Research & Development
Unveiling the Unseen… is Less About Collecting Data, and More About Discovering the Process…
Our being, extending from our body into social spheres, serves as a canvas onto which our experiences unfold, all at once reflecting personally and collectively.
Summary
In today’s increasingly complex and interconnected world, many communities face challenges related to emotional disconnect, stress, and miscommunication. Traditional educational and mental health services often overlook the importance of emotional literacy in driving effective interpersonal communication and social cohesion. Research indicates that improved self-awareness and empathy are critical for reducing misunderstandings and fostering collaborative, resilient communities.
Developed over 25 years in response to global challenges like emotional disconnect and miscommunication, the Human Experience Augmenting Language (HEAL) program utilizes experiential learning and guided self-reflection. This approach equips us with practical tools to explore how we perceive, understand, and mentally represent our experiences, both within our physical being and in our interactions with the world around us. When this internal exploration focuses on sensations and understanding within the body, it aligns with what scientists understand as body representation, a key aspect of HEAL. Extending beyond this localized representation inside our body, HEAL's language also enables the exploration of experiences in the broader social context, encompassing what can be termed social representation. By providing a framework to bridge both internal and external landscapes, HEAL facilitates an awareness of our experiences as a single continuum, including emotional and relational patterns.
HEAL facilitates the following:
How we can experience our bodies as integrated wholes through a first-person experiment called: Grounding and Multimodal Attention Calibration (G-MAC).
Recognize and articulate our inner emotional landscapes through the eXperience Matrix.
Physically map and understand how triggers and patterns localize thoughts, feelings, and sensations through the Body Matrix.
Develop empathy to enhance authentic and meaningful interactions, extending the use of HEAL’s representation language into social spheres.
As a representation language, HEAL is uniquely positioned to innovate technological development, educational transformation, and community wellness, and it offers a scalable model for addressing social disconnect in diverse settings.
Content
On this page, we will explore:
Theoretical Modeling
Background
The Transformative Power of HEAL
HEAL’s Atomic View of Experience
Healing Our Emotional Wounds and Uncovering Potential
The Natural Flow of Experience
Sky’s Inward Journey
Finding Your Inner Core
Views and Perspectives
Building on Bohmian Mechanics to Experience the Whole
HEAL and Curriculum Design
HEAL The Hard Problem of Consciousness
Research & Development
HEAL in Body Representation Research
New Paradigm Education
Holistic Education Research
Human Flourishing Research
Testimonials
Next Developments
Are You Interested In Joining
Meet Our Team
Abstract
Theoretical Modeling
Background
Our primary means of communication in early childhood are through facial expression, sound, eye contact, gesture, and touch. Based on these fundamental interactions, we develop our cognition, verbal skills, and multiple intelligences. Using the whole brain, these abilities are forged into integrated language skills at a very early age.
As we experience more emotional wounds and mentally juggle more and more information, our awareness becomes increasingly fragmented. Objectifying and language comprehension are primarily mapped to the parts of the brain that drive concentration and cognition.
The shift from integration to disintegration happens so subtly that, by adulthood, we've forgotten what it feels like to be embodied, whole, and connected. Blind spots form, and we collectively accept our fragmented state of being as the norm—“I think; therefore I am.” Due to our lack of presence, a state that integrates our being, we find ourselves unable to self-regulate, leading to crisis.
Our inner experiences shape how we ‘use’ language and engage with life, which becomes more evident when we experience crisis. This includes how we think, feel, socially empathize, and emotionally and physically react to different situations. Imagine feeling whole and connected again. This is where HEAL comes in.
In short, HEAL (Human Experience Augmenting Language) enables us to heuristically discover our experiences from within. It facilitates the integration of, among others, what we feel, sense, think, speak, and express, contextualized within our body, extending into giving and receiving in social spheres.
Learners (including educators and researchers) embark on a journey to discover how it is to be authentic and learn to navigate the complexities of life from their newly discovered perspective.
The Transformative Power of HEAL: A Holistic Representation Language Framework and Process.
In a world where communication often remains superficial, HEAL stands as a beacon of profound connection and self-awareness. Rooted in over two decades of action learning, this groundbreaking language framework and process have demonstrated their immense potential to create lasting, meaningful change. By merging the emotional, physical, and mental realms, HEAL provides a unique lens through which individuals can navigate their experiences, fostering personal growth and collective transformation.
A Quantum Perspective on Experiences
HEAL moves beyond the mechanistic view of experiences, embracing a quantum, non-classical perspective. In this holistic approach, physical sensations are not merely byproducts of unresolved experiences, but the very dimension in which these experiences manifest. By recognizing the co-occurrence of past thoughts, present feelings, and physical sensations, HEAL allows individuals to discern and process their internal and external worlds with greater clarity.
