The Vitalist Inside the Intelligence of the Body: What Fascia and Embryology Reveal with Rev. Dr. Joanne Avison
In this episode, Dr. Sera sits down with Rev. Doctor Joanne Avison, author, body worker and fascia whisperer, to explore the living architecture of the human body.
They discuss what happens when we move from seeing the body as parts to understanding the body as as a continuous network that communicates through light, sound, and movement. Joanne shares how embryology reveals the intelligence guiding our development, and why fascia is the substrate of our becoming.
Together, they dive into the hidden continuity between the heart and tongue, what it really means to "speak from the heart," and why there's no such thing as one perfect yoga pose. They explore biotensegrity, how the body balances tension and compression, and how fascia stores memory.
This episode challenges everything you thought you knew about anatomy. Joanne brings fascia, movement, and embryology together to show that the body isn't mechanical; the body is alive, intelligent, and continuously becoming.
HIGHLIGHTS:
The story of conception fascinates Joanne from every angle: physiological, anatomical, embryological, and spiritual. (1:45)
"There ain't no muscle connected to no bone nowhere in nobody." — how one sentence from Tom Myers rewired everything Joanne knew about anatomy. (2:21)
She went on to train with Tom, learned manual therapy, and helped proofread the first edition of Anatomy Trains. (3:40)
Joanne uses Christine Wushke's "museum floors" analogy to describe different ways we understand anatomy, from naming parts to seeing the whole picture. (4:18)
The second floor is Anatomy Trains, moving from separate bits to interconnected bands. (5:07)
As a yoga teacher, she realized no two bodies move the same. There's no such thing as the pose, there's your version of it. (5:40)
Anatomy trains were carved, not discovered. The body has always been one continuous whole. (8:45)
Fascia isn't something that appears on day 18 of development, it's the foundation of how we become. (9:40)
Joanne tells the story of dissecting the heart and discovering it's literally continuous with the tongue. We really do "speak from the heart." (10:51)
The embryo teaches us: there is nothing mechanical about the human body. (12:33)
Traditional biomechanics is based on levers and pulleys, but the human body doesn't actually work that way. (13:07)
Every cell begins in the round, we are patterned in wholeness from the start. (13:26)
The heart first forms in the crown before descending into the torso. (15:15)
The egg and sperm represent archetypal opposites, largest and smallest, slowest and fastest. coming together to create life. (16:40)
The first "cell division" is not division at all, it's cellular multiplication, an expansion of becoming. (19:19)
Biotensegrity explains the intelligence of our developing limbs; a living balance of tension and compression. (25:17)
Genes don't move. Motion and light do. The body organizes itself through energy and movement. (26:30)
Fascia transmits light; a liquid crystalline medium of perception and communication. (28:10)
In the womb, we start learning through gravity and touch, through our mother's skin. (30:13)
The body is like an orchestra. Each one of us needs different tension and tuning to play in harmony. (32:59)
Fascia is the body's largest sensory organ; it is an organ of love, light, and sound. (34:53)
Fascia isn't a system — it's the architecture of every system. (36:56)
The fascial network changes how we understand the nervous system. They're deeply connected. (37:13)
Fascia holds memory and shape; this is how "the body keeps the score." (40:48)
The real spell in medicine is the language that divides us from our wholeness. (42:54)
Joanne shares the story of a client who released a deep experience tied to being told his body was "deformed." (44:16)
Connect with Joanne. (51:58)
RESOURCES:
Follow @JoanneAvison https://www.instagram.com/joanneavison/?hl=en
Visit https://www.joanneavison.com/
The Joanne Avison Podcast https://joanneavison.buzzsprout.com/
Learn about Myofascial Magic in Action https://www.myofascialmagic.com/
Read Joanne's Books https://www.joanneavison.com/books
ADDITIONAL REFERENCES:
Tom Myer's and Anatomy Trains https://www.anatomytrains.com/
John Sharkey https://www.johnsharkeyevents.com/
Jill Bolte Taylor My Stroke of Insight http://mystrokeofinsight.com/
Iain McGilchrist The Master and his Emissary https://channelmcgilchrist.com/master-and-his-emissary/
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