You don't have to take our word for it. Everything on this site is grounded in peer-reviewed research: meta-analyses, controlled studies, and independently verified citations. This page is where we lay out the science: the studies showing nervous system dysfunction across conditions, the research on why body-based interventions work, and the evidence that connects childhood experiences to adult health. We believe this approach helps, but we don't ask you to believe on faith. Here's the data.
"Time to dismantle silos separating infectious and chronic conditions."
The Lancet, 2025
"Toward a Common Research Agenda in Infection-Associated Chronic Illnesses"
National Academies Workshop
The researchers are calling for unifying frameworks. Terra Form§ proposes one.
Reading the numbers: HRV (heart rate variability) measures how flexibly your heart speeds up and slows down. Higher HRV means a more adaptable nervous system. RMSSD and SDNN are specific HRV measurements. SMD (standardised mean difference) shows how big the effect is. Negative values mean reduction; positive means increase.
Standardised mean difference in RMSSD (parasympathetic marker) across 2,286 patients versus controls.
Nelson et al., 2019 Meta-Analysis
Standardised mean difference in SDNN, a large effect size indicating significant overall HRV reduction.
2025 Meta-Analysis
Percentage of Long COVID patients developing moderate-to-severe autonomic dysfunction.
Dysautonomia International
Percentage meeting POTS criteria in controlled Australian study.
Controlled Study, 2023
Participants with PTSD history "over eight times more likely" to report CFS. Twin design controls for genetics.
Dansie et al., Twin Registry
Participants losing PTSD diagnosis after Somatic Experiencing. Effect sizes: Cohen's d = 0.94-1.26.
Brom et al., 2017 RCT
SMD increase in RMSSD following cold immersion. Effects persist 15+ minutes post-exposure.
2024 Meta-Analysis, 27 Studies
HRV at baseline predicts burnout symptoms 12 months later. Vagal dysfunction precedes burnout.
Longitudinal Study, p = 0.03
The Point: These numbers are the biological signature of incomplete cycles. The frozen energy that should have discharged in minutes leaves measurable traces decades later. The body keeps the score in data we can now read.
These are not four separate conditions that happen to share symptoms. They represent variations on a common autonomic architecture: defensive nervous system states at different intensities. The convergent HRV data tells the story.
Nelson et al., 2019 Meta-Analysis (n=2,286)
2025 Meta-Analysis, Dresden Burnout Study
Dysautonomia International, Australian Controlled Study
Multiple Meta-Analyses
If the autonomic is trainable (and Kox et al. (2014, PNAS) demonstrated humans can voluntarily influence their autonomic nervous system and immune responses), then these conditions aren't permanent damage. They're maladaptive training that can be retrained.
Burnout is not sudden. It follows a predictable path as your stress response system (the HPA axis, which controls cortisol and the alarm response) works overtime, exhausts itself, and finally collapses. Understanding these phases explains how childhood trauma connects to adult breakdown.
The system works overtime to cope, with the nervous system compensating for demands it perceives as unsustainable.
The stress response system itself begins to fail from overuse and can no longer mount adequate responses.
The system can no longer maintain either overdrive or healthy regulation and collapses into conservation mode.
Both clinical and non-clinical burnout groups display blunted cortisol awakening compared to healthy controls, indicating HPA axis exhaustion following prolonged overdrive. The stress hormone system stops responding because it has been exhausted.
Jonsdottir & Sjörs Dahlman, 2019
If someone with childhood trauma history enters demanding work environment: sympathetic overdrive → HPA exhaustion → vagal collapse. Burnout is CPTSD meeting capitalism. ME/CFS is what happens when the collapse completes.
The fatigue in ME/CFS is not failure of energy production. It is active suppression of energy availability. The organism reducing all non-essential function to preserve resources against perceived ongoing threat.
ME/CFS represents a "metabolic state of survival," a hypometabolic freeze comparable to dauer in C. elegans. When organisms detect prolonged threat, they enter conservation mode. All non-essential processes shut down. The body prioritizes survival over function.
UK NICE removed graded exercise therapy recommendations after evidence of patient harms. This validates that ME/CFS is not simply deconditioning; forcing activity makes things worse because the defensive architecture interprets forced activity as threat and deepens shutdown.
You cannot push through what your body is actively enforcing. The system is protecting you from what it perceives as unsustainable demand. The intervention must address the threat perception, not fight the protection.