HEAL’s Atomic View of Experience: A Fractal Perspective
Introduction
Imagine if we could break down our experiences into different functions, similar to how we describe atoms in physics or neurons in the brain. HEAL (Human Experience Augmenting Language) proposes an “atomic view” of experience, drawing analogies with quantum theory. This view uses a framework known as the eXperience Matrix, which presents experience as existing in discrete energy levels: n=1,2, and 3 (Figure 1). Just like fractals, which are self-similar patterns repeated at different scales, HEAL suggests that experiences are self-similar across various contexts and scales. We are going to delve into this fascinating idea, explaining how, for example, thinking and feeling operate at different energy levels within this framework.
Understanding Self-Similarity and Fractals
A fractal is a complex geometric pattern made up of parts that are miniature versions of the whole, regardless of the scale. This property is called self-similarity. Examples of fractals include snowflakes, fern leaves, and coastlines. In the context of HEAL, experiences are considered fractal-like because they exhibit similar patterns and behaviors at different levels of analysis—from individual thoughts and emotions to complex social interactions.
Discrete Energy Levels
HEAL's eXperience Matrix posits that experiences can be categorized into discrete energy levels, denoted as n=1,2, and 3. Each level represents a distinct type of attention and energy expenditure:
Feeling: This level – n=1 - has the least energy. Feelings are non-selective, open, receptive, and non-directive. This can be compared to a scalar field in physics, characterized by waves and vibrations (frequency). Feelings are subtle, involving an awareness of one’s internal state and the environment without focusing on specific details. We appreciate our feelings with open attention.
Embodying: This intermediate level – n=2 - combines or superposes aspects of both feeling and thinking. In quantum theory, superposition allows particles to exist in multiple states simultaneously. Similarly, n=2 facilitates a seamless transformation between the tangible (thinking) and intangible (feeling). It allows the integration of both fields, facilitating a natural balance where experiences are embodied and fluid. From our body’s perspective, everything happens simultaneously.
Thinking: This level – n=3 - uses the most energy and involves selective, externally focused attention. Thinking or cognition at this level creates a vector field that orients toward objectivity and analysis. Thinking is directive, deliberate, structured, and aims to solve problems or achieve specific goals. We observe our thoughts with focused attention.
Witnessing: From our nucleus—a zero-reference point—we witness and integrate what we observe, think, appreciate, feel, and embody within a superposition of possibilities. Guided by intention and purpose, its potential harmoniously orchestrates these capacities into a seamless flow of diverse states and processes.
Emotional Wounds Confuse and Disrupt
Emotional wounds can severely disrupt the natural fluidity and balance within us, leading to an excessive expenditure of energy. These wounds often force us into a constant state of adaptation to the pain that can be triggered by various situations. In an effort to keep this pain from surfacing, many people resort to repression and suppression, adaptations which demand significant cognitive and emotional energy, converting our feelings into directional emotional responses. A seemingly perpetual struggle ensues that prevents a smooth transformation between the tangible (thinking) and intangible (feeling), making it challenging to maintain a harmonious superposition (n=2).
Our sense of survival keeps us from remaining present within our most authentic self, our “nucleus,” and as we grow up, blind spots form, beneath which our unresolved pain hides, hindering our ability to understand what is genuinely happening within us. Instead of addressing the root cause, we often project our internal states onto the social spheres into which we extend, affecting our interactions and relationships.
Consequently, the energy that could be harnessed for creative thinking, emotional growth, and the harmonization of our relationships is instead expended on managing and concealing our pain. This results in less integrated and more fragmented experiences, often culminating in conflict. Alas, this is the state to which our world has descended.
Figure 1: This eXperience Matrix (XM) atomic view of experience shows different energy levels n=1,2, …3 and how these are driven by respectively appreciating, superposing (embodying), and observing. Witnessing is a zero-reference, relative to which attention converges, diverges, or superposes. An important discovery has been that attention is fundamentally multimodal, meaning it can be [selective AND/OR non-selective]. This determines whether attention is either concentrated AND/OR open. When we are in survival mode, attention is mostly selective or concentrated. Relative to the witness perspective, the zero-reference, the different modes of attention and all the experiences that these activate and deactivate, will co-occur. We say that all of these experiences are in a superposition of states.
Healing Our Emotional Wounds and Uncovering Potential
Using the eXperience Matrix and Body Matrix
Central to HEAL are the eXperience Matrix and Body Matrix, visual representations that help map and understand, among other things, mental tendencies, emotional responses, bodily sensations, and how these are produced through adaptations: repression, suppression, and expression (Figure 2). These matrices serve as references, enabling individuals to translate their experiences into meaningful insights. By identifying patterns and integrating co-occurring experiences, both from the past and present, HEAL fosters a more profound understanding of your inner and outer realities in a seamlessly interconnected way.
A Language Accessed Within
One of the most empowering aspects of HEAL is that it is a language accessed within yourself. Unlike healing approaches that rely on external intervention, HEAL empowers individuals to navigate and resolve their experiences independently by internally accessing their own process. This intrinsic potential to understand and “metabolize” your own experiences, including healing your emotional wounds, is accessible to individuals of all ages, making HEAL an inclusive and transformative process for individuals and groups.
