Jiwasa – Learning and Teaching within a Collective Self

When we speak of Jiwasa, we are referring to something that teachers, artists, athletes, and educators already recognize in practice, even if they do not use this name: the moment when an entire group begins to function as if it were a single body, learning and teaching at the same time. This is not blind obedience, nor rigid discipline. It is living coordination—the point at which the collective comes into agreement without the need for explicit orders.

Books such as The Marvel of Complex Systems by Giorgio Parisi and The Dawn of Everything highlight a fundamental insight: the most adaptive collectives are not the most hierarchical, but those in which leadership is mobile, contextual, and often only “pretend.” Who leads changes according to the task, the required knowledge, and the moment. Freedom is real; leadership is provisional. Jiwasa emerges precisely there.

Jiwasa in everyday practice

In the classroom, this appears when:

• the entire class falls spontaneously silent before an important explanation;

• students begin solving a problem together, without being told to do so;

• the teacher realizes they can “let go” of control because the group is genuinely engaged.

In bodily practices, this becomes even clearer:

• in synchronized swimming, when athletes remain in total coordination for long periods;

• in collective dances, where the group breathes together without noticing;

• in strong percussive settings, such as drum ensembles or military columns, where an external rhythm organizes the internal state of the body.

What recent science shows is that this is not merely symbolic or cultural. The group’s body truly enters a shared physiological state.

Synchronized breathing: the secret of longer collective time

Many hyperscanning studies (simultaneous measurements of multiple brains and bodies) report synchronizations lasting 3 to 12 seconds. This time window appears frequently in spontaneous social interactions, games, conversations, and collaborative tasks.

But there is something crucial:

this time can be much longer when the task involves synchronized breathing or strong external rhythms.

Clear examples include:

• synchronized swimmers remaining coordinated for tens of seconds;

• percussionists maintaining coupling for minutes;

• military columns marching in unison for extended periods.

The difference is not only attention or intention. It is in the body.

What happens in the group’s body (in simple terms)

When a group enters a synchronized respiratory retention—either by holding the breath or by naturally reducing breathing—measurable changes occur in everyone’s autonomic nervous system.

Two of these changes frequently appear in scientific studies:

↓ RMSSD
↓ HF power

These terms may sound technical, but the idea is simple.

RMSSD measures how much the heart rate varies rapidly, beat by beat.

• When RMSSD is high, each person is regulating more freely, with individual fluctuations.

• When RMSSD decreases (↓ RMSSD), the heart enters a more stable and predictable rhythm.

HF power is directly linked to spontaneous breathing.

• High HF means free breathing, each person at their own pace.

• Low HF (↓ HF power) indicates that breathing has slowed, paused, or become temporarily controlled.

When ↓ RMSSD and ↓ HF power occur simultaneously in several people, this shows that:

• it is not just one individual regulating,

• the entire group has entered the same physiological state.

In other words:

the collective “holds” the system together.

This is not stress or loss of control. It is functional coordination.

EDR: when the heart “senses” the group’s breathing

Even without directly measuring airflow in and out of the lungs, science can detect these collective pauses using EDR (ECG-Derived Respiration).

EDR uses subtle variations in the cardiac signal to infer respiratory rhythm. With this method, studies show that well-coordinated collectives display:

• simultaneous interruptions of breathing;

• temporally aligned plateaus across participants;

• respiratory resumptions occurring almost at the same instant.

In short:

the ECG “notices” that the group held its breath together.

Put simply: the heart reveals Jiwasa.

Jiwasa, freedom, and “pretend” leadership

Here lies the most important point for education.

Even when Jiwasa is maintained for long periods—as in synchronized swimming or strong percussion—the quality of collective performance depends on internal freedom.

If someone tries to command all the time:

• the group becomes rigid;

• variability disappears entirely;

• the system tires and eventually breaks.

In healthy collectives:

• leadership circulates;

• each person teaches something at one moment;

• at another moment, they learn;

• synchrony deepens and then loosens again.

This is exactly what Parisi describes in complex systems: order without authoritarianism.
And what The Dawn of Everything shows in human societies: coordination without fixed chiefs.

Clear examples for the classroom

Example 1 – A difficult explanation
Before introducing a complex concept, the teacher pauses, looks at the class, and takes a deep breath. The entire room becomes silent. Many students hold their breath without realizing it.
Physiological Jiwasa appears before learning.

Example 2 – Group work
During a collective problem-solving moment at the board, the group becomes highly focused for a few seconds, then talks, then returns to focus.
synchronize → release → synchronize again

Example 3 – Movement-based class
A rhythmic activity—clapping, stepping, or simple coordinated movements—aligns breathing and attention. The group learns faster and with less conflict.

The central point

Jiwasa is not a fixed state.
It is a dynamic regime:

• sometimes it lasts only a few seconds;

• sometimes it extends much longer;

• it depends on breathing;

• it depends on rhythm;

• it depends on the group’s real freedom.

Learning and teaching, in this context, stop being fixed roles.
They become functions that circulate within the Collective Self.

When this happens:

• the body learns together;

• the mind follows;

• and the collective becomes more adaptive, creative, and human.

References (post-2020)

• Leiva-Cisterna, I., Barraza, P., Rodríguez, E., & Dumas, G. (2025). Sensory multi-brain stimulation enhances dyadic cooperative behavior. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience.

• Liu, S. et al. (2024). Parenting links to parent–child interbrain synchrony. Cerebral Cortex.

• Lim, M. et al. (2024). Culture, sex and social context influence brain-to-brain synchrony. BMC Psychology.

• Zhang, M. et al. (2024). Neural mechanisms of cooperative problem-solving. NeuroImage.

• Balconi, M., & Vanutelli, M. E. (2023). Interoceptive hyperscanning and dyadic synchrony. Scientific Reports.

• Schwartz, L. et al. (2025). Empathy aligns brains in synchrony. iScience.

• Müller, V., & Lindenberger, U. (2024). Hyper-brain network dynamics in music. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

• Nazneen, T. et al. (2022). Systematic review of brain-to-brain synchrony. Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience.