This is the link to the chapter being discussed in sections, because it is long and densely described:
VAGAL STATES ARE INTERTWINED WITH THE HISTORY OF CONTEMPLATIVE PRACTICES
New "disciplines" constantly spring up, sometimes before there is a clear idea of what is included. They are often necessarily trans-field and tentative, so a lot of nonsense creeps in along with the insights. In this case. the new discipline is called "Contemplative Neuroscience" and moves between fMRI studies of the contemplating brain and traditional Buddhist practice, as defining poles. If you look at Wikipedia's description, it won't help you much. Porges points at "the shift in neural regulation that occurs during contemplative practices such as meditation."
Related studies of the brain discuss the "connectome" which is the whole of the connection system among the neuron loops densely packed into the skull and pictured in computer graphs as colorful explosions of filaments. Probably the many thread-to-thread connections can be related into groups, perhaps labeled "religion." It is claimed that the practice of contemplation can "heal" things like trauma, not just by logical argument but by actual neuronal healing.
Porges suggests that this phenomenon is affected by the context (feeling of being in safe liminal space) and by the state of the body. Drug users know about this: if the user is in a "bad space" the result can be a terror trip. The claim for meditation practices (breathing, vocalizations, chants, prayers, dance, and posture shifts like kneeling or lying prostrate) is that they can carry one's state into a "good place" where healing and peace can dwell.
In the Old Testament there are accounts of people who have felt safe and are in a liminal state, only to be fallen upon by tribal enemies taking advantage, like being attacked in one's sleep. Porges notes that veterans with PTSD who don't really feel safe will come out of the calming exercises, erupting with what Porges calls defensiveness. It might be violent and unfocused. Therapists should take this into account. Media, clergy, and politicians who use the images of bloody violence that are also in the Bible, may be courting mass shootings.
POLYVAGAL THEORY: DECONSTRUCTING ANCIENT RITUALS FROM A POLYVAGAL PERSPECTIVE
Porges: "The theory assumes that mammals are on the search for safety, which, when obtained, facilitates health and social connectedness." In the best of circumstances, a circuit forms that supports the two banks of homogeneity: the practice increases peaceful safety and the peaceful safety allows the practice.
There are two "paths" to how it works, one passively unconscious and the other deliberately conscious. The passive version is being confronted by "positive social behavior", smiles and encouragement, familiar voices, the feeling of being with others who feel united. This is why group prayer, whether monastic or Arabic, can be deeply effective. This participation helps to provide the safe space where voluntary breathing, movement, and so on can participate in contemplation. This is one of the ways that community and individual connect in the best institutional religions.
THE ROLE OF THE VAGUS IN BIDIRECTIONAL COMMUNICATIONS
This section deals with evolution by saying that one of the changes that made ancient reptiles into mammals was the preservation of the autonomic nervous system but with additions. (This is often the way evolution works, adding to something pre-existing.) The modern reptiles still use the autonomic system as fight or flight mobilization, in the reciprocal (or antagonistic) way that we've previously learned it.
"Most of the neural pathways of the parasympathetic nervous system travel through the vagus nerve. The vagus is a large cranial nerve that originates in the brain stem and connects visceral organs throughout the body with the brain. In contrast to the nerves that emerge from the spinal cord, the vagus connects the brain directly to bodily organs. The vagus contains both motor fibers to influence the function of visceral organs and sensory fibers to provide the brain with continuous information about the status of these organs. The flow of information between body and brain informs specific brain circuits that regulate target organs."
This is not the same as the release of hormones and other molecules that float in the fluids inside the skin and affect the operation of the whole body. This is direct brain-stem (which is an elementary component of the brain) "wired" communication back and forth between specific parts.
It also appeared that there is a second underlying and more primitive version of this response that involves "blanking" (possibly fainting) and or dissociation, losing contact with the presenting reality. People who have barely survived deep danger have felt these, esp. as children. Porges doesn't say this, but I hear it from the people affected. When it happens, the people are confused, fear madness, and try to consider it just a glitch, which it is, in a way. They may feel they have been in another world.
POLYVAGAL THEORY: OVERVIEW
"Polyvagal theory is a reconceptualization of how autonomic state and behavior interface." Polyvagal is named in a composite word to signify the two layers : an ancient circuit and a newer evolved layer to help the individual feel safe and "display spontaneous affirmative social behavior." That is, to support the mammal's ability to attach and form groups. The newer strategy works until it doesn't -- then the ancient circuit acts as a backup.
"The three autonomic subsystems are phylogenetically ordered (according to which was more recently evolved) and behaviorally linked to three strategies:
(a) social communication (e.g., facial expression, vocalization, listening)
(b) defensive strategies associated with mobilization (e.g. fight-or-flight behaviors
(c) defensive immobilization (e.g. feigning death, vasovagal syncope [fainting], behavioral shutdown and dissociation [mentally leaving the reality].
If I were to write a fiction story about a person being raped, I would use this for a guide because so many victims describe all three levels. The third level is often misinterpreted as giving up or colluding or even "liking it" and can be held against the person. Even the victim can find it hard to interpret what they did, since its source was subconscious and automatic. Porges doesn't consider sexual reflexes continuing during the attack, but he probably could. Again, it's very hard to explain subconscious body reflexes because we are so dominated by the idea that consciousness and identity are the same thing, which is false.
The section continues with two paragraphs distinguishing the old and new vagal circuits in terms of their myelination, or insulation. It is the newer system, which is connected to the heart, breath and brain, that is awakened during rituals associated with contemplative practices that support compassion.
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