The HEAL Process
The HEAL process involves several key aspects:
Mapping Sensations: Register and map patterns of physical sensations in the body, recognizing them as meaningful expressions that connect you with unresolved experiences.
Decoding Experiences: Use the eXperience Matrix and Body Matrix to translate these sensations into patterns of feelings and reactions, upon recognition of which you connect with the experiences of which they’re an expression.
Receiving and Feeling: Hold space for these sensations and the feelings that they represent, opening yourself to fully receiving and going through these experiences.
Integrating the Past: Allow unresolved (past) challenges to surface and integrate into the present experience.
Transformative Realization: Achieve realizations about what is expressing through the body, leading to the resolution of inner barriers.
Completion and Expansion: Navigate through the body to expand beyond felt barriers, resulting in a sense of expansion, flow, peace, and tranquility.
Awakened Potential: With clarity, you open up to uncertainty, possibility, and as you feel more connected with the world around you, a deeply transforming will ensue over awakening your inborn potential.
Figure 2. This eXperience Matrix visualizes the ways in which our brain is conditioned to disintegrate our experiences. Look at the blue arrow at the top left of the diagram, where our cognition flows outward, creating a tunnel vision that disconnects us from everyone and everything, searching for anticipated outcomes. On the other hand, this same cognitive flow, blue arrow bottom right, internally represses triggered frustration and disappointment. Upon being overly triggered, our pain expresses explosively; sadness (yellow arrow at the top right); anger (via blue arrow, top left); frustration and disappointment express internally. What goes on in the center of our being, outwardly, is a blind spot beyond which we have no access. Such are the effects of growing up with emotional wounds, including trauma. This is what survival mode looks like from inside ourselves. The basis on which our society has developed over the course of centuries. The time has come for a collective transformation.
Figure 3. This eXperience Matrix (XM) models when all our experiences are integrated from our heart-pinealis outwardly. This is when life occurs most naturally, unfolding experiences, transforming upon completion, and integrating upon resolution. Through the practice of HEAL, you can experience the lifting of the blind spot, the awakening of witness. Witnessing lets you experience integration, which gently opens to and allows the distress to heal, from the inside out.
The Natural Flow of Experience
Experiencing HEAL
Learning HEAL involves an engaging, hands-on process where you learn by doing. It's about what happens when people connect and understanding these shared moments through a common way of speaking about experiences that links what's happening inside you with what's happening around you.
When a facilitator and a learner work together, they create a space where they describe experiences, provide feedback, understand each other's feelings, and become more open. By using tools like the eXperience Matrix and Body Matrix to see their triggers and obstacles, individuals feel motivated to explore their experiences more deeply. Through a moment of deep understanding, called discernment, people are immediately encouraged to work through their experiences. Resolving these experiences then happens naturally.
The Role of the Facilitator
A crucial aspect of HEAL is the role of the facilitator, who guides practitioners through the process of augmenting language and exploring their experiences. The facilitator creates a safe and supportive environment where individuals feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and emotions. Through active listening, feedback, and resonance, the facilitator helps practitioners navigate their experiences and uncover new insights.
Empowerment Through HEAL
The objective of HEAL is to share its transformative capabilities with as many people as possible, fostering self-aware communities worldwide. By engaging with the group or individualized HEAL journeys, individuals can unlock their inner capacities, achieving balance, clarity, growth, and contribute to social transformation. This holistic approach not only transforms individual lives but also builds a foundation for tackling real-life issues and fostering collective well-being.
Our Mission
HEAL is more than just a language framework—it is an inner path to self-discovery, healing, and transformation. By embracing its whole person perspective and utilizing the eXperience Matrix and Body Matrix, you can navigate your inner and outer worlds with greater clarity and understanding. HEAL empowers you to access your intrinsic potential, fostering personal growth and building stronger, more connected communities. As we continue to share HEAL with the world, we embark on a journey of profound transformation, unlocking the power within ourselves and those around us.
With over two decades of immersive action learning and research, we've demonstrated HEAL's profound potential to catalyze lasting, meaningful change. Our journey is just beginning, and we are dedicated to making HEAL's groundbreaking transformational capabilities accessible to individuals, communities, institutions, and organizations worldwide through education and technology.
Contact us here if you’re interested in the potential of HEAL.
The “eXperience Matrix” serves as a holistic model that unifies various ancient and contemporary approaches, emphasizing an integrative perspective. It interconnects diverse perspectives, including theories and practices, offering a comprehensive framework through which the intricacies of different traditions can be understood. This model weaves together time-honored concepts and understandings, facilitating a deeper appreciation of how historical insights can inform contemporary practices. By acknowledging the wisdom inherent in diverse systems and juxtaposing it with present-day knowledge, the eXperience Matrix seeks to transcend temporal boundaries, fostering a more integrative and transdisciplinary understanding of human experience and well-being.
