The Opportunity
The body keeps the score. But how? And if the body is keeping a score of stress, trauma, and experience, can we learn to read it and restore harmony across the systems of the human organism?
Today, society faces a growing epidemic of chronic, hard-to-treat conditions - including long-term trauma syndromes, chronic pain, hypermobility disorders, chronic fatigue, and other systemic illnesses. These conditions often overlap in symptoms, are strongly associated with stress and trauma, and reflect system-wide dysregulation rather than isolated pathology. Despite advances in genetics and molecular medicine, Western healthcare has struggled to diagnose or effectively treat many of them.
At the same time, a parallel lineage of practices - stretching back millennia in Yogic, Daoist, and Buddhist traditions, and echoed in modern somatic practices - claims meaningful success in treating similar clusters of symptoms. Further, such practices are strongly indicated in promotion of prosociality and wellbeing. These approaches treat the human organism as a unified, integrated whole, often centering on how attention occupies the body, such as in Jhana meditations.
Why Now?
A groundswell of public interest has emerged around somatic healing and practices that link the body and mind. To date, while research has shown evidence of the effectiveness of many such practices, rigorous science uncovering the mechanisms behind these specific practices - how and why it actually works - has been heavily limited compared to its potential.
Advances in neuroscience, technology, and mindfulness research now make it possible to investigate these questions with unprecedented detail. The field stands today where psychedelic research stood 15 years ago: scientifically plausible, technologically tractable, and awaiting catalytic coordination.
Our Approach
Our Bodymind program seeks to advance the scientific understanding of brain, mind, and body feedback loops and their role in healing, resilience, and human flourishing. Our central premise is simple: the body and mind are not separate; they are expressions of a single integrated whole, and practices that seek to harmonize this relationship may be of powerful therapeutic and societal benefit.
We seek to study a range of ancient and modern practices that focus on trauma integration, nervous system regulation, and embodied awareness.
In 2026, we will:
- Publish a State of Bodymind Science report that articulates the scientific opportunity and the current state of the field and outlines a set of future possibilities. Subscribe to our newsletter to get the report when it arrives.
- Launch a podcast and publish essays and research notes that explore the emerging landscape of bodymind science.
- Gather stakeholders to help coordinate a shared research vision for the field.
Impact
Growing the field of bodymind science could mean:
- Identifying and creating tools for sensing and influencing processes and traits that are harnessed and altered by these practices.
- A scientific framework describing how body, mind, and brain interact across a whole integrated system in these practices.
- Validating current tools and practices, and discovering new pathways, that support trauma integration, somatic healing, nervous system resilience, and new developmental pathways for wellbeing.
- Seeing bodymind science integrated into mainstream healing modalities.