Hearth Science: Phenomenology of an Embodied Neuroscience

Happy New Year.

Until the final page of the first draft of the manuscript the working title of the book was Visionary Neuroscience. On the last page I realized that the book was called Hearth Science.

In a manner similar to how we published The Neurobiology of Connection, serially, on this newsletter, we are publishing Hearth Science. I invite your comments, feedback, and interaction, which proved a large part in making The Neurobiology of Connection stronger and more complete.

Part of the impetus for this book was an interest in writing about ways of knowing, and how we assemble and accrete medical and scientific knowledge. As the visionary nature of the artistry of Santiago Rámon y Cajals has become more apparent, more of the origin story of the discipline, with regard to the methodology of one of its founding fathers, has begun to reveal itself.

Part of it is a response to the pushback our work has received from noticing that Polyvagal Theory is incomplete, and the degree to which the theory’s adherents have been unable to distinguish our sound methodological critique of PVT from disrespecting its founder, Stephen W. Porges, which I would not do, and to whom I am perenially grateful. I have and will continue to be the first to acknowledge that our work could not have developed without PVT, and that Stephen W. Porges is a genius. PVT is also incomplete.

And part of it is an attempt to rewrite the lineage history of neuroscience in a way that does honor to visionary and intuitive ways of knowing, and rightfully asserts the primacy of the body in conscious awareness.

Therefore:

Over the next several months, beginning with PART ONE: DREAMT BY EMPIRE

paid subscribers to this Substack will begin receiving chapters of the book. Your support is part of what allows me (and allows us at Hearth Science) to devote the lion’s share of our effort to advancing this work, which we take seriously. We are not affiliated with a university, and we are not venture-backed, so if you are deriving value from this work, we are most appreciative of your financial support that allows us to continue.

Should you get impatient, and want to read the whole manuscript in its current version (which is unlikely to be the final version published, but you are along for the ride in community, no?), you can purchase a self-updating digital version of the book here.

If you are a paid subscriber, and are following these posts, and want to geek out with us on these topics, take a look through comments to the posts so that you can get a sense of the responses from other people following the work– this helps your comments and feedbacks be in dialog with those of others.

It is a collective enterprise, turning on the lights ;)

So, over the next several months, the book will arrive in chapters roughly as follows:

PART ONE: DREAMT BY EMPIRE

01- VEHEMENTLY SUSPECT OF HERESY

02- EPISTEMOLOGIES OF THE ORACULAR BLIND

03- LISTENING WITH THE EYES

04- IN SEARCH OF THE MYENTERIC PLEXUS

05- THE SPIRITUAL INTERIOR OF THE WORD

06- LINING UP THE ANCESTORS

PART TWO: DECOLONIZE THE MIND

07- SANTIAGO ATITLAN

08- NEPANTLA

09- THE EMBER YET BURNS

10- THE PROVINCE OF YEARNING

11- THE CLARINETIST

12- CLEARSEEING

13-YOU CANNOT SEE THE VAGUS

14-INWARD CARTOGRAPHIES

15-GRIEVANCE

16-DISTINCTION

17-MACHINED

18-INHERITED ERRORS

19-FROM SOMEWHERE TO SOMEWHERE

20-ITS NOT A FUCKING LADDER

21-INWARD OCEAN

PART THREE: BECOMING A REAL HUMAN BEING

22-APPRENTICE TO NATURE

23-A LIFE IN BALANCE

24-BLINDSIGHT

25-FOLLOWING TRAILS

26-AUTONOMICS

27-HERESY PART TWO

28-HEARTH SCIENCE

29-TRUE NATURE

Join us in the next week, and…