𝐒𝐤𝐲'𝐬 Inward 𝐉𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐞𝐲
𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐀𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐏𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐞
🎙️ 𝐒𝐤𝐲: I have this person in my life who very often makes me feel angry. I don’t want this to ruin my mood, so I try to evade him. My mind is overly active, searching for solutions to this issue. How can I solve this?
🎙️ 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨: Let’s dive into our practice right away. Can you please close your eyes and listen to my voice? While I speak, notice whether your attention is directed toward listening. Like as though there is no other option than concentrating on what I’m saying. Notice what happens to your focused attention after I stop speaking. Does it search for my voice? And what happens to your attention, when it doesn’t find my voice? Does it shift to focusing on another objective sound instead, or does it open attention to hearing all sounds without focusing on any of them in particular?
🎙️ 𝐒𝐤𝐲: (after some time) I find myself focusing on some other sound instead.
🎙️ 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨: Okay, notice whether different sounds are competing for your attention...
🎙️ 𝐒𝐤𝐲: (after some time) Yes, I notice how my mind shifts between sounds. I hear a dog barking, people talking, cars passing... I also notice that my mind is overly active.
🎙️ 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨: Now, notice what feelings arise within yourself, when you think of the person and situation that triggers you.
🎙️ 𝐒𝐤𝐲: (after some time) I noticed feeling confused, I feel no control and feel frustrated.
🎙️ 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨: Where in your body do you feel this confusion, loss of control, and frustration?
🎙️ 𝐒𝐤𝐲: I mainly feel a cramp and slight burning in the middle and left side of my throat. In the middle of my forehead, I feel tension, and a bit achy.
🎙️ 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨: Do you feel that you have an option other than to focus your attention internally on these discomforts?
🎙️ 𝐒𝐤𝐲: I feel I have no other option than to concentrate, I feel how my resistance grows, and this increases my discomfort even further. Especially issues at work, create a lot of stress.
Sky is a CEO who has already had initial HEAL mentoring sessions and can thus speak in greater detail about what he experiences internally, which is part of emotion mapping. [Just by reading the dialogue above, you may gain insights about your own situation.]
(Image by Paul Skorupskas on Unsplash)
𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 𝐂𝐨𝐫𝐞
𝐑𝐞𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐥 𝐂𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐖𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧
🎙️ 𝐒𝐤𝐲: A Lot of the time, I feel as though I need to be in control, which leaves me feeling super stressed. How can I solve this control issue?
🎙️ 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨: From a (very) young age, many of us learn to rely on focus, objectification, and control as a way to anticipate and avoid potential dangers—a protective pattern deeply ingrained in our growth. So, when you focus too much, you feel danger, and you try to control the world and repress what happens inside of you.
🎙️ 𝐒𝐤𝐲: It totally made no sense why I would feel unsafe at work. Now I understand.
🎙️ 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨: Okay, let's do a grounding experiment. Please listen to my voice. This is not to hypnotize. It's to become familiar with how attention works. While I'm speaking, notice how your attention focuses on the words I say, and when I stop speaking, notice what your attention does...
🎙️ 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨: (after some time) we'll again repeat the same experiment. After I stop, does attention search, does it shift to other sounds, and/or does it expand or open?
🎙️ 𝐒𝐤𝐲: (after some time) I notice how my mind shifts to other sounds. I hear a dog barking, people talking, etc...
🎙️ 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨: Now, imagine you're sitting in a park, and you open up to hearing sounds from near or far, from other directions, all at once... Hear my voice, what other sounds do you hear, what feelings arise, what memories pop up, what smells reach your nose, all at once...
🎙️ 𝐒𝐤𝐲: (after some time) I am noticing, feeling very spacious or expansive, no control; my body feels different.
🎙️ 𝐒𝐤𝐲: Wow, how cool. I am able to be open and focused when everything slows down. So, when the world around me picks up speed and the more information I have to process, the more I focus outward.
🎙️ 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐨: Attention can be focused or open. When focused, your mind objectifies and selects. While open, your mind becomes receptive and thus flows inward.
When you control, focus draws you to whatever you want to control outside; simultaneously, it also makes you focus on what feelings you unconsciously control (repress) inside. This is the reason why when we're at work and engrossed in our work, attention will likely draw us away from what we feel, resulting in stress.
🎙️ Carlo: Try and experiment with this. When you notice that you're focusing, consciously unfocus or open your attention. Please let us know in the comments, how this worked for you.
(Image by Parrish Freeman on Unsplash)
By recognizing the co-occurrence of past thoughts, present feelings, and physical sensations, HEAL allows individuals to discern and process their internal and external worlds with greater clarity.
Views and Perspectives
Building on Bohmian Mechanics to Experience the Whole
HEAL expands on Bohmian Mechanics, David Bohm’s interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, presenting reality as a sum of all scales and contexts, both tangible and intangible. It highlights the interconnectedness of objective and subjective experiences.