Independent verification against peer-reviewed sources. Every statistic traced to original research.
| Citation | Claim | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Autonomic Markers | ||
| Nelson 2019 Meta-analysis | ME/CFS RMSSD SMD = −0.37 across 2,286 patients | ✓ EXACT |
| 2025 Burnout Meta-analysis | Burnout SDNN SMD = −1.05 (large effect) | ✓ EXACT |
| Dysautonomia International | 67% Long COVID develop moderate-to-severe dysautonomia | ✓ EXACT |
| Australian Controlled Study | 79% Long COVID meet POTS criteria | ✓ EXACT |
| ACE-Vulnerability Connection | ||
| Dansie et al., Twin Registry | 8× ME/CFS likelihood with PTSD history | ✓ EXACT |
| Heim et al., Georgia Study | 5-6× CFS risk with childhood trauma (dose-response) | ✓ VERIFIED |
| BRFSS 2022 Analysis | 26.8% Long COVID patients reporting 4+ ACEs | ✓ EXACT |
| Burnout Mediation Study | 49% burnout variance explained by childhood maltreatment | ✓ EXACT |
| Intervention Evidence | ||
| Brom et al. 2017 RCT | 44.1% PTSD resolution with SE (Cohen's d = 0.94-1.26) | ✓ EXACT |
| 2024 Cold Meta-analysis | RMSSD SMD = 0.61 following cold (27 studies) | ✓ EXACT |
| Kox et al. PNAS 2014 | Voluntary influence on autonomic and immune responses | ✓ EXACT |
| Bernardi BMJ 2001 | 6 bpm optimal for HRV maximisation | ✓ EXACT |
| Kalyani 2011 fMRI | OM chanting deactivates bilateral amygdala, hippocampi, thalami | ✓ EXACT |
| Baek et al. Nature 2019 | Eye movement suppresses amygdala via superior colliculus pathway | ✓ EXACT |
| Longitudinal Evidence | ||
| Dresden Burnout Study | HRV at baseline predicts burnout 12 months later (β = −0.16) | ✓ EXACT |
| Yehuda Intergenerational | NR3C1/FKBP5 methylation transmits across generations | ✓ VERIFIED |
| 2025 Scientific Reports | 300% elevated PTSD rates in third generation descendants | ✓ EXACT |
| Neuroplasticity Evidence | ||
| Lazar 2005 (Harvard) | Increased cortical thickness in meditators, protection from age-related atrophy | ✓ EXACT |
| Lazar 2011 (Harvard) | 8 weeks MBSR: hippocampal growth, amygdala decrease | ✓ EXACT |
| Davidson (UW-Madison) | Reduced amygdala activity in long-term meditators | ✓ VERIFIED |
| Van der Kolk TSY RCT | Trauma-Sensitive Yoga: significant PTSD reduction vs controls | ✓ EXACT |
| Vocalization Research | ||
| Holter Monitoring Studies | Humming produces lowest stress index vs activity, stress, sleep | ✓ VERIFIED |
| Nitric Oxide Research | 15-fold increase in nasal NO during humming | ✓ EXACT |
| Framework Validation | ||
| UK NICE 2021 | Removed GET recommendations for ME/CFS after harm evidence | ✓ EXACT |
| Jonsdottir & Sjörs Dahlman | HPA axis phase model: hyperarousal → exhaustion → collapse | ✓ VERIFIED |
No peer-reviewed framework exists that unifies these conditions through incomplete discharge: frozen survival energy that never got to shake. The research documents the symptoms. Terra Form§ identifies the common cause: the cycle that never completed.
Heart rate variability (HRV) as objective marker of nervous system state
Reduced HRV documented across all six conditions addressed by Terra Form§. The autonomic dysfunction is measurable and shared.
Stephen Porges' hierarchical model of autonomic states
Trauma creates a nervous system that cycles between sympathetic hyperarousal and dorsal vagal collapse, unable to access the ventral vagal state where healing occurs.
Peter Levine's method for completing interrupted survival responses
Brom et al. (2017): First RCT showed 44.1% lost PTSD diagnosis after 15 sessions of completing interrupted survival responses. The cycle finally finished.
Where the frozen energy actually lives, beneath language
The frozen energy encodes in procedural systems, not narrative memory. This is why talking about trauma doesn't resolve it; the shaking must happen at the level where the freeze occurred.
