Separating signal from noise

WARNING: Geek stuff ahead…

I’ve been head-down for the last week or so, working to break through the statis in the Porges/ Grossman controversy and working on creating the foundations for a new paper that I will be co-authoring with several interesting people and submitting for peer-review:

ABSTRACT (so far)

This paper is designed to break through the stasis surrounding the Porges/ Grossman debate incited by the Grossman et al assertion of untenability of Polyvagal Theory (2026), and Porges’ response (2026), which is essentially a refusal to engage on epistemic grounds. The authors, with over a decade of rigorous application of PVT across trauma healing, somatic practices, and psychology find it a work of substantial merit — yet have identified clinically observable gaps in its explanatory reach. The paper pursues five primary objectives. It explains why both PVT and the Grossman critique have inadvertently embraced foundation errors in neuroscience that corrupt core premises of both arguments. It identifies relevant errors in the foundation of neuroscience. It articulates a novel methodology for addressing those errors. It describes a novel autonomic measurement technology to supersede RSA as a non-invasive measure of in vivo autonomic functioning. It posits a novel foundation model of autonomic physiology that retains viable elements of PVT, obviates the Grossman critique, and offers a clinically verifiable in vivo autonomic cartography of greater refinement and clinical utility.

If you have not seen it yet, we released a white paper last week on ResearchGate about methodology. Autonomic tracking: methodological viability of an alternative epistemological approach. The de rigeur validated methods of modern neuroscience, by which much neuro-anatomy has been described, has the unfortunate baseline requirement of investigating bodies that are dead. Methods that investigate living tissue tend to be cranially-focused. The autonomic nervous system is neither dead nor in the brain, ergo this methodology is not particularly useful.

If you have not seen this, you can download our free PDF of polyvagal debate bulletpoints. This is designed to separate signal from noise in this debate.

This is part of a larger conversation about HOW WE KNOW WHAT WE KNOW (epistemology) and THE NATURE OF BEING (ontology) THE NATURE OF DIRECT EXPERIENCE (phenomenology) and what constitute validated methods for accruing medical knowledge. I reflect on many of these themes in our new book:

All our books are now available in EUROPE, AUSTRALIA, the United States, and the UK through our website.

IN THE ROOM WHERE IT HAPPENED

Do you want to be in ‘the room where it happened?’

Autonomics (me, and at times members of our faculty) is going on tour.

The following locations/dates still have space in them. Our face-to-face trainings require an expression of interest and an interview. We want to curate participants in advance. We are not looking for evidence of expertise so much as sanity and relevant practice (awareness, somatics, movement, etc.) We want to work with people who are to some degree embodied.

You can view our

May 8-10, 2026 I’ll be in the greater Seattle area teaching The Neurobiology of Connection.

Wednesday May 20- Sunday May 24, 2026 I’ll be in Northern California (at our eco-reserve) teaching a 5-day deepdive into autonomic tracking. We just had a cancellation and so there are a couple of spaces that have opened up in this training. What is autonomic tracking? See the research paper above.

At the beginning of June I head to Europe, where I’ll be teaching a 5-day deep dive in Southwest France from Wednesday June 3- Sunday June 7.

Then on to Amsterdam

And Northern Italy

Possible additional stops in Basel (Switzerland)… Not yet announced.

In the fall I’ll be in Columbus Ohio teaching a large format training September 25-27, 2026.

And likely in upstate New York…not yet announced.

If you’ve made it this far, thank you. Finally, I’m teaching an introduction to the basics of our work on Saturday April 25- Finding Home in Your Nervous System. For this you do not need to apply.