In HEAL, objective reality emerges from observing (center: Figure 1) through focused attention, which clarifies certain aspects of reality. Subjective reality, on the other hand, is shaped by appreciating (center: Figure 1) through open (mindful) attention, broadening the perception of reality. Embodying, which merges the dynamic of observing and appreciating (center: Figure 1), facilitates a harmonious blend of both.
The foundational principles of HEAL extend beyond the particle-centric view of traditional quantum mechanics, emphasizing the interconnectedness of all existence. From a witness perspective, we experience the co-occurrence (superposition) of multiple intertwined dimensions, including our thoughts, memories, perceptions of the current situation, transformations, feelings, and sensations, to name a few.
This idea of interconnectedness aligns with the concepts that David Bohm highlighted in the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in his seminal work "Wholeness and the Implicate Order." In this work, Bohm also introduced an experimental language that he had co-developed called Rheomode (derived from the Greek word “rheo” meaning “to flow”). This was his attempt to create a new mode of language use that could better describe the dynamic and interconnected nature of reality. Similarly, HEAL seeks to encapsulate the same view, and has the same purpose, but in practice it approaches this differently.
HEAL’s experiential approach accesses this “witness” through a grounding process to integrate observing, appreciating, embodying, and other dimensions, including the conscious and unconscious, and the past and future. Its practice invites one to recognize the intricate interplay between what is happening in the world around us and the subjective elements and dimensions in our experience, holding all of these in a superposition.
HEAL in Education
HEAL redefines traditional curriculum design by integrating learners' inner processes with the learning environment. This approach emphasizes learning knowledge and skills from the integration of thoughts, feelings, and sensations for an experiential understanding.
Traditional curriculum often overlooks personal growth, focusing instead on structured course design. HEAL, however, guides learners toward adopting a witness perspective, what Otto Scharmer refers to as the “fourth person mode” (1,2), from which they can experience the learning process without judgment. This fosters a deeper connection with the subject, integrating concrete thoughts and ideas with their emotional connection with the same.
By promoting a witness perspective, HEAL not only enhances individual learning, but it also awakens a deep sense of connection among fellow learners, fostering a sense of community. This shared experience creates an inclusive and supportive environment where learners connect with each other's journeys, making the learning process truly whole person oriented.
HEAL's rich framework and experiential approach to curriculum design can also revolutionize social-emotional learning (SEL), making it the golden thread that interconnects all educational processes. Through SEL, internally led through the HEAL process, learners can develop emotional intelligence, self-awareness, and interpersonal skills, enhancing their understanding of their inner and outer landscapes, including others.
In conclusion, HEAL offers access to a rich framework and learning process, enabling learners to understand their thoughts in relation to their feelings and bodies as a completely integrated experience. This experiential approach enhances individual growth and strengthens the sense of community, making SEL central to education within the institution.
References:
Scharmer, O., Last accessed 03/30/2025: “Universities as Innovation Ecologies for Human & Planetary Flourishing,” Universities as Innovation Ecologies for Human & Planetary Flourishing | by Otto Scharmer | Field of the Future Blog | Mar, 2025 | Medium
Monsanto, C., Petruse, A., Luidens, A., (2025), A Comentary: The Role of HEAL in Facilitating Otto Scharmer Vision.pdf
HEAL The Hard Problem of Consciousness
“The hard problem of consciousness is the problem of explaining why any physical state is conscious rather than nonconscious, and it may mark the limits of what science can explain.”
Our discovery that attention can be defined as [selective AND/OR non-selective] relative to a witness (zero-reference) W(0) (see Figure 1) is a simple formulation with enormous implications.
We posit, and we have verified this through observations in our action research, that:
Selective-Activation: Any activation in the body pulls selective (focused) attention toward it to manifest a specific objective state. Then it releases that state into a superposition of selective and non-selective attention.
Superposition: When selective (focused) and non-selective (open) attention are in a superposition or co-occur, we open up to uncertainty, wherein we experience choice. Superposition makes it possible that attention flows between being selective AND/OR non-selective states.
Non-Selective-Deactivation: Any deactivation inside the body is allowed through non-selective (open) attention. Hereby, the system’s activity goes back to a baseline and rests.
Survival-Disruption: When we’re in a state of survival, we repeat unconscious reactive patterns. These hijack or pull our focus toward them, and it will seem to us, in our mind’s eye, as though we don’t have any other options. We don’t see any other way than to react in the specific manner that the pattern dictates because we’re hyperfocused and thus disconnected from other possibilities.
Autonomous Activity: Autonomous activity happens under the threshold of day-to-day awareness, which is why we’re not aware that certain activities pull your attention toward them.
During our lifetime, we’ve been conditioned to think, and this is emphasized in how we’re brought up and educated, that concentration is the only way to pay attention. Science has based many neuroscience and psychological theories on this one assumption. The implication of the above practice-based insights is that all activation in our body’s systems, even those activities that take place beneath the threshold of our awareness, at any scale, pull selective (focused) attention toward them and depend on nonselective (open) attention for deactivation. This is the key to defining in a clear and concise way how the mind and body extend into each other, functioning as a single continuum.
