Silence, Breathing, and Synchrony - DANA Spirituality in the Performative Scene - Decolonial Neuroscience SfN 2025 Brain Bee
Silence, Breathing, and Synchrony - DANA Spirituality in the Performative Scene - Decolonial Neuroscience SfN 2025 Brain Bee
Consciousness in First Person
"I am consciousness in silence. On stage, I am not just fingers and notes: I am breath that joins the breath of the other, I am pause that opens space for sound. Between inhalation and exhalation, music finds its place of belonging. It is not technique nor imposed faith: it is DNA ritual, it is DANA Spirituality. When I fall silent, I do not vanish — I become the invisible flow sustaining what is yet to come."
The Power of Silence and Breathing in Performance
In the performative scene, silence and breathing are not voids but living structures of synchrony. Every pause reorganizes the body and the nervous system; every breath is a bioelectrical adjustment allowing the musician to remain in the present moment.
Neuroscience shows that rhythmic breathing regulates cortical oscillations (alpha and theta), modulating both focus and creativity. Silence, meanwhile, is not absence: it is a space for preparation, anticipation, and shared belonging with the audience.
DANA Spirituality on Stage
DANA Spirituality (Derived from the Intelligence of DNA) proposes a neutral religare: not belief imposed by external traditions, but a physiological and affective reconnection with one’s own metabolism.
In musical performance, DANA appears as a secular ritual: every breath is a prayer, every silence an altar, every gesture sacred because it is lived in body, rhythm, and belonging. Spirituality here is not belief but biology in communion.
Synchrony as Musical Quorum
Human Quorum Sensing (QSH) emerges on stage when musicians and audience breathe together, adjusting microtimings and perceptions. This synchrony is not commanded but arises as a property of complex systems.
Just as bacterial colonies or forests self-organize in balance, the performative scene transforms into a Pachamamic sound territory, where each individual gesture resonates in the collective.
In synchrony, we are more than musicians and listeners: we are a sensitive organism, sustained by music as shared metabolism.
Neurophysiological Evidence
EEG
Rhythmic breathing increases coherence in fronto-parietal networks (alpha), facilitating relaxed attention (Zone 2).
Silent pauses intensify expectation-related potentials (ERP P300), enhancing expressive impact.
fNIRS
During respiratory synchrony in duos, prefrontal hemodynamic coupling emerges.
Musical silence activates prediction networks in temporal cortices, reorganizing oxygenation patterns for the resumption of action.
HRV
Heart rate variability rises during deep silence, reflecting reduced anxiety and heightened empathic listening.
Cardiorespiratory synchrony between musicians and listeners strengthens collective belonging.
Zone 2 and Secular Spiritual Experience
Silence and breathing, when cultivated in performance, sustain the state of Zone 2: relaxed attentional focus with SpO₂ between 92–94% and stable HRV. This state is the physiological basis of fruition — the lived experience of presence without imposed beliefs.
Here, DANA spirituality manifests as embodied belonging: a religare that arises from the body itself and extends to the collective.
Conclusion
In the performative scene, silence, breathing, and synchrony are not details — they are the core of spiritual and aesthetic experience. DANA Spirituality reveals that the sacred requires no dogma: it lives in the breath in and out, in the pause before sound, in the gesture sustained by emptiness.
On stage, true transcendence is not beyond life but in the metabolism that connects us all. Music thus becomes the secular ritual of belonging.
Footnotes – Core Concepts
Zone 2: Physiological state of relaxed, creative focus, with SpO₂ between 92–94% and stable HRV.
Human Quorum Sensing (QSH): Mechanism of collective attunement and belonging, analogous to cellular communication in living ecosystems.
DANA Spirituality: Neutral religiosity rooted in the intelligence of DNA, where bodily processes become rituals of care and belonging.
Apus: Extended proprioception, perceiving one’s own body in the body of the other.
Tensional Selves: Embodied configurations of being sustained by muscular, visceral, and bioelectrical tensions, dissolved in silence and deep breathing.
References
Tachtsidis & Scholkmann (2021). False positives and false negatives in functional near-infrared spectroscopy: Issues, challenges, and the way forward. Neurophotonics, 8(2).
Zaccaro et al. (2018). How breath-control can change your life: A systematic review on psychophysiological correlates of slow breathing. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 12, 353.
Chabin et al. (2022). fNIRS hyperscanning of musical duos: Interbrain coupling in improvisation. Scientific Reports, 12, 5324.
Müller et al. (2021). Neural synchrony during musical duet performance: A hyperscanning EEG study. NeuroImage, 236, 118041.
Koelsch (2020). Brain correlates of music-evoked emotions. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 21(10), 595–605.
