CNV, Polyvagal Theory, and Internal Neurology — Introduction

This page is the introductory entry for the third of the three axes of the Paret Method: non-verbal communication as the grammar of the body, the polyvagal theory as the neurophysiological explanation of trance and bonding states, and internal neurology as the contemporary map of what the hermetic and magnetic tradition described phenomenologically. For the overall vision and the other two axes (Fascination and Magnetism, Presence-Alchemy-Hermeticism) see the Pagina principale.

The third axis of the Paret Method brings together two families of knowledge that, until very recently, spoke different languages: on one hand, the twentieth-century tradition of non-verbal communication, body psychology (Reich, Boyesen, Mindell), and attachment studies; on the other, affective and autonomic neuroscience which, starting from the 1990s — with Stephen Porges' polyvagal theory, the discovery of mirror neurons by Rizzolatti, and the mapping of the Default mode network by Raichle — began to describe in measurable terms what European magnetizers had observed phenomenologically a century and a half earlier.

The Paret Method does not choose between the two families: it holds them together. The fascination of Donato and Luys' miroir rotatif produced in the subject's nervous system exactly the autonomic state transitions that polyvagal theory today describes with Porges' vocabulary; and the six character types of the Method can be read as variations of stabilized polyvagal configuration. This convergence underpins the entire axis.

Threshold with the second axis

The neurophysiological phenomena described in this axis — polyvagal transitions, mirror neuron entrainment, modulation of the Default mode network — were not discovered by contemporary neuroscience: they were observed and trained for four centuries by European initiatic traditions using a different vocabulary. The threshold page Dall'ermetico al neurologico — corrispondenze articulates the junctions: the three polyvagal circuits correspond to the principles of the Tria Prima (Sulfur-Mercury-Salt), stable ventral vagal tone to Presenza Integrale and to sub specie interioritatis, the cycle of dissolution and recoagulation to solve et coagula, non-shivering thermogenesis to Tummo and the alchemical secret fire, the suspension of the DMN to the inner silence of the Hesychasts and to the mental emptiness of the contemplatives.

Polyvagal theory as the grammar of states

Stephen Porges' polyvagal theory describes the autonomic nervous system as a hierarchy of three circuits: the ventral vagal circuit (social engagement, safety, connection), the sympathetic circuit (mobilization, fight/flight), and the dorsal vagal circuit (immobilization, freeze, conservation). Transitions between these circuits are not voluntary: they are governed by neuroception — the preconscious, continuous evaluation of the safety level of the environment. This is the grammar with which the Method reads trance states, fascination states, mesmeric crises, and Presenza Integrale itself.

Polyvagal Theory · Polyvagal Theory and Magnetic Passes · Polyvagal Theory and Trauma · versione IT
La Scala di Luys e la Teoria Polivagale di Porges — the historical-neurophysiological bridge, key entry
Fascinazione e Teoria Polivagale — Luys 1890 e Porges 1994 — the bridge page between the first and third axes
Ipnosi, Teoria Polivagale e Liberazione Somatica — clinical application

Typologies as stable polyvagal configurations

The operational insight of the Paret Method is that human typologies — alchemical, Neoplatonic, Indian, Enneagram, biocharacterial — are not arbitrary classifications but convergent descriptions of stable polyvagal configurations: enduring patterns of differential activation of the three circuits, modulated by each individual's history of safety/threat. Under this reading, the alchemical Tria Prima, the six character types of the Method, the Eight Fixations, and Paret's moving enneagram become legible as different dialects of the same neurophysiological grammar.

I sei tipi caratteriali nella mappa polivagale — the key entry
Sei tipi caratteriali del Paret Method
Otto fissazioni · The Moving Enneagram of Paret
Guna e Tria Prima — convergence with the Indian tradition
Convergenza dei sistemi tipologici — the synthesis page of the three axes
Logismoi — hesychastic passion-thoughts as ancient parallels

The body as external neurology

The autonomic nervous system is not an abstraction: it expresses itself in the body as tone, posture, breath, gaze, voice, touch. Twentieth-century body psychology (Reich, Boyesen, Mindell) and older somatic traditions converge in reading the body as internal neurology made visible. Along this line, the Method recovers techniques working on touch, autonomous movement, posture, and breath as direct tools for modulating polyvagal configuration.

Wilhelm Reich — character analysis as a precursor to polyvagal reading
Gerda Boyesen — biodynamics and psychoperistalsis
Wolinsky and deconceptualization
Arnold Mindell and Process Work
Touch e sistema nervoso autonomo — key entry on touch as a neurophysiological operator
Magnetic Passes and Proximity Touch (settimana 2 Diamond)
Movimento autonomo della crisi · Trabona autonomous movement · Self Crisis Exercise
Body Presence · Safety Posture · Speaking with Presence
Polarity / Postural Grid

The gaze as a neurophysiological operator

The gaze is not only an element of the first axis (fascination): it is one of the most powerful neuroceptive signals that exist. Its action unfolds entirely within the register of the third axis — from facial mimicry that activates the social engagement system, to mirror neurons that transmit the fascinator's state to the subject, up to the dorsal vagal freeze evoked by the petrifying gaze of Gorgon mythology.

Neuroni specchio — the neurophysiological basis of state transmission
Sguardo e Neuroni Specchio — La Scienza Moderna della Trasmissione dello Stato
La Gorgone e Medusa — Lo Sguardo Pietrificante e il Freeze Dorsovagale nel Mito — myth/neurophysiology bridge entry
Il Potere dello Sguardo — Dalla Tradizione Mondiale alla Neuroscienze — historical-neuroscientific synthesis

The brain's default network

Part of the contemporary work on the Method concerns the Default mode network — the brain network active when the subject is not engaged in external tasks — and its relationship with states of trance, absorption, and presence. The suspension of the DMN, well documented in deep meditative states and under psychedelic substances, appears to be one of the neuro-imaging correlates of the state of fascination and integral presence.

Default mode network — the brain's default mode network

The section to be expanded

This axis is the youngest of the three: opened in May 2026 and actively expanding. The following entries are planned or have stubs:

Stephen Porges — biographical and bibliographic page
Gerda Boyesen — biodynamics, psychoperistalsis (already a page)
Arnold Mindell — Process Work, dreambody
Giacomo Rizzolatti — mirror neurons and embodied cognition
Marcus Raichle — the default mode network
Interoception — the perception of one's own interior as a recent development axis
Neuroception — Porges' key concept
Window of tolerance (Siegel) — the window of tolerance model

Wiki of the Paret Method · ISI-CNV · Université Européenne — synthesis between European magnetic phenomenology and contemporary affective neuroscience.