“As a child, I was often labeled as “distracted” and, “communicating with the birds.” Looking back, open attention was what kept me connected with everything and everyone around me.”
For example, initiating a real-world activity, makes us selectively focus attention, visualize our goal, analyze, and flow through a sequence of activation and deactivation of our muscles to reach our goal. In this flow of activation and deactivation, the brain flows through different attention networks to selectively focus and non-selectively open attention. Our emotional wounds, including trauma, disrupt this balance, shifting us toward overly activating those attention networks that focus and converge attention. This overly activates the sympathetic nervous system, the hypothalamus pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis, creating higher than normal stress levels. Moreover, the constant use of cognition and focus, requires a higher than normal energy consumption and rapidly depletes our body. Through HEAL practice, we can, within the shortest possible time, bring the current maladapted state in a superposition with the optimal viewpoint witness W(0), which influences all systems toward seamless, effortless integration.
Our answer to the Hard Problem therefore is simple: “Yes,” all physical activity IS conscious! (we will continually collect observational insights to evolve the accuracy of our formulations)
Research & Development
HEAL in Body Representation Research
HEAL (Human Experience Augmenting Language) furnishes a pioneering framework that can considerably propel Body Representation Research forward by supplying tools and perspectives that underscore the integrated and embodied essence of human experience. Body representation research explores how humans perceive, understand, and mentally represent their own bodies. HEAL's emphasis on recognizing and articulating inner emotional landscapes, mapping emotional triggers and patterns, and developing empathy directly aligns with comprehending the subjective experience of one's body.
One central contribution of HEAL resides in its "atomic view" of experience, which posits that experiences exist at disparate energy levels, including feeling (n=1), embodying (n=2), and thinking (n=3) (Figure 1). The embodying level (n=2) specifically facilitates a seamless transformation, through superposition, between our tangible (thinking) and intangible (feeling), thereby permitting the integration of both fields and promoting a natural balance where experiences are embodied and in flow. This becomes evident through a first-person research experiment called Grounding and Multimodal Attention Calibration (G-MAC). This perspective can provide a valuable lens for Body Representation Research to investigate how the cognitive (thinking) and affective (feeling) aspects intertwine in our conscious experience of our bodies.
Furthermore, HEAL’s process of mapping sensations in the body as meaningful expressions that connect to unresolved experiences offers a practical methodology for researchers. By training individuals to register and decode these physical sensations using tools like the eXperience Matrix and Body Matrix, researchers can gain richer qualitative data on how individuals, by now evolved to being experts-by-experience and citizen-researchers, perceive and represent their bodily states. This can be particularly insightful for understanding conditions where body awareness is disrupted. For example, emotional wounds can severely disrupt the natural fluidity and balance within us, leading to altered bodily sensations and perceptions. HEAL’s focus on integrating past unresolved challenges into the present experience could offer a pathway to understanding how past emotional experiences shape current body representations.
The concept of "witnessing" from a zero-reference point, where we integrate what we observe, think, appreciate, feel, and embody within a superposition of possibilities, also has implications for Body Representation Research. This holistic perspective emphasizes the co-occurrence of various dimensions of experience, including physical sensations. By facilitating the awakening of this witness perspective, HEAL can help individuals achieve a more integrated and less fragmented sense of their being, potentially shedding light on how a cohesive body representation is formed and maintained. It does this through a process called Grounding and Multimodal Attention Calibration, or G-MAC.
In the context of neurological or psychological conditions affecting body awareness, HEAL's approach of accessing a "language accessed within" may be particularly beneficial. Unlike external interventions, HEAL empowers individuals to internally navigate and resolve their experiences by connecting with their own process. This intrinsic potential could be explored in research to understand how individuals with altered body representations can reconnect with and reinterpret their bodily signals from an internal perspective.
In summary, HEAL offers several avenues for advancing Body Representation Research:
Its holistic framework emphasizes the integration of feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations.
Its "atomic view" of experience provides a model for understanding the different levels of bodily awareness.
Its process of mapping and decoding sensations offers a practical method for data collection.
The awakening of "witnessing" through G-MAC, creates a holistic body representation.
Its focus on internal resources for understanding experience, may be valuable for individuals with altered body awareness.
By incorporating the principles and linguistic practices of HEAL, Body Representation Research can gain more in-depth insights into the subjective and integrated nature of how humans experience their physical selves, individually and in relationship, potentially leading to more effective educational interventions that can enrich the experience of individuals, especially learners, directly impacting their mental, emotional, body, and social awareness.
