Visionary Neuroscience
As we move into printing The Neurobiology of Connection, (available in a full-color and a black-and-white edition) an astonishing book that ships November 30, we announce that our next book, Visionary Neuroscience, will print serially here, on The Neurobiology of Connection Substack, exclusively for paid subscribers.
The stories that we have been told about what our nervous system is, and how it works, are inextricably linked to the domination paradigms that forged the invisible biases of the worldview that undergirds modern ‘science’. In this meditation on ways of knowing, ancestral neuroscience pioneer Natureza Gabriel, developer of Autonomics, deconstructs the de-natured gaze that gave rise to the brain-centric view of modern neuroscience, and cleaves a visionary opening in the fossilized language and thoughtforms of the discipline, liberating it to re-organize from its inception by reclaiming its pioneering thinkers and re-tuning our understanding of the very methodology whereby they arrived at their deepest and most penetrating insights.
A guidebook to the necessary inclusion of our own embodied experience in the methods whereby we come to know what we know, the book allows for an intimate re-appraisal and re-acquaintance with the elemental fire harnessed by the lacelines of the nerves.
Upgrade your subscription to access the serialized publication of Visionary Neuroscience.
Praise for The Neurobiology of Connection:
“A marvelous text, full of brilliant transdisciplinary insights!”
–Darcia Narvaez, PhD
Professor Emerita of Psychology,
Developer of the Evolved Nest
“A perfect bridge between neuroscience and the wisdom traditions.”
–JD Daniels, MD, MPH
Professor of Family & Community Medicine
Assistant Dean of Students for SIU Medicine
“The origin story of human connectedness is not frozen in deep time. It is here, alive, in our present-now, with pulse and with resonance so deep that in somehow coming into contact with this book, I am simultaneously coming more into contact with this pulse. Gabriel’s ability to dissolve limiting paradigms allows the reader to dissolve them, too - reconfiguring our own origin story. This is a book for any human interested in vitality, interested in decoding wellbeing, and interested in coming home.”
–Jordhynn Guy, CCC
Developer of the Elite Resilience Framework
“Neurobiology of Connection is a book we all need—a user’s manual for our nervous systems. Brilliantly insightful and practical, we can learn to understand why we are the way we are moment-to-moment, meet our needs in ways that heal old traumas, and enhance deep connection with other humans and the world around us. Gabriel brings together material from indigenous cultures, neuroscience, neurochemistry, mindfulness, somatically-informed trauma work, Polyvagal Theory, and literature, combined with attention to his inner world, in order to create an updated model of the Autonomic Nervous System. I have made so many changes to the way I teach, and my students are loving it!”
–Marcia Miller
Certified Yoga Therapist
Reiki Master Teacher
senior teacher for UZIT
“My first nervous system health mentor introduced me to both Polyvagal Theory and the concept of ‘cellular safely’. As a bodyworker practicing Visceral Manipulation through a trauma and nervous system lens, I use the sensitivity of my hands to introduce cellular safety to decontextualized stress responses (also known as tension) in the body. From the release of tension anchored in safety, systemic well-being emerges and continues to emerge as the body continues to be approached and supported in this way. It has been a challenge to find my work accurately represented through a lens of neurobiology. I am beyond grateful for this eloquent expansion of Polyvagal Theory that brings in the knowing of my hands and the wisdom that flows from our bodies to our heart, then our brain.
I also deeply appreciate Gabriel for naming the domination mindset that is embedded into the fabric of modernity and for challenging the status quo around it. It is bold and necessary.”
-Kelley Curtis
Bodyworker and Nervous System Health Practitioner
“Gabriel has waved a poetic wand over off-putting medical-speak and pulled the curtain back on the divine delighting herself in her magic shop. In this monumental work that is being constructed through him, I get to press my nose against that glass. I tell people the work Gabriel is conducting is the science behind safety. Bravo maestro! A Slam Dunk.”
–Jimbo Graves,
Author of Tillage
As a facilitator working with groups to develop organizational strategy for more than 25 years, I’ve been a student of many interdisciplinary methods that offer insight on how to better understand human behavior. When I stumbled upon Hearth Science’s work with the neurobiology of connection, the pathway opened wide and a whole new sense of potential began to emerge—a path that feels accessible to everyday people and rooted in experience.
Gabriel’s work with the autonomic nervous system offers powerful keys to understanding how to participate in relational spaces that consciously nurture trusting relationships and invite creativity. These are key ingredients for the kind of ongoing attunement we need to generate a culture of care, belonging, and collective wellbeing. The neurobiology of connection is a wide open gateway to inform the awareness of human connection that is essential to create contexts for diverse people to come together and navigate the many complex, intersecting challenges we face as a species on this planet. If you recognize the importance of lived experience on our ability to form healthy relationships with ourselves and others, build community and collaborate for social and environmental change, this body of work offers an embodied, highly functional map to actively heal the fractured social territory of our times.