A primordial teacher that triggers completion
2024 Meta-analysis (27 studies): RMSSD increased significantly (SMD = 0.61, p < 0.001) following cold exposure. The primordial teacher triggers activation that completes.
Breathing as autonomic intervention
Bernardi (BMJ 2001): 6 breaths per minute identified as optimal for maximising HRV. 12-week studies confirm sustained vagal tone enhancement.
Adverse Childhood Experiences appear across all conditions. Children who couldn't discharge become adults who can't complete. The incomplete cycles accumulate. The research traces the pathway from interrupted shaking to lifelong vulnerability.
Increased likelihood of ME/CFS in those with PTSD history. Twin design controls for genetics; the incomplete cycle is the variable.
Dansie et al., Twin Registry
Increased CFS risk with childhood trauma. CDC-led Georgia population study confirmed dose-response: more trauma, more risk.
Heim et al., Georgia Study
Long COVID patients reporting 4+ ACEs. Unresolved childhood trauma predicts adult vulnerability to post-viral syndrome.
BRFSS 2022 Analysis
Burnout variance explained by childhood maltreatment mediated through reduced resilience. Early incomplete cycles shape adult capacity.
Mediation Analysis
Twin registry studies show PTSD history creates 8× risk. The incomplete survival response lodges in the body and waits.
Pre-existing depression predicts Long COVID development. Prior autonomic dysregulation primes the system for post-viral collapse.
Childhood maltreatment reduces adult resilience through chronic vagal suppression. The nervous system never learned to complete.
Repeated incomplete cycles in childhood create permanent defensive architecture. The body shapes itself around what couldn't finish.
Rachel Yehuda's research: Holocaust survivors passed altered stress biology to children who experienced no direct trauma. The grandchildren show 300% elevated PTSD rates (2025 Scientific Reports). The incomplete cycles transmit. The frozen energy inherits.
Holocaust survivors with PTSD show distinctive DNA methylation patterns in NR3C1 (glucocorticoid receptor gene) and FKBP5 (cortisol signaling regulator).
Children inherit not the same patterns but complementary alterations: where survivors show higher methylation, offspring show lower. Next generation biology compensates for parental dysregulation.
HPA axis dysregulation affects gene signaling that transmits during gestation. WTC attack survivors: infants showed lower cortisol IF AND ONLY IF mothers developed PTSD.
Descendants appear well-functioning under normal conditions but carry heightened susceptibility emerging under stress. The virus didn't create new patterns; it gave permission to implement protections already primed.
Many alive today are the second, third, or fourth generation from 20th century horrors. The timing of the mental health epidemic may not be coincidental. Accumulated survival energy from events we never experienced, nervous systems shaped by horrors that ended before we were born. Generations later, the shaking that never happened is still waiting to happen.
Trauma installs through specific sensory channels and must de-install through the same channels. Each teacher addresses a different installation pathway. The research confirms channel-specific interventions work where generic approaches fail.
Kalyani 2011 (fMRI)
OM chanting produces bilateral amygdala, hippocampal, and thalamic deactivation, mirroring transcutaneous vagus nerve stimulation effects. Right amygdala specifically. The vagal vibration reaches structures inaccessible to language.
Holter Monitoring Studies
Humming generates the lowest stress index compared to physical activity, emotional stress, and even sleep. The voice as vagal toning instrument.
Nitric Oxide Research
Humming increases nasal nitric oxide production by 15-fold compared to quiet breathing. NO is bronchodilator, anti-inflammatory, and vascular regulator.
Kox et al. (PNAS 2014)
Humans can voluntarily influence autonomic nervous system and immune responses. Trained subjects demonstrated conscious modulation of what was considered involuntary. The autonomic is trainable.
2024 Cold Meta-Analysis (27 studies)
RMSSD increased significantly (SMD = 0.61, p < 0.001) following cold exposure. Effects persist 15+ minutes post-exposure. Norepinephrine increases 200-300%.
Baek et al. (Nature 2019)
Bilateral eye movement activates superior colliculus → mediodorsal thalamus → amygdala suppression pathway. Communication between SC and MD thalamus necessary for fear reduction. Optogenetic confirmation: circuit both necessary AND sufficient.
Working Memory Taxation
Systematic reviews support bilateral tasks reduce memory vividness and emotionality by competing for limited resources during reconsolidation.
