When the Body Decides to Breathe - The Difference Between Acting and Obeying

The Body Speaks: Breathing, Metabolic Plasticity, and the Transition from the Man of Wood to the Man of Maize

The Classroom My Body Recognizes

Imagine walking into a classroom.

Yesterday, some classmates laughed at us.

Today, before anyone says a word, we recognize those faces.

Perhaps we choose a seat farther away.

Avoid certain glances.

Our chest may remain expanded, as though preparing a response to a provocation that has not yet happened.

Or perhaps our breathing seems calm.

But can we raise our hand with the same freedom as someone who feels welcomed?

Now imagine someone saying:

“Breathe slowly. Everything will be fine.”

We may change our breathing.

But those classmates are still there.

The fear of another humiliation remains.

Changing our breathing does not necessarily change our possibilities of Being in that environment.

This distinction brings us closer to a question about consciousness, metabolism, and freedom.

The Body Speaks Before Words

As you read, your body continues breathing.

We do not need to consciously decide on every inhalation.

Brainstem circuits participate in generating respiratory rhythms.

Yet we can also voluntarily modify certain aspects of breathing.

We inhale before an effort.

Experience spontaneous pauses during certain activities.

Exhale while performing movements.

In 2020, Hyeong-Dong Park and colleagues observed that participants initiated certain self-initiated actions more frequently during exhalation.

This association did not appear in the same way when movements were externally triggered.

In 2026, Hiroshi Shibata and Hideki Ohira investigated similar relationships across different motor tasks.

This does not mean that exhaling produces freedom.

It means that the initiation of certain actions may relate differently to respiratory rhythms depending on the conditions under which movement occurs.

Within Which Range Are We Breathing?

Imagine trying to understand a difficult problem.

We investigate.

Compare possibilities.

Return to the same information.

Perhaps we notice that our chest remains more expanded.

Perhaps our rib cage oscillates within a relatively elevated range.

Then we understand a relationship.

We begin putting our understanding into practice.

Perhaps the air flows out.

The chest settles into another range of movement.

The amplitude of expansion and return decreases.

We have not stopped Doing. We have transformed the Doing that was taking place.

We need to distinguish respiratory frequency, the average position of the rib cage, and the amplitude of movement.

These are different variables.

Research shows that cognitive demands modify respiratory parameters, but it does not establish a universal respiratory calibration for understanding or executing.

The transformation described here is a possible lived experience that deserves individual investigation.

Tires Also Encounter Territory

Imagine driving along a paved road.

Then we encounter sand.

Under appropriate conditions, we may need to adjust tire pressure.

The vehicle remains the same.

But its relationship with the terrain requires another configuration.

Now imagine our Body-Territory.

The way we breathe while investigating a problem may differ from the way breathing emerges during its execution.

And both may differ from the organization we experience when facing a threat.

We do not cross every territory or perform every Doing with a single calibration.

But our body is not a tire.

There is no ideal pressure for consciousness.

Moreover, we may encounter environments that need to be transformed rather than merely demanding new adaptations from those who inhabit them.

Rock, Scissors, and Paper

At BrainLatam, we use Rock, Scissors, and Paper as metaphors for different functional organizations of the connectome.

Rock represents habits, rapid responses, and protection.

Scissors represents analysis, comparison, and planning.

Paper represents enjoyment, contextual openness, and metacognitive possibilities.

They are not three anatomically independent connectomes.

Nor do they correspond to fixed respiratory frequencies or chest diameters.

Let us return to the student.

Perhaps their experience is predominantly organized around protection.

In our metaphor, Rock mode.

But this does not imply an absence of thought or an inability to learn.

Rock may be necessary when the environment continues providing reasons for self-protection.

The question is when our possibilities remain restricted, even in conditions that could allow another organization.

APUS and Tekoha: The Place We Are Able to Occupy

In BrainLatam's conceptual extension, we use APUS to investigate extended proprioception.

Position.

Orientation.

Reach.

Possibilities of movement in relation to the environment.

Tekoha opens a window for investigating territory as lived from within: breathing, feelings, memories, and interoceptive conditions.

These uses do not replace the original meanings of Andean and Guarani knowledge.

In the classroom, raising a hand may mean participating.

But it may also mean becoming a target.

We are not merely sitting at a desk. We are experiencing the possibilities that this environment offers our Body-Territory.

Tekoha transforms what we are able to perceive and do.

And our actions transform subsequent encounters.

When Fear Changes Metabolism

Imagine someone making another hurtful remark.

Perhaps our breathing accelerates or deepens.

If alveolar ventilation exceeds metabolic requirements, we may eliminate excessive CO₂.

The resulting hypocapnia promotes constriction of small cerebral arteries and arterioles.