References:
Last accessed 03/28/2025: https://bodyrepresentation.wixsite.com/brnet
New Paradigm Education
Our collaboration with the Laszlo Institute of New Paradigm Research has led to designing, implementing, and completing a preliminary qualitative investigation of the impact of HEAL on twelve (12) participants in a twelve week (3-month) individualized program. This was conducted in collaboration with the Institute of Noetic Science (IONS). The objective was for participants to report on the impact of HEAL on their quality of life experience. This study concluded on 21 APR 2022.
Description:
Have you ever had a sense that you react to present situations as though you were in the past?
Imagine carrying a backpack filled with unresolved painful experiences from the past, weighing you down and keeping you on high alert. This constant anticipation of danger traps multiple versions of yourself within their incomplete experiences. When triggered, these trapped selves lead to negative, adverse, or disruptive overreactions. Think of the fight, flight, freeze, or stress response – generating immense tension, electric activity, and toxins, which we know as stress. This stress becomes our default response to the world unless we recognize and free these trapped selves.
By integrating and resolving these experiences, we unlock more of who we truly are in the present moment. This transformative journey reconnects us deeply with ourselves, others, the microbial world, the planetary ecosystem, and beyond. Such profound integration can significantly enhance our capacity to address current and future global health, economic, and other challenges as a united human species.
This qualitative study was incredibly promising, providing us with invaluable insights that will guide and enhance future practice based and academic research.
Holistic Education and Research
Over the past 25 years, we have conducted action research to observe, decode, and model the cyclic nature of experience, and how trauma interrupts this, as represented in the eXperience Matrix (XM) (Figure 1-3). This was conducted in Europe, the Caribbean, North, and South America. The continuous evolution of this process, has refined the HEAL framework, process, and practice, enhancing its nuance, detail, and accuracy. The long-term goal of this action research is to continue evolving HEAL while contributing to its widespread dissemination and use in institutions and communities around the world.
Description:
What sets our action research apart is the role of program participants. As experts by experience, they are integral to the evolution of the model that aids their growth. This approach expands beyond reductionist, quantitative research design and could revolutionize educational processes, making education and research truly holistic and inclusive. This self-evaluating, integrative process can be seamlessly integrated with one’s cultural and religious context.
In collaboration with academic institutions, which are invested in quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research, we wish to produce specific metrics based on empirical studies to evaluate the effectiveness of learner’s application of HEAL in diverse contexts. For such assessments, we need access to participant feedback, case studies, and research data, demonstrating the program's impact. This will probably require us to seek Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval in the USA and similar approvals in other countries.
Human Flourishing Research
HEAL (Human Experience Augmenting Language) offers a novel perspective for evolving the scientific understanding of both polarization and human flourishing (1). By emphasizing the integration of emotional, physical, and mental dimensions and fostering self-awareness and emotional literacy, HEAL provides a unique framework to examine these complex societal phenomena.
Regarding polarization, what we can observe is, emotional disconnect and miscommunication contribute to societal divisions. HEAL posits that unresolved emotional wounds and mental fragmentation can lead individuals to project internal states externally, mirroring the concentration of opinions at opposing extremes that define polarization. HEAL's grounding recalibration of multimodal attention, mapping emotional triggers and patterns and decoding experiences can equip researchers with frameworks, tools, and processes for first-person research to understand how individual emotional landscapes fuel polarized viewpoints. By illuminating how emotional wounds hinder the interplay between thinking and feeling, HEAL offers a potential mechanism for understanding the entrenchment in extreme positions.
Conversely, HEAL's emphasis on achieving balance, clarity, and growth by unlocking inner capacities cultivates human flourishing. The HEAL process, which includes discerning and integrating attentional modes, mapping sensations, decoding experiences, receiving and feeling, and integrating the past, aims to absorb (resolve) internal barriers, leading to a state of expansion, flow, peace, and tranquility. This integrated state, wherein individuals feel most authentic, can witness experiences from their "nucleus." By cultivating this witness perspective and promoting heart-centered dialogue, HEAL offers a framework for understanding how individuals and communities can move towards greater well-being and collective transformation.
To facilitate new scientific research on human flourishing using HEAL, several practical dissemination tools can be employed, aligning with the Templeton World Charity Foundation's focus on global collaboration:
Facilitator Training Programs: Develop comprehensive training to equip researchers and practitioners with HEAL methodologies for research.
Research Coordination Networks: Establish networks to connect researchers studying flourishing and polarization through the lens of HEAL, facilitating the sharing of methods and findings.
Practice-Informed Research Initiatives: Create platforms for collaboration between HEAL practitioners and researchers to ensure practical insights inform research questions.
Development of Digital Tools: Develop digital tools to support the widespread adoption of HEAL’s process of recalibration, mapping, and decoding, and optionally facilitate data collection for research.
Integration into Educational Curricula: Incorporate HEAL principles into educational programs, fostering self-awareness for future research participants and insights.
Collaborative Research Projects: Initiate joint research projects between academic bodies, HEAL practitioners, and organizations focused on flourishing, potentially seeking funding support.
Open Science Practices: Encourage researchers using HEAL to adopt open science practices, making data and findings accessible to share know how.
