Vagus Adventures Masterclass: Spirituality Meets Neuroscience - Recording

Vagus Adventures Masterclass (90 minute recording) - to purchase full 3-part series at a discount, check out the Masterclass bundle!

Spirituality Meets Neuroscience Through a Polyvagal Lens with Jan Winhall & Marika Heinrichs

Many in the trauma field recognize that individuals, especially in the Western world, have become disconnected from their bodies. But do you know how this disconnection occurred?
 
Marika Heinrichs wildbody.ca will share with us some fascinating stories about how white people were coerced into distancing themselves from their bodies and from the land around them.
 
Feeling Safe in Our Bodies is Essential For Healing
The split between our mind/body and spirit started when the predominant culture pushed communities away from working together and towards being more controlling and competitive.
To rebuild a culture that values relationships, we need to face the deep wounds caused by our separation from nature and our spiritual selves. These issues are at the heart of our feelings of isolation and individualism. If we don’t tackle the cultural and political systems that support this isolation, our attempts to heal individually won’t be very effective.
 
Reconnecting to Body-Based Spiritual Practices
We all come from cultures that once engaged in body-based spiritual practices such as chanting, prostration, and trance-inducing dance. Understanding these practices within their cultural and spiritual contexts reveals their intention: to deepen the practitioner’s connection with the more-than-human world. Many contemporary contemplative and somatic practices are rooted in these traditions, though their origins often remain unacknowledged.
 
Losing Cultural Connection
For some, a connection to these ancient practices feels lost or forgotten. Others face the threat of denigration and appropriation of these sacred traditions. At the heart of systems of violence or domination lies a systematic effort to disconnect our bodies from relationships with the earth, spirit, and each other.
 
Finding Reconnection in Somatics
Somatics serves as a pathway to remember our inherent relationship with body, spirit, and land. However, contemporary somatic practices are frequently stripped of their cultural and spiritual origins. Our bodies can guide us back to an embodied form of spirituality, reminding us of our interconnectedness with all life—something we urgently need as a species.
 
Expanding Consciousness Through Somatic Healing
Engaging in somatic healing opens our consciousness to new forms of perception and insight that may not have been previously accessible. This can lead to what some refer to as an altered or expanded state of consciousness.
 
Insights from Stephen Porges
In his article “Ancient Rituals, Contemplative Practices, and Vagal Pathways,” Stephen Porges explains how ritual practices like chanting, meditation, and prostration can directly regulate the vagus nerve, calming our defense systems. This regulation fosters an expanded sense of connectedness and an “unbound sense of oneness.”
 
The Mystery of Connection and Healing
As we soften our bodies’ defensive states and cultivate presence and connection, the separation between our individual selves and the wider web of aliveness begins to dissolve. What emerges from this space is not something we can fully control or comprehend; it is a realm of mystery and flow, crucial for healing from trauma associated with separation and isolation.
 
Masterclass Overview
This masterclass will explore an embodied approach to spirituality through a cultural and polyvagal lens. We will examine the forces that have contributed to our disconnection from the natural world and the impacts on our embodied states of consciousness. Participants will also learn about polyvagal-informed strategies for remapping their way back to connection with land and spirit.