Today's conversation is with Dr. David Vago.

David is a leading neuroscientist and advisor within the mindfulness, digital health, and psychedelic research communities. He currently serves as President of the International Society for Contemplative Research and holds academic affiliations with Harvard Medical School and the University of Virginia. With training from Vanderbilt, Harvard, Weill Cornell, and the University of Utah, Dr. Vago has held key research and faculty positions, including Associate Professor at Vanderbilt and Research Director at the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine. His background spans cognitive neuroscience, neuropsychiatry, and contemplative science, with postdoctoral fellowships in biological and social psychiatry, neuroimaging, and mind-body medicine.

Dr. Vago’s research explores the neurobiological and psychosocial mechanisms linking mind, brain, and body in mental health, chronic pain, and wellbeing. Through a combination of neuroimaging, cognitive-behavioral, and phenomenological methods, his work bridges basic neuroscience with clinical application. As a scientific advisor and Research Lead for RoundGlass, he advances evidence-based innovation in digital health and wellbeing. A prolific author with over 100 publications and more than 15,000 citations, Dr. Vago is a recognized thought leader whose research has shaped the emerging field of contemplative science and continues to inform modern approaches to mindfulness and integrative health.

In today’s conversation, David shared how neuroscience, phenomenology, and contemplative practice converge in understanding embodiment. We explored his Spacer Model, which traces experience from bodily sensation through perception, cognition, meta-awareness, and action—revealing how identity continually re-forms moment by moment.

David spoke about interoception and the neural basis of felt experience, highlighting how awareness of internal states shapes behavior, emotion, and selfhood. He also introduced emerging research in bioenergetics, linking the brain’s energetic and glymphatic systems with traditional ideas of qi, prana, and subtle energy.

Throughout, he emphasized that awareness itself is medicine—that small embodied shifts ripple through our biology and relationships. His work invites us to see embodiment as a living dialogue between brain, body, and world—a path toward a more conscious and compassionate way of being.

You can find out more about David at https://contemplativeneurosciences.com/

If you are enjoying and getting something out of these talks, we'd appreciate it if you would leave a positive review of the podcast and subscribe to it through the platform of your choice. When you do this it really helps other people find us, and we greatly appreciate your support.

You can find more about Andrew at http://andrewrosenstock.com and http://RolfingInBoston.com

Many thanks to Explorers Society for use of their song " All In" from their majestic album 'Spheres' Please check them out here https://open.spotify.com/album/1plT1lAPWEQ1oTRbWOiXm3?si=eAL08OJdT5-sJ6FwwZD50g

Today’s conversation is with Aline Newton and Rebecca Carli-Mills.

For nearly forty years, Aline Newton has worked with dancers, athletes, engineers, trauma survivors, and anyone seeking greater ease, resilience, and connection to their body. Drawing on decades of experience as a Rolfer and movement educator, and insights from yoga, tai chi, Pilates, craniosacral, and visceral work, her approach blends science, somatic practice, and human curiosity. Her new book, Reimagining the Body, invites readers to understand the living, moving body not as a machine of bones and muscles, but as a sensing, adapting, meaning-making whole. She maintains a practice in Cambridge, MA, chairs the Rolf Movement Faculty at the Dr. Ida Rolf Institute, and teaches experiential anatomy at the Boston Conservatory’s Alexander Technique Teacher Training.

More at ⁠alinenewton.com⁠.

Rebecca Carli-Mills is a Certified Advanced Rolfer®, Rolf Movement® Instructor, and ISMETA-Registered Master Somatic Movement Therapist with over three decades in somatic education. With a background in dance performance and choreography (B.A., M.F.A.), her work bridges expressive and functional movement. A longtime student of Hubert Godard, she integrates insights on gravity, perception, and coordination with training in craniosacral, visceral, neural, and energetic osteopathy. A former Chair of the Rolf Movement Faculty and ISMETA board member, she teaches internationally and maintains a private practice in Bethesda, MD, supporting clients and students in discovering greater ease, agency, and enjoyment in movement and daily life.

