulate cardiac output to foster engagement and is engagement with the environment, without engaging the sympathetics. The mammalian vagus is neuroanatomically related to the cranial nerves that regulate social engagement via facial expression and vocalization."
The third autonomic alternative, the Ventral Vagal Complex or Social Engagement System, is comprised of cranial nerves V, VII, IX, X and XI. The Xth cranial nerve, the ventral vagal, also referred to as the mammalian vagus or "the smart vagus" is the intercommunication center synergistically integrating the in-form-ation flow of five cranial nerves.
Their synergistic functioning organizes, integrates and coordinates looking, listening, vocal communication, turning the head, facial expression and regulating the beat of the heart. This generates the warm-blooded intelligence, which leads to the emergent expression of love and social bonds.
VIBROACOUSTICS: Human Cymatics
VIBROACOUSTICS: Here’s an interesting physiological fact: The pneumogastric, or tenth, cranial nerve is also called the vagus (wandering or vagabond) nerve because it meanders through the thoracic and abdominal cavities. The enormous task of the vagus nerve is the functional regulation of a host of organs, from the larynx, heart, lungs, stomach, liver, bladder, kidneys, small intestines, and colon all the way down to the anus. And the vagus nerve attaches to the outer and inner eardrum on its way south from the brain. What is the significance of this interconnection? Vagus nerve communiqués to the rest of the body are affected by the ear! This vagus nerve-acoustic interaction means that mixed into the parasympathetic instructions to our major organs are vibrations from the eardrum. And what makes the eardrum vibrate? Sound. And who determines the sounds we put into our ears? Or, getting intimate, who determines the vibration we put into our internal organs? Clearly, the effect of sound can no longer be simply measured by how our ears feel. The ear brings in energy that touches us from top to bottom. Sound is not just vibrating the eardrum. It is actually resonating the entire being.
TDY is Hot
Physics, Medicine, and Psychology are all undergoing a profound revisioning of their underlying theories which is called PARADIGM SHIFT. The old order is breaking down in the gaps of our knowledge, and the new vision is emerging.
Understandings about glial cells, the theory of pain, brain regeneration, even the way we heal and evolve, have all gone the same way. Science and medicine must be revised with these new, revolutionary discoveries in mind. Energy Medicine and other CAM technologies are leading the way, not waiting for the old science to die off.
Fresh research has revealed a new understanding of a 3rd neural circuit in the autonomic nervous system, has made possible a user-friendly participatory approach to self-regulation and embodied well-being that is universally accessible.
Without third-party intervention, massage or medication any individual, on their own, can discover how to liberate chronic debilitating states at the root.
Once we remember how good we can feel there is more open 'space' to enjoy the company of others. When we come into the world, we are already embedded in a social context. Evolution intended humans to be social beings and, perhaps, to evolve into a collective social organism.
As we learn to embody a direct lived-through experientail understanding Of this 3rd neural circuit in the autonomic nervous system, the so-called Social Engagement System, we may even peer through the deceptive veils of dualistic conception.
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