Cerebral blood flow may decrease.

Dizziness or tingling may occur.

Perhaps we interpret these sensations as confirmation of a threat.

A narrative changes bodily experience.

That experience may, in turn, influence the narrative.

But not all fear involves hyperventilation.

And not every distressing experience has this mechanism.

The body speaks, but its signals do not have a single meaning.

We need to understand the metabolism, the Doing, and the conditions of the encounter.

Consciousness Is Movement

Within the 5D Consciousness hypothesis, we propose:

“Consciousness is a movement that perceives itself as Being within the metabolism produced.”

We do not claim that consciousness explicitly commands every metabolic movement.

It perceives itself as Being within the metabolism produced.

Our original formulation also considers movements of matter and energy within the perimeter of sensitivity of the Body-Territory.

New encounters may modify breathing, circulation, posture, attention, feelings, and motor preparation.

Perhaps only afterward do we recognize what has changed.

The plasticity of free consciousness may emerge from metabolic transformations that we do not need to consciously decide upon.

However, not every physiological reorganization increases freedom.

Some responses may restrict our possibilities.

That is why we must also investigate the territory being lived.

When the Classroom Begins to Change

Now imagine a teacher recognizing the bullying.

Stopping the aggression.

Listening to our experience.

Some classmates begin establishing different relationships with us.

Perhaps we remain cautious.

But something has changed.

The environment begins offering possibilities that were previously unavailable.

Perhaps we can raise our hand.

Perhaps our breathing finds another organization.

Perhaps this happens only after many encounters.

We do not need to decide to abandon self-protection for new possibilities to begin emerging.

But neither is it enough to ask the student to adapt while the threat remains.

The transformation of the environment participates in the transformation of the Body-Territory.

The Man of Wood

In the Popol Wuj, a narrative tradition of the K'iche' Maya, we find stories involving beings made of wood and maize.

These stories carry their own meanings.

At BrainLatam, we use an original metaphorical interpretation.

Imagine five people crossing a forest.

Everyone follows a leader.

One person notices a danger.

But their experience finds no space to change the route.

The group continues following.

We call the Man of Wood our metaphor for inflexible adherence to a narrative.

It is not someone who learns by following another person. It is someone who has lost the possibility of transforming what they learned to follow.

The Man of Maize

Now imagine someone signaling the danger.

The group stops walking.

Another participant recognizes a passage.

A third person suggests an alternative.

The route changes.

None of them needed to know the new path in advance.

It emerges through the encounter.

In the metaphor of the Man of Maize, we recognize belonging, continuity, and shared transformation.

We do not need to cease belonging for our differences to transform what we are capable of Doing.

This transformation does not necessarily begin with an explicit collective decision.

It may emerge gradually through relationships.

The Completeness of Movement

At BrainLatam, we investigate the Completeness of Movement as a possible process involving mobilization, perception, intention, gesture, feedback, meaning, choice, and transition.

This process need not be linear.

Imagine preparing an aggressive response.

New information changes our experience.

Perhaps we no longer wish to carry it out.

Completeness does not require performing exactly what we had prepared.

It may involve transforming the movement in response to new conditions.

In the classroom, raising a hand does not begin only when the arm rises.

It also depends on the conditions that allow perception to become expression.

When We Make Another Doing Possible

Imagine five musicians.

First, everyone follows a metronome.

Their movements may synchronize.

Now we remove the command.

One musician introduces a pause.

Another changes the rhythm.

A third presents an unexpected possibility.

Our movements encounter one another's movements.

De Jaegher and Di Paolo investigated this dimension through participatory sense-making.

Within the Human Quorum Sensing hypothesis, we ask whether reciprocal encounters expand individual and collective possibilities.

Physiological synchronization does not prove collective consciousness.

Jiwasa does not begin simply when we act together, but when our differences can transform what we are able to Do.

We can investigate this hypothesis by combining EEG, fNIRS, breathing measurements, end-tidal CO₂, ECG, and movement observation.

We must also ask whether each person can disagree, interrupt, and modify the shared action.

When the Body Encounters Another Territory

Let us return to the classroom.

The student continues breathing.

Perhaps their chest still moves within a range associated with self-protection.

But now someone listens.

Someone stops the aggression.

A new relationship begins offering another possibility of Doing.

Freedom of Being may emerge when the metabolic plasticity of the Body-Territory encounters conditions of territory and belonging that make previously unavailable movements possible.

We do not need to consciously control every transformation.

We need to investigate what our encounters allow.

The Man of Wood challenges us to recognize inflexible repetition.

The Man of Maize invites us to investigate shared transformation.

And our question remains:

Does reciprocal action emerging from a collective display a different neurophysiological dynamic from action produced by obedience to a command?

