Autonomic Intelligence: : Pathway to the Pulsatile Self and Sustainable Health

Autonomic Intelligence: Pathway to the Pulsatile Self and Sustainable Health introduces readers to concepts and practices that enhance “Autonomic Intelligence” or AuI: the ability to build and stockpile health by working the autonomic nervous system. The book helps readers expand their AuI by providing a fully illustrated, concise, and understandable overview of the relationship between the autonomic nervous system and the cardiovascular and immune systems and the role that relationship plays in both good and poor health. The overview includes the latest research on the "autonomic cardiovascular and immune systems" and an explanation of a promising, non-invasive technique for measuring their strength and weakness. Halfway through the book, readers are introduced to Reflective Exercise (RE): a simple routine that can be learned via streaming video available at www.pulsatileinternational.com or Amazon Video Direct. RE transforms the autonomic nervous system into a sensory organ, producing the “Reflective Response” (RfR), a pulsatile sensation in the body that allows for real-time control over cardiovascular and immune function. The author asserts that the RfR “may turn out to be the greatest, least known, and most poorly understood healing effect the world has ever seen” and offers both scientific and anecdotal evidence to back his assertion. The book’s final section gives a vivid account of the history of the RfR and its impact on his own serious health problems.

John Alton is a wellness entrepreneur and the founder of Pulsatile International (PI), LLC, which works to enhance global awareness of "Autonomic Intelligence" (AuI): the ability to create and stockpile health through awareness and activation of the autonomic nervous system. In addition to Autonomic Intelligence: Pathway to the Pulsatile Self and Sustainable Health, he has written two previous books on self-healing (Living Qigong and Unified Fitness) and is a Lecturer in the University of Virginia School of Nursing's Center for the Study of Complementary and Alternative Therapies (CSCAT). John founded PI to promote AuI through text and digital products and services, including the streaming instructional video Reflective Exercise in 8 Sessions: Discovering and Cultivating the Pulsatile Self. The video teaches "Reflective Exercise" (RE), an easily learned routine that produces the "Reflective Response" (RfR), a pulsatile sensation that gives the practitioner the ability to feel and control the autonomic cardiovascular and immune systems." PI also offers a smartphone app that can capture and gauge the RfR as a cardiovascular signal associated with robust immune function. John's long-term plan for PI is to generate grass-roots "pulsatile communities" that can come together to form a global social network for the study and cultivation of the "pulsatile self," a state of being suffused with awareness of and control over the primary drivers of health.