Given the modern divide between mind and body widening since the Renaissance, the last two decades have seen a revolutionary shift in modern neuroscience towards a new paradigm of mind-brain-body integration. This 180 degree about face is historic not just because it reverses the five century old reigning paradigm of reductive dualism, but even more so because it effectively validates many of the non-dualistic, integral models and methods preserved in India’s timeless traditions of yoga and meditation. In this two session course, Dr. Joe Loizzo, a contemplative neuropsychiatrist, Indic scholar and meditation researcher at Weill Cornell, guides participants through the great scientific revolution of the twenty-first century: the rediscovery of embodied mind and the arts of mind-brain integration. Setting the stage by reviewing the modern history of the mind/body problem in the West, he surveys the last few decades of breakthroughs in research on stress, plasticity, yoga and meditation that have recently converged in the emerging multi-disciplinary paradigm of mind-brain integration. Next he leads participants in a cross-cultural exploration of the yogic neuroscience of the subtle body, and finally concludes by unpacking his own clinical research at Weill Cornell integrating Indic practices into his Compassion-Based Resilience Training for cancer survivors.
The brain is the central organ for adapting to experiences whether or not we call them “stressful”. With adaptation, the brain changes its architecture and alters systemic function via regulation of neuroendocrine, autonomic, immune, and metabolic systems. Those systems, in turn, alter brain s...
For centuries, modern science and medicine have been straying further and further away from the healing wisdom and arts held in common by most humans throughout history. Now suddenly, two decades of breakthroughs have brought a dramatic shift in our modern views of human nature, illness, and heal...
