Autonomics Tour

We are finalizing the manuscript, and working on the design. We’ve created endpapers (see above), and are figuring out typography, layouts, that kind of thing. Preparing for a final proofread. And we’ve shifted into preparing to teach all of this– we are going to be going on tour, internationally, teaching over the next 18 months or so!

We’ll kick off virtually with a 3-hour class on Zoom, wherein I’ll present the new Foundation Model of Autonomics publicly for the first time. That happens Friday August 23, 2024 from 8 am to 11 am PST. Come on out and join us for a live and interactive presentation of this model, which unites elements of Polyvagal Theory, neurochemistry, and Indigenous Lifeways with our research over the past ten years, working with more 100 mentors and advisors from 25 disciplines of wellbeing in 24 cultures and more than 15,000 clients internationally in 50 countries. Registration is here, you can use the coupon code substack50 to take 50% off the registration.

Our first retreat in earnest, five days of deep-dive into tracking the nervous system in its original context, takes place October 23-27 at our Northern California Forest Lab. Our pristine ten acre eco-reserve backs up to nearly 800 acres of private trails. The place is beautiful beyond description. This retreat will be limited to 15 participants, and is focused on empowering wellness practitioners with more nuanced abilities to precisely track autonomic states in clients and translate this awareness into how you are working clinically. Registration is here.

In December we travel to Costa Rica, where we’ll be hosted by Brave Earth at their post-capitalist permaculture retreat center, and where I’ll be teaching a retreat from December 18-22, 2024 with Sufi activist mystic Alnoor Ladha, Co-Director of the Transition Resource Circle, and co-author of Post-Capitalist Philanthropy, on the Neurobiology of Connection and Systems Transformation. During the day we’ll explore the deep neurobiology of connection. At night, and more informally, we’ll explore the implications of a neurobiological view focused on safety and connection for the broader transformation of economic and political systems. The retreat is limited to 30 participants. If you’d like to join us, please fill out an expression of interest here.

In June we’ll be traveling to Tuscany, and the towns around Florence, where I’ll be teaching a six-day retreat focused on the neurobiology of connection and the social cartography of genius, looking at the particular alchemy required to ignite collective genius, one shining example of which is the Florentine Renaissance, which reinvented the humanities, art, science, and medicine, essentially in one city over eighty years. Either Florence during that epoch was blessed with much of the genius on earth, or, more likely, there was something about the specific context of place, social institutions, cultural climate, and other factors that led to this great social flowering. What can we learn from that moment about what is required to unleash creatively and intelligence collectively, and how might we apply that today? This retreat will be limited to 15 participants, and take place either the first or second week of June at a farmhouse about an hour from Florence. You can learn more and fill out an expression of interest here.

We are exploring opportunities to teach in Australia and Asia in summer 2025. If you are interested in having the Autonomics tour come to visit where you are, drop us a comment and let us know why we should come to visit. At a practical level, we’ll need a unique and preferably outdoor teaching venue where people can connect to place deeply, friendly locals to host us (I hate hotels), as well as a local community that is excited about this work for some particular reason. If you think the alchemy exists for that, let us know.