Annotated References

Park, Hyeong-Dong et al. (2020). Breathing is coupled with voluntary action and the cortical readiness potential. Nature Communications, 11, 289.

An experimental study examining the association between respiratory phase, self-initiated movements, and the cortical readiness potential. It supports comparisons between voluntary and externally triggered actions without establishing a direct measure of freedom.

Shibata, Hiroshi; Ohira, Hideki (2026). Respiratory and Cardiac Phase Coupling With Voluntary Actions Across Motor Tasks. Psychophysiology, 63(2), e70264.

Investigates the coupling of respiratory and cardiac phases with different voluntary movements. It contributes to understanding motor preparation in relation to ongoing bodily rhythms.

Grassmann, Mariel et al. (2016). Respiratory Changes in Response to Cognitive Load: A Systematic Review. Neural Plasticity, 2016, 8146809.

A systematic review of respiratory changes during cognitive tasks. It shows that respiratory frequency and minute ventilation may increase under greater mental demand, whereas respiratory amplitude presents more variable findings, preventing rigid classification by cognitive state.

Stradling, J. R. et al. (1985). Respiratory inductance plethysmography: calibration techniques, their validation and the effects of posture. Bulletin Européen de Physiopathologie Respiratoire, 21(4), 317–324.

Examines calibration and postural effects on respiratory inductance plethysmography. It helps distinguish genuine thoracoabdominal excursions from artifacts and instrumental limitations.

Ainslie, Philip N.; Duffin, James (2009). Integration of cerebrovascular CO₂ reactivity and chemoreflex control of breathing. American Journal of Physiology, 296, R1473–R1495.

Reviews CO₂, respiratory control, and cerebral blood flow regulation. It supports the discussion of hypocapnia and hemodynamic changes.

De Jaegher, Hanne; Di Paolo, Ezequiel (2007). Participatory sense-making: An enactive approach to social cognition. Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences, 6, 485–507.

Introduces participatory sense-making, providing theoretical foundations for investigating how interactions transform individual and collective possibilities of action.

Christenson, Allen J. (2007). Popol Vuh: Sacred Book of the Quiché Maya People.

An annotated translation of K'iche' Maya narratives. The Man of Wood and the Man of Maize are used here as original BrainLatam metaphors without replacing their distinct cultural meanings.

BrainLatam — Cionek, Jackson (2025). O Corpo Fala — Medidas Neuroautonômicas e a Mente Corporificada.

Connects breathing, heart rate variability, electrodermal responses, and other biosignals with embodied experience. Specific relationships between biosignals and mental states are treated here as original hypotheses rather than validated diagnostic markers.

BrainLatam — Cionek, Jackson (2025). Sentimentos, Conectomas e Fruição — Uma Perspectiva Neuropsicológica Integrativa.

Develops the Rock–Scissors–Paper analogy to investigate habits, protection, analysis, and enjoyment as functional possibilities of the connectome.

BrainLatam — Cionek, Jackson (2026). APUS e Tekoha — Como o mundo entra no corpo e o corpo retorna ao mundo.

Introduces APUS and Tekoha as conceptual windows for investigating extended proprioception and interoception, preserving the distinction between BrainLatam's hypotheses and the original Indigenous meanings.

BrainLatam — Cionek, Jackson (2026). CO₂ — O gás que muda coração, cérebro e digestão.

Discusses ventilation, CO₂, cerebral vascular regulation, and their implications for interpreting hemodynamic measurements, particularly fNIRS.

BrainLatam — Cionek, Jackson (2026). Completude do Movimento.

Develops the original Completeness of Movement hypothesis through mobilization, perception, intention, gesture, feedback, meaning, choice, and transition, allowing investigation of how an initially prepared movement may be transformed.

Cionek, Jackson. Religare — Religiosidade Plena em um Estado Democrático, Laico e de Direito.

An original philosophical work developing Egregore, freedom of Being, and shared organization in dialogue with the emergence of the Jiwasa-State.

Scientific and conceptual note: Published research supports relationships among breathing, motor preparation, cognitive demand, and cerebral hemodynamics. Rock–Scissors–Paper modes, 5D Consciousness, extended APUS/Tekoha, Completeness of Movement, and the Jiwasa-State remain original BrainLatam frameworks and hypotheses. No isolated physiological signal can establish a person's freedom, psychological state, or participation in collective consciousness.

Central idea: “The body speaks, but it has no single dictionary. To understand its movements, we must recognize the metabolism, the territory, and the Doing within which they occur.”

BrainLatam | W44/2026 · Blog 8 · 5D Consciousness · APUS and Tekoha · Shared Agency · Jiwasa-State