Holotropism: A Multi-Dimensional, Spacious, Edgeless Terrain

• “We (by which I mean my plural self and anyone else who this resonates with)” ⤴️
• “monotropic theory to be a very helpful paradigm for a major swath of autistic experience” ⤴️
• “Synthesising monotropic theory with deep ecology and holistic anatomy, we feel we have found a multi-dimensional, spacious, edgeless terrain under the monotropism map. We are calling it holotropism.” ⤴️
• “To be holotropic is to have wide open sensory gates. To participate in/as the immense world without becoming overwhelmed, we holotropes have two central methods: in, by hyperfocusing our attention on one sensory or cognitive path, and as, through synthesising our experience into coherence. A sense of wholeness occurs through both of these processes — less consciously in hyperfocus, more consciously in coherence.” ⤴️
• “Hyperfocus is a kind of flooding of certain pathways which therein quiets dissonance from conflicting inputs.” ⤴️
• “To be syntropic is to be immersed and perhaps inventive.” ⤴️
• ”⁠ While autistic people are not the only ones capable of absorption, it is the signature of a holotropic life.” ⤴️
• “If hyperfocus is flow, coherence is profound rest.” ⤴️
• “It is effortless integration.” ⤴️
• “embodied coherence is arguably our true gift, that we can both receive and give. When we are able to abide in receptive open awareness, we find we are wholeness itself.” ⤴️
• “Our bodies are not a collection of parts held together by connective tissue. We are each a constitutive tissue that organises itself into organs.” ⤴️
• “An effect of having wide open sense gates is a lack of clear boundary between self and other. This can be wonderful, and it can be trouble.” ⤴️
• “Training in proprioception and “peripheral stability” is of tremendous benefit, as it protects us from getting confused in the space between ourselves and others” ⤴️
• “When our healthy hyperfocus is disrupted we may be overwhelmed, and this can take various forms. Since there will undoubtedly be disruptions, cultivating agility for those moments is critical.” ⤴️
• “if there is a prioritised focus of interest for the body’s energy, aspects of our “autonomic” nervous system aren’t always autonomic” ⤴️
• “Regular periods of coherence are therefore mandatory for our well-being.” ⤴️
• “when acting syntropically, tends to expect one thing to follow from another like fractals” ⤴️
• “Close, and shifting. This expectation rests on a somatic understanding that consciousness is cellular. When we are fully at ease, we can feel the synapses of our thoughts.” ⤴️
• “When we experience cognitive-sensory dissonance it can feel like the whole infinite pattern, that we are a part of, gets erased.” ⤴️
• “What is called polytropic experience is more compartmentalised. One could say it is additive — that interests and activities and sensing “add up” to a sense of wholeness — while holotropic sensory experience is multiplicative — and therefore can quickly get intense” ⤴️ double empathy problem
• “In the holotropic model, any hyposensitivity without an apparent physical cause is likely an understandable bodily coping mechanism. If there is a gentle aspiration to awaken any protectively-dulled sense, it will likely awaken sooner or later.” ⤴️ trauma
• “Neurology can be a trap that reifies a misleading narrative that our brains determine “who we are”, and this is reified by the compound word “neurodiversity”. It neglects the heart. It doesn’t recognize that the mind is not separable from the body. We prefer the term neurosomatic diversity. Our brains have evolved to support our lives, which can only be fulfilling in feeling.” ⤴️