Contact: ⁠carlimills@mac.com⁠.

In today’s conversation, Aline and Rebecca discuss their forthcoming book Reimagining the Body: Somatic Practice, Embodiment, and the Science of Movement, published by Handspring. The book draws on their decades of study with Hubert Godard, exploring how movement, perception, and gravity intertwine to shape human experience. Aline describes it as a “long walk through a landscape,” blending neuroscience, client stories, and experiential practices to help readers not only understand but feel embodiment and tonic function.

Together they reflect on Godard’s concept of tonic function, which reframes alignment from stacked mechanical “blocks” to a dynamic coordination with gravity—linking posture, emotion, and relationship. Their book bridges scientific clarity and somatic depth, inviting practitioners and lay readers alike into a living understanding of how we inhabit our bodies. Rebecca notes that the text meets readers at many levels, offering insight for beginners, practitioners, and scientists while maintaining a deeply human tone.

Aline and Rebecca also share their belief that movement itself is education—a process that empowers clients to participate in their own healing and awareness. They announced plans for slow reading groups in 2026, where readers can explore the book chapter by chapter, integrating the material into both practice and daily life. At its core, the conversation is a call to rediscover the body not as an object to fix, but as a living, sensing system through which we learn, relate, and become.

Reimagining the Body: Somatic Practice, Embodiment, and the Science of Movement is available from Singing Dragon, Amazon, and wherever books are sold.

If you are enjoying and getting something out of these talks, we’d appreciate it if you would leave a positive review of the podcast and subscribe to it through the platform of your choice. When you do this it really helps other people find us, and we greatly appreciate your support.

You can find more about Andrew at ⁠andrewrosenstock.com⁠ and ⁠rolfinginboston.com⁠.

Many thanks to Explorers Society for use of their song “All In” from their majestic album Spheres. Check them out here.

Today's conversation is with Will Johnson.

Will received his B.A., magna cum laude, in Art and Archaeology from Princeton University in 1968. After graduation, he worked for several years as an art critic in New York before moving to the west coast of North America where he began actively exploring gazing, moving, and sitting meditations. He became a Buddhist practitioner in 1972 and was trained as a Rolfer™ in 1976. He began the formal sharing of the practices of Embodiment Training in 1995. he’s the author of 15 books (two of which won awards as “Best Spiritual Book of the Year.”) on the role of the body in spiritual awakening which can be ordered through your local bookseller or online at Will Johnson's Books .

He and his wife (and partner in the practices) Coco live in Delicias, Costa Rica, just outside the little bohemian town of Montezuma at the southern tip of the Nicoya peninsula where they have created Bambu Hueco, the Hollow Bamboo Retreat Center where they welcome serious meditation students to enter into intensive 7-21 day self retreat. During these retreats, people have the opportunity to work closely with Will in their meditation practices and receive deep bodywork and dream sessions as support for their intensive practice.

In today’s talk we explored the lesser-known tributaries of Dr. Rolf’s vision — what Will calls the “mystery school” of evolutionary transformation. He spoke about the line not only as structural balance, but as a doorway into profound states of awakening, breath, and spontaneous movement.

Will also reflected on the role psychedelics have played in his own path, describing them as catalytic allies that can accelerate openings into these deeper states.

Looking ahead, Will has announced a gathering in Costa Rica in February 2026, where practitioners will explore line states in community through hands-on work, spontaneous movement, and entheogenic support. His hope is to reawaken this dimension of Rolf’s teaching and invite others into its transformative potential

You can learn more about Will at https://www.embodiment.net/

If you are enjoying and getting something out of these talks, we'd appreciate it if you would leave a positive review of the podcast and subscribe to it through the platform of your choice. When you do this it really helps other people find us, and we greatly appreciate your support.

You can find more about Andrew at http://andrewrosenstock.com and http://RolfingInBoston.com

Many thanks to Explorers Society for use of their song " All In" from their majestic album 'Spheres' Please check them out here https://open.spotify.com/album/1plT1lAPWEQ1oTRbWOiXm3?si=eAL08OJdT5-sJ6FwwZD50g