Being the Medicine with Mordecai Cohen Ettinger

Being the Medicine provides: 1) an overview of western trauma studies centralizing contributions by feminist, Native American, and African American psychologists, social scientists and activists, 2) an introduction to emerging findings in neurophysiology, epigentics and social epidemiology, which inform the conceptualization of the ‘social nervous system’ and which challenge fundamental capitalist myths that humans are inherently hierarchical and that evolution and innovation are driven primarily by competition, and 3) experiential exercises based in somatics and contemplative practices to enable participants to ‘feel into’ the power of the social nervous system and connect with their capacity and calling to contribute to the collective field of transformation.

This workshop also provides a framework to reflect on the parallels of findings from the emergent ‘new synthesis’ in the biological sciences with universal spiritual truths while evaluating and critiquing the liberatory potential of science in the context of its oppressive history and ongoing role in enabling cultural appropriation and injustice.