Let's start with the basics: what are we?

In my doctoral dissertation, I detailed how the "mind-body duality" is obsolete. Human beings are not a (non-mental) physical body somehow conjoined to a (non-physical) mental mind. Instead, everything is cognitive.

Beyond dualism, a better way to understand living systems is that we are complex patterns of energy flow. As noted by Martin Picard, PhD, leading mitochondrial psychobiologist at Columbia University, energetic processes are more fundamental than what we call the "physical body:"

"So, what are you? Are you a molecular machine? Or are you an energetic process? And I think the truest answer...the answer is that you're both. But if you ask, 'what is most fundamental?' What is most fundamental is not your physical existence, it is actually you as an energetic process, as a flow of energy."

Interoception: Maintaining Energy Balance

To stay alive, living systems must keep these patterns of energy balanced and integrated. Science refers to this as homeostasis and allostasis. Interoception is how humans sense and maintain this balance.

Interoception is the multi-modal process and experience of sensing real-time energy needs and responding in such a way that keeps us within proper limits and balance. This includes everything from hydration, to rest/sleep, to social stimulation, to metabolism, and to physical activity/exertion, among many other basic and subtle dynamics. While all biological systems participate in this process, it is the fascia and the nervous system that are principally responsible for creating what's called the "interoceptive percept:" our conscious sense of our overall state of energy balance and integration.

Fasica: The Most Important Organ You've Never Learned About

Everyone is aware of the nervous system, but did you know that another body-wide system is equally as important for all aspects of health, strength, movement, cognition, and well-being? This system is the fascia.

Simplistically, fascia refers to all the soft, connective tissues throughout the body. It comprises a complex, dynamic, multidimensional web of various types of tissue and surrounding fluids, and it functions as a unified whole mediating form, structure, movement, communication, fluid exchange, and energy flow among all our other biological systems and functions - cognition included. Long neglected by anatomists, physiologists, and psychologists, the fascia has finally received the attention it deserves. Research over the past few decades has revealed that fascia is simultaneously:

• our primary sensory organ (it contains more nerve density than even the skin, tongue, and eyes!)
• our primary organ of form and movement (in tandem with muscle, which is technically part of fascia)
• the central system for perceptual and emotional integration
• the body's inclusive and integrating communication and signaling network

It is not much of a stretch (pun intended) to say that fascia is our primary organ of interoception and cognition (working in tandem with the brain/nervous system, of course). Further below, I discuss how iNT: Interotelligence leverages the fascia to help restore interoceptive function and thus health and well-being. But first, how does all this relate to a lack of health - to disease and illness?

Interoception, Health and Disease

When our interoceptive abilities are disrupted or compromised, we can no longer effectively and efficiently maintain proper energy balance. This leads to a literal state of dis-ease, which manifests as any number of symptoms that prompt people to seek therapy or medical attention: depression, anxiety, lethargy, PTSD, ADHD, OCD, addictions, compulsive behaviors, disordered eating, irritable bowel syndrome, insomnia, chronic pain, and many others. Chronic interoceptive disruption creates a "transdisorder vulnerability to illness,"¹ which explains how so many symptoms and conditions are a result of a common underlying cause.

From Dis-Ease to Health: Interoception and Holistic Well-Being