By implementing these strategies, the HEAL framework can be effectively disseminated and integrated into the scientific study of human flourishing and polarization, potentially leading to new discoveries and interventions for a more connected and thriving world.
References:
1. Last accessed 03/25/2025: More About Listening & Learning in a Polarized World | Templeton World Charity Foundation, Inc., https://www.templetonworldcharity.org/our-priorities/discovery/listening-learning-polarized-world/more-about-listening-learning-in-a-polarized-world
Collaborations:
Soon we will provide a list of collaborating organizations.
Affirming Methodlogies
We wish to promote the following publication and research methodology. Please follow the link below to visit the author’s website.
“Research and Education in the Caribbean centers local and indigenous ways of knowing in research and education praxis in the Caribbean. The research methodologies and pedagogies are presented in this book within an Affirming Methodologies framework. They bring forward localized epistemologies whereby Caribbean ways of being and knowing are affirmed, and the expected western hierarchies between researcher and researched are removed.”
Nakhid, C., Nakhid-Chatoor, M., Santana, A.F., & Wilson-Scott, S. (2022). Affirming Methodologies.
HEAL: Next Developments
HEAL has a wide range of applications in various fields, including education, therapy, and organizational development. In educational settings, HEAL can enhance students’ learning experiences by promoting a more profound understanding of themselves and their peers. In therapeutic contexts, it provides powerful insights for clients to articulate and ‘metabolize’ their experiences, leading to greater self-awareness and healing. Within organizations, HEAL can improve communication and collaboration, fostering a more harmonious and productive work environment.
We believe that we can significantly contribute to social transformation by supporting learners and individuals with mental health issues to integrate their challenges and realize their innate potential. Our approach includes various educational interventions tailored for both individual practitioners and groups, comprehensive facilitator training programs, and the development of cutting-edge conversational educational technology. By partnering with forward-thinking organizations, we aim to create innovative tools that foster individual growth and collective well-being, ultimately leading to a more empathetic and inclusive society.
We invite you to join the HEAL Ecosystem, a pioneering movement dedicated to transforming human experiences through the Human Experience Augmenting Language (HEAL). We are currently seeking alliances and funding to support our research efforts, allowing us to gather detailed information on measurable outcomes and participant experiences.
By joining us, you will help us assess the impact of HEAL across various domains, including education, healthcare, and social innovation. Together, we can unlock new insights, enhance well-being, and foster a more profound understanding of the human experience.
Your support will enable us to create a more integrated and harmonious world. We look forward to partnering with you on this exciting journey.
Warm regards,
HEAL ecosystem team
Let's build a brighter future together. Are you in?
Are you interested in joining us?
Meet Our Team
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Lokesh Agrawal
Research Scholar
Lokesh, a researcher at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) and adjunct professor at UNICAL (Curacao), has an extensive background in cognitive neuroscience, converging technologies, and regenerative medicine. With a master's from the Center for Converging Technologies, UOR, and a doctorate from the University of Tsukuba, his work focuses on neuronal regeneration, serotonin's role in brain development, and the development of personalized 3D-biological implants.
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Angelo B.J. Luidens
Researcher/Mentor
Angelo advances social justice and sustainable change through holistic approaches, integrating Complexity Sciences, Quantum Integrative Medicine, and Truth & Reconciliation efforts. He contributes to HEAL theory and practices Organizational Architecture (OA), which stems from—present, body awareness, emotional intelligence—and the 7 Competencies process. This synergy enhances integration, innovation, and global impact, unlocking human potential at individual and systemic levels.
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Carlo G. Monsanto
Lead Researcher/Mentor
I hold a Bachelor degree in Health Science and a Master of Science in Psychology and contribute to transdisciplinary/polymathic research. For nearly twenty-five years, I have dedicated to the design of HEAL (Human Experience Augmenting Language) and the development of the HEAL ecosystem. I contribute to healing humanity's wounds by stimulating the use of HEAL’s transparent language. Widespread adoption will cultivate global dialogue, equipping communities with essential knowledge for transformation and growth. My knowledge and experience can advance these conversations and developments.
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Andreea G. Petruse
Researcher/Mentor
Andreea contributes to the development of the HEAL ecosystem and helps design new curricula that, among other things, guide children in learning trauma resolution skills. She offers a framework for internal and external assessment, shaping a new educational paradigm that truly prepares students to face the multiple dimensions of life, enhancing their long-term human experience and bringing out their true potential.
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Eelco Roovers
Researcher/Mentor
Eelco Roovers is a HEAL Facilitator & Trainer with a biology foundation and 12.5 years in dance. Since 1999, he's focused on Ayurveda, Yoga, and spirituality, gaining in-depth knowledge of HEAL, Spiritual Therapy, and breathwork. Trained in herbal medicine and auriculotherapy, Eelco integrates mind, body, and spirit. He actively contributes to evolving HEAL theory and practice, guiding transformative learning journeys.