Frozen Gaze Mechanism
"Thousand-yard stare" = literal oculomotor freeze. Children under surveillance develop "frozen watchfulness," wide-eyed, hypervigilant yet immobile. Visual system becomes survival instrument. Learns to "technically see while emotionally unseeing."
Corner Gaze Intervention
Forcing eyes to corners of range does heavy lifting quickly. Six muscles control each eye; under freeze, they hold chronic partial tension. Corner activation: Muscular completion (full contraction → full release), proprioceptive update (new "safe looking territory" coordinates), orienting response restoration (reactivating reflex shut down under surveillance).
Space-Self Mapping Neuroscience
Hippocampus and retrosplenial cortex (spatial mapping) have extensive connections with default mode network (self-referential processing). Damage to spatial navigation areas causes disturbed sense of self. Vestibular/proprioceptors directly feed limbic system.
Peripersonal Space Research
Normal protective zone extends ~72cm from trunk. Non-dissociative PTSD: boundary expands and rigidifies. Dissociative subtypes: boundary becomes variable and shallow. Floor provides consistent, unambiguous boundary information.
Mechanotransduction Studies
Sustained mechanical pressure creates cellular changes: fibroblast reorganization, tissue hydration, enhanced proprioceptive signaling. Environmental pressure works like manual therapy.
CO2 Tolerance Research
Pure CO2 inhalation produces the purest fear response: even someone with no amygdala can have full panic attack from CO2. Fear at this level is cellular. Childhood stress calibrates CO2 threshold LOW. Body learns to read even mild elevation as emergency.
Buteyko Method Evidence
Controlled breath holds deliberately let CO2 rise. Sitting with discomfort teaches body: this level is fine. Threshold gradually shifts upward. Normal breathing no longer triggers panic.
Nasal Breathing Primacy
Cannot hyperventilate through nose; architecture prevents it. Nasal passage filters, warms, humidifies, produces nitric oxide, naturally limits volume. Mouth breathing = leaving gate open.
Trauma that installed through the visual system requires visual intervention. Trauma that installed through proprioceptive disruption requires postural work. Talk therapy addresses the linguistic channel, but most trauma installed before language, or bypassed it entirely. The de-installation pathway must match the installation pathway.
Gym devotee: 3 hours daily, every day = approximately 40 hours in any given month
Floor sleeper: 8 hours nightly × 30 nights = 240 hours of postural correction
Defensive postures were built to resist threats. They were NOT built to resist gravity. When you lie on the floor, the floor doesn't argue. Maintaining defensive holding against something that isn't fighting back eventually exhausts the energy available for defense. "Ambient pressure outlasts defense."
The nervous system NEEDS periods without input. Parasympathetic activation requires cessation of stimulation. You cannot achieve parasympathetic dominance while maintaining sympathetic demands.
Massachusetts Male Aging Study: Median testosterone dropped from 501 ng/dL to 391 ng/dL between 1987 and 2004. Researchers explicitly stated the decline could not be explained by obesity, smoking, or lifestyle changes.
Israeli data 2006-2019 confirmed age-independent testosterone decline across all demographics.
Chronic stimulation maintains HPA axis activation → suppresses GnRH from hypothalamus → reduces LH and FSH → decreases testosterone production.
Pregnenolone steal: Cortisol directly occupies progesterone receptor sites. The body prioritizes cortisol synthesis. Even adequate progesterone levels can't function when cortisol sits in their seat.
Repeated pleasure-producing stimuli cause neuroadaptive changes: decreased D2 receptor availability, reduced reward sensitivity, progressive tolerance. Natural rewards lose appeal because the brain adjusted baseline expectations upward.
Mid-century "boring" architecture (strip malls, DMV waiting rooms, beige office parks) accidentally enforced metabolic necessity. Contemporary "experiential" spaces eliminated this infrastructure. Smartphones destroyed residual boredom. Result: population-scale metabolic dysregulation presenting as ADHD, hormone issues, anxiety, inability to sustain attention.
Trauma encodes in procedural memory systems, the same systems that store how to ride a bicycle. You cannot talk yourself out of knowing how to ride a bicycle. You cannot talk yourself out of a freeze response.
Facts and events. Hippocampus-dependent. Accessible to language.
Talk therapy can access this.
Skills and responses, stored in striatum, amygdala, and cerebellum. Pre-linguistic and faster than thought.
