CONTENT HEADS UP: This episode contains (among other things) a deep, frank conversation about life, death, Catholicism, the cosmos, reverential dissection, body phenomena, including orgasm, service, enlightenment, circumcision, some swear words, a lot of humor, and of course, some challenges and gifts of being bodies.
And in case it’s not clear, Gil dissects, with dedication, “donor forms” - no longer inhabited bodies gladly donated by their prior inhabitants - to illuminate the wonders of the human body so that we might all live ours more fully.
SYNOPSIS: In this episode, Ali talks with Gil Hedley, educator and the producer of the Integral Anatomy series, who offers a expert perspective on the human body from the inside out. With a background in Theological Ethics and decades of dedication dissecting donated human bodies, Gil views the body as an archaeological site, exploring the layers of the human form and what they reflect about the near-infinite complexity of human existence. This episode delves into, as Gil calls it, a “re-branding of the human body” - giving us life-enhancing “re-conceptions” of the heart and body phenomena (fat, the foreskin, blood, orgasm) we have taken for granted and/or completely misunderstood. This conversation also explores the harmful effects of body fragmentation, and the interconnectedness of spirit and matter. Viewing the body through Gil’s extraordinary professional, and personal, perspective gives us a window into our inner-universe and beyond to our cosmic identity. After listening, your experience of being a body will never be the same! A warning: the episode includes frank and loving discussions of death and human dissection.
TO VIEW ON YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/qekoqzr-4s0
BECOME A SOMANAUT!
If you enjoyed what you just heard, we highly recommend you treat yourself to an Explorer Membership - the keys to the Gil Hedley kingdom – whose generous fare will include access to:
– Anatomy from A to Z: a detailed video encyclopedia of the human form in 19 courses. 200+ hours of video content in production.
– Live with Gil: Monthly, live online meet-up with Gil and other experts.
– Video livestreams of actual dissections and his ever illuminating, and quite entertaining, narratives of his discoveries
And so much more that I won’t list them here. Check it all out for yourself!
Go to www.gilhedley.com/membership!
Your experience of yourself as a whole body being will be ever-expanded!
FOR MORE GIL HEDLEY:
BIO: Gil has been teaching integral anatomy in the dissection laboratory, via keynotes and speaking tours, and online via his extensive website and subscription portal, www.gilhedley.com, and YouTube channel, "Somanaut," since 1995. He is the producer of The Integral Anatomy Series, the Anatomy from A to Z Project, and The Nerve Project, as well as being the author of several books and anatomy models. He is based at the Institute for Anatomical Research in Colorado Springs, CO, where he teaches, films, and serves as Board President.
GIL HEDLEY: A few favourite videos…
The Amazing Foreskin
Pars Intima: A Rebranding Campaign for the Human Body
The Heart-Brain (just a gorgeous 5-minute video that will transform your understanding of your heart and brain)
Find Gil’s published works, and oh, so much more brilliant bodied stuff here.
OTHER RESOURCES, LINKS & INSPIRATION:
CANDACE PERT: Molecules of Emotion
MICHAEL TALBOT: The Holographic Universe
WILHELM REICH: The Function of the Orgasm
POWERS OF TEN: A FLIPBOOK
HENRY GRAY: Author of Gray’s Anatomy (yes, Shonda Rhymes TV series’ title, Grey’s Anatomy, is riffing on this guy who wrote the seminal, Gray’s Anatomy
1966 film “The Fantastic Voyage” trailer (some of us remember being traumatized as a kid by the white corpuscles!)