Talk therapy cannot access this.
Trauma encodes in milliseconds via amygdala → striatum pathway. Faster than hippocampal processing. Faster than language.
Striatum stores responses as "instructions" not "memories." The body doesn't remember the event; it holds the interrupted action.
Procedural memory requires procedural intervention. You modify how to ride a bicycle by riding, not by discussing riding.
Cerebellar adaptation requires hours of different input. Sleep-dependent consolidation. The 8-hour floor protocol matches this biology.
Understanding trauma won't discharge it. Insight won't complete the interrupted cycle. The shaking that needs to happen is stored below the level language can reach. This is why body-based interventions work where years of talk therapy stall. The de-installation must happen at the procedural level where the installation occurred.
If trauma creates structural brain changes, can those changes be reversed? The research says yes: with sufficient practice, the brain physically reorganizes.
Cross-Sectional Study
Long-term meditators showed increased cortical thickness in prefrontal cortex and right anterior insula. Critical finding: cortical thickness decreased with age in controls but NOT in meditators, suggesting protection against age-related atrophy.
Longitudinal 8-Week Study
8 weeks MBSR (27 minutes daily average) produced:
Long-term Practitioner Studies
Long-term meditators showed reduced amygdala activity even when viewing negative images. New meditators showed increased amygdala-ventromedial prefrontal cortex connectivity (supporting self-regulation). This connectivity wasn't seen in long-term meditators; emotion regulation becomes automatic with sustained practice.
13 minutes daily produces measurable improvements in attention, mood, and stress response.
Intensive practice produces white matter changes and enhanced connectivity.
Sustained practice produces extensive structural and functional modifications.
This is the average for transformational meditators, achieving "Olympian vagal tone."
The brain that trauma shaped can be reshaped. But restructuring at this level requires more than understanding; it requires practice sustained over time. There are no shortcuts to neuroplasticity.
A.D. Craig reconceptualized interoception as "the sense of the physiological condition of the entire body." This sense (our awareness of heartbeat, breath, hunger, temperature) gives rise to the felt sense of being a self.
Primary sensory cortex for homeostatic feelings: hunger, pain, temperature. Raw body signals arrive here.
Integrates body signals with cognition to create higher-order self-representations. Where "I feel" becomes "I am."
Impaired interoception linked to: depression, eating disorders, anxiety, distorted self-perception. The body awareness problems ARE the self-coherence problems. Enhancing body awareness directly affects sense of self.
Van der Kolk RCT: Significantly greater PTSD symptom reduction versus controls. Many participants no longer met diagnostic criteria.
2024 systematic review: Ranked Trauma-Sensitive Yoga among top two interventions for PTSD.
Mechanism: Increased interoceptive awareness, insular cortex activation, stimulation of ventral vagal pathways, helping survivors "re-inhabit their bodies."
Somatic markers give rise to "the emotionally textured sentience colloquially described as the 'self.'" Trauma disrupts this sensing. Body-based practices restore interoception, and with it, the felt sense of being a coherent self.
Every condition in the Terraforms matrix (CPTSD, Burnout, ME/CFS, Long COVID, OCD, depression, anxiety) represents accurate bodily intelligence responding appropriately to perceived conditions.
Accurate threat detection frozen in a body that cannot discharge.
Accurate energy conservation when the system correctly assesses unsustainable demand.
Accurate defensive architecture that does not know the war ended.
Accurate assessment of unsustainable demand meeting exhausted capacity.
Accurate protective shutdown in a system already primed for collapse.
Accurate threat response calibrated during a period of actual threat.
The problem is not that the body is broken. The problem is that civilization has created conditions where intelligent responses cannot complete their cycles.
Terra Form§ doesn't fix dysfunction; it provides environmental conditions where accurate intelligence can finally complete what it started. Gazelle shakes. Human builds walls preventing shaking. Terraforms removes walls.
While individual connections are documented, no peer-reviewed framework exists that maps all six conditions through postural defensive architecture. This synthesis is our contribution, and it awaits formal validation.
Many interventions have mechanistic support and observational evidence but lack large-scale randomised controlled trials. We distinguish between what's established and what's emerging.
These conditions manifest differently in each person. What works for one may not work for another. The protocol provides framework, not prescription.
Terra Form§ is educational content, not medical treatment. Consult healthcare providers before implementing any intervention